" 7 Steps to Experience the Presence of God! " - Pastor Doug Batchelor

our message today is talking about the presence of God in particular I'd like to give you from a story in the Bible seven steps that you can take to help you to experience the presence of God now that really is the most important thing isn't salvation about being redeemed so we can once again be in the presence of God I mean after all our problem is that we have been separated from God because of sin and if you read in Genesis 3 Adam and Eve heard the sound of God in the garden and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord Jonah arose to flee from the presence of the Lord God didn't run from us we ran from him Cain killed his brother and he went out from the presence of the Lord you know God made us to abide in his presence and right now we're separated because of sin and the plan of salvation is about how to get back into the presence of God if you read first you chapters of the Bible man lost his position with God but the good news is in Revelation 21 it says I heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them and be their God now it's nice to come together and have a church service and we enjoy that singing 'he's been great in the fellowship but would you keep doing it without the presence of god would you want to you wonder sometimes all the different churches out there how many go through all the mechanics and the motions of christianity and they're doing it void of the presence of god there was a time in the history of israel when they were at risk of making that mistake most of our time today is going to be looking at a story you find in Exodus chapter 33 and 34 so if you have your Bibles you may want to turn there Exodus 33 and I probably ought to set the stage a little bit most of you know this in Exodus chapter 32 God had given the Ten Commandments to the people in course chapter 20 of Exodus Moses goes up the mountain then he gets the written copy God spoke the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 he goes up the mountain and to get the written copy but he's up there 40 days and 40 nights and people didn't know it was gonna take him so long to come back and while they knew he'd come back they didn't know when and in waiting they lost faith now did Jesus tell us he's coming back but sometimes in the waiting we lose faith and they said we don't know this Muslims are getting kind of old and who knows we can't go up the mountain because the glory of God's up there you may have died let's pick another leader let's go back to Egypt made a golden calf had a wild party um it says that they made themselves a naked so it got pretty wild and you know right at that crucial moment matter of fact the party got so rambunctious said Joshua said hurry Moses there's the sound of war in the camp and Moses shook his head and he said that'd be ok if it was war he said but this is not the cry of those who cry for being overcome neither are they shouting for victory but it's the voice of those who party if I can paraphrase that I hear and he came down they saw the golden calf and the people dancing and carrying on and he threw the 10 commandments out of his hand and there was a it was a great sinned against the Lord they'd broken all their commandments a just promise to keep they'd said Lord you're our God we want you with us and then they broke all this Commandments and Moses goes back up the mountain and the Lord Lord is ready to wipe them out and so it's during this time of waiting that something happens so you take up the story now in chapter 34 and your chapter 33 sorry Exodus 33 verse 1 and the Lord said to Moses depart and go up from here you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt so you and your people go which I swore to Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying here descend I'll give it and I'll send my angel before you and I'll drive out the Canaanites and the amorite sand the his i'ts and the perizzites and the heights and the jebusites and the termites and all of them and go to the land flowing with milk and honey to catch this for I will not go up in your midst lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff-necked people now that's kind of a frightening thought and God would say alright if you wanted the promised land I promise to give you the promised land you don't seem to want me go I'll give you deliverance oh I'll give you the land but yours I'm not gonna go with you because you are a stubborn and a proud and a stiff-necked people you want to do what you want to do you don't want to obey me go my presence will not go with you now would that make you shudder or would you say oh you know Lord actually you do make me uncomfortable but I do want the promised land but I don't want you heard about a man that was pushing his cart around a supermarket a young man and he noticed pretty soon that there was his old woman that had her cart full of stuff and she was following him and he'd stop he'd stopped and he look and she'd be staring at him he'd go up the aisle she'd follow him up the aisle and this went on for a while and finally when he got to the checkout stand there she was and she said I hope I haven't made you uncomfortable he said but you know you look so much like my late son and I just couldn't I couldn't stop staring at you and and she said you know I'm gonna take my stuff I'm gonna check out and but could you do something for me it would mean so much to me as I leave the store if you could just say goodbye mom and so he said sure so she got her stuff she going out the door he said goodbye mom she smiled and waved back me he thought you know that was such a simple thing to make that lady happy just say goodbye mom so as he's checking out the bill comes to 121 dollars and he says to the cashier he said what's up I got five things here he said well your mother say you were paying for hers she wanted the name she didn't want the relationship she wanted the stuff but she didn't want him and it's kind of like it's a sad situation if a couple separates and kind of like a gold digger marries a rich guy and you know she wants the house and she wants the long taken care of and she wants the maintenance since she went but she doesn't want him yes to live somewhere else and sometimes the church has done that to the Lord we want everything God can give us he says this in the profits but we don't want him because he makes us uncomfortable well if you do want the presence of the Lord I'm going to give you seven steps so that you can have the presence of the Lord and these are the steps that we see Moses going through how much do you want the presence of God if you don't want it in this life you're probably not going to want it in heaven you won't get it then so if if you hunger after God's presence if knowing the Lord is the most important thing to you you can first thing is you need to have a determination now I'm going to tell you what the steps are real quick and then I'll back up and explain you need determination preparation isolation expectation revelation adoration mediation and that'll lead to transformation I know you didn't remember all that so now it goes through first determination make up your mind do you want to be with the Lord so God says in Exodus 33 15 when Moses said we are not going up without you he told the Lord Lord said you know I'm not going you go and Moses said if your presence does not go with us do not bring us up we are not going without you it's kind of like what Ruth said to Naomi when Naomi said you know go back to your people in your God she said no no says your God is my god your people my people where you go I will go there will I be buried and gods suit do so to me and more also if anything separates you and I anything but death it's like in the way they until death do us part she was determined to go with her so how determined are you to discover the presence of gone so first you need a determination you're not going to turn back he said then Exodus 3 3:17 alright Moses I'll do this thing that you spoken of for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name so Moses said look Lord we we are not going without you so God said okay if you want my presence here's what you've got to do and he gives him these steps but it starts out with a determination it's like when Jacob wrestled with the Lord there and he said I will not let you go except you bless me do you want the blessing of God's presence do you want the blessing of God's Spirit 1 what do we need determination there needs to be you need to have your mind settled on that nothing is more important to me than God so next there was preparation now we're jumping to Exodus chapter 34 and if you go to Exodus 34 God gives some instructions to Moses and he said in verse 2 be ready in the morning and as I get ready said be ready and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on top of the mountain you said you need to prepare I'm telling you in advance I'm making an appointment with you I'm willing to meet with you are you gonna put that on your day-timer are you going to meet with me you know that some people never experience the presence of God because they miss the opportunities when God meets with his people how sad it would be if Pentecost happened and you stayed home that day and that's why it's important when God's people gather together that you're there God says if they meet I'm meeting with them are you and I are gonna prepare to be with him so there's a preparation that happens in the heart before you meet with a king you know before God gave the Ten Commandments he told the people wash your clothes be holy I'm gonna meet with you as a preparation when Karen and I were at the Wailing Wall Nestor waswas there with us and and one of the rabbis said now when you go up to the Wailing Wall they consider this the holiest site in Israel and you don't turn your back on the wall without taking three small steps backwards because it represents a king and I remember reading about when Marco Polo went into the presence of the Kublai Khan that if you dared turn your back on the king and walk away you was killed on the spot by his guard and young Marco didn't know that and he nearly turned around and his father Mateo Mateo polo grabbed him and said don't turn your back on the king you had to back out because it's a king's presence was considered awesome and holy and its can was considered disrespectful to turn your back on him so when we went up to the Wailing Wall I had not observed that before I didn't know that but after the people got done praying and they put their little prayers on the wall they you had to take three steps backwards and then you could turn and you could walk away there's a sign of respect there's like preparation to meet with the king do you have times where you meet with the king and need to be prepared and during this time you'll notice an exodus 33 verse 18 Moses makes a special request he says I will go up the mountain but he said Lord you said I'm your friend you said I found grace he makes an outrageous request he says please show me your glory he wants to see the glory of God have you ever prayed for that you ever prayed to see an angel he says let me see your glory he's not just praying to see the glory means I was praying to see the glory of the Almighty and God said look no man can see my face and live not in your sinful state but here's what I'm gonna do at the appropriate time I will put you in the cleft of the rock you ever sung that song and then I will pass by I'll cover you with my hand and after I've gone by you I'll move my hand and you will see me from behind because if you stare into the undiminished unveiled glory of my face it will consume even a holy man like you Moses but he said I'll let you see my glory and we'll get to that a little minute sorry he he's determined to see the glory of God he prepares and the preparation means that you get ready it's a preparation of the heart I remember reading where the Sioux Indians fleetness of foot mean fast on your feet was greatly respected and the young the young boys would come to the elders and say how can I have fleetness of foot and the elders say well if you get up in the morning and you catch butterflies and you rub the dust of the butterflies on your heart you will be a fast runner and you can't get dead butterflies and you can't have someone catch the butterflies for you you have to catch your own butterflies you rub the dust from their wings on your heart and you will be a fast runner and any of the old Indians it saw the young ones doing this would smile they all knew that they grow up to be fast runners but it had nothing to do with the butterfly dust it had to do with him waking up every morning and running like crazy to catch butterflies if we're in the practice of getting up and seeking after God every day something happens to us in the seeking you might be thinking you know I prayed and nothing happened I read my Bible I didn't get anything out of it you don't realize your being changed in ways you don't know so prepare your heart every day to seek after god you're being transformed in the process now the Bible says I'll give you a couple of examples there's many it's a bad thing if you don't seek the presence of God if you don't prepare your heart to seek after God for example the son of King Solomon you remember his name Rhea Bohm Rhea Bone he didn't listen to the wise counselors and the Bible says in second chronicles 1214 he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord are you preparing their heart to seek God every day is that a priority with you if it's not a priority if you're not seeking after God in your life on a daily basis if your prayer isn't Lord give me this day our daily bread then you're probably not gonna be ready when Jesus comes why would you want to be in God's presence for eternity if you don't want to do it for half an hour in the morning it's got to begin by seeking his presence now on the other hand you've got a good king by the name of Jehoshaphat says in 2nd chronicles 19 3 nevertheless good things are found in you in that you've removed the wooden images you've obeyed the land you've obeyed me and you prepared your heart to seek God so you got determination you have preparation next you have isolation Exodus 34 verse 3 God said to Moses and no man shall come up with you and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain not even flocks or herds before the mountain you need personal time with God I I know there's a lot of people that come to church and they like me with a social interaction but they don't have her have their personal time where Jesus is your personal Savior I used to wonder why these pastors would say is the Lord Jesus your personal Savior are you just doing it sort of as a group thing or because your parents were in the church or do you have a personal relationship with God you notice God said to Moses I know you you're my friend he talked to him face-to-face as a man talks to his friend because he had a personal relationship how do you get that by spending time alone with God it cannot always be group therapy gathering together for corporate worship is very important hopefully you'll be blessed by being here today but do you have personal time with God and there's a lot of Bible examples for that Abraham was alone with God when God gave his covenant to him Gideon was threshing wheat alone with God and when you're working in the word alone your threshing wheat Elijah was alone in the wilderness God spoke to him Paul was alone in Arabia and in jail John was alone on Patmos Jesus went out a great while before it was a day to pray alone now if the Lord does it that's a pretty good example for you and me I know probably exasperates the office but this week I've been gone a lot but I said to Karen I've got to get out of Dodge and I found there was one day when I had the limited amount of appointments and work and I hopped in the truck no actually hopped in the car drove four and a half hours up the hill spent some time up there prayed up there read the word listened on the way on the way back I needed time alone I really enjoyed our tour that we had in Israel that was great but we were hosting a hundred people and then you come back and you've got all this going on in the office and I thought I gotta get away I just knew I needed time alone John the Baptist needed it Enoch needed it your pastor needs it someone said a pastor who's always available isn't worth much when he is available and so you need to have time and it's not just pastors you need it you I know everyone's busy young mothers and you got lots of young children it's like when do I get some alone time husbands and Friends you need to help work that out sometimes grandmas help them out so they can have some time alone to study the Word of God and to seek after the Lord so there's isolation that happens here you know when I lived up in the mountains I remember hiking down from my cave one time and down and what they call the first Valley I saw people digging in the summertime they were digging in the creek that's what are you doing miss said we're digging for water and there was some muddy water it was starting to ooze up from the bottom of the creek bed I said why are you doing that and they said well we need water you know we're camping here I said you can't to low I said if you go up a little higher it's still running up there says you got to go up and sometimes you got to spend some time on the mountain and that's what the Lord did he called Moses he said come up to me in the book thoughts from the Mount of blessing page 84 there's a great quote have a place for secret prayer Jesus had select places for communion with God and so should we we need often to retire to some spot however humble where we can be alone with God Daniel went up to his chamber and he knelt alone with God we need quiet time with God often think about that verse and Isaiah 5 woe to those who joined house to house and they leave field the field till there's no place where we may dwell alone in the midst of the land are you taking private time with God you want to see the presence of the Lord you need to seek after him find time sometimes somebody said that that special time with God hasn't found it's made in other words don't hope that you run into that private time you need to set an appointment with God it's something you prepare for all right we talked about the preparation determination the isolation now expectation when you do this expect that God is going to keep his word and he's gonna speak to you so when God calls Moses back up the mountain he says in Exodus 34 he cut two tables of stone like the first ones and Moses rose early in the morning and he went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and he took in his hand the two tables of stone he decided to find that early time in the morning he notice in the Bible tells us that a lot of things happen too early in the morning and we'll get to that here in just a little bit but he brought up two blank slates he might say and Moses God said alright Moses you cut these I cut the first ones and you broke them now you're gonna cut your own that's what he said said you prepare he probably had a stonemason somewhere all these guys came out of Egypt they knew how to work with stone he said you cut two tables like the first ones you bring him up to me I'll write it again so you're bringing me up something you're expecting for me to write the word for you you're expecting for me to communicate with you you're expecting for me to meet with you and so he did what he was told he rose up early in the morning he goes up the mountain he's got a prayer in his heart Lord please show me your glory now what does it mean when he came up and God was gonna write something for Moses where do we want God to write where's the New Covenant it's written on the heart so when you come you expect the Lord to write something on your heart it tells us that this is the covenant I will make with him after those days says the Lord I'll put my law into their hearts and in their minds I will write them someone said dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives we need to be asking God to take his words we bring these tables and we say you know the reason that the Ten Commandments were written onto stones it really represents the dual nature of the law it's a sword with two edges it's like a law in the prophets Moses Elijah the new in the Old Testament and so we come up with the Word of God and we want God then to write on our hearts Ezekiel 3:10 moreover he said to me son of man receive in your heart all my words that I speak to you and hear with your ears I'm being able to take it in you got two ears it's like those two tables we want God to write his word on our heart if you come to church to pray for rain then bring your umbrella that's called expectation are you expecting something and sometimes people come to church and they got the attitude ah I gotta go I don't ever expect to get anything well you won't you know Jesus said be it unto you according to your faith if you meet the requirements of seeking after God spending time alone with God praying that he'll reveal his glory to you then believe he wants to expect something from God that's part of answered prayer is believing and so you've got expectation and when you do that then you have revelation God keeps his promise Exodus 33 verse 21 and the Lord said to him here is a place by me this is when he comes up a mountain and you will stand on the rock so it will be why my glory passes by that I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with my hand and I'll pass by and I'll take away my hand and you shall see you'll see my back my face will not be seen it says in Exodus 34 verse 5 when God finally does this now the Lord descended in a cloud and he stood with him there and he proclaimed the name of the Lord when you talk about the name of the Lord doing this in the name of the Lord and train in the name of the Lord what does it mean the name of the Lord it's much more than the utterance of a certain name you know there's kind of a whole diversion a bunch of people getting distracted with how you pronounce the name of God have you run into that they've even got separate Bible translations they say you can't say Jesus anymore you've got to say yushua and you don't say the Lord or Elohim you're supposed to see Yahweh and no one really knows whether it was Jehovah or Yahweh because it's still a mystery what how to pronounce those sacred words but the emphasis of God in the Bible is never on the pronunciation when it talks about the name of the Lord it means the Spirit of God and who God is knowing who he is what is eternal life John 17 this is life eternal that they might know thee and the only true God who he who he is sent knowing Jesus Christ knowing the father this is eternal life what will the Lord say to the Lost I don't know you so we need to experience the presence of God if we're not gonna hear him say I don't know you then we need to know him now amen but praying in the name of God he reveals his character notice says he declared the name of the Lord and he proclaimed here's what he proclaimed misses again Exodus 34 and I'm starting with verse 6 the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth and this is why we're all still alive keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but lest you presume on His grace he adds something very important by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the father's on the children and the children's children unto the third and fourth generation meaning that if we are not redeemed and transformed by the power of God we will reproduce in our offspring our bad behavior for several generations it's not saying that gods just saw automatically cursing them he means he turned from me you will reproduce that if you don't let me transform you but notice all the good things he says he says I'm forgiving I'm patient I want to save you but you don't turn and repent I will visit the iniquity on the wicked and Moses sees the glory of God he sees his holiness no I I have no words there's no language I don't think there's any language on the planet that I could resort to that would adequately describe what Moses saw all I can do is tell you what it says and then you can use your imagination what would it be like to see the awesome King I mean you're talking about the being who made the galaxies you know he he can create tornados and he can create lightning storms and he can make volcanoes and earthquakes and he can think of all the majestic powerful things that you've seen or read about or imagine God made it all so here you've got the all-powerful God and Moses gets to glimpse him he gets a glimpse his person and he can't stare fully into his face if you want to see the face of God we see the face of God in Jesus his son Jesus came to reveal it in a way that we could could handle it when they came to arrest Jesus at one point they said who are you he said who are you seeking I said we're seeking Jesus he said I am he and when Jesus said I am just those words I am glory flashed out of him and it says they fell down from just the glory that Jesus lit a little bit squeek out and they couldn't handle it and so can you imagine what Moses saw and what happens after he has this experience of Revelation what would you do that then leads to adoration and worship I see some of you taking notes I thank you very much I feel like my study hasn't gone to waste if you read here in Exodus 34 8 so Moses made haste and bowed his head towards the earth and worshiped you know we can't really worship God unless we know God we can't know him unless we take time to know him Moses prepared himself and he went up the mountain have you noticed in the Bible how often the great prophets and kings when they got a glimpse of the glory of God it inspired them to real worship they understood something about the greatness of God you know some people think we're old-fashioned because we still at some point during our worship service we get on our knees those who are able and it's because by our physical posture we are saying something about the glory of God and it's important it's a Daniel knelt on his knees Paul knelt on his knees Jesus nailed Solomon got on his knees we're talking to the king of kings and it represents that you're recognizing who he is and we humble ourselves reformed Moses fell down to worship when Ezekiel saw God you can read this in Ezekiel 1 and a zekiel 3 to 3 behold the glory of the Lord stood there like the glory that I saw by the river Chebar and I fell on my face before that glory that's what happened to Daniel when he saw the glory of God it's what happened to John you read revelation 1:17 and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead this is a holy apostle who walked with Jesus when he saw the unveiled glory of Jesus he couldn't bear it he fell down before him and Jesus put out his hand and touched him he said don't be afraid God is a loving God but he's a powerful God you know this is something I think we all struggle with finding the balance between Jesus is our friend he's our Savior but don't forget he's a king he's a mighty king and you know some people talk about addressing the Lord in this very buddy-buddy way and I think you got to be careful because we can lose an idea you lose a concept of the majesty of God you know what that does it diminishes your concept of the wickedness of sin understanding something about His Holiness in His Majesty it leads to that that worship and then you go to the seventh part after he's seen the glory of God revealed he worships God and the next thing after you've had that experience with God is you think of others and that's when you come to mediation Moses was the great mediator it's very simple but some of you remember the old gas stoves now they're very complex and computerized but I remember grandma's stove and then the knob and the three words it had low medium and high medium goes between low and high we are low God is high we need a mediator who's in the middle Moses was a type of that the people said when they saw the glory of God they heard them they're heard the voice of God speaking to ten commands and the mountain was on smoke and shaking and the thunders and the light means they said don't let God talk to us anymore you talk to him you tell us what he said you be our mediator you and I should be thankful Jesus came because he is the mediator between God and man he came he said if you've seen me you've seen the father as much as you can handle I've come to show you the father and so Moses then begins to mediate as soon as he worships God he then begins to think about others after you have the vertical relationship love for God and God reveals his presence to you what's the next thing love the Lord with all your heart what's the next command your neighbor he starts thinking about the people of God he says I've seen the glory of God what about the people of God read Exodus 34 9 then he said now if I have found grace in your sight O Lord my lord I pray go among us even though we are a stiff-necked people pardon our iniquity and our sin he begins to intercede you become intercessors mediators you just pray for your needs and you pray for the needs of others Philip Yancey wrote a book on prayer and he talked about a soldier in Iraq who was stationed there and he couldn't get really he heard from his wife that she had a very serious stage of cervical cancer and they had a five year old boy and the prognosis wasn't good without some miraculous intervention and that soldier he sent a note an email to his church and he said please pray for Cindy and then after you pray for her forward this to anyone you know to pray for her you ever gotten an email like that and he wanted everybody to intercede and I got a question for you the Bible says the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much is God more likely to answer a prayer where many pray are you afraid to answer it is there additional power in corporate prayer as opposed to a single prayer I think so if the effectual prayer of a single righteous man avails much what if you get a whole room full of them yeah if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray then I will hear from heaven so I do think there's added weight in collective prayer and so after you've prayed for your family and your respective needs you should be interested in interceding for others and you know I tell you it really touches me every now and then happened this week I talked to a friend he said doc I just want you to know he said that our family specifically mentions you in our prayers every week and I hear people say that to me all the time and I you know I can't tell you that really does that really does touch me to know because I think there's power to it and I think the Lord is blessing because people I may not even know are praying for me do you just pray for your own needs if you've seen the glory of God if you've experienced the presence of God you're going to want to pray for others amen and then as a result of all this notice what happens Moses spends his time on the mountain you've gone through your seven steps he's experiencing the presence of God he sees the glory of God and then you get and the added benefit it's called transformation it says in Exodus 34 29 now it was so that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand he came down from the mountain Moses did not know the skin of his face shown while he talked with him so Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come near him it spent so much time in the presence of God that he was glowing now if you could bottle that how much would ladies pay for lotion that makes your face shine like that you'd make a fortune have you ever met somebody that you knew they were spending time with God and their face was shining oh yeah not many but I I dramatically remember this one man who was instrumental in impressing me when I was a baby Christian and we just called him brother Harold he was a Jewish convert to Christianity wake up 3:00 in the morning he'd read his Bible for two hours he could read it in Greek Hebrew and Latin lived in a very humble dwelling he would go visit the hospital and he'd quote from Scripture quote from memory scriptures to people in the hospital no one paid him he just went on his own and his voice would quiver when he quoted scripture it so he could tell there was a reverence there and I gathered at this place called Joshua house it was just you know one of these home churches and I saw him pray one morning I came to an early morning prayer meeting everyone there thought I was really holy actually I'd just been up all night and I saw brother Harold praying and I saw his face light up and it really impressed me you've probably seen that I remember one time I was in a title office in I won't tell you where in the town asking the clerk to help me and I looked at her and I thought she's got that shine like a Christian next week I was preaching in that town there she was in church have you ever met people like that you just know it I'll tell you friends there ain't no makeup that's gonna make you look as good as the presence of God if you spend time in the presence of God you don't need that wrinkle cream you are automatically gonna look better Moses came down the mountain and his face was shining so much they said Moses we don't have sunglasses we haven't invented them yet can you please put a veil on your face because we can't even look at you now in closing I'm gonna take you to the New Testament there's a transformation that happens looking in the face of God look at Paul refers to this experience in 2nd Corinthians 3 he could read the whole chapter everyone I won't do that now but if you read verses 7 he said but the Ministry of death written and engraved on stones meaning the Old Covenant if it was glorious and that glory was so great that the children of Israel could not look directly into the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance which glory was passing away it would eventually fade how much more will the Ministry of the Spirit be more glorious when we have the real law of God written in our hearts for if what was passing away was glorious what remains is much more glorious and I especially loved the last verse in that chapter 2nd Corinthians 3:18 but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord a Christian is a follower of Christ if you would like to be transformed moses was glowing like god because he spent time with god if you want to look like jesus spend time with Jesus you've got to be looking into his beautiful face as that songs in turn your eyes upon Jesus it says as stearing beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord we are being transformed you haven't heard the expression changed by beholding our souls are something like a photographic plate it doesn't matter if it's the old film or the modern digital camera they both use the same principle light is captured whether it's done by the the chips on the discords done by the plate is captured and images captured and it's retained your souls are transformed into what you look at that's why idolatry is so awful to God it's an abomination because it lowers your concept of what God is and it lowers you if you spend time in the presence of God it changes you and you are elevated so what what are you looking at what are you beholding Christ said if I am lifted up I will draw all men we're changed by beholding yeah and that's my appeal friends is that you would go through these steps to experience the presence of God don't we need that now these lastly do we want to try to go to the promised land without Jesus going with us we got big plans as a church but I want to say with Moses Lord we don't want to do it if you're not with us can you say Amen and all of us are sometimes stubborn and stiff-necked we have to pray for God's mercy and we say lord have mercy on us and go with us show us your glory is he a merciful God will he do it if we ask him amen you know one of my favorite verses in the Bible is the very end where it says and we will see his face right now we're separated now we look through a glass darkly first Corinthians 13 but then what does it say face to face whatever people say I want to go to him and I want to slide down the neck of a giraffe and I want to slide on the golden streets and people talk about all the things they want to do in heaven Martin Luther said boy it'll be enough to see his face and God's giving us that opportunity if you want to see it then we need to start looking now amen we're gonna sing that song face to face as we close invite you to stand as we do I think it's 206 if I'm not mistaken yeah god bless [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] how many of you would like to join Moses and daring to pray that prayer and say Lord show me your glory show me your glory Father in heaven forgive us for the times when we think that we'd be content to go to the promised land without you I pray Lord above all things that we're all gonna be determined to say Lord we're not going without you we need your presence we need you in our midst we need you in our lives or hearts or families and I pray that we'll follow these steps all determined and resolved to have your presence Lord I pray that our greatest desire will be to live in your presence through eternity and we'll demonstrate that now by seeking your face preparing our hearts to seek after you I pray you'll be with each person lord help us to know how to apply the various points of our message today in our lives that we can be your witnesses and then our prayer and our intercession our mediation is for the lost around us you've given us a mission to go into all the world and to preach the good news we'd like to see millions in the kingdom Lord and we pray that we can have a part in reaching them bless each person be with us through the Sabbath day we thank you for your presence today we pray this in Jesus name Amen please be seated for just a moment I think pastor Ross has one brief announcement

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Id: PdR26-DMrZk

Length: 46min 45sec (2805 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 09 2018