The Presence You Keep

[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Thank you.

[1:00] Thank you. Thank you.

[1:32] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And how you and I were created.

[1:42] You were created. I was created to be in relationship with God and to enjoy His presence forever. And so what we see here in Exodus 32 through 34, particularly 33 and 34, really ought to be something that we long for and crave, to spend time in God's presence and to behold His glory.

[2:03] Well, there's one other thing I want to show you here at the end of Exodus 34. We're going to pick up in verse 29 this evening and read down to the end of the chapter. And since, you know, it's not the best weather this evening, let's just stay a while, right?

[2:17] So just get cozy and we'll just have a couple hour Bible study. How about it? All right. You good for that? All right. Stand if you're able to do so here in Exodus 34, again, verse 29.

[2:29] And let's honor the reading here of God's Word. Exodus 34, 29 says, When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he'd been talking with God.

[2:49] And Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold that the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with him.

[3:06] Afterward, all the people of Israel came near and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

[3:18] Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining.

[3:36] And Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. This is God's Word. So let's pray and ask God to teach us tonight. Lord, I think there's something here in these verses that you want us to see and understand.

[3:51] And so we ask, Lord, that your spirit, the spirit of truth, come and teach us tonight. Convict us. Help us just like last week when we left saying, I want to be like Moses and experience your glory.

[4:06] In the same way I wish we would be like Moses here. And Lord, I pray that for me and everybody in this room. So come and teach us tonight. And we ask it in Jesus' name and God's people said, Amen.

[4:18] You can be seated. When Bobby was four years old, he woke up Christmas morning as excited as any four-year-old on Christmas would be. But Bobby would not be greeted with lots of presents under a Christmas tree.

[4:33] In fact, what Bobby would receive that Christmas was one gift from his dad. A metal wrench in a plain paper bag.

[4:46] Now, Bobby was only four years old, but he knew exactly what that gift meant. He knew exactly what it was for. It would be what he and his brothers, remember he's four years old, it would be what he and his brothers would use later that Christmas day to break into a grocery store.

[5:07] And when his father heard of his sons and this theft, he proudly proclaimed, That's my boys.

[5:20] Meet Bobby Bogle. Bobby belongs to a family of a long line of criminal history. In fact, four generations to be exact.

[5:32] Members of the Bogle family have committed crimes all across the United States from Texas to Oregon as far back as the 1920s.

[5:43] When Bobby was barely even in middle school, he was stealing 18-wheel semis even though he was so small he could barely see over the steering wheel.

[5:55] And his parents not only allowed this behavior to take place, they encouraged it. In fact, the book stated that his dad celebrated these things, quote, Like a little league home run, close quote.

[6:11] Tracy, Bobby's brother, described an occasion when they robbed a local bar, And they emptied out the cash register, and then they went home to their mother, And they poured out, they dumped out all that cash right on top of her.

[6:29] She woke up, screamed with joy. As Hank Jr., the great theologian, would say, it's a family tradition.

[6:40] And as sad as that is, it's not surprising. The Bureau of Justice estimates that there are 1.7 million children who commit crimes that have at least one parent already in prison.

[6:58] In fact, what stuck out to me in this story is when Bobby was asked about this long family history of breaking the law, this long family history of criminals, he said something very interesting.

[7:13] Listen, here's what he said, quote, If I had been raised in a family of doctors, I'd probably be a doctor. But I was raised in a family of outlaws who hated the law, close quote.

[7:32] Now, my guess is nobody here tonight is shocked by that. And the reason why you're not shocked, the reason why that probably doesn't surprise you, is you know something that's very, very true in life.

[7:44] It's true in your life. It's true in the lives of other people. And it's this. You are influenced by the presence you keep. Amen? You are influenced by the people you're around.

[7:58] You're influenced by the family you were brought up in. You're influenced by the presence you keep. Listen to a quote from a BBC article that said this, quote, We often think that self-control comes from within.

[8:12] But many of our actions depend as much on our family and friends as it does ourselves. Those we surround ourselves with have the power to influence us.

[8:24] You know that. This is not simply peer pressure in which you deliberately act in a way to fit in with a certain group. Instead, it's largely unconscious. Beneath your awareness, your brain is constantly picking up on cues from the people around you to inform your behavior.

[8:45] And the consequences can be serious. Close quote. Come on. This happens a thousand different ways, does it not? And it happens in big ways.

[8:56] It happens in small ways. For example, if you move to certain parts of the country, you're going to be influenced by that part of the country. And you're going to start acting that way.

[9:07] Like if you move to the south, you're eventually going to start saying y'all. And you really should. Just go ahead and say that. Listen, y'all. I've caught myself recently.

[9:18] Like somebody says, hey, I'll see you next week. Or I'll see you at church next week. And I'll go, you betcha. And I'm like, no, no. What's wrong with me?

[9:29] I can't say you betcha. Right? Because I've lived here so long. I've been influenced by this place. Right? It's why parents, you're very concerned about the type of friends that your kids hang around.

[9:42] Or maybe you're very concerned about what they're watching on television. Or downloading on their computers. You're concerned about that because they're influenced by it. It's why when certain people get around other people, they act differently.

[9:57] Have you ever had somebody say something like, oh, that's just how he is when he's with the guys. That's just how he is when he's with his friends. Why? Because you're influenced by the people you're around.

[10:08] It's why my son, who I love so much and am very proud of, stinks. He stinks. Do you know why he stinks? He stinks.

[10:20] Not because he doesn't take a shower. He takes a shower three times a day. He stinks because he works at the fragrance department at Macy's. He does. He works at the men's fragrance at Macy's.

[10:33] There's literally a glory cloud of cologne that follows my son around. I can just be walking around and be like, all right, Caleb's somewhere. I know, right? Why?

[10:43] Why? Because he spends so much time in the presence of fragrance that he smells like that. Everybody with me? Everybody agree with me? You all know this is true.

[10:55] You're influenced by the presence you keep. And the same is true spiritually.

[11:06] Here's what I mean. Notice it on the screen. Those who spend time in the presence of God radiate the glory of God. Those that spend time in the presence of God will radiate the glory of God.

[11:25] And that is exactly what we see in Moses here in Exodus 34. Very quick review. I won't take long. Exodus 32.

[11:36] Israel commits the sin of idolatry. They slap God in the face by taking his gifts of gold that he gave them on the night of the Exodus. And they turn that into a golden calf.

[11:47] And they worship that calf. And they say, this is the one that brought us out of the land of Egypt. And God says, I'm going to wipe them out. And Moses pleads with them. And God relents.

[11:59] Exodus 33. God says, right, I won't wipe them out. I'm going to give them prosperity. I'm going to give them the promised land. I'm going to defeat their enemies. But I will not go with them. My presence will not be with them.

[12:12] What does Moses say? He says this. If your presence will not go with me, then don't even bring us up from here. Because what good is it to have a promised land if we don't have you?

[12:24] Your presence is more important than prosperity. Once again, God relents and says, I will go with you. Moses then, remember last week, takes it one step forward in verse 18.

[12:37] And he says, not only your presence, but Lord, show me your glory. And what does God do? God puts Moses in the cleft of a rock.

[12:48] And he reveals his character to him. He passes by. He shows Moses his goodness. And Moses is able to experience the glory of God.

[12:59] And we talked about this last week. Notice it on the screen. That the glory of God is simply the revelation of the character of God. If you go back earlier, and we'll look at a little bit of this later on.

[13:10] Earlier in chapter 34, when the Lord passes by, what he essentially does is reveal to Moses his character, his nature, his attributes.

[13:21] He proclaims to him his name. And he shows him his goodness and his forgiveness and his grace and his steadfast love. And on and on and on.

[13:32] God's goodness passes by. Now, what I want to show you tonight is the result of all this. The result. Come on. Here we go. The result of Moses spending time in God's presence.

[13:45] The result of Moses beholding the glory of God is that. Notice verse 29. That when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets, when all of this has happened, Moses didn't even know what.

[14:02] Say it with me. The skin of his face shone. Why? Why was he glowing? Why was he radiating? Because he had what?

[14:13] Been talking with God. He'd been talking with God. This is my big idea tonight. It's this. Those that spend time in the presence of God will radiate the glory of God.

[14:27] Those that spend time with God will radiate the glory of God. Do you know why? Because you're influenced by the presence you keep. You're influenced by the presence you keep. And so if you spend time in the presence of God, what will you do?

[14:39] You will radiate the glory of God. Now, before we see this in the life of Moses, I want to show you this big idea that I take here in Exodus 34. It's not just an Exodus 34 truth.

[14:52] It's something that's seen multiple places in the Bible. For example, look at Psalm 1. Look at Psalm 1. It says, Blessed is the man who walks, say walks, who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands, say stands, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits, say sits, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

[15:19] But what? His delight is in the law of God. And what does he do? He meditates on it day and night. And what does he become? Like a planted tree by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

[15:34] And in all that he does, he prospers. Now, what is the psalmist teaching here? The psalmist is describing the blessed man, the one with the good life, the one that knows the grace of God.

[15:46] And what is the difference? Listen, what's the difference between the blessed and the wicked? The difference is, according to the psalm, is the company he keeps.

[15:58] On one hand, the blessed is the one who avoids worldly influence, who doesn't listen to the counsel of the wicked or walks their path.

[16:09] Instead, what presence is the blessed one in? The presence of God's Word. And as he's in the presence of God's Word, day and night, meditating on the Word of God, what?

[16:23] He's prospering. Why? You're influenced by the presence you keep. You see? You with me? Six of you are with me. I saw your heads nod. Okay. Jesus teaches the same thing in John 15.

[16:36] John 15, verse 4. Say this with me. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you.

[16:49] Unless you do what? Say it. Abide in me. I'm the vine. You're the branches. Whoever, here it is again, abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

[17:05] For apart from me, what can you do? You can do nothing. Now, I've taught this many times before because this is an important point in terms of Christian sanctification.

[17:18] And it's this. How do you, listen, this is the big idea of Exodus 34. How do you produce fruit as a Christian? How do you demonstrate godliness as a Christian?

[17:30] How do you walk in the fruit of the Spirit as a Christian? Willpower? Self-discipline? No. Constant time in the presence of Christ.

[17:42] You see the connection in John 15, right? The bearing fruit comes out of what? Abiding. Because you're influenced by the presence you keep.

[17:53] And as you abide in Christ, you demonstrate the fruit of Christ. Because, notice it on the screen, those who spend time in the presence of God radiate the glory of God.

[18:09] Let me give you one more. 2 Corinthians 2. Paul says this. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the what?

[18:20] The fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. This is my son's favorite verse, probably. For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, and to the other a fragrance from life to life.

[18:41] In other words, Christians are called to be the perfume of God's presence. Have you thought about that? When you go out into the world, and when you go to your family, when you go to your job, when you go to wherever you go, you're to be the fragrance department of the kingdom of God.

[18:59] I mean, if you want to use the metaphors, Jesus uses it salt and light, but it's the same idea. You're to be the fragrance of Christ. Well, how are you to be the fragrance of Christ?

[19:09] How are you to radiate the glory of God? Here it is again. Those who spend time in the presence of God will radiate the glory of God. Have I made the point? It's all over the Bible.

[19:21] From Exodus 34 to the psalmist to Jesus to Paul, the Bible teaches that those that spend time with God radiate the glory of God. Now what I want to do in our remaining couple hours is I want to just show you that in Moses' life.

[19:37] I want to show you what this radiance, what this shining looked like for him among the people of God. So let's go back to verse 29 and pick it up here. When Moses came down from 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 he was shining, that the skin of his face shone because he'd been talking to God.

[20:00] Here's the first thing I want you to see, and that's Moses and a lack of pride. Moses and a lack of pride. The first thing I observe here in Moses' life among many things is the humility of Moses.

[20:13] And here's where I take this from if you're wondering where I get it from that verse. It's this. Moses, somebody say preach preacher. All right, I need a little louder than that. Say preach preacher. preach preacher.

[20:24] Moses is shining with the glory of God, and he doesn't even know it. He doesn't even know it. He's not even aware that he's shining like this.

[20:36] This is not how it would work in our culture. Okay? How it works in our culture is if you're Moses, right? You've been with God, and you've had this experience with God, and you have seen his glory.

[20:49] So what do you do? You write a book. Like, Experiencing God, or 40 Days on the Mountain, How to Encounter the Glory of God. And it would be a bestseller on Amazon.

[21:01] And you'd go on tour, and you'd tell everybody about your experience, and you'd want everybody to know how spiritual you are, but not Moses. Listen, Moses is glowing with God, and he doesn't even know it.

[21:17] He's not obsessed with himself and his glow. He spent so much time with God. This is just normal and natural. Not for others, but it is for Moses.

[21:28] Moses, oh man, oh man. Moses learned humility in the presence. Of God. What does Numbers say about Moses?

[21:39] Numbers 12, 3. Now the man Moses was very what? Meek. More than all the people who were on the face of the earth. I'd make a case for you tonight.

[21:51] Do you know why Moses was the most meek? Because no one spent more time in the presence of God than Moses did. Maybe Joshua. But no one else spent the kind of time with God that Moses did.

[22:06] And what came out of that was meekness and humility. Listen, meekness and humility are not natural attributes of sinful, prideful human beings. Amen? We are not born humble.

[22:18] And you know this if you've got children. You ever witnessed something like this before? What cracks me up is that the parent is just sitting there filming that the whole time.

[22:40] Like, this is my entertainment of the day. Fight, kids. But you know that. If you've been around children, these are not humble creatures. You come out of the womb. I want.

[22:50] I want. It's all about me. We are, because we are born in sin, self-absorbed people. Amen? We're not born humble.

[23:00] We're born selfish. But here's where humility comes from. Humility comes from being in the presence of something greater than yourself. Humility comes from being in the presence of someone greater than yourself.

[23:18] Listen, try walking away from the presence of God prideful. It never happens. It's impossible. Because you know what everybody who experiences God does?

[23:30] They want to, like, fall on their face. And they realize they are absolutely nothing. What did Isaiah say when he saw the glory of God and the vision of God? He said, woe is me.

[23:43] I am undone. I am unworthy. I am a man of unclean lips. I live among a people with unclean lips. What is he saying? He's learning humility because he's in the presence of someone greater.

[23:58] You with me? When we are in God's presence, we're influenced by the presence that we keep. And so if we want to walk in humility, we need to spend time in the presence of a glorious God.

[24:11] Jesus said in Matthew 5, 5, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And what does that come right out of? That meekness comes through what?

[24:22] Realizing your poverty of spirit and mourning over it. You realize when you're in the presence of God, you are nothing and you have nothing. That there is nothing greater than God.

[24:36] So how could you ever boast in yourself? This is why we talk so much about the gospel here at Faith Family. It's because when you stand at the cross, your pride melts away.

[24:51] So Moses, you're influenced by the presence you keep. Moses was influenced by the greatness of God in such a way that he lived a humble life.

[25:02] Not perfectly humble, but he was the meekest to walk the face of the earth because he spent time in God's presence. Here's another way in which Moses radiates the glory of God.

[25:15] Look at verse 31 of chapter 34. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him. And Moses talked with him. And afterward, all the people of Israel came near.

[25:28] And he commanded them all what the Lord had spoken to him at Mount Sinai. Here's the second thing I observe is Moses and his love for the people. It's not only his lack of pride, but it's his love for the people.

[25:40] What jumps out at me at these verses is that Moses' willingness to continue to serve a rebellious people. If you've been with us over this journey through the book of Exodus, you know Israel is not the easiest people to serve.

[25:56] Okay? You are. Right? You're like the easiest church ever to serve. I'm actually really not kidding on that. You are pretty easy. But listen, leading God's people can be a very difficult thing.

[26:08] And Moses, let me give you a quick review. In Exodus 5, they blame Moses for making their life harder when he went to Pharaoh. In Exodus 14, they question his leadership at the Red Sea because they think he just brought them out here for them to die at the hands of the Egyptians.

[26:23] In Exodus 15, they complain about the water being bitter. In Exodus 16, they complain about being hungry. In Exodus 16, again, they gather more manna than Moses had commanded them to do.

[26:36] In Exodus 17, they're complaining about water again. In Exodus 32, they've worshipped a golden calf in place of God. And they blame Moses for not even being around.

[26:49] And what does Moses do? In the midst of all their complaining and all their rebelling and all their questioning of his leadership, do you know what Moses does? Moses keeps serving them as their mediator.

[27:04] He just keeps loving them. He keeps serving them. Now, why do I say that this is Moses revealing to them the character of God or the glory of God?

[27:15] I haven't lost you, have I? Are you still with me? I want you to see this connection. What did, among many things, what did God reveal to Moses right before this on the mountain?

[27:27] When he showed Moses his glory. When he revealed his character. Look at verse 6 back in chapter 34. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in what?

[27:43] Say it with me. Steadfast love and faithfulness. Do you see the dots that I'm connecting? The dots that I'm connecting is, what was a part of the glory that Moses beheld?

[27:58] Steadfast love. Steadfast love. And that's exactly what Moses gives the people. In all their complaining and rebelling, he remains steadfast in loving them as their mediator.

[28:15] Notice this on the screen, Faith Family. Come on, this is so practical. Think about your relationships. The only way you persevere in loving people is by being in the presence of God.

[28:29] The only way you persevere in loving people is not taking a seminar on love. Not hearing a sermon on love. Not memorizing a Bible verse on love, though that's important.

[28:41] It's being in the presence of love. It's the only way. It's the only way you're going to radiate this kind of love. In fact, think about it this way.

[28:52] John 1 says, God is love, which begs this question. How can you possibly truly love someone without God? You can't.

[29:03] You may have some version of love by God's common grace. But you can't genuinely, truly love without God. Why? Because God is love.

[29:16] True love is the very essence of God's nature and character. Jesus, as we looked at earlier in John 15, says, I am the true vine. You've heard me teach this before, right?

[29:28] Jesus says, I'm the true vine. And the apostle Paul, later on, is going to connect that same imagery. What's the imagery that Paul uses that connects with this vine metaphor?

[29:41] The fruit of the Spirit. So what does it look like to abide in Jesus? Look at Galatians 5. But the fruit... You've got to be kidding.

[29:52] What's the very first one? Listen, the fruit of the Spirit is love. How do you really love? How do you persevere in love?

[30:07] How do you love difficult people? Hypothetically, you don't know difficult people, but if they existed, how would you love them? How would you be steadfast in that love?

[30:17] Here's how you do it. Frequently being in the presence of love. Because you're never going to radiate that kind of love. If you don't spend time in the presence of love.

[30:28] If you don't abide in Jesus, the one who truly knows how to love, you're never going to bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Is everybody tracking with me? What I'm trying to show you is that the reason why Moses is shining is because he's been influenced by the presence he keeps.

[30:44] Moses was humble, steadfast in love.

[30:59] I could elaborate on more. In fact, I'll just note one. If you're taking notes, here's another one. I'm not even going to preach a whole point on it. But notice one of the things that Moses sees when God's goodness passes by is the forgiveness of iniquities.

[31:15] That God is the kind of God, the very core of his nature is a forgiving, gracious God. Amen? And what's interesting in verse 9, In verse 9, the first thing Moses asked God to do is forgive the people of Israel.

[31:32] Of their idolatry, of their worshiping of the golden calf, Moses' reflex is, God, would you forgive? How can he have that kind of response?

[31:46] Because he's been in the presence of the God who forgives. So on and on I could go. The clear point I hope I'm making is that Moses spent time in the presence of God and therefore he's shown, he radiated God's character to others.

[32:02] There's one other important note I want to make before we wrap it up. And it's not just that Moses radiates the glory of God, but it's something to kind of help us understand that it just isn't always an easy thing.

[32:17] It's not always smooth sailing. Look at verse 30. Look at what happens. And Aaron and all the people of Israel, when they saw Moses at first, and they saw that the skin of his face shone, what were they afraid?

[32:29] What were they? They were afraid to come near. In other words, when Moses comes down the mountain, they don't know what to do with Moses. This is a whole sermon.

[32:42] They don't know what to do with somebody that's been in the glory of God. They don't know how to handle someone who has spent that much time in God's presence. Their immediate reaction is this.

[32:54] Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! I knew I'd at least get blamed with that one, right?

[33:04] Yeah, run away! Run away! We don't know what to do with a guy like this. This guy is shining. This guy is like, I can't even open my eyes. Moses is just radiating.

[33:17] And you might say, well, that's kind of an interesting thing. Like, I wonder if Moses is like, I mean, do I smell? Like, why is everybody afraid to come near me, right? Why is this?

[33:27] Notice this on the screen here. Spending time in God's presence is going to lead to some level of persecution. Spending time in God's presence will lead to some level of persecution.

[33:42] And you may ask, but why? That seems strange. That doesn't really make sense. And here's why. Listen, preach preacher. Israel, having just spent time worshiping a golden calf, wasn't ready to experience the glory of God.

[34:04] And their first reaction was fear. It wasn't to come to Moses. It was to run away from Moses. And if you know your Bible, that should not shock you.

[34:18] Look at John 3, 19. This is the judgment. The light has come into the world. And the people loved the darkness rather than the light.

[34:30] Why? Because their works were evil. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2, 15. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

[34:44] To one, listen, to one we're a fragrance of death. To the other we're a fragrance of life. Faith family, when you shine the light of God's glory, those that love darkness will run from you.

[35:02] Are you with me? They're not going to know how to handle that. They may just think you're completely weird. And that could be true anyways. But it may just be, I don't know how you could love like that.

[35:17] I don't know how you could forgive like that. This just seems like otherworldly. And it's because it is. And initially, people may not know how to handle that.

[35:32] Now listen, before you use this to justify why no one likes you, that's not the point. The point is, Moses is humble. And what caused them to run was not his self-righteousness.

[35:45] It was the glory of God in his life. It wasn't because Moses was a jerk. It's because he shined Jesus. And that's significantly important.

[35:56] In fact, by the way, no one shined Jesus more than, I don't know, Jesus? And what happened? Some loved him and followed him with everything.

[36:10] And others crucified him. So do not think that radiating the glory of God is going to be kittens and rainbows. It will bring a level of persecution because there are many, many, many who love darkness more than light.

[36:30] Amen? Now, I'm ending with this. First, if Moses was able to radiate the glory of God, how much more can we?

[36:42] You with me? If Moses could shine and radiate God's character, and again, Moses was not perfect. We have seen his fault. So do not think that I'm setting you up like, we have to go live some perfect, you know, we're the light of the world, you know, in perfection.

[36:59] No, no, no. The only perfect one is Jesus, right? He's the true light. We are just to reflect that. But we ought to be able to do it even more so than Moses. And you say, well, pastor, I'm no Moses.

[37:10] There's no way I can shine like he did. Well, according to the Apostle Paul, you can. Do you know where the gospel is found here in Exodus 34?

[37:21] This one's actually an easy one. The Apostle Paul takes Exodus 34 and quotes it directly, but makes a very, very important point.

[37:34] And I'll close with this. Look at, look at, this is 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

[37:45] Not like Moses who would put a veil over his face. So he's quoting directly Exodus 34. Not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of, notice this, what was being brought to an end.

[38:03] But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that some veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yet to this day, whenever Moses has read, a veil lies over their hearts.

[38:17] But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the, say it, spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

[38:31] But we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

[38:47] For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. There's a lot in those verses. In fact, there's a lot of things you're probably saying, I wish you'd take a little bit of time to unpack all that.

[39:00] Well, I'm not going to. What I am going to do is say there's two big points that Paul is making from that passage. And here they are. Number one is that the glory that Moses had was fading.

[39:14] The glory that Moses had was fading. It wasn't there all the time. It's why he was constantly lifting the veil and putting the veil back on and back and forth. So the glory that Moses had was a fading glory.

[39:28] And number two, we have a greater glory. You actually have something even greater than Moses had. Do you want to guess what it was?

[39:39] Or what it is? What it is is this. What makes us different than Moses is you have the spirit in you.

[39:55] Listen, listen. A few cough claps. Okay, and then Neil was excited. So, okay. Listen, listen. Listen, this is big. Like, wake up if you're in a weather sleep. Okay, wake up.

[40:05] This is big. Moses was only in the presence of God externally. You have the presence of God in you.

[40:18] Because you now have unveiled face. That is, you have a presence that Moses didn't have. Namely, God putting his very spirit in you.

[40:30] You are the up on the mountain. Because you have the very presence of God that dwells in you. In other words, here it is. This is big. Come on. I think this is a great point.

[40:41] I think three of you do. If Moses was able to radiate the glory of God, how much more can we who have the spirit of God?

[40:54] How much more that we can shine and show the world what God is like? Because we have, through Jesus, his spirit.

[41:09] After all, what did Jesus say in Matthew 5? You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

[41:21] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine.

[41:35] Exodus 34. Let your light shine before others so that they will what? They will see your good works. Where do good works come from?

[41:48] Abiding in Jesus. And what will they do? Give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

[42:01] Do you know what Jesus is saying there? Be Moses. Be Moses. Let your light shine. Let your light shine.

[42:15] That they will behold the glory of your Father. And you are able to do that even more so than Moses because you have my very spirit with you and in you.

[42:32] Faith family, my prayer is that over these last few weeks as we've looked at Exodus 33 and 34 that we have been more motivated than ever before to pursue the presence of God in our life.

[42:45] To experience his glory. And in return, radiate and shine the glory of God.

[42:55] We are just like Bobby Bogle. We were not born into a family of criminals. We were born into a family of sinners.

[43:07] The Bible says that we were born in Adam and by nature we were children of wrath. But in Jesus Christ we have been brought out of the darkness and into the light.

[43:24] You've been brought into a new family. And do you know what the Apostle John says? The Apostle John in 1 John says this. Whoever abides in him ought to walk in the same way he walked.

[43:45] Let me put that a different way. You're going to be influenced by the presence you keep. And all God's people said, Amen.

[43:57] Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this message to us tonight. And it's such a powerful point. It's easy to just kind of skim over Moses shining and think that was just a one-time thing for Moses or something really neat about him that's not really true today.

[44:18] And nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, even more so. Not only can we have an experience of beholding your glory because we have Christ.

[44:29] Christ the Word made flesh and we behold his glory. The glory of the only Son from the Father. And not only that, we have your Spirit within us. And so help us, Lord.

[44:41] Help us, we pray. Not only to spend time in your presence, but as a result to radiate your glory. Lord, we take time now to remember the price it took that this truth would be ours.

[45:09] The price it took that we would be able to have your Spirit in us and be able to enjoy your presence as Christ on the cross paid for our sin to reconcile us to you and that you then put in us your very presence.

[45:28] We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

[45:45] Thank you.