Known and Shown: Reflecting God’s Love
Reflecting God’s Character • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today’s Reading from God’s Word:
Today’s Reading from God’s Word:
6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,
7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
Introduction
Introduction
Who is a person you’ve wanted to see, really, really badly?
Writer Philip Ryken shares that he and his son went to see Michael Jordan play professional basketball for the very last time.
All we wanted to see was Michael.
We were not the only ones.
From the moment Jordan entered Philadelphia’s First Union Center, every eye strained to see him.
Whether he was shooting or stretching, or even just sitting on the bench, everyone was looking at Michael.
Can you feel the power of that moment?
The buzz in the air, the crowd leaning forward, everyone desperate for a glimpse of greatness, knowing Jordan would never be on the court again.
We’ve probably all had moments like that — waiting for someone larger-than-life to step into view.
Now, imagine that longing, magnified a thousand times — played out on a mountain in the wilderness.
In Exodus 33:18, Moses wanted to see God as he is in himself.
Moses had been talking with God in the tent of meeting, but he wanted a fuller revelation of His majesty.
In response, God told Moses there would be limits as to what he could see.
Moses was a sinful man, so he could not endure the direct sight of God’s glory — but he could survive a passing glance at God’s goodness.
Exodus 33:21-23 says:
21 The Lord said, “Here is a place near me. You are to stand on the rock,
22 and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
23 Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.”
Moses would see what he so desperately wanted to see, something no man had ever seen before — God passing by in glory.
The significance of this moment is important to grasp.
Moses has come up the mountain with two new tablets that he cut out of stone.
You remember, just before in Exodus 32, the people rebelled by worshipping a golden calf — breaking their covenant — turning their backs on God.
When Moses came down the mountain the first time — carrying the tablets of stone — when he saw the people and the golden calf — he dashed the first set of tablets into the ground, breaking them into a thousand pieces (Exodus 32:19).
Israel had broken the covenant — but God was willing to pick up the pieces of that broken relationship and renew his covenant with his people.
And what is so significant about that day is that God shows up — not with thunder and fire — He shows up with revelation — saying “This is Who I Am.”
And what He reveals changes everything.
Look again at Exodus 34:6
6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,
Compassionate and gracious. Eager to forgive us what we don’t deserve.
Slow to anger. Patient, giving us room to turn back.
Abounding in faithful love and truth. His love is not a trickle, it’s a flood. His faithfulness does not waiver when we do.
Forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin: three words for our failures, all covered by His willingness to let them go.
But he will not leave the guilty unpunished. God is not a pushover. His mercy doesn’t cancel his justice, sin has consequences, and He holds the line.
This is the portrait of the living God — relational, steady, holy.
He’s not just powerful — He’s personal — and He wants us to know him — not just know about Him.
God is not shouting from a distance.
He is near, declaring His heart.
The God who parted the Red Sea is now revealing his character is Israel’s redeemer.
He is saying, This is who I am for you — merciful when you fail, faithful when you wander.
Here’s why this matters to us.
The story of Exodus 34 isn’t just for Moses. It’s for us.
God didn’t hide behind a curtain — He pulled it back for Moses — letting him see his glory.
But that was just a preview.
God has revealed Himself completely for us in the image of Jesus. It was Jesus who said, if you have seen me you have seen the Father, John 14:9.
The God of the mountain, the God of mercy and justice, stepped into our world with a face, a voice, and a life.
And this is important, because if we’re going to reflect God — we have to know Jesus.
He’s not just a messenger — He is the message!
During April, we’re diving into what it means to mirror a God who’s no longer a stranger — because in Christ — we’ve seen Him up close.
It’s a calling rooted in who He is — and who he’s shown himself to be.
And it’s not just a promise from the past, it’s a reality that unfolds across Scripture.
So let’s fast forward from the mountain to the Psalms, to Psalm 103, where we see God’s character in action.
Today we’ll talk about what it means to know God’s character and to reflect his love.
Psalm 103 - God’s Character in Action
Psalm 103 - God’s Character in Action
Psalm 103:8
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.
Sound familiar? It’s Exodus 34:6. But David is not just reciting these words like a script — He’s singing them from experience.
Now, v. 9-10:
9 He will not always accuse us or be angry forever.
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.
See what David adds?
It’s his personal testimony to his own life experience.
David knew failure. Adultery. Murder. Brokenness.
Yet, he also knew a God who didn’t write him off.
And throughout the Scripture what do we see — God exhibiting this again and again.
John 8 - the woman caught in adultery - Jesus didn’t chide her endlessly or repay her sin by having her stoned. He simply says:
11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]
God’s character isn’t static; it moves, it acts, it restores.
Look again at Psalm 103:9.
9 He will not always accuse us or be angry forever.
God is not the grudge-holding type, stewing over our mistakes.
Instead, he lifts the weight of our failures and forgives and forgives again.
The proof is in Jesus: the cross erases the debt we couldn’t pay.
14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
And that debt is completely gone.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
East and west never meet.
Guilt? Gone.
Shame? Out of sight.
Ours is a God who doesn’t just forgive, He chooses to remember our sin no more.
Buried.
God is the God who chooses Restoration Over Retribution.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him.
Not a shallow mercy. It’s boundless.
David is singing about a God who would rather rebuild than reject.
Jesus lived this, eating with tax collectors, healing the outcast, dying for the unworthy.
We struggle with this.
We can hold onto hurts. Keep score. Demand justice.
But God rewrites the story.
In Christ, He doesn’t patch us up — He makes us new.
So, if we’re reflecting the God we see in Jesus, mercy isn’t optional.
So many times we’re quick to judge.
But Psalm 103 should stop us - God doesn’t deal with us like that.
Jesus didn’t either - He washed the dusty feet of Judas — knowing what would happen in just a few hours. that’s mercy, not holding a grudge.
So, God tells us who he is in Exodus 34…
He proves it in Psalm 103 by restoring us.
But he doesn’t stop there.
He sent His Son to make it undeniable — because his character isn’t something we just sit back and admire — it’s something we live.
Let’s see this in 1 John 4:7-9 where God’s character is embodied.
1 John 4:7-9 - God’s Character Embodied
1 John 4:7-9 - God’s Character Embodied
This is the passage where we see God’s love in action.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
v. 8 - God is love. Love isn’t just something God does - it is who he is.
Exodus 34 - He abounds in steadfast love.
Psalm 103 - it is his love that removed our sin.
and here, John says that love is his very being.
Every act of mercy, every moment of patience flows from this truth.
How do we know it?
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
Jesus is the living definition.
Unconditional, sacrificial, real.
God sent his son…
This is love moving, not waiting. He came to us.
Why?
So that we might live through Him.
Love with a mission.
We’ve just seen in Psalm 103 that God restores, and here he brings life.
Jesus takes the mercy David sang about and makes it eternal.
The cross doesn’t just lift our sins, it opens the door to new living.
Now, back to v. 7.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
This is the test.
If God is love, and we’ve seen that love in Jesus, then knowing Jesus should change us.
You can’t meet His love and remain cold.
Love isn’t optional — it’s proof we know him.
Sometimes it is easy to back our love on those who are hard to love.
But yet, we see Jesus washing feet, breaking bread, and dying for us.
If he can love that like that, what is our excuse?
Luke 23 records Jesus’ conversation with the thief on the cross.
Jesus, dying, still loved him, saying:
43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
That’s love moving, not waiting.
Who is someone you can reflect God’s character to in this way?
A kind word? A helping hand? A prayer?
We are called to reflect the God who sent His son, not because we deserved it, but because He is love.
This is how the world sees Him — through us living it out.
So as we close, let’s ask: Why does this matter?
As We Close…
As We Close…
Why this matters:
We’ve been called to mirror this character in a fractured world.
If God is merciful and slow to anger, we can’t be quick to condemn.
If God is abounding in love, we’re challenged to love even when it’s hard — especially when it’s hard.
And John tied it directly back to our lives:
If we know God, we’ll reflect His love because “everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
God’s character isn’t just a nice idea.
It is evidence of our transformation.
It is how the world sees God through us.
When we forgive as He forgives (Psalm 103)
When we love as He loves (1 John 4) we become the reflection of the God who revealed Himself to Moses.
Will you live this out?
Remember that crowd straining to see Michael Jordan’s greatness?
The world’s straining too — not for us, but for the God we reflect.
Let us show them His greatness in how we live.
The times in which we live need more who will be:
patient rather than reactive
Generous rather than judgmental
loving even toward the unlovable.
We are the salt of the earth when we reflect God’s character — we are His agents of healing, restoration, and it all points back to HIm.
God saved you so that you can live for Him.
You are not just a recipient of God’s mercy — you are an ambassador of it.
