Covenant Love

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.

God's kindness toward us was never approval of our sin, but the very thing meant to turn our hearts toward Him. When we extend that same undeserved, covenant kindness to people the world has written off, we become part of how God restores their sense of worth and draws them back to Himself.