The God of Thunder and Smoke

When God Shows Up: What Exodus 19 Reveals About Holiness and Reverence

What does it actually look like when a holy God prepares to meet His people? In Exodus 19, we get one of the most dramatic and awe-inspiring scenes in all of Scripture — thunder, lightning, thick smoke, a mountain shaking, and trumpet blasts growing louder and louder. As Israel stands trembling at the foot of Mount Sinai, God is preparing to enter into covenant with them and deliver the Ten Commandments. But before a single commandment is spoken, God gives His people clear instructions: consecrate yourselves, set boundaries, prepare your hearts. This sermon digs into that often-overlooked setup to the Ten Commandments and asks a question that cuts straight to the heart of the Christian life — when God shows up, are you ready, and are you actually doing what He's asked of you?

God Is Looking for Priests — Not Just Churchgoers

Woven throughout Exodus 19 and 20 is a tension that feels surprisingly modern. God's vision for His people has always been bold: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people who usher others into the presence of God. That's not just an Old Testament idea — it's the same calling that runs all the way through the New Testament and lands squarely on every believer today. But what we see at the foot of Sinai is a people who can't quite get there. The boundaries aren't respected, the priests aren't consecrated, and when the moment arrives, the people shrink back and demand a mediator. Sound familiar? This sermon explores the gap between what God is calling us to and what we so often settle for — and why that gap matters for your spiritual life right now.

The Difference Between Fearing God and Fearing Religion

Moses tells a trembling Israel in Exodus 20:20, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." In other words — don't be afraid of God; be afraid of living without Him. Like a child standing at the edge of a pool, the call isn't to run from the water but to trust the one saying "jump." Following God can feel frightening — it means loosening control, giving up the ability to direct your own life on your own terms. But the alternative the Israelites chose, standing far off and demanding someone else go near God for them, is just religion. Safe, comfortable, and ultimately empty. This sermon, part of an ongoing series on following God, challenges us to ask honestly: are you drawing near to where God is, or are you standing at a distance, settling for something that looks like faith but costs you nothing?

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Do you guys, do you guys remember Red Box? Any Red Box? Do you guys remember? Yeah, Red Box. All right, okay. Lots of Red Box love in the house. Do you remember though, near the end, and I believe this is what killed Red Box. No conspiracy theories allowed, but I think this is what happened. I would go to Red Box and I would find fake versions of the same movie. Y'all remember that? Y'all remember that? Here, I'm gonna give you a couple examples. Here we go, we got Kung Fu Rabbit right here. Kung Fu Rabbit definitely was supposed to look like Kung Fu Panda. The color scheme is the same. The main character is white. There's animals behind it. Anyway, just, but this is really the hats off one. Here we go, here's the next one. It's not Pacific Rim, it's Atlantic Rim. Now that, come on man. You're trying. You're getting somebody with that. I don't know how many Atlantic Rim rentals they had,

but it was definitely more than it deserved, okay? That was what was happening. Last week we are, we continued on with our series Following God, and this is actually our last week in that series. Next week we're actually gonna begin another series that I wanna tell you about. It's called Weak Minded, and we'll get to that in a minute, but we have a whole summer thing happening. We'll talk about that in announcements. Today is the last Sunday for Follow God, for our sermon series Follow God. And what we're gonna find today, as we end the sermon series, that we're gonna find that God is looking for something. He's going to Red Box, he's looking for something, but he's finding something else, okay? He wants something, he's going for something. He wants Pacific Rim, and he's getting Atlantic Rim, okay? He wants Kung Fu Panda, he's getting Kung Fu Rabbit.

And so with that, I just wanna kinda have that in your mind. Let's turn to Exodus 19. That's where we're gonna be today. And Exodus 19, and we're gonna start in verse nine and go all the way through the end of the chapter. We're actually gonna go a little bit past that today. These are the last set of verses before the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments start at the beginning of Exodus 20, and that will actually start our series in the fall. So I realize I'm just, I'm pre-loading a lot of sermon series right now. But just to kinda remember where we were last week, last week we talked about Exodus 19, one through eight, where God has kind of brought people to Mount Sinai. They are in Camp I Sinai. And God said to them, God kind of cast this big vision for their lives over them, and he says, you are gonna be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, okay?

So he is giving them kind of this vision for what's gonna happen. He's saying, you are all gonna be priests, not just some of you, all of you are gonna be priests. And what do priests do? Priests usher other people into God's presence, right? That's what priests do. Old Testament, that's what priests do. And so God had this kind of this vision laid out for his people. All of you, all this nation is going to be a priest nation for the whole world. You, my people, my treasured possession, he calls them in Exodus 19.

You are going to usher everybody into my presence. I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna make those who bless you be blessed, and I want you to be doing that. So this is God's desire for his people. And again, we looked at it last week, this has been the plan all along. We look back in Genesis 12, if you look at Genesis 15, Genesis 17, there's a couple of places where you can see this kind of beginning to happen, okay? And it's been the plan all along. So, we're gonna start in Exodus 19:9, but remember in verse eight, the people, all the people of Israel, okay, couple of hundred thousand people, if not more, are all saying together as one man, we will do it. We will be that kingdom of priests. We will be that holy nation. We will do it, they've just said that in verse eight. Here we go, verse nine.

The beginning of Exodus 19:9 says, And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever. So God's saying, I'm gonna come and speak to you in a thick cloud, they're not gonna be able to see me. They will be able to hear me, and that will help them establish, or that will help establish your leadership with the people. So it's setting the scene for the covenant to take place. Look at the next part of nine into verse 11. Says, when Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, that's the agreement, I will do this, when Moses told those words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day, for on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

So this is a big deal. God's saying, everybody, you gotta consecrate yourselves, you gotta set aside things, you gotta prepare your hearts, you gotta make sure you're ready, because you're gonna see me. Big deal, this is a big deal. This is probably the apex of the book of Exodus right here. It may be the apex of the first five books of the Bible. This is a big deal.

So then he begins to give instruction on how to consecrate themselves in verses 12 and 13. He says, you shall set limits for all the people around, saying, take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the edge of the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. Okay, literally, set limits, rope it off. Reserve this, no one goes past this rope. Nobody goes past this, nobody touches the mountain. God is being very careful here. He is setting all kinds of limits here, saying don't even touch it. He doesn't even say don't even look at it sideways, but that's what I would say. Don't even look at it sideways, like don't even get near it. And he's saying wait for the long trumpet blast.

Wait for that to happen. Okay, look at verses 14 and 15. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman, okay? So he's saying, I know, it's weird. He's saying, it's not that sex is gross or anything, he's saying I need you to be totally focused on this moment that's going to be happening here. Wash your clothes, don't engage. Be totally focused and ready. Fast from everything basically. And be ready to see me. Be ready to behold your God. Okay, all right, it's gonna be good. All right, it's so far, so we need to know, we're gonna go back to this for just a second. We need to know this. So far, Moses, if you kind of track Moses' movements here, if we had a GPS on Moses, he's at the foot of the mountain, he goes up the mountain, he goes down the mountain so far.

Okay, we need to remember this for later. But he's kind of ping ponging a little bit now. Okay, look at verse 16. It says, on the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Okay, so we got lots of smoke, we got lots of thunder, we got lightning, we got a thick cloud. Look at verse 17, it says, then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Okay, it's about to happen. Everyone is present and they are shaking. They are trembling at the foot of the mountain. And here we go, it's gonna describe the scene again. Verses 18 and 19, it says, now Moses, excuse me, now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, okay? The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln,

like an oven, and the whole mountain trembled, the whole mountain, not just the people, but the mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses smoked and God answered him in thunder. Mount Sinai is terror inducing. You would be losing your ever loving mind being at the foot of that mountain. You might think to yourself, no, no, no, I could totally chill, it'd be fine. No, you could not chill. You would be on your knees. This is terror inducing. This is people are never gonna forget. This is stuff of nightmares, to be perfectly honest. This is trauma. This is a big deal. It's wrapped in smoke because the Lord has descended on it in fire. You ever seen fire descend on a mountain? Me neither. It's weird and wild and there's smoke all around and you kinda can't see it, but super loud. I don't really like loud noises for friends of mine,

like you know this about me. You get a loud noise happening behind me. I am freaking out. It's not okay. And so I'm sure that I would be on the ground, ears covered, I'm sure that I would be trembling. We talked about the Lord answering in thunder just to kinda get a decibel match for that. This is like a chainsaw or like an ambulance siren. That's the ballpark of where we are, audibly. It's loud. And normally I kinda wait for the ambulance siren to pass. I'm just like, ugh, you know. It's not passing. It's just happening over and over and over again. This is terror inducing. And at this point, this is the crescendo, at this point you would expect something grand to happen because it's all there. The people at the foot of the mountain, God's about to descend, like they're about to see God. Everything's gonna be great. Like it's about to happen. We should understand that the narrative

is building us into this crescendo. And then what happens? Verse 20, the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. The Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. Okay, again, Moses, foot of the mountain, up, down. God comes down, then Moses goes back up. Lot of ping ponging happening. And at this point we expect the next, the very next sentence to be 10 commandments. About to happen, right? It's not what happens. Verse 21, something happens. We don't get it recorded. We don't know what it is. Something happens to change God's tone.

And it's weird. Let's read. Verse 21 to 22. It says, and the Lord said to Moses, go down, so Moses is going down again. Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord, to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. Okay. He's warning for the people to not come close lest they break through to look. Lest they break through to look. Break through what? Well, break through the barriers, break through the limits. To look, they're gonna look upon God. And so he's saying, warn them. Repeat it passionately, persuasively. Try to help them understand. Don't look. Don't break through and look. If you break through and look, you're going to die. Why is God warning Moses, sorry, telling Moses to warn the people of that? Something is happening and it seems like the people

are not respecting the boundary. Something's happening. Look at the priests too. It says, also the priests, verse 22, also the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, let the Lord break out against them. Why is he warning the priest to consecrate themselves? I thought the priest already consecrated themselves. Something happened, it's likely they did not consecrate themselves. What is likely happening at this point is that God's people are not doing what needs to be done and they're still expecting the kind of the whole thing to continue to happen. And the Lord is talking to Moses saying, listen, what I told you to do, you need to do. What I told the people to do, they need to do. What I told the priests to do, they need to do. This is a big deal.

Look at verse 23. And Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. So Moses' response is strange. Moses is like, we already did that. We already set the boundaries. So who's mistaken here? Does God not remember? Did he forget? Everybody? No, no, no, that did not happen. Does God not have an accurate view of what's going on? Is there something missing from God's perspective? No, of course not, no. That's not happening. What's happening? Moses may be out of touch. Moses may not understand kind of what is going on.

Regardless, we actually don't get resolution on this. Let's keep going. Verse 24, and the Lord said to him, go down again, Moses going down again, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So this phrase of breaking out against them, essentially it would be like God's glory, like coming over somebody like a nuclear blast. Like they would not survive it. So we're gonna talk about the Lord saying the Lord's gonna break out against them. I mean, it's just his shining radiance and glory upon an unholy person. It's just gonna flatten them like a pancake. They're gonna be no more. And God said, I don't want that to happen. So only bring up Aaron. Bring Aaron and nobody else. It's likely that God's people are not doing what was asked of them. It's likely that Moses doesn't realize

the priests and the people were not following his commands. But then in verse 25, the very next verse, we go straight into the 10 commandments. It says, so Moses went down to the people and told them. And that's an unfortunate chapter break. And essentially that sentence kind of goes either way, but it can really go with the next chapter. And if you read Exodus 21 through 17, you are gonna get the 10 commandments. And again, we are gonna cover that in a sermon series. This, after the summer, this fall, it's called No God. We're gonna cover that.

Exodus 20 and following, it's gonna be great. Right after the 10 commandments are done, okay? So the ones that we all know and love, right? The ones that are written on the wall that you remember from like from grade school or something. It's some of y'all remember from grade school. After verse 17, we get, so you fast forward to Exodus 20 verse 18 and suddenly we are back into the exact same narrative. It's like we never left. Look at verse 18 for me. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, terror inducing, the people were afraid and trembled. They stood far off, okay? Many theologians who have studied Exodus chapter 19 and 20 together, they see this happening and it's weird. It's oddly constructed. It's strange that the 10 commandments are kinda smack dab in the middle of the story,

like what's happening. It is a very Hebrew thing to do this by the way, but it's still strange whenever we read it. When most theologians study these two chapters, they notice two things. I don't wanna share those with you. Number one, the narrative before and after the 10 commandments and Moses going up and down, up and down, up and down the mountain is supposed to be jarring and scattered. In other words, even in the way the story is told, it's supposed to communicate the fact that people were freaking out, there was loud things going on, there was probably a lot of confusion,

it was very jarring, kind of disparate and weird. Moses is up and down. And in 18, we come back to a story that was already happening before. It's almost like we're picking it up in the previous chapter in verse 16 when it says the people were trembling, 1916. But here we are again in 2018, and the people are trembling again. The other thing that they notice is that part of the reason for this split narrative is to show it from two different perspectives. That in Exodus 19, you have God's and Moses' perspective on this thing, and in 20, you have the people's perspective on this thing. And that's why it was split over the 10 commandments. Again, these are just guesses. We don't really know why it was written that way exactly. There's things that we can glean from it, obviously. But it is a strange passage. It's also a very important passage because what 20 verses 18 through 21 show us

is kind of the result of these people who then have not followed God. They have not consecrated themselves. They haven't done what they needed to do. They were trying to break through just to look. They were being warned against it. There's trumpets going. There's ambulance sirens blaring. There's a lot going on. A mountain's on fire. They're trying to figure out life. Look at Exodus 20 verse 19. It says, the people stood far off and they said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Okay. Now, theologically speaking, this is a very accurate statement. Okay. This is accurate.

They had seen that. When you read the wilderness experience, when you read most of what's happening in Exodus through numbers, it is a lot of people being dumb and a plague happening and somebody having to save them from a plague. It happens a lot. It happens like five or six times. I'm not kidding. I mean, that's an actual number. A couple of them are famous. A couple of them were less famous. And sometimes a couple of them just kind of happen in the middle of the narrative. You're like, oh, there was a plague and somebody did something and it stopped it. And it's like three verses long. It happened so much they could just kind of refer to it. Oh, a plague happened again. So the people, whenever they see all of this, all of this terror inducing stuff, this stuff, the nightmares are made up. They're probably never ever ever going to forget the image that they are seeing right now.

They're probably like go to their grave, still haunted by that, still remembering that. They all say, you Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. And again, this is theologically correct, but we must remember that God's whole plan at the beginning of Exodus 19, and God's whole plan really from the beginning was for everyone being like Moses,

for everybody being a priest. Everybody ushers other people into the presence of God. And we know this is God's heart because this is actually what we eventually see in the New Testament. You read 1 Peter 2, 9 to 10. It says, talking about New Testament church, New Testament Christian, but you are a royal priesthood and a holy nation. You are to declare the excellencies of the Lord. You are to run into his marvelous light. This is a straight callback to Exodus 19. This is a straight shot, a straight clean barrel from 1 Peter 2 all the way back to Exodus 19.

It's a straight shot. This is God's whole plan. He's saying, you are gonna be my mediators. And the people are saying, no God, you give us a mediator. We don't wanna be your mediators. We want a mediator. Look at verse 20, 20, Exodus 20, 20. Moses said that the people do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. Kind of an interesting use of the word fear twice. And that's not like a Hebrew to English thing. Those are two of the exact same words. That's fear and fear. Both of them mean fear. They both mean fear. One doesn't mean reverence and the other mean fear. They both mean fear. There is reverence in fear, but they both just mean fear. And so Moses' command of the people is, don't be afraid, be afraid of God. It's kind of a strange encouragement, right? And what he's trying to help them understand is that they are looking at all the fire

and the smoke and the trembling and the sirens and the lightning and got answering a thunder and weird things going on. And they're looking at that and they're afraid. They're freaked out, rightfully so, but they're freaking out. But Moses is saying, do not fear, for God has come to test you. God wants to reveal your hearts to you. We know about this fear-don't-fear dynamic because if you've ever taught a child how to swim, or if you've ever been a child who's learned how to swim, or if you've ever seen anybody teaching a child how to swim, we understand these things. That what do you do when a little kid, I remember most of my kids being around this age, like, I don't know, two, three, something like that, you put them at the edge of the pool and you're in the pool, and what do you say to them? What's, jump, jump. Now, let me ask you, are you giving them that command

if you're not there? Tell a three-year-old, go jump in the pool. Everything will be fine. I mean, maybe some three-year-olds can swim, but they're rare, right? Like, it's, most two to three-year-olds, not exactly Michael Phelps in the water, okay? They're just, you don't tell them to jump in the pool. In fact, in fact, if they're running around a pool, you might even say to them, hey,

don't run around the pool. You be careful. You could drown, right? What you're telling them tacitly is, you'd be afraid of that pool all day, every time. Why? Well, because the pool's dangerous. You can't breathe in the pool, and if you can't swim, you will drown in the pool. The pool itself deserves fear, respect, and the pool needs to have something roped off around it so that people don't just run into the pool, thinking everything's fine, and they can breathe like they can breathe when they're out of the pool. So what do you say to a little kid whenever you're in the pool and they're standing at the edge? What are you saying jump for? You're saying jump because you're there. So you're saying, hey, be afraid of the water, but don't be afraid of me. Don't be afraid to jump. I'll catch you. You don't need to fear what I have for you in the middle of this. You do need to fear trying to handle all this on your own

because it's going to kill you. Both of those things are true at the exact same time. When Moses is saying, do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. He's trying to help them understand, trust, trust me, people, my treasured possession for all the earth is mine, is what he says in Exodus 19, four or five. Trust, trust me, I will catch you. Trust me, I will do what I said I'm going to do. I will be there for you. If you jump in the middle of this, I know it's scary. I know, I get it, you look around and things are really frustrating. Things are really confusing, but you can trust me. But they don't want to jump. They just stand there at the end. And they're right there. There's a whole lot of irony going on right here, guys. Because what God is looking for are priests and what the people are looking for is religion.

Let me say that again. God is looking for priests, for people that will actively sacrifice their time, energy, effort, identity, hopes, dreams, everything, their life on the altar, so that they can minister to other people, so that they can be priests, so that they can disciple other people. That's what God is looking for. And he's not looking for it like the military is looking for a few good men. He's looking for it because he knows, he knows that he has created us to find our utmost joy in that position. There's a reason that you come alive when you serve people. There's a reason that you don't regret spending a lot of time helping other people learn about the Lord. We talk about this often, Daniel Loeser and I. Pastor Daniel will say to many people actually, not just me, home groups, when you wanna, home groups are the thing that you never want to go to, but you always love that you went.

That's, I'm murdered, whatever you typically say. That was terrible. He says that much more eloquent than that. You can ask him after, it's gonna be amazing. A poet, this guy. Clearly I'm not. You always have these things that, they're holding you back from what you really, you know you should be doing. Like when it's time to go to home group, you're like okay. Especially if you're hosting. You're like okay. People are coming over today. I had a bad day, I had a whatever. And then, I mean, for some, like at 5.45 you're feeling miserable, 8 o'clock p.m. You're like, I don't want these people to leave. This is great. I have had the best time here.

For our last, I've been helping out with GroundWorks, Josh and Melissa Wood have been doing a great job with that home group. Brighton's are hosting, thank you Brighton's. We've had a great time on Tuesday night. We were all sad to see it go. Just like, will it be the same? But part of our joy, part of my joy, it was like my last week there, we got to do like Jesus Jeopardy, right? Where they just like ask questions and we just answer and like, just kind of talk it out, right? It's not like I'm like Bible answer man, they don't treat me that way. But it's just like, we're just all talking about the Lord. Talk about things and life and questions and weird stuff. And it's just, and we do it over really good food. Blessings, such good food. I don't bring any of it, but I eat all of it. I'm an equal opportunity eater. And so, man, it's good.

Whenever the Lord is calling you into something like that, there are always these kind of internal barriers of just like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to have that conversation. I don't want to mess that up. I don't want to have to push through something that's difficult. And every time we do, every time we do the Lord, it's faithful and gives us life in the midst of that. Amen? Amen, amen. So when God said, look, I'm looking for priests, he's looking for the thing that he's created us to do. He's not looking for the top 1%. When I say that God's looking for priests, I mean, he's looking for anybody who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, anybody. I don't care if you're eight or 108, anybody. He's calling us to be priests. He's looking for priests. But what do the people want? The people want religion. And what Moses is telling the people is very indicative.

It should help us understand that there are things in our life that look scary. There are steps to take that look scary. There are things that we should say that we are scared to say. We fear losing control of our lives. We fear people thinking ill of us. We fear all these things, public opinion. We fear these things. And God's saying, don't fear that. Don't fear that, because I'm here.

God has come to test you that you may fear him. God is gonna test you that you may fear him more than you fear the things that seem scary. It's not like other things quit being scary. It's that the joy outweighs them all. It's that allegiance to the Lord matters more than all of it. That when God says go, you go. When God says speak, you speak. When God says shut up, you shut up. When God says jump into my arms, you jump because you trust him. That is what the Lord is calling his people to do. But what do the people want? They don't want that. They want something safer.

They want something more benign. They want something they can control. They want something that's gonna fit in a box on a Sunday morning. They want something that's not gonna call them out to change the entire direction of their lives. What do the people want? We see it in verse 21, Xs 2021. The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Oh, oh, could we have some people who will draw near to the thick darkness where God is? Could we have that? Could we have that here? Could we see that in our day? I believe so. I believe we can. But we have to quit looking for safe religion to do something for us, to make us feel good, to make us feel nostalgic, to make us remember that this is what my grandmother's church looked like whenever I was a... Listen, all that stuff's good. It's nostalgia, it's memories, it's awesome. I don't hate it.

It's not drawing into the thick darkness where God is. It's not being a priest. There are times when I've talked to people, really young and old. It's not on a particular demographic even. Men, women, young, old. And I've talked to many people and people that are in church that are not in church. And before long, we start talking about the things of the Lord and maybe I share my story, maybe we just talk about church, maybe I don't know how far we are in the conversation. But it doesn't take too long until somebody just starts saying, you know what, I'm just sick of it. I'm just sick, I was just sick of going to a church service and leaving and not feeling changed. I was just sick of doing another Bible study and then not mattering. I was just sick of people who say they were friends of mine but they not called me during the week. I was sick of whatever. I was sick of all these things.

I was sick of singing the same songs over and over. David, what's up dude? I was so sick of whatever. I was sick of, it was so boring. Right, it was so, and many times my response goes something like this, yeah, yeah, religion's super boring. Religion's kind of awful actually. You think about having to do all this stuff, all this song and dance for God maybe to like you? Yeah, don't sign me up for that please. Pass. I don't want religion. I don't want some soft thing where I just have to kind of

hold my tongue the right way and pick my leg up the right way at the right time and then I'm good. If I just speak in tongues the right way, if I just sing this certain song or don't sing these other songs, I'm good. As long as I behave a certain way, then God's going to like me and then I'm not gonna be in trouble. I just don't wanna be in trouble. Look man, look, if you think that walking this Christian life is made up of people who are not getting in trouble all the time, then I suggest you meet more real Christians. It could be that the people that you're meeting are playing a safe religious game and that's cool. I would just say don't imitate their life. You can love them and pray for them, that's cool. But man, you really wanna follow Jesus into the thick darkness. You really wanna see like what's out there. You wanna get on the frontier of what the Lord is calling you to do.

Man, I will guarantee you, you're not ready for that. That's gonna take more strength than you have. That's gonna make you pray. You're not gonna pray because you're checking a box. You're praying because you have to. You're praying because you are giving of yourself to serve other people. You are not waiting for people to do something for you. You are anxious to serve them because you know there's joy in there. You know that the Father is calling you into there. You know that you've been saved from death to life so that you can be a servant, so that you can follow God through the desert. Because the thing that is fueling you, the thing that is keeping you together, is not some sense that what you're doing is safe and that you're a good person and that you open doors for people or that you're whatever. Because it's not about your heritage. It's not about where you live.

I don't care if you've been a church your whole life. I don't care if you were physically born in a church building, okay? It doesn't matter. There's nothing sacred about this. The thing that is sacred is the Lord God in heaven and following him and being a priest and ministering to other people and really everything else. Tales in comparison to that. It's not even close. I could say a lot more. I think I just wanna leave you with a question and I'm gonna invite David to come up. I think I just wanna leave you with a question because this is the question that I desperately wanted to ask the Israelites as they're standing and watching the majesty of God descend upon a mountain, how terror inducing that is, right?

I wanted to ask them this question and I need this question too. It's what do you want? What do you want? What do you want? That's a real question. You will really answer that this week, I promise. Whether you're trying or not, you will answer that this week. What do you want? You wanna serve people? You wanna see God's glory descend on someone's life and watch them become healed? You wanna see something be restored? You wanna see what it is to draw strength from the Lord when you feel like the weakest you've ever felt, man, there's some good things on the other side of that,

but you gotta want it. Lord, you are our treasure. Require of us more than we can give. You supply the things to us that you require of us and this whole life is an endeavor where we trust you for more. Lord, help us to trust you to take that step, that we would not be like the people where we say, you know what, I just want something safe where Moses tells me what to do and I just do what he tells me to do, but I don't wanna have to look at God.

Even though when they looked upon you, it would have been the best day of their lives. They didn't want it. Lord, help us want it. We are broken, fallible. At times we are super wicked, weird people and you love us and you want good things for us and you call us into something more. Help us to take a step into what you are calling us toward. It's your name that we pray, amen.