Welcome to Cornerstone Online!

• We are a community of people experiencing God and connecting with one another like never before in history. Introduce yourself in the chat and let us know where you are joining in from!

Next Steps💪

• Connect with us! If today is your first time joining us or if you have never connected before, you are a VIP! Just click HERE!
• Follow us on Facebook

That Old Familiar Feeling

We all love familiar things

• Favorite chair
• Pair of jeans
• Or restaurant
• Old Song

We are DRAWN (pulled) to familiar things

• Makes us feel safe
• Makes us feel at peace
• Makes us feel comfortable

Mentally and Spiritually we are also drawn to familiar things:

• Way of thinking
• Old Habits
• Style of worship
• Favorite Bible translation
• etc

But there is a DARK SIDE to our desire for familiar things

• Things that we are used to

Familiar destructive: (Over and over)

• Bad Habits
• Unhealthy Relationships/People
• Destructive Thought Patterns
• Poor Choices/decisions

Let’s look at a story about the power “Familiar” can have over us

We start in Exodus:

• People of Israel have been freed from 400 years of slavery in Egypt
• They take riches with them as they leave
• They cross the red sea
• God sends them Mana, quail, and water from a rock as they travel
• They get to Mount Sinai

Moses goes us the mountain to meet with God

• God gives him the 10 Commandments and the rest of the law

Exodus 32

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”

2 Aaron replied to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf.

Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

Why did the people choose this symbol as the “Gods who brought you out of Egypt? The answer was partly a matter of the strong attractions of idolatry, partly a matter of the absence of Moses, who was so closely associated with Yahweh’s presence, partly a matter of the passage of time during which the obvious presence of Yahweh in the pillar of cloud and fire was lacking, partly a matter of the attractiveness of the idea of a syncretism of Yahwism with the Egyptian bull cult, but mostly a matter of something that continues to plague even Christian people today: an inability to see that the spiritual world is primary to and in control of the physical and visible world. In order to help his people understand the truth, Yahweh insisted on being believed in rather than being seen. It was so much easier to believe in something that could actually be seen. The Israelites were powerfully attracted to the latter option.

They chose what was… FAMILIAR

Really today is about Idolatry

• Often think of statues and people bowing down to them

BIG QUESTION:

What are your FAMILIAR IDOLS?

Idol – Anything you elevate above God or give to God’s rightful place in your life

People of Israel decide question when Moses will return

• Force Aaron to build a Golden Image of a

Where are they?

• In a new place
• They were bored
• They are looking for something familiar

They chose something they knew well

• The pagan Egyptian gods

If find it interesting, that they decided to believe that the Gods of the people who had kept them in slavery for 400 years, would be the God that randomly decided to free them

• Double down on a bad idea

Familiar idols don’t free us — Never have, Never will

• They keep us in familiar patterns and bondage

IMPORTANT TO KNOW

We think we want freedom in our lives, but we will often choose to live in the same bondage we are currently in because it is familiar.

The fear of the unknown is more terrifying than the mess we are currently in

At least I’m familiar with this mess, I don’t know what is over there?

It is easy to look at a story like this and say, “Those foolish people. If God had done _______ like that for me, I would never choose something else over him…

• Oh yes, we would.
• We do ALL THE TIME

They were not abandoning God, they just wanted him to be in a form that they were used to

• Something familiar

We do this all the time:

• We place something familiar that we think will give us the FEELING that we desire

We’re not worshiping golden cows or statues

• Our Idolatry is much more subtle

Relationships:

• Keep running back to or choose the same type of person
• Fear of being alone

Idol way be

• Desire to be wanted
• Never to be Alone

Popularity:

Idols may be:

• The desire for worth and to be known

Power:

Idol may be:

• Security
• Safety
• Control

Many of us claim to only follow ONE God, but actually depend on all these FAMILIAR little Idols to give us what ONLY God can

Only God can give your true security

• Not money/wealth
• Not Power/Force

Only God really Knows you

• No other intimacy will suffice

Only God will never abandon you

Only God can give you peace

Only God can give you wisdom

• Not this world

Only God can give you satisfaction

• Not Lust

What “Familiar Idol” do you keep running back to?

What Feeling does it give you that you desire so much?
What has it actually given you so far?

What will your future look like if you continue to cling to it?

Challenge:

To take the chance with God

• Let him lead you into UNFAMILIAR places
• Let Him teach you UNFAMILIAR things
• Let Him show you how to love UNFAMILIAR people

In this, you will live an extraordinary life

Isaiah 41:10

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.