[SPEAKER_00]: So today's message title, it's a little bit lengthy, but it's worth noting it's one of the verses we'll go over today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if your presence does not go with us, if your presence does not go with us, this could be a perfect Christmas sermon, it could be a perfect at least Christmas season sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you've been with us throughout our study in Exodus, you know that there's
[SPEAKER_00]: was probably if not the lowest point of the Israelites journey thus far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you agree?
[SPEAKER_00]: So like they've been saved, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They were slaves in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're saved out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of miraculous things happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: God was moving.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it'd be hard to deny.
[SPEAKER_00]: That God did anything, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're like, oh, I don't know, it was just a coincidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, the red seas don't part on their own, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Bread doesn't come down from heaven every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's the miraculous going on, and then as we saw last week, while Moses is up on the mountain, he's meeting with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's getting the instructions for the tabernacle, the priestly garments, all the things that they are to do, the people are down in the valley, and what did they do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, what did they build?
[SPEAKER_00]: a golden calf, and what they did is they built a replacement if you will for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And lastly, we called it waiting and wandering, because while they were waiting, it seems they grew impatient, and they went back to old ways, and said, well, Moses was out on the mountain, and they were just kind of like, well, what has happened to Moses?
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know if he's alive, we don't know if he's coming back, did he abandon us forever?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they go to Aaron, say, make us a God that we can serve, that we can worship and Aaron, he gets all the gold, throws it into the fire, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Outcomes a calf, a golden cow, so he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, the scripture says that he fashioned it or he made it into this golden cow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was an aisle that they would all bow down to and worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they ended up having basically a party where they're getting drunk, all kinds of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there were sexual immorality going all over the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so just to again, to refresh our mind is like, man, this is a low point.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're the Israelites waking up the next morning, right, Moses just came down and be one of those days and maybe you've even had it and you're like, what did I do last and why did I do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: I should have never gone there, I shouldn't have said those things, I shouldn't have been with those people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've ever had these kinds of regrets, but I'm sure the Israelites this following day are thinking some pretty heavy thoughts of what have we done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exodus 32 at ends right when Moses comes down.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's angry rightfully so he breaks the tablets because he throws him down because his anger is burning hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it ends with consequence, judgment and separation.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we step into Exodus chapter 33, we just got to remember the context, the story, what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because kind of the question entering into chapter 33, if you don't know the story and
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we done?
[SPEAKER_00]: If we go back to Egypt, are we going to die here, is God going to kill us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what's going to happen next?
[SPEAKER_00]: Has God going to be with us at all?
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't just the question for the Israelites, but it's a question for you and me to consider this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is God going to be with us even when we've fallen, we've gone astray?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe you're in that season right now, you're like, I've done some things the last week, month, whatever, you drifted away from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And your question is, can God still use me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can he still love me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can he still lead me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he still have a plan for me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do want to assure you, is that, yes, he does love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he does have a plan for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is what's going on, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: At the center of these two chapters, again, my message title, if your presence does not go with us, and this is something Moses prays, he tells God, he says, if your presence, Lord, does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's pretty powerful, and I think we could preach the whole sermon on that and just consider that today, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If your presence isn't going to be with us, Moses is like, I don't want to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to go anywhere Lord, if you're not in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we're going to look at chapter 33 in the first few verses.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see God's meeting with Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're talking together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And essentially, we'll look at it a little closer.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God says, you're still going to go to the Promised Land.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to keep my word, but he says, but I'm not going to be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I just want you to consider this, especially like Christmas season, like we've got all the things going on, parties, we've got shopping, we've got putting up decorations, whatever it is, plans going on, stress is what I think it is unnecessary stress at times, but we miss
[SPEAKER_00]: the whole meaning of Christmas because we're so caught up in the things of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to consider this, if God's not in it with us, why do we want it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we get pulled into this consumerism, this worldlyness that the world has.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to go to parties and we've got to have fun and celebrate and make memories, whatever it may be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we get pulled into this, but I just want you to think, it's like, if God's not,
[SPEAKER_00]: with us if he's not in it, and it might not just be Christmas season, but just wherever you're at in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: If God's not in your business, maybe it's your personal business.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he's not in your family, home life, he's not in your life like, is it really worth pursuing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might argue with me, say, yeah, I think so, but you're going to see today, hopefully, that's not worth it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a moment in the New Testament and Peter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, who do Peter and the disciples?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do people say that I am, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the disciples say, well, they say you're a prophet and you say all these good things and then later on, Jesus has this moment with Peter and the disciples, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the disciples leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: My Peter says, you're the Lord, you're the Messiah and he says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, do you guys want to leave too?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, follow the crowd.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody's leaving, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going their own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: What they think's best, whatever that may be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Peter says something so profound, it echoes what Moses says.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, where are we going to go?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the words of eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I just want you to consider your ways, your life this morning, is how are you living and is God in your life, is His presence felt, do you seek His presence, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you seek the things that He could do for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God with us is what we should want, but then there's also the blessings of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of this thing, there's just two options that the Israelites have.
[SPEAKER_00]: They could go on without God and go to the Promised Land, because He's gonna be a promise, keeping faithful God, faithful to His word, but He's threatened as we'll see that I will not go with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just love again, we'll see.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting way ahead of myself, but Moses is, if you're not with us, I don't wanna go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses would rather stay in the wilderness out in the middle of nowhere, whatever's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I'd rather be here where you are than anywhere else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I hope and pray that that could be our heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 1 of chapter 33, the Lord said to Moses,
[SPEAKER_00]: depart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, to your offspring, I will give it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebucites.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing he says, but I will not go up among you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lest I consume you on the way for you are a stick, stiff, necked people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're stubborn.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse four, he says, it says, when the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it started to set in all of a sudden,
[SPEAKER_00]: what have we done we did what we shouldn't have done right Moses brought the ten commandments down God spoke the ten commandments wrote them on the tablets yes Moses broke the tablets unfortunately but God didn't give them another set here in a little bit
[SPEAKER_00]: But they know these commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should have no other gods before me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't make any grave and image, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not trying to replicate me or duplicate me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's legitimately what they did is they built their own God to try to resemble y'all way in some way, shape, or form.
[SPEAKER_00]: They try to make it seem spiritual, make it seem right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was so far from the truth that it was sinned.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then now, at this moment, God's saying, I'm going to
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to keep my promise, you're going to go to the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you victory over all these different people groups, but I'm not going to go with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems like it hit, hit home for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They mourned, no one put on his ornaments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 5, for the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are a stiff necked people.
[SPEAKER_00]: If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now take off your ornaments that I may know what to do with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horab onward.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God's meeting with Moses telling him what he's going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to go with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is God's judgment, or we could even say wrath.
[SPEAKER_00]: being revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes we think of God's wrath like a Sodom and Gomorrah type thing and then there's fire and soul for coming down to burn, burn up the city of people who have gone far from God and they're sinful, wicked, whatever we want to call it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We think of God's wrath that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I heard a pastor say once and he related it to Romans chapter one where it says that God gave them over to their desires.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's like, oh, you want to go out and live your own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to get drunk.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want a party.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be sexually immoral.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, greedy selfish.
[SPEAKER_00]: You name it.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's like, I'm going to give you over to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This pastor, I heard he said that this is God's wrath being revealed to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not again the fire and soul for wrath.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is God's wrath of abandonment, where he's giving you over to what you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's like, I'm not going to go with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to make that decision.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to go that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fine, I'll let you do it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Breaks God's heart, but God, he doesn't make us do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gives us free will.
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives us a decision, a choice to make.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you want to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to go away from me, apart from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll let us do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, that God's wrath of abandonment where he says, but I won't be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've ever felt far from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been times in my life where I knew I was far from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not a thing where it's like, God, where did you go?
[SPEAKER_00]: We like to say stuff, like, God, where are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys ever said that, thought that, prayed that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's just me, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just, yeah, I've thought, well, God, where are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just feel like there's this still small voice where it's like, God's telling me, where did you go, Nick?
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't moved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, for me, and then I look at my lives, like, well, actually truth be told, I made a lot of wrong decisions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've drifted far away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was just kind of drifting subtly, but day by day, I'm out in the middle of the ocean, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And God, you're still at the shore.
[SPEAKER_00]: You haven't moved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where are you in this?
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, it's because God's not gonna go with us when we're going astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's God's judgment upon our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is God's judgment upon them, where he's like, I'll keep my promise to get you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: but I won't be with you, verse seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Moses used to take the tents and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp and he called it the tent of meeting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Moses entered the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent in the Lord would speak with Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud, stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each at his tent door, thus the Lord used to speak to Moses, face to face as a man speaks to a friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Moses turned again into the camp as a system, Joshua the son of none, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's this scene going on right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's told them the punishment of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first, remember last chapter, God said, I'm going to destroy them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, I'm going to make a great nation out of you, but I'm going to wipe them clean.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He interceded on behalf.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, but God, on behalf of the people, like, just don't do that essentially, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you have promised them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You brought them out of the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would you save them just to destroy them?
[SPEAKER_00]: And God relents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, okay, I'm gonna let him live, but I'm not gonna go with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then Moses, he meets with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a picture of there's a contrast here, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses being a God-fearing man, drawing close to God in the midst of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he had the people of Israel, the Israelites who kind of stay at a distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a pretty big contrast there.
[SPEAKER_00]: They stand a distance and they don't get a close relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses draws near.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture says, if we draw near to God, God draws near to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: if you've read that or heard that before it's in james.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, if we draw near to God, God will draw near to us and maybe that's what you need to hear today.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, I want his presence, but you need to understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just going to come when you stand far off.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, I want you to meet me over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, God's like, well, draw close to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come near.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, he goes to meet with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The people they stand at the entrance of their tents.
[SPEAKER_00]: His Moses enters the presence of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us that Moses met with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're like, man, that would be awesome, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it would for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think he literally saw God as in face to face because we know later on, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, I want to see you, I want to see your glory, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, you can't handle all of that Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would die because I'm that amazing, essentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, so I don't think it's literally solemn face to face, but again, it's a relational closeness that Moses has with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, James tells us, draw near to God, he'll draw near to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah tells us, right, that God dwells with the lowly or the humble, I think that's important to note.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you want a close relationship with God, you gotta have a humble heart, a humble attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us that, and I think this is hilarious, by the way, because we think Moses wrote it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it says that Moses was the most humble man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's in Scripture, and supposedly written by Moses, we believe, and imagine being Moses meeting face to face with God, what do you want me to write next?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses, me, was the most humble man, oh, really God, you shouldn't have, but I'll write it in there anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he said to be the most humble, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses was a, he was somebody in Egypt back in the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or he was somebody to be feared, but man, he got humbled big time when he had to spend 40 years in the wilderness with his in-laws, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was basically a shepherd.
[SPEAKER_00]: out there in the wilderness and he was humbled into being basically a nobody.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think for him, it's just like, God, whatever you have to do, I'd be grateful to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he has this humble attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we got to think about for drawing near to God, we want the presence of God in our life, we got to start with a humble attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe for you today, it's just repenting of your stubbornness or your pridefulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, I'm good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe some of you are thinking about right now, like, yes, I don't need that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm good.
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is we're not good, not on our own, we can't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't just try hard enough to make something happen, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us we think, well, if we just put our mind to it, we can do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I just work hard enough, I can earn my salvation and earn whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the truth is, no, you can't, you have to be humble.
[SPEAKER_00]: humblier self, nearness to God isn't about status, position, gifting, or performance, it's about our posture of our heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could be the most religious person in the world, but still the furthest person from God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Humility is how we got to enter into his presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 12, Moses said to the Lord,
[SPEAKER_00]: See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know who you will send with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Consider two that this nation is your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just understand Moses is pleading on behalf of himself, but also the people, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is a good shepherd.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not the good shepherd, but he's a good leader, and he cares for his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, consider two that this nation is your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's reminding God of the things that God has said to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, these are your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You brought them up to lead them into this land.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess I understand that you say, we're going to inherit the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you also understand it's got to say, but I'm not going to be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just, again, don't mean to be repetitive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it bears repeating is just, there's this balance where it's like, you can have success in the world's eyes, can inherit the land, you can be victorious, and you can have blessing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you can have me, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, in God's like, I'm not going to go with you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, this is a big deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses is reminding God of his promise and he's interceding on his own behalf with God, but also the on behalf of the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, if your presence is not gonna go with me, do not bring us up from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct underlying that highlight that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct?
[SPEAKER_00]: I and your people from every other people on the face of this earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do for you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the turning point, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We were wondering what's going to happen next.
[SPEAKER_00]: God says, I'm not going to go with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll bless you, but I will not be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses intercedes on behalf of the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, not appealing because we're so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not like, but the Israelites are good.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've done some good things.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're promising.
[SPEAKER_00]: They show some promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's according to God's character and God's previous promises, God's previous word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he prays that prayer that I think we need to just try to take to heart and pray ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses understands that this is crucial, it's necessary, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he understands that this is what distinguishes God's people from everybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the land, not the victory that they would would get, the success, not the momentum, but the thing that would distinguish, the Israelites versus the world is God's presence, the saying is true for us today.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will distinguish you and I, as Christians, followers of Christ, versus people of the world, is God's presence with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could have success, and you could have success without God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So having success is not like, well, God must be with me, because I have succeeded, because I have blessing, because I have what I wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, God's presence is what sets us apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tim Chester, he says, Moses would rather wander in the wilderness with God than arrive at the destination without him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess a question to consider is, would you say the same thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: God promised these to you and says, you could have all of this, or you could have me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sad thing is I think many people today would take the blessings.
[SPEAKER_00]: the success, the wealth, the riches, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses says, I don't want anything if I don't have you.
[SPEAKER_00]: God responds with grace, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's Moses's prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cry for mercy, for God just to not believe them, and God says, my presence will go with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I will give you rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a beautiful thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Prayer is a powerful thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a close relationship with God and we can talk to God and we can bring his word, his promises.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God, you've said this in your word, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But don't destroy us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have mercy upon us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be gracious unto us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want your presence with us and God being a gracious, merciful God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hears us and He will relent.
[SPEAKER_00]: This passage it made me think right coming out to church plants and planted this church a little over five years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean part of my prayer was very similar to Moses, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, God, like, we can't do this without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, for me, my wife had two kids at the time, which I know they didn't really understand what we were doing, but leaving everything we knew, leaving like we had security if you will, right, had a good job, had a house, we had family, friends all around us grew up there in Tucson, Arizona, my whole life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we moved down, like God, we believe you're calling us, but I don't want to go Lord, if you're not in this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to go make a church to be, oh, look at me, I want to go because I'm being obedient to what you've called me to and God, we need you if we're to ever see anything happen in this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm moving out here, we didn't know anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Sam and Morgan and their kids, they came out, Louis, Melissa, their kids came out, my sister, and a couple others, Leslie Caleb came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we had a little family of two sonans,
[SPEAKER_00]: That moved out here initially and that was all we knew though, but it's like God if you want to do something more than this We need you and what part of my frustration I prayed this was God and I think I've told you guys before is first year or so and first month was like Okay, cool like our first service we had 20 something people was like, okay, God you're in this you're doing something Right, but like little by little a dwindled to our Tucson team
[SPEAKER_00]: right in part of my frustration like Moses coming for before God like God we could have done this in Tucson we didn't have to move across the country but again it's just like God I want to be where you are, I want to be obedient to what you're doing in my life what you're calling me to do and God if you're not in it I don't I don't want any part of it that's a hard prayer because some things that the world offers is tempting isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: or if someone like offers you success and it's very easy to negotiate with yourself like, well, it must be of God because it's really good, because they offer me a lot of money or a raise or whatever it is, that's not always the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 18, is that where I left off?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses said, please show me your glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses wanted more, he wanted God's presence, right, he wanted God with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please show me your glory in verse 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you, my name, the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the word, the name Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 20, but he said, you cannot see my face.
[SPEAKER_00]: For man, she'll not see me and live.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, God is that awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: All consume me, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm gonna pass before you, but you can't see my face again, when it says Moses met face to face with the Lord, like a friend meets together, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, this scripture right here tells us, well, obviously there was not a face to face, and then he saw all the glory of God, all the time whenever he met with him,
[SPEAKER_00]: relationship there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God says, you can't see my face and live because man cannot see see me and live.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said, behold, there's a place where my by me where you shall stand on the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while my glory passes by, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll just try to picture this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really know what it would look like.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, just think of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just amazing, big, awesome
[SPEAKER_00]: Put you in a little cleft and cover you with my hand, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What person's hand could cover a person, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to cover you with my hand, like we could cover your eyes, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But for this, like I'm going to cover you Moses with my hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, just picturing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just seems pretty crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to cover you until I've passed by, then he says verse 23, then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses here he asked for a deeper relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's hungry for righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's hungry for the things of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't ask for strategy or success, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God, how can we do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: What shall we do next?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I just, he knows something so fundamental and so basic that a kid could understand, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I need you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it's the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I can't do this without you, but I don't want to go anywhere without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you ever had moments like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, I went to Tucson earlier this year for Friends Wedding in February.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just remember I was there and I got texting and calling Amber.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just like, I don't ever want to come here again without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just like, it's just not the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it just felt lonely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm like, going back home should be exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just like, but I don't have my wife, like my sidekick, my rider die with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone's like, where's Amber?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, well, she's,
[SPEAKER_00]: back home, and I want to hear for like 24 hours, you know, anyways, uh, that's beside the point, but if you ever thought that felt that, like, I just don't want to go anywhere, because you know, like that person or whatever completes you, God's more than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want to go anywhere, and I want to do anything without you Lord, do you or what I need?
[SPEAKER_00]: And just understand this, like when you're praying for a direction, maybe success or blessing, it's like that flows from a close relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you draw a closer to God, I believe the path becomes clearer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, what am I to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're just like, well, I need an answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, draw near to God, his presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like I'm trying to get that answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're trying to trick God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, I'm just going to come close to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can get my answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I God knows everything, but when we draw close to God, I think with pure hearts, pure motives, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're just God, I just want you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything else I think will fall into place.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean you're gonna have the whole road map and the rest of your life planned out, but it's just like, you'll feel content.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need anything else I don't need to worry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right here, if I get nothing more than this, this is what all I need is God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: To know God more, Moses says, show me your glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 27 tells us, right, one thing I've asked of the Lord to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord when the David's prayers, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul tells us that in Second Corinthians he says that we are transformed as we behold the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just think about those things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when we have this heart, this desire, I want to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to know you more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see you more clearly, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul tells us that as we were transformed, as we pursue God, again, it's like the answer to our questions, the meeting to our existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It isn't found in
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'd say books and stuff today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nowadays, probably YouTube videos like our answers to our life and our existence and what we want is in God's presence in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many people want God's hand and his blessing, but few people want God's heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses, he wants more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since the Lord said to Moses, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I were right on the tablets, the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, which I love that about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just remind them, which you broke by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: says but be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one shall come up with you and let's and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let no flocks or herds graze up opposite that mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious.
[SPEAKER_00]: slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands for giving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.
[SPEAKER_00]: My, this is a pretty epic moment to say the least.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, God meets with Moses on the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: He proclaims his own name, y'all way, y'all way, I am who I am, I am who I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, and it says, and if you just read it that way, says I am who I am, I am who I am, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding, instead fast love and faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's encouraging to you or does something for you, but for me, that comforts me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think God, who are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you want?
[SPEAKER_00]: What am I to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess we draw near.
[SPEAKER_00]: We understand this to be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first we stand at a distance because we're scared of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: We fear what might happen if we draw close to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's the truth for a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to come to church because they don't want to feel guilty or convicted right of their sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is a good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we get to draw closer to God, we understand that he's merciful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He, we've sinned and we deserve punishment, but mercy is like, okay, I won't kill you essentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not only merciful, but he's gracious.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which means he gives us things that we don't deserve.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, you're guilty.
[SPEAKER_00]: I won't kill you, which is my mercy upon your life, but I'm gracious that I'm going to actually let you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's you go free.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says that
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not like you and me, right after a rough day, or if you have little kids right after like two minutes of them just arguing and going back and forth, that's enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not me though, I'm just saying, I've heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, slow to anger.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think man, he's gonna be so angry at me, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We maybe we try to bring in what we understand of our human relationships and bring that to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like no, God is a good father.
[SPEAKER_00]: slow to anger.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a bounding instead of fast love and faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this moment, it's not Moses describing God.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is God telling us and telling Moses who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dave the music talks about this and he says that this is how God has chosen to be known, how he's chosen to reveal himself, to describe himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: where he's not defined by power, I mean, he is, but not primarily, but he says he defines himself by faithful, mercy and grace towards an undeserving people.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how I mean, Scripture repeats this over and over.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's Psalm 103 verse 8 in the Amaya, chapter 9, verse 17, numbers 14, 18, talked about that God is slow to anger, grace, just merciful, a balanced, steadfast love because God wants His people and you and me to remember who He is, verse 8, and Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's the proper response.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has revealed Himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's declared who He is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's powerful moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses bows and He worships.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, and He said, if now I have found favor in your sight, oh Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff next people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses right here in this moment,
[SPEAKER_00]: Understand this that when we experience God's mercy and grace some people think like, oh, I can do whatever I want That's not the case Scripture tells us like don't take your freedom as a license to sin, essentially Right Paul makes our argument he's like well, hey, wherever sin abounds grace abounds all the more and he's like Well, should we just keep on sinning so that God can be just more and more gracious and look better?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's like my bad sins make him look better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should we do that Paul's like absolutely not?
[SPEAKER_00]: And our response to grace, to God's grace, should be a closer relationship and out of that relationship should flow obedience and faithfulness towards God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans chapter 12, I encourage you to look it up for homework, read the whole chapter, it's good, read all of Romans by the way, but Romans chapter 12, great chapter, but it starts off like he says, I appeal to you by the mercies of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can even say the mercies, the grace of God as well, because by the mercies of God, and then it goes on of how we should then live among one another, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God's grace doesn't minimize sin or say it's fine to do whatever you want, but it's like, hey, God's grace trains us to start to live godly lives unto him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our obedience should flow from a place of receiving mercy, not a place of feeling guilty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like when you understand what God has done and you realize like I'm so undeserving, it does something, should do something and you stir you up to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanna do whatever you want me to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I came back to the Lord that was me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I mean, I met with a counselor for a few years, this is when I was dealing with addiction and stuff and I told them like, I believe God can forgive me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew God's word, right, so it says He forgives us if we confess our sin and He's faithful and just that forgive us of all sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cleans us of all and righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could have even quoted that even back then, because I grew up in church, and I loved God, loved His word, but I walked away from Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told him I said, I believe God can forgive me, but I don't think God will ever use me again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I just thought, man, I'm too far gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made too many mistakes, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was like a guilt-based relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I feel so guilty, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God can't use me, but when I realize no God's mercy, His grace isn't dependent on me or my performance or what I can or cannot do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I receive His grace freely.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has done this and God has called me unto him a relationship with him and man out of that relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like God can do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can restore
[SPEAKER_00]: things in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can lead you in places you never thought you'd go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never thought I'd plant a church, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Move out of Tucson to do it, much less, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But God, he'll start to reveal his plan as we draw near to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse, where was I?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 9.
[SPEAKER_00]: The verse 10 he says, he said,
[SPEAKER_00]: And for all your people I would do marbles, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all the people among whom you are, shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 11, observe what I command you this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we're about to read, you're gonna, I feel like we've read this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: which we kind of have got to give this repeating himself like let me remind you of these things so he says observe what I command you this day behold I'll drive out before you the amorites the canaanites the hit hithites, parisites the hivites and the jibisites
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care, less, you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, less to become a snare in your midst.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God's warning them, I'm going to lead you and I will be with you, but you need to understand, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to take care or be aware, be careful not to make a covenant with basically the the enemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Saying, I'm making a covenant with you,
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can't go make a covenant with someone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you remember our teaching a few weeks back or maybe a month back or so, we talked about covenant, it's like a marriage covenant, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when you get married to someone, it's not just like, oh, I'm gonna make a covenant with you and I'm gonna go make a covenant with someone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's adultery.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is adultery with God and God saying, don't do this, be careful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think God didn't just his all-knowing nipotence is just saying, I know you, your weak, be careful, don't do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 13 says, you shall tear down their alters, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the people that they would go and have victory over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tear down their alters, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: To false gods, break their pillars and cut down their ashram for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous as a jealous God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Less do you make a covenant?
[SPEAKER_00]: with the inhabitants of the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice and you take of their daughters for your sons and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal pretty intense, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, that words in the Bible, yeah, it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you shouldn't do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's saying, be careful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm making a covenant with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am all you need, but it's like, be careful because if you let them in and you make a covenant with the world essentially, they will take over.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will infect not only you, just check it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's gonna infect you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your sons, your daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to start to affect everyone because sin affects everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: We like to sell ourselves to lie, it's okay, it's just me, I'm not hurting anybody else, but it's in effect, everyone around us.
[SPEAKER_00]: In ways we probably won't fully know until we're in heaven one day, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love how God at the end he says, if I wasn't clear enough, last time says, you shall not make for yourself any God's of cast metal.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, well, what about a gold calf?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, all right, if I wasn't clear before, right, God's like, let me just make sure there's no confusion here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not put any God's before me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Moses hears the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hears God's promise, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He the covenants of renewed essentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses bows his head, he worships.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God renews this covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Promises to do wonders, miracles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Promises to drive out the enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he promises the most important thing that his presence will remain with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then again, he has a lot of strong warnings as he tells him that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 18,
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall keep the feast of an unleavened bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seven days, you shall eat unleavened bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I commanded you at the time appointed in the month a bib, for in the month a bib, you came out from Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: All that opened the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep, the firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with the lamb.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the firstborn of your sons, you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty handed.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is like a mere image repeat of what he said after the Passover, the tenth plague, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells them all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're to keep this covenant throughout all generations, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells them verse 21, going on, still sounds like a repeat message.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he says, six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: In plowing time and in harvest, you shall rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall observe the feast of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of in gathering at the years end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: For I will cast out nations before you and in large, your borders.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God, three times of year.
[SPEAKER_00]: three times in the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 25 you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened or let the sacrifice of the peace of peace of Passover remain until the morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best of the first fruits of your ground, you should bring up to the house of the Lord's God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might think, man, that's some random weird stuff going on right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, it's God repeating what he said before.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's renewing the covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, let me remind you of what I've said.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys have gone astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, God's like, I am merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding instead, fast love.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's, and then he repeats his covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get you to the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: But these are the things that I ask of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: These festivals, there's three of them every year.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the males are to go to.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this rhythm of life and worship right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We work six days and you rest one day a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not as if God's saying it's optional.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we treat it here today in 2025 or in American culture where we just work work all day, every day as much as we can.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's like, I want you to work six days
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's pretty fair deal, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like one day off, like most people work five days a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get two days off and God's like just at least take one day off for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Restoring this life, worship, or work worship, rhythm, balance, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God reminds them of who they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're my people, says I'm not only going to forgive you and go with you, but I'm going
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives them his promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 29, we'll start to close here in a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses did not know that the skin of his face shown because he had been talking with God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's, I want to see your glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, he's there getting this word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's getting new tablets of the commandments written onto it there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's coming down in Moses' face is like, it's radiating, maybe he looked sunburned, I don't know, just like on another level, verse 30, says Aaron, and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold, the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come near him so that they knew he'd been in the presence of God and I want us to take note here is like, there's something distinct in people can tell when you've been in the presence of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like people, I don't know, like, God opens doors and does weird things where people, like, I've seen it in different ways at work, where I haven't said anything, but someone would just come up to me and ask me a question because of, they just felt led to, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, I just feel like I'm supposed to ask you this question, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't know how to describe it other than, they sense something different.
[SPEAKER_00]: people will see or sense something different with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: They see Moses and they're like, this guy's met with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something's going on here and they're afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're probably also afraid of, well, what's gonna happen Moses?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the verdict?
[SPEAKER_00]: You went up there, please honor our behalf, are we gonna die?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we gonna, is God gonna be with us still?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 31 says, but Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation.
[SPEAKER_00]: They returned to him and Moses talked with them by telling them all the things that have just happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Afterward, all the people of Israel came near and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with them in Mount Sinai.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 34, whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out and when he came out and told the people of Israel, what he was commanded the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses faced with shining and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with him with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Moses comes down from the mountain, and he's radiating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses probably doesn't even realize it, but again, when you're in the presence of the Lord, God, he changes you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He works in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He works through.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes you a new man, a new woman, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses isn't chasing glory or trying to be impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just simply spent time with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to be made new, you want to be people of God, spend time with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't tell you how much I can't give you an equation or a recipe of if you spend an hour a day in God's word, you'll be close to God, maybe it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I've also experienced this times where it's like just a verse in a few short seconds can change everything for me for a whole day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be a whole chapter, it might be a whole book, it might not be even reading it all just a time of prayer where you're just before God,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's spending time with God and saying, God, I want you in my life, realizing I don't want anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want success if that means life without you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we know Solomon, he's like, I had it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, it's worthless, it's vanity.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, without God, it doesn't mean anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just gonna perish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope that that can be our heart today as we look at our lives like God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want what you want in my life for my life, I want you and whatever that means,
[SPEAKER_00]: Have your way, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Peter says, well, where else are we going to go?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where else are we going to go?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you have the words of eternal life?
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we close up today, just consider that consider Moses' praises.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your presence does not go with this, don't bring us up out of this place.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope I pray for you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone watching listening later is just that we wouldn't settle for whatever it may be for substitutes, for the world's success.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we not, I don't know, compromise.
[SPEAKER_00]: taking things of the world to replace intimacy with God, but may we seek God.
[SPEAKER_00]: not just what he gives or whatever the end result is, but maybe we see God in this relationship with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And rest in the truth knowing that a relationship with God God is all that we need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mountain rise, like look at the birds of the air and the flowers and all these things like they don't, toil, spin, freak out, like your heavenly father provides for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, are you not a much more value than that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And just understand, Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, seek first Jesus, God in your life, and He says, and everything else will be added to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm going to get you what you need to eat to drink right to where.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it might not be what you want, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, I want to fill in me and you're like, well, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you've got to get just rice and beans tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: and get me what I need Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our relationship with God is what we want first and foremost.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everything else, whatever it is, however it looks, that's fine, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I just want a relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to go somewhere and be successful if it means not having God in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope the same is true for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Father, we thank you for your Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for,
[SPEAKER_00]: Just what you did in Moses and the Israelites life, and that we can look at your word today, and I pray that we take it to heart, that we'd consider our own ways, our own motives, our own pursuits, and that we could just honestly ask ourselves, are we pursuing a relationship with you, or are we pursuing the things of the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you'd work in our hearts, in our minds,
[SPEAKER_00]: even convict us, Lord, and just give us that heart of Moses that if you're not with us, if you're not in this with us, that we don't want.
[SPEAKER_00]: to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want anything that is not of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't include you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray God that you give us a heart, a mind that has a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a deep longing and desire in our hearts for a relationship with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that today in this week we would, as James tells us, we draw near to you and we'd see and feel and sense
[SPEAKER_00]: As you build that relationship, Lord, through your grace, through your mercy, through your abounding love and steadfastness, Lord, I pray that you transform us and change us into the men and women you desire us to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would become lights in this dark world that as we go out, wherever we go, work, home, the grocery store, wherever it may be, a people would see us and see something different that they would see you in us, you with us, you working through us, so God just working us this morning I pray and if we have stubborn, prideful hearts, I pray that you would soften
[SPEAKER_00]: And that you would humble us to come before you as Moses did, and we would just worship and bow down at your feet, knowing that that is where we need to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: May pray this in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.