Skip to content Exodus: Pleading for God's Presence May 28 · 49 min ...more
Exodus: Pleading for God's Presence
May 28, 2023 · 49 min
This week we discussed the importance of God's Presence and what is required for us to experience Him. Instead of religious rituals and routines we must experience God's Presence to accomplish God's purpose. So often, we rely on leadership seminars, self-esteem boosts, and self-help guides rather than the very presence of God. The reason people are leaving the church in droves and many people say that Christianity is a myth is because the Presence of God is lacking in our lives and in our ministries. There is a major difference between seeking God's blessings and favor and seeking God Himself. May we be a people who seek the face of God rather than the hand of God. May Jesus Christ be high and lifted up and exalted in our lives! As you listen to this message, ask yourself what changes you may need to make for the Lord's Presence to be manifest in your life. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church May 28, 2023 · 49 min · BRAVE Church
This week we discussed the importance of God's Presence and what is required for us to experience Him. Instead of religious rituals and routines we must experience God's Presence to accomplish God's purpose. So often, we rely on leadership seminars, self-esteem boosts, and self-help guides rather than the very presence of God. The reason people are leaving the church in droves and many people say that Christianity is a myth is because the Presence of God is lacking in our lives and in our ministries. There is a major difference between seeking God's blessings and favor and seeking God Himself. May we be a people who seek the face of God rather than the hand of God. May Jesus Christ be high and lifted up and exalted in our lives! As you listen to this message, ask yourself what changes you may need to make for the Lord's Presence to be manifest in your life. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less This week we discussed the importance of God's Presence and what is required for us to experience Him. Instead of religious rituals and routines we must experience God's Presence to accomplish God's purpose. So often, we rely on leadership seminars, self-esteem boosts, and self-help guides rather than the very presence of God. The reason people are leaving the church in droves and many people say that Christianity is a myth is because the Presence of God is lacking in our lives and in our ministries. There is a major difference between seeking God's blessings and favor and seeking God Himself. May we be a people who seek the face of God rather than the hand of God. May Jesus Christ be high and lifted up and exalted in our lives! As you listen to this message, ask yourself what changes you may need to make for the Lord's Presence to be manifest in your life. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are, and, Lord, we're here to celebrate you. We're here to give you worship and adoration and tell you that we are dependent upon you, that0:10 we love you, and that we want to honor you in all that we do. Lord, we do thank you in our country today for all those who gave their lives so that we have the freedoms that we have. Lord, we pray that as Christians that0:21 we would exercise the freedoms we have and that we would honor you as a nation. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is an abomination to all people. Lord, may righteousness reign in our land. May you0:32 turn the hearts of people back to you. And Lord, we thank you for your living and active word and that every time it is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you speak. And Lord, our prayer now is speak for we are0:44 ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the word of the Lord, who will believe what Jesus says specifically to you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you0:54 agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. When I was dating my wife, there were times where I would do things to make sure that I got her attention.1:06 I wanted to do everything I could to get her attention. If we were going out to eat with my family, was like, oh, that's a great opportunity to call and invite Kim to come. If I was going out to a game with a friend,1:16 that's a great opportunity to invite Kim to come. I just wanted to be around her. As a matter of fact, when we started dating and I started to call her, I wanted to be around her all the time. I would call her on the1:25
1:37 just wanted to be around her. Even when we broke off in the evening, she would drive to her house or I would drive to my house. We'd be on the phone talking to each other, looking forward to the day we didn't have to go
1:46 our separate ways and we could sleep in the same bed. I mean, I did everything I could to get her attention. There was even 1 time I went to her mother and father's house so I could walk her dog. I don't like dogs, I
1:57 didn't like her dog, but I took it for a walk in hopes to score points so that her mom would tell her, hey, Jeff was here to walk the dog. I mean, I wanted to get her attention and here's why. Because it wasn't about
2:08 dating her, it wasn't about talking to her on the phone, and it wasn't about anything other than I wanted 1 thing from my wife. I wanted her presence. I wanted to be near her. I wanted to be with her. The reason I got
2:20 married is I wanted be with her all the time. When it comes to our life spiritually, there's nothing more important than presence. There's nothing more important than the presence of
2:32 God. It's what we need more in our own personal lives. It's what we need more in our church, it's what we need more in our communities, it's what we need more in our nation, is God's living and active presence. Now let
2:41 me talk about presence. Psalm 1 39 says that God is everywhere. I mean, there's no place you can go that God is not. I'm not talking about that kind of presence. I'm talking about his personal manifested presence when he
2:53 shows up in your life that you know that you know that you know that Jesus is right here with me and he's walking with me. And if you've been a Christian for any period of time, there's probably been some moments in your
3:04 life where God's shown up in a special way with his presence, and when he does, there's this hunger and desire to say, I want this to linger. I want more of God's presence. I wanna hear his voice
3:15 more clearly. I want him to be more around me than ever before. And if you ever wanted more of God's presence in your life, I believe God has a word for you today. Because I have good news for you. God wants to be
3:27 present in your life. He wants to manifest himself to you in your life. And so if you're a Christian and you look around like and you say see other Christians and say, man, this person seems to just enjoy God all the
3:38 time and they love being around God all the time and I can tell that God goes with them everywhere they go. I wish I could live my life like that. Good news is you can, and God wants to show you 4 requirements as to what
3:48 it takes and what responsibilities you need for his presence to go with you. And if you've ever wanted more of God's presence in your life, this is a message for you. And in case you didn't know
4:00 it, what you want more than anything in your life is more of God's presence in your life. So this message is for you. So I wanna encourage you, open your Bibles up to Exodus chapter 33, and we're gonna talk about
4:10 pleading for God's presence, pursuing and pleading for God's presence. And we're gonna take a look at 4 requirements that we're gonna need. Now if you remember in Exodus chapter 32, they just came out of that season of
4:21 idolatry where they'd taken all their jewelry to form a golden calf and worshiped that. God was so angry he was gonna kill the entire nation and told Moses he would give them a new nation, and Moses interceded and
4:33 pleaded on behalf of God's word, God's promises, and God's desires. God says, okay, that's great. I'm gonna send an angel before you continue to go into the promised land. And this is where this picks up. I'm gonna give
4:44 you 4 requirements this morning. If you're gonna plead for God's presence, if you really want God's presence in your life, these 4 requirements will ensure that God goes with you. And the first is this, pleading for
4:55 God's presence requires a willingness to change, a willingness to change. Notice what happens in chapter 33 verse 1, it says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying,
5:07 depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saying, to your descendants, I will give it. Remember how
5:19 Moses pled and said, God, you promised us you'd go. And God is always true to his word. So God says, now go, I'm gonna give you the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He says this, I will send an angel
5:31 before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. He's like, you go, I'll send an angel before you, he'll clear the way, you won't have to worry about
5:42 your enemies, it's gonna go well for you. And then he says, go up to a land flowing with milk and honey for I will not go up in your midst because you are an obstinate people and I
5:54 might destroy you on the way. He says go into a land flowing with milk and honey. Right? Go to this land. Now as a kid, I always pictured like waterfalls of milk and waterfalls of honey. Like this land is gonna be
6:04 different. It's not what it means. It means there's livestock. There's plenty of milk. It means there's honey. God has everything that they're gonna need. And it's interesting because this area in Israel, God's blessing,
6:14 without God's touch, wouldn't be a natural place to produce all these sorts of things. So God says, you go. I'll send my angel ahead of you. I'll stay true to my word, but as for me, I'm not going. You're
6:26 obstinate. You're stiff necked. You're always turning around. And if I'm in your midst and I see all that again, I might kill you all. So in order to help you, I'm gonna stay behind, but I'll send somebody else forward.
6:38 And then notice what happens. It says in verse 4, when the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning and none of them put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, you
6:50 are an abstinent people. Should I go up with you in your midst for 1 moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore put off all your ornaments from you that I may know what I shall
7:01 do with you. He tells Moses, you go tell them. Go tell them they're obstinate. Go tell them if I just spent 1 more second with them, I'm gonna kill them. Like my holiness is at stake. They don't want what I want. They
7:12 don't want me. They don't want who I am. So you go tell them and tell them to take off their ornaments. What were their ornaments? Ornaments were their jewelry. Take off your jewelry. What jewelry? The jewelry that you
7:24 were giving away to make the molten calf. Don't use your valuables on your idols anymore. Show me that you're not gonna do that anymore. Take off your jewelry.
7:35 Take off your ornaments. So what do they do? Notice verse 6. So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. So they take off all their jewelry. They don't put
7:47 jewelry back on for how long? For the entire journey. They're not wearing the jewelry. They're showing God. God said, take it off. They took it off. God said, do this. And what did they do? They did
7:59 it. In order to grow with God, in order to experience more of God's presence, there has to be a willingness to change. Not necessarily a desire to change, but a willingness to change. There's a difference. Jesus told a
8:11 parable about a father who had 2 sons and he asked them both to go work in the field. And the older son said, yeah, dad, I'll go. But he never went. The younger son said, dad, I'm not gonna do that. But he went and
8:20 worked in the field. And Jesus the question, which 1 did what the father asked? And they said, well, the 1 who went and worked in the field. He said, then go do that. What was he trying to say? I don't care about your
8:29 lip service. I don't care about what you promised me. I don't want you don't care that you tell me, hey, I'm gonna get right with you. I'm gonna do what you want me to do. He cares about actually what? Doing it. Putting
8:39 into practice what he shows you. What does that mean? It means when you listen to a message like this, it's not about you remembering all 4 points next week. We're not giving a quiz on it. I may not remember them all by
8:49 Wednesday. What it means is that when the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart about something in the message that's God speaking to you, how are you gonna put it into practice and then go put it into practice? There has to
9:01 be willingness to change on your part. If there's no willingness to change, there's no presence with God. Now let's be clear. The gospel is that God so loved the world that whoever believes in him would not perish but
9:11 have eternal life. Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. He died for you. If you'll repent and believe that Jesus died for all your sins and that he rose from the dead, you will be saved. You do not need to clean
9:22 yourself up to come to Christ. You can come to Christ just as you are and God will welcome you home. He will be the 1 that cleans you up. Make no mistake about that. But when you do come to Christ, he's not gonna leave
9:33 you where you're at. There is a desire from the moment you come to Christ for him to begin to continually, progressively, increasingly growing you into his likeness and into his holiness. You must be willing to
9:45 change. That's why after David sins, what's he pray? Psalm 5one 10, create in me a clean heart, oh God, renew a right spirit within me. We have to understand that God is perfect. He's
9:56 holy, he's righteous and he's good and you're not. And God wants you to be perfect, holy, righteous and good. So when the relationship comes together, guess who has to change? You do.
10:08 God's not changing. I, the Lord, your God, do not change. You don't want God to change. God's perfect in his love and God's perfect in his holiness. You don't want him to change. But if you're gonna have a relationship
10:17 with this God of the Bible, guess who's gonna change? You're gonna change. And if you don't change, you will not continue to grow in him. You will not continue to see his manifest presence in your life. There is a
10:29 progressive growth that happens to every single believer that continues this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it's important. Now we need to understand something. If
10:41 God is sovereign, which he is, and he's good, which he is, and he's the 1 unfolding all of history in life on the macro scale and also on the micro scale, meaning everything that's done in the world, God is in control of
10:53 and everything that's done down to the finest minutiae, God's in control of that too, which means this, when things happen in your life, circumstances change in your life, people treat you a certain way in your life,
11:05 those things are not happening to you, they're happening for you. Do you know what that means? That means God's unfolding that for you. Because Romans 8 31 says that if God is for us, who can be against us?
11:17 All life circumstances are happening for you. They're for your good. They're for your benefit. They're not just happening to you. Now when blessing comes, we're like, oh man, look what God did for me. When hardship
11:28 comes, we're like, look what the devil did to me. No, look what God's unfolding for you there too, right? And that's what it is. And so 2 words, 2 words that will be super helpful to
11:40 you in this as you continue to journey with the Lord. You wanna know 2 words? Ready for them? 2 words you can use in your relationship with God. Change me. Change me. When you
11:52 begin to pray that way, your life will begin to change. Your life will begin to change. Think about your marriage. Think about your marriage. Those of you say, well, I wanna I want a more solid marriage. Here's how you
12:04 can pray. Lord, change me. You want a better dating life? Lord, change me. You want a better relationship with your kids? Lord, change me. Kids, you want a better relationship with your parents? Lord, change me. Do you
12:14 know why that's so important? Because here's what we tend to pray for. Lord, change my circumstances and change all these people around me and then I'll feel a lot better about what's going on in my life.
12:26 Change my health, change everything around me, change these people, change my boss, change my employees, change my neighbors, change the circumstance, make it better. And once you do, I'll know your God.
12:39 Sometimes God's not gonna change the circumstances and sometimes God's not gonna change anybody else. Here's who God wants to change, you. He's wanting to change you. If you're in a difficult situation and you begin to
12:49 pray, Lord, change me. I don't see what needs to change, but obviously it's me. You're trying to get my attention. I'm uncomfortable here. This doesn't seem to be working. What do you wanna change in me? Because I find
13:00 that when we're dealing with people that are difficult or hard, we're asking God, Lord, make them more holy. Change them. That's fine to pray that way as long as you're gonna start with yourself. Lord, I know I'm not
13:10 perfect and how do I represent you best in this situation? What's it look like for me here? How can you go with me? Because as you're willing to change, guess what? Then you can invite God on the journey with you to go
13:20 change you. Then you actually need his help. Lord, I need you to change me. The best way to stunt your growth in the Christian faith is to think that you're just fine the way you are. I'm doing okay. There's no
13:32 plateau in the Christian faith. As my college football coach used to say, you're either green and growing or you're ripe and rotting. You can't just plateau. Like, as soon as I get here, I'll just coast. I'll be good.
13:42 No, you won't. You'll start going back the other way. In every situation, Lord, change me. And if you'll pray that way, God will change you. Moment by moment, step by step, minute by minute,
13:54 hour by hour, month by month, year by year. Lord, change me. We want everybody else around us to Lord, change my church. When you make it a good church, I'll I'll be excited about it. Lord, change the worship songs.
14:05 Lord, Lord, change the way they do kids ministry. Lord, change my neighbors. Change my neighborhoods. Lord, change my house. Change my income. Change. Lord, change me to be content with everything you're unfolding and
14:16 show me what you're trying to show me in this situation so that I can allow you to do what you want to do. Because change is necessary in any relationship. Change is healthy in any relationship,
14:29 right? I mean, think about it. You know, if you're 50 years old now but you're still relating to your mom like you did when you're 5, that's unhealthy, right? I mean, if you're still acting like you did when you were 18
14:40 years old in high school and you're 50 years old right now, that's unhealthy. Change is necessary for a relationship. In your relationship with Christ, change is necessary. And 1 of the things that should be
14:52 happening that's normal for a believer over time is what I used to be, I'm no longer that. Man, I look back over 30 years. What I was when I first came to Christ, I'm no longer that. What I was in college, I'm no longer
15:02 that. What I was in my twenties, I'm no longer that. In thirties, I was no longer that. What I was when I planted this church, I'm no longer that. And I know God's growing me and changing me. I hope I can say in 5 years,
15:11 I'm no longer that. God's pleased with where I am, but he's not content with it because until I'm perfected in holiness and walking it out in every way, God's gonna continue through his holy spirit to help me magnify the
15:23 resurrected Christ in my life. The question is, am I willing? Because for many of us, we're not saying this. We're not saying change me. We're not praying Psalm 1 39, search me and try me, oh Lord. See if there's any
15:34 offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. We're saying, Lord, look at their offensive way and look at this offensive circumstance and change that and change them. You wanna grow with Christ? You wanna
15:44 experience more of his presence in your life? Pray this prayer. Lord, change me. And what I found over time is he will do it, not change people, not change circumstances. Some of the
15:56 reasons that some of you are so anxious and stressed out all the time is that's not the way you're praying. You think you can change somebody else. Here's some free marital advice. It'll save you lots of money. You
16:08 can't change your spouse. You can't change your kids. You can't change anybody. And the only way you can actually change yourself is to truly let the Lord come and empower your life through his holy spirit. You can't
16:20 change others. But yet we spend so much time trying to change our sons and our daughters and our wives and our husbands and our neighbors and our employees and our employer and our church. We're trying to spend all this
16:31 and then we're all anxious because it's not working. You can't do it. Pray for God to do what he wants to do. Mean, think about Jesus. Didn't he pray just like this? Jesus didn't have a desire to go to the cross
16:42 or want to like, oh, I'm so looking forward to this. What was he praying? Father, if there's any other way, I would like it to be that. If there's a different way that my people could treat me, I would
16:54 love that. If there's another circumstance that could happen other than me going to the cross, that's what I want. But not what I want, what you want, dad. It's okay to pour your heart out to the Lord. We're gonna talk
17:04 about that today. But it's also right to settle in when the Lord has you in a situation and say, Lord, just change me in the middle of this circumstance. I'm uncomfortable with it. It doesn't say in
17:16 the Bible rejoice in your circumstances. Says give thanks in all circumstances. It says what? Rejoice in the Lord. Say it again, rejoice. I'm rejoicing in the Lord and I'm thankful that God's in my circumstances even
17:27 though I'm not thankful for all my circumstances. Right? And that's what the bible's teaching. So if you want more of God's presence in your life, there has to be a willing on your part to change. When relationships
17:38 don't change, when someone wants you to be someone you used to be a long time ago, that's when a relationship needs to end. That's when it's not working anymore because it's not dynamic and you're not growing and you're
17:49 not doing it. It's not about changing others, not about changing other circumstances, it's about letting the Lord change you. That's why repentance and obedience are essential to the Christian faith. They're essential.
18:01 When I go before the Lord, there's things he's calling me to change. There's things he's calling me to turn from. There's things he's calling me to become. There's new ways of obedience. There's always a further step
18:10 than wherever I'm at. I need to be willing to change. Number 2 is this. Pleading for God's presence not only requires a willingness to change, but a commitment of time. This requires a commitment of time.
18:22 Because for some people when they hear that, okay, I want more of God. If he wants to give that to me, that'd be great, but I'm kinda busy right now. No, it requires your time. Notice what happens. Verse 7. Now Moses
18:33 used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
18:42 This is not the tabernacle. This is before the tabernacle. He's been given instructions for the tabernacle that has not been erected and built yet. This is his tent. This is his own personal tent, and he doesn't meet in
18:52 the camp where all the sin is. He spends some time going outside the camp. So when Moses is gonna meet with God, he has to get his tent, go out to a specific place, pitch his tent, and get ready to meet the Lord there.
19:02 And it came about, verse 8, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. Whenever Moses entered the
19:14 tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would
19:24 arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. So Moses would take his tent, he'd go outside the camp, he'd pitch his tent. When people saw him going out, they would say, oh, the Lord's presence
19:36 is gonna come. This is how it's gonna work. Moses would set up his tent. He'd pitch his tent. They'd all stand out by their tents looking off in the distance, and then they would see the pillar of cloud come when Moses
19:45 entered the tent. And when they saw God coming, they would worship him. They would worship his presence. That's how it worked. So in order for Moses to meet with God, it wasn't just like Moses could wake up in his own
19:56 tent or on his blanket and be like, Lord, I just wanna talk to you right now and God would talk to him. There had to be effort on his part to go outside the camp, to pitch his tent, and to be super intentional that he
20:06 wanted to spend time with God. Now the good news is Jesus Christ came and he pitched his tent among us. He tabernacled among us. His presence is willing to meet you everywhere, but there's still intentionality on your
20:18 part that needs to take place in order for that to happen. It's not going to happen automatically. Just by you waking up and thinking, well, I'd like to have more of God in my life, it's gonna take some time and
20:27 intentionality for you to pursue the Lord, for you to take time consistently to want to linger in his presence. And I don't know about you, but when it comes to lingering in the presence of the Lord, it's not
20:39 like I just go home and open my Bible and start reading and hear sounds of angels and tingly feelings all inside. I mean, sometimes when I'm reading the word, it's difficult. As I'm reading the word, I'm thinking about
20:50 the calls I need to make and the texts that I need to return and the schedule I have and things that are going on. And I can even read a whole chapter and say, what did I just read? There has to be intentionality about
21:00 what we do and it can't be manufactured. It's why when it comes to your own personal time with the Lord, I'd encourage you to pick the same place daily, to pick the same time daily. You know,
21:12 maybe you have the same chair that you sit in daily. Maybe you have the same plan. Because what I find is if I just get up and say, okay, I think I'll go spend time with the Lord, it's hard to know exactly what to do.
21:23 But if you're reading through a book of the Bible and you're gonna read at 7 in the morning every day and you're gonna spend 15 minutes doing that and you're gonna journal when you do that and you're gonna pray when you
21:32 the more routine you can make it, the better. There has to be a commitment of time. There has to be time that you are pursuing and that you want the things of God. Coming to church on a weekend is 1 of those times where
21:44 you're making a commitment to drive in, to be here, to be among God's people, to pursue him, to experience all that he would have for you. Now some people get all caught up, well, what does it look like and what do I
21:55 have to do? And that's the wrong question. You can go through all the religious motions and still not have the presence of God. It's wanting what God wants. I'll give you an example. When I was a youth pastor, I think I
22:05 was the age of I think I was 24 when I started in ministry. When I was 24, we didn't have church services online. We didn't have podcasts that you could watch. If you wanted to hear somebody preach the word that wasn't
22:16 your pastor, you had to listen to the radio. And I found a guy by the name of Doctor. Tony Evans who became a mentor of mine from a distance and at 10 30 in the Chicago area, I would listen to Moody Bible Radio and he
22:27 would come on at 10 30 every single day and I would have my Bible and I would have a yellow tablet. Now, when you listen to the radio, there's no rewind, you can't get the podcast again. I just would sit there and
22:37 feverishly take as many notes as I could every single day, Monday through Friday. That's what I did. That's how I started to learn the Bible. And the ones that were really good or where I didn't get the notes, I would
22:45 send off like 3 to 5 dollars and get 1 of those things. You may know what these are. They're called cassette tapes. Remember those? And you put them in your car and then I would wear that out over and over until I knew
22:55 it backwards and forwards and could preach it like he preached it because I wanted that in my heart. I wanted to know what he knew, right? There was a hunger for that. When there's a hunger for God, you will be
23:07 satisfied. And so the commitment is not just a commitment of time like you're checking the box, The commitment is I'm pursuing the relationship because I want the relationship to grow, right? When you're
23:19 married and you go on a date, if you're just checking the box, it's different than if you're pursuing your spouse, right? There's a commitment of time that I wanna give to this because I want what
23:31 God wants. And so notice what happens here in verse 11 when he got into the tent. It says, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face just as a man speaks to his friend.
23:43 We're gonna see later talking about what it means to speak face to face. Here it's talking about, he's relating to him. He's talking to him like you would talk to anybody else. Now I know what some of you are thinking.
23:53 I'd go pitch a tent outside my hometown if I knew God would appear to me in a pillar of cloud and speak to me face to face, to which I would say, I got 1 better for you. Anytime you open up the word of God and you wanna
24:04 hear what God wants to say, he will speak to you. He'll meet you right where you're at. Quit looking for the experience and look for God. He wants to talk to you. He wants to know you. He wants to
24:16 be with you. God's speaking with Moses because Moses is gonna need to know what God says in order for him to accomplish what God wants. Can I tell you this? You're gonna need to know what God says in order to accomplish
24:26 what God wants to accomplish with your life. You need to know the voice of God. You need his presence in your life. And notice what happens next. It says, when Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua,
24:38 the son of Nun, a young man would not depart from the tent. Now we're gonna read about Joshua later as we continue to journey on. I've talked through the book. It's a great book of
24:50 victory where Joshua takes the people into the promised land. After a 40 year camping trip, they're ready to go and Joshua rallies the troops and goes. What made Joshua qualified for
25:01 ministry? What prepared him for everything God wanted him to do? You know what it was? Even when Moses left, Joshua was like, I'm hanging right in the presence of God. God's presence is what you
25:13 need for everything God's calling you to do. God's presence is the most important asset that a believer has. We don't read how Joshua went to seminary. We don't realize all the
25:25 theological nuances that he learned. We here's what we know. He wanted to be in the presence of God, and he lingered in God's presence. If you wanna be equipped for everything God has for you, linger
25:37 in the presence of God. There's something special about doing that. That's why worship services that open up the word of God and preach are important. That's why worship services that celebrate the resurrected Christ and
25:47 singing are important. That's why our first Tuesday meeting where we're all gathering and praying and seeking the face of God are so important. That's why when we go on mission and cadres and we're doing prayer care and
25:57 share for the lost and we're going among the lost and we're inviting God to come with us, it's so important because we can experience the presence of God and there's nothing more important than his presence. And I can
26:08 say this, I've had moments, they don't happen every single time I open the Bible where God descends like a dove and just lays on me. But I have had a couple moments like that in my journey. And when I've had those
26:19 moments, I don't want them to end. And I wish they lingered and I wish they continued on and it's just whetting my appetite for what someday we're gonna experience in the coming kingdom. And on this side of heaven, we
26:31 won't have full immersion of God's manifest presence everywhere we never wanna leave. That day's coming. But until then, we want more and more and more of his presence. And if you have a willingness to change and you
26:42 have a commitment of time and you're willing to give God your best, God will manifest himself in and through you. The third way is this. Once you're willing to change and commit your time, there has to be number
26:54 3, a devotion to the relationship. If you're gonna plead for the presence, there has to be a devotion to and for the relationship. Notice this, verse 12. Then
27:06 Moses said to the Lord Now God's told him, I'm sending the angel before you. It's gonna be good. I'm not going, but y'all go. It's gonna be good. Then Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to
27:17 me, bring up this people, but you yourself have not let me know whom you will send with me. Moreover, you have said, I have known you by name and you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore I pray,
27:29 if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people. Here's what he's pleading for.
27:41 You know me. You say I have favor in your sight. You know all my ways. You're acquainted with everything about me. I don't know that I know you all that well. I need to know you. I need to know your ways. I need to know
27:53 how you think about every single issue if I'm gonna lead these people. I need to know what you think. Now, how do we learn God's ways? We learn God's ways through his word. God's word teaches us what he requires. If you
28:03 wanna know what marriage is all about, the Bible is the best handbook for marriage. If you wanna know what singleness is all about, Bible is the best handbook. If you wanna know how to steward your money, the Bible is
28:12 the best handbook. I mean, God is gonna tell you about all his ways. But in order to experience his ways, in order to say, I'm familiar with God's ways, I know God's ways, you have to live out those ways.
28:24 Can I give you an example? When I got married, I knew God's ways of marriage. I'd read through Ephesians 5 many times. I'd read through first Peter 3, first Corinthians 7. I know the Bible. I know what it requires,
28:37 but I didn't know how to practice it. I mean, Kim and I just celebrated 18 years of marriage, we would tell you they've been the 16 happiest years of our lives because the first 2 were killers because
28:49 I knew what to do, I didn't know how to do it. Some of us can read through the Bible, Here's what God says about saving, here's what God says about stewarding, here's what God says about spending. I see it, I just don't
29:00 know how to do it. Becoming familiar with God's ways is learning to put into practice the very things he shows you and it takes time to do that. It's not automatic. But if there's a devotion to the
29:11 relationship, meaning I want what you want when it comes to this or anything, when it comes to my dating life, God come on all my dates. When it comes to my marriage, you're in my marriage. When it comes to my family,
29:23 you're in my family. When it comes to my job, you're in my job. When it comes to what I'm doing for fun, come along. I want you to be part of everything I'm doing. That's devotion to the relationship. And Moses is
29:32 telling God, listen, you say you know me, you say I found favor, I don't even know why, but I don't know you and I don't know your ways and I need to know how you want me to operate if I'm actually going to lead your
29:44 people. So share with me what you're doing. Secondly, he prays this way. He wants his presence. Notice verse 14. And he said, this is God speaking, my present shall go with you
29:55 and I will give you rest. Where do you find rest? In the presence of the Lord. You will not find it any other place in this world. Even after a good night's sleep, you can wake up and be stressed. The only place you can
30:06 find rest is in the presence of Christ. So then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. Do you hear what he's saying? God's promised him, I'm giving you the
30:18 promised land. I'll be true to my word. I'll send my angel ahead of you. It'll destroy all your enemies. You can go. You can have all my blessing. Moses is like, I don't want your blessing. I want you. And if I don't
30:29 have you, I could care less about your blessing. You see a difference between that and religion? Religion would say, as long as God blesses me, I'm good. Christianity says, as long as I have God, I don't care about the
30:40 blessing. God is my blessing. Moses is saying, I don't care you drive out my enemies. Don't care if you give us the promised land. I don't care if it's flowing with milk and honey. I don't care what it looks like. If
30:51 you're not going, then I'm not going either. I want you. That level of intimacy is what allows the presence of God to dwell. That level of intimacy says, God, I want you. I want what you
31:03 want. That makes us different than others because notice what he says in verse 16 For how then can it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by
31:14 your going with us so that we, I and your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth? What makes a Christian distinct from any other person on the planet?
31:26 Answer, the presence of God. Sometimes we try to share the gospel with words only. We try to share it with theology. I'm a Christian because I believe this. You don't believe this. Therefore, I'm a Christian and
31:38 you're not. Well, there's truth in that, but what we should be able to say is because I believe what I believe, I'm living differently than how you live and I have a joy that you don't have and I have desires that you
31:49 don't know and that's why you need what I have because what I have is so much better than what you don't have. That's the gospel. It's God's presence that changes us. You ever been around somebody and you can tell in
32:00 about 2 seconds when you're with them, this person walks with God? You can feel the Lord almost emanating off of them in a conversation or just in a look or in a manner of I mean, you can just
32:12 sense that the Lord is with them. Like, that's what he's talking about. We need God's presence in our life. We need to know his ways and we need his presence. And too often as Christians, we're like, I don't care about
32:23 your ways. I don't even care if you come. Just bless me, God. I just want every good thing you have for me and that's missing the whole point of what the Bible is about, which is the glorification of the Lord Jesus
32:34 Christ. It's having a personal relationship with him. And then notice what Moses says next. Not only do I wanna know your ways, not only do I want your presence, I wanna see your glory. I wanna experience
32:46 this. Now notice what Moses says, verse 18. It's a very interesting verse. Then Moses said, I pray you, show me your glory. Now when you read that after reading through the book of Exodus, it should be startling
32:59 because here's a guy that's praying this prayer who has seen God show up in a burning bush and speak to him without the bush being consumed. A guy that's spoken directly to him and told him to go to Egypt and deliver his
33:09 people, a God who has spoken through him to the nation's leader several different times telling him to let his people go, has rained down 10 plagues and gotten the people out, has shown them the Passover for what
33:21 they're gonna celebrate, has got them out of the land, and even when they were at the brink of disaster, protected them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea, took them all through the Red Sea, and then closed the Red Sea on
33:33 all of Israel's enemies and crushed the Egyptian army. Not only that, but then when they complained about not having enough water, God provided water. When they didn't have food, God provided manna. When they said that's
33:44 not good enough for us, we want meat, God provided quail. Then when it was their enemies that they needed, he came and helped them defeat the Amalekites. Then he brings them all the way up to Mount Sinai where he appears
33:54 as a consuming fire and invites Moses up without being consumed to speak with them. And now Moses is like, yeah, so show me your glory. It's kinda like, well, what more do you wanna see bro? I mean, that's how
34:06 I read it. But here's what I think Moses was saying. I think Moses was saying this, like, I need to know that that God that I've experienced is listening to what I'm saying now. I think that God that I'm experiencing is
34:16 gonna show me his ways, that God I've experienced is gonna be with me in his presence. So show me that you're hearing me. I wanna know this. And so God makes a promise, I'll do that. I'll do that. Notice what he says in
34:28 verse 19, he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will show
34:39 compassion. But he said to you, you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Now wait, wait, Didn't we just read that he spoke to him face to face like a man? He was saying, I'll speak to you face to
34:51 face. I'll relate to you, but you cannot see my unveiled nature and live. Nobody can see my unveiled nature and live. I mean, even examples we have in the Bible like Jacob wrestling with the angel or Isaiah
35:03 seeing the Lord high and lifted up in the temple or John in Revelation several different times sees the resurrected Christ in all his glory. It's always the manifestation of God through an angel, through a man,
35:14 through Jesus. It's never the unveiled fullness of who God is. No man could see that and live, right? And what we know through the New Testament is the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. When we see Jesus,
35:25 we've seen the father. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. So we'll get to see all the manifested glory in Jesus someday, just not the full unveiled glory of all that God is. He's like, I'm so glorious and I'm so
35:37 good. I can't show you all of me because you can't take it. You can't live if you do. But here's what I'll do. The Lord said, behold, there's a place in me and you shall stand there on the rock
35:49 and it shall come about when my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face
35:59 shall not be seen. Now we're talking about God the father, we're talking about spirit. We're talking about not having a body like Jesus Christ has. And so he doesn't have a right hand. He's not covering up Moses, but it
36:08 is interesting, isn't it? Where does he put him? In the cleft of what? Rock. Who is Jesus Christ? The rock. It's like he's almost hiding them in Jesus and saying, I'm gonna put you right there in Christ and then I'm
36:19 gonna come on by. I'm gonna give you a glimpse of my glory. You can't see the fullness of it, but I'll give you a glimpse of it so you'll know that I'm listening to what you're praying. I'll let you see who I am. And
36:31 friends, that's what we have That's why we need a devotion to this relationship. We need a devotion to relationship. We're in this together with God. Now notice what Moses is doing. He's pouring his heart out to God.
36:41 He's pouring his heart out. Religious people do not pour out their heart to God. Religious people pray. Christians pour out their heart to God. Do you know the difference? Here's just 1 verse from the New Testament or
36:52 the Old Testament. Psalms is filled with these, but this is just 1. Psalms 62 and verse 8 says it like this. Trust in him at all times, oh people, pour out your heart before him. GodShow more
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