Radiating the Glory of God

Introduction

You studied this morning in Life Groups the story of Jesus turning the water into wine at Cana of Galilee. The title for the youth lesson was “signs of His glory.” You studied the first miracle or sign spelled out in John’s Gospel account that pointed to the sign of Jesus’ glory through the sign or miracle of turning the water into wine. Jesus was the glory, the radiance or the manifestation of the glory of the triune God here on earth.

As Jesus turned the water into wine and the servants gave the water pots that became wine pots, the master waiter could not believe that the bridegroom had held out the best for last.

John 2:11 “11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”

Oh dearly beloved, a life in Jesus only gets better and better with time. Amen.

One of our deacons gave me this flashlight for Christmas. Since I came to Mt. Zion, I have given our deacons a gift every Christmas and always give them something that has an object lesson in the mix. The deacon caught on and gave me a gift of similarity. We are the light of the world. We are that city on a hill.

He gave me a flashlight and not just any flashlight. He knows I love flashlights. This strobes, flashes red lights, has three LED panels and the more buttons I hit the more it illuminates.

What is interesting about this flashlight is that it has a port that I can charge it into a USB port to charge it.

An interesting thought: the flashlight will not shine with brilliance unless it is charged from the power source.

We will learn today that we will not shine our brightest unless we are plugged into Jesus.

This morning as we consider the lesson we studied in our Life Groups hour, Jesus manifesting His glory, and as we consider the radiance of brightness this flashlight puts off given it has been charged in a power source, we will study an excerpt from the word of God where another gave off the radiance of the glory of God. His name was Moses.

Turn in your Bibles this morning to Exodus 34:29-35.

Exodus 34:29-35

Exodus 34:29–35 NKJV

29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.

Prayer

Message

Ill. Jane and I were newlyweds and had a little home we rented from my parents on Wares Ferry Road until we could buy it in Montgomery East. I was not raised in the country and I was not raised around handymen or someone that knew things of repair around the home.

I had always seen people clean up fences with a fuel to kill any overgrowth that had made its way up and embedded in chain link fence. I never knew what type fuel they used, all I knew was I saw people take fuel and light it and it would burn the stalks and briars and weeds out of the fence.

I proceeded to use gasoline and I lit the debris in the fence and almost as immediately as I struck the match, the fire came up in my face and singed my eyebrows and gave me an Afro on the front third of my hair.

My face revealed that I had an encounter with the radiance of fire all over my face.

This morning we read where Moses’ face had a radiance from being in the presence of God. Moses body manifest the glory of God simply from his personal encounter with the mighty God of the Universe.

What can we learn from this beautiful encounter that Moses had with the Lord? Is it possible that we can manifest the glory of God in our lives?

What is so interesting about this scene is all the build up to this point. As I prepared an out line of three points found in verses 29-35, I could not escape the first point because of all the buildup in the life of Moses that brought him to the place. When I consider Moses’ beginnings and him maturing to this place, I am overwhelmed by God’s handiwork in the life of Moses.

God loved Moses and God was pursuing Moses’ life even before His birth.

Oh the love of God for us and the love of God for Moses, but the love for His people Israel. I want you to know that God loves you and He has been putting His imprint on your heart to be what He would have you be before time began.

Think about it a moment. God’s grace, God’s Wooing grace was threaded all through the Exodus account. God had plans for Moses well before Moses had plans for God. And, may I submit that God has had plans for you well before He was ever on your radar.

Ill. Top Gun Radar

I like to watch the Top Gun movies and the most recent was Top Gun: Maverick. In the movie, whether on the naval landing carrier or at home base as they practiced, the Air Traffic Controllers had eyes on Maverick’s feats as a pilot miles away from the Landing Carrier well before he would retreat back to base or either they sent allies to help in a fight when the battle was on. Listen dearly beloved, you have never ever at any point in your life whether you were in your darkest period or not, you have never left the Lord’s mind. Isn’t that awesome? Today and always you are on God’s radar.

The Lord met Moses in the bulrushes of the Nile in the basket. The Lord met Moses when he killed a fellow Egyptian and had to flee. Moses met Moses at Midian to meet his future father-in-law Jethro and take a wife, Zipporah found in Exodus 2.

For you see, for Moses to find himself at this point of having a personal encounter with God directly, a courting relationship took place.

There is a Courting Taking Place

The word I want to use is that in God’s amazing grace, God’s wooing grace, to this point and beyond, God courted Moses in a love relationship. God has been pursuing a love relationship with you since time began. There have been many elements that brought you to this place of God’s grace working providentially to deepen His relationship with you. God uses His courting maybe through someone who invited you here today. God woos you through a friend who chose to pick you up and bring you, invite you to a life group class, bought you a Bible, or took you to lunch to and spoke spiritual matters or truth. Maybe one of these deacons or a message from this pulpit has had a tugging on your heart. Maybe Michael led in a song that spoke to your heart.

Oh dear brother and sister, God loves you and He loved you long before you loved Him. He has been at work in your life.

Moses continued in that courtship and was pursued at the burning bush. Moses made every excuse in Exodus 3 & 4 as to why He was not the one to walk the journey with the Lord in leading His people. “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah? What if they ask who sent me? What if they don’t believe me? I am no eloquent. Please send someone else.

The Lord answered as we know every objection Moses gave.

God provided Aaron. God answered., “Say that I AM sent you.”

May I ask you a question? Has God been courting you for something greater and you are making excuses? Is there something that the Lord requires of you that calls for greater commitment and you continue to put off that decision? I do not have time. I am not ready to make that level of commitment. I do not have the skill set to do what I know He wants me to do. My family will not support me. Nobody will believe the change I’m making. God can’t use me.

Well, as you know the Lord in His great love for Moses and the people of Israel met Him at every weakness and fear. God answered with patience every concern He had. And… as the story goes, Moses became more and more confident, started by using Aaron as the spokesperson and then spoke for the Lord Himself. Moses became a stronger and stronger leader for the Lord. He stepped out there, He trusted God, God provided and we have watched before our very eyes a man that became an infant believer and we saw at this point in the story a man of God who became a true disciple of the Lord.

My prayer for you and me this morning is that we are at the point Moses was and we desire more from the Lord. My prayer for you and me is that we would want to move from milk and get on meat with the Lord. For you see, Moses moved from the one being courted or being charmed to the one who made a choice that he wanted more out of the relationship with God.

Moses moved from being pursued to the one pursuing God.

Context: Moses’ face was radiant because he had been with God on Mount Sinai, receiving the second set of the Ten Commandments. His transformation was so evident that the Israelites were afraid to come near him.

Application: Just as Moses reflected God’s glory, believers today are called to live in a way that displays His presence and character.

There was a Choice Being Made

Moses chose to enjoy something deeper with God. God pursued Moses now Moses had chosen to pursue God.

Exodus 34:29 “29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”

At this place in the story of Israel we are past Moses first trip up the mountain to meet God on Mt. Horeb. You will remember that God gave Moses the two tablets, the ten commandments and while Moses was on the mountain, Israel has become wayward with God.

The people of God had made a Golden calf false god to worship. You might remember that in Exodus 32, Aaron had gathered all the gold earrings from the people and he molded it and fashioned it into a false god.

And God said, “Moses, get down to the people, you will never believe what they have done now.”

Exodus 32:7 “7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.” Obviously, God in Exodus 32:10 “10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.””

We could say in a modern day vernacular that “God was fit to be tied” over their actions. And immediately we see the maturity and compassion of Moses that He pleaded for His people Israel and reminded God of the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

These verses remind us of the emotion and love and hurt we bring upon our Heavenly Father when we are disloyal to Him or to speak more clearly, we prostitute ourselves to other gods.

In verse 13, Moses asked God to relent from His wrath and in verse 14,

Exodus 32:14 “14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.”

Oh the mercy and forgiveness of God. Dearly beloved, when we fail God, God is found faithful in forgiving us if we repent. Amen.

Well, as the story goes, Moses knew in mind what Israel had done because the Lord had shared this heinous act with Moses on the mountain.

What is interesting is that Moses acted differently on the mountain to the news. He was strengthened, He was comforted, He was in the presence of God and He responded as God taught him to respond. His heart was full. His compassion was off the charts. He was merciful and hurt for His people’s actions down on the ground. He had adapted the heart of God.

When Moses came back down to the ground, sin infested earth and had to deal with the matter, even though Moses knew the incident of heart, when he came down the mountain, Moses was livid and broke the tablets, the ten commandments.

Why am I so astounded at the growth and maturity of Moses? I am astounded by the God we serve and the change He can bring about in an individual that desires something more out of God.

After Moses addressed the sin at the bottom of the mountain with the people of Israel and the golden calf and following God’s lead in dealing with the matter, we see an amazing behavior in the life of Moses. Moses knew that individually and corporately that Israel along with Moses need to heal and be restored from this travesty.

Moses began the encounter of going to the tabernacle of meeting to visit the Lord.

The Point: Moses moved from the the pursued to the pursuer. Moses moved from the one being courted to the one choosing to deepen His relationship with the Lord.

The key: Moses chose for something deeper.

Exodus 33:7–11 NKJV

7 Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. 8 So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. 9 And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. 11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

Exodus 33:7-11 was the beginning of this episode, there were others, but to rebound from this point. Moses was proactive in pursuing a love relationship with God. He was tired of the surfacy relationship. He wanted to go deeper. He wanted His life to have meaning, purpose, He wanted to impact the people God had entrusted Him to.

How do I know that?

Exodus 33:17–18 “17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.””

What was God’s response?

Exodus 33:19 “19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.””

We must answer the question, when I choose a life of communion with God what comes to past?

“The Lord replied My goodness will pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.”

We recite the statement “God is good....and all the time, God is good.”

Exodus 34:6–7 “6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.””

God’s empowerment, God’s graciousness, God’s longsuffering, God’s forgiveness, God’s mercies will radiate from your life. Moses was glowing. The question we must ask is what was glowing in Moses life? How was He transformed when He came in the presence of God?

As we read Exodus 34:6-7, we see an OT version of the fruits of the Spirit that reigns in our lives. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are just that, they are a gift.

Galatians 5:22–23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Moses’ life radiated that when He chose to reside in the presence of God. You ask how I know that.

There Was a Conversion Transformation Coming to Past

Exodus 33:11 “11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”

Young Joshua wanted what Moses enjoyed inside the tabernacle of meeting. At that point, Young Joshua was being impacted by the tabernacle. He saw in His mentor and leader that there was something different about someone when they came in the presence of God.

We know as recorded in Exodus 24:13 that Joshua, Moses’ assistant went part way up the mountain of God with Moses.

We know that God spoke to Joshua after the death of Moses in Joshua 1:1-9 and God says:

“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not leave you nor forsake you.”

In Joshua 5:13-15 at the conquest of Jericho, Joshua encountered the Commander of the Lord’s army who told him, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” These words were given before Israel in the power of the Lord conquered Jericho.

What is the point? Moses made a choice to enjoy something more in the Lord than He had in the past. He wanted to behold the glory of God. He had no clue what that encounter would manifest. When Moses came back from his encounters with God Moses’ radiance brought fear on the people. I want to think it was a reverential fear. They knew Moses had been with God, but they knew God had been with Moses. Moses had been changed and the people recognized the change.

Ill. Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby

If the church followed the prescribed manner corporately in the emphasis on Experiencing God, we learned some new songs.

Song was written by Hillsong Worship

“I Will Never Be”

I will never be the same again I can never return I've closed the door I will walk the path I'll run the race And I will never be the same again Fall like fire, soak like rain Flow like mighty water Again and again Sweep away the darkness burn away the chaff And let the flame Burn to glory Your name

And listen, Moses was not even out of the tent and already conversion and transformation was taking place in the life of Joshua.

I am not insinuating that Joshua was not a devout man of God. He was. But we see a watchful young man that was conforming into a leader such as Moses. He was watching his every move. You will remember that it was Joshua and Caleb that spied out the land of Canaan. They were the only two that came back with an optimistic report. They came back with a faith report that “we can take that land in the Lord’s power.”

The same Joshua who said “as for me and my house I will follow the Lord.”

We all would agree this morning that we sit here this side of God’s providential plan and His divine will in our lives because of a lengthy courting process. God loves you. He has always loved you and He has never at anytime quit loving you.

I would never question if anyone in this room doesn’t love God. For you see, I am not to judge as Scriptures remind us. God is the judge. But I want to ask you an important question. Do you love Him enough that you want to take that love to a next level? That requires a choice. Moses chose to go into the tabernacle of meeting. Moses chose to ask to see the glory of God. And in so doing we see all types of benefits that came from those encounters.

We see that God used Moses before He ever got out of the tent to make a difference in the life of Joshua.

Is your home what it should be? Do you want to impact the home front for the Lord? Is your workplace what it should be or is it toxic? It could be that your life group class is not what it could be or should be and he wants you to fulfill a certain role in your class? Maybe God’s calling you this morning and you are choosing to call out to God and take the relationship to the next level. Lord, I want to embed myself in Your Word. Lord, I really want to walk and talk with You. Lord, I want to embrace Your Holy Spirit and begin to live my life to His direction for my life. Lord, surround me with deep relationships, Christian relationships to hold me accountable and hold them accountable.

Notice in verse 29 that Moses brought down a word from God for the people. He brought down the ten commandments. Do you desire a Word from God that would impact people’s lives? Oh, I wish I brought more life words into the people I encountered. Do you desire that?

Ill. Two men named Steve and Rick-the party boys of Lake Martin. Steve was converted in 2007. He loved his blood brother, he loved his party buddy. They had done everything together. When Steve was converted, he never wrote off his friend. He had to pick their encounters because he did not live the same life. He began by showing the same love for him. He would invite him over to eat. He asked Rick to come to a Christmas night program each year and he accepted it became a tradition. Into starting year three, Rick began to ask Steve questions of spirituality, the Bible, church, Jesus. Steve was able to lead his friend to Christ after almost three years of the Lord’s wooing and His courting Steve. For you see, God knew all the time what was going to happen in the life of Steve. He courted Steve and along the way He was courting Rick. But at a certain point, Steve chose to take the relationship to another level. Lord. I want pursue Your glory. I want to take the Word to the people. I want my life to have meaning, purpose, I want to live for you. Steve had the blessing of baptizing his dear brother in Lake Martin and He was able to do it himself.

Speaking of conversion. Have you ever been converted? Have you allowed God to speak to you and answer yes, Lord, yes I want to answer your call today.

Let’s pray.