Experiencing Freedom

Last week we finished up chapter 32 of Exodus and we saw Moses go before God on Israel’s behalf.

Moses loved them enough to offer up his life for theirs which is foreshadowing what Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, will do for them.

We recognized this change that happened over the course of Moses’ life and how God had grown him to love Israel in sacrificial way.

Moses had not always been that way. God changed him and God wants to do the same work in our lives because we cannot set people free that we do not love.

When God first asked Moses to go and set Israel free, Moses asked God to send someone else.

I asked you to consider if you too are asking God to send someone else. We are all called, as believers, to share the freedom that we have been given, but we want to live for ourselves instead of living for God.

However, God was not done with Moses after his refusal to go and God is not done with us.

His call is still on us and He is going to continue to speak that call until we decide to obey it.

God is continuing to speak that same message because He loves us and He wants to see us live in the blessing of obedience.

His call is significant, for us and for others, and until we sacrifice what we have put in priority over His call to join him, we are missing out on the goodness He has for us.

Last week we left off with God sending a plague on Israel because they made the calf.

I think it is worth mentioning that this isn’t how God handles things with us.

God isn’t going to send a plague on us if we don’t listen.

However, it isn’t because God has changed, it is because how He sees us is different because of Jesus.

There are very real consequences to our unwillingness to follow Him, but God’s wrath was fully and completely poured out on Jesus when He died on the cross.

Not only do we have the advantage of the Holy Spirit, but also the wrath of God, for our sin, has been satisfied by the blood of the Lamb.

Immediately after God sends the plague, He speaks with Moses again.

Let’s pick up today in Exodus 33 and read vs 1-11.

Exodus 33:1–11 ESV

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. 7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

If we refuse God, He will find someone who will not refuse Him.

Even though Moses was very clear with Israel about how God felt about their breaking of the covenant, suffered the loss of 3,000 who were still worshiping the golden calf, and a plague, they didn’t fully understand the consequences of their sin until this point.

God does two things.

First, he tells them that they are heading to the promised land, but they won’t be going in, only their children will.

Second, He tells them that because of their sin, He will not stay with them as He had been or He would have to destroy them.

Israel’s decision to break the covenant had implications that they could not even begin to imagine.

Their disobedience causes them to forfeit the inheritance of the promised land and created separation from God.

God has removed Himself from Israel and condemned an entire generation to death in the wilderness.

Our refusal to follow God will have devastating results.

When we choose to ignore God:

We miss out on experiencing Heaven on earth.

We miss out on the blessing of getting to walk with God.

Our families miss out on experiencing the kind of relationships that God intended.

The list can go on and on.

Why is our obedience so important? How does it impact our lives individually and corporately?

As I was preparing for this message, God brought Tuesday morning to mind.

Tell the story of Lily’s struggle.

Emphasis the fact that I was powerless to help.

She was struggling to stay alive and all I can do is stand there.

I can’t breath for her and I can’t fix the machine that can.

My heart was broken because I could see the suffering in her face.

Lily is usually all smiles, but she wasn’t that day.

Her eyes kept rolling back, she would cry, but no noise comes out so you just see the pain and the huge tears rolling down her cheeks.

They would bag her, which is the last resort to keep a person alive, and she would get better, but as soon as they put her back on the machine, her O2 would begin to rapidly fall again.

We went through this cycle countless times over the course of four hours.

I spent all that time, helplessly watching her and also giving play by plays to my mom over the phone.

Trying to communicate perfectly what was going on so she could help us trouble shoot the problem.

I one point, while they were bagging her, I had to step away.

It just so happened that Bethany texted asking for an update.

I called her and immediately fell apart.

I had forgotten that it is nearly impossible to cry and talk at the same time.

Bethany asked if I was OK, and no, I wasn’t.

I was seeing a child suffer and I couldn’t fix it.

God looks upon us with the same brokenness.

He sees His children suffering.

He sees us clinging to things, hoping with all we are worth, that they will make us feel whole and loved.

He watches as we walk away, because we have bought into the lie that He is asking too much of us.

He endures our tears because we have lost hope.

He isn’t powerless to fix us.

He is waiting for us to ask for it.

He isn’t wasting our suffering, He is using it to reveal the truth, that things of this world will NEVER satisfy us.

He is waiting for US, those that call themselves followers, to actually follow and join Him to set people free from their pain.

God will not force Himself on us.

He gives us the option to choose to follow Him

But when we don’t, it causes unnecessary suffering.

Not only for us, but also for those that are counting on us to be the poeple God intends for us to be.

God sees it all and it breaks His heart.

I think Isreal finally begins to see it.

They finally realize, after God removes Himself, what they have lost.

Their response is mourning.

For forty years, they mourn as they wander.

Because of their sin, Moses has to set up a tent well outside of their camp so that the people are not too near to God.

I don’t know about you, but I can feel the tension and angst from Israel.

As Moses enters the tent, all of them come out just to watch.

They see the physical separation that exist.

They feel the longing to be near God again.

They realize that they have lost something great that Moses has not.

I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of people in my life that are experiencing this very thing.

To them, God seems so far away, yet they look at my life and because of the things that God has done, they make the assumption that either, God loves me more, or I am doing something to bring closeness.

I had a family member call me yesterday to ask me to pray for someone.

Their reason for calling me is because they think I God is closer to me and they assume that is because of something I have done.

It is the presence of God that sets us apart, not our activity.

That family member is seeing God’s activity in my life, not my activity.

It is my call to help them understand that it isn’t me.

Will is not a good guy. I’m broken and I mess up often.

What this person needs and what I am praying for, is their own experiences with God.

I want them to see that God is working in their lives too.

Case Study: Kanye West

Some of you may not know that he just released an new album entitled, Jesus is King.

It has been all over social media and there is a lot of conversation happening about whether he is really saved or if this is a marketing stunt, etc.

I watched an interview last night that Jimmy Kimmel did and I’ll have to say, there is something happening in his life.

Bethany pointed out that he is smiling constantly now, that wasn’t the case before.

I’m no Kanye expert, but the things he said, the way he spoke, it didn’t sound like Kanye.

The real test will be next year at the dove awards when Lauren Daigle wins everything again. lol

We’ll see how he responds

My point is, it appears to me, that their changes to his demeanor that only God could make.

I could be wrong, but it looks like their is some God exclusive activity happening in his life.

Jimmy asked him if he is a “christian rapper” now and he responded, “I’m a christian everything now”.

In that interview, my take away was that he was elevating God, not himself. He made the interview about what God was doing and Jimmy didn’t really know what to do with that.

When people see God exclusive activity in a person that they haven’t seen it before, it surprises them. It grabs their attention.

Exodus 33:12–16 ESV

12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

I love that we get to see this conversation happening between Moses and God.

Moses is once again pleading for God not to leave Israel.

He has delivered the message from God that He will not accompany them as He did before.

In delivering that word, he finds himself heart broken for his people.

He is experiencing the grief of loss right along with them.

Moses becomes completely transparent in these verses.

He is saying to God, “I don’t understand!”

Exodus 33:12–13 ESV

12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”

What a relief it is to me to see that there is a guy of this stature and that has walked this closely with God, yet he tells God, “I don’t get it!”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been there.

God, I know you are speaking, I know you are working, but I don’t see it!

“My life feels like it is falling apart! Where are you God?”

Is there an area of your life where you are confused or don’t see God?

Moses is looking back at all the things God has said and done.

He is honest enough to tell God, “this doesn’t make sense to me.”

God you have done all this work to set these people free and now you are abandoning them?

He then pleads, “Show me your ways…

That I may KNOW YOU.”

We need to find comfort in this!

Everyone of us are going to go through times were we just don’t get it.

Moses didn't’ get it, but instead of just throwing his hands in the air and walking away, he goes to God and ask questions.

you’ll never guess what happens next.

Moses makes a request to God… “show me your ways, that I may know you”

God answers.

Exodus 33:14 ESV

14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Moses responds to God by telling Him that if God isn’t going, He doesn’t want to leave.

I had conversation with someone this week and we were both talking about how different our lives are now that we know that God can and will speak directly into our lives and guide us as we abide.

We echoed one another in the fact that we have had enough of going through life making the decisions on our own.

We only want to hear from God and have no desire to move backward in that.

We have talked much about the fact that it is God’s righteousness that the others see in our lives as we abide.

However, there are many who are still stuck in the thinking that simply identifying themselves as a follower of Christ, is enough to spread the Gospel.

It won’t!

A Jesus fish sticker you a car has never led someone to Christ.

You having an app post scripture on your social media everyday has never led someone to know Christ by experience.

It is not our culture, heritage, works, social media habits, or righteousness that sets us apart from the world.

Those things actually make us like the rest of the world.

Moses, in interceding on Israel’s behalf, reminds God that is is only through His presence that Israel is set apart from all other people.

Allowing God to lead us and accomplish His work, through His power, is what sets us apart.

Anything that comes out of us that is not directed by God, isn’t God.

News flash, the people around us figure that out!

The God exclusive activity, that happens only when we abide, is proof to the world that God is real and working today.

God’s activity is what sets us apart.

Our good works disprove God.

They don’t build up Him or the church.

Those works only temporarily inflate our ego’s.

Moses understood that without God, Israel was nothing.

TGP, without God, is nothing.

God’s revelation of Himself is what fuels ministry.

Exodus 33:17–23 ESV

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

A lack of desire to follow God is the result of self-imposed separation from God.

If we are not abiding, we will never be the people God intends for us to be.

One of my devotions this morning said this:

Ephesians 4:30 says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." In the Holy Spirit, we have relationship with a God who feels, has joy and grief, is happy and unhappy, and has real thoughts and desires for the way we live our lives. The Spirit longs for us to live in communion with him, forsaking that which grieves his heart that we might experience the abundant life that only comes through wholehearted surrender to him.

It is only through surrendering that we will ever know Jesus by experience.

The only way we will have depth in our relationship is by obedience.

I shared this quote on April 28, 2019 when we were studying the establishment of Passover as a time of worship.

I love this quote and think about it often.

“... worship is the goal and the fuel of missions: Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Missions is our way of saying: the joy of knowing Christ is not a private, or tribal, or national or ethnic privilege. It is for all. And that’s why we go. Because we have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the families of the earth included.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. (Psalm 22:27)

Seeking the worship of the nations is fueled by the joy of our own worship. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. You can’t proclaim what you don’t prize. Worship is the fuel and the goal of missions.”

If there is a lack of desire to know Christ and to make Him known, the issue isn’t God.

The issue is us.

Have you ever been around a child who just opened up a bunch of gifts?

They can not help but tell you about every single one of them and every detail that they love about everyone of them.

This is what Piper is talking about.

When we experience true worship of God, we must tell people about every detail of what we have just received.

If we are walking daily with God, we are going to have regular experiences of God doing what only God can.

We won’t be able to help but tell people about those things!

What has God done recently that you couldn’t wait to tell others about?

For years, Bethany and I would ask our students every week, where they had seen God.

The point was to remind them to be looking for God’s activity, but also to understand that God has every intention of regularly working in our lives.

Are you aware of that? It is God’s desire to do God exclusive activity in your life everyday.

Moses’ conversation with God fueled his passion even more.

He ends this time with God, not by simply being satisfied with what God has said, but by asking for even more.

He says, “please show me your glory.”

When you experience being in the presence of God, you will always want more.

We have been talking about Joining God for a ten months.

If during that time you have been trying to conjure up something to motivate you to obey, just stop.

You cannot make this happen.

Ask God to show you His glory.

Ask God to reveal Himself and that will be all the motivation you need.