Exodus - Show Me Your Glory
Heavenly Father, so thankful for just this church or this community. Lord, I pray that as we listen and look at your word this morning, that we would be both attentive in our hearts and minds. Lord, I pray most of all that your Holy Spirit would be active in its preaching, that you would soften our hearts, open our ears, and Lord, that you would help us to behold you more clearly. Lord, I pray that you would be with pastor Cameron, that he would be submissive to your spirit in the preaching of your word. In Jesus name, we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. Good morning, friends. How are you this morning? Good to see you. Before we go into the last, yeah, this is the last sermon in Exodus.
Speaker 1:It is a moment. I look back in our calendar to see when we first when we started preaching it. It was way back in on May 4 is when we started. Here we are, you know, basically basically Christmas. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And and Exodus is over. We're gonna be covering quite a few chapters of Exodus this morning just like pastor Luke has done in the last couple weeks covering big big chunks, but we're gonna close out that book this morning. But before we do before we do, there are a few things that we have to celebrate this morning. Some birthdays in our midst. The first is I know that Larry Barmore had a birthday this past week, so we are gonna sing to him this morning, but he's not the only one.
Speaker 1:Someone actually has a birthday today. Today. So there'll be cake afterwards, and she's gonna give a speech, a birthday speech. Just kidding. No.
Speaker 1:Today is Leanna's birthday. So if you don't know Leanna, raise your hands on everyone and see who you are. Leanna's birthday. Make sure that you say happy birthday to Leanna because she loves the public celebration of of her birthday. And we love to walk that razor thin line between public honor and public embarrassment.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of where we are with these things. So let's sing happy birthday. Are there the others that we should be singing to this morning? Anyone else want to? Brent and Danielle both had a birthday last week, whereas Eric is pointing.
Speaker 1:Eric is pointing chair over here. It's another birthday over here. So Brent and Danielle as well. We have quite a few then. Right?
Speaker 1:Alright. Let's say happy birthday. Say happy birthday to the person that's closest to you who has a birthday. So, Ellen, you got Brandt covered up there. Right?
Speaker 1:Okay. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Liana. Happy birthday to you.
Speaker 1:So to Liana, to Shelley, to Larry, to Brent, and Danielle, happy birthday to you. Mhmm. If you open up your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 32, That's where we'll be this morning. Exodus chapter 22 is the story, or the main part of that chapter is the story of the golden calf. I'm not gonna preach on the golden calf this morning, and the reason I'm not is because I preached on that on January 19, and that sermon's online.
Speaker 1:And so if you want to rehear the sermon on the golden calf and the idolatry from that, I want to go back and reference that on our YouTube page or on the podcast, and you can hear that. I wanna start kind of at the end part of chapter 32, right around verse 30, where Moses is reflecting a little bit on what the Israelite people had done and what the next steps were for them. Because it looks like or it feels like in Exodus that the golden calf, the idolatry in the golden calf feels like a breaking point for Moses where he's like, I've kinda had it with these people too. And, Lord, I'm sure that you had it with these people, so I don't really know. It's it's almost like God and Moses have this little private meeting, and they're like, man, what are are we gonna do with them?
Speaker 1:Like, what are we gonna do with these with these people? And so at the end of 32, Moses was kind of reflecting on that. And in verse 30, he he explains that reflection to the people. He says, the next day Moses said to the people, you y'all have committed a great sin, but now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
Speaker 1:So he ends up doing that, and he he he goes up to the to the mountain on the Lord. Verse 31, it says he went back to the Lord and says, oh, what a great sin these people have committed. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now please forgive their sin, but if not, then blot me out of the book that you have written. So in both verses, Moses is standing as a leader of the people, obviously still having a heart and compassion for the people because it's his desire to, in whatever way that he possibly can, to make oh, excuse me.
Speaker 1:To make amends or atonement for the sins of the people before the Lord. And he goes as this leader, this figure to say, Lord, would you would you please bring to them? Would you please forgive them for what they have done? Forgive their sin. If you can't forgive their sin, then then block my name out of the book that you have written.
Speaker 1:So Moses is essentially trying to take the wrath, the judgment that people that is rightly the people's because of their idolatry to these golden images. Now this becomes a common theme, especially when we get into the New Testament. You'll see many times within the New Testament writings, particularly in the epistles, somewhat in the Gospels or in the epistles, the letters, and then in the book of Hebrews, which we have taught through in Bible study here before, where Moses, for a long period of time in the history of the Jewish nation, kind of stood in as almost this savior and messianic figure. And this kind of like foreshadows why they were writing that. Like Moses Moses was wanting to wanting to step in between the wrath and judgment of a God that he was extraordinarily intimate and close with so that so that because of the sins of the Israelite people, they would not be destroyed.
Speaker 1:Now later in the New Testament, have many writers talking about how we have we have a savior, we have a mediator, we have a priest who is greater than Moses, who provides a more perfect sacrifice, who becomes the perfect offering and atonement for sin, primarily when the book of Hebrews talks about talks about Moses' relationship with Jesus. But it's clear that Moses desired in his leadership to be someone who stood in the gap between the the stood in the gap between God and between the people. In God's mercy and in God's grace, in God's goodness, I think she tells Moses, you know, you're you're not you're not gonna do that, or I'm not gonna do that rather, but there will end up being, of course, consequences for their sins. The Lord replied to Moses, whoever sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Now go.
Speaker 1:Lead the people to the place that I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish them, I will punish them for their sin. And in verse 35, we see that he ends up he does punish him for his sin. The Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf that Aaron had made. So we're at this place where they have they have shown the idolatry of their own heart.
Speaker 1:They have taken what the Lord originally gave them for blessing. Do you remember how the golden calf was made? Do we remember that from back in January the golden calf was made? The Israelite people are essentially at that point a nomadic people who have been enslaved for generations. Right?
Speaker 1:So it's not like they had amassed a great bunch of wealth of their own. So where do you even get enough gold to melt down and make an idol? Well, yeah, we saw earlier in the book that the Lord had favorably disposed the Egyptian people to give their riches to the Israelites as they were leaving Egypt. And so what God had intended to be a blessing to the people, the people turned around and used to create an idol out of it. And this is somewhat consistent with the heart of the Israelite people is that they they deeply, deeply, deeply desired the things of God, the rewards of God, the blessing of God, but were not so clear as to whether or not they wanted the lordship of God, whether they wanted the worship of God, whether they wanted their lives to reflect a full consecration of their being to him.
Speaker 1:We want God to show up on our behalf. We want God to do great things. We want God to bless us. We want God to save us. We want God to free us.
Speaker 1:Not so sure that we want the God of glory himself It's for a God made of our own hand. This is a consistent theme in Israel history, not just in Exodus throughout the rest of history and is really the the crux of how we're gonna close the book this morning. So after all of this, we get into Exodus 33, and it's like, well, okay. What's next? They've been punished for their sin.
Speaker 1:And what what's gonna happen with the people next? What's gonna happen with the relationship between God and the Israelites? The Lord said to Moses this is Exodus 33 verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, leave this place, the place which they were at, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt and go to the land that I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. So what are you saying?
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay. We're done at the mountain. Now I want you to go back on the road, and I want you to go to the place that I promised that I would give you that I promised that I would give your the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Go head on the road, and he says, I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Verse three, go up to the land flowing with milk and honey.
Speaker 1:And it says this, but I will not be going with you. I'm not going. I'm sending you. Mean, I'm sending an angel to drive out the pagan people that are there now, but you're going alone. Not going I'm not going with you because you are a disconnected people, and I might destroy you on the way.
Speaker 1:So God was like, God, I think we're done here. I think we're done here. You are a stiff necked people, and I might destroy you on the way. What what did God essentially say here in this moment? You know, we started out our calendar year here at Conduit with the theme of pursuing the face of God through prayer and Sabbath.
Speaker 1:We wanna seek the face of God through these really particular these particularly two things this year. And we get a lot of time unpacking what it means to seek the face of God, because it's not something that we often talk about in, like, common language. What does it actually mean to seek someone's face? Seeking someone's like, seeking someone's face is a way of saying that we seek them as they are, like their actual character, their actual nature, their actual personhood, who they we seek after them. We want them.
Speaker 1:We don't want the things of them. We don't want the blessings of them. No. We want we want them. Right?
Speaker 1:It's like people, you know, somewhat, like, they're asked about I think of this the way that I have to think about this is is I think about seeking someone's space and what that means. I think about it in, like, relationship with my wife. K? Like, the life that we have built together, children that we have, the home that we're that we live in, everything that God has blessed us with, like being married for twenty one years, like all of that is, like, that's in some ways, that's just stuff because, listen, I would live in a cardboard box with Sherry with nothing. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Right? Because I'm not seeking the benefit of marriage. I'm seeking the like, I want the person herself. It's her. Doesn't matter what it perceived as a blessing or what it perceived as like the good things.
Speaker 1:One of the good things is her. And that's what it means to seek the face of God. We also have phrase like, phrases in scripture about seeking the hand of God. You ever heard that? Right?
Speaker 1:We seek God's hand. And to seek God's hand is to seek the things of God that he actually does on our behalf or that he gives to us. So this would these are listen. What I wanna what I wanna be really clear about is, like, it's not wrong to cease the hand of God, to ask for the hand of God, to need the hand of God. Not wrong to ask God to show up on our behalf, to bless us, to heal us, to help us, to save us, to protect us, to advocate for us, to fight for us, to provide for us.
Speaker 1:We need God's hand. Right? But what we need more than what comes from God's hands is that we need this God himself. God himself. God in his God in who he God in his glory.
Speaker 1:God God in his awe. God God in his God in his majesty, not the warm, fuzzy feeling that God gives us, not the way in which God provides for us, not the assurance of God's provision or protection or blessing, but, no, God Himself. His very presence, the the presence of His glory among us. What God tells Moses here in Exodus 33, he was like what he says was like, listen. I'm going to give you my hands.
Speaker 1:You're just not gonna get my faith anymore. He says to them, I'm I'm sending angel to go before you and lead you. They're gonna drive like, you're still going to the place that I promised to give you as a blessing and a gift. I'm giving it to you. And I I'm not even gonna send you alone.
Speaker 1:I'm sending an angel in front of you that are gonna drive out all the pagan people that are there. It's gonna be it's gonna be yours. I'm just not going with you. Me. My presence, my glory, my character, my nature, the thing that has sustained you in the wilderness so far.
Speaker 1:Pillar of fire, the dense fog and cloud. I'm I'm not going, but don't worry. You'll have everything that you need. I will make sure that you are blessed. My power, but not my present.
Speaker 1:My gift, but not myself. Now I had to as I was reading this and rereading this this week, I had to do a little bit of, like, a double take in my own heart about how I honestly would feel if God were to say something similar to me. Cameron, I'm gonna I'm gonna the church that you pastor, I'm gonna bless it. It's gonna grow. It's gonna multiply.
Speaker 1:You're gonna, like, you're gonna see amazing, amazing things happen there. Your family, they're all gonna be healthy. Your your personal life, you're you're gonna stay in good health, like, gonna bless you financially. Your house is just gonna automatically remodel itself someday. You know?
Speaker 1:Like, all of it. Yes. Right? We're gonna give you like, don't don't worry, Cameron. Gonna bless you and bless you and bless you and bless you.
Speaker 1:But I'm gonna I'm, like, pulling my present, my, like, my actual presence in your life. I'm I'm gonna come step in. You're gonna have you're gonna still have everything that you need, but I'm but I'm pulling every I'm pulling myself out. I asked myself the question. Would that be okay with me?
Speaker 1:Because what it does is it it it begins to it begins to to get to the roots of why we are in relationship with God. It begins to get to the root of why we're here this morning. It begins to get to the root of why why why am I seeking faith? Why am I seeking Jesus? Why am I seeking a relationship with the Lord?
Speaker 1:Why am I building trying to build community with others who are here? The question of if you could have all of the blessing that came from God but not have God himself, would you say, okay. Yeah. I'll take the blessing. I don't I don't need the God himself as long as I get the things that I'm asking him to do in my life.
Speaker 1:That is a lot of question that we if you've never asked yourself, you need to ask now. If nothing if if if you received nothing else from the hand of God from the rest of your life, would his presence be enough for you? Would His glory sustain you? Would you still be in awe of His majesty and wonder, driven to a place consistently of worship of the one who says I am? Because this is what God offers Moses.
Speaker 1:This is what God offered the Israelites. This is the ultimate question. And so imagine you gotta try and imagine like, okay. Well, if God is offering this, how did the people respond? What was their response?
Speaker 1:And for all of the things that Israel got wrong up until this point, they got this one right. It says they were like basically, the way in which it reads is that they were completely undone with this prospect. And they when they heard it, the people it says in verse four of Exodus 33, when the people heard these distressing words, they begin to they begin to mourn, and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, tell the Israelites, you were schizophrenic people. If I were to go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you.
Speaker 1:Now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you. The 30 Israelites stripped off an ornament that mount for him. Stripping off ornaments is like or similar to like where you read in the New Testament where people who were in mourning would tear their clothes and put ashes on their head. They would wear sackcloth and ashes. It was a sign of mourning.
Speaker 1:No adornment of their body. No beauty of their body. Get low. Get humble. Change your heart.
Speaker 1:Change your posture. Change your demeanor. We have sinned against the Lord, and we are in distress. It seems as though that even in their perpetual unfaithfulness and doubt, the Israelites had developed an understanding that it was God's presence above all else that really matters, not just his gifts, not just what he can offer, not just what he does in our lives. Church, I wanna tell you that as as the pastor here, my heart's desire is to build a people here that desire his presence.
Speaker 1:His presence. Where where nothing else matters to us than the presence of God in our building burns down on a Saturday morning? Yeah. His presence is still here. We'll meet in the tent in the front yard.
Speaker 1:Don't have money in the new ministry? It doesn't matter. We have His presence. Right? Things are not as they should be or we want them to be or we hope they will be or pray that they doesn't we have His presence.
Speaker 1:Where can we go from your presence? The scripture says, we're under the depth. You are there. Go down to the high go to the highest mountain tops. You're there too.
Speaker 1:Go as far to the East as we can go or as far to the West as we go there, we cannot see through presence either. I desire that we are to be a people after the presence of God, where the prospect of His presence being removed from us is the most here as a people would be the most disastrous news that we could receive as a church. When God's presence is not here, there's no point. So there's no point if we gotta get it right with his presence. You go down into the in the next couple verses, verses seven through 11.
Speaker 1:And you you see here a little a little blip in the a little, like, a a little it's almost like a parenthesis, a bunch of a bunch of parenthesis versus year seven through 11. Almost like, why is this here? But it describes some place called the tenth of meeting, which if I would have to put that in, like, if I had to put that in, like, kind of contemporary vocabulary views here before, this was like Moses' secret place with God. Remember when we preached on prayer earlier in the year and we preached about the secret place, the place of intimacy with the Lord, the place of the place of consecration to the Lord, the place where I go and is the Lord and I, me and the Lord only. Like, the tent of meeting was a place it was like everyone knew what was going on in there, but it was a place where Moses went to encounter the presence of God.
Speaker 1:It says, now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the tent of meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrance to their tent, watching Moses until he entered. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance. While the Lord's hope was Moses.
Speaker 1:Whenever ever the people saw the pillar of God standing at the entrance of the tent, they stood and worshiped, each at an entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave it. Verse 12. Moses said to the Lord, you have been telling me to lead these people, but you have not let me know who let me know who you will send with me.
Speaker 1:You have said, I know you by name, and you'll find favor with me. If you are, please with me. Teach me your way so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. So, like, listen.
Speaker 1:It feels a little bit to me like Moses has connection and conversation with God. Correct? In verse twelve and thirteen, you see Moses being like, you've told me to go, but you haven't told me who is gonna be leading or gonna be helping. Also, remember when you said that you weren't gonna go with us, I wanna remind you that you said that these are your people. Now I don't know about your prayer life.
Speaker 1:I don't know about the way that you talk to God. I've got I'm not on this level. Alright? I haven't gotten to the wanna be, hope to be, not not on the level of being like, oh, God, remember your promise. What's up, bro?
Speaker 1:Remember the promise? And I'm sure it's not, like, as facetious as I'm making a sound. Right? But, like, are you gonna I know, okay, you're sending us away. Are you sending anyone to help me lead?
Speaker 1:And, are you gonna keep your promise or not? Remember, this nation is your people. Where did this boldness come from? Where did it where where where does Moses get off talking to the Lord like this? The answer is in the four verses previous in the tent of meeting.
Speaker 1:In the tent of meeting, Moses cultivated the time to be face to face, it says, with God himself as a man is face to face with a friend, as someone who looked intently at their friends face to face and speaks, so it is with Moses and the Lord, the scripture says. Why was Moses able to enter into such bold prayer or conversation with God? And I'm not gonna say that Moses convinced God to keep his promise. Don't really know the dynamic of that. But what I do know is that in that conversation, the Lord comes back to the place of, in verse 14, the Lord replied, my will go with you.
Speaker 1:My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. We know this is not the first time where Moses has been like, alright. Okay. Now you're upset. I'm upset too.
Speaker 1:But these are your people, and what would it what what would the rest of the world and all the other nations of the world say if you just destroyed them now? We know that that Moses had been cultivating such an intimacy with God that he had seemingly the freedom to say things that we think are kinda like super out of pocket that anyone would say you would, like, barely say that to your friend, let alone the God of all the universe. But it it seems like Moses had a friendship with God, that there had a relationship with God that went into the realm of friendship. And I'm over here asking myself the question, do I get that? Friendship with God.
Speaker 1:Now Jesus says in John chapter 15, right, that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we will no longer be called brothers and sisters. We are called his, what, friend. Right? But even there, even in the words of Jesus, he's speaking about the he's speaking about an intensity and the nature of the relationship that goes beyond just a casual, hey. Are you for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning?
Speaker 1:Jesus talks about abiding in him, being connected like a branch connects to a vine, receiving all of life's necessities from the from the from the vine. And I think that God I I think that what happened with God and Moses is that is that Moses was Moses was like, how am I gonna get this friendship with God? I am going to cultivate this friendship in the secret place. In the tent of meeting, what are you gonna get for, guys? Not playing that clock in there, like, face to face with the Lord.
Speaker 1:I am meeting with him. He had to make the tents. He had to build the tent. He had to set it up. He had to carve out the time to go and be there, and then he had to spend the time.
Speaker 1:He had to prepare his own heart, and he had to posture his own soul so that the very glory of God coming down upon him would not crush him underneath the weight of his sin. How do you create friendship with God? The answer is time. It takes time. This is not the answer that we want.
Speaker 1:It's not. I know it's not. I know it's not the answer you want. You want your pastor to show you where in the Bible and you can check this box, that box, and that box, and then all of a sudden, intimacy with you and God, you're like best friend. Doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:Right? How do you create intimacy with a with a spouse? Does it happen quickly? Maybe you don't know. Maybe you don't maybe you're like, someone tell me.
Speaker 1:I've been waiting. Like, need to know how you create intimacy with your spouse. Like, relational intimacy. Okay? Deep it.
Speaker 1:Relation number down. Okay? How do you create relational intimacy with your spouse? Does it take time? Yes.
Speaker 1:It takes time. It it takes time. How is time measured in the development of intimacy? Time is measured in the development of intimacy by two key factors. One is intentionality.
Speaker 1:You have to make the decision to develop intimacy. It does not happen on accident. It does not happen all on its own. Left to our own devices, people naturally drift into selfishness, not selflessness. And so if you think you're gonna just walk in intimate partnership with something else, with someone else, with no intentionality towards yours, like, self emptying on behalf of the other person, you will naturally drift into a place of selfishness, bitterness, and hardheartedness.
Speaker 1:Intimacy takes time. The number ingredient to developing intimacy is that you must be intentional about it. You have to take the time. You have to carve out the time to do it. Moses carved out the time.
Speaker 1:Build the tent. Set it up. Do nothing else with a schedule. Go there. Meet with God.
Speaker 1:He did it. Do you think he did it once? Do you think he did it twice? Three or four times maybe? It wasn't measured listen.
Speaker 1:Moses building intimacy with God was not measured in Dave. It was measured in a generation. Intimacy is built over time, and time requires both intentionality and longevity. Right? You can't be intentional for one day and be like, bought you flowers.
Speaker 1:Three weeks ago. We there yet? Am I right, though? Right? Like, you go to the dentist.
Speaker 1:Right? Say, man, your gums, they're looking bad. When's the last time you flossed? When's the last time I was here? Shoot.
Speaker 1:To build help requires intentionality over a long period of time over and over and over and over over again. It's not a one time thing. It's not a two times thing. A that's measured intimacy is measured in years, not days or week. There is not any difference here between building intimacy with God than it is building intimacy with your spouse other than to say it's easier to build it with God.
Speaker 1:And the reason that it's easier to build it with God is because when we're developing intimacy with a spouse or someone that we love, we are in relationship with another sinful person who hurts us and requires that we like, k. Backing up. Processing this moment, extending mercy and forgiveness, working through it. Okay. We're back again here.
Speaker 1:Here we are. Right? But but but but God is not like us. And and the intimacy that we develop with God is always for God always approaches us with his goodness towards us. Don't always feel very good.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it feels very painful. Sometimes it feels very difficult. Sometimes it feels very trying. Sometimes we're not exactly sure the purpose for the pain that we are experiencing, but we know that in the presence of God, even our pain has a purpose, and we'll build intimacy with him. So Lord obviously replied, verse 14, I'm Yeltai.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go with you. I will give you rest. And then Moses says in verse 15, probably one of my most it's probably been the prayer of my year, to be honest with you. The thing that I've prayed more than anything else in this whole year. Moses said to him, well, good.
Speaker 1:Because if your presence does not go, I don't wanna go. Do not send us do not send us up from here, Lord, if your presence does not go with with us. For your presence is everything. God, your presence is everything to us here in Jamestown. Do not send us down to Brooklyn Square.
Speaker 1:Do not send us in Elkanah kids room. Do not send us out to do the Thanksgiving event. Do not do not send us anywhere, Lord, if you're not going with us. We don't want any we don't wanna do anything, Lord, if you are not there. We don't wanna move without your presence.
Speaker 1:We don't wanna go into blessing without your presence. We don't we don't want the we don't want the abundance of your hand to flow into our life if we can't have your presence, Lord. We are only content, Lord, with your presence. That's all we want. But listen.
Speaker 1:His presence requires something of us. And it's not His presence with us that would you know, it just requires nothing. It requires God's presence with us requires the transformation of our whole identities. Like, forgive the forgive, like, the crudeness of the phrase, but understand it in its raw definition. Okay?
Speaker 1:We are not bastard children of the Lord and our own identity. We don't get to, like, keep half of our identity and what we want to do and what we want to be and what what we think life should be like and our own goals and our own dreams and our own preferences and our own thoughts and our own experience. We don't get to keep all that we want to keep and then just try to attach the identity from the Lord over here. When God adopts us as sons and daughters through faith in Jesus Christ, we are no longer who we were. We are now His in complete consecration to Him.
Speaker 1:And this is one of the reasons that Moses this is one of the re the things that Moses talks to him. He says, Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here, how will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all of the other people on the face of the earth? Moses was like, listen, Lord. It is your presence with us that distinguishes us apart from everyone else on earth.
Speaker 1:How will they know who we are if you don't go with us? How will church, when's the last time we asked ourselves that question? God says, verse 17, alright, I'll I'll do the very thing that you've asked because I am pleased with you and what? And I know you by faith. God's like, the intimacy that was developed between God and Moses was God's answer for why he was gonna go.
Speaker 1:I I will do I will do this. I will do this because I know you by because because you asked it and because I know you by name. Can we change God's mind? I mean, there certainly seems like you can change God's mind. Not because God is fickle in his feelings or doesn't know what he wants to do.
Speaker 1:Right? But, man, listen. There are times where I have made up my mind about something, and I hear the voice of one of my kids. He's like, fuck. Can we and they know how to do they know how to turn it on?
Speaker 1:It's like right? They know. They know. Right? And then they ask me to do something that I already wanted to that I already wanna do, but I'm pretending like I don't wanna do it.
Speaker 1:Right? They go get ice cream. Oh, I don't know. Oh, I already made up my mind that we weren't going to today, but since you asked, Is it am I fickle in my thought? Like, no.
Speaker 1:No. I'm not. But the ones that I love have asked. And because I love them, I will allow my mind to be changed by their request. See, this is not we do we do not serve a rigid God who interacts with us based on the hardness of His sovereignty, but on the openness of his sovereignty inviting us via prayer into intimate relationship with him to say, I will do this because you have asked, and I know you by name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you asked, I love you. I love you. I will do this. I just wanna bring attention to kind of these two to these two major things that Moses said to God on this whole conversation. Because the next thing that he asked is kind of like just goes to show the boldness even more.
Speaker 1:And we're we're almost done here. I'm gonna finish up with this thing, kind of. Verse 17, and then the Lord said to Moses, I'll do the very thing you've asked because I am pleased with you, and I know your name. Then Moses said, okay. I guess I'll ask one more question.
Speaker 1:Now show me your glory. Show me your glory, Lord. When was the last time your intimate conversation with God went something like this? God, I just want you. Show me your glory.
Speaker 1:Because that's essentially what this whole conversation with Moses between Moses and God is like. I don't want your gift. I don't want your blessings. I don't need your protection. Don't send your angels.
Speaker 1:Like, we I don't want God, I just want you. Fill me your glory. This is the prayer. These are the prayers. These are the statements of a man who knows the gods he worships.
Speaker 1:But he is satisfied with nothing else other than his presence and his glory in his life. Moses had literally seen it all. The burning bush, the miracles and the plagues, the staff being some, like, magic wands. Right? The parting of the Red Sea, the manna, the quail, the water from the rock, victory over the Amalekites, the the the the cloud of glory, the pillar of fire of God's presence.
Speaker 1:Right? The 10 commit. Moses, he the who's who of seeing God's manifest presence on display, literally. And in the end, probably two of the most powerful things that he said pointed to what he realized is at the center of them all in all, God himself. But, yeah, red feet, great.
Speaker 1:Burning bush, great. Plague, fine. I want you, Lord, and I wanna see your glory. It wasn't the gifts of God or even the works or miracles of God. It was God Himself that Moses wanted.
Speaker 1:Moses just wanted to see His glory, to experience His presence, to know Him in the innermost place. And maybe that's where you or we really find ourselves this morning with a little bit of stagnancy in our heart or stagnancy in our faith. Because we've been asking God much different for much different things than Moses asked. Now, again, it's not wrong to ask for the blessing, the provision, the protection, the healing. God loves us as his children.
Speaker 1:He's his heart is moved by those things, he responds. Right? Listen, but when we have built a relationship with God upon seeking only His hand and never His face, you will never experience the intimacy that He designed you to experience by His presence. In the same way that you could never experience true intimacy in your marriage if you just approached a relationship with your spouse as someone that you get things from. Your happiness, your fulfillment, your sexual gratification, your provision, your protection, your security, your friendship even, and companionship.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's why and where our life with God has gotten a little stagnant. You want God to deliver you, you want God to provide for you, you want God to seal you, you want God to seal them. Your soul is weary. Your heart is aching. Your body is broken down.
Speaker 1:Your mind is cloudy. Your emotions are swirling. Listen. God himself is your peace. God himself is your healing.
Speaker 1:God himself is your rest. God himself is your clarity. God himself is your stillness. God himself is your comfort. God himself is your hope.
Speaker 1:God himself is your joy. No one else and no thing else. Just Him. Do you want His glory? David's church father Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.
Speaker 1:God in his goodness did end up showing Moses his glory, but only a portion of it so as not to kill him. Right? But the portion of God's glory that he was able to see is this is amazing. I just this is just incredible to me. The portion of God's glory that Moses was permitted to see was God's goodness.
Speaker 1:He said, I will allow all of my goodness to pass in front of you. You know what's also a part of God's glory? His wrath, his judgment, his great and destructive power, The fear of him is wrapped up in his glory as well. But when Moses was like, Lord, can I see your glory? I don't think Moses was really asking to see the wrath of God in that moment.
Speaker 1:Right? But God's like, yeah, you can see my glory. I'm gonna allow all of my goodness to pass in front of you, but since no one can see me and live, I'm gonna hide you in the cleft of the rock and I'm gonna cover your face with my hand and I'm gonna pass by you and then when I pass by you I'm gonna remove my hand so that you can see my back. That's about all you can handle, but all of my goodness will be there. Verse 19.
Speaker 1:I'm not making this up. Okay? This is not just, like, a silly sort. The Lord said verse 19, the Lord said, I will cause my goodness to fast in front of you, and I will proclaim my name. The Lord in your presence, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.
Speaker 1:I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, there's a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.
Speaker 1:Thank you, God, for your glory displayed. And now we're gonna finish the book of Exodus By going to the last chapter, last verses, and we're gonna end. K. Everything in between chapter 33 and chapter 40. Where we're going to end, is a little bit of a rehashing of the details of the tabernacle, which were covered here in the last few weeks.
Speaker 1:K? We're at the very end of the book of Exodus, starting in verse 34, we see what ended up happening with both the glory of the Lord that Moses was allowed to see and the presence of God that stayed with the people upon Moses' intimate request. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting. Did we know about this already? The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, the place of His dwelling among His people in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:Moses could not enter this Hanar meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Here's like kind of the closing verses. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out. But if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted. The cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night in the sight of all the house of Israel during all of their travels.
Speaker 1:What's the moral of this little story here? The Israelites did not pull up a single tent snake, did not move a single inch toward the promise of God without without the leading without the leading of its presence. Oh, the presence of the God, and God is here in the tabernacle with us? We don't have to move anywhere. We don't need to go anywhere.
Speaker 1:This is where we will stay. Oh, God is moving over here in his presence. Alright. Time for us to go to. All of their movement, every decision that they made going forward into the promised land of God was built upon, does the president still with us or not?
Speaker 1:Does the president lead us or not? Does the president lead us or not? If not, we're saying, if it does, we're going. This is the prayer. This is what I would like to make the prayer of our church.
Speaker 1:Lord, only by your presence do we want to move. Not even our own not not not we'll do our best to make our own, you know, plans. But, father, ultimately, it's your presence that drives us. It's your presence that moves us. It's your presence that guides us.
Speaker 1:Lord, we want nothing else than your presence. No other blessing, Lord. No no no bit of provision. No bit of abundance. Nothing else, Lord.
Speaker 1:Nothing else, Lord, but your presence. We are totally consumed, Father, with your presence. In God's presence, is peace. In God's presence, there is abundance. In God's presence, there is provision.
Speaker 1:In God's presence, there is healing. In God's presence, there is joy. In God's presence, there is faith. In God's presence, there is thankfulness, Lord. Everything that we need is found in God's presence.
Speaker 1:We need nothing else. Let's pray. Lord, above and beyond everything and anything else, Lord, we ask for your presence. Your presence, Lord, in our heart. Your presence, Lord, in our home, your presence, Lord, in your church, your presence, Lord, in this community.
Speaker 1:Lord, we desire and we desire and want your presence, Lord. Would you show us, Lord, your glory? Would you let, Lord, all of your goodness pacify us, Lord, that we might know you in your fullness. Lord, it is you and you alone that we want, you and you alone that we desire, your presence above all else. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Speaker 1:Lord, we exalt you in this place. Lord, and we only want your presence. Father, as a people, we are asking, Lord, that you would show us your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Kind of your love.
Speaker 1:We love you. Have a great week. We'll see you next time.
