To Whom Are You Listening?

This is a sermon that is based on the narrative of the Israelites camped at Sinai waiting on Moses who was on the mountain getting the Law from God. It emphasizes the importance of discriminating the sources from which we get our information and inspiration.

Scripture: Exodus 19:1-8; Exodus 24:1-12; Exodus 32:1-6

Introduction: I have a sermon I have preached in the past titled, “The Way of Life and the Way of Death.” The message is about choices, and I talk about how choices have consequences and those choices determine our destiny.

I briefly mentioned the fact that one’s choices will be determined by his or her heart affections and value system.

This message is somewhat related to the topic, because it speaks of the influences which shape our affections and values, which will ultimately affect our choices and decisions.

I’m sure that most of us are aware of this already, but it is a fact that our affections, values and principles for making choices will largely come from what we feed into our minds. Thus, the question of this message, “To whom are you listening?”

Perhaps more than any other time in history, there are more and more “voices” clamoring for our attention. We have an abundance of input available today.

We are told over and over that we are living in the “information age.” We’ve all learned about the “Stone Age;” “Agricultural Age;” and “Industrial Age”. Now, we are living in the era of information.

Through the massive amount of information that is available, we all have more and more sources of influence than ever before. If I am not “tuned in” to the right information, then it is highly probable that I will not make the right kind of choices.

Our Scripture lesson today is a contrast between two individuals (Moses and Aaron), and two kinds of people (Israelites when they were listening to God, and then when they were listening to other people). The passages describe the choices they made based upon the information they received. It all boiled down to whom they were listening.

I want to give some observations about these two men and two groups and make spiritual applications for us today.

I.    The Contrast between Moses and Aaron

A. Moses had been listening to God, while Aaron had been listening to the people.

Look at all the times between chapter 19 and 32 where it says “The Lord spake unto Moses.” (Exodus 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22; 31:1, 12) There are plenty of other phrases or words used in these chapters that also mean that God was speaking to Moses and he was listening to the Lord.

On the other hand, observe who Aaron had been listening to…

Ex. 24:14 “And he [i.e. Moses] said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.”

Ex. 32:1 “And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we [know] not what is become of him.”

Ex. 32:22-23 [Aaron said to Moses] “…thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we [know] not what is become of him.”

B. Moses had been listening to God’s revelation of righteousness, holiness and morality, while Aaron had been listening to the people’s doubts, complaints and demands.

Moses had been getting a revelation of the Divine Majesty. Aaron had been “wallowing” in the common and mundane.

Moses had been receiving all the instructions about the proper ways to worship God and offer sacrifices, while Aaron had been dealing with the everyday affairs of the people.

I’m not saying that Aaron had no business doing what he was doing. The everyday affairs of life are clearly necessary to address. What I am saying is that while a person is preoccupied with the mundane affairs of life and fulfilling all of his responsibilities, there must be time allotted to get away from the mundane and feed our minds on the eternal and the divine.

The end result was:

C. Moses was able to take a stand without compromise for the standards of a holy God, while Aaron caved in to the whims and desires of a degenerate people.

You and I need to have connections to the Divine in order to escape the errors and values of this world. We need to have frequent visitations from on high in order to avoid the pitfalls and traps of a godless society around us.

These connections and visitations must be more than mere emotional experiences, but they must be divinely anointed revelations of God’s holy truth. That is, principles and values that are firmly rooted in the His Word.

What was true with Moses and Aaron was also true with the people.

II.  The Contrast between Those Who Obeyed and Those Who Strayed

The people themselves were making different choices when they were listening to God rather than listening to one another.

Here are a couple of examples in Scripture when the people were listening to the word of God through his servant Moses.

Ex. 19:8 “And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.”

Ex. 20:19 “And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

While they were listening to God, they were committed to following and obeying His commands.

I think we could compare that with our experience of hearing a sermon at church or on the radio or TV and finding ourselves convinced by the message and making some promises or commitments to make some changes in our lives, but when we get away from the godly input and began to think about or discuss it from a more humanistic point of view, we tend to reject our earlier promises and continue on with the status quo.

Ex. 32:1 “…as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we [know] not what is become of him.”

I don’t think I’m doing any injustice to the meaning of this passage by suggesting that the verse implies the people had been discussing among themselves what might have happened to Moses. Their imaginations had run wild and they had drawn their own conclusions based on their earthly, worldly reasoning.

As a result, they make some decisions that they would have never made just a short time earlier when Moses was communicating God’s commands to them.

Now I’m not suggesting that you and I wouldn’t have drawn the same conclusions they did. When you read the descriptions of the events taking place up on the mountain, we would also probably draw the conclusion that Moses was history. So it truly emphasizes the fact that sometimes things are not as they appear to be.

And, if we remain true to the Word of God regardless of how things appear, we’ll be a whole lot better off in the end.

III.   Principles that summarize this lesson.

A. Those who listen to God have purpose and direction.

There are people who don’t care about God who still have a purpose for life and they have direction. But their purpose and direction are completely and solely invested in this world and this earthly life.

They have no hope for the next life because they haven’t lived for that purpose.

Those who are living with a purpose and a direction toward the afterlife in heaven are people who actively seek God’s guidance and the listen to His Word.

B. Those who listen to God have resolve and commitment.

In order to have the resolve and commitment to keep doing what is right in spite of what everyone else does, we must listen to God. We must understand the basic principles of salvation and how it affects our choices and daily actions, and then be committed to living them out every day.

C. Those who listen to God have strength to keep going on.

There were many times that Moses felt like giving up. But through his direct communication with God and understanding of God’s will and God’s promises, he was able to keep going on.

Conclusion:    Imagine the difference between Moses and Aaron and the inspiration they each received from their respective sources of input.

Moses had primarily seen the glory, majesty and awesome splendor of God.

Aaron had primarily seen criticism, fault-finding, complaining, etc., etc.

My challenge to each of us is to take whatever measures are necessary to receive godly, wholesome, and righteous input into our minds in order to shape our principles and values.

We need more than a daily Scripture promise to offset the influences of the world. There are plenty of good godly influences that we can participate in such as: prayer meetings, Bible studies, reading good spiritual books that challenge our status quo, and even making an effort to attend revival services and other special services that promote godliness and spiritual life.

We cannot feed our minds on a steady diet from Hollywood or the Washington beltway and then expect to have the kind of righteous and godly lives like Moses demonstrated in contrast to his brother Aaron.

We cannot fill our minds and hearts with the temporal trash of this world, no matter what form of media is used, and then expect to live above the norm of our culture and society.

The more we read and watch situations where righteousness and holiness are ridiculed and misrepresented, the more likely we are to develop a critical and skeptical view of morals and principles that the Bible clearly promotes.

The more we consume entertainment in music and movies that promote promiscuity and loose morals, the more likely it is that our own standards of righteousness and holiness will be compromised.

Let’s purpose to be selective and disciplined regarding the kind of information we are feeding into our minds so that we can be people of God who are faithfully committed to Him regardless of the conditions around us.

Let’s close the service this morning with a song that is a prayer for God to open our eyes, our ears, and heart to serve Him appropriately.

Closing Song: Open My Eyes that I May See