November 3, 2025 • 43 mins
Moses boldly asks God, “Show me your glory.” The message unpacks how this request isn’t simply for grandeur, but for God’s presence, character, and nearness.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, in 1543, there was a guy by the name of Nicholas
Copernicus. You probably have heard of him
in high school or maybe in college, but he was fascinated
with astronomy. He was fascinated with studying
how things work and he started to kind of deviate from kind of
like the traditional way of understanding how the things in
(00:23):
the world works. So for example, he started to
move up until that point, everyone believed that the, the,
the earth is the center of our, of our solar system.
I mean, isn't that nice to know that everything revolves around
us, the stars and the sky and the sun, right?
(00:44):
Every single one of those thingsis there for us, right?
And this is also all known as a geocentric model, right?
It's this idea that everything revolves around Earth.
And not only Earth is kind of like stationary, but we, we look
outside, right? And you're like, wow, isn't it
great that God made all of this for us?
(01:07):
And he starts to study and he realizes maybe this is not
exactly true. And he starts to kind of preach
a new way of thinking. And one of them is what we know
now is kind of like the heliocentric model of that the
Earth is actually spinning on its axis and then not only
spinning on its axis, but also is orbiting around the sun.
(01:33):
And the Roman Catholic Church response to that yelled really
loud and called him a heretic. Turns out the Earth is spinning
on its own axis. We also know now that spinning
on your own axis has its own consequences.
Like, for example, we know that the Earth is not a perfect
sphere. It bulges the equator, right?
(01:54):
So it's not this perfect sphere because it spins around its own
axis. So you know, there's a point,
but it's not a biblical point, but it's a point that if you
spin around your axis, it's going to make you fat.
It's a joke. So, but the idea is that if you
spin right, there's going to be some forces that push out,
(02:17):
right? And we see that we see that the
Earth is not a perfect sphere. We also know that the Earth is
flying around the sun and that has its own consequences, right?
Our seasons change. A lot of the things that are
happening here, the tides are, are connected because there's a
gravitational pull that the sun has on the Earth.
(02:39):
The gravitational pull of the sun also holds the Earth in
orbit, right? So when he starts to develop
this model and talk to people about this, people are not
having it. This is an illustration that the
God has given me. And sorry for the bad jokes, but
I'll tell another one. We also know I, I worked at
(03:01):
Boeing for a very long time and we know that gravity, when
gravity pulls on you specifically when you fly, you
might have experience like 2 * 3times the gravity, right?
So if you go on YouTube and you watch these videos of like what
we call AG1G2, like the gravity pulls, like these people are
just like really like their faces.
(03:22):
They're, they're flying, right? And their faces are getting
distorted by gravity. So if gravity pulls this side,
their face is getting distorted this side, if the gravity's
pulling down this way, their face is just, and you kind of
know this, especially if you're older, gravity's probably taking
a toll on your face. All right, So if there's one
point you can get out of that isthat if there's a gravitational
pull on your body, it's probablygoing to make you ugly.
(03:44):
So again, it's a point. It's not a biblical point.
All of that to say this, the gravity has certain effects on
you. And if you don't think that,
wait until it gets to be 60 and walk by a mirror, right?
You will, you will know that this is pulling on you right
now. Why do I say that?
(04:05):
I say that because the things that we orbit around change us.
The things that we do when we spin around also change us,
right? So the question that I'm going
to ask you today, what is your life orbiting around in Genesis
33? We come to this passage that is
(04:26):
very interesting because we knowthat God considers the
Israelites his people. If you ever wonder where we got
the phrase the apple of my eye, Well, it's not what most people
think. It's not like I look at
something normally it means thatI cherish something.
(04:46):
For example, your your children might be the apple of your eye,
right? Like you cherish something.
So we always thought that that phrase came from like you
cherish something. So that's the apple of your eye.
But actually, it's kind of a different story altogether.
There's a verse in Deuteronomy talks about how God says about
his people that they are so close to me and I love them so
(05:07):
much that they are like the pupil of my eye, of God's eye.
And because back in the day theythought that pupils were like
this, this, this center of your eye is like a sphere.
That's where we get that idea ofthe apple of the eye, that it's
so close to you, right? So these relights are God's
(05:28):
people. God loves the Israelites.
He delivers them out of Egypt, the place of never enough to a
place of just enough in the desert.
And these people are constantly orbiting around what God says.
When God speaks, we listen. When God shows up, we tremble in
(05:48):
fear, right? And, and Moses goes and spends
some time with God on the mountain.
And when he does that, you're going to see that in Genesis
3132. When he does that, God gives him
the 10 commandments, but he spends quite some time on the
mountain. And by the time he gets back
from the mountain, the hearts ofpeople have changed.
(06:11):
They are no longering orbiting around God.
They have this golden calf that they set up for themselves and
as Moses is walking towards this, they hear the chanting and
the dancing and they're wondering what is happening.
What is happening is their wholelife has changed from orbiting
around God to orbiting and worshipping and adoring and
(06:33):
cherishing this golden calf. And, and his anger, he says the
Bible actually says that the Moses are so angry that in his
heat, he says the Moses burned with anger.
He was hot and he just breaks the 10 commandments and he just
goes off of these people and he goes up to Aaron, who's supposed
to be the the priest and says, what possessed you to do this?
(06:58):
And you know, their response, it's kind of comical, if I'm
completely honest with you, going to find the response in
Exodus 3224. He says this.
So he said to them, so, so Moseschallenges and Moses kind of
yells at Aaron, says what? What in the world are you doing?
(07:18):
His response? Well, they came to me and they
wanted to know the God, the God that we that LED us out of out
of Egypt. So, so, so, so I said to them,
let any of you who have gold take it off.
So they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and this
calf came out. How do you throw something?
(07:42):
The fire in the calf comes out. No, that that's not what
happened. What happened was you had to
premeditate that. You had to think about this.
You had to collect the gold. You had to bring the gold here.
Then you had to put that gold inthe fire.
You had to melt that fire. Then you have to pour it out and
have a resemblance of the calf, and then you had to chisel that
(08:03):
calf. No, this is a long process.
It wasn't just you throwing thisgold into the fire and then a
calf came out. No, you premeditated this
errand. Don't tell me you just sort of
did. No, there was a process by which
the hearts of the people start. Stopped worshiping God and now
turning around this calf. And in his anger, Moses is just
(08:26):
burning with anger. So he says he takes this calf
down, really grinds this calf into powder, throws it into some
water and makes the people drinkthe water.
Well, that's a way to deal with sin.
And God is not pleased. God, God is furious.
He says I will no longer go withyou because if I were to go with
(08:50):
you, I will consume you. You are a stiff necked people.
And Moses goes into the presenceof God and he starts to plead
with the Lord. He starts to plead with the Lord
and says, God, remember these are your people.
(09:11):
This is the people that you called me to leave.
These are your people, right? So when we get to Genesis 33,
this is what is happening here. It's this conversation that
Moses has with God, especially when it comes to verse 12 says
this Moses said to the Lord, so you say to me bring up these
(09:33):
people, but you have not let me known whom you will send with
me. You who said me you.
I know you by name and you also have found favor in my sight
before this God also recommends that hey, because I cannot go
with you because I will consume you because of your sin.
(09:53):
I can send an Angel with you andmost like God, no.
Now, if you're not going with us, don't, don't send us from up
here. And that really made me think.
When he comes down the mountain,he sees this calf.
I don't know if you've realized or not, but every single time
(10:14):
you have a huge loss or a win, your whole life starts to orbit
around that loss or a win. You have 100 problems and then
you get sick and you have one problem, and that problem is to
get well. If you ever nurtured an injury,
you know that your whole life isabout.
If you ever had a broken leg or something, your whole life
(10:34):
becomes around nurturing that injury.
If you have a son or a daughter who's in the world or maybe
they're dealing with the sickness or disease, your whole
life becomes about seeing the son or daughter get better.
Your whole life becomes about that.
Your whole life becomes around that right.
Our wins and losses first, they have ways of actually like of,
(10:58):
of having such a pull on us. Remember when I was when I was
in Moldova before I moved to theUnited States, there was one
thing that I wanted. There's only one thing is to
move to the US. Our lives were consumed with
studying for it, getting ready for interviews.
For years we were thinking one day we will get on a plane and
(11:19):
move to the US. That's all we did is we no, of
course we were Christians and weworshipped Jesus too.
But I'm just saying that what consumed us and then we moved
here and my whole life started to revolve and orbit around I
want to be an American. I want to have what they have,
talk like they do and so on. Maybe now I'd realize the
(11:42):
Americans are not exactly perfect either.
But but that was was something that I was so obsessed with.
That was probably an understatement, right?
Like, great. So, so I'm so obsessed with
being in this culture and being like everyone else around me.
And then there was a time in my life that I'm just like, OK,
(12:03):
well, I kind of feel like I haveneighbors.
I, I kind of fit in. And then the obsession became
was all about getting the American dream, getting the
house, getting the car, getting,you know, the family, all of
that. And now it becomes all about
that. And then I noticed how times I
would get sick, I would forget about all of that.
And all I cared about is gettingbetter, right?
(12:26):
And then it was about going to college.
And my whole life was about going to college.
And it was all about being a pastor and being a ministry.
And then in now since 2022, it'sall about being an academic and,
and studying and knowing theology and being a theologian,
being a pastor. So, so you have all these things
that just consume you and they change you.
(12:52):
They transform you because like the jokes that I made at the
beginning, gravitational pull ofthe things that we orbit around,
they do change us. When I was a kid, Titanic came
out and every guy in my class tried to get the haircut the the
Leonardo DiCaprio had. It was all about that haircut.
(13:16):
And if you're a businessman and if you look up to a business,
another businessman, it's all about becoming like of them.
You see, even good gifts like family, like children, like
finances, all of these things, good gifts always make really,
really bad gods one of the best things you can do.
(13:39):
Now, of course, I don't have kids of my own, but I teach kids
every single day. One of the things you can do for
your kids is not to orbit aroundthem, but to orbit around
Christ. That's what your children need.
One of the best things you can do for your business is not to
orbit around business. It's about orbiting around
(14:00):
Christ, because make no mistake,the things that you adore, the
things that you cherish, the things that you look up to, the
things that you orbit around, they will change you.
That gravitational pull will be in your life.
They will change you, either forthe better or for the worst.
And if you have to say you for yourself, a golden calf, that
(14:24):
will also change you. Now you know this, that you are
made in God's image. God has made you that you might
behold him constantly. But that image that God has
created you has been defaced by sin.
It's been defaced by, by by the failure of us to say yes, Lord
(14:45):
to you. And we wanted to kind of do
what's right in our eyes, like we're told in, in the book of
Judges, we wanted to make our own decisions.
And because of that, right, the image of God, the image that God
has created you, has been defaced, has changed you, and
now you are giving a new chance.It's to move your gaze from the
(15:06):
things that you orbit around, beit finances, power, sex,
pleasure, whatever that is, and to move your gaze from that unto
our Lord and Savior Jesus. I love this quote.
There's a amazing theologian by the name of NT right says this.
You become like what you worship.
(15:27):
When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at
something or someone, you begin to take on something of a
character of that object that you worship.
The things that you worship, thethings you cherish, the things
that you enjoy, the things that you look up to, those are the
things that will affect you. Now, if we look throughout
(15:48):
history, if you look in the Old Testament and New Testament, the
Jewish people were obsessed withreligiosity and legalism.
They thought that their salvation is to take the 10
commandments, come up with under613 of them and to try to follow
the law. And the Greeks were obsessed
(16:08):
with knowledge, right? They wanted to be the the smart
people in the room. And the Romans were obsessed
with political and political political, the political life
and power or political power. All of these, these empires, all
these people, they looked at something.
(16:29):
And when we think of idols, whenwe think like, we have this sort
of chronological snobbery where we look back, right?
And we're like, oh, man, those people, they set up an idol for
themselves, a golden calf. Like who does that?
Who goes and cuts down a tree and carves a statue and looks at
it and says, now you shall be myGod.
(16:50):
How stupid do you have to be to do that?
Because that's the ideology and that's the idea that we have of
idols. But make no mistakes, our idols
are so much more complicated than that.
Idols. They don't worship statue
because they just decided, oh, that tree looks good where
that's made out of gold. No, there was there was there
(17:11):
was certain powers behind it. They they had certain gods they
worship like the God of love, Aphrodite, right.
So when we talk about idols, yes, that would dust at you
might have been a representative.
But remember, the golden calf was not necessarily that Oh,
it's a golden calf. No, Aaron and people are saying
that this is the God that delivered you.
(17:33):
Now why was it a golden calf? My suspicion is most likely
because that was their idea of aGod in Egypt and they're like,
well, we should have a God like in Egypt.
And maybe if you're Russian and you moved here, maybe you're
thinking like the presence of God is what happened when you
were in Russia is taking things that you certain ideology,
(17:58):
certain system and calling that now your God.
So we know that when we prayed for three hours, God showed up.
So, so if you look in history, the the slide into apathy is the
first is about Jesus, about whatJesus is doing, about the Holy
Spirit moving in US, and then becomes about the liturgy.
(18:18):
It becomes about how many songs do we do 3 or 4?
How many preaching Jesus do we do?
Two or three, right. So, so it becomes about the
church, it becomes about the liturgy, how we conduct the
church. And the next step into apathy,
it's about big buildings. Right now, there's nothing wrong
with liturgy. We're big buildings.
It's just when we make it about the liturgy, when we make it
about the church, meaning the building, right?
(18:41):
That's problematic because now what we see is a whole bunch of
churches that are beautifully designed and, and, and just paid
off. And there's nobody in there.
Even good things like church services, liturgy and buildings,
they make really bad gods. The church is ecclesia, It's a
(19:03):
congregation. It's the Saints coming together,
the beloved of Christ. That's the church.
Now we need buildings. And I'm thankful for this
building. I'm thankful for the people
they've invested in this building, right?
People who gave with their moneyand resources.
But this building, make no mistake, this is not what we
worship. How we do service is not how we
(19:26):
worship. We worship Jesus.
What makes this building, specially his presence.
It's not how big or how tall or how flashy our screen is or our
cameras is. Do we worship Jesus or not?
So, so idols, they're a lot morecomplicated.
And it could be maybe you're like people who care about cars
(19:52):
and the people that care about cars.
I I remember I had a house that was remodeling and I would sit
in church thinking about doorknobs and I'm like.
I think this house has taken over my life Like I think, I
think like thinking in church, like what kind of windows I'm
going to buy. It could be a good thing that
(20:13):
has such a hold in you. And if you're here and probably
thinking about, you know, what kind of mod you're going to do
on your car, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right?
Good things that we give them our lives now.
We could be also your spouse. It could be any of these things,
right? So when Moses shows up and he
(20:33):
sees this the the the the the orbiting from orbiting around
God to around this idol. He's just disgusted by this and
he goes in God's presence and hesays this to God like God don't
go us from up here and look how he says it for what we for what
can so he actually goes to so we'll start verse 12 and Exodus
(20:55):
Moses said to the Lord, see you say to me bring up these people,
but you have not let me know whom you will send with us.
Yeah, you have said, I know you by your name, and you have found
favor in my sight. Now, therefore, if I have found
favor in your sight, please showme your ways.
And I know in order to find yourfavor in your sight, consider
(21:16):
that this is nation is your people.
So Moses constantly reminds God that this is your people.
And he said, and God said, my presence will go with you and
I'll give you a rest. And he said to him, if your
presence will not go with me, donot bring us from up here.
So Moses makes it very clear, ifyou don't come with us, God,
(21:38):
don't send us, because the only reason that separates us from
the world is your presence with us.
The only way people know that weare different is your presence
is with us. And I was thinking about this
and I'm like, OK, would you go if God's presence is not there?
Like would you, would you foregobeing extremely famous if God
(21:59):
wasn't in it? If you got the chance to be a
billionaire, would you do it? If you knew that God's presence
doesn't go with you, if you knewthat there's a way to never be
sick again and you have the restof your life and comfort, but
God's presence is not there, would you do it?
(22:22):
That's what I'd like to say too.But I know me.
I know I've sold Jesus for way lesser things, right?
If I knew that I can gain all knowledge without God's
presence, would I do it? If I knew that I can control the
(22:44):
world, maybe, I don't know, makesome kind of a a company and
then seems like they're taking over the world, right?
Like without God's presence, would you go now?
I'm not asking you this to shameyou or me.
I just know that a lot of times we say yes to weigh smaller
(23:07):
things and it's costing us a relationship with the Lord and
and Moses like God, if you're not coming with us, don't send
us from up here. I want nothing to do with that
and look at what God says. I love this passage says, For
(23:27):
how shall it be known that I have found favor in your eyes, I
in your people? It is not in your going with, is
it not in your going with us, that we are so distinct?
I am in your I and your people from every other people, from
the face of the earth. And the Lord said to Moses, This
very thing I have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in
(23:50):
my eye, and I know you by name. And Moses said this, Please show
me your glory. And it's interesting because the
different translation says that God kind of looks at at Moses.
Moses, what do you want me to dofor you?
What a blank check. What if God's presence?
(24:12):
What if you during the sermon, during the sermon or during
prayer today, God says to you, what do you, what do you want me
to do for you? Out of all the things that Moses
could have said, I don't know Lord, you've been asking me to
lead these people and I'm a bit disillusioned.
Lord, having 600,000 people, close to 2 million depending
(24:34):
where they're at in the journey,leading these people has been
exhausting. Can't you just shape shape them
and make them perfect? I don't know God, maybe give us
some air conditioning. I know it hasn't been invented,
but it would be great and maybe provide better food because
we've been eating the same thingfor a while now.
I mean, there's so many things that Moses could have asked of
(24:56):
God. Imagine that you being here at
the if, if God asks you and gaveyou a blank check.
What do you want me to do for you?
I don't know, Lord. My son, my daughter is not
walking with you. Lord, you know that pain that
just doesn't seem to go away? My whole life seems to revolve
around getting better. Lord, you know that I barely
have money to actually buy groceries.
(25:18):
Lord, it seems like I'm really behind a life when it comes to
getting married. Lord, I, I feel like I'm really
behind a life when it comes to your career.
There's so many things, but imagine having that blank check.
But is this Moses's response? No.
Out of all the things that Mosescould have asked for, he said he
(25:39):
says, Lord, show me your glory, flex your bicep.
God, I want to know your power. I want to know your goodness.
I want to know who you are. I know what we call in theology.
I want to know your ontology. What are you made out of?
God, show me who you are. How?
(26:00):
Why is that important? Because the source of all
healing is more important than healing itself.
The source, God is the source, the very thing that you want.
If you want love, peace, joy, kindness, all of these things,
God is the source of all of these things.
So it's better than love, is thesource of all love.
What's better than life is the source of all life.
What's better than deliverance is the source of all
(26:21):
deliverance, or what's better than knowledge is the source of
all knowledge. God, I want to know you.
I want to know your presence. And you know how God responds?
He responds like this, and he said, I will make oh, my
goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my
(26:41):
name, the Lord, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be
gracious, and I'll show mercy towhom I'll show mercy.
But he said, you cannot see my face, for men shall not see me
and live. And the Lord said, Behold,
there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and
while my glory passes, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock,
(27:06):
and I'll cover you with my hand until I've passed by.
Then I'll take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my
face you shall not see. So God says, look, I'm going to
take you and put on the cleft ofthis rock.
And the reason you have to be inthe cleft of the rock is if you
actually just stay in my presence, I will consume you
because my glory, if you're to see my face, you will die.
(27:30):
So this rock will be a protection for you.
And I'll cover you with my hand.And as I'm passing by, you'll be
able to see the back of me, which is my goodness.
And he says when he did this, when Moses came down, Moses had
to put a veil over his face because his face was radiating
with God's glory. Now, this was a glory that was
(27:52):
fading away, but he was reading.Everybody knew there's something
special about Moses this time. By the way, he also got the 10
commandments again without breaking them, this time coming
down. Moses no longer angry, he's
(28:12):
radiating with God's glory. And everyone knows Moses has
been with God. Moses has been changed by God.
Moses has been transformed by God, and we can see it on his
face. But there's a problem.
The problem is that glory is fading.
That glory is fading. And Apostle Paul will pick up on
(28:35):
this, and he will talk about howthe first covenant came with
glory that was fading. But the covenant of the Spirit
of truth comes even with more power.
Now, let me tell you a little bit about the law.
What's the point of the law if the law doesn't save?
What's the point of knowing thatyou should drive 55 miles an
(28:56):
hour? Well, because if you speed over
that, you'll be punished. The law is a perfect mirror, the
law. When you go to the law of God,
it shows you what you look like.And that can be extremely
depressing, right When you go and you glance into the law of
(29:17):
God, you see the true condition of your heart, of your face.
And that can be very scary because if you're face shows the
the problems of sin, right, thendepending what you're motivated
by, you'll do one of the three things.
(29:39):
And this is something that I wasjust kind of thinking about.
You might have a tendency. What I'm trying to tell you is
when you see your sin in the perfect mirror of God, when you
go and you see the, the law saysyou should not commit adultery.
You should not have lustful thoughts.
You should not do this, this, this, this.
And you know this is true about you, right?
(30:01):
And you see your sin in the mirror.
There's a tendency to cover that.
So if you are scared of people, you'll put a veil.
So, so you'll try to cover your sin.
And by not people not seeing your sin, it's good because
people don't have to know what'shappening in your life, but also
(30:21):
keeps you away from them, reallyknowing who you are.
Your secret sin, your sin, you're covering that.
It puts a barrier between you and other people.
Or maybe that's too much for you.
So maybe you will start wearing a mask.
And the way that looks in churchis you come to worship and
you're one person, but at home, you're a different person.
(30:44):
You're switching the masks constantly.
When you see your sin, you mightcover it and you might pretend
to be someone in church that is this amazing man of God.
And then you go to work and everyone knows, Oh, he's the guy
who shows up late, yells at everybody, cusses sometimes.
And maybe that's too much for you too, right?
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And maybe you will settle for the Christianese version of
that. And you're like IA veil, wear a
mask is too much for me. So I'm going to take the
blemishes on my face and cover them with makeup.
And the way that looks like is any blemish that I have, I just
put makeup on it. This is not a sermon about
makeup, but I'm just telling youthink of that as an as an
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illustration. So so you are serving the church
for the most part. People know your face.
People know who you are, but every single problem that you
have, you will cover up the small things that sort of when
you say something in leadership meeting and you go off of
someone. See the problem with looking to
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the law of God is the perfect mirror shows your perfect sin.
We're not exactly your perfect sin, but your your ugly sin and
that's the problem. But here's the thing.
We're invited not just to look into the law.
We are invited to take our gaze,go to the mirror, know that we
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are sinful, and then move our gaze to behold Jesus.
If if you ever put a puzzle together with no picture, it's
extremely difficult. You're like this blue thing.
Where does this go? Right?
But when you have the picture, you know exactly where it goes.
At least you think you know. Jesus is supposed to be that
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picture of a puzzle. If you don't know what your life
is about, how do I put this career, this piece in here?
Look unto Jesus. Behold Jesus.
If you're a man in this house and you want to know what is it
like to be a man, look unto Jesus, husband.
Look unto Jesus wife, look unto Jesus as you behold Jesus you
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will change you. This comes from second
Corinthians 37 says this. Now if the ministry of death of
law carved in the letters of stone came in with such a glory,
Exodus 33 that the Israelites could not gaze on Moses face,
because of its glory which was being brought to an end, it was
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fading away, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even
more glory? For if For if there was glory in
the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness
must far exceed in its glory. Indeed, in this case, but once
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had glory had come to have no glory at all, because all glory
that surpasses it, which is the current glory.
For if was brought to an end, came with much glory for that.
For if that which came to an endcame with so much glory, much
more will be its permanent have glory.
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Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Not like Moses who put a veil over his face.
So the Israelites might not gazeon the outcome of what was being
brought to an end, but in their minds we're hardened.
For to this day they read the old Covenant.
The same veil remained unlifted because of only through Christ
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that is taken away. So if you're in Christ, that
veil is taken away. Yes, to this day, most whenever
Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.
Now look to this. But when one turns to the Lord,
the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
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we're the Spirit of the Lord. There is freedom and we with
unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from 1° of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord whois Spirit.
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So so think of this as you behold Christ, you are being
transformed into this image from1° of glory to another.
Most of you are thinking right, but what does it mean to behold
Christ? Now depending what church you go
to, different denominations willstress what is it mean to behold
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Christ. Even movements that are not so
biblical, they have an idea of what is beholding Christ.
For example, the Roman Catholicswho say the presence of God and
beholding Christ is all about the Eucharist or basically
communion. Maybe people who are Puritans
and they're pious. They're all about prayer and
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being pious and being lowly and humble.
That's how you behold Jesus. And if you're a Roman, if you're
a Reformed Baptist, might be allabout the word.
Show me what it's written, brother.
Show me the word. And if you're charismatic, it's
all about worship and dancing atthe altar.
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That is where the presence of God is.
And if you're a Pentecostal, anyway, if you're a Pentecostal,
right, it's about charismatic being, being, praying and seeing
people delivered and praying forhealing, restoration.
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And I think we're the right ones.
But anyway, right, No. But what I'm trying to tell you
is you don't have to choose one or the other.
God is revealed in Scripture. God is revealed in prayer.
God is revealed in seeing someone being delivered and
healed. God is revealed when people
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dance at the altar. God who's revealed in this, this
is how we behold Him. And as we behold him, he also is
our rock. He is the Rock of Ages.
The Cliff in which we are being hidden, first of all says that
you are hidden in Christ, this rock that protects us.
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So it's the rock that protected Moses, right?
It protected him from the glory of God, not to kill him, the
wrath of God, not to kill him, but also provided access.
In Christ, the Rock of Ages, we have the protection from the
wrath of God, but also being in Christ allows us to be in God's
presence. So he provides protection and
access. I love this song or hymn by a
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gentleman by the name of Augustus, top lady.
What a last name. But he says, he says, this Rock
of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood fromthe wounded side which flowed be
of sin the double cure, save from wrath, and make me pure.
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Beloved, you are hidden in Christ.
You are hidden in Christ. In this being hidden in Christ
provides protection from God's judgement, but also provide act
provides access for you to be inGod's presence.
Beloved, our lives are called toorbit around Jesus.
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So to say that what makes us different than the rest of
Kenmore or Seattle or Bellevue is that we are people of the
presence of God. We are people of Jesus.
When banks are separated as everyone's spinning on their own
axis, we're spinning around their power and fame and sex and
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pleasure and all these things. Our lives are not spinning
around ourselves. Our lives are warbiting around
Christ. Our lives is beholding Christ,
and as we are beholding him, we are being transformed in His
image. We resemble more and more of
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that glory of Christ. And you should resemble Christ
more now than you did five yearsago.
You should be more loving, patient, more kind, more gentle
than you were five years ago. That is the result of beholding
Christ. Our lives are to orbit now.
That gravitational pull will hold you in orbit and you'll
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change you and you will become like the God that you worship,
which in this case is Jesus. That is my hope for city on the
Hill. That is my hope for this, for,
for, for any Christian, right Bepeople of the presence of God.
Seek his presence in Scripture. Seek his presence of the altar.
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Seek his presence in communion, seek his presence in praying for
the sick. Seek his presence and, and, and
walking in humility. Seek his presence at work.
Everything that we do is for theglory of Christ.
And I think a lot of us, we, we get so disheartened when the
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idol that we've been worshippingaround and orbiting around just
failed us. And you know what we do?
We think, oh, yeah, like I thought if I got one car, it was
going to make me happy, but it didn't.
So I'm going to get 2 cars. So you keep on doubling down if
I have one degrees, 1° and if I have two degrees, if I got that
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promotion. And it's just never enough.
Now you don't have to do this, but if you were to go home
tonight and close your eyes and say Lord and be honest with
yourself or what is my life being more bidding around?
Is it money, Is it power, Is it pleasure?
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Is it comfort? Is it safety?
Is it my spouse? And of course your spouse is
important, but the best thing you can do for your spouse is be
a godly man who's Christ centered is your kids.
The best thing you can do for your kids is to be a godly man
is your business. The best CEOs are the ones who
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know they're under authority of Christ and they're just
managers. They're steward stewards of
God's resources. Is your career.
The best thing you'll ever be iswhat Christ can do through you.
And I think a lot of times we buy into this idea.
Like imagine Peter, he's a businessman, he's a fisherman
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leaving all of that and follow Christ.
But turns out following Christ is what made him a really good
businessman because he caught the most fish.
So you might think that leaving your idol, what what would it be
be of me if I leave this idol? No, you're now leaving just to
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leave. You leave because you have a
better love, something way more impactful and also a God who's
not a God who is, who is rude orwho demands of UI.
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Talking to some of my friends that unfortunately they're going
through some addiction. And I asked them, and I was
like, what have you sacrificed on the altar of this idol?
You're about to sacrifice your family on this altar.
Gods, they demand things. You will worship something, You
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will worship around something. My hope for you is that is
Christ. Would you stand with me?
Well, in 1543, there was a guy by the name of Nicholas
Copernicus. You probably have heard of him
in high school or maybe in college, but he was fascinated
with astronomy. He was fascinated with studying
how things work and he started to kind of deviate from kind of
like the traditional way of understanding how the things in
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the world works. So for example, he started to
move up until that point, everyone believed that the, the,
the earth is the center of our, of our solar system.
I mean, isn't that nice to know that everything revolves around
us, the stars and the sky and the sun, right?
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Every single one of those thingsis there for us, right?
And this is also all known as a geocentric model, right?
It's this idea that everything revolves around Earth.
And not only Earth is kind of like stationary, but we, we look
outside, right? And you're like, wow, isn't it
great that God made all of this for us?
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And he starts to study and he realizes maybe this is not
exactly true. And he starts to kind of preach
a new way of thinking. And one of them is what we know
now is kind of like the heliocentric model of that the
Earth is actually spinning on its axis and then not only
spinning on its axis, but also is orbiting around the sun.
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And the Roman Catholic Church response to that yelled really
loud and called him a heretic. Turns out the Earth is spinning
on its own axis. We also know now that spinning
on your own axis has its own consequences.
Like, for example, we know that the Earth is not a perfect
sphere. It bulges the equator, right?
(01:54):
So it's not this perfect sphere because it spins around its own
axis. So you know, there's a point,
but it's not a biblical point, but it's a point that if you
spin around your axis, it's going to make you fat.
It's a joke. So, but the idea is that if you
spin right, there's going to be some forces that push out,
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right? And we see that we see that the
Earth is not a perfect sphere. We also know that the Earth is
flying around the sun and that has its own consequences, right?
Our seasons change. A lot of the things that are
happening here, the tides are, are connected because there's a
gravitational pull that the sun has on the Earth.
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The gravitational pull of the sun also holds the Earth in
orbit, right? So when he starts to develop
this model and talk to people about this, people are not
having it. This is an illustration that the
God has given me. And sorry for the bad jokes, but
I'll tell another one. We also know I, I worked at
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Boeing for a very long time and we know that gravity, when
gravity pulls on you specifically when you fly, you
might have experience like 2 * 3times the gravity, right?
So if you go on YouTube and you watch these videos of like what
we call AG1G2, like the gravity pulls, like these people are
just like really like their faces.
(03:22):
They're, they're flying, right? And their faces are getting
distorted by gravity. So if gravity pulls this side,
their face is getting distorted this side, if the gravity's
pulling down this way, their face is just, and you kind of
know this, especially if you're older, gravity's probably taking
a toll on your face. All right, So if there's one
point you can get out of that isthat if there's a gravitational
pull on your body, it's probablygoing to make you ugly.
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So again, it's a point. It's not a biblical point.
All of that to say this, the gravity has certain effects on
you. And if you don't think that,
wait until it gets to be 60 and walk by a mirror, right?
You will, you will know that this is pulling on you right
now. Why do I say that?
(04:05):
I say that because the things that we orbit around change us.
The things that we do when we spin around also change us,
right? So the question that I'm going
to ask you today, what is your life orbiting around in Genesis
33? We come to this passage that is
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very interesting because we knowthat God considers the
Israelites his people. If you ever wonder where we got
the phrase the apple of my eye, Well, it's not what most people
think. It's not like I look at
something normally it means thatI cherish something.
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For example, your your children might be the apple of your eye,
right? Like you cherish something.
So we always thought that that phrase came from like you
cherish something. So that's the apple of your eye.
But actually, it's kind of a different story altogether.
There's a verse in Deuteronomy talks about how God says about
his people that they are so close to me and I love them so
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much that they are like the pupil of my eye, of God's eye.
And because back in the day theythought that pupils were like
this, this, this center of your eye is like a sphere.
That's where we get that idea ofthe apple of the eye, that it's
so close to you, right? So these relights are God's
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people. God loves the Israelites.
He delivers them out of Egypt, the place of never enough to a
place of just enough in the desert.
And these people are constantly orbiting around what God says.
When God speaks, we listen. When God shows up, we tremble in
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fear, right? And, and Moses goes and spends
some time with God on the mountain.
And when he does that, you're going to see that in Genesis
3132. When he does that, God gives him
the 10 commandments, but he spends quite some time on the
mountain. And by the time he gets back
from the mountain, the hearts ofpeople have changed.
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They are no longering orbiting around God.
They have this golden calf that they set up for themselves and
as Moses is walking towards this, they hear the chanting and
the dancing and they're wondering what is happening.
What is happening is their wholelife has changed from orbiting
around God to orbiting and worshipping and adoring and
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cherishing this golden calf. And, and his anger, he says the
Bible actually says that the Moses are so angry that in his
heat, he says the Moses burned with anger.
He was hot and he just breaks the 10 commandments and he just
goes off of these people and he goes up to Aaron, who's supposed
to be the the priest and says, what possessed you to do this?
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And you know, their response, it's kind of comical, if I'm
completely honest with you, going to find the response in
Exodus 3224. He says this.
So he said to them, so, so Moseschallenges and Moses kind of
yells at Aaron, says what? What in the world are you doing?
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His response? Well, they came to me and they
wanted to know the God, the God that we that LED us out of out
of Egypt. So, so, so, so I said to them,
let any of you who have gold take it off.
So they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and this
calf came out. How do you throw something?
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The fire in the calf comes out. No, that that's not what
happened. What happened was you had to
premeditate that. You had to think about this.
You had to collect the gold. You had to bring the gold here.
Then you had to put that gold inthe fire.
You had to melt that fire. Then you have to pour it out and
have a resemblance of the calf, and then you had to chisel that
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calf. No, this is a long process.
It wasn't just you throwing thisgold into the fire and then a
calf came out. No, you premeditated this
errand. Don't tell me you just sort of
did. No, there was a process by which
the hearts of the people start. Stopped worshiping God and now
turning around this calf. And in his anger, Moses is just
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burning with anger. So he says he takes this calf
down, really grinds this calf into powder, throws it into some
water and makes the people drinkthe water.
Well, that's a way to deal with sin.
And God is not pleased. God, God is furious.
He says I will no longer go withyou because if I were to go with
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you, I will consume you. You are a stiff necked people.
And Moses goes into the presenceof God and he starts to plead
with the Lord. He starts to plead with the Lord
and says, God, remember these are your people.
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This is the people that you called me to leave.
These are your people, right? So when we get to Genesis 33,
this is what is happening here. It's this conversation that
Moses has with God, especially when it comes to verse 12 says
this Moses said to the Lord, so you say to me bring up these
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people, but you have not let me known whom you will send with
me. You who said me you.
I know you by name and you also have found favor in my sight
before this God also recommends that hey, because I cannot go
with you because I will consume you because of your sin.
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I can send an Angel with you andmost like God, no.
Now, if you're not going with us, don't, don't send us from up
here. And that really made me think.
When he comes down the mountain,he sees this calf.
I don't know if you've realized or not, but every single time
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you have a huge loss or a win, your whole life starts to orbit
around that loss or a win. You have 100 problems and then
you get sick and you have one problem, and that problem is to
get well. If you ever nurtured an injury,
you know that your whole life isabout.
If you ever had a broken leg or something, your whole life
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becomes around nurturing that injury.
If you have a son or a daughter who's in the world or maybe
they're dealing with the sickness or disease, your whole
life becomes about seeing the son or daughter get better.
Your whole life becomes about that.
Your whole life becomes around that right.
Our wins and losses first, they have ways of actually like of,
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of having such a pull on us. Remember when I was when I was
in Moldova before I moved to theUnited States, there was one
thing that I wanted. There's only one thing is to
move to the US. Our lives were consumed with
studying for it, getting ready for interviews.
For years we were thinking one day we will get on a plane and
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move to the US. That's all we did is we no, of
course we were Christians and weworshipped Jesus too.
But I'm just saying that what consumed us and then we moved
here and my whole life started to revolve and orbit around I
want to be an American. I want to have what they have,
talk like they do and so on. Maybe now I'd realize the
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Americans are not exactly perfect either.
But but that was was something that I was so obsessed with.
That was probably an understatement, right?
Like, great. So, so I'm so obsessed with
being in this culture and being like everyone else around me.
And then there was a time in my life that I'm just like, OK,
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well, I kind of feel like I haveneighbors.
I, I kind of fit in. And then the obsession became
was all about getting the American dream, getting the
house, getting the car, getting,you know, the family, all of
that. And now it becomes all about
that. And then I noticed how times I
would get sick, I would forget about all of that.
And all I cared about is gettingbetter, right?
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And then it was about going to college.
And my whole life was about going to college.
And it was all about being a pastor and being a ministry.
And then in now since 2022, it'sall about being an academic and,
and studying and knowing theology and being a theologian,
being a pastor. So, so you have all these things
that just consume you and they change you.
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They transform you because like the jokes that I made at the
beginning, gravitational pull ofthe things that we orbit around,
they do change us. When I was a kid, Titanic came
out and every guy in my class tried to get the haircut the the
Leonardo DiCaprio had. It was all about that haircut.
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And if you're a businessman and if you look up to a business,
another businessman, it's all about becoming like of them.
You see, even good gifts like family, like children, like
finances, all of these things, good gifts always make really,
really bad gods one of the best things you can do.
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Now, of course, I don't have kids of my own, but I teach kids
every single day. One of the things you can do for
your kids is not to orbit aroundthem, but to orbit around
Christ. That's what your children need.
One of the best things you can do for your business is not to
orbit around business. It's about orbiting around
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Christ, because make no mistake,the things that you adore, the
things that you cherish, the things that you look up to, the
things that you orbit around, they will change you.
That gravitational pull will be in your life.
They will change you, either forthe better or for the worst.
And if you have to say you for yourself, a golden calf, that
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will also change you. Now you know this, that you are
made in God's image. God has made you that you might
behold him constantly. But that image that God has
created you has been defaced by sin.
It's been defaced by, by by the failure of us to say yes, Lord
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to you. And we wanted to kind of do
what's right in our eyes, like we're told in, in the book of
Judges, we wanted to make our own decisions.
And because of that, right, the image of God, the image that God
has created you, has been defaced, has changed you, and
now you are giving a new chance.It's to move your gaze from the
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things that you orbit around, beit finances, power, sex,
pleasure, whatever that is, and to move your gaze from that unto
our Lord and Savior Jesus. I love this quote.
There's a amazing theologian by the name of NT right says this.
You become like what you worship.
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When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at
something or someone, you begin to take on something of a
character of that object that you worship.
The things that you worship, thethings you cherish, the things
that you enjoy, the things that you look up to, those are the
things that will affect you. Now, if we look throughout
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history, if you look in the Old Testament and New Testament, the
Jewish people were obsessed withreligiosity and legalism.
They thought that their salvation is to take the 10
commandments, come up with under613 of them and to try to follow
the law. And the Greeks were obsessed
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with knowledge, right? They wanted to be the the smart
people in the room. And the Romans were obsessed
with political and political political, the political life
and power or political power. All of these, these empires, all
these people, they looked at something.
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And when we think of idols, whenwe think like, we have this sort
of chronological snobbery where we look back, right?
And we're like, oh, man, those people, they set up an idol for
themselves, a golden calf. Like who does that?
Who goes and cuts down a tree and carves a statue and looks at
it and says, now you shall be myGod.
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How stupid do you have to be to do that?
Because that's the ideology and that's the idea that we have of
idols. But make no mistakes, our idols
are so much more complicated than that.
Idols. They don't worship statue
because they just decided, oh, that tree looks good where
that's made out of gold. No, there was there was there
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was certain powers behind it. They they had certain gods they
worship like the God of love, Aphrodite, right.
So when we talk about idols, yes, that would dust at you
might have been a representative.
But remember, the golden calf was not necessarily that Oh,
it's a golden calf. No, Aaron and people are saying
that this is the God that delivered you.
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Now why was it a golden calf? My suspicion is most likely
because that was their idea of aGod in Egypt and they're like,
well, we should have a God like in Egypt.
And maybe if you're Russian and you moved here, maybe you're
thinking like the presence of God is what happened when you
were in Russia is taking things that you certain ideology,
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certain system and calling that now your God.
So we know that when we prayed for three hours, God showed up.
So, so if you look in history, the the slide into apathy is the
first is about Jesus, about whatJesus is doing, about the Holy
Spirit moving in US, and then becomes about the liturgy.
(18:18):
It becomes about how many songs do we do 3 or 4?
How many preaching Jesus do we do?
Two or three, right. So, so it becomes about the
church, it becomes about the liturgy, how we conduct the
church. And the next step into apathy,
it's about big buildings. Right now, there's nothing wrong
with liturgy. We're big buildings.
It's just when we make it about the liturgy, when we make it
about the church, meaning the building, right?
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That's problematic because now what we see is a whole bunch of
churches that are beautifully designed and, and, and just paid
off. And there's nobody in there.
Even good things like church services, liturgy and buildings,
they make really bad gods. The church is ecclesia, It's a
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congregation. It's the Saints coming together,
the beloved of Christ. That's the church.
Now we need buildings. And I'm thankful for this
building. I'm thankful for the people
they've invested in this building, right?
People who gave with their moneyand resources.
But this building, make no mistake, this is not what we
worship. How we do service is not how we
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worship. We worship Jesus.
What makes this building, specially his presence.
It's not how big or how tall or how flashy our screen is or our
cameras is. Do we worship Jesus or not?
So, so idols, they're a lot morecomplicated.
And it could be maybe you're like people who care about cars
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and the people that care about cars.
I I remember I had a house that was remodeling and I would sit
in church thinking about doorknobs and I'm like.
I think this house has taken over my life Like I think, I
think like thinking in church, like what kind of windows I'm
going to buy. It could be a good thing that
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has such a hold in you. And if you're here and probably
thinking about, you know, what kind of mod you're going to do
on your car, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right?
Good things that we give them our lives now.
We could be also your spouse. It could be any of these things,
right? So when Moses shows up and he
(20:33):
sees this the the the the the orbiting from orbiting around
God to around this idol. He's just disgusted by this and
he goes in God's presence and hesays this to God like God don't
go us from up here and look how he says it for what we for what
can so he actually goes to so we'll start verse 12 and Exodus
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Moses said to the Lord, see you say to me bring up these people,
but you have not let me know whom you will send with us.
Yeah, you have said, I know you by your name, and you have found
favor in my sight. Now, therefore, if I have found
favor in your sight, please showme your ways.
And I know in order to find yourfavor in your sight, consider
(21:16):
that this is nation is your people.
So Moses constantly reminds God that this is your people.
And he said, and God said, my presence will go with you and
I'll give you a rest. And he said to him, if your
presence will not go with me, donot bring us from up here.
So Moses makes it very clear, ifyou don't come with us, God,
(21:38):
don't send us, because the only reason that separates us from
the world is your presence with us.
The only way people know that weare different is your presence
is with us. And I was thinking about this
and I'm like, OK, would you go if God's presence is not there?
Like would you, would you foregobeing extremely famous if God
(21:59):
wasn't in it? If you got the chance to be a
billionaire, would you do it? If you knew that God's presence
doesn't go with you, if you knewthat there's a way to never be
sick again and you have the restof your life and comfort, but
God's presence is not there, would you do it?
(22:22):
That's what I'd like to say too.But I know me.
I know I've sold Jesus for way lesser things, right?
If I knew that I can gain all knowledge without God's
presence, would I do it? If I knew that I can control the
(22:44):
world, maybe, I don't know, makesome kind of a a company and
then seems like they're taking over the world, right?
Like without God's presence, would you go now?
I'm not asking you this to shameyou or me.
I just know that a lot of times we say yes to weigh smaller
(23:07):
things and it's costing us a relationship with the Lord and
and Moses like God, if you're not coming with us, don't send
us from up here. I want nothing to do with that
and look at what God says. I love this passage says, For
(23:27):
how shall it be known that I have found favor in your eyes, I
in your people? It is not in your going with, is
it not in your going with us, that we are so distinct?
I am in your I and your people from every other people, from
the face of the earth. And the Lord said to Moses, This
very thing I have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in
(23:50):
my eye, and I know you by name. And Moses said this, Please show
me your glory. And it's interesting because the
different translation says that God kind of looks at at Moses.
Moses, what do you want me to dofor you?
What a blank check. What if God's presence?
(24:12):
What if you during the sermon, during the sermon or during
prayer today, God says to you, what do you, what do you want me
to do for you? Out of all the things that Moses
could have said, I don't know Lord, you've been asking me to
lead these people and I'm a bit disillusioned.
Lord, having 600,000 people, close to 2 million depending
(24:34):
where they're at in the journey,leading these people has been
exhausting. Can't you just shape shape them
and make them perfect? I don't know God, maybe give us
some air conditioning. I know it hasn't been invented,
but it would be great and maybe provide better food because
we've been eating the same thingfor a while now.
I mean, there's so many things that Moses could have asked of
(24:56):
God. Imagine that you being here at
the if, if God asks you and gaveyou a blank check.
What do you want me to do for you?
I don't know, Lord. My son, my daughter is not
walking with you. Lord, you know that pain that
just doesn't seem to go away? My whole life seems to revolve
around getting better. Lord, you know that I barely
have money to actually buy groceries.
(25:18):
Lord, it seems like I'm really behind a life when it comes to
getting married. Lord, I, I feel like I'm really
behind a life when it comes to your career.
There's so many things, but imagine having that blank check.
But is this Moses's response? No.
Out of all the things that Mosescould have asked for, he said he
(25:39):
says, Lord, show me your glory, flex your bicep.
God, I want to know your power. I want to know your goodness.
I want to know who you are. I know what we call in theology.
I want to know your ontology. What are you made out of?
God, show me who you are. How?
(26:00):
Why is that important? Because the source of all
healing is more important than healing itself.
The source, God is the source, the very thing that you want.
If you want love, peace, joy, kindness, all of these things,
God is the source of all of these things.
So it's better than love, is thesource of all love.
What's better than life is the source of all life.
What's better than deliverance is the source of all
(26:21):
deliverance, or what's better than knowledge is the source of
all knowledge. God, I want to know you.
I want to know your presence. And you know how God responds?
He responds like this, and he said, I will make oh, my
goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my
(26:41):
name, the Lord, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be
gracious, and I'll show mercy towhom I'll show mercy.
But he said, you cannot see my face, for men shall not see me
and live. And the Lord said, Behold,
there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and
while my glory passes, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock,
(27:06):
and I'll cover you with my hand until I've passed by.
Then I'll take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my
face you shall not see. So God says, look, I'm going to
take you and put on the cleft ofthis rock.
And the reason you have to be inthe cleft of the rock is if you
actually just stay in my presence, I will consume you
because my glory, if you're to see my face, you will die.
(27:30):
So this rock will be a protection for you.
And I'll cover you with my hand.And as I'm passing by, you'll be
able to see the back of me, which is my goodness.
And he says when he did this, when Moses came down, Moses had
to put a veil over his face because his face was radiating
with God's glory. Now, this was a glory that was
(27:52):
fading away, but he was reading.Everybody knew there's something
special about Moses this time. By the way, he also got the 10
commandments again without breaking them, this time coming
down. Moses no longer angry, he's
(28:12):
radiating with God's glory. And everyone knows Moses has
been with God. Moses has been changed by God.
Moses has been transformed by God, and we can see it on his
face. But there's a problem.
The problem is that glory is fading.
That glory is fading. And Apostle Paul will pick up on
(28:35):
this, and he will talk about howthe first covenant came with
glory that was fading. But the covenant of the Spirit
of truth comes even with more power.
Now, let me tell you a little bit about the law.
What's the point of the law if the law doesn't save?
What's the point of knowing thatyou should drive 55 miles an
(28:56):
hour? Well, because if you speed over
that, you'll be punished. The law is a perfect mirror, the
law. When you go to the law of God,
it shows you what you look like.And that can be extremely
depressing, right When you go and you glance into the law of
(29:17):
God, you see the true condition of your heart, of your face.
And that can be very scary because if you're face shows the
the problems of sin, right, thendepending what you're motivated
by, you'll do one of the three things.
(29:39):
And this is something that I wasjust kind of thinking about.
You might have a tendency. What I'm trying to tell you is
when you see your sin in the perfect mirror of God, when you
go and you see the, the law saysyou should not commit adultery.
You should not have lustful thoughts.
You should not do this, this, this, this.
And you know this is true about you, right?
(30:01):
And you see your sin in the mirror.
There's a tendency to cover that.
So if you are scared of people, you'll put a veil.
So, so you'll try to cover your sin.
And by not people not seeing your sin, it's good because
people don't have to know what'shappening in your life, but also
(30:21):
keeps you away from them, reallyknowing who you are.
Your secret sin, your sin, you're covering that.
It puts a barrier between you and other people.
Or maybe that's too much for you.
So maybe you will start wearing a mask.
And the way that looks in churchis you come to worship and
you're one person, but at home, you're a different person.
(30:44):
You're switching the masks constantly.
When you see your sin, you mightcover it and you might pretend
to be someone in church that is this amazing man of God.
And then you go to work and everyone knows, Oh, he's the guy
who shows up late, yells at everybody, cusses sometimes.
And maybe that's too much for you too, right?
(31:06):
And maybe you will settle for the Christianese version of
that. And you're like IA veil, wear a
mask is too much for me. So I'm going to take the
blemishes on my face and cover them with makeup.
And the way that looks like is any blemish that I have, I just
put makeup on it. This is not a sermon about
makeup, but I'm just telling youthink of that as an as an
(31:27):
illustration. So so you are serving the church
for the most part. People know your face.
People know who you are, but every single problem that you
have, you will cover up the small things that sort of when
you say something in leadership meeting and you go off of
someone. See the problem with looking to
(31:49):
the law of God is the perfect mirror shows your perfect sin.
We're not exactly your perfect sin, but your your ugly sin and
that's the problem. But here's the thing.
We're invited not just to look into the law.
We are invited to take our gaze,go to the mirror, know that we
(32:13):
are sinful, and then move our gaze to behold Jesus.
If if you ever put a puzzle together with no picture, it's
extremely difficult. You're like this blue thing.
Where does this go? Right?
But when you have the picture, you know exactly where it goes.
At least you think you know. Jesus is supposed to be that
(32:38):
picture of a puzzle. If you don't know what your life
is about, how do I put this career, this piece in here?
Look unto Jesus. Behold Jesus.
If you're a man in this house and you want to know what is it
like to be a man, look unto Jesus, husband.
Look unto Jesus wife, look unto Jesus as you behold Jesus you
(33:06):
will change you. This comes from second
Corinthians 37 says this. Now if the ministry of death of
law carved in the letters of stone came in with such a glory,
Exodus 33 that the Israelites could not gaze on Moses face,
because of its glory which was being brought to an end, it was
(33:26):
fading away, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even
more glory? For if For if there was glory in
the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness
must far exceed in its glory. Indeed, in this case, but once
(33:47):
had glory had come to have no glory at all, because all glory
that surpasses it, which is the current glory.
For if was brought to an end, came with much glory for that.
For if that which came to an endcame with so much glory, much
more will be its permanent have glory.
(34:09):
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Not like Moses who put a veil over his face.
So the Israelites might not gazeon the outcome of what was being
brought to an end, but in their minds we're hardened.
For to this day they read the old Covenant.
The same veil remained unlifted because of only through Christ
(34:30):
that is taken away. So if you're in Christ, that
veil is taken away. Yes, to this day, most whenever
Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.
Now look to this. But when one turns to the Lord,
the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
(34:50):
we're the Spirit of the Lord. There is freedom and we with
unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from 1° of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord whois Spirit.
(35:10):
So so think of this as you behold Christ, you are being
transformed into this image from1° of glory to another.
Most of you are thinking right, but what does it mean to behold
Christ? Now depending what church you go
to, different denominations willstress what is it mean to behold
(35:33):
Christ. Even movements that are not so
biblical, they have an idea of what is beholding Christ.
For example, the Roman Catholicswho say the presence of God and
beholding Christ is all about the Eucharist or basically
communion. Maybe people who are Puritans
and they're pious. They're all about prayer and
(35:55):
being pious and being lowly and humble.
That's how you behold Jesus. And if you're a Roman, if you're
a Reformed Baptist, might be allabout the word.
Show me what it's written, brother.
Show me the word. And if you're charismatic, it's
all about worship and dancing atthe altar.
(36:18):
That is where the presence of God is.
And if you're a Pentecostal, anyway, if you're a Pentecostal,
right, it's about charismatic being, being, praying and seeing
people delivered and praying forhealing, restoration.
(36:38):
And I think we're the right ones.
But anyway, right, No. But what I'm trying to tell you
is you don't have to choose one or the other.
God is revealed in Scripture. God is revealed in prayer.
God is revealed in seeing someone being delivered and
healed. God is revealed when people
(37:00):
dance at the altar. God who's revealed in this, this
is how we behold Him. And as we behold him, he also is
our rock. He is the Rock of Ages.
The Cliff in which we are being hidden, first of all says that
you are hidden in Christ, this rock that protects us.
(37:21):
So it's the rock that protected Moses, right?
It protected him from the glory of God, not to kill him, the
wrath of God, not to kill him, but also provided access.
In Christ, the Rock of Ages, we have the protection from the
wrath of God, but also being in Christ allows us to be in God's
presence. So he provides protection and
access. I love this song or hymn by a
(37:46):
gentleman by the name of Augustus, top lady.
What a last name. But he says, he says, this Rock
of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood fromthe wounded side which flowed be
of sin the double cure, save from wrath, and make me pure.
(38:13):
Beloved, you are hidden in Christ.
You are hidden in Christ. In this being hidden in Christ
provides protection from God's judgement, but also provide act
provides access for you to be inGod's presence.
Beloved, our lives are called toorbit around Jesus.
(38:41):
So to say that what makes us different than the rest of
Kenmore or Seattle or Bellevue is that we are people of the
presence of God. We are people of Jesus.
When banks are separated as everyone's spinning on their own
axis, we're spinning around their power and fame and sex and
(39:03):
pleasure and all these things. Our lives are not spinning
around ourselves. Our lives are warbiting around
Christ. Our lives is beholding Christ,
and as we are beholding him, we are being transformed in His
image. We resemble more and more of
(39:26):
that glory of Christ. And you should resemble Christ
more now than you did five yearsago.
You should be more loving, patient, more kind, more gentle
than you were five years ago. That is the result of beholding
Christ. Our lives are to orbit now.
That gravitational pull will hold you in orbit and you'll
(39:50):
change you and you will become like the God that you worship,
which in this case is Jesus. That is my hope for city on the
Hill. That is my hope for this, for,
for, for any Christian, right Bepeople of the presence of God.
Seek his presence in Scripture. Seek his presence of the altar.
(40:12):
Seek his presence in communion, seek his presence in praying for
the sick. Seek his presence and, and, and
walking in humility. Seek his presence at work.
Everything that we do is for theglory of Christ.
And I think a lot of us, we, we get so disheartened when the
(40:37):
idol that we've been worshippingaround and orbiting around just
failed us. And you know what we do?
We think, oh, yeah, like I thought if I got one car, it was
going to make me happy, but it didn't.
So I'm going to get 2 cars. So you keep on doubling down if
I have one degrees, 1° and if I have two degrees, if I got that
(40:59):
promotion. And it's just never enough.
Now you don't have to do this, but if you were to go home
tonight and close your eyes and say Lord and be honest with
yourself or what is my life being more bidding around?
Is it money, Is it power, Is it pleasure?
(41:21):
Is it comfort? Is it safety?
Is it my spouse? And of course your spouse is
important, but the best thing you can do for your spouse is be
a godly man who's Christ centered is your kids.
The best thing you can do for your kids is to be a godly man
is your business. The best CEOs are the ones who
(41:43):
know they're under authority of Christ and they're just
managers. They're steward stewards of
God's resources. Is your career.
The best thing you'll ever be iswhat Christ can do through you.
And I think a lot of times we buy into this idea.
Like imagine Peter, he's a businessman, he's a fisherman
(42:06):
leaving all of that and follow Christ.
But turns out following Christ is what made him a really good
businessman because he caught the most fish.
So you might think that leaving your idol, what what would it be
be of me if I leave this idol? No, you're now leaving just to
(42:27):
leave. You leave because you have a
better love, something way more impactful and also a God who's
not a God who is, who is rude orwho demands of UI.
(42:48):
Talking to some of my friends that unfortunately they're going
through some addiction. And I asked them, and I was
like, what have you sacrificed on the altar of this idol?
You're about to sacrifice your family on this altar.
Gods, they demand things. You will worship something, You
(43:13):
will worship around something. My hope for you is that is
Christ. Would you stand with me?
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