Craig Smith - The War You Didn't Know You Were Fighting
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Heavy week this week, right? If there’s been a week that made us feel shaken, it’s a week like this one. If there’s a week that makes us hyper-aware of how much we need an unshakable foundation to build on, it is a week like this. You know, Friday was 9/11. And like the irony didn’t escape me, that on the day we commemorate a tragedy that came from outside of us, it was overshadowed by tragedies that came from inside-the division, the hatred, the violence, and the grief that we have perpetrated on ourselves took center stage.
I was at our staff huddle on Wednesday when I got the word that Evergreen was in lockdown, and some of our first responders-not just from the community, but from the church. We have wives in our first responders' Bible study whose husbands were headed to those situations. And by the way, if you’re a first responder or if you’re the family of a first responder, would you stand up and just let us love on you for a moment? Thank you. We are so grateful for you. Thank you. We love you guys. And we grieve that you are called into so many of those situations, that so many times you are called to run into the things that everybody else runs away from. And of course, we grieve for the victims at Evergreen, for those who have marks on their bodies and are fighting for their lives in the hospital right now. Actually, one of the young men who was hit and probably injured most severely has family here at Mission Hills.
I’ve had some conversations and have been able to see updates as he’s fighting for his life. But the victims are bigger than that. There’s more than that. I mean, there are also those who don’t have any marks on their bodies but have wounds in their souls. And honestly, those are harder to see, but they’re probably harder to heal too. I just grieve for young men and women who will never hear a car backfire or a door slam without that jolt of fear for the rest of their lives. And I grieve that it keeps happening. And you know what else I grieve? I grieve that it’s going to be politicized -it’s already being politicized. I grieve that a tragedy that should draw us together will actually become a talking point that drives us further apart.
And already I see people going, «This is why we need more gun control,» and other people going, «No, no, this is why we need more guns.» And it’s just endless talk and debate. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the problem is actually how many guns we have. I think we have a culture that has so devalued human life that those look like solutions. That’s the real problem. But that’s not where we’re going to deal with it. We’re going to deal with it in the political realm, and it’s going to become something that different people use to try to accomplish different agendas, which honestly is one of the things that bothers me most about Charlie Kirk’s murder. Of course, we grieve for his family. Of course, we grieve for the victims there. Again, not just those with the wounds in their bodies but also those who will never be the same.
I had a friend and a fellow pastor who was 15 yards away from it when it happened. And those people are never going to be the same. I grieve for a country where you can be killed because of what you believe. It’s not a country I want to live in. It’s not the one I grew up in. And I grieve the loss of someone I believe to be a brother in Christ -bold about it too. And I realize that that’s actually controversial. I know that, because I have been deluged with messages this past week from both sides. I’ve had people saying, «You have to call him a martyr. You have to tell everybody that he was killed because of his faith in Jesus.»
I don’t know the motivations of the shooter, and neither do you. But I’ve got other people who said you can’t call him a brother. Do not call him a brother in Christ because, in their opinion, he said things or he said them in ways that they can’t reconcile with following Jesus. And I’ll be honest, I asked for evidence. Give me the links. A lot of it, there wasn’t any evidence, and some of it was just stuff taken out of context. But here’s the thing: I don’t really know. I wasn’t a follower; I didn’t follow closely. I saw Charlie mostly because he would show up in my TikTok or my Instagram feeds. What I saw was him on college campuses debating, and I was actually kind of impressed by the fact that he was so bold about his faith in Jesus.
And I’ll be honest, what I saw sure looked like the same Jesus I follow. So I don’t know, maybe I’ve missed something, but I can only say what I saw. I think he was a follower of the same Jesus that I follow and that you do. And I grieve that the loss of someone like him will become politicized, and it will be used as a talking point that drives us apart rather than a tragedy that draws us together, and it’s already happening. And what am I going to say that’s going to fix it? Nothing. So what do we do? We pray. Amen. Amen. Would you pray with me?
God, we mourn for those who have been victimized this week. We grieve for the victims at Evergreen, those with wounds in their bodies, and those with wounds in their souls. We grieve for the victims of what happened in Utah. We grieve for ourselves because, in some sense, Lord, as a nation and as a people, we are all victimized by the events of this past week. And we pray that you’d heal. Heal us. Heal our nation. Heal our world. Your Holy Spirit move among us. Show us how to live so that our rage does not drive us, that our fear does not derail us, and that our anger and hatred do not divide us, but rather, that our love would define us. Lord, we don’t know how to show it. We’ve got all kinds of emotions: there is anger, there is fear, there is confusion. So Lord, we don’t know how to do it, but would you lead us so that we might lead with love-the love that you demonstrated for us, the love that you demand from us. We are unable to do that, but we trust that you will enable us to do what you call us to do in the coming days ahead. In Jesus' name, Amen.
I really debated this week whether I should just preach an entirely different message. Then I realized that the passage that God had put on my heart for this week was actually a passage He put on my heart. A lot of times, I plan out the passages in a series as much as a year in advance. In this particular one, though, it was actually just a few weeks ago that I felt like the Lord laid this particular passage on my heart. I thought leaving something that God had laid on my heart was probably a mistake. And then I thought, well, I didn’t know what was going to happen this week, but He did.
So I wonder if maybe this passage actually speaks to some of what He knew was going to happen that we needed to know. And as I looked at it again through that lens, I realized this is probably the perfect passage because here’s the thing: we’re going to talk about worship today. I think worship is foundationally important to this larger conversation we’re having right now because I think our temptation is often to go, «Well, the problem is that we don’t agree on what we believe. We believe different things about God. We believe different things about politics. We believe different things about X, Y, and Z.» But I want to tell you today, I actually think the root of the problem isn’t what we believe; it’s what we worship. Do you hear me, church? The root of the problem isn’t what we believe; it’s what we worship. Honestly, what we believe doesn’t matter that much.
You know the Bible says that, oh, you believe there’s one God? Hey, guess what? Even the demons believe that, but they shudder. They don’t submit to it; they shudder at the thought of it because it’s not ultimately about what we believe. It’s about what we worship. And I want to talk to you about worship. If you want to follow along, we’re going to be in Exodus chapter 32 today. Exodus 32 is about something that happened after something really big occurred. God has set the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt. He’s led them out with a mighty hand, incredible miracles, gone through the-you know-they’ve parted the Red Sea, food has fallen from the sky, water has gushed forth from rocks. He’s provided for them every step along the way, and they’ve gotten to the base of Mount Sinai.
Moses has gone up on Mount Sinai to receive the word. He’s receiving a revelation about the plan, God’s intended plan, and what’s coming next. And this is about what happened while he waited. So while Moses is up there hearing from God, it says when the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, «Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.»
That is what I call worship whiplash. I mean, their movement from " we’re on board with God» to «I think we need some different gods» is crazy. I mean, literally, right before Moses went up the mountain-this is Exodus 19-literally right as he was going up the mountain, he’d given some instructions, and the people gathered around and said to Moses, «We will do everything the Lord has said. We’re in! We’re down! We’re on board! We’re 100% sold out!» And then he was gone so long. By the way, do you know how long it was? It was 40 days. And listen, I know in an era of same-day delivery from Amazon and high-speed internet, 40 days sounds like a long time. But they’d been enslaved for centuries-literally hundreds of years-and God has moved. It’s only been three months that they’ve enjoyed that freedom. And you realize they didn’t have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything that they wanted to do. They had this incredible freedom, and now they’re waiting for the next part of the plan, and they’re like, «Yeah, I don’t know. It’s just been an awfully long time.»
Can I tell you something about impatience? And by the way, I’m going to tell you something about impatience as an impatient person. In fact, I don’t know if you know this about me: I’m pretty hip. I am! I’m a highly impatient person; that is what that stands for. I am a highly impatient person. And so I want to tell you something as somebody who wrestles with impatience-and I’ve seen this in my own life, and certainly we see it here-listen, impatience is the highway to idolatry. Do you hear me, church? It is the highway to idolatry. We worship things because we want them to make a way.
That’s what worship is; it’s trusting something to make a way, right? What did they say? They said, «We want gods who will go before us.» Go before us? What does that mean? It means go before us and make a way for us. Go before us so that you can lead us out of what we’re in and into what we’re not yet. So go make that happen. We need gods who will go before us and help us to get what we want. We need gods to make a way. That’s what worship is; it’s trusting in something to make a way. And listen, I have never once looked at any other thing that I’m tempted to trust-whether it’s my finances, my own intellect, skill, leadership ability, the people around me, or my education-all those things I can be tempted to trust, I can, and I have never yet looked at one of them and said, «That thing is worthy of my worship.» Never said it. But do you know what I say all the time? «I’m tired of waiting.»
Listen, I’ve never once said that any of those things is more worthy of worship than my God. But I have often said I’m tired of waiting on God. So maybe I could just do this. Or maybe I could just put a little emphasis. Maybe I could just-maybe this will make a way if I just… You don’t understand what I’m saying. I mean, patience is the highway to idolatry. And I don’t know what you’re waiting on right now. I mean, I know we’re all waiting on God to heal this country, but maybe it’s something in your personal life. You’re waiting on a child, or you’re waiting on a child to come back to you, or you’re waiting on a job, or you’re waiting on a better diagnosis, or you’re waiting on… I don’t know what you’re waiting on, but can I tell you something?
Waiting can be really dangerous for us because if we get impatient in the waiting, that impatience can lead us into idolatry before we know it’s happened, and we look around and go, «How did I get here?» By the way, do you know why they were waiting so long? So long because God had bigger plans. They were just glad to be out of Egypt; they were just like, «Where are we headed next?» But God actually had much bigger plans for them. In fact, he said that from the outset when he called Abram to himself, renamed him Abraham, and said, «Here’s my plan for you. You’re going to be my people. And here’s my plan for my people.» He said, «I’m going to bless you, and you will become a blessing.» But even that’s not the bigness of the plan; the full size of the plan is he looked at Abram and said, «I’m going to bless you, and through you, all peoples on earth will be blessed.»
Can we agree that’s a big plan? And that’s what Moses is getting. He’s on the mountainside; he’s getting the download of the really big plan. And they didn’t have high-speed internet in those days, so the download took a while. Okay? I mean, Moses is writing some stuff down, and God is actually, we’re going to see, he’s going to write some stuff down. I mean, it’s a big plan. And here’s the thing that I think sometimes we forget that makes us so impatient. Sometimes God takes longer than we hope because his plans are bigger than we dare to hope. He wants to do more in your life than you-you’re like, «I just want that solved; I just want out of this; I don’t want to deal with it.» He’s like, «Yeah, yeah, but I’ve got so much more! That thing, it’s so small; it’s so tiny. This is just the first step in this much bigger plan I have for you.»
Like, here’s the thing: I know we are all waiting for God to heal our country. We’re like, «Why hasn’t he done it?» Whether by changing our context or our circumstances or the government or the culture or the media, whatever. But some of us are going like, «Jesus, why don’t you just come back and put an end to it?» And I was thinking about this. I saw this really interesting news story recently in England. In 2018, they did a survey of young men ages 18 to 24 in the UK, and they asked them, you know, «What’s your faith? What do you trust in?» What they found was less than 4% of them had any kind of engagement with a Bible-teaching church.
In 2024, they went, «Let’s do the study again.» And you know what they found? It went from 4% to 21%. 21% of the men ages 18 to 24 in the UK are actually engaged in church every month.
Now that’s awesome; that’s crazy! Like, that’s a 5x increase. And by the way, we don’t have exactly the same thing happening in the US, but we’re starting to see some signs of it. We’re seeing hints of it; we’re seeing things that are incredibly encouraging. And I think, honestly, God’s probably doing something bigger. And I think even in the tragedy of this past week, I believe in God’s hands who can work all things for good. Like, I think we might see something incredible happen. It doesn’t justify it; we cannot be pleased in it. But can we trust God in the midst of it? I absolutely believe we can. And I believe we can trust a God who has bigger plans than we even dared to hope.
You know, the Apostle Peter had people dealing with the same thing. They were impatient. Why didn’t God just fix us? And he said, «Listen, God’s not slow, as some think of slowness, but he’s patient, and he wants no one to perish but all to come to faith in him.» And so, he’s leaving some space for that to happen. He’s doing something bigger, and sometimes it’s so big we just need to give it a little bit of time. But we get impatient. They got impatient. They’re like, «I’ve been waiting long enough; I think I need something else to worship.» Right?
And by the way, notice that they didn’t stop worshiping; they just switched what they were worshiping. Did you see that? They didn’t go, «Hey, we’re done with this worship business.» They just said, «We just need something else to worship.» I think that’s actually really important to understand. Let me tell you something: You and I, we don’t have the ability to stop worshiping. You and I are incapable of not worshiping. We’re always going to worship. It’s just a question of what.
I was in Joshua Tree National Park a few years ago; Clint and I were climbing and we were coming around a route that we had just done, looking for another route, and we came across three young people. They were kind of gathered around one of those Joshua trees, and there was one girl and two guys. The girl had her arms wrapped around the tree, and I was like, «Oh my goodness, it’s an actual tree hugger!» I didn’t think that existed; I honestly thought that was just an insulting term. And it kind of is an insulting term that people use for people they’re kind of angry at in that direction. But she was actually hugging. Then she said to these other two guys, «Go ahead, give her a hug; she’s beautiful.»
My first reaction was I’d like to go over and tell her there’s a cactus over there feeling really left out. And then I had this thought: This isn’t funny; it’s heartbreaking, because what you see there is the fact that we can’t stop worshiping. And in the absence of something real to worship, we will settle for what is ridiculous. Do you hear me? Because we have to worship something, and that’s true of you; it’s true of me. Listen, the question isn’t whether we will worship; it is only what we will worship and what that choice will do to us. That’s the only question. And make no mistake about it: what we choose to worship, what we choose to trust, will have a profound impact on who we are and who we become.
I was thinking about this; I was in Ohio recently getting my mom packed up to move out to Colorado. And so we were driving down the road-her house was on-I noticed a field with all these little white flowers. And I remember those flowers; I remember my mom taking me, and we used to go and we would cut those flowers and we’d bring them back. I don’t know what they were called, but we’d bring them back and we’d put them in water. But we’d put food coloring in the water, and whatever color you put in, it would be drawn up the stalk, and then the white things would turn into that. Anybody ever done this? I thought my mom made it up! Okay, she told me. Okay, well, I’ll have a conversation with her later. But I was like, worship’s a little bit like that. What you plant your feet in, what you get rooted in, it’s going to be drawn into your life. It’s going to be drawn into your soul, and it’s going to come out in who you become. Okay?
And so it’s important that we understand that you do not have the ability to say, «I’m just done worshiping.» You only have the ability to say, «I’m going to worship this or that.» You choose what you worship, and you choose ultimately what you become because of that worship. They said, «We need other gods.» And so Aaron answered them. He said, «Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me.» And so all the people took off their earrings and they brought them to Aaron. He took what was handed to him and he made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. And they said, «These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.»
Here’s the first place worship goes wrong: we forget who got us this far. Sometimes we end up attributing the blessings that we are currently experiencing to something that did not provide them. God got us this far, and they’re like, «Well, these are your gods.» This is what it’s like, and I’m tempted to do that sometimes. How about you? We have this amazing capacity for spiritual amnesia. They thanked a golden calf. By the way, that’s a weird thing to worship, isn’t it? A calf? I can see a bull; bulls are powerful.
I was watching a YouTube video the other day about the worst bull riding accidents ever. I told you I watch these things; I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But bulls are crazy powerful! I had no idea. I saw huge cowboys get thrown into the air and do three or four somersaults before they came down. I watched one of those rodeo clowns get caught by a bull and thrown into the air. He was gone so long I forgot he was up there! He eventually came down, and I thought, «That bull threw him into orbit!» They’re powerful! I can understand worshiping a bull, but a calf? Have you ever looked at a baby cow and thought, «That’s worthy of some worship right there?»
I was thinking about it, and I wonder if the thing about the calf is that it has potential; it’s going to grow up to be that powerful thing I see. But the thing about the calf is that it might be capable eventually, but it’s also controllable, and bulls aren’t controllable. You know what I’m saying? I wonder, because I see this in my life, and my guess is if you’re really honest with yourself, you’ll see it in yours too. I think we kind of want to worship something that’s capable but controllable. Capable but controllable. Think about the things we’re tempted to worship: money. It’s capable; we can do things with money, but we can also control it, right? Or we think we can. I can earn it; I can choose when to spend it and when not to spend it. I can choose to invest it; I can choose to save it. It’s kind of under my control. I have a little bit of control over this thing that’s also capable.
We like that it’s controllable and capable at the same time. Think about the power that we have; I can choose how to use it or not use it. It’s controllable, but of course, it can do things for me, right? I think almost everything that we are tempted to trust is capable but controllable. Can I just tell you something about Jesus? Utterly uncontrollable! I think that’s what makes him hard sometimes. Utterly uncontrollable! I mean, his enemies tried; they failed. His followers tried. By the way, his followers probably tried more than his enemies. «Don’t go there, Jesus! Don’t say that, Jesus! Don’t get involved with that! Don’t hang out with those people, Jesus! We don’t want to be associated with that, Jesus!» And Jesus was like, «I’m going to go there, I’m going to say that, I’m going to do that, I’m going to hang out with those people.»
He’s just utterly uncontrollable. Jesus is uncontrollable! The grave couldn’t control him; death couldn’t hold him. And that’s scary! Can I just tell you something? If you let Jesus loose in your life, hold on -he’s going to mess you up! It’s going to be glorious and great, but it’s going to be a wild ride. I’ve been on it for about 40 years now, and I keep wondering when it’s going to slow down. Apparently, it’s not! The other thing that’s interesting about this calf is what they made it out of. They made it out of these gold earrings they all had. You know where they got the gold earrings? They got it from the Egyptians.
God said, «Hey, go talk to the wives of the households that you’re serving as slaves and ask them.» God moved, and he made them give them; I mean, God blessed them with these things. You understand what I’m saying? God blessed them with them, and now they’re bowing down to them. The crazy thing is what they’re bowing down to is ultimately going to break them, but it started as a blessing.
And that’s the crazy thing to me: how often we can turn blessings into burdens simply because we put a weight on them that they are absolutely incapable of holding. Listen, even blessings become burdens when we worship them. Your money is a blessing, but the moment you start trusting it, it will break you. Your kids are a blessing, but the moment you start trusting them to make a way for you and put your hope and security in them, the blessing becomes a burden, and it will break you. Your education is a blessing, but the moment you start trusting it to make a way, it will break you. That’s what happened, and unfortunately, it’s a story that gets repeated over and over again in our lives.
Now, it’s interesting. When Aaron saw this, he saw them bowing down to it. He built an altar in front of the calf and announced, «Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.» And that’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, you’re the one who made the golden calf, and now you’re like, «Oh no, no, no, that’s not what I thought was going to happen.» What did you think was going to happen? And I’m a little confused. I wonder if maybe he’s thinking, «Oh, we can’t forget about God in the midst of this. You’re going to bow down to those things; it’s fine, but we can’t stop worshiping God. We have to make sure God’s still in the mix.»
Can I just tell you, that’s actually a really dangerous place to be? You and I do it all the time. We’re like, «Yeah, I mean, yes, I’m putting a certain amount of trust in my bank account, a certain amount of trust in my ability to do this, or in the people around me, but Jesus is still in the mix. I still go to church on the weekends, and you know, I’ll occasionally listen to a podcast or something; I’ll read my Bible like he’s in the mix.»
I just want to tell you, Jesus can’t be in the mix. He’s got to be the ground floor, or he’s just not going to work. He’s just not. The other thing I kind of wonder, honestly, is why on earth did you make the calf in the first place? If you really wanted God to be in the mix still, why did you make the calf? And honestly, it’s not that complicated. That’s what the people wanted. He was worried about what the people wanted. He was worried about what the people would think if he didn’t give them what they wanted. He was worried about other people’s opinions.
And can I just tell you something? As someone who is a recovering people pleaser, God has been working on me for a long time, and I don’t think he’s done in this area of my life, but he’s brought me to a different place in it. Let me tell you this: one of the worst things that you can worship is other people’s opinions. It will make you be silent when you should speak. It will make you speak when you should be silent. It will make you forget that timing is everything. It will make you cowardly when you should be bold. It will make you bold when you’ve got no basis for it. But we get driven to these things because, well, what are other people going to think?
I felt it this week. I wrestled with it this week because I knew that if I say this, some people are going to think this, and some people will be happy I said this, but they’ll be unhappy that I didn’t also say that. But if I go over here, then what? And God said, «Hey, I thought we' ve been working on this. I thought we made some progress.» Dude, that’s how God talks to me. I felt God say to me, «I’m going to give you some words, and the only thing that really matters is that you’re going to speak the words that I’ve given you. And yes, there are going to be people everywhere that are dissatisfied, unhappy, or mad, but I’ll say, 'Well done.' Okay, that’s right; that’s what we’re going to do.»
Because man, there is no faster way to be consumed from the inside than to spend your life thinking that what other people think of you is going to make a way for you. It’s just not. That can be applied in so many different ways in our lives, but it’s so easy to forget. And so the next day, the people rose early, and they sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterwards, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to engage in revelry. Then the Lord said to Moses-remember, Moses is up on the mountainside receiving the word of God while this is going on-the Lord said to Moses, «Go down, because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt».
I want to talk about the translation of that for just a quick second. I don’t want to get too in the weeds, but as I was reading this in Hebrew, I realized that the word for «corrupt» there is indeed the word for «corrupt,» but it’s in a slightly odd form. Greek or Hebrew has these different verb forms, and the verb form that I would expect here is not present. It’s actually a verb form that often emphasizes not the end result but how we got there. This particular verb form really emphasizes the fact that we kind of did this to ourselves, if that makes sense.
What that means is I think the more precise translation would actually be, «because your people have corrupted themselves.» I think that would be probably the most literal translation of that. They haven’t become corrupt; they have corrupted themselves. They’ve made choices, and those choices have consequences. You know how I say all the time that enough small steps in the same direction will get you places you never thought possible? That’s true of becoming more like Jesus and joining him on mission. It’s also true of going the other direction.
We look at the little church and think, «Well, this is not a big deal, and this is not a big deal,» and then we wake up and ask, «How did I get here?» The answer is small step by small step in the wrong direction. And that’s what happened here. They weren’t taken away. They might have been tempted away, but they weren’t taken. The golden calf didn’t get up and say, «I’m going to make you bow down and lay on you until you do.» That didn’t happen. The devil couldn’t drag them away, but they were drawn away. They were drawn away by what they chose to worship.
And what God’s telling us is, «Listen, what we choose to worship is up to us.» We choose. Listen to me, church. We choose what we worship. No one can do it for you. We choose what we worship and what that choice does to us. That is on us. And yes, there may be temptations, and there may be pressure, but at the end of the day, we choose. And the choice can corrupt us.
God said, «They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them, and they have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and they’ve said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' I’ve seen these people,» the Lord said to Moses, «and they are a stiff-necked people. So leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them, and then I will make you into a great nation.»
But Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God. «Lord,» he said, «why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say that it was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce anger. Relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'»
And then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. That’s a weird passage, isn’t it? It’s a weird passage because it sounds a lot like Moses talked God out of what he wanted to do. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to worship a God I can talk out of what he wants to do, because what I want is usually stupid and nearsighted. But it sure sounds like Moses persuaded him to be faithful to his promises.
Can I tell you something? He didn’t. It sounds like it; it sounds like Moses persuaded God to be merciful. He didn’t. So what happened here? It’s a whole conversation. In fact, honestly, this is another one of those places I’m going to say, like, you probably should tune in to the Continue the Conversation podcast, because we’ll unpack this a little bit more.
Let me give you my hot take on what’s happening here. I think that what sounded like Moses persuading God was actually God preparing Moses for the rest of his ministry. He was basically creating a situation where Moses had to fight for a group of people he would have to fight for the rest of his life. He was preparing Moses to not give up on them. Because there’s something powerful when we fight for something; we don’t give up on it quite as quickly, do we? And maybe you fought for something, and you fought to have kids, or you fought for a marriage, and you fought for a job. And once you get those things, you still have things that are kind of annoyances, but they don’t annoy you quite as much, because you fought for this, right?
Like, I remember years and years ago, I bought the first car that I ever fought for. I saved money, I scrimped, and we cut corners so that we could eventually buy a car. Up to that point, I had never fought for a car. Everybody had actually given me cars. My parents had given us cars, or we inherited cars from people. Sometimes in church, somebody will give pastors a car. That happened to me, and that was a huge blessing, but typically, the cars that you’re given have problems. Let me just be real. Nobody’s ever given me a top-of-the-line Maserati. I don’t know how the Spirit might be moving in you today, but I will be in the lobby after the service if you need spiritual counseling. I mean, they had problems. And here’s the thing: because I never fought for them, the problems always bugged me.
And here’s the crazy thing: none of the cars that I ever had, none of the problems that bugged me so much-like there were more problems that my Isuzu Rodeo had by the end of its life than all of my previous cars combined-but I didn’t really care about them with my Rodeo. I loved my Rodeo. And by the end, man, it was a mess. By the end, the windshield wiper in the back didn’t work at all. The ones in the front worked, but sometimes you had to stop the car and get them moving; they just needed a little help along the way. One of the windows wouldn’t go down, and one of them would go down all the time. So I had a pair of pliers stuck in it to keep it from going down. It was like load-bearing pliers on that window.
So I drove around, and people were like, «Why are there pliers in your window?» It’s part of the package. We loaned it to somebody, and they transported concrete, and it broke open and spilled out. Then apparently they poured water on it, so I had permanent concrete in my back floorboard. At the end of its life, every time I got to a stoplight, I had to turn it off because it would overheat. And I didn’t care; I loved that car. I still miss that car. I think the main reason that none of that stuff really bothered me was because I fought for it. I think that’s kind of what’s happening here. God’s going, «Hey Moses, I’m going to make you fight for this people because you’re going to fight with them the rest of your life. And man, I need you to be invested in this.»
By the way, this is not the only time the Israelites pulled a stunt like this; it’s going to happen over and over and over again. I think that’s kind of what’s going on here. Moses turned, and he went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. Pay attention to this: they were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God. It wasn’t just the word of God; it was the work of God Himself. It says the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. God Himself inscribed those tablets.
I don’t know what that looked like; I picture lasers. How about you? Chips of stone flying out? But the point is, it’s not just the word of God; it’s the actual work of God inscribing the word. That is a precious commodity. Can we agree on that? That’s an amazing reality. Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, «There is a sound of war in the camp.» And Moses replied, «It is not the sound of victory; it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.»
By the way, that word that he uses for singing was a word that was often used for worship. So, as Joshua gets closer, he hears some noise and says, «I hear the sound of war.» And Moses basically replies, «No, it’s not the sound of war; it’s the sound of worship.» Who was right? The answer is that both of them were right. Joshua was not wrong. By the way, Moses didn’t say he was wrong; he just said, «It’s not the sound of war with an external enemy.» He said, «It’s not the sound of victory over an external enemy; it’s not the sound of being defeated by an external enemy.» He said, «It’s worship.»
But here’s the thing: the choice of what we worship is a war. Do you hear me, church? Joshua was right; so was Moses. Because the choice of what we worship is a war, and it’s a war we have to win. The problem is that it’s a war we’re often not aware we’re in. We’re not aware that we’re fighting a battle day in and day out about what we will choose to plant ourselves on, what we will choose to build our lives on. We’re in a worship war, and we often don’t even realize it. I actually-this reminds me-I fought the worship wars. I was a worship leader back when we were fighting what we called the worship wars. Some of you are too young to even know what I’m talking about. It was when we had all these fights in the church about whether it was okay to have electric guitars in worship or whether it was okay to have drums.
I had people tell me, «If it makes you want to dance, it’s from the devil.» We fought worship wars. We won. But here’s the thing-I know, because I sort of ended up on the winning side of that. Sometimes, when the victors write the history, you have to be a little careful. But here’s what I honestly believe as I look back on that: there was a tremendous amount of turmoil and division in the church, and we were fighting over how to worship. That’s not the war, but that’s the distraction that often comes. And the real war wasn’t over how to worship; it was over who to worship. And we had people worshiping the same God who couldn’t go to church together because they were fighting over how to worship. Man, that’s broken; that is messed up. The reality is I think it happens all the time. You’re in a battle every single day.
So let me ask you this: what are you trusting to make a way? What thing that is not God is trying really hard to take the place of God in your life? What are you trusting to make a way? This is a war we have to win. Here’s some good news: worship is also how we win. Worship is how we win that war. The choice to say, «I will worship God; I will trust Jesus; I will follow Him and Him alone» is how we win the war -not just the war of our own personal worship battles, but it’s how we win the war in the world. It starts with building on an unshakable foundation. It is the choice to worship God and God alone as the people of God.
If our worship is divided, we cannot be surprised that the nation is also divided. We must win with unshakable, undivided worship of the only One who is worthy of it. Amen. And when Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. I don’t know about you, but whenever I’ve read that, I’ve thought, «I bet he felt bad about that.» Like that’s an «oh no» moment, right?
As I was preparing this message, I realized there’s something very powerful happening here. It’s an incredible picture of the truth that what we choose to worship can deprive us of God’s word. God’s word didn’t make it into the camp; they didn’t get to experience it. It was broken on the outskirts. And by the way, the word wasn’t just commandments; it was also promises. God’s word said, «I will show love to a thousand generations of those who will trust me.» That was in there. He said, «If you’ll trust me, it will go well for you, and you will live long in the land.» It’s not just a command; it’s the promises of God. And when we choose to worship something other than God, we can deprive ourselves of God’s word. We can’t afford that.
And Moses took the calf that the people had made, and he burned it in the fire. Then he ground it to powder and scattered it on the water, and he made the Israelites drink it. Moses is a bad beep. I mean, that’s OG stuff right there, right? Word, word. And here’s the thing. It sounds vindictive; it sounds like punishment, doesn’t it? It sounds punitive; it sounds like a punishment. But I don’t think it’s punitive; I actually think it’s preventative.'Cause here’s the thing. Sometimes God has to have us taste the bitter results of the things we’ve worshiped so we lose our appetite for them. And that may be where some of you are today. You’re in a hard place, and you don’t know why God has allowed this to come.
And because God loves you, he’s actually allowing you to experience the bitter taste of worshiping other things so that you lose your appetite for it, and you can go forward unshakably into everything that he has for you. There’s a part of me that wonders if that’s not what we’re experiencing as a nation. We’re experiencing the bitter results of other things that we have worshiped so that we can lose our taste for it.'Cause it’s not just the nation; it’s the church. Let’s be real. In the church, we struggle with what we worship. We have these pieces of paper that say, «In God we trust.» Do we? Or do we trust more in the paper than in what the paper points us to?
Look, in the absence of the real, we will settle for the ridiculous, but we have real, and we must choose to rest on what is real. And so, God, I pray that you’d move among us. Convict us where we have allowed our worship to wander; we have shifted it; we have switched it. And in fact, some of us in this moment are recognizing that we are trusting in something that cannot make a way. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would bring conviction upon us so that we may repent, that we may return. And we pray that what begins in us will spill out from us into this nation.
As we listen to the Holy Spirit, let me just speak to those who are here today, that you’ve never trusted in God. Maybe in this moment there is something going on in your soul that says, «I’ve trusted idols, and it hasn’t worked,» and what I’m experiencing is actually the bitter results of worshiping something that’s not worthy of it. And so please hear this good news: God loves you so much he sent Jesus to die for you, to pay the price for your sin, your rebellion, your idolatry. Jesus rose from the dead to prove that he had a new life for you if you will simply trust him. And if you are here today listening to this message and you have never trusted him, then in this moment, please have this conversation with God. Say, «God, I have worshiped a lot of stuff that’s not worthy. Thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you for raising him from the dead. I choose to worship you by following Jesus.» Amen.