Moses: What would you ask of God?

[00:00:00] Amen. Thank you Megan and team. What a great way to start our morning. Welcome to all of you that are here at Salem first, if I haven't met you, I'm Pastor Jerry, one of the staff pastors. If you're out there online, welcome to you too. Here's what I know. Every week somebody stands up here and every week a lot of you are out there praying for us before we hit this place. And we want to say thank you. Some of you are praying for us right now, some of you watching. I know we're praying for me family and friends and we just, we don't ever take that for granted. [00:00:28] So thank you so much. What a great series this has been and what a perfect moment this is during our 21 days of prayer. To share the story I'm going to share today. [00:00:40] We're hardly, we've hardly got, we've got Moses pastor guide us to Mount Sinai and we're going to spend a little bit more time there. So we are hardly started in that 40 year journey of Moses for the people after they leave Mount Sinai. But what a great journey to this point it has been to open up his heart and his mind and his life and just see what way that applies to, to us. [00:01:05] We just sang a song and the word said, sing if you love his name. [00:01:10] Come on and lift your voice with me. He's worthy of all our praise. Blessed are those who walk with him whose hearts are set on pilgrimage with Jesus. [00:01:26] Whose hearts are set on pilgrimage, a journey with Jesus because they will see his glory. That's exactly what Moses is on a pilgrimage with God to get to know him, to understand him. [00:01:43] And we're going to talk about a critical moment, probably one of the, one of the most, one of the most beautiful moments in the entire scriptural story. [00:01:53] Because Moses relationship with God comes to a place where he wants to know him better. He wants to be on a pilgrimage that, that helps him understand God's heart so that he can be more like him. [00:02:09] And what better time than 21 days of prayer? Because what is a conversation with God but prayer, it opens ourselves to understanding what prayer is at the heart all about as we look at what Moses requested of God today. So what would you, if you had an opportunity, you were in the presence of God, what would you ask him? If you could ask him one thing, what would be the question that you ask? Or what would you request of God? Because what he requested and then how God responds becomes the most oft quoted and alluded to scripture in the Entire biblical story. [00:02:51] That answer. [00:02:53] That answer is huge as it helps us understand the heart of God and becomes this scripture that we embrace today for what it means to us and why we're even here this morning. Morning. Why is it? Because if I'm going to have a heart like God, I'm going to have to know the heart of God. [00:03:21] Show me your heart. [00:03:23] This is what Moses is asking for. Show me your character. Show me the glory at the heart of who you are. And this is the glory that is primarily on display throughout the biblical story. [00:03:38] So, Father, give us a heart like Moses. Help us to. Help us to desire more than anything else to know your heart so that we can become more like you in our own hearts and in our own lives. [00:03:55] Amen. So let's set the stage with where we are. We're in Exodus 33. [00:04:02] And Moses said to Yahweh, you have been telling me, lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your way so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. [00:04:26] And remember, this nation is your people. [00:04:30] The Lord replied, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And Moses response is telling, and we'll get to why it is. But you can tell he's not convinced that Yahweh is actually gonna go with them. And then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. [00:04:53] How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? Us? [00:05:01] What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? And Yahweh said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name. And then Moses said, now show me your glory. [00:05:28] Scripture describes four types of glory that are all related to God. [00:05:36] In the biblical story, there's the glory of God's being, that is his physical presence. [00:05:45] There's the glory of God's character. [00:05:48] There's the glory of God's Son, and there's the glory of those who wrap themselves into God through His Son. And I want to take them one by one and talk about them this morning and why we need to understand it, what that means for us. We sang a lot about what it means to change our heart. But why it's so important to understand God's glory. Number one, Is this. There's the glory of God's being. That is the physical manifestation of his presence. [00:06:21] It's first mentioned in Genesis 15, where God's in a conversation with Abram. He's going to make a covenant with him. He puts Abram into a deep sleep. And then Abram, in a vision, sees a smoking oven and a flaming torch. It's mentioned in Exodus 3 in the burning bush as God appears to Moses. It's mentioned in Exodus 13, the pillar of cloud and fire that. That help guide and lead Israel from. By the day and by and through the night. [00:06:49] It's the. It's what Pastor Tim explained as we've got to Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. It's the thunder that. It's the thick cloud. It's the lightning. It's the noise is the sound as. As God actually descends onto Mount Sinai. And then there's the cloud of glory that appears when both the tabernacle and later on Solomon's temple are dedicated. You find that in Exodus 40 and 1st Kings 8, the Jewish people and scribes will come, will come to call that God's Shekinah glory. Now, that word will not be found in the Scripture. It's just a Hebrew word that means dwelling. It came to represent God's dwelling. His Shekinah glory was his willingness to dwell with his people, as evidenced by the cloud that came in the dedication of. Of the temple and the tabernacle. Isaiah will see it as he sees God's throne room in Isaiah 6, Daniel's vision in Daniel 7, where he sees the ancient of days. And what's interesting is Daniel's vision and what he sees is picked up exactly by Stephen as he's being stoned. And he looks up and has a vision of heaven. And he quotes from Daniel's vision in Acts 7. And John will pick up that same vision as he begins to describe Jesus. Jesus in the Revelation, in the opening chapter. [00:08:13] And finally, of course, the transfiguration of Jesus is described in Matthew 17, where he suddenly begins to shine like the sun and a bright cloud and a voice comes from heaven. And as Peter looks back on that moment, because he was one of the three that was there, as Peter looks back on that moment later on in one of his own letters to the churches, he will call that the magnificent glory of Jesus. [00:08:44] But that glory, that physical glory, that manifestation of his physical presence, is not. [00:08:50] That's on display to us, is not the glory that the biblical authors are primarily interested in or have in mind the glory that Moses is seeking is clearly not a physical manifestation of God. [00:09:09] He's wanting to know God. [00:09:13] He's wanting to seek out his character. [00:09:16] And there's a reason why. Because at this moment in the tent of meeting where he is with God, it's very clear he's with a God that is very, very unhappy. [00:09:29] And it started up on the mountain the first time he was there. And God chiseled out the tablets and gave them to Moses. And before that was ever open, on his wedding night with his people up there on the mountain, the people are down below in quick succession, breaking commands number one, two, and three, all about their relationship with God. And before Moses leaves to go back down to the camp, God says all I am not going with you. [00:09:59] That's why Moses is concerned. [00:10:03] And that's what leads to the question. He's dealing with a very unhappy God. [00:10:12] So all of Israel and Moses are waiting on God now for an answer. [00:10:20] So what does that mean if you're not gonna go with us? [00:10:26] From the beginning, and this is why this covenant relationship, this marriage night and this covenant we have with God is so critical. Because from the beginning, God's plan has always been to work out his purposes on planet earth through his image bearers, through a covenant people that would bear his name and take his message and his glory into the. [00:10:50] But from the beginning, and this is the story that really characterizes the problem. [00:10:56] Pastor, theologian, actually, Dr. Tim Mackey said this. He said the problem from the beginning is that that covenant people, from the moment he married them, have not wanted to be married to the real him. [00:11:12] Have you ever known anyone that got married in a few months or a few years into the marriage, you're talking to them about it and say, dad, you actually, it's not like the person I thought I was marrying. [00:11:25] They wanted a God of their own making. [00:11:28] It was clear they weren't happy with the God they were given. They wanted to see him. They wanted to control him. [00:11:35] They wanted a cosmic bellhop. Yes, answer our prayers. Give me the water when I want it. Give me the manna when I want it. I want, I want you at my beck and call. I want you to be there for me when I want you there. They weren't help happy with the God they had. They wanted a God of their own making. [00:11:55] And so they're down now at the bottom of the hill. They're back in the tent of meeting. And this is where this conversation is taking place, in that little tent that he set up outside the camp before the tabernacle was ever Built where he could meet with God. And they're all waiting on God for his response. And this is where, in the tent that Moses says to God, not certain of what the future holds with him, show me your glory. [00:12:28] And Yahweh tells him, I will. [00:12:32] He tells him to go back up to the hill, go back up to the mountain, and he'll meet him there. He tells him he'll protect him from his physical presence because God's physical. Physical manifestation when he shows himself physically, it's dangerous. [00:12:47] You can't be. He said, you can never see. No one can see my face and live. But he said, I'll find a place for you. I'll put my hand over you, and I will reveal my glory to you. It's like the sun. The sun, in a natural sense, is the source of light and life on our planet. Without it, we're lost. We could never survive. It's a good thing. But go and be. Go and try to touch the sun before you get near the sun. You will be toast. [00:13:16] Because the sun is dangerous. [00:13:21] And God's presence, when he comes to us, there's only so much we can have a part of him and be alive. And so he says, I'll protect you. And so he goes back up. He has to carve out now his own new tablets. God says, bring him back up with you. We'll do it again. We'll have a second moment. [00:13:41] And so he goes back up to the hill to be with God. And it's up there that this takes place. [00:13:46] Then the Lord. This is Exodus 34, 5 and following. [00:13:50] Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and he stood there with him and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. [00:13:59] And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God. Slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. And yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents of the third and fourth generation. This, this. [00:14:26] This deserves its own message. But what he's saying is your actions in front of others, especially parents in front of their children, have an ongoing effect. They'll pick up your DNA and they'll carry it on from generation to generation. [00:14:43] Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. And then Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped Lord, he said, if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff people, forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as your inheritance. [00:15:13] This is the glory. [00:15:16] Show me your glory. [00:15:18] And instead of showing him some physical manifestation, God self describes his character. [00:15:27] This is the glory that's emphasized in the Old Testament. [00:15:32] And that is why it is quoted more than any other Scripture, because it describes God's heart toward us. [00:15:43] And when you think about the story, how often God's people abandon him over and over and over, they would abandon God. They'd return to their own gods. They'd return to their own ways. It would grieve God's heart. [00:15:58] Things would go south. And when things got bad enough, they'd turn around and they'd beg God to take them back because of what he said. They'd quote his own scripture, and they'd quote the character of God. And over and over and over, without exception, God says, oh, okay, I'll take you back. [00:16:18] And the cycle would start again. [00:16:27] It's his compassion, his mercy, his loyal love and his forgiveness. [00:16:35] That's why we're here this morning. And we're calling ourselves Christians, we're calling ourselves followers, children of God, brothers and sisters of God's son, Jesus, because of God's character and willingness to be our God in spite of our failures. [00:16:58] So that's God's heart on display toward us. But what about our heart toward God? [00:17:06] Where is the Adam? Where is the human being that loves God in the same way that he loves us? [00:17:17] And that's why the second most quoted scripture in the story Jesus is going to pull from Deuteronomy 6 when he quotes the two great commandments. Because it's the Shema. [00:17:29] It's what faithful Jews said every single morning when they woke up and put their feet on the ground before they did anything else. The word Shema simply means listen or hear. [00:17:42] Hear, O Israel. [00:17:45] Yahweh is our God. [00:17:48] Yahweh is one God. [00:17:52] And you shall love Yahweh with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. [00:18:03] And of course, the answer it leads us to is, is always, as usual, found in Jesus. [00:18:11] He becomes the one human. He becomes the one Adam. He becomes the one who becomes the ultimate revelation of God's glory. [00:18:22] It's the glory of his presence. There's a glory of his character. There's a glory of God's son. Jesus becomes the literal answer to Moses's prayer, show me your glory. And Jesus becomes the answer to that prayer some 1500 years later. He is Jesus is the living, visible manifestation of God's glory displayed through a human being in front of other image bearers that he has in that world around him. The glory of his Son John, when he looks back on his life with Jesus, will pick it up in his gospel how he describes him as the very essence of everything that could be known or understood in the cosmos by begins with God. He is the living word. He says he he was a word, the Word of God, the word that the Creator's word, the Word became flesh. [00:19:20] He became a human being. [00:19:21] And he it's interesting he says most translation he dwelt. He literally he tabernacled among us and we beheld what we beheld his glory. [00:19:35] We beheld his glory by the way he lived his life. We beheld his glory by the way he loved. We beheld his glory by his mercy. We beheld his glory by his faithfulness and his compassion and his love. We beheld his glory by the way he touched people and healed people and forgave people and took in the people that nobody else would take in. We beheld his glory was a glory full of grace and truth. [00:20:02] He'll be the one to describe a question that Philip asked hours before Jesus had to go to the cross when they're sitting for their last meal together and Philip says to Jesus, lord, Lord, show us the Father, that'll be enough. [00:20:18] And Jesus, did you go, Philip? [00:20:23] Have you not been with me long enough to know that if you have seen me, you have seen the Father? [00:20:37] The writer to the Hebrews in the opening sentences of his, his own, his own book, his own letter will say the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God sustaining everything by the mighty power of his command. [00:21:00] God's presence, God's character, God's Son. There's a fourth type of glory that's made very, very clear in the scriptural story. And that's the glory of those filled with the life giving presence of Jesus's Holy Spirit. [00:21:18] That's us. [00:21:20] That's us who have been. If you've been born again, if you've been received, the Spirit and the Spirit's at work transforming your life. [00:21:30] That's us. [00:21:33] And we receive it in four ways. It's interesting when you look at it because he gives us a glory and there's four things about the glory that is for us to understand because we bear the glory of God. Number one, that glory is a gift to us from Jesus. Jesus, night before he dies, hours before he dies, John again record his prayer in John 17, where he says, father, I've given them. I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one. Why Unity. That we may be unified through the glory that God has given us. The ability to live with each other, to manifest as human beings a heart like Jesus, a life like Jesus, I in them, and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. And then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. The second thing about the glory we receive from him is that his glory allows us to become a mirror of God's glory. [00:22:36] 2 Corinthians 3. [00:22:39] But whenever anyone, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. [00:22:46] He's referencing back to the Moses story about how Moses would come down the hill after being in God's presence, and he would. He would put on a veil because his face was shining. He was. He was. His body was physically impacted by being in the glory presence of. Of God. [00:23:03] And he would put on this veil. But the truth is, the reason he put on the veil is because over time that glory would just fade away. That glory wasn't something he maintained. That was simply from being in the presence of God. And he wants to make. Paul wants to make it clear that was a temporary, transient type of glory. That was wonderful at the time. But he said whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the vision veil, the veil is taken away. There's no shame. We don't need a veil to hide our shame, because the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. There is a freedom to enjoy God's presence and God's. And God's power, God's relationship in a way that Moses would never have understood in his life. And we all who with unveiled faces, this is our job. Each and every day as we go to prayer, we. We all with unveiled faces contemplate. We are on a journey. We're on a pilgrimage, contemplating the Lord's glory. [00:24:09] We are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. [00:24:22] Third. Thirdly, that glory revealed through us, it was the very purpose of our rescue. [00:24:30] Our salvation is that his glory might be seen through us. Romans 8, familiar to all of us. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And he's gonna tell us what that purpose is of about. But we Talked about this before. Everything God allows into your life, we live in that in between. We live in an. In an age that's passing away. We live with an age that is dawning since Jesus came out of the grave. But there's a collision right now and overlap of those ages. And it's difficult. It's the valley, it's the in between. There's disappointment and challenges and trials and persecution. All of those things are a part of where we live. But God says anything he allows into our lives, he allows for a purpose. If we are truly called, if we are truly willing to follow and be used by Him. [00:25:30] And he said that purpose is this. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. So that whatever he allows in our life is to shape us. It helps shape us. The difficulties, the challenges, the trials, the struggles are all allowed for one purpose, to help shape us to become more like His Son, Jesus. Because we are the ones carrying the message of Jesus into our world, that he might become the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those that he predestined, he also called. [00:26:15] And those that he called, he also justified. [00:26:18] And those that he justified, he also. Thank you, Jesus, for justification. My sins are nailed to the cross. Thank you, Lord. And those he justified, he also glorified. [00:26:37] Some day, it says in Revelation 21, Someday after Jesus returns, the skies around Salem will be filled with the glory of God's presence, a manifestation of his physical presence with his people. When heaven and earth are once brought back together again and he dwells with us, it'll be manifest in our skies. It'll be manifest across Oregon, across the United States, across North and South America, around our world. The glory of God will be manifest because God once again dwells with his creation on planet Earth. [00:27:32] And as great as that is, that's not the glory that's primarily in view when we are talking about the redemption made possible for us through what Jesus has done. [00:27:45] It is God's character. [00:27:48] It's the glory of God's character that was first stated and revealed to Moses. And it's that character that promise that way, that Yahweh, that. That's on display throughout the entire Old Testament story until after hundreds of years of silence from the prophets, another type of glory appears. [00:28:15] It's. It's the glory of a little infant child just lying in a manger. [00:28:25] And not far away, angels are singing about it, lighting up skies for those shepherds until they can go and see the glory of the infant in a manger. [00:28:40] And from the infant in a manger to the life and ministry of Jesus, to the glory of a man cross that is battered and bloodied and tortured beyond comprehension hangs there for us. [00:29:10] Never in the history of mankind has God's glory been on greater display than in that moment. [00:29:20] Jesus makes it possible for us to have hope of not just forgiveness, but release from the grave when he seals the deal three days later. [00:29:36] And that glory of his character, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness is why we are here to today. And that glory is a glory that he wants to put in us and shine through us with a message that we carry into a world of darkness and hurt to give them hope. [00:30:03] That in Jesus new life is coming, new creation is coming, an end of death and mourning and crying is coming. [00:30:15] That in Jesus there is hope for a future because of him there is unlike any other person can ever off us. There is a glory in Jesus manifest through his character that he now wants us, knowing his heart, to carry into our world. [00:30:37] And so the question is, do you yearn for God's glory? [00:30:43] Do we yearn for God's glory? Do we yearn to know God's heart so that we can better and better image and bear the heart of His Son with the message of His Son into this world? We are Jesus on display. [00:31:03] The only Jesus on display until the real, until Jesus returns will be those that have put their life, been transformed by his spirit and are taking his message and his life, his love, his mercy, his compassion, his faithfulness, his loyal love, everything that God said into their world to take a message of hope like no other message. [00:31:29] You yearn to know the heart of Jesus, to become more like so. Father, thank you. [00:31:46] Thank you for a glory beyond comprehension. Father, thank you for your heart. Thank you for your character. Thank you for what it has it's meant for thousands and thousands of years and what it means to us this morning. Thank you for your son. [00:32:02] Thank you for his willingness to come and be for us all we could never be for ourselves. [00:32:07] Thank you for his willingness to come to show us what it looked like to take our sins and to take on our death. [00:32:14] To find victory on the cross and victory from the grave. [00:32:18] Father, help us more than anything else in the world as your children, your sons and your daughter, to desire the glory of your son that we may live it out in in our lives. [00:32:33] So we bless you Father, and we ask it in Jesus name. [00:32:38] Amen. [00:32:40] There will be a time of prayer. I'm sorry I'M so sorry. Oh, you came up. Thank you. I told you, Megan. So good to work with. She reads my mind. Okay, we're gonna. There's a time of prayer. You're welcome to come and pray. [00:32:56] Jason and Rhonda, I think are going to join me down here. Please come. [00:33:00] Come and yearn for God's glory. Come and bring other burdens. Come and bring a need. We have things to celebrate. It's so good to have sue with us this morning. She's on a journey like we are and she took some steps this week and God's revealing himself to her. Michael is on a journey. He's taking steps to be what God wants him to be. This is the glory of watching Jesus work in our world. So come pray with Rhonda, with Jason, with me. We'd be delighted to meet you here. God bless you, family. I love you. Amen. You're dismissed.