When We Pray | We Won't Go Without You

In Exodus 33, we see the people of God presented with a dilemma,

a choice, essentially a choice that will reveal their heart.

And the choice is this. If I give you the progress that

you're hoping for without my presence, is that enough for

you? If I give you the progress that

you're hoping for, but without my presence, are you good?

In the back story of this passage here in this moment in

Israel's history, the people of God essentially have been

rescued from slavery and oppression in Egypt.

They've been liberated and brought out, and they're on

their way to this land of promise, this special place

where God has promised to root them deeply.

And in the between these kind of two chapters of their story

there in the desert, I don't know if you've spent much time

in deserts, but based on what we read here in the Pentateuch, and

this is a tough space. There is not water to drink.

There is not food to eat. Everything looks like everything

else. It is barren.

And the people have got to find themselves in this place, in

this space, in this desert where essentially they are

uncomfortably dependent on the provision of God, like

uncomfortably so. Like if, if God doesn't show up

tomorrow, we don't get to eat food.

That level of dependence on God. I don't know, some of you have

been in a season like that in your life.

You've you've had an experience where it was like, if God

doesn't show up right now, I don't know how I'm going to pay

the bills. If God doesn't show up, like I

don't know how I'm going to make it another day.

And maybe you haven't had that kind of experience from the

outside. I can tell you like before I had

had an experience like that, I thought, wow, that would be so

cool to see the provision of God and God just coming in and

supporting and providing guys. It's, it's rough.

It feels deeply, deeply, deeply uncomfortable.

I don't know if any of you have ever jumped out of an airplane

and like then been hoping for the parachute to open up when

you pull the cord. It kind of feels like that.

It's like, it's like I'm entirely out of control right

now. I'm entirely dependent on

something that like, I'm going to do this thing and hope it

works out for the best, but I'm really at the mercy of someone

else. And I don't know about you.

I I don't prefer that. I don't like that.

I don't enjoy that. I don't think most of us do.

And certainly we see here in Exodus chapter, it's really the

whole section 24 verse through chapter 32.

Israel is not a fan of the situation, right?

They're really uncomfortable. And that's especially true after

their leader Moses says, Hey, I got to go pow wow with God.

I'm going to go up to the top of this mountain and he takes off

for days and then weeks. And then there's like this crazy

thunderstorm that happens at the top of the mountain.

And then he's gone for more weeks and the people are like,

like, what happens? Where did he?

Is he coming back? We don't know what's going on.

And so we, we see at the, the beginning of the previous

chapter, right before this, essentially the people rally to

Moses's brother-in-law and they say like, Hey, we're going to

need you to make us another God because this whole situation is

just not working out for us. Like there's, there's too much

discomfort, there's too much uncertainty, there's too much

vulnerability. We, we need a God right now that

we can see physically. That's right here.

And we know, like I bring an offering and then it, it takes

care of us, just like we saw in Egypt, like a God that I can can

see and control is the kind I would prefer to worship.

I know this sounds really foreign to most of us.

And also like some of us relate to our investment accounts in

that way, right? That God is cool, but like I

would prefer to to worship this God that like I know exactly

what I get out of it. And this is where the people of

Israel are resisting this dependence on God, trying to

manufacture control in chapter 32.

And all of this results in some severe discipline, some painful

consequences based on their idolatry that we read about in

chapter 32. And that gets us to the

beginning of chapter 33. Our, our texts today where

essentially God comes to them and he asks them a question we

read in verse in the beginning of, of chapter 33 and verses 3.

God basically he says, hey, I'm going to offer the situation to

you. I'm going to give you everything

that you want. I'm going to defeat your enemies

for you. I'll take care of the Midianites

and the parasites and all of these others that have stand

have stood in your way. I'll give you the provision that

you want the the milk and the honey that you are are longing

for. You know, you're not going to be

dependent on my provision. All this mana, all this, all

this undependable, vulnerable stuff anymore.

You you'll get to just be secure and taken care of enemies out of

the way. But here's the catch.

I won't go with you. You don't get my presence

anymore. And this, I think, raises the

central tension of this passage, the passage, the point of the

passage that I think really is an invitation for us to sit with

this morning, to wrestle with. How would you, how would we

respond to that offer? If God gave you everything that

you wanted, all the things that you prayed for, healing of our

family members, bank accounts, all set vocational purpose and

significance in our work, that significant other you know who

you've been longing for. You got all the goods, but you

didn't get caught. How would you respond to this?

This is a test. I will not go with you.

And the question for Israel and also I think for us is simply

this, do we want what God can give us or do we want God?

Are are we satisfied with progress if it doesn't include

presence in the series? We've been talking a lot about

prayer and stepping into prayer. And I hope you've been stepping

into prayer. I know I've been trying to take

some baby steps in that direction to lean into more

depth in my own prayer life. And any prayer is good prayer.

So if you've taken any steps towards more prayer, well done,

keep going. And also, I've noticed as I've

prayed especially and sometimes as I've listened to other people

do it like our prayers. I think one of the reasons it's

vulnerable to pray in front of other people is our prayers

reveal a lot about our hearts, right?

When you start to pray at like your heart tends to come out in

a way that sometimes is uncomfortable to share in front

of other people. And sometimes when I like step

back and listen to my prayers, I'm like, it sounds kind of like

a kid was writing Santa A wish list, you know, and, and I, I

think sometimes our, our prayers are, are a little bit like this,

right? Dear God, please give me clarity

about my career. Please send me a girlfriend.

Please help us get pregnant. Please help this offer be

accepted on the House. And if there's a room in the

sleigh, could you fix this toxic relationship with my coworker

too? And we ask for all of these

things and, and look, that's good.

Please keep doing that. Nothing wrong with asking.

But so often I think we get in a posture where especially if that

is all that is true in our prayer life, where we or begin

to relate to God, almost as if he is a heavenly vending

machine. You know, if I, if I punch the

right buttons, then hopefully he dispenses the things that I'm

longing for in life, you know, fills up the cravings that I

have. And if the vending machine

doesn't work right, we tend to, we tend to get irritated with

God, annoyed with God. God isn't showing up.

God isn't taking care of me. God's presence is distance.

And I think this is so important, so instructive for us

because here when God actually distances himself from the

people, when he says, go ahead, I'm going to give you the stuff

that you want, but just not me. Honestly, I'm fed up.

If I stay here in this room one minute longer, I'm a blow you

up. So God says I'm I'm I'm taking a

time out. You can go ahead.

You can have the stuff that you want and Israel having

completely face planted in the test in chapter 32 here in

chapter 33, learns from their failures.

They turn to God and they it we read, they mourn, they cry out,

they grieve. They say, God, don't whatever

you do, don't take your presents for us.

The text tells us that they they strip off their jewellery.

They say I'm not getting dressed up.

I'm putting on my yoga pants. I'm sitting on the couch like

this is a this is a grief moment because even if I get the goods,

but I don't get God, it's not a win.

I want your presence, God, this is this is so important.

And I think when we think about this, we understand, you know, a

dad who writes the check every month, right, who mails some

presents, but is completely absent in his kids life.

It's not a good dad, right? And and what we need from God is

not just stuff from God. What we need is actually God's

presence and Israel here, having missed this in chapter 32, here

in chapter 33 recognizes this and they respond to the risk of

losing the presence of God with grief, with mourning, crying out

in their desperation for God's presence.

Friends, I think it's a vulnerable thing when God pulls

back in our lives and I don't maybe, maybe you haven't

experienced this in your spiritual journey.

Maybe you have, if you've been, if you've been a believer for

very long, I would suggest I, I, I know this has been true in my

life that there are seasons of life.

Often times right after we come to faith, there's seasons of

just this incredibly robust connection to God, right?

It's, it's very, it's fervent, it's brilliant.

It feels like God is right there.

He's right next door. We're learning to relate to him

as a friend. You haven't had that season.

It's available. I want to talk to you about how

to, how to enter relationship with Jesus.

But I, I think sometimes in, in a similar way to like in a

dating relationship, we get in that and we're like, Oh, what's

going to happen at the first will be the whole totality of

the relationship forever. And it's not, it's not like as

we go on in our spiritual journey, not, not always for bad

reasons, God sometimes steps back a bit and acts a bit more

distant. He's not being coy or, or weird.

I think I think God, in a similar way to how we do with

our own children at times is like, Hey, I've given you some

things. I want you to work this out a

little bit on your own right now, right?

Use the wisdom I've given you learn to build some muscles of

of discernment and judgement. You can, you can walk in my ways

without hearing from me step by step.

I, I would suggest to you that the like highest form of

spirituality is not the one that's like, what shall I eat

for lunch? Will it be chicken or fish?

You know, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that

necessarily, but, but, but there's a, there's a form of

spirituality which is like every I can't, I am completely

impotent to make any decisions or moves in my life unless I

hear a word from God about it. I don't actually think, please

hear me. I'm I'm talking about dependence

on God, but that's not what I'm advocating for.

But on the flip side of that, sometimes when God feels

distance, when he pulls back, I know, at least for me, like

feels vulnerable, like, and, and there's a tendency for for me at

least, it's it's like I want to blame God for the situation.

I want to shamestorm about like something's wrong with me.

Or sometimes I just want to make do And I just like, OK, well, I

can't count on you. I've got to figure stuff out.

I'm just going to keep going in my life.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Right. And sometimes it God feels more

distant in our life. He, he's less accessible.

And, and so we, we make it well, God's not real.

God can't be trusted. I'm, we blame God sometimes when

we, when we don't have that encounter with God, we don't

show up to church and we're not deeply moved.

We don't feel the presence of God in the way that we, we once

did. We, we say, you know, like

something's wrong with church or something's wrong with me, like

I must have done something wrong.

Maybe God is punishing me in some way.

Or I think the most dangerous is honestly that we just like we

make do we say, well, all right, that's a bummer.

I wish God was closer, but I'll figure it out.

After all, I've got what it takes to run my life.

I'll manage. And so we just kind of move on

without him. We we avoid the the

vulnerability of actually doing what Israel does here.

We're in a space where God's presence is less available.

They cry out in desperation. They say, God, we need you, we

need your presence, we need you to go with us.

And I, I love this. I love how Moses talks about

this here in verse 16. Moses says to God, he says, God,

what else will distinguish me and your people from all the

other people on the face of the earth if your presence doesn't

go with us? Moses says, hey, this is this is

Our Calling card. This is our very identity and

desperation. They cry out for God.

Friends, I think this is instructive for us.

I think this is important for us because it is so easy to be

self-sufficient. It is so easy to manage life on

your own terms and for a while that can work.

I think a lot of what we do in church, a lot of what I do, even

as a a spiritual leader, often times it's so easy to lean into

your own gifts, your capacities, your strategies, ChatGPT,

whatever, right? And just kind of figure it out

on our own. AW Tozer wrote these searing

words that have really stuck with me.

He says we have become so self-sufficient that we can get

along quite well without God. Goes on to say if the Holy

Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do

would go on and no one would know the difference.

Ouch. It is if the Holy Spirit have

been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what

they did with stop and everyone would know the difference.

It's convicting to me, friends. I want to be a man, a person

who's dependent on the Spirit of God.

I want us to be a church community that is dependent on

the Spirit of God that's in tune with that, that's In Sync with

that, that, that when, when God's present feels a little

distance, we don't just say, OK, you'll catch up later.

Here we go. We're on to the next thing.

We're going to figure it out on our own.

We're going to, we're going to tackle the next challenge

without you and, and hopefully you'll get there eventually.

Or conversely, I think sometimes we relate to prayer, right?

And we relate to it as though it's, it's the emergency valve,

right? It's like, I've got plan A and

Plan B and plan C and I can handle all of these on my own.

I'm good. But then if all three of my

contingencies fail and I'm like really desperate, then I'm like,

prayer, God help God, friends, What?

What if God wasn't a backup plan for us?

What if he was like the first option?

What if, what if he was one a the the first thing that we went

to, the first one that we went to, If we understood, as Israel

does here in this text in Exodus 33, that that the presence of

God is essential to the promised land without the promisor is

just dirt. The promised land without the

promisor is just dirt. They understand in desperation

that that it's not a win to get the things they want if God

doesn't go with them. This is like, I don't know if

you've ever been in a situation, Hopefully you are have less ADHD

brain than I do. But I remember very vividly,

quite painfully, a moment a little while back where I went

grocery shopping and I did all the things, you know, I got to

the store, got the car rolled back and forth down all the

aisles, filled it up, got the like kind of salad dressing that

Ali likes and the right kind of tortillas and all these things,

you know, roll up, pass everything through.

It's all bagged up. And then I go for my wallet.

This is, this is before Apple Pay, guys.

And it was that moment. And some of you have these

knowing smiles. It's like, I can't pay for this.

Yeah, I, I mean, I have money, but I don't, I cannot prove it.

I cannot transfer it to you right now.

I do not have anything with me at this very moment in time.

And you're just looking. The bag person is like, dude,

the people behind you in line are like, come on.

But sometimes I think we try to live even the Christian life,

friends without, without the key ingredient, without the one

thing that makes it all go like there's lots of emotion happen,

there's lots of activity happening.

There's maybe even spiritual practices.

We're going to church. We're trying really hard to be

good people, but we kind of just left the presence of God, the

power of God, out of the equation.

We're over here trying to to do it on our own.

And that that check doesn't cash because nothing of profound

significance in the Kingdom of God happens without the power of

God. As Jesus said in John without

me, you can do nothing like it's, it's actually all about

him. We are vessels, we are channels

and when we abide in the vine, then we get fruit and when we

don't, we get a lot of activity. We get grocery carts running up

and down the aisles without the ability to cash the check and

and actually take anything home. So friends for us this morning,

I think, I think the question is, will we be a people like

Moses Here is a stand for in Exodus 33 when he says what else

will distinguish me and your people from all of the other

people on the face of the earth? How will anyone know that you're

pleased with us? If you're present doesn't go

with us. If you don't go with us, don't

send us. I would prefer to to sit here in

the desert than to be the kind of people who who worship a cow

that I think I can control so that I can make progress without

your presence. How about us friends?

Like how about, how about me? How about you like are are you

in your life willing to trade in the the presence and power of

God for a cow that we can control for for the ability to

get the gifts of God without God himself?

Are you like Israel's wisdom in in chapter 33 here at a point

where you've realized the whole game is God.

It's not his gifts, it's him friends, what if we recognized

that God was the best thing that we could possibly offer?

What if we were people like in Acts 3 when Peter and John are

are walking into the temple one day and.

Somebody hits them up for cash. A pan handler, his lame says

hey, can can I have some money and they say like silver or gold

I don't have, but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus

Christ. Walk like the early church to

Tozer's comment. They had nothing.

They had nothing, but they had the power and presence of God.

So often this is true for us today.

I'm I'm we're part of a a global collaborative churches here at

the garden called the Ethnos Network.

And man, I can't tell you what a what a challenge, conviction,

blessing it is to be on the phone with pastors from Nigeria,

pastors from South Africa, pastors from places in the

Middle East and, and Southeast Asia who are like, like poor as

dirt in some cases, don't have a lot going on.

And like freaking was in a conversation with this dude

who's pastoring in the immigrant context in Cleveland this week.

And, and they do not have two nickels to rub together, but

they are seeing signs and wonders of God supernaturally

showing up week in and week out. Friends, so often I think we

miss out on the power and presence of God because we're

we're privileged, we're competent, we're running out

ahead and just kind of hoping that God will bless our plans

with a splash of grace. He the presence of God is the

whole meal. The presence of God is the whole

meal. What if we were known friends as

a church where God showed up? What if we had a reputation as a

community? Just one of the banners you

passed on the way in here. It says we attuned to the Holy

Spirit. What if what if we really lived

that not just not just people on stage, but all of us day in and

day out. If, if, as that value states,

You can go read the full text on our website.

But but if, if we pursued intimacy with Jesus as our first

calling, if we prioritized our our our prayer life and and

believed that being with Jesus comes before doing for him.

Contribution flows from connection.

Friends, this is Israel got it wrong a lot.

They didn't live in Exodus 33 mode all the time.

The space of faithfulness was not necessarily indicative of

the whole journey, which maybe gives us some hope.

OK, so if you're not there today, like OK, they weren't a

chapter earlier either, but in Exodus chapter 3, they got it

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

right. In Exodus chapter 3, they

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

recognized that that to to pursue the plan of God, they

needed the presence of God. The gift without the giver was

bankrupt. So, friends, I want to invite us

into this posture this morning to truly believe that the best

thing about us is not our intelligence.

It's not our gifting. It's not the school we graduated

from. It's not the professional

network that we have. It's not how aware we are or how

politically correct we are about something.

It is the presence of God. Will we live in His presence or

rush ahead and impatience?