Welcome

1. Adult II Couples Class Welcome discoverjoy.com

2. If you were to do an honest self-assessment, is there any thing, attitude or person, in your life that threatens to become an idol? Adult II Couples Class Question of the day discoverjoy.com

3. Prayer Requests -The Savages -Lela Wofford -Marsha Trollinger Surgery

4. Church Stuff Class Events Church Events • Benevolence Fund • R.E.A.P. (E Team @ 3:45pm) • Monthly Fellowships • February • March • April • Dinner Out Friday (30 Mar) • 5th Sunday Breakfast (29 April) • Quarterly Service Project • Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth • Brad and Kim Savage care package • Discipleship University • Men’s Discipleship Class • Women’s Discipleship Class • World Religions (Mormonism) • Fly visit (??) • Easter Musical Rehearsals • Widow’s Banquet (4 Mar) • Youth SNAC (11 Mar) • Wednesday night meal (14 Mar) • Spring Revival (29 Apr – May 2)

5. If you were to do an honest self-assessment, is there any thing, attitude or person, in your life that threatens to become an idol? Adult II Couples Class Question of the day discoverjoy.com

6. A Perspective on modern idolatry

7. Chronological Bible Discipleship Iva May and Dr. Stan May week nine Exodus 32

8. Review

9. Review Creation Patriarchs Exodus

10. Review Creation: God reveals His goodness and mercy Patriarchs: Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph Exodus: • After several hundred years, God allowed His people to come to a place of desperation as slaves of Egypt so that they cried out to Him • God heard their cries and acted in His own time to deliver the Israelites, demonstrating His power and glory through the plagues He sent on the Egyptians • God watched over and cared for the Israelites during their journey through the wilderness, and worked through events and the giving of the law to shape them into a nation that was holy to Himself.

11. Overview While God reveals Himself to His servant, Moses, up on Mt. Sinai, the Israelites demand a god of their own making. They don’t want the God of Israel who is holy and separate from sinners; they want a god they can mold into their own image.

12. Man struggles to walk with the one true God by faith as the sin nature creates a desire to live independently and choose gods of our own making. Key Truth

13. The God Who Is, The God People Want Exodus 32 The Exodus Era

14. The ‘god’ Israel Wants Exodus 32:1-6 Jeremiah 7

15. The ‘god’ Israel Wants www.themegallery.com • Aaron responds to the demands of the people • Takes their golden earrings • Fashions a golden calf and presents it to the people • Proclaims, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.” • Aaron builds an altar for sacrifice • The people present burnt offerings to their new god • Then they party

16. The ‘god’ Israel Wants • People of Israel want a God who is visible and… • Does not delay in responding to their command (vs1) • Has eyes but cannot see their immorality • Appears strong but lacks power to punish their sin • Present but does not require holiness (demand purity) • They want a god unable to interfere in their lives • Allows them to express themselves sexually, immorally, and without restraint • Even in Jeremiah’s time, the people would demand a deity who “saves” them so they can continue in their sin • Jeremiah 7:8-10

17. The God Who Is Exodus 32:7-35

18. The God Who Is… www.themegallery.com • Responds to the sins of His people • Exodus 32:7-10 • Sees all human activity • It interrupts God’s conversation with Moses • Their sin affects their relationship with God • “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, ‘Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.’” • God determines to destroy Israel because of their idol worship and misrepresentation of Himself to the nations

19. The God Who Is… www.themegallery.com • Listens to the prayers of inter-cessors • Exodus 32:11-14 • Moses reverses God’s disowning of Israel • Hears Moses’ prayer which is based on three divine truths • God’s relationship with His people (11) • God’s reputation before the world (12) • God’s remembrance of His covenant (13)

20. The God Who Is… www.themegallery.com • Establishes leaders to uphold His name • Exodus 32:15-26 • Moses returns from the mountain to find the people in empty revelry (vs.18–neither triumph or defeat) • Moses takes action to hold the people accountable for their sins • Shatters the tablets of the law(19) • Sign of the complete separation from God created by their disregard for His holiness (violation of the first commandment) • Pulverized the calf, made the people drink the powder(20) • Holds Aaron responsible for Israel’s lack of restraint(25) • Separates those who remain loyal to God from those guilty of idol worship(26)

21. The God Who Is… www.themegallery.com • Allows for conse-quences to follow the evil that men commit • Exodus 32:27-35 • 3,000 unrepentant idolaters were slain • God sent a plague on the people because of their idolatry

22. Conclusions • Just like the people of Israel, modern men still want a god who does not interfere with their lives • Romans 1:21-25 - For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. • The creation of false gods is symptomatic of a declining culture • Intercessors know God’s Word & appropriate His promises • Even when God’s anger is turned by His desire to dispense mercy rather than judgment, evil actions can still have lasting consequences

23. Application What does this lesson teach about God? Man? Sin? Redemption?

24. Discussion What was the catalyst that caused the people to turn to idol worship? (vs. 1) How does this parallel the events in the Garden when Adam and Eve first sinned? What affect did reverting to idol worship have on the people? How does the image of God among many Americans today contradict the Holy God of the Bible?

25. Discussion A landmark study by sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Denton identified the basic belief of American teens as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”. This describes a belief in a benign but uninterested divinity who wants people to be nice, have a personal peace, and be prosperous. Such a religion is helpful but not truly necessary. The study identifies teens who hold to genuine Christianity (as well as other religions), but the vast majority of teens in the study adhered to the tenets above.

26. Bible KNOWLEDGE QUIZ The Book of Numbers(1pt) • What one food was a person who took the vow of a Nazirite strictly prohibited from consuming in any form? • “All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.” (Num 6:4) • How many elders did God command Moses to appoint as assistants in his work of leading the people? • “The LORD therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.” (Num 11:16) • In what activity was the man engaged when he broke the law of the Sabbath, resulting in a sentence of death by stoning? • “Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.” (Num 15:32)

27. BONUS ROUND Bonus Question (5pts) • If a husband suspected his wife of being unfaithful, what process could he require her to go through in order to determine her guilt or innocence? • Bring her to the tent of meeting along with the prescribed sacrifice and inquire of the LORD • Call a meeting of the elders to hear testimony and evidence against her to determine her guilt or innocence • Bring her before the priest to swear an oath, then drink holy water mixed with dirt from the floor of the tabernacle • Declare in a loud voice, “I break with thee, I break with thee, I break with thee.”, then throw dog poop on her shoes

28. Numbers 11-16 Rebellion in the Camp Adult II Couples Class Next week….. discoverjoy.com