Omc: Family Chapel

At the heart of prayer is enjoying communion with God as our heavenly Father. More than focusing on the "how to" of prayer, we need to focus on the "who to" of prayer because what we most need in prayer is never what we are praying for, but it is always who we are praying to. Thankfully, what God most delights to give us in prayer is Himself! As such, prayer is deeply formative for us as we enter into that space of being fully known and fully loved by God because of the finished work of Christ. We grow as confident children of God.

Excited to start a new series called "Formation" where we will go over several different means of grace and disciplines that God has given to us for spiritual growth and formation. This Sunday, I will kick off the series with Sabbath. This is essential for all of our restless souls, especially with our tendencies to overwork or underwork in many ways. In essence, Sabbath is more than just "rest". It is a means of reinforcing trust, surrender, celebration, and remembrance. But the main goal of a regular sabbath rest is to establish the true inner rest that we all need and that is only found in the person of Jesus Christ. And lastly, we will look at some practical ways that we may practice sabbath rest and establish healthy rhythms.

In seeking assurance for God's ongoing presence with Israel, Moses makes his most audacious request yet: he asks to behold God's glory. While an unfiltered view of God's glory would prove to be too overwhelming, God makes arrangements for Moses to get a real but partial view of His glory. When the day comes for God's glory to be revealed, Moses gets a surprising revelation. Instead of displaying power or wealth, God reveals His glory through displaying His goodness. And ultimately, we see the clearest revelation of God's glorious goodness in Jesus Christ. Keeping our eyes set on God's glorious goodness is so important because it grounds us and guides us as we make our way through the wilderness of life on our way home to our true Promised Land.

After the Israelites set up the golden cow and break covenant with God, they are in need of reconciliation with God. God threatens to not move ahead with them to the Promised Land, which would be disastrous for the people. Moses steps in as a mediator and offers himself as a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of the people. While God does not accept Moses' offer, God relents from bringing disaster upon the people for their idolatry. By sheer grace, God renews covenant with his people. In all this, we see a foreshadowing of Jesus, our Greater Mediator, who offered himself up as a substitutionary sacrifice to secure reconciliation between us and God.

While Moses is meeting with God on Mt. Sinai, the people get antsy waiting for Moses and decide to build an idol for themselves. They break their covenantal vows and set up a golden cow. Through this incident, we learn some important truths about idolatry. We see that the allure of idolatry is the offer of mastery over life. The anatomy of idolatry is a stubborn refusal to submit to God. And the aftermath of idolatry is broken relationship with God and with others. As such, we must see our idols, confess our idols, and replace our idols.

After laying out all the details and instructions for the tabernacle and priesthood, God empowers and stirs his people to provide funds, materials, and skills to construct the tabernacle. We see all the different members of the community coming together to serve each in their own unique way and to give generously. As a people of God today, we are also called as the body of Christ to have each part contributing in anointed serving as well as meeting the needs of one another through joyful generosity.

God provides further instructions regarding the priesthood. Through these instructions we learn that Israel's high priest was to make atonement for sins, make known God's will, and make intercession through prayer. Under the new covenant, Jesus ultimately fulfills those priestly roles as our Great High Priest. As such, we can draw near to God with confidence and serve as a royal priesthood.

After confirming covenant with the people, God has Moses come back up Mt. Sinai. For the next 40 days, God provides detailed instructions regarding two very important things for Israel to establish moving forward: the Tabernacle and the priesthood. The Tabernacle was a tent that housed God's presence to dwell among the people. Through the instructions that are given regarding the Tabernacle, we learn some important theological truths: God desires to dwell with His people, God's presence requires holiness, and God's plan is to restore creation. Ultimately, Jesus is the True Tabernacle through whom God dwells with His people, provides holiness for access, and secures redemption for all creation.

God confirms covenant with His people as the book of the covenant is read, the blood of the covenant is sprinkled, and the bread of the covenant is eaten. Through this covenant confirmation ceremony, we see parallels for how we ourselves confirm our covenant with God in Christ. We confirm our covenant as we submit to God's instructions, rest in God's atonement, and enjoy fellowship in God's presence. As such, when we gather together for our Sunday worship services, we are in a very real sense renewing our covenant with God. Week after week, we confirm that He is our God and that we are His people.

After God provides the various case laws and applications, God promises his people the blessings that will come with faithfulness. God promises his people his own presence and guidance, a future home, victory over enemies, and prosperity to thrive. And the wonderful truth is that God provides and promises these things for us under the New Covenant as well but to a greater and more glorious degree. But to truly enjoy and thrive in these promises of God, we must cast off every compromise and idol and remain faithful to God alone.

God provides Israel a series of illustrative case laws to help them pursue justice in the contexts of everyday life. While these regulations are given to Israel under a particular covenant in a particular place during a particular time, we can still draw out some important principles that shed light on how we are to pursue justice in our own contexts. We learn from the "Book of the Covenant" that our pursuit of justice must build on the foundation of God's justice, recognize the dignity of each person, uphold the importance of fair restitution, and show special care and concern for the vulnerable.

This second half of the Ten Commandments can be summarized as a call to love your neighbor. God is pursuing communal formation in providing instructions on how to rightly relate to our horizontal relationships. More than seeking to provide a detailed list of rules to follow, God is aiming to form a people who are marked by humility, forgiveness, purity, generosity, truthfulness, and satisfaction.

God gives his people the 10 commandments and we will look at the first four. These four commandments describe the vertical relationship between God and His people. There must be no other gods than Yahweh, and we must worship and honor him supremely. Our vertical relationship with God then forms the basis and foundation for all our horizontal relationship and with life itself.

The Israelites finally arrive at Mt. Sinai where they meet with God in order to be officially established as a nation. But as God descends on Mt. Sinai to renew covenant with His people, His presence proves to be dangerous. The only way for God's people to draw near to the dangerous God is through a mediator who provides consecration.

Before the Israelites arrive at Mt. Sinai, where they will enter into a covenant with God and be officially inaugurated as a nation, Moses' father-in-law visits Moses. In this seemingly random story, we gain important insights into the mission of God's people. The mission of God’s people is to make God known through the ministries of evangelism and discipleship. We are to make God known as we tell others about God's salvation and as we help others to grow in God's instructions.

As the Israelites continue to make their way through the Wilderness, they are attacked by the Amalekites and for the first time, they have to engage in military battle. As Moses lifts up his hands in prayer, the Israelites defeat the Amalekites because the battle belongs to the Lord. Likewise for us, we too face battles, but our battles are in the realm of spiritual warfare. We can experience victory through God's mighty power as we touch his throne through prayer.

After experiencing God's amazing work of salvation through the crossing of the Red Sea and with pharaoh and Egypt now behind them, the Israelites might have expected a smooth journey to the Promised Land. But God tests His people by bringing them into various challenging situations. However, this testing is not for their salvation, rather it is for their sanctification. God puts His people to the test in order to mature them by growing their knowledge of His character and deepening their experience of His grace.

As the Israelites have been safely delivered across the Red Sea and saw their old masters in the waters behind them, they break out into song and worship. As they have just experienced salvation, we now see them celebrate salvation. Much in the same way it was for the Israelites, song and worship is a pivotal part of the lives of God's people as we declare and remember God's victory and deliverance with awe and joy.

After leading the people out of Egypt, God carries out his final act of deliverance to free the Israelites from Egypt: the parting of the Red Sea. Through this passage, we see the Israelites experience salvation in the face of death as they are pursued by pharaoh, by placing their faith in God, through the help of Moses as a mediator. And likewise for us, we experience salvation when we come to the end of ourselves as we put our trust in God through the mediating ministry of Jesus.