Rewind — the teaching platform built on your church’s own preaching

The big idea

Our lives are shaped by the God we believe in.

Kicking off the Essentials series, Pastor Hunter Jones preaches from Exodus 34, where God reveals His own name and character to Moses after Israel had distorted Him into a golden calf. The sermon argues that the smallest distortion in our view of God leads to major distortions in how we live, so we must let God define Himself rather than shaping Him into a comfortable idol. God reveals Himself as the self-existent "I Am," triune, overflowing in chesed (loyal, covenant) love, and perfectly just. Rightly seeing God produces the same response Moses had: falling down in humble, overwhelmed worship.

What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you

— Pastor Hunter Jones

A story from life

Childhood story of taking Catholic communion by mistake and the family disagreement that followed

Point 1 of 7

What we believe about God is the most important thing about us, because our lives are shaped by the God we believe in.

Point 2 of 7

God is not left for us to guess about; He reveals Himself, and Exodus 34 functions as the Old Testament's 'John 3:16' of who God is.

Point 3 of 7

God calls Himself Yahweh, 'I Am' — the eternal, uncreated, self-existent Creator who holds all things together, and who exists as one God in three persons (the Trinity).

Related passage

Point 4 of 7

Because God is the great 'I Am,' we are not — meaning we don't have to control everything, earn our own value, or earn our own love; we can surrender to Him.

if God is the I am, that makes me I am not

— Pastor Hunter Jones

A story from life

A barbershop conversation with a Muslim barber about the word 'Allah' versus the Christian understanding of God

Point 5 of 7

God reveals Himself as compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, and full of chesed — an unbreakable, generous, covenant-based, overflowing love that is not conditional on our performance.

That's the father's chesed love

— Pastor Hunter Jones

A story from life

Story about the birth and early life of the preacher's daughter, Jojo, used to picture God's chesed love

Point 6 of 7

God is also just — He does not excuse guilt or let cycles of sin and hurt go unaddressed forever; He will make all things right.

He is holistically and completely and always just

— Pastor Hunter Jones

A story from life

Childhood story of being kicked by his younger brother Jack during a trampoline game, and his parents' response

Point 7 of 7

When Moses truly saw God for who He is, his only response was to immediately fall down and worship; an accurate view of God always leads to humble worship, not a comfortable, self-made image of Him.

Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshipped

— Pastor Hunter Jones

Illustration

Story of astronaut Edgar Mitchell's experience seeing the universe from space and how it changed his understanding of creation

Take it into your week

Application

Pastor Hunter calls the church to stop settling for a comfortable, self-made picture of God — like Israel's golden calf — and instead let God reveal His true self: the great "I Am," fully loving, and fully just. For those who feel God's love is conditional on their performance, he urges them to run toward God in repentance rather than pulling away in shame, trusting His chesed love. For those carrying unaddressed hurt, he calls them to release the need for immediate justice, forgive, and trust God as the ultimate judge who will make all things right. Above all, he invites the congregation to move from merely knowing facts about God to truly encountering Him, since a real encounter with who God is will reshape a life far more than head knowledge alone, and that transformation is meant to overflow into how we love and treat others.

Keep going

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