The Weight of Glory

[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Thank you.

[1:00] Thank you. This is eternal life.

[1:32] What is eternal life? That you say it with me, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

[1:44] And it hit me because we often talk about what eternal life is. I know this is simple, but sometimes the simple things are profound. And this is the thought that hit me. Eternal life is simply knowing the eternal God.

[1:57] Eternal life is not heaven or clouds or some reunion someday. Eternal life is knowing the eternal God. And so you have eternal life now as you experience his presence and commune in relationship with the eternal God.

[2:17] And that's what we saw last week. As you remember, Moses is saying, God, if you don't go with us, then don't even take us up because we are nothing without your presence.

[2:28] Well, now in Exodus 33, Omo is going to take this another step forward. He's going to take the request up another level. And let's pick it up in verse 17.

[2:38] If you're able to stand, please do so as we honor the reading of God's Word. And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken I will do because you found favor in my sight and I know you by name.

[2:53] And Moses said, please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name, Yahweh.

[3:08] And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face for a man shall not see me and live.

[3:22] And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And while my glory passes by, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

[3:37] Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back. But my face shall not be seen.

[3:50] Now, I want you just to jump over several verses to chapter 34 and verse 29. Just this one verse. When Moses gets done and he comes down off Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand and he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't even know that the skin of his face was shining because he'd been talking with God.

[4:17] It's going to be good. Let's pray. All right. Come on, Lord. We are so thankful to study your word. So excited about what you're going to teach us tonight. Lord, even last week, how we were made for your presence and how we can enjoy your presence.

[4:34] Now, Lord, help us understand what Moses experienced here. And Lord, help us experience it as well. And we pray it in Jesus' name and God's people said, Amen.

[4:46] Amen. You can be seated. Richard Schiffman is an environmental journalist. And he writes for a variety of different publications. The New York Times, The Scientific American, as well as The Atlantic.

[5:01] And as a journalist, Richard has met a lot of famous people from all different types of walk of life. He's met celebrities. He's met a lot of famous people.

[5:12] But there was one particular occasion that Richard got to meet someone that absolutely left him speechless. And the person that he met was not a famous politician.

[5:25] It wasn't a professional athlete. It wasn't an award-winning actor. The person that he met was Edgar Mitchell, the pilot of Apollo 14.

[5:38] Back in 1971, Apollo 14 was the third Apollo mission to land on the moon. And that made Edgar the sixth person to ever step foot on the moon's surface.

[5:53] Edgar actually spent a total of nine hours taking samples and conducting experiments there on the surface of the moon.

[6:05] And his experience, as you can quite imagine, was amazing. It was breathtaking. But what Edgar said in this article, in this rare interview, was that what really changed his life was the trip home from the moon.

[6:22] Here's what Edgar said. Quote, The spacecraft was rotating to maintain the thermal balance of the sun. Every two minutes, picture this, every two minutes with every rotation, I saw the earth and then the moon and then the sun as they passed by the window.

[6:42] This 360 degree panorama of the heavens was breathtaking. The stars were ten times as bright and ten times as numerous as you could ever see on a high mountaintop on a clear night.

[6:59] But it wasn't just an intellectual knowledge. It was a subjective, visceral experience accompanied by ecstasy.

[7:14] You could call it a transformational experience. But then what Richard went on to say in this article after this interview struck me, He said it wasn't just Edgar's description of his transformational experience that jarred him.

[7:38] This was something that Schiffman said after he met Edgar. He said this, quote, It wasn't this man's fame that gave me goosebumps. It was the fact that I was face to face with one of only a handful of humans who left earth and walked on another world.

[8:04] Richard said this, For months after that encounter, I could not look up at the moon without thinking, I just met someone who was there.

[8:19] Faith family, have you ever been around someone or somebody who experienced something that you really wanted to experience? You know what I'm talking about? Like you're having that conversation and they say, Yeah, I just got back from Israel.

[8:32] And you're like, Oh my gosh, I would do anything to go on a trip like that. I would go any, I'd do anything to go there. Or maybe they say, You'll never guess who I just met. I just met this really famous person.

[8:43] And you would be like, Oh my goodness, That's amazing. I'd give anything to meet them. Or maybe they're like, I went to this concert. I can't believe I got tickets. And you're like, You got to go to that concert?

[8:54] Oh man, I would do anything to be able to have gone to that. All of us know what it's like to meet someone or talk to someone who got to experience something amazing that we wish we could experience as well.

[9:13] Amen? That is exactly how every single one of us ought to feel when we read Exodus chapter 33. Because in Exodus 33, Oh my, what we discover is not a man who got to experience the glory of the universe, but a man who got to experience the glory of the one who created it.

[9:38] Moses, Oh, far more than what Edgar ever got to experience, gets to experience the glory of the one who made it all.

[9:48] Now, quick review before we dive into the text. Remember in Exodus 32, Israel has given God the big spiritual slap in the face by taking his gifts of grace, the very gold that he gave them on the night of their redemption.

[10:04] And what did they do? They turn it into an idol. And they worship the golden calf. They have the audacity to say that that's the one that brought them out of Egypt. We talked about how Israel was essentially relapsing back into her Egyptian bondage.

[10:21] And God tells Moses, I'm going to wipe them out. I'm going to start over. And God has every righteous reason to do so. But Moses, what does he do? He pleads to God and he says, God, don't do this.

[10:34] No, but please don't wipe them out. They are your people. Be merciful to them, establishing this role of mediation. And then he takes Israel.

[10:45] He asked that God would put Israel's sin upon him. God, if you're going to do this, just blot me out. Like put your sin on me as a sign, as a symbol of being a substitute for the people's sins.

[10:57] And what does God do? God graciously relents. And he says, I'm not going to wipe them out. Then in the next stage, he says, while I'm not going to wipe them out, here's what I'm going to do.

[11:09] I'm going to keep my promise. I'm going to give them the promised land. I'm going to defeat all their enemies, just like I said I would. The only thing is, I'm not going with them. My presence will not be with them.

[11:21] And remember what Moses says again. He says to him, listen, if your presence will not go with me, then don't even bring us up from here. Because how is it we're going to find favor in your sight if it's not you going with us?

[11:35] That's what makes us distinct, I and your people, from all the other people on the face of the earth. What good is prosperity if we don't have your presence?

[11:48] And God now, we're here in verse 17, God says, okay, you found favor in my sight. I'll go with you. So, not only am I not going to wipe them out, not only am I going to fulfill my promise by giving them the promised land and defeating their enemies, but I will go with you.

[12:06] And now Moses has a decision to make. Moses' decision is, do I go all in or not? Do I take it to the next level? Do I take this opportunity that's before me?

[12:18] Cue the theme music. If you got a chance, take it. I'm certain this song that's playing in the background with Moses right here. If you got a dream, chase it.

[12:29] Cause a dream won't chase you back. That's a really good song and if you don't like that song, get out. Alright? If you got a chance, take it. If you got an opportunity, take it.

[12:40] And Moses has an opportunity and he goes all in. It is not just enough to don't wipe us out. It's not just enough to don't take your presence from us. But notice this, verse 18.

[12:52] Show me your glory. Don't just wipe us out. Don't just keep your presence with us. But I want to take this to a whole nother level.

[13:03] God, show me your glory. Reveal yourself to me. And God responds in verse 21. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock.

[13:19] And while, say it with me, my glory passes by. I will put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

[13:32] And then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back but my face shall not be seen. Listen, Moses does not get a glimpse of creation.

[13:45] Moses gets a glimpse of the Creator. Jealous! Anybody with me? Like, come on, you read that and you're like, I want that.

[13:57] I want to experience that. How amazing must that have been? What was that like? You know, imagine what it must have been like to see the very glory of God.

[14:10] And I am here tonight with good news for you and it is this, faith family. You don't have to settle for knowing someone who experienced God's glory.

[14:21] That's because you can experience God's glory. You don't, you don't have to just experience this through Moses.

[14:32] You can experience it yourself. You can actually be one that beholds the glory of God.

[14:42] And you say, how, pastor? Well, I'm glad you're here tonight because that's what the next two hours is going to be about. I want to show you how from the text that you can, and I mean you, I'm not talking about me up here on a stage or Moses here in a book.

[14:59] I'm talking about you can experience the glory of God. First question is, what is glory? What is this glory of God? Well, the text tells us and it's really helpful to see it here, verse 18.

[15:13] Moses said, please show me your what? Okay. And God said, I'll make what all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you what?

[15:29] My name, the Lord, that is Yahweh, and I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I will show mercy. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

[15:44] The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious and slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children, the children's children of the third and fourth generation.

[16:16] So what's happening here? What is the glory of God? Well, what I want you to notice here specifically in this text is that Moses asked in verse 18, God, show me your glory.

[16:29] Show me your glory. And then how then does the text define what the glory of God is? God responds by saying, I'll cause my what?

[16:41] My goodness to pass by before you and I will proclaim what? I'll proclaim my name to you. And then what happens in the text that we just read?

[16:52] God passes by and what he proclaims is his grace and his patience and his love and his justice and his faithfulness.

[17:04] Do you see everybody with me? Say yes. In other words, this is big. The glory of God is not some electric shock. It is not goosebumps on your arm.

[17:17] Some people call them God bumps, right? It's not some mystical experience. It's not getting the warm and fuzzies at church. It's not one morning seeing Jesus' face in your pancake, okay?

[17:29] That it's not the glory of God. Here's what the glory of God is. The glory of God is the revelation of the character of God. The glory of God is when God reveals who he is.

[17:43] When he reveals his character. And it's right here clear in the text. I want to see your glory. When my goodness passes by, I'm going to proclaim my name.

[17:56] And what does Moses get proclaimed to him? The nature and character and essence of who God is. And listen, tonight, if you're a Christian, you know something of this.

[18:07] You probably had that moment where you were reading the Bible or praying or walking down the street or singing a song and you start thinking about some aspect of God's character.

[18:18] Maybe it's his holiness. Maybe it's his grace. Maybe it's his love. Maybe it's his justice. Jesus. And it just overwhelms you. It just absolutely overwhelms you. It penetrates you.

[18:30] It brings you to your knees. You have to write something down. And you ask, like, Pastor, what is that experience? Listen, what is that experience when I'm driving in the car or when I'm at church or I'm reading my Bible and just the character of God just overwhelms me?

[18:49] You want to know what it is? It's the Lord passing by. It's the Lord passing by. Because when the Lord passes by, he reveals his glory to you.

[19:00] What does that mean? That means he reveals who he is. He reveals his character to you. And whatever the case may be, you can bank on this, faith family.

[19:10] It's going to impact you in some way. You are not going to be ho-hum or left the same when you experience the glory of God. It's not even possible.

[19:21] The reason is, the very Hebrew word for glory, kabod, literally means weight. It means heaviness. Have you ever had something heavy fall on you?

[19:33] And a hunkster unloaded. Going for a slam. Oh, he almost got him up. You ever had some big heavy object just come down upon you? That's what glory is.

[19:43] It's weightiness. It's heaviness. Not a heaviness in a negative sense, but this overwhelming sense that something has just dropped on you.

[19:55] Well, when you experience God's glory, that weight is dropped on you. And that's why when God shows up, things tend to shake. Do you remember at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, verse 18?

[20:08] Now, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. And the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln.

[20:19] And the whole mountain did what? It trembled greatly. Why? Because the weight of the glory of God showed up. When God's glory shows up, it brings weight.

[20:33] Things shake. It happened in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 4, verse 31. When they had prayed, the place in which they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

[20:48] And they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. So when you experience the glory of God, what it is is it's the weight. Everybody with me? Everybody understanding? Experiencing the glory of God is the weight of His character coming down on you.

[21:06] penetrating you. Filling your mind. Filling your heart. And there's going to be an earthquake that happens, and I do not mean a literal one.

[21:17] Yes, there are occasions when the earth shakes, like in Acts and in Exodus. But it doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be a literal earthquake. But there is definitely going to be something shaken from your life when you experience the glory of God.

[21:33] Amen? Amen. I'll give you some examples. If God's sovereignty passes by, your worry is going to be shaken. Because it's really hard to worry when you're in the presence of a sovereign God.

[21:49] If the Lord's holiness passes by, your indifference to God is going to be shaken. Because it's very hard to be indifferent to God when you are in the presence of His holiness.

[22:00] If His grace or mercy passes by, your guilt and your shame is going to be shaken. Why? Because it's really hard to be guilty when you're in the presence of the God who forgives.

[22:13] And if it's His love that passes you by, your self-loathing is going to be shaken. Because listen, it's really hard to be down on yourself when you're in the presence of the God who loves you.

[22:27] Something's going to shake. Something in your life is going to have an earthquake happen. It might be your worry. It might be your anxiety.

[22:37] It might be your self-loathing. It might be your inability to forgive yourself. But when the character of God, the weight of that falls on you, something's going to shake.

[22:49] Because you can't be the same. Amen? This is what the glory of God is. And this is what the experience of God's glory is like.

[23:01] It's when the weight of His glory falls on you and your life is shaken. Edwards, I went this week in my study. I highly recommend Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. It's so good.

[23:12] Edwards writes this. The things of God take hold of our souls only so much as they affect our hearts. Many people hear the word of God, but what they hear has no effect on them.

[23:28] That is the weight that ever really falls on them. And neither their natures nor their behavior is changed because they're not emotionally affected by what they hear. They hear of God's infinite goodness and mercy.

[23:42] They hear of the great works of God's wisdom and power. They hear of the unspeakable love of God and the great things that Christ has done. They hear all these things and yet they remain as they were.

[23:58] No earthquake happened. They remain as they were because they're not emotionally affected by what they hear. Until they are affected, they will never be changed.

[24:14] Edwards is saying that when you experience His glory, you cannot help but to be affected by it. Because weight is falling on you.

[24:26] A heavy weight, a good, glorious weight is falling on you. Namely, the character of God. And not only does it impact you, it overwhelms you.

[24:36] In fact, if you've experienced this, you've probably had moments where you had a really hard time explaining it. You tried to describe what that moment was like in God's Word and you just kind of couldn't find the words.

[24:49] Look at what happens here in Exodus verse 21. And the Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me where you shall stand in the rock and my glory passes by. I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with my hand until I've passed by.

[25:04] Then I'll take my hand away and you shall see my back but my face shall not be seen. And then jumping over to chapter 34 and verse 6. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh.

[25:19] God is merciful and gracious and slow to anger and bounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. How his steadfast love is for thousands, even generations upon generations.

[25:31] And then verse 8. Moses quickly, you bet, quickly bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped. In other words, do you know why?

[25:42] Do you know why God says, Moses, I'm going to have to put you in the cleft of the rock and you can't see my face? Is because of this.

[25:53] Notice it on the screen. The weight of God's glory is so heavy, if all of it landed on you at one time, it would crush you. It would totally crush you.

[26:06] That's how glorious God is. I heard someone say one time, I don't know that this is biblically accurate, but it's a good illustration. If you imagine the glory of God as the ocean and you took one of those like red Solo cups, you know the red Solo cups you have at a picnic and you dipped it into the ocean, it's like that's about how much glory we could handle without being absolutely crushed.

[26:35] If you were thrown into the ocean and you went down to the depths of the ocean, you would be crushed immediately.

[26:46] That's how it is with the glory of God. God is so glorious. He's saying, Moses, I know you want to see my glory, but buddy, you can't handle it all because the glory is going to impact you in such a way that I'm going to give this to you in a dose that you can actually receive.

[27:07] And even that's going to overwhelm you. Even that's going to leave you walking down the mountain with your skin radiant because you just saw God.

[27:21] This may not be the best illustration, but it's an attempt. Imagine an athlete and she's spent all her life training for one day winning the gold medal at the Olympics.

[27:32] And then she finally gets to the Olympics and she wins the gold medal. And she's standing there on the podium and the weight, listen to that language, the weight of that moment.

[27:43] You'll see this next week at the Super Bowl. Usually when they're singing the anthem, you'll see these big grown men just weeping and crying. Why? It's the weight of the moment.

[27:55] The weight of this glorious moment is sinking in. All the hard work that's led up to this moment begins to settle in. And now here she is with the gold around her neck, the family in the stands, the national anthem playing, the crowds cheering, and she begins to sob.

[28:15] What do you think she would say if you walked up to her and said, are you happy right now? What would she say? She'd say something like, happy? I'm not happy.

[28:29] I'm not less than happy. Happy is a part of this, but happy doesn't really fully encapsulate everything I'm experiencing in this moment. In fact, what do most people say after events like this?

[28:43] This is really hard to put into words right now. This hasn't fully sunk in. The weight of this moment, the weight of everything I've just experienced is kind of more than I can handle.

[28:58] Yes, I'm happy. And yes, I'm grateful. But those words seem to fail in comparison to the weight of this moment. That is what it's like to experience the glory of God.

[29:11] Are you happy in the presence of God? God? You bet. But that doesn't fully summarize my experience of the weight of this moment, of the weight of being in God's presence.

[29:27] Oh man, don't you want this, faith family? Listen, I don't want to know somebody that experienced this. I want to be somebody that experienced this. I don't want just to read about Moses.

[29:38] I want to be like Moses in this moment and behold and see and feel the weight of everything God is or everything He will reveal to me.

[29:51] You with me? No. I'm going to get in trouble here and that's okay. You love me, right? You don't have to like me but you do have to love me. The Bible says so. And I just thought in talking about this I'd take a pastoral moment and the reason why I'm not really nervous but I'm slightly nervous and I'm asking that you'd be gracious and just hear the heart of your pastor is because I know we got a lot of people from a lot of different denominational backgrounds.

[30:16] We're a very eclectic church and people have come from different experiences and I think there's two dangers. Okay, again, you don't have to like me. You do have to love me and just hear me out.

[30:28] I think there's two dangers in two different camps that as a pastor I want to be very careful of here at Faith Family. There's two approaches and I don't want Faith Family to be either one of them.

[30:43] Okay, I'm going to pick on my own heritage first. Okay, so that you don't think I'm not being fair. And the first category is what we might call the non-charismatic.

[30:55] The non-charismatic. These are churches that never ever seem to seek this kind of experience. I very, very rarely growing up went to church where people talked about pursuing an experience of God's glory.

[31:16] What my experience was more, if I'm being honest, was church as usual. We looked for things more like this. Is attendance up? Is giving still at least plateaued or better?

[31:29] Are the sermons entertaining? And if all those things seem to check the box, everybody seemed to be okay. In other words, in a lot of times in non-charismatic churches, we're fine with prosperity even if it doesn't come with presence.

[31:46] There just doesn't seem to be a lot of relentless pursuing of experiencing the glory of God. And that should never be.

[31:58] Like I said, I don't want to just read about Moses. I want to be Moses. And I do not want this to be a church that does not seek this kind of experience with God.

[32:10] Amen? Alright. Now to the charismatic churches. Okay? There's a danger there. Generally speaking, just like I'm generally speaking with the non-charismatics, I'm not talking about every single one of them, I'm generally speaking with charismatic churches, not talking about every single one of them, but generally speaking, they tend to want the presence of God so much, they force it.

[32:32] And I've experienced this many times. If you'll just say this over and over again, or if our services could last three hours, or if we could work up our emotions, I literally know people who were taken to the bottom of the church basement, put in a room, and said, I want you to sit there until you speak in a tongue.

[32:51] And don't come out until you pray enough, say enough, or whatever, and have this experience. Listen, it does not work that way. Listen, you don't get emotional to try to get God to come down.

[33:06] When God comes down, you're going to get emotional. There's not going to be any holding it back when God shows up. But God is not, we're not bartering Him and forcing Him and forcing something.

[33:19] I think both camps are very dangerous. One is, you don't ever seek it, and the other is, you try to force it. If I were to speak pastorally to this congregation, because I'm not the pastor of other congregations, I'm the pastor of this congregation for better or for worse, this is what I would say is the balanced approach.

[33:40] Expect it, but don't force it. Expect it, that's my criticism of the non-charismatics, but don't force it, that's my criticism of the charismatics.

[33:51] It's like, I want you, I want you, and I want me to show up to church every time we gather with this simple prayer. Lord, please show me your glory.

[34:04] Show me your glory. I'm not going to dance around on the stage. I'm not going to say magic things. We're not going to make services go five hours.

[34:15] We're not going to try to manipulate God's glory. What we're going to do is we're going to show up week in and week out saying, God, I'm here and I'm expecting to see you. I'm expecting to know you.

[34:26] I'm expecting for you to talk to me. I want to see your glory tonight. Expect it, but don't force it. Expect it, but don't force it.

[34:39] Do you still love me? Was that fair? You don't have to agree with everything I said, but I hope that's at least fair. Now, just because we can't force it and shouldn't force it does not mean there are not things that we can do that kind of help prepare us for this.

[34:57] Here's kind of what I mean. No meaningful relationship happens by accident, right? I mean, you don't experience the presence of God just accidentally all the time.

[35:07] There is some sense of pursuing and intentionality of where you're engaged and wanting, like Moses, to say, Lord, I'm ready. I'm here. Like, show me your glory.

[35:19] So, what are some things that we can do to help prepare us to experience this so that we don't have to read about Moses. We can actually experience what Moses experienced.

[35:31] And I'll close with this, okay? So, four things I want to give you. This is not an exhaustive list. I'll give them pretty quickly. But four things I think we can do that would help all of us have the kind of experience that Moses has here in Exodus 33.

[35:46] Number one is smash your idols. Smash your idols. Here's where I get this. Where I get it is when Israel realized that God's presence was not going to go with them, this is back at the beginning of chapter 33, when they realized God's presence was not going to go with them, what did they do?

[36:06] Do you remember? They took off their ornaments. They took off their ornaments. Well, what were those ornaments? Those were ornaments they'd made for their idolatry in Exodus 32.

[36:22] In other words, get this image in your mind. Once they realize that God's presence is not going with them, they start getting rid of all the things that represent their idolatry. Why?

[36:32] Because they realize their idolatry is keeping them from the presence of God. The very reason why God is not going to go with them is because of their idolatry in Exodus 32.

[36:43] Do you see? Notice this on the screen. One of the things that will keep you from the presence of God is preoccupation with other gods. I mean, you come in here and you're so concerned about the rest of your week that you're not concerned at all about the worship of God.

[37:00] Why do you think you never experience Him? Because you're preoccupied with your idols. You're thinking about all the other things and until you take your ornaments off, you're not going to experience what Moses experienced here.

[37:14] If you want to experience and if I want to experience the glory of God, we must do a serious examination of the idols in our life. And I've talked about idolatry a lot.

[37:25] Go back a couple of weeks for a full sermon on that. But it is anything that you require in addition to God. to be happy or to have meaning in life. I need God plus fill in the blank.

[37:39] Number two. Number two. Put yourself in the right places. Smash your idols. Take off your ornaments. But secondly, put yourself in the right places. Now listen, listen, listen. Don't misunderstand me.

[37:49] I am not whatsoever suggesting that God is limited to a specific place. Of course He's not. Right? I'm very aware that we can experience this anywhere.

[38:00] What I am saying is that there were specific places here in Exodus where Moses went to meet with God. It was the tent of meeting. It was up on the mountain.

[38:11] It was in the cleft of the rock. In other words, this is what I'm saying. I'm not saying you can't experience God anywhere. What I'm saying is there are certain places more conducive to focusing on God.

[38:25] You know that. There are certain places that are more conducive to you focusing on God. And so smash your idols. Take off your ornaments. Do a serious examination of the idolatry in your life.

[38:38] And also, frequently put yourself in places where it's conducive to experience God. One of those, I think, is church. A little self-promotion here.

[38:52] Right? I think this is a place conducive to experiencing the glory of God. I've got to give you this. Do you remember Thomas? I love this. I mean, I don't ultimately love it for him, but John chapter 20, verse 19.

[39:05] On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked were the disciples because they were afraid of the Jews. And Jesus came and said among them, ain't no locked door gonna keep Jesus out.

[39:16] Jesus came and sat among them and he said, peace be with you. And when he had said this, what did he do? He showed the disciples his hands in his side.

[39:28] The disciples got to experience the risen glory of Jesus. The disciples were glad, say it with me, when they saw the Lord.

[39:39] That's the same thing that happened with Moses. But now look at this. Now Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

[39:49] What a day to miss church. Of all the days to miss church, you missed the day Jesus showed up. Like, I'm saying that a little bit sarcastically, but also very seriously.

[40:03] Like, Thomas wasn't where Thomas should have been. And do you know, somebody say, preach preacher, do you know what would have shaken his doubt?

[40:16] Experiencing the glory of the risen Christ. It eventually would. But it didn't that day because Thomas wasn't in a place to experience it.

[40:27] Listen, you can experience God anywhere, but there are places more conducive to experiencing and focusing on his glory, and you need to put yourself there often.

[40:39] Smash your idols, put yourself in the right places, and number three, this will convict us all, cultivate an active prayer life. Cultivate an active prayer life.

[40:51] And let's be honest, all of us can do better in this area. Amen? All of us can do better in this area. But I get this from the text because what was the entire context of Moses experiencing God's glory in the first place?

[41:05] Look at it again in verse 29 of chapter 34. When Moses comes down off Mount Sinai, he's got the tablets, and Moses wasn't even aware that he's glowing. He's shining.

[41:16] Why? Everybody read the highlighted portion with me. Because he had been talking with God. It's prayer. That's prayer.

[41:30] Moses was glowing like a kid at Christmas. He's shining. He doesn't even know he's shining because he's been talking to God. We talked about that last week.

[41:42] He's got a friendship with God. He communes with God. Notice it on the screen. Moses' experience with God's glory came after a long time in conversation with God.

[41:58] Let me say it a different way. Don't expect the Lord to pass by if you never sit still. Amen? Don't expect the Lord to pass by if you never sit still.

[42:10] If you don't sit down and cultivate a prayer life and spend some time talking to God you're not going to see the glory of God. John Newton said this.

[42:21] Someone had said I don't really get anything out of prayer. Some of you probably said that. You probably heard this quote. And Newton said if you're not getting anything out of prayer I assure you you'll get nothing out of not praying.

[42:35] You're going to get nothing out of not. It's bad English but it's a good point. You're not going to get it. You're not going to experience what Moses experienced if you don't cultivate a prayer life.

[42:48] So listen do you just want to read about this experience or do you actually want to have it? If you want to have it smash your idols find those places that are conducive to experiencing this cultivate a prayer life talk with God often and then lastly and no it will not shock you be preoccupied with the gospel.

[43:09] Yep here comes pastor got to work the gospel in can't have a sermon without the gospel. It's like some catchphrase you think I have? No. Listen listen I ask you I ask you this almost every week in Exodus I'm almost done hang with me.

[43:23] It's Saturday night you got nowhere else to go anyways. I always ask you where's the gospel? I'm trying to train you and teach you where is the gospel in this passage.

[43:34] So what's the main verse of it all? Go back to it it's verse 18 Moses said please show me say it your glory. How does Exodus 33 verse 18 ultimately get fulfilled?

[43:48] So let's think about it in context Moses is asking to see the glory of God right? Okay so how do we ultimately see the glory of God?

[43:59] Look at John 1 14 it's the same words and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory what?

[44:15] Glory as of the only son from the father how do you ultimately see the glory that Moses saw on the mountain?

[44:28] You look to Christ because Christ is the glory the very glory of the son from the father and what did Moses see when he saw the character of God when he saw the character of God on the mountain when it passed by when his goodness passed by what did he see?

[44:50] He saw his grace and he saw his faithfulness and he saw his justice and he saw his love and he saw his forgiveness well where do you ultimately see that character of God?

[45:03] Where do you ultimately see the glory of God like that? Listen to what Jesus said about the cross John 12 27 now my soul is troubled right because he's thinking upon the cross and what shall I say?

[45:19] Father save me from this hour but for this purpose I have come to this hour Father glorify your name and then a voice came from heaven the Father saying I have glorified it and I will glorify it again in other words how how do you how does God ultimately pass by how has he ultimately passed by answer he came down he came down and he died on a cross and every time you pass by the cross every time you go to the foot of the cross you will behold the glory of God you will see there at the cross the goodness of God the grace of God the forgiveness of God the justice of

[46:19] God you will see everything Moses saw and more because the glory of God is revealed at the cross you see faith family you don't you don't have to just read about Moses you can experience the same thing I get it I understand why Richard was so fascinated with meeting someone like Edgar I mean to be able to talk to a man who is able to behold the glory of creation I mean can you imagine what an amazing experience but here's what I want you to know faith family listen you as a Christian have an opportunity far greater than that he is the radiance of the glory of God

[47:19] God he is the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power faith family in Jesus Christ you have the opportunity to experience something greater than the glory of the universe you have the opportunity to experience the one who created it and all God's people said amen let's pray Lord we don't want to read about Moses we want to experience what Moses experienced we want to come to church we want to wake up every day and we want to expect it we know we don't force it God you will be gracious to whom you will be gracious you will show mercy to whom you want to show mercy we can't force it we don't manipulate you you are not to be bartered with our approach is simply that of

[48:27] Moses God I want to see you I want to know you I want to behold your glory like drop down the weight on me oh God that we would be a people expectant to experience what Moses was able to experience and even more so because we live on this side of the cross we have the full and finished work of Jesus the ultimate display of your glory so tonight I pray that we would enter into this moment of communion maybe a little different that maybe just maybe we feel the weight of it that as we look upon these elements and we're reminded that

[49:30] Jesus displayed your glory through the cross that God you said you had glorified it and you would glorify it again through what Jesus would do on the cross may we behold your glory tonight in Christ's name I pray Amen God