The Presence of God

So I have been working on a relationship, and I am really happy about it. I am a guy that is very concerned about me, and so is she, so we really don’t spend a lot of time together because i am very much about me. Every now and then I read a book about relationships so that i can grow and she knows that I care, and every now and then when I sit down to eat i reflect on how happy I am that she cares about me. I am so lucky to be in a relationship that really gives me a lot of freedom to be happy. Mostly I am happy that I get a lot out of the relationship.

That is the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard isn’t it. That would never make anyone happy. I am working on a relationship and one of the things I see, and I am sure that you know this…the more I pour into it, into her, the happier I am.

I bring this up because I have seen people that I know and love very much do that with God. Now we would never admit that. We usually judge ourselves by our best intentions, but over time our intentions really only mean something to us don’t they. Our best intentions only make us feel better.

God has been working on me lately, in reality He has been working on me for a very long time. Something about me, I’m kind of a nerd. I love to read and study and that is good. One of the things I’ve neglected over the years is digging in and focusing on God’s presence in and around me, his personality. Most of the time we focus on God from afar don’t we. We pray, we read the Bible, we talk about God stuff, we go to church, but there is something that seems weird to us about actually talking to someone we can’t see and expecting that someone to answer or act, but isn’t that part of it? Over the years a lot of people have asked me how I can believe in something I can’t see, I read the Bible account, yes, but I have seen God work, really work.

This takes a different kind of pursuit, and I don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to grow in love with Jesus because of anything. This message has been burning in my heart so we need to talk about this.

If you have ever heard me speak before you have heard me say, Thankfully we are not the only people to have ever dealt with this, so here we go…

I’m sure you know the story of Moses or at least heard his story. If not you might have seen the movie Prince of Egypt. It is funny that over the years of doing youth stuff even when young people hadn’t heard the story of Moses they had seen that movie. They did a really good job. But you know the story, The world is in disarray, God selects a man named Abraham and his descendants to be his chosen people, then his son Issac, then his son Jacob, then they end up in Egypt where eventually they are held as slaves until God calls a man named Moses to lead them to rescue.

Moses had been adopted into the king, or Pharaoh’s family and later he fled Egypt, lived in a foreign land before returning to be used by God to rescue his people from slavery. God used a series of miraculous events, big miraculous events to lead them out of Egypt. It was neat because all they knew was that God, who they could not see, was going to lead them into the promised land, the land that Abraham was always talking about to Issac, who was always talking about it to Jacob, who was talking about it to his sons, until they were enslaved, but now it was time.

At this point in time God’s chosen people didn’t have anything like what we call the Bible. They didn’t understand God like we do. All they knew was what they had seen and what they seen from other people around them. In fact, since we believe that Moses wrote the first five chapters of the Bible and they people who were seeing this play out had lived their entire lives in slavery in a land that was opposed to God they didn’t know anything about his ways. Even Moses, when he was young he was brought up as an Egyptian, when he fled Egypt he ended up living with and marrying the daughter of a pagan priest, He didn’t know God until he seen him speak to him in a burning bush. This was new to everyone. They had no understanding of God except what they were seeing and what God was teaching Moses.

When we read these early stories we have to cut them a little bit of slack as they didn’t have the Bible. It was new, and that is why the beginning of the Bible is so hard for us to read. The world they lived in was brutal. It was like the nasty wild west times 100. There were no rules, and God was bring a people to himself and preparing the to give Jesus to us through them. It is really neat to read these first chapters of the Bible from that perspective.

There is a lot about this story we aren’t going to get into, you should probably read it if you haven’t. Moses led the people out of Egypt though a seines of miracles On this journey the people had opportunity to watch God lead them with fire and clouds. It was really fascinating and I am sure the people were continually in awe of what they were watching.

They ended up at the base of a mountain where God was meeting with Moses to teach him how to lead his people. This was when God gave Moses the 10 commandments which was basically a type of treaty between him and the people. If they would live according to this agreement he would be their God and they would be his people and he would take care of them.

God had been saying that he would lead them into the promised land, and that he would be with them, but while Moses was up on this mountain that God was on, there was all this fire and shaking and scary stuff the people began to think that Moses might have died up there because he was taking so long.

It was kind of like us sometimes. We think that God has led us down a certain path, but the second we are out there and we don’t hear or see God we start to worry and we think we should take matters into our own hands and we do the wrong thing. Well that’s what they did was since they were afraid that Moses died on the mountain they did what every other nation around them did. They made an image of what they thought would be god like and they appointed some guy, Aaron, to be their priest and they were worshiping this golden calf.

As they were finishing it and partying Moses came down the mountain and seen these people worshiping an image. They were breaking God’s most important commandment before they even had the commandments that God had given Moses so there was a big thing. Moses was mad, God was mad and a bunch of people died. You should read about it.

That is where we are at in this chapter 33. Moses went to the tent outside of the camp to talk to God about what to do next since the people messed up.

Exodus 33:1–3 NIV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

the people YOU brought up...

AN angel will lead you rather than God leading them.

Exodus 33:4–6 NIV

When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’ ” So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

God tells them he doesn’t want to go with them because he might destroy them on the way, and he tells them to take off their ornaments...what’s that about? I think I still see this often, don’t you? We build ourselves up and we try to make ourselves feel better by putting on a fancier life

God was mad, and these guys have still got their party clothes on. This was a time for mourning, not celebrating.

Exodus 33:7–11 NIV

Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

This was written after all this had happened. What the author is talking about is how Moses used to meet with God up to this point right here.

At this point Moses was meeting with God outside the camp illustrating the separation from the people due to sin. God was not dwelling with them. We have a different understanding of God now after Jesus came, but for them they seen God as only being in one place at one time. They didn’t have a complete understanding.

Moses is out at the tent meeting with God, and he is hearing God say that he isn’t going with them, and he crushed. We are getting ready to get to the really good part of this story. My hope as I talk about this everyone here is like, “You are wasting my time, because I know and am close to God as a person can be.” That is my hope, but if you are anything like me you need to get to the place where Moses is at often. You know, you get impatient, your pride takes over, you get angry, or whatever and you move and something feels wrong, you realize where once you felt God near but now it’s just not right, and it’s time to strip off the ornaments and stop singing and dancing because you messed up and you have to make it right. Which is what happened and moses has one of the most important discussions with God that are in the Bible.

Exodus 33:12–13 NIV

Moses said to the Lord, “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 ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

Moses is asking God to go with them not because they have done anything to deserve it but because He had chosen them as his people. He is requesting his company because of who God is. He is appealing to God’s grace.

Exodus 33:14 NIV

The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

God grants the request to give them rest with his presence. This isn’t rest like taking a break it is their resting in the comfort of knowing that God is providing and protecting them. They are depending on God to go before them against peoples that were entrenched in their walled cities. God is leading them into the promised land, but there are a lot of people there who have a different belief than God’s people and they aren’t panning to just let them come in and take over.

Exodus 33:15–16 NIV

Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

the key verse. Moses is ready to die in the desert rather than continue without the presence of God. Oh that we would carry the same spirit within us

Moses gets that what makes them special is that God is with them.

Exodus 33:17 NIV

And the Lord 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 now Moses is like the little kid that wants something from their parent and they are getting all spun up, give me the thing please please please…and the parents say ok, then they kid is like I can’t even live without it please now, and the parent is like YES ok, and the kid says I want it all. I want it all.

Exodus 33:18 NIV

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

Now Moses goes above and beyond. It is like once he got moving in the right direction with God he just kept going. Show me your glory. Moses had already known God in great detail. He met with God like we would meet with a friend, but there was something more of God that Moses wanted and he was unwilling to rest until he recieved it. He was unwilling to rest until he could enjoy as much of the presence and glory of God as was possible.

The people had seen God work, they had witnessed his power and his majesty from a distance, but now his presence was going to accompany them into the promised land…that’s great and well

Some things about the presence of God, because I want you think about this from a sober perspective and if you are chasing relationship with Jesus I want to chase with you and I want us to chase well.

So two things about the presence of God:

One the presence of God should be our highest goal…it’s what all this is all about, I, we want dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and this is something we are growing in now. When Jesus was here he would walk around saying the Kingdom of God is among you, it’s here, it’s happening now.

Nearness to God should be evident in a believers life. It should be seen everywhere all the time. Why wouldn’t God have an input about what color shirt you wear? Do you think He has a favorite color? Have you asked? What is he thinking about right now? Do you want to know?

I’m not saying that God is going to talk to you about your favorite shirt like He talked to Moses about whatever they talked about in the tent, but how do you know? Do you want to know? If God is right here with you right now do you think God wants to be an active part of your life? I’m telling you he does and he should be.

The other thing is, and the who are connected…the presence of God, is terrifying. God being near you is either terrifying or glorifying. Moses was ready to die in the desert rather than go into the promised land without, but if you have read this true story you know that Moses didn’t make it into the promised land, and no one there in this situation who was an adult walked into the promised land. They died in the desert. Let’s look at that for a minute.

Earlier in the passage God told them that he would not go with them because he would destroy them, and he was going to send an angel with them. That angel was going to secure their military victories and help them to become wealthy and successful. They would have everything that the world around us believes to be good. They would have had the security of God granting them protections, and they would have had his obvious leading and his working for and fighting for them. The land was known as the land that was flowing with milk and honey, a place of abundance. They would have had it all.

I think of us, our lives. We have the opportunity to live for security and abundance. I think we see it. I have never had to go without and I’m pretty happy about that. I have the ability to live for my retirement and I have investments and i have plans for the future. I do things and buy things so that my life is easier. We all do, and for the most part all of them things are good, but where is the presence of God?

My hope today, if i could compel you to do one thing it is this, with every ounce of your being, only move with the presence of God. Your prayer every day with everything you do should be the same as that of Moses, “If your presence does not go with me I’m not going.” If your glory isn’t with me and ahead of me on this path I’m not moving.

I realize this is difficult. People say things like, yeah it would have been easier for Moses because He seen God, and they got to see God working right in front of their eyes. I think that Moses would have rather been where we are to be honest with you. Moses seen God work, yes. Moses was able to work with God outside the camp and eventually among the people, but we live on this side of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have the promised Spirit of God living inside of us as people who believe in and belong to Jesus. My guess is that Moses would have longed for the day God could live in him like he does his people now.

If your presence does not go with me, I’m not going. How do we do this?

I’m working on a relationship, and I am very happy about it. Every morning when I wake up, and I’m not perfect so I get messed up sometimes, but I ask God where he is at today. I start the day seeking a nearness to him. I open his word, after i make my coffee, I love Jesus but I am still human. I hope for, I long for the times when i open the Bible and I sense an obvious message for me. I read it either way, knowing that it is from God. I go through my day with the spirit of needing to know where God is moving, and I have to remind myself that if his holy presence isn’t moving and going ahead of me I’m not going to go. I notice that as I get closer to him, the less I love the things of this world and the easier it is to see to feel when I mess up. Sometimes I mess up and I have to stop and ask forgiveness and make things right. I’m working on a relationship and it is a long term relationship and I want to get it right. I love Jesus and I am chasing after him.