Good morning! It’s good to see you, first through fifth graders. I personally love that you’re here with us; you bring a kind of energy and flexibility that I truly appreciate. I’m excited for the picnic afterward. When I woke up this morning, it was 46 degrees, and I thought, «This is a great day to get in a dunk tank!» I checked the weather, and sure enough, my scheduled slot is going to be 67 and breezy. I’m guessing we’re getting that water from a hose, which means I’ll bring a sweater to the family picnic. I’m excited to be with you guys this afternoon. First through fifth graders, I know that for the last several months you have been learning about the way Jesus lived and how you might walk as Jesus walked. While you have been learning that, your parents or whoever you come to church with have been in here with me, and we’ve been talking about the presence and power of God in our lives based on the book of Exodus. So we’re going to dive right into that book yet again today with you all. I’ve got two things I want to share, and I know you can handle this, so hang in there with me. Two things—that’s all we’re covering! Your parents could let you know that I could take those two points and stretch them into an hour and a half, but we’re not doing that today. Here are the two things, and I want you to say them back to me. The first is this: God is glorious. God is glorious. And the second thing is: God is merciful. God is merciful. Okay, so that’s the agenda for today—God is glorious, God is merciful. Let me catch you up on where we are in the story. God has gifted His people, without any act of their own, with His presence and His power. Yet God’s people, just like us, have turned their backs on that and pursued life according to their own rules and ways. This has made God angry; in fact, the term the Bible uses is wrath. God is full of wrath towards our sin. So, look right at me: God hates sin. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how big or small the sin is—God hates all of it. All sin is rebellion against what He has for His children, which is His presence and His power. In our story, Moses has gone back up that little scary mountain we just saw to try to atone for the sin, to make things right between God and His people. That’s where we pick up the story in Exodus 33. If you have a Bible, grab that. If you don’t, there should be a hardback black one somewhere around you. Kids, there’s a page number on here if you’re not quite sure how the Bible works. The big number is the chapter, and the little number is the verse. We’re in big number 33, small number one. Now, let’s dive into these six verses. And the Lord said to Moses, «Depart! Go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your offspring, 'I will give it.' And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out your enemies, the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.» Listen to this: When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments, for the Lord had said to Moses, «Say to the people of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I may know what to do with you.’» Therefore, the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. Now let me tell you what I think you’re seeing here: You’re seeing the glory of God. When I say the glory of God, I mean the worth and value of God. Here’s what God just said: «I’m going to give you what you want. I’m going to make your dreams come true. I will drive out your enemies, so you have no enemies. I will give you wealth and comfort—all that your heart desires. But you don’t get me.» The people thought this was a disastrous word, and they mourned. When God said, «That’s what you want? I’ll give it to you—drive out your enemies, grant you great wealth, and make you comfortable, but you don’t get me,» the people mourned as their hearts broke. They took off their ornaments, they fell to the ground, and they wept. What we’re seeing here is a picture of the glory of God. In verses 7 through 11, we won’t be able to walk through all of this, but in verses 7 through 11, it’s kind of a throwback to the presence of God being among them. In verses 7-11, we read that Moses would go…
