Moses' Story

So uh if you have your Bibles, uh go to the book of Exodus, chapter number thirty-three.

Uh as we end this series, uh we'll be talking about Moses' story.

Moses' story.

Face-to-face divine encounters with the Lord.

This is Moses' story.

I'm reading from the New Living Translation of the Bible.

I'm gonna read several uh verses, uh, starting from the eighth verse in Exodus chapter number thirty-three, about fifteen verses.

One of my pet peeves is when uh a teacher or preacher gets ready to preach and he apologizes for reading a bunch of scripture.

That's like apologizing for giving me a bunch of food.

Um we came to eat.

So uh Exodus chapter number 33, uh starting at the eighth verse.

Whenever Moses went out to the tent of meeting, all the people would get up and stand in the entrances of their own tents.

They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside.

As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses.

When the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow in front of their own tents.

Inside the tent of meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua, son of Nun, would remain behind in the tent of meeting.

One day Moses said to the Lord, You have been telling me, take these people up to the promised land, but you haven't told me whom you will send with me.

You have told me, I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.

If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways, so I may understand you more fully, and continue to enjoy your favor.

And remember that this nation is your very own people.

The Lord replied, I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest.

Everything will be fine for you.

Then Moses said, If you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave this place.

How will anyone know that you look favorably on me, on me, and on my people, if you don't go with us?

For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all of the people on the earth.

The Lord replied to Moses, I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.

Moses responded, Then show me your glorious presence.

The Lord replied, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you.

For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose, but you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.

The Lord continued, Look, stand near me on this rock.

As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind, but my face will not be seen.

That is just good.

Uh uh, so so if you're taking notes, this is Moses' story, but underneath that I want you to write, I met God.

I met God.

And when you spell met, I want it to be M dot E dot T dot.

And I'll explain that in a minute.

But I met God.

Bow your heads, let's pray over the word, shall we?

Holy Spirit, thank you that we get to meet with God.

Amen.

Praying quick is so good.

Moses uh stands as the uh preeminent prophet of the Old Testament.

He is indeed a friend of God.

Moses is a man that has accumulated such relational equity with God that their relationship stands head and shoulders above any other relationship that God had with any other prophet in the Old Testament.

Uh Moses starts out this relationship uh in Exodus chapter number three, where he uh sees this bush that is burning up but it is not being consumed.

He has this miraculous encounter with God that is literally life-changing.

He is uh a fugitive at the time, one that has run away from uh the Egyptian culture that he was raised up in because he murders an Egyptian man that is fighting with a Hebrew man.

It was uh for Moses a sign uh externally of what he was warring with internally growing up in an Egyptian culture while knowing that he was a Hebrew uh by blood.

Moses goes on the run, he is out there for 40 years, and and God uh encounters him in such a miraculous way that when he uh uh uh uh speaks to Moses, he tells him, I want you to go back to the scene of the crime.

I want you to go back to the place uh uh where you messed up, but you're not going back as a fugitive, you're going back as my leader.

Now, now can I just stop and say, God is the only type of person that could take something that was bad and turn around and make it good.

He's the only type of person that can make you go back into your problem with passion for it to be somebody else's breakthrough.

So he tells them to go back and and he does.

And uh over a million people come out uh of Egypt.

They get to the Red Sea, he raises his hand, the Red Sea splits, they they they they walk over on dry ground.

This is uh a type and shadow.

Now, now let me stop and say this that the Old Testament is actually the New Testament concealed.

And the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

Okay.

So so so when you see things that are in the Old Testament, they are actually what we call type and shadows.

They are they are these little glimpses and hints of what God will do uh uh in the New Testament, but it is cryptic in the Old Testament.

When you see the children of Israel going through the Red Sea, it is literally a type and shadow of water baptism.

What everyone has been experiencing this weekend on all of our campuses is really a type and shadow of what happened in the Old Testament, that that we come out of bondage and our old life through the water into a new life in covenant with God Himself.

And so when they come through on the other side, uh they they begin uh uh this journey with God uh through the wilderness by which they are provided for supernaturally.

When they get hungry, uh uh uh uh they wake up in the morning, bread is on the ground, uh uh in a form uh uh of manna.

When when they get thirsty, uh God tells Moses to strike a rock, and water gushes out enough to quench the thirst of a million people.

This is a man who has had experience after experience after experience that God is with him, which is why uh Exodus chapter number 33 intrigues me so much.

Here is Moses, uh uh uh a man who gets to meet with God in a way that no one else does.

Uh the scripture literally says that that God would come in the cloud into a tent.

They had a tent of meeting.

It was different from the tabernacle, it stood on the side uh out in the distance, and and Moses would go into this tent, and when he went into this tent, the the pillar of cloud would literally come into the tent, and there God and Moses would talk face to face.

Now, I don't know about you, but that's a good day.

Can you imagine going into your prayer closet and a cloud comes in there with you?

Hi.

I'm God.

You're my friend.

Let's talk.

It was it was amazing, and he had this experience all the time.

Scripture says that that when he would go into the tent and this cloud would come down and meet with him, that that people would come out of their tents and stand and just see this interaction that God was having with Moses.

And scripture says that they literally talked face to face.

Not only says it in Exodus chapter number 33 that we read, but also in Numbers chapter number 12, verses 6 through 8 says, And the Lord said to them, Listen to what I say.

If there were prophets among you, I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions.

I would speak to them in dreams, but not with my servant Moses, of all in my house.

He is the one I trust.

I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles.

He sees the Lord as he is.

So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?

Also in Deuteronomy chapter number 34, verse number 10, there has never been another prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.

Now, when you see this word face to face, it is an anthropomorphic term.

A nice five-syllable,$100 word.

Anthropomorphic.

It sounds really, really genius.

But all it means for us is that uh uh uh there is a use of human characteristics that try to explain something that is so divine we would never understand it without this symbolism.

So, so so God is not really talking to Moses face to face.

It's literally like mouth to mouth.

When he speaks to him, he speaks plain.

When he speaks to everybody else, it's all in these cryptic words.

It's like like Ezekiel, he did not talk to Ezekiel face to face.

Like when he's like talking, like Ezekiel, what did you see?

I saw a wheel in the middle of a wheel, and then saw like some heads, and like one was a man and one was like an ox, I think.

And it was like, Thank you, Ezekiel.

I think I'll read Psalms now.

So so when he talked to anybody else, he talked to them in visions and dreams.

But when he talked to Moses, he talked to him face to face.

He would just say stuff like, I'm gonna kill him.

And Moses would be like, No, don't kill him.

He was like, Yep, gonna kill him.

Let's just start over.

Moses like, we can't start over.

He talked to him face to face, okay?

And so imagine having this type of relationship with God.

This is the type of relationship that other people would envy.

Moses has this on a daily basis.

Every time he walks into his tent, glory cow comes in, and he literally gets to speak to God face to face, mouth to mouth.

But when we read further in the text, we find out Moses doesn't seem satisfied with his relationship.

He turns to God in a conversation and he says, Hey, you've been telling me that that we're going to go to the promised land, but you haven't told me who's going with us.

And God says, I'm going to go with you.

Now, now I just got to stop and tell you, if God ever told me he's going with me, there'd be nothing else to talk about.

If I go into the tent and I say, Hey, you didn't tell me who's going with me to the promised land, and God says, I'm going to go with you, I'd be like, Thank you so much.

You're you can float back up now.

I'd be good to go for the rest of the week.

But literally, when he says this to Moses, Moses goes, Okay.

Oh, great.

You're gonna go with us?

Yeah.

Okay, right.

So if you're really going with us though, you gotta understand, uh, I need to know if you're really going with us because I know why our I know why we're making it.

I know why we're blessed.

And we're not blessed because I'm a great leader.

We're not blessed because uh uh we're great warriors.

The only thing that separates us from any other people in the world is that your presence is with us.

It is not that I'm a great leader, it's not because I have a great education, it's not because I come from a good family, your presence is with us.

And can I just remind at least a hundred people today that God's presence is with you?

This is the reason why you're going to make it, this is the reason why you can't die, this is the reason why you cannot give up because God's presence is with you.

Whatever you are going through right now is absolutely temporary and it's setting up the next breakthrough in your life.

God's presence is with you.

And if you believe it, give God a praise, right?

His presence is with us.

And literally Moses is saying, uh, I know why we we're making it, because your presence is with us.

So so if you're not going, I'm not going either.

I'm not taking a step if you're not taking a step.

I'm not going forward unless you are going with us.

And so God tells him again, dude, calm down.

I already told you.

I'm going with you.

Now you would think after the first time, Moses would have been satisfied.

He wasn't.

So he asked a second time, and God reassures him, I look favorably on you, everything's gonna be okay, sweetheart, calm down.

And you would think the second time would have been okay.

No, Moses presses even further.

You going with me?

Yeah.

Are you really going with me?

Yeah.

Show me your glory.

What?

Moses, ladies and gentlemen, pursues God in a way that we should every single day.

A man that had this many experiences with God doesn't come familiar with the God of his experiences.

And says, I just want to know you a little bit more.

I just want to know you a little more intimately.

Show me your glory, the weight of your glory.

The word glory in Hebrew means kebab, the weight of your glory, the distinction of your glory.

I want to know a different characteristic of who you are.

If there is something else that I can learn from you, please show it to me.

I am hungry for you.

I know your cloud comes in my tent, I know there's bread on the floor, I know that there's water that's come out of a rock, but I am not satisfied with the relationship where it is.

Show me more.

That is the heart's cry that we need to have as believers is no matter how much we experience God, no matter how many miracles He's done in our life, we cannot become complacent and status in our rel it's you know, complacent in our relationship.

We must ask for more.

Show me more of your glory.

And and and Moses catches his friend off guard.

I didn't know you were gonna ask me something like that.

That's just of course he did, but you know.

Just go with me.

It's my story.

Ooh, Moses.

Man, you want to see my glory.

Yeah, I want to see your glory.

Ooh, and we're friends.

Yeah.

So show me your glory.

Ooh, problem.

If I show you my glory, there's a side effect.

Um, how do I explain this to you?

Uh we're we're cool, and I love you.

And man.

I've already shown you some stuff.

Yeah, but I want to see more.

And you want to see my glory.

Yes, I want to see your glory.

Here's the only problem, Moses.

If I show you my glory, you'll die and you'll be dead.

That's usually what happens when you die.

He goes, Um, so so I'm not gonna be able to show you uh my glory because no one can see my face and live.

So um, here's what I'm gonna do.

Uh uh.

Oh, there's a rock over there.

Moses, go get in that rock.

Get in that rock?

Yeah, get in that rock.

And when you get in the rock, there's a little crevice in there, it's just big enough for you to fit in there.

How convenient.

Go get in that rock, and when you get in the rock, what I'm gonna do, another anthropomorphic term, uh, is I'm gonna put my hand there to cover you in the rock, and I'm just gonna let my glory pass by you.

And when my glory passes by, uh, then I remove my hand and I let you see my back parts.

Which on the Lord are absolutely glorious.

And so, he says, get in the rock, and when you get in the rock, uh uh I'll cover you, and then I'll pass by.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me uh stop again and say that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, and when we see this rock, we are not just seeing a rock by coincidence.

We are actually seeing an Old Testament type and shadow of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament that he will pop up in the New Testament and show them something that they would never seen before.

In the Old Testament, it was one little crevice that one little man could fit in.

But in the New Testament, Christ Jesus dies on the cross, and there are five piercings in his body, two in his hand, two in his feet, and one in his side.

If there was ever anybody that was weak, they could come in through his hands.

If there was ever anybody prideful, if they would but humble themselves, they could come in at his feet.

And if they were broken and destitute and needed intimacy, they could come in through his side.

It is the power of Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation on Christ, the solid rock not standing off other ground is sinking.

They're like preaching up in here.

Christ hadn't been born yet, so he said, I'll give you a symbol of my son.

Go step into the rock.

And I will let you see my glory buffered by the rock.

This is why Jesus says in the New Testament that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

He is the express image in his son.

So, so can I go a little bit deeper?

You guys got me excited.

Okay.

So what had happened was Moses' experience that he continued to have with the Lord in this tent of meeting, is how we have experiences with God right now.

There's three things that make up having met God.

And I want you to write these down.

There's three things uh that we need uh to have to say that we have met God.

Number one, write this down.

We need a miracle.

Yeah, miracle.

We need a miracle.

And I'm not talking about physical healings, although those are absolutely wonderful.

I'm talking about the one miracle that no one else can do except God, and that is change our heart.

The greatest miracle you can ever have is a heart change.

So much, in fact, that in Luke chapter number five, this is just popping in my head, sorry, so there's no nothing on the screen, but in Luke chapter number five, uh, I want to give the testimony of the man that comes uh uh uh through a roof.

His friends cut a hole in the roof and lower him down to see Jesus, and the paralyzed man is looking up at Jesus, Jesus looking down at the paralyzed man, paralyzed man is looking up at Jesus, Jesus looking down at the paralyzed man, and they both agree that he is paralyzed, but they don't agree where?

He's waiting for physical healing, and God is looking at and Jesus is looking at him, saying, I need to heal your heart.

You're paralyzed, but not where you think.

And he's looking down at a man who has a body that is all distorted, he says, Your sins are forgiven.

Of course, to the chagrin of the people that cut a hole in the roof.

Really?

But left with a choice of whether I'm going to heal a body or save a soul, I'll take a soul any day, is Jesus' response.

So we need a miracle.

The miracle of a heart change is what we need to have.

It's the miracle of the Old Testament.

They cannot get out of Egyptian bondage without God's assistance.

And in the same way, we can't get out of our sins without God's assistance.

This is not about being good people, this is being God's people.

So we need a miracle.

That's point number one.

Point number two, write this down.

We need to have an experience.

We need to have an experience.

The experiences that we go through in our lives testify that God is real.

There are situations, and listen to me, I'm talking about just living life.

I remember when I first got saved, I got saved uh January 14th, 1996.

I've been saved for 17 years, and I know that shocks most people in the room because I look 23.

Just kidding.

But but I've been saved for 17 years, and I remember coming to my parents' room who they pastored a church for 15 years.

I got saved in their church.

They've been saved for probably 40 plus years now.

And I remember coming to their room as a zealous young Christian.

And I remember coming to the room and I remember saying, Mom, Dad, I cannot wait to go through my first test.

Zealous.

And my dad was reading some and he never looked up.

And my mom was reading a magazine and she barely looked up.

And in that in that old mother wit that only a southern Alabama girl could have, she peeked over her magazine and said, Just keep living, baby.

If you just live life, you're going to have an experience.

But you would rather have that experience with the Lord so that your perspective can be corrected when you're going through the situation.

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

We have to have the experience.

And the last thing that we must have, because what does M E spell?

Come on, holla back.

Spells me, right?

Okay, so so the M and the E are the miracles and the experiences that happen to me.

Both of those things have to happen to me.

Those are individual.

But in order for it to become a story that says, we met, I met God, I continue to meet with God, there has to be the T.

And the T is our testimony.

We need to share our testimony.

Now listen to me.

If there's one thing that needs to change in the body of Christ, and I hope you receive this in love, is we need to stop sharing our edited testimonies.

They help no one.

Edited testimonies help no one.

They just preserve our own reputation.

They don't glorify his.

When we share our edited testimony, we're usually trying to hide something because we don't want people to look at us in a bad light.

And so we jump up and we say something like, God save me.

Then what he do, it's been good ever since.

Really?

I gave my life to the Lord and everything turned new.

That was it.

And I grew up in old Pentecostal churches.

You know, I grew up in the kind of type of Pentecostal churches that when the preacher was getting ready to close his sermon, he would say something like, I looked at my hands and they look new.

I looked at my feet and they did too.

And so I thought that God did manicures and pedicures.

He's gonna change my hands and my feet.

My toes do need some correcting.

But the truth of the matter is the real testimony cannot be told if you pull the experience out.

Can you imagine if they did that with the Bible?

It would be a true still-in-line Bible.

You could have your devotion for 30 minutes and go through the whole Bible if it was edited.

There's a reason why it's not edited.

God's not intimidated of our failures.

He's not intimidated of our idiosyncrasies, he could care less about the issues and weaknesses that you have.

He says, if you just put me in the middle of your mess, I'll turn it into a message.

If you put me in the middle of your test, I'll turn it into a testimony.

If you put me in the middle of the darkest part of your life, the light that comes through my son would dispel all darkness.

We need to share our testimony unedited.

And that way God will be glorified.

Now, there's probably some people here that have been actively engaged with this entire sermon series.

Pastor Robert has been teaching for weeks on it.

Pastor Preston came in and spoke.

We had two uh personal testimonies, Pastor Steve Riggle and our own, very own Pastor Jeff Cohen.

And you might be saying, um, Tim, duh.

This is supposed to be face-to-face divine encounters with Jesus.

And everything has been, you know, you know, Matthew's story and the adulteress's story and the Samaritan women's story, and you're all the way back in the Old Testament.

Have you even been here?

Have you even been paying attention?

I get with the program.

But before you think that I'm somehow out of pattern, if you'll turn to the book of Mark, chapter number nine.

Mark chapter number nine.

I want to show you the epitome of delayed gratification.

Mark chapter number nine.

Verse number two.

Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain to be alone.

As the men watched, Jesus' appearance was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them.

Then, uh-oh! Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.

This is crazy.

Now I'm gonna just let you let you in on how I see scripture and stuff.

And so this is the theater of my imagination replaying how this happens.

And remember, God and Moses are friends, right?

So so Moses doesn't even get to the promised land.

Bummer.

Moses doesn't get to the promised land.

Uh uh uh he he's buried in a mountain, and and and he's in God's glorious presence.

He's been in eternity with him.

And then Jesus' uh uh uh assignment has come, he's down on the earth, and and I and I think it just went something like this.

I think God was up in heaven, he just went, Hey Moses, come here.

Are you good?

Yeah, I'm good.

I'm gonna be with you.

It's like, yeah, that's great.

Um, hey, check this out.

Remember you asked to see my glory down there, and you didn't get to see it?

Yeah, I didn't get to see it.

Uh you you want to go check it out right now?

Right now?

Yeah, you want to go down there right now and check it out right now?

Jesus is about to do something cool for Peter, James, and John.

You want you want in on it?

For real?

It's like, yeah, you can go down there right now.

He was like, I I I can?

He's like, yeah, go.

Well, Jesus, I really don't know how to do what those angels do when they just kind of drop.

Like, could you help me out, God?

He's like, yes, I will.

Okay, then he gets down there, okay?

Because I don't know how they do that.

They just bam and they're there.

So in this moment, Jesus goes up to a mountain.

Hello, up to a mountain.

Then he's transfigured.

Uh-oh.

Transfigured?

Dazzling white, tied with bleach, doesn't get this white.

And Moses appears on one side of him, Elijah appears on the other side of them.

Moses represents the law, Elijah represents the prophets, Jesus represents the center and fulfillment of it all.

And Moses on this side steps into the promised land and gets to have a conversation with the rock that he stood in.

I'll prove it.

Hebrews chapter number one, verse number three says this the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

This is why he's transfigured, and that's why he got dazzling white, because he was radiating God's own glory, the kebab, the weight of his glory, and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the power of his word.

Okay.

1 Corinthians chapter number 13, verse number 12.

This is in the uh New King James Version.

For we now see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

May I submit something to you, ladies and gentlemen?

Everyone that calls themself a believer of Jesus Christ will have perpetual miracles and experiences that give us the opportunity to share unedited testimonies.

I don't care how hard it gets on this side, as with Moses, if we are patient, one day we shall behold as he is.

Faith.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

And what is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

For some of you, this message has been confirmation.

You're going, yes.

That's that's confirmation.

God has been speaking to me about this, He's been drawing me closer.

I've been feeling so much hungrier in my devotional time.

I just need to draw in closer.

I'm not gonna be satisfied.

For others of you, maybe this message brought just a measure of conviction where you said, I think I may have gotten a little too satisfied in my relationship.

I haven't leaned in as much over the past several months.

Well, the wonderful thing, whether it's confirmation or it's conviction, is that he gives us an opportunity to respond.

So in a moment, we're going to pray.

Whatever that prayer need is, if it is in response to this message, or maybe you need prayer for something else.

Maybe the Holy Spirit has just brought you to Jesus and you see him in a way that you have never seen before, and you need to give your life to him.

Well, in a moment, we're gonna give you an opportunity to respond.

And during that time, our altar ministry team is gonna come and whatever you need prayer for, just come.

We're gonna stand and we're gonna sing one more worship song.

We ask that no one would leave during that time so that we can give people an opportunity to come and lay their burdens at the cross.

At all campuses, whatever you need prayer for, now's the time to respond.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would draw every person at every campus that needs prayer.

Let them come and meet with you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord, and everything changed.

I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life.

I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about Him.

And some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ.

And that's what we want to do for you.

I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord.

He's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven.

But we need to learn some things now about the Bible, about prayer, about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to.

So we've designed a class called Fresh Start, and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now.

I love you, and I am so proud of you.