Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Well, good morning.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: We're in the book of Exodus, and so we're in chapter 33. But I think it's helpful for us that if we just review a little
[00:00:10] Speaker A: bit of what's been happening, right, that
[00:00:12] Speaker B: we begin the book of Exodus with this people group, the Israelites. They're a small people group that has grown into a larger people group in Egypt. And they were brought there because that was where they went to escape a famine that God brought them to Egypt in order to. To provide for them out of this famine. Well, quickly their stay there devolves into something that's not a great blessing to them, that they're then put into captivity by the Egyptians. And so they're slaves, that they're forced to hard labor. And so in that state, we get introduced to this little baby that's born that his mother, against the.
The command of the Egyptian Pharaoh to kill all of the boys that are born, decides to raise this little boy, hiding him. And then ultimately, when he gets to a point where he's. He can't be hidden anymore, then she places him in this little basket that the Bible calls an ark, and she puts him into the Nile river and he floats down to Pharaoh's daughter and she brings him into the house of Pharaoh and she raises him.
That this little baby finds favor and grows up in Pharaoh's house of privilege.
And yet he reaches a point where he's got to make a decision. Is he going to stand with the people of Israel, his people, or is he going to take on the comfort of the Egyptian household that would he just live in the comfort and the prestige of being in Pharaoh's house?
[00:01:50] Speaker A: And he makes a decision to stand with the people of Israel.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: And so in that decision, then he then is ostracized from the people of Egypt. But at the same point, he's ostracized from his own people that they don't want him, they reject him.
So he flees, and he ends up out in this desert.
He protects a couple ladies at a well that turns out well for him,
[00:02:14] Speaker A: that he finds a wife in the
[00:02:15] Speaker B: midst of that, that then he becomes a shepherd. And while he's watching these sheep and goats, then he's by this mountain and he sees this burning bush.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: He begins to walk over inquisitively to
[00:02:28] Speaker B: look at this burning bush that's not being consumed, it's on fire, and yet it's not consumed.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: And a voice speaks to him from heaven that God tells him to take off his shoes because he's on holy ground.
God tells him that he's going to
[00:02:42] Speaker B: use him and that as a sign to him, he's going to bring him and the people of Israel back to this same mountain that will be a sign for you.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Moses is like, how are we going to do that?
God says, I'm going to use you to go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go.
Moses has a speech impediment.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: He says, I can't speak in front of Pharaoh. Like, I have a stammering tongue. You got to send somebody else. It can't be me.
So God graciously sends Aaron alongside of him to be the mouthpiece. But God uses Moses to go back
[00:03:16] Speaker A: to Pharaoh and say, let the people go. God has said, let the people go,
[00:03:20] Speaker B: that these are God's people, and he has heard their cry, and you should let them go.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Pharaoh goes back and forth, waffling. He says, okay, you can go. No, you can't. Okay, you can go. No, you can't.
As God demonstrates his power.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: And the consequences of God's judgment turn Pharaoh's heart into, okay, I want out of these consequences so they can go.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: And then he changes his mind and brings him back.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: And so over and over, this happens. Well, God finally gets to the 10th plague, and he shows all of the
[00:03:53] Speaker A: people his power
[00:03:58] Speaker B: that Egypt actually expels Israel. They kick them out. They give them gold and silver and all of this jewelry and all of these things they give to them to say, just leave us.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Because every household that does not have the blood of the lamb, the Passover lamb on their doorposts, the angel of death passes by and takes the firstborn.
But everyone that had the blood, the angel passes over.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: So the people of Israel, they flee out towards the wilderness, and they come to a place where they've got a mountain on this side and they've got the sea on this side, and they've got the Egyptian ark coming at them. And they're terrified that they're going to be killed or brought back into slavery. And God speaks to Moses, and he says, tell the people all they have
[00:04:54] Speaker A: to do is watch as I fight for them.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: That God then tells Moses to part the sea, that he stretches out his staff and the water raises up in a miraculous heap.
The people of Israel walk through on dry ground.
Egyptians try to follow after in their horses and chariots. God causes the chariots wheels to get stuck. All the Egyptians are in the middle of the sea, and God brings the
[00:05:22] Speaker A: water back over the top of them.
That God rescues his people from slavery.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: But God then continues to lead his people. He leads them in a specific way. He tells Moses where to lead them. That they get to a place where they're like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna eat out here? God just brought us out here to die.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: No. God shows that he can feed that
[00:05:46] Speaker B: nation that he rescued, that he's with them, that he feeds them with manna from heaven.
They complain about just eating manna all the time. So he brings quail in. They complain that they don't have any water. And so God provides water. They complain that the water is bitter, so he makes it sweet.
That God continually is with his people and he's providing for them every step of the way. He brings them back to the very mountain that he told Moses he would bring them to.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: And he reveals himself.
That the mountain shakes, that fire comes down, that they see that there is a holy God who is leading his people.
God calls Moses up on the mountain. And in the 40 days that he's up there, which isn't a small amount of time, but in the 40 days
[00:06:37] Speaker B: that he's up there, the people begin
[00:06:40] Speaker A: to wonder, where is this guy? Is he coming back? What's going on?
Tell Aaron, hey, can you make us a God that we can worship?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: That this sinful people want to dwell with a holy God? And so instead of obeying the ten Commandments, the words which God has spoken to them, which they've already said, we will obey that this is God's path to flourishing, they said, no, we're actually
[00:07:09] Speaker A: going to break the first one and worship false gods. And we're going to break the second one. We're going to make gods in a
[00:07:16] Speaker B: different image, in the image of a cow. So what we looked at last week is they give all their gold and jewelry, they take it out of their ears, and they give all this gold and jewelry which God had given them from the Egyptians. They give it to Aaron and he says, well, I just threw it in the fire and out pop this cow, right? It's silly. No, he had fashioned it is what the text said, that he had carved this thing.
And then we see that Moses calls
[00:07:43] Speaker A: to the people and he says, whom will you stand with?
Whoever will stand with the Lord come to me.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: That he calls them to repentance.
He calls them to follow after God in his will and his ways. And yet God has described this people as a stiff necked people.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: And yet God hasn't abandoned them.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: And what we're going to find out in our text today, this is where we pick up in the story. And it's important that we catch everything back up of where we've been and what we've been doing. That God didn't just rescue this people in order to free them from slavery. No, he rescued them because he wanted
[00:08:21] Speaker A: to dwell with them.
That these would be his people, that
[00:08:25] Speaker B: the nations would know who God is because they see his people.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: That was the goal.
God's presence among his people.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: What we see in this text, the
[00:08:37] Speaker A: main point, is that the greatest blessing God gives his people is his presence.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: That God's greatest blessing he gives his
[00:08:46] Speaker A: people is his presence. Would you pray with me? And then we'll jump into our text.
God, we come to you asking that your spirit would work in our midst, Lord. That we would be able to learn from the warnings that we see in this text, but that we would be able to comprehend and understand that your presence is our greatest blessing, Lord. That to have one day in your courts is better than a thousand doing
[00:09:24] Speaker B: phenomenal, fantastic things anywhere else, because it's
[00:09:27] Speaker A: apart from your presence.
I pray that we might be captivated by your glory and by desiring to be in your presence. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: Well, let's pick up here in the
[00:09:42] Speaker A: story as it continues, beginning in verse one of chapter 33, says this that
[00:09:51] Speaker B: the Lord said to Moses, depart, 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. I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites go up to
[00:10:14] Speaker A: the land flowing with milk and honey.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: And so we get to this place where the people of Israel have just sinned greatly.
They've disobeyed God, and yet God says right here. He says, okay, now go from here.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: I'm gonna send you into the promised land, the land which I promised to
[00:10:32] Speaker B: your fathers, and I'm gonna send an angel with you. And this angel's gonna lead you and protect you. This angel's gonna drive out the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and all the bad things.
He's going to drive them out of this promised land.
And remember, this promised land is described
[00:10:53] Speaker A: as a land flowing with milk and honey.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: We're like, all right, but look at
[00:11:01] Speaker A: the end of verse three.
And God says, but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people.
And we go, whoa, wait a minute.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: We see unfold in this first scene that God says, I'll give you the
[00:11:24] Speaker A: blessings, but I won't send my presence.
We go, whoa, wait a minute.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: I wonder if God were to ask
[00:11:34] Speaker A: you this question, would you be like, all right, let's go.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: We get the land, you gonna drive out all of our enemies?
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Like, let's go.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Like we get everything that we were wanting. If God answered your greatest desire right
[00:11:51] Speaker A: now, maybe it's a relationship that would be reconciled.
Maybe it's a house or a job.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: If God answered what you've been asking
[00:12:05] Speaker A: for and said, I'll give you that, but I won't be with you, would you want it?
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Do you want the blessings
[00:12:21] Speaker A: if they come apart from God's presence or do you want God's presence?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: You see, that's what's really put on
[00:12:30] Speaker A: display here is that that God is examining the heart of the people.
See, God's desire was to dwell among his people.
He wanted to be their God.
He wanted relationship with them, but they just wanted his blessings.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: They wanted a God that they could control. We see that in the Golden Calf. They wanted a God that they could manipulate. They wanted a God that would serve them rather than them having to serve him.
That God tells them, I'll give you
[00:13:07] Speaker A: the blessings, but I won't go with you. And we see why he won't go with them.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: He says, lest I consume you, that how does a sinful people dwell with a holy God?
We've been seeing this over and over and that it has to come through a mediator that God couldn't be in the presence of this stiff necked, rebellious people again. He calls them this stiff neck that they constantly rebelling and pulling against God's will and God's ways that they, they
[00:13:35] Speaker A: are constantly pushing to rule themselves and to do it their own way.
So God says, I can't go with you because I would consume you in my wrath of holiness.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: But we see in this text that, that there's a question.
How will the people respond when they hear that they can have the blessings of God but they can't have his presence?
How will they respond?
The application of how will you and I respond?
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Look at verse four.
It says when the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: They mourned that this was a disaster. To have God's Presence removed from them is a disaster. We looked at it last week that there's the disaster of idolatry.
But now they recognize that God's blessings
[00:14:41] Speaker A: without God's presence is not a blessing at all.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Because the greatest blessing God gives us is his presence.
That to be in the Promised Land without God is not a blessing.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: The Promised land without his presence would be disastrous.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: And so they mourn and they put on. No one puts on their ornaments. We're going to get a little explanation about this. So they don't get all dressed up, they don't put their jewelry back on because they're in mourning, that there is a fruit of repentance. Look at this in verse 5. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are a stiff necked people.
If for a single moment I should
[00:15:27] Speaker A: go up among you, I would consume you.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Because their hearts are rebellious to God.
He says, so now take off your
[00:15:37] Speaker A: ornaments that I may know what to do with you. This is interesting, right?
[00:15:43] Speaker B: That God tells Moses to tell the people to take off their ornaments so that he can see what's in their heart.
This is the fruit of repentance.
Is it sinful to wear jewelry?
[00:16:00] Speaker A: No.
But when that jewelry was what you fashioned a golden calf out of, which caused you to worship an idol rather than the one true God, then God's saying, will you turn away from those things in order to be with me?
Listen, it's the same thing for you and I.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: We sometimes address sin in the way of going.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: How close to the line can I get without it being sin?
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Well, this isn't sin.
Rather than going, that's caused me to
[00:16:30] Speaker A: sin in the past, let me flee from it, it's showing their heart.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Do they want the acceptance of the culture at the expense of God's presence?
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Which would you prefer?
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Would you rather be accepted by the culture?
Would you rather be approved and appreciated by the culture? Or would you rather show the fruit
[00:16:58] Speaker A: of repentance and have God's presence?
That's the question.
God said, this jewelry which I gave you as a gift, has caused you to sin.
And now will you turn away from it?
And the people, they repented, they showed
[00:17:22] Speaker B: the fruit of repentance.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: They showed what was in their heart,
[00:17:25] Speaker B: that they really do want to worship God. And yet they constantly find themselves turning back.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: The second scene that we see in here, after the people strip themselves of all this jewelry, from this point on until Mount Horeb, they don't go back to it, that they turn away from it. That doesn't mean they're not going to struggle in mighty ways, but not in this way.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: The second scene that we see here is something unique, and it shows us that God's presence comes through a mediator. That God has said, I can't be with you for a moment, lest I consume you. And then verse seven opens like this, that. Now, Moses used to take the tent
[00:18:09] Speaker A: and he would pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and
[00:18:12] Speaker B: 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.
Now, it's important that God has just given instruction for the tabernacle which is inside the camp, that God would be in their midst, his presence among his people. And yet now we've got this circumstance where Moses has to take the tent outside the camp and that everyone who wants to meet with the Lord is out there, not in here.
This is interesting.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: So verse 8.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: So 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. And so they're watching Moses because what are they trying to discern? They're trying to discern, has God abandoned us? Has God forsaken us? Is God done with us?
[00:19:04] Speaker A: And so they watch Moses walk out, and they watch him walk to this tent.
Verse 9. And when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent. And the Lord would speak to Moses.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: And when all the people saw the
[00:19:20] Speaker A: pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door.
And praise God he hasn't forsaken us.
Praise God that he hasn't left us.
Praise God that his presence is still with us.
They began to worship him, but his presence wasn't among them.
It was outside.
And it had to come to them through a mediator. It was Moses who would go.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: So verse 11.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
And when Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: We get some little Easter eggs.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: We've been hearing about Joshua a little bit. He went up on the mountain with Moses. He's now sitting in the tent.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: These are Easter eggs which are telling us that Joshua is going to be the next leader. You get to the book of Joshua, and Joshua is actually the one who leads the people into the promised Land that Joshua is learning from Moses what it looks like to sit in the presence of God, order to lead the people of God.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: But what we see in this scene is that God's presence isn't dwelling among his people. God's presence is mediated through Moses, whom God speaks to, as it describes here, face to face.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: This is an anthropomorphism, that this is describing God as having a face. We know that God doesn't have a body, he is spiritual. We're going to see a couple other places where he's going to say this, that God is going to have a hand, that God is going to speak
[00:21:00] Speaker A: like he has a mouth.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: We see this in other places, but it's an anthropomorphism giving God human characteristics
[00:21:07] Speaker A: in order to help us understand what's going on.
[00:21:10] Speaker B: And so it says that Moses would
[00:21:12] Speaker A: meet with God face to face, and he would speak to him as one speaks to a friend, that there's favor
[00:21:22] Speaker B: that this mediator between a sinful people and a holy God we see in the shape of Moses, but it points us beyond Moses to the shape of a cross,
[00:21:34] Speaker A: where the true mediator would come and bridge the gap between a sinful people and a holy God. That God wouldn't consume them, but that they could be in his presence.
We're going to spend, I think it's five weeks in the book of Hebrews at the end of Exodus, pulling out these deep, rich truths which show us
[00:21:57] Speaker B: that Moses is just pointing to Christ, who is the better mediator, because he
[00:22:02] Speaker A: pays the penalty of our sin.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: Because he can give us confidence to come into the presence of God. Not that we wait and watch from our own tents to see. Oh, man, Cool.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: God's presence is still over there.
Wish it was with me.
Know that we have confidence that God is with us.
God's presence comes through a mediator.
But then lastly we see in this third scene, we see that Moses is satisfied only with the glory of God.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: That he's satisfied with the glory of God. Look at verse 12. It says that Moses said to the Lord in one of these meetings, see, you say to me, bring up this people. But you have not let me know who you will send with me.
Yet you have said, I know you by name. And you have also found favor in my sight.
So God and Moses are having this conversation. And God has given the command to Moses to bring up the people. And Moses is going, God, I don't know what people to bring up.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: You haven't shown that to me, but
[00:23:14] Speaker B: yet you Said that I have favor with you. And so let's see where he keeps going. Verse 13.
Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your way that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Consider too, that this nation is your people.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: Look at what Moses does.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Moses is interceding for the people, and he says, God, show me.
Show me.
Show me who you are as I lead this people.
But remember, these are your people.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Remember, these are your people which you brought out of the land of Egypt. These are your people which you desired to demonstrate your glory to the nations, because you were going to do it through these people, that you were going to show the world your character by
[00:24:05] Speaker A: the way you dwelled with these people.
He says, remember, consider too, that this nation is your people.
So God speaks back to Moses, and he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Look at the response.
He doesn't give him all this detail. God's been a very detailed God. He's told Moses exactly how to build the tabernacle. He's told him exactly all the things. But what does God promise? Right here?
[00:24:37] Speaker A: He says, my presence will be with you.
And in that you can rest.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: He doesn't always give us all the answers.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: But are we satisfied with his glory of his presence that we can rest in that?
Moses then responds. He said to him, if your presence will not go with me, then do not bring us up from here.
For how shall it be known that
[00:25:05] Speaker B: I have found favor in your sight,
[00:25:07] Speaker A: I and your people?
Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I
[00:25:16] Speaker B: and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? What makes them distinct? It's God's presence with them.
What makes Christians different.
What makes Christians different from everybody else in the world? It's not morality. We know that Christians sin. We know that sometimes sinful people are fairly moral.
It's not that they show up to church.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: It's that God's presence is in them.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: The thing that makes us distinct is that God put his spirit in us by trusting in Jesus Christ. That Christ bridged the gap of a sinful man and a holy God, that he brought us together in reconciliation, that God's presence could dwell in us.
Listen, this is the most incredible promise of all the scripture, that his presence
[00:26:14] Speaker A: is with us wherever you go, whatever you go through, whatever you face.
He says, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,
[00:26:28] Speaker B: that I'm going to demonstrate who I am and My character through you to the nations.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Because my presence is in you. And that's what makes you distinct.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: That's what makes you different from all the other people. It's that his presence is with us, in us.
But look at where Moses goes. He says, if your presence won't go, then don't send me, because that's what makes us different. Verse 17. And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: And I know your name.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: I just wonder, like, what does your prayer life look like?
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Does it look like God, would you do this for me? And God, would you provide that for me? And God, would you answer this? And, God, would you do this? And would you do that? And would you do this? And would you do that? What if we just said, God, would you show me yourself?
Would that be enough to have God?
Or do we just want his blessings?
See, he reveals our heart.
Listen, this steps all over my toes too.
Am I satisfied with his presence?
[00:27:50] Speaker B: If I could just have his presence. Look at what Moses says. Moses says, please, show me your glory, man.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: What a great prayer.
What a phenomenal prayer.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: God, show me your glory.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: And when I see your glory, I'll be transformed.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Show me your glory.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name. The Lord, he takes him all the way back to the place at the burning bush where he said, I am Yahweh.
He said, I've told you my name, and now I'm going to show you my glory.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I show mercy.
But he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there's a
[00:28:45] Speaker B: place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you
[00:28:54] Speaker A: with my hand until I pass by.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: And then I will take my hand
[00:28:58] Speaker A: away, and you shall see.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: See my back.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: But my face you shall not see.
When God does this with Moses, it transforms him. We'll see it in a little bit.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: But then he continues to put himself in the presence of God.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: And the text is wild in what
[00:29:17] Speaker B: it tells us, that because he beheld
[00:29:20] Speaker A: the glory of God, everyone in camp knew
[00:29:26] Speaker B: changed him.
And the reality for you and I is that when we behold the glory
[00:29:31] Speaker A: of God, it will change us.
And everyone will know it.
As I was thinking about this and just really practical, like what does it look like for us to sit in the presence of God?
[00:29:47] Speaker B: What does it mean for us to dwell in the presence?
[00:29:49] Speaker A: We know from the scripture that God
[00:29:51] Speaker B: doesn't take his presence from us, that
[00:29:53] Speaker A: he doesn't remove his spirit from us. He made us a promise that he
[00:29:56] Speaker B: would put his spirit actually when he ascends to the right hand of the Father in the Gospels, then it says, it's better that I go because I'm sending the helper. And he says that he will dwell in us, that God's spirit in us. For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, he removes a heart of stone, he puts a heart of flesh and he puts his spirit in us. That's the down payment of the hope that we have, that we too will rise with Christ as he rose.
So we know that he's not gonna remove that from us. So what does it mean for us to sit in the presence of God, that we would, we would desire his presence when we know that he's with us all the time?
Well, it made me think of the
[00:30:35] Speaker A: gospels where Jesus literally was present with his disciples.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: God in flesh present with his disciples.
And yet there's story after story, and one that just comes to mind is the disciples get in this boat and Jesus says, hey, let's sail across. And Jesus had been teaching, so he's in this boat and he's asleep in the front of the boat and they're sailing across and there's this huge storm that comes up in the middle of the sea and all the disciples, Jesus is in the front of the boat, but the disciples are paddling, they're bailing water. They're at a place where they're like, we're going to die.
They're scared, terrified, depending on themselves and their own self sufficiency.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: When the presence of God is in the boat with them, they wake him
[00:31:27] Speaker B: up and they're like, jesus, do you not care?
[00:31:31] Speaker A: He's like what?
[00:31:32] Speaker B: They're like the storm, we're all going to die.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: And he simply rebukes the storm and says, be still.
He was present with them the entire time and yet they did not tap into the reality of his presence among them.
How often has God said, I put my spirit in you and yet you're fighting sin on your own strength and power, thinking you can overcome it instead of depending on my presence and seeking me sitting in my presence.
How often are you terrified of the
[00:32:15] Speaker B: circumstances of life that are coming at you, that you find yourself in that are not a shock to God.
And yet you're terrified because you're trying to do it on your own strength, myself included.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: When he says, I'm with you and I will give you rest, be captivated by my glory.
Do we want the blessings of God or do we want the presence of God?
Which do you desire more?
He promises himself.
That's why he rescued Israel out of Egypt, that he could dwell among them. That's why he sent Jesus to this earth.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: That's why he came.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: He suffered and died in order that he might reconcile a sinful man to a holy God, that they might dwell in his presence.
Let's behold him and it will transform us and the world will know. Would you pray with me, Lord, as you've promised your presence with us, that you will never leave us or forsake us, that you are with us, Lord, I pray that we might tap into that by sitting in your word and
[00:33:41] Speaker B: beholding your glory, that you have made yourself known through your word, that you gave us your word, that you have given us prayer as an opportunity to sit and to sit with you face to face to behold you, Lord, that you would show us your glory, Lord, that we wouldn't be enamored by your blessings, but that we would be enamored by your presence,
[00:34:08] Speaker A: Lord. Would you convict our heart that we might repent of it and show the fruit of repentance in turning away from
[00:34:15] Speaker B: the things which so easily satisfy us
[00:34:18] Speaker A: or easily enamor us?
Or that we might behold you, That we might experience the awe and wonder of being able to be in your presence, Lord, Would you stir us up this week that we might behold you? We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
