Immanuel or God in our midst

I am posting my notes on Pastor Mike’s teaching from Sunday, April 30th. These are MY notes. Not a transcript. Not his notes. Any misquotes, mistakes, or mystifications are my fault (or something like that). All verses are from NASB 1995.

Both Tom and Mike spoke this morning. Mike spoke first on Exodus 32:1. He was responding to a word from the Lord through Barth about rejecting our idols.

Then Tom picked up his idea and wove it into what he has been doing with grace.

Mike:

Exodus 32:1. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Immanuel - “God with us.” We were created to want God in our midst. Israel wanted God in their midst, but Moses was up on the mountain. They had lost God’s spokesman in their midst.

They were in despair. Their lack of God commanded their attention. The thing that commands attention in us is an idol or it is the Lord.

We can have God in our midst when we do what we do: job, dishes, school, driving, tests, etc. Or we can let whatever it is command our attention and he happy or despairing or frustrated by it. And it will be an idol to us.

Immanuel or an idol?