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00:03 Right. Well, good afternoon. Uh it's past 12.
00:09 Um we are in this uh series called encountering God. So we have been going
00:14 through um couple of um two weeks of this series. We went through um um
00:20 Abraham's prayer and we also went through um Daniel's prayer last week.
00:25 And today we'll be looking at uh the prayer of Moses. So we'll be looking at
00:31 three things today. Uh we'll be looking at glory pursued,
00:36 glory petitioned, and glory revealed. Uh before I do that,
00:42 before we get into it, let me start us off with a word of prayer. Father Lord, we
00:50 thank you for this morning. We thank you for this afternoon. Lord, we just pray that
00:58 as I speak, Lord, that you grant me grace,
01:05 that that I speak your word clearly and truthfully and boldly,
01:10 and Father, that we all will have convicted hearts, that we will have transformed minds,
01:17 that we will have changed lives.
01:23 Father, we pray that through your word, your glory will be revealed.
01:29 So we pray for this time in Jesus name. Amen.
01:36 Glory pursued. We all pursue
01:43 some kind of perceived glory. Why I say perceived glory? Because we're different kind of people and we perceive glory
01:51 differently. A good way to talk about glory is to talk about what really matters to us. The word glory and the
01:58 word matter have a lot of things in in common actually. And uh we find glory in
02:03 things that really matter to us or by associating with those things or getting glory through those things or
02:10 accomplishing those things. And I put a proposition that a lot of us find glory in money, success, fame and glamour.
02:18 Now this is not my statement. Um actually this statement uh was made in the early '9s by somebody called Michael
02:25 Alik. He said we are living in the age where the pursuit of all values other
02:31 than money, success, fame and glamour has either been discredited or
02:36 destroyed. Now you may ask me who's who's Michael Aliken and and why am I quoting him? He
02:42 he seems like a decent guy on this picture. Um however, if you see right next to his face there are a couple of
02:48 bars. U he has been jailed and it was only recently released in about 2014.
02:55 Um at his height of his u living he was pursuing exactly those things money,
03:03 success, fame and glamour. He he believed the message that he said that that nothing else matters that you got
03:08 to pursue those things so you find glory for yourself. When he said that statement, he looked very different than
03:14 he looked at this picture. He looked like this. Uh Michael Alik um was somebody who was
03:21 the king of something called the club kids in New York in the early 90s. Um he
03:27 had a different statement at that point of time which made him very famous. He says, "All I want to do is sleep all day and party all night."
03:34 You see, he was the person who kind of started the big club scene in New York
03:40 in the '9s, um, about transsexuals uh, going around doing lots of ecstasies and
03:46 pretty much the beginning of rave parties. Um, I would say if you look at how they were dressed back then,
03:51 probably they were the early forefathers of hipster movements, right? They they they dressed in in in
03:57 funky gear and they brought the party everywhere even to McDonald's.
04:03 And this picture was taken in in a McDonald's. And uh what they did is they just decided to go McDonald's and they
04:08 brought the DJ with them and the party happened in McDonald's. Club owners used to pay them just to to come and party in
04:15 their clubs. So wherever they went, the crowds followed. Their glory was great. Their
04:22 name was great. at their height when when Michael Alik actually first got into the scene he met
04:29 somebody called James and James and James and James um when he met my colleague Michael Alik told him what is
04:35 it that ask what is it that you do and James said I don't do I just am
04:44 you see when we pursue glory and self glory eventually and we are successful
04:49 in it we think we become God and Michael Alik actually referring back
04:56 to his time back then said, "I wanted to create my own world, a world full of
05:02 color for everyone could play, one big party that never ends."
05:09 Well, his party did end. But his life or what happened to him kind of reminds me
05:16 what happens or what the what's called the downward spiral of morality in Romans 1. from debauchery. He went to
05:23 immoral living, um multiple sexual partners, fraud, theft, lies, drugs, and
05:31 eventually murder. Michael Ali killed his drug dealer uh
05:37 who he owed money to and then dismembered him, chopped him up.
05:43 Um that's how Michael Alik's story ends.
05:49 It's interesting when we pursue self- glory what things we will do. Well, I'm
05:57 claiming this that all of us are not so far off from Michael Alik. I mean, we
06:04 all pursue some kind of glory. I mean, I'm I've been going to the gym lately. I I don't look like this. Um, but I've I
06:11 I've noticed there's some kind of um inverse correlation to the size of your
06:16 muscles and the tightness of shirts. Uh, the how the people in the gym, the the bigger their muscles get, the tighter
06:22 their shirts get. Um, men and women alike, by the way. Um, somehow, um,
06:29 people like me are the only ones who who don't wear tight shirts, you know? I try to find the baggiest possible shirt and
06:35 pants in the gym so when I when I jog or whatever, you know, it doesn't jiggle all over the place, you know, cuz
06:40 there's not much glory here. Yeah. Uh maybe one day, maybe one day, one day I will maybe have bigger muscles and maybe
06:47 I'll succumb to, you know, tight shirts. No, but we we we find glory in different places. Um uh some of it's beauty and
06:53 skin and smooth skin, whatever we we want. I mean, I guess that's what that's supposed to portray. And um money, of
06:60 course, money. Uh we find glory in money, in success. We we do our business in such a way that we find glory in that
07:07 in our careers. Um and if our careers are not that well, but at least we can buy a nice car and then we find glory in
07:14 our nice cars. We might have crappy homes, but we've got the nice car.
07:20 Or some of us get it to athletic accomplishments, right? We we go for
07:25 competitions and we win medals or we win the Olympics and we find glory in our athletic achievements.
07:33 Hey, different strokes for different folks, right? I mean, if you're a rapper, you get your glory from winning
07:38 some battles, right? So, that's why I say perceive glory. Wherever you find
07:44 what matters in your life, wherever matters in your life most, that's where you find your glory. This is what you will pursue.
07:50 So, if you're a rapper, you want to win some battles. Or maybe it's in your manhood
07:57 and growing a a big long beard. You know, it's it's really uncomfortable.
08:03 It's very difficult. And it's strange what what pain, what suffering, what strife, what toil, what sweat, what hard
08:10 work we would go through just to achieve our perceived glory.
08:18 In some cultures, it's tattoos. You know how many tattoos you have to design the tattoos, the size of the
08:25 tattoos. For many, it could be family. You find
08:30 your glory in family. This guy definitely finds his glory in family. I mean, he has 34 wives and 99 children.
08:36 Um, so obviously his glory lies in I guess the fruit of his loin, right?
08:44 But ultimately it all boils down back to what Michael Alik said, money, success, fame, and glamour. Whatever you perceive
08:51 is success or glamour or fame
08:56 and know most of us it's money.
09:02 What would you say if I say you can have it all? I mean just think over your last current
09:09 couple of prayers. What did you pray for? success, job, promotion, a life partner,
09:19 a house, money, health, wealth. Imagine whatever you pray for, you could
09:25 imagine you don't have to choose. Imagine you could have it all. And it's not me saying it. Imagine
09:31 imagine God will come and tell you you can have it all.
09:39 And he will say, "You don't even have to deal with me. You don't have to pray to me.
09:47 You don't have to, you know, live a sacrificial life. You don't have to come to church. You don't have to serve in
09:53 any ministry. You don't have to do any of that. I'll just I won't even be
09:59 there. I'll just give it to you and I won't even be there. And that would be amazing, right? To get
10:06 all the stuff we want. And it's not so far-fetched for me to propose that because that's kind of what
10:12 happened to Moses. Let's let's read here. It says, "The Lord said to Moses," Depart, go up from here, you and the
10:19 people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
10:26 saying, "To your offspring, I will give it. I will send an angel before you and
10:32 I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites,
10:38 the Hivites, Hiv Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with
10:44 milk and honey, but I will not go up among you. I will I will give you the milk. I will give you the honey. I will
10:53 I will take away all your enemies. I will I will clear your path for you. I will I will bring you to that place. I
10:59 promise you can have everything and I won't be there. You won't have to deal
11:04 with me. Moses was offered what most of us want.
11:10 It is the perfect religion, right? To get all the gifts and not having to
11:15 deal with the giver, to get all the blessings and not having
11:20 to be in communion with God. It's that religion that that that so
11:26 many of us actually truly want. It was offered to Moses. It was offered
11:34 to the Israelites. And see, we can see two responses. We see first the response of the
11:41 Israelites. And they say when they heard about this, when Moses went to tell them, when the people heard this
11:46 disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his
11:52 ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, you are a stiff necked people. If you are
11:59 sing if for a single moment I shall go up among you, I would consume you. So
12:04 now take off your ornaments that I may so that I may know what to do with you."
12:09 Therefore, the people of the Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. You see, in the
12:16 Old Testament, when when people ripped their clothes or stripped themselves of ornaments or tore their beards out, it
12:22 kind of means repentance. They they were repenting. They're repenting for what they have done. Now,
12:28 what have they done? You see, previous a prelude to this story is that Moses went
12:33 up on a mountain and he spoke to God. And God says, you know, build this tabernacle. Build this tent and I will
12:39 dwell in there and I will tabernacle. I will I will I will be with you in the tabernacle. And then God also said, I
12:44 will give you this ten commandments. And he got the ten commandments. And on the way down, Moses realized that the
12:51 Israelites had been worshiping a golden calf because they could not wait for Moses. Moses had been gone for too long. They're like, "Hey, what's happened to
12:57 Moses? You know, the guy is supposed to bring us out of the land with his God and now he's not here." So they started
13:03 worshiping another god. They said, "Aaron, Aaron, we we need another God. Make us another God." And
13:08 they made this golden calf and they started to worship. So when Moses found out, he he broke the Ten Commandments.
13:16 And then there was a fight about 3,000 people died. And then God, we came to
13:22 the story we we read earlier. God says, "I will no longer go with you. I'll send an angel before you."
13:29 But when the Israelites heard, they started to repent. They repented of the
13:36 fact that they started to seek glory elsewhere.
13:41 Repent of the fact that they made another idol that they were not seeking God first
13:49 but glory somewhere else. You see, there's some peculiar
13:56 correlation between repentance and the pursuit of glory.
14:04 In Romans 3, we read, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
14:10 God." We have all fallen short of the glory of God. And that's kind of like a repentance to recognize that, to
14:16 recognize the fact that we don't find glory in ourselves. We don't find glory making things that
14:23 we want to do by getting bigger muscles or or getting fame, glamour, wealth, money.
14:29 No, we we are not made that way. We have to get glory from God. And we have to realize that we are broken people.
14:38 In the in the beginning of the gospel of Mark before Jesus comes on the scene and John
14:44 the Baptist says, "Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand." Again, repentance
14:51 linked to glory coming. And here in Luke, we read, "I tell you,
14:57 there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Again, repentance
15:06 and the things of God being glorified, glory happening, party going on in
15:12 heaven. And maybe this passage uh shines light.
15:18 It says, "But we have these treasures in jars of clay to show that the surpassing
15:24 power belongs to God and not to us." You see, the pursuit of glory has nothing to
15:29 do with us trying to become all glorious. Is by us recognizing that we are not
15:36 by recognizing that we are a broken people. See, God has created us these vessels, these broken vessels that
15:43 through our brokenness, the glory of God can shine.
15:51 The pursuit of real glory begins with repentance
15:59 with beginning to realize that there's no glory in us.
16:05 But all the glory belongs to God. And that we have been pursuing glory at
16:11 the wrong places,
16:18 a glory petitioned. Now Moses used to take the tent and
16:24 pitch it outside the camp far off from the camp. And he called it the tent of
16:30 meeting. and everyone who sought the Lord will go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. Whenever
16:37 Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses
16:44 until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the
16:52 entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing
16:58 at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at
17:04 his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man
17:10 speaks to his friends. So imagine this scene. There are thousands of us. Imagine imagine we are all there.
17:16 Thousands of us. And then we see Moses rising up and he's passing by and all
17:22 eyes are are fixed of Moses and and he's walking towards the tent
17:27 and we all stand outside our tent. We are in front of our tent doors and we see Moses go into that tent and we see
17:34 the cloud descending on the tent and we all stand in awe
17:42 and we all worship. We worship because somebody is meeting
17:50 with God. There's somebody over there in a tent
17:57 and he's meeting with God. And that blows our minds.
18:05 You know, we got to take this from the Old Testament into the New Testament.
18:11 I mean we gather here today not watching somebody walk into a tent.
18:20 We are worshiping not because somebody is going to attent and then we stand in oh no we all have the privilege to come
18:27 into the presence of God. We don't have to watch somebody. We
18:33 don't even have to go into a tent. You know we are the tent.
18:40 We are the tent. We we are able to go to God directly all the time. I mean this
18:47 is something which the Old Testament people would long for. I mean they were just worshiping because somebody over
18:52 there was meeting with God. We are the tent yet we are too busy to pray.
19:03 I'm too busy to pray. I'm too busy to commune with God.
19:12 We all are too busy. I mean, the privilege that was given to
19:17 us, the privilege that we have to talk to God face to face
19:28 and we don't take up the privilege.
19:34 We are indifferent about it. We've got better things to do.
19:41 We are a stiff necked people.
19:50 We have a privilege in prayer that we cannot neglect.
19:60 In the tent, Moses said to the Lord, "See, you say to me, "Bring up this people,
20:06 but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I
20:12 know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight,
20:18 please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your
20:23 sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." And he said, "My presence will
20:30 go with you and I will give you rest." Remember God said to Moses earlier on,
20:35 you know, you can go forth. You can go to the land of milk and honey. I will give you I will I will put
20:42 down your enemies. I'll make your path straight, but I won't be with you. And this is the second response. This is
20:48 Moses's response. He says, "If your presence will not go with me, do not
20:56 bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your
21:03 people? Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your
21:08 people, from every other people on the face of the earth?
21:15 See, he realized that the presence of God was more important than anything
21:20 else. See, God had given him a task to to bring the people forth
21:26 and he realized that he was not able to do it on his own. He was incompete incapable to do it on his own.
21:34 See, God first said, "I will tabernacle among you." Then because of the golden calf, he stopped being tab say he would
21:40 not tabernacle among them anymore. But now he was sent for an angel. So Moses is confused. He says, "You say to me,
21:46 you bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. will you go with me? Because if you
21:53 don't, I'm not going to move. He realizes that the importance is in
21:58 God's presence. Not the glamour, not the fame, not anything you can get from it. It's God's presence. Not the milk, not
22:05 the honey, not the fact that he will put down all the enemies. It's God's presence that's important.
22:12 And he will not move. And secondly, he realizes that it's not just the presence for himself which is
22:19 important. And it's the presence for all his people which is important. You see first God answers him and says my
22:26 presence will go with you which is a singular you Moses my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.
22:34 But Moses switches from the singular into the plural and says is not in going with us I and your people.
22:44 He recognizes the the need for the presence of God for everybody in his faith community.
22:54 Do we recognize the need for God's presence in our faith community?
23:01 You know, surely we we have a big building. We have a great car park.
23:10 Now we've got many ministries, many activities, we've got talented people.
23:20 If the presence of God is not with us, we won't affect change for this city. We
23:26 won't affect change for this nation.
23:32 Strippers of this building, strip us of this car park. Strip us of the talent. If God is with us, we can affect change.
23:41 Do we believe that? That the most important thing for us to go forward
23:48 is God's presence.
23:54 And the amazing thing is when God offers it to Moses, I'll give it to you. He he does not just take it. He says, "No, no,
23:60 how about my people?" I mean when when we pray, do we only pray for our own ministries? Do only
24:06 pray for our own things, for our personal stuff or do we pray for the community?
24:14 Do we pray for our church? Do we pray for our neighbors? Do we realize the need of God's presence in everybody's
24:21 life and the life of this church?
24:27 And then the Lord said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my
24:34 sight, and I know you by name." So God even says, "Okay, I'll do that." Most of
24:42 us will be like, "Awesome. I'm out of here. I've got what I wanted."
24:48 But Moses goes one step further. He has, you know, he has now dealt with God. He has been in his presence. He has tasted
24:55 his presence. He wants more. He desires the presence and the full glory of God more than anything else in his life. And
25:02 he says, "Show me your glory. He desires that."
25:11 But God says this, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and proclaim
25:16 before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." But he said, "You cannot
25:23 see my face. For man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, "Behold, there's a place by where you shall stand
25:30 on the rock, and I will, while my glory passes by, I will put you in a clif of the rock, and I will cover you with my
25:36 hand until I've passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen."
25:44 God says, "Moses, you can't handle it. You can't handle my full glory."
25:51 None of us can handle God's full glory. The the may being the mere being that we
25:56 are and the being that God is is is so different. They they cannot coexist at the same time. It's kind of like a a big
26:03 fire and a small water. If a small water mixes with a big fire, the water evaporates.
26:11 Now we we we cannot be and see the full glory of God, but we can get a glimpse
26:17 of it. And God is willing to protect us while he reveals himself to us.
26:26 It's interesting when when Moses asks for show me your glory. God says okay I'll reveal myself to you and in my
26:31 revelation I will also protect you.
26:38 Let's go to last point. God's glory revealed.
26:44 So God does exactly what he said he would do. The Lord descended in a cloud
26:50 and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed
26:55 before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,
27:00 slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast
27:06 love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin. but who will
27:11 by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the ch and the children's
27:17 children to the third and fourth generation. And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worship.
27:24 Before I continue, I let you know that verses six and seven, which I've highlighted here, are one of the most
27:29 important verses in the Old Testament. From here onwards, when the Old
27:34 Testament refers to who God is, every verse will refer back to this. I think
27:40 it's about 24 times where they have direct references in the Old Testament
27:46 alone back to this verse. So every time the Old Testament talks about who God is, they refer back to this verse.
27:57 Now it's amazing when when Moses asks, "Show me your glory. What does God do?"
28:04 He gives Moses his word. He chooses to reveal his glory, his
28:12 character, and his nature through his word.
28:19 And the same is still true for today. See, when we hunger for God's presence,
28:27 when we hunger for God's glory, when we desire him,
28:34 we can be assured that we will find his glory in his word.
28:42 His word reveals his glory
28:48 and it will satisfy every time.
28:55 But it's interesting what he says about himself. You see, he portrays his full
29:03 and complete character. He says
29:08 he's merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and
29:14 faithfulness. And he keeps his steadfast love for thousands. And he for he's forgiving.
29:21 He forgives iniquity and transgression. You see, his perfect goodness, his perfect love, his perfect forgiveness
29:30 is met by his perfect justice. You see, he also says, "But who will by no means
29:37 clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the
29:42 children's children to the third and fourth generation?" Our God is perfectly just,
29:49 and he's perfectly forgiving. He has perfect love, but he also has
29:55 perfect wrath. And if this declaration
30:01 of God is a a glimpse a glimpse of his
30:06 glory, then Hebrews 1:3 shows us his radiance of his glory. Says the son
30:14 Jesus is the radiance of God's glory.
30:20 And why? because he is the exact representation of his being sustaining
30:28 all things by his powerful word. He's the exact representation
30:36 of perfect love and perfect justice.
30:41 How can it be? Because it was a word. But Jesus is the word who became flesh.
30:50 You say in John 1:14 we read, "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among
30:56 us." He came here. He tabernacled among us. His presence came among us. And we
31:03 have seen God's glory in the glory of the one and only who came from the
31:09 father full of grace and truth.
31:15 God declared his character and that was a glimpse. His radiance is
31:23 Jesus because Jesus is the exact representation of that because he is the word that
31:31 became flesh. And in Philippians 4:19, we read that he will satisfy all our
31:38 needs. And my God will supply all your needs
31:43 according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
31:54 How did he do it? How do he supply all the needs?
32:01 He did it on the cross. See, on the cross is where perfect love
32:09 and perfect justice met. Where God poured out his love for us
32:18 and his justice was poured out on Christ.
32:24 It is the climax of his character. Jesus
32:30 broken for us, revealing God's glory.
32:39 You see, Moses was in the tent and he was mediating on behalf of his people.
32:46 He was saying, "Your presence must go before all the people."
32:52 But Jesus is the greatest mediator.
32:57 on the cross he said, "Oh God, oh God, why have you
33:03 forsaken me?" He removed himself from the presence of God
33:11 so that we may step into the presence of God.
33:17 My question to you today is, do you desire his presence?
33:24 Do you want God's presence? Do you want his glory?
33:32 Let us pray.
33:37 Father Lord, we we have been looking for glory in all the wrong places.
33:45 We've been looking it in ourselves. So many other things matter. We have
33:51 made idols. of things. Father, we come before you in repentance
33:58 in the beginning of the pursuit of real glory.
34:05 Father, we realize that we are a broken people, that there is no glory in us, but that you have made us broken vessels
34:12 so that your glory can shine through our brokenness.
34:18 And father, we we we petition for your glory. We ask that you may show
34:24 us your glory. Father, reveal yourself through your
34:30 word to us through your son.
34:41 Father, we we pray that you rise up a desire in us to want you more than
34:47 anything. A recognition that we cannot take one step further in life if it is without your presence.
34:54 And Father, we give you all the glory for what you have done on the cross. That we now may enter into your
35:00 presence. That we now may speak to you face to face. That we may now speak to you like a friend.
35:12 Lord, we are like grass and our glory is like the flower of grass.
35:18 The grass withers and the flower falls. But your word, it lasts forever.
35:27 Amen.
35:44 In closing, may I invite you to stand again. Let us continue to worship him before we
35:51 depart this from this century from his century uh with this with a song in prayer.
36:12 here our prayer. We are your children
36:18 and we gather here.
