There’s not a place, not a possession, not a pleasure, nor any other person, that can satisfy apart from God.
Sermon Title: THE PRESENCE OF GOD
Sermon Text: EXODUS 33 (NIV)
Sermon Series: MOSES: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE HESITANT HERO
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
EXODUS 33:12-17 NIV
12 Moses said to the LORD , “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’
13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.
16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
What would it look like if you lived in God’s presence everyday?
A. The Omnipresence of God.
JEREMIAH 23:23-24 NIV
23 “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.
Omnipresence means that God is present everywhere at all times without exception.
PROVERBS 15:3 NIV
3 The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
B. The Indwelling Presence of God.
The indwelling presence of God is the action by which the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the body of a believer in Jesus Christ.
JOHN 14:16-17 NIV
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16 NIV
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
2 CORINTHIANS 1:21-22 NIV
21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
C. The Manifest Presence of God.
“realized” or “made known” presence of God
He is the God who makes himself known. That’s good news, but only if he is also the God who is there.
EXODUS 33:13-14 NIV
13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” 14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
“God’s presence is essential because without him, we’re destitute.”
Steven J. Cole
I. SPEND TIME WITH HIM
EXODUS 33:7-11 NIV
7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.
9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.
10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent.
11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.
We can come into God’s presence through his Son, we can hear his voice when we read the Scriptures, as the Spirit of God speaks to our hearts.
II. SEEK HIS PRESENCE ABOVE ALL ELSE
EXODUS 33:1-3 NIV
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’
2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
It is heartbreaking to be happy with God’s provision and God’s protection and not care about God’s presence.
Are you more in love with all that God has given you or with the God that has given you all that you have?
EXODUS 33:12-15 NIV
12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’
13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.
There’s not a place, not a possession, not a pleasure, nor any other person, that can satisfy apart from God.
III. SET OUR HEARTS TO SEE HIS GLORY
EXODUS 33:17 NIV
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
glory | Hebrew: kabod
“weight, substance, or burden.”
God doesn’t just have glory. He is glorious!
EXODUS 33:19-23 NIV
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Glory is a manifestation of God’s reality.
When God’s presence is there, God’s glory is also there.
EXODUS 33:23 NIV
23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
“I will stoop to your weakness. I will let you see something. But, much more important than that, I will cause all my goodness to pass before you. I will give you a deeper insight and understanding into myself, into my character, into what I am. That is what you really need to know.”
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
“What is the glory of God? It is who God is.
Rick Warren
God’s greatest desire is you!
EXODUS 6:7 NIV
7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
LEVITICUS 26:12 NIV
12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
JEREMIAH 7:23 NIV
23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.
JEREMIAH 24:7 NIV
7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
JEREMIAH 30:22 NIV
22 ‘So you will be my people, and I will be your God.’
JEREMIAH 31:33 NIV
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
EZEKIEL 11:20 NIV
20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
EZEKIEL 14:11 NIV
11 Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from me, nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign LORD.’”
EZEKIEL 36:28 NIV
28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
EZEKIEL 37:23 NIV
23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
EZEKIEL 37:27 NIV
27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
HOSEA 2:23 NIV
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
ZECHARIAH 8:8 NIV
8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”
ZECHARIAH 13:9 NIV
9 This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
2 CORINTHIANS 6:16 NIV
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
HEBREWS 8:10 NIV
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
REVELATIONS 21:1-3 NIV
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.