I'm God...and You're Not - Part A

People have always had a problem with an invisible God. That's what moves people toward idolatry.

They want to see something something relate physically to something people have problems with it invisible God. Think about how on earth do you have a personal relationship with the person you never see or hear or touch or read the facial expressions. The body language of countless so-called experts offer advice on taking control of your life were in control we feel secure not worry today on connect with Skip Heitzig skip. Remind you what you have a very good reason not to work because someone else is ultimately in control of today's program Skip and his wife Lynn talk about how you can gain a clear understanding of God based on his word. When I look at Scripture like Psalm 78 it says they limited the holy one of Israel. What a statement God was unlimited can be limited by people's unbelief, or when Jesus went to Nazareth and says he could do no mighty work there and that date. That's because people were limiting and unlimited God Thanksgiving when you be sure to stay tuned.

After today's message to you the full conversation you want to tell you about a special resource that will help get a fuller picture of God's character and nature so you can draw closer to him. Can you imagine reading a biography about your life, only to find details about your life that were wrong felt it would be frustrating, wouldn't God's nature, character and motives have often been poorly portrayed, and even intentionally misstated. That's one of the reasons I decided to write the book, the biography of God to open your eyes and heart to a larger picture of God. I hope you will go on this journey with me as we ask and answer the universal question. Can we know God. Here's how to get your copy of my newest book, the biography of God biography of God is our way to say thank you when you give $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach to more people request your copy when you get online securely connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888 exit is chapters 33 and 34 Skip Heitzig starts today stay a lot of the illustrations that I get are sent to me by people who know I love to read them love to get a good laugh. So somebody emailed me this. It's dear tech support@mailintellect.com last year I upgraded from boyfriend 5.0 to husband 1.0, and I noticed that the new program began making unexpected changes to the accounting modules like limiting access to flour and jewelry purchase applications that it operated flawlessly under boyfriend 5.0. In addition, husband 1.0 uninstalled many valuable programs such as romance 1.0 and replace them with undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0 an MBA 3.0 conversations 8.0 no longer runs and housecleaning. 2.6 simply crashes the program. I've tried running nagging 5.1 to fix these problems but to no avail.

Please advise.

Signed desperate dear desperate. Keep in mind boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package while husband 1.0 is an operating system try to enter the command C:/I thought you loved me and immediately install tears 6.2. Husband 1.0 should automatically run guilty 3.0 and flour 7.0, which will take care of the problem. But remember, the overuse of this command will cause husband 1.0 to activate grumpy silence 2.5 and beer 6.1 and aggravating program that creates annoying snoring loudly wave files and incoherent babble viruses.

Under no circumstances are you to install mother-in-law 1.0 or a new boyfriend program.

These are not supported applications and will crash husband 1.0. In summary, husband 1.0 is a great program but has limited memory and cannot learn applications quickly signed team support getting to know somebody takes time. It's a lifelong process. In many cases it takes time and patience and the willingness to disclose who that person is to the other.

I remember when I first met my wife Lena was at a potluck at my previous girlfriends apartment and I was there for a potluck and I noticed her across the room and she was radiant.

We met we talked, we talked about God. We talked about music and so if you days later, I thought I want to get to know her better. So I asked her on a date the first day was a concert at church. Good move. The second date was at a seafood restaurant not knowing that at that time she hated seafood but I didn't know yet. It takes time to know and then them.

The third date was to the beach where she was to watch me surf. There were no waves that they had all was totally the Lord. Over time we started to get to know each other and sometime later, one particular evening we had dinner together and we exchange some of the deeper thoughts or dreams are hopes what we wanted out of life and that moment I thought I want more than just the relationship that we've had in that dating relationship moved into a love relationship and we got married in 27 years later were still getting to know each other and it takes time and I'll say this, that wife 1.0 is a whole lot better than girlfriend 1.02.03.04.0, etc. the guy had more than for my whole life. Anyway, we got married and were learning about each other were learning to listen to each other and ask the right questions as that disclosure takes place in this section of Exodus God and Moses are interacting as they interact. We come to chapter 34 where God gives to Moses his autobiography gives Moses a list of things that he is in things that he does some very unusual section, but I'm taking you back today to chapter 32 where the story begins begins with a revolt is for four sections of this story and the first is the revolt a problem was happening in Israel.

It's what I call the auto chapter see everything so far, so good to go into the wilderness, God is leading them there following. We come now to chapter 32 and it's all it marks one of the lowest points in their whole history of blot on their record verse one now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us is for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt. We do not know what has become of him. So Moses is up on the Mount Mount Sinai getting the law is taken a little too long.

People get very impatient. It's ironic that at the very moment God is giving his revelation to Moses the people quickly turned to imagination and they cast an idol, a golden calf.

Why a calf wire a symbol in the form of a calf.

I believe it simply conditioned response. They had been in Egypt and part of the Egyptian worship system, they would've seen it was the golden calf was a symbol of Apus the ball. One of the gods of Egypt that represented strength in the legend said that Apus was the renewal of life that a lightning flash came from heaven and struck a cow Apus was born and keep in mind there at the foot of Mount Sinai and if you know the story. When they looked up where Moses was. They sought lightning flashes and heard thunder and felt the ground move, and it reminded them of that legend.

And so, in making a golden calf. It was their way of saying our God is powerful, strong, mighty pipe. It violated the second commandment that God was giving the Moses you shall have no graven images or carved images before me so it makes this question now why did they do that. What's up with needing to make some physical visible image of God, because Moses hasn't come back. Why, here's why I believe people have always had a problem with an invisible God. That's what moves people toward idolatry. They want to see something touched something relate physically to something people have problems with an invisible God. We think about it.

How on earth can you have a personal relationship with the person you never see or hear or touch or read the facial expressions. The body language of the people are driven toward some kind of a physical visible image years ago, a story came out that's been made into a movie several times called invisible Man by Hg Wells the idea of an invisible man, that sounds really cool at first and it was great to be invisible this guy at first, but after a while it turned on them because he found out that nobody trusts somebody they can't see he might be in the room hearing or seeing things in their privacy is invaded and and so instead of being cool.

It became a horrible thing and so we relate to the little boy who said mommy you sure gods up there all yes honey God is up there and he said wouldn't it be great if you just poke his head out every now and then so we could see him.

We can relate to that, fundamentally, that's what we'd all like we relate to Isaiah, who and 45 chapter 45 of his book said truly you're a God who hides himself and here we are as Christians part of our looking forward to the future has to do with the promise that were going to see him face to face one day Titus chapter 2 looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So that promised us.

We want that we at some level have a problem with a God who is invisible and we want him visible until we see him were called to live, not by sight. But by faith we live by faith and not by sight.

That's the condition were at now another question is often asked in sections of Scripture like this is simply this. Why is this so bad, why does God get so mad at these people for making an image of moreover what so bad about it.

I mean the whole second commandment, no graven images. How come there's a couple reasons. Number one because there is no image in all the world that can represent God, there's no image that can represent the totality of his character because God by his very nature is unlimited and the soon as you cast an image you have limited in some form, the limitless God. So you're obscuring his glory. So yeah, here's Apus the ball of this golden calf representing to them Yahweh their God, God's Powerful but That Image Does Not Speak of His Moral Attributes. His Love Is Patience Is Kindness Is Justice That Limits God so No Wonder the Lord in Isaiah Chapter 40 Asks Probing Lady to Whom Then Will You Liken God or What Likeness Will You Compare to Him.

The Workman Molds an Image in the Goldsmith over Spreads It with Gold and the Silversmith Casts Silver Chain.

He Saying Can You See How Ludicrous This Is.

I Am to Be Home Late Tonight.

I Gotta Make God Would Look at Look at Here's My God Is Just, I Got Is a 24 Karat God with a Silver Chain Put on the Mantle You Had to Make Your God, and That You Have To Carry Your God Wherever You Want to See Him As a Second Reason. Not Only Is There No Image in the World I Can Represent Them.

But As Soon As You and I Are Projecting What We Think God Is and Therefore We Make an Image of That Were Guilty of Making God and Are Image Were Reversing the Whole Process Were Made in God's Imagery of Certain Moral Attributes and Characteristics That Reflect the Personality of God. When We Cast an Image Were Essentially Saying That's the Part of God That I Want to Focus on and Nothing Else Were Making God and Are Image so They Did This. Moses Comes down from the Mountain. He's Angry's Got the 10 Commandments with Him. He Goes up to Aaron You You Gotta Read This Excuse. Verse 21 and Moses Said to Aaron What Did This People Do to You That You Have Brought so Greatest Sin upon Them to Listen to His Parents Response so Aaron Said Do Not Let the Anger of My Lord Become Hot.

You Know the People That They Are Set on Evil, for They Said to Me, Make Us Gods That You Go before Us for This Moses, the Man That Brought Us Out Of the Land of Egypt with Her Know It's Become of Him and Watch This and I Said to Them, However, Is Any Gold. Let Them Break It off, so They Gave It to Me and I Cast It into the Fire and This Calf Came out Okay If There's Ever a List of the Top 10 Lame Excuses of All Times yet, but the Senate Moses Dude, I'm Serious. I Got through the Golden Just Walked out the Okay Lame Excuses. By the Way, It Didn't Stop Here Policeman Friend Tell Me about All the Lame Excuses He's Heard His Pull People over and That I Found an Actual Recorded List of Select the Best Ones. A Policeman Pulled over Guy for Running to Red Lights and He Said to the Police Officer Look at the VA You Try Stopping It. Guy Was Speeding. Policeman Pulled Them over, and the Guys Excuse Was All I Had to Speed to Get in Front of You. I'm Hurrying to the Service Station Present for Running Out Of Fuel. So a Lame Excuse Is One of the Lowest Points in Their History.

It's a Revolt of These People That That That Revolt Takes Us to Chapter 33 of Exodus Brings Us to a Request Now of Moses.

The Revolt with the Golden Calf Causes God to Say, Look, I'm Gonna Remove My Presence from You Altogether but I'm Gonna Send in My Place an Angel to Represent Me.

Look at Verse Two of Chapter 33 and I Will Send My Angel before You and I Will Drive out the Canaanite in the Amorite and the Hittite and the Parasite and the Hip Fight and the Termite of That's Not in There and the Ship. I Just Do That Is Either Listening on the Jebusite Termites in Their No Go up to a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey for I Will Not Go up in Your Midst, Lest I Consume You on the Way for Your Stiffnecked People. When the People Heard These Grave Tidings the God Wasn't Coming. They Mourned No One Put on His Ornaments. Moses Is so Disappointed at This Point Kinda Goes into a Tailspin. He Thinks I Just Got a Get Alone and Talk to God, so He Goes out to Meet with God a Little Tent outside the Camp Called the Tabernacle of Meeting, Just a Place like a Prayer Room or Moses Could Talk to God and He Says God Look, I Really Need You to Come with Us. I Need Your Presence and I Want to Know Your Ways Enters This Beautiful Interchange like Two Friends Would Just Pour out Their Hearts to One Another and the Culmination of the Prayers in Verse 18 of Chapter 33 and He Said Please Show Me Your Glory. And Then He God Said, I Will Make All My Goodness Pass before You, I Will Proclaim the Name of the Lord before You. I Will Be Gracious to Whom I Will Be Gracious, I Will Have Compassion on Whom I Will Have Compassion.

But He Said You Cannot See My Face for No Man Shall See Me and Live in the Lord Said, Here's a Place by Me, and You Shall Stand on the Rock. And so It Will Be That While My Glory Passes by, That I Will Put You in the Cleft of the Rock, and Will Cover You with My Hand While I Pass by, Then I Will Take Away My Hand and You Shall See My Back, but My Face Shall Not Be Seen As Bottom Line. Moses Wanted to Experience God More Than Anything Else in His Life.

He Wanted to See God Show Me Your Glory. What Is That Mean Glory.

The Word in Hebrew, Bowed Needs to Be Heavy or to Have Weight to Something in the Idea Typically in the Bible Refers to a Person's Weighty Reputation or High Honor Honor of Position of Great Honor. One Translation Puts It This Way, Lord, Show Me Your Own Self. In Other Words, I Want to See a Full Disclosure of Your Glorious Person I Want to See You Know What Is.

He Asked That Well Probably Because He's about to Go through His Art. He Had a Difficult Time with These People He Knows He's Gonna Have To Lead Them onto the Wilderness Can Just Seek Will Be in the Form That This Is Not Unique in the New Testament There Is One of the Disciples Named Philip Was That the Jesus Member Show Us the Father and That'll Be Enough for Us. It's All We Need. Of Course It Would Be If You Could See God. It Will Carry You through Anything Jesus That If You Seen Me You Seen the Father but You Go Back to Our Verse, Verse 20 God Is Saying Look Moses, You Can't See Me or You'll Die a Mortal Man Cannot Handle the Full Effulgence of God's Glory. If You Did, It Would Be like a Bug in a Bug Zapper. You Know What a Bug Comes the Light Goes to Those Little Electrically Charged Zapper. What Happens about Six Gun What Happened. Moses No Man Can See Me and Live. However, God Does Accommodate Moses Request to Some Degree in Gets to Have Some Experience Where He Sees the Radiance of God, Not from the Face but As God Says from the Back.

Neither Question Why Did Moses Ask for This.

Why Did Moses Asked to See Visibly the Glory of God, Show Me Your Glory out so I'm Asking the Question Because I Think of What Moses Has Already Seen and Experienced to Be Enough for Most of Us Would Stop Right There.

May Moses Experience with God so Far Has Been Greater Than All of Our Experiences with God Put Together. He Saw a Burning Bush and God Talking to Him from a Burning Bush Ever Have One of Those I Haven't. He Saw Plagues Fall on Egypt, He Saw the Children of Israel, Protected. He Watched a Body of Water. Open up and They Went through It on Dry Land and Then Cover up Their Enemies behind Them on on an Audience Seen and Experienced so Much and yet He Says I Want More. I Want Your Glory. Why Do You Want Because No Matter How Spiritually You Are or How Theologically Informed. You May Be Here Knowledgeable You Are at Your Very Core and My Very Core. Though We've Experienced God's Presence to Some Degree in Our Christian Walk.

We Really Want to See Him Physical. We Want to See What Moses Is Asking for.

Show Me Your Glory That Skip the Message from the Series the Biography of God. Now Let's Go to the Studio with Skip As They Talk about How You Can Gain a Clear Understanding of God Based on His Work Daily Stop at the Problem with Making an Image of God Is That You're Creating God in Your Own Image We Need to Stick to God's Revelation of Doubt in His Word.

What Issues Can Execute You of God Lead to Even for Believers Is the Best Way to Realign That You with What God Says about Himself. When You Remember When We Dated and Then We Were First Married You Had a Saying I Think You Heard It in Use with the Mission That God Is Never Greater Than Our Present View of Him That If It Was Determined or Somebody That That That Said That the Life That Really Stuck out in Other God Is Never Greater Than Our Present View of Him That We Can Actually Limit God and You Know It When It When I Look at Scripture like Psalm 78 It Says They Limited the Holy One of Israel. What a Statement God Who Is Unlimited Can Be Limited by People's Unbelief, or When Jesus Went to Nazareth and It Says He Could Do No Mighty Work There and That They That's Because People Were Limiting an Unlimited God. So I Would Say to to Get Out Of That Is to Unleash Power in Your Life. God's Power Would Be a Meditative Study on the Attributes of God and Because Then Your Worldview How You See the World Is Going to Be Informed by Scripture Not Interpreting Scripture through Personal Lands or Prejudice. Yeah I've Heard That Most Counseling Could Be Resolved with Knowing the Character Attributes of God. You Know, Because Sometimes We Don't Realize He's Merciful. We Now Feel like God Is Angry or Worrying Failure Whenever It Is Sound like Here Snack on Something That's for Thinking Skip in My Hand. I Connected Skip I Think Helpless. As I See Little Life and Dynamic Financial Support to Keep Us Strong Bible Teaching on the Gift Today to Continue Bringing This Broadcast Airway and Connecting More People to the Living State Here Is Call 819 to 1992 Port Visit.com/connectwithskip.com/Donate Think You Tune into My Skip Talks about How You Can Have an Encounter with God. Just like Most Skip Presentation of Connection Communications through Ever-Changing Time