My Daddy Keeps His Promises
Exodus 34:29-35
The one thing that church folk often miss in their visitation to the sanctuary on the Sabbath is seeing the presence of God. How do we know this? Well all you have to do is look upon the faces of the men and women who claim that they have been to the House of God. They step into the holy of holies… they march around the throne of God… they sing the psalms of the angels… and yet they depart in much the same manner in which they came (hello, somebody?).
It is as if they are just going through the motions of coming into the sanctuary and not allowing God to do something new in their lives. Almost as if worship is a task that must be undertaken... praise is a pastime… and liturgy is a just something to do before the afternoon's activities. How an we, as the children of God, step into His presence and still not be able to see Him? How can we allow ourselves to move under the anointing of God and yet not be transformed by His Spirit? The question is not “how can we allow such a devastating and detestable act to occur”; the question goes out “why do we allow it to happen”?
I don't know about you, but when I enter His presence with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise I don't want any ordinary experience… I want an extraordinary encounter ... I don't need the same old ministries of the church… I need the power of God to wash over me and envelope me in its entirety. I need don't want any half-hearted, half-baked, warmed over blessing… I need my God to give me a brand new mercy and take me from glory to glory to glory… Spirit of the Living God fall fresh on me (Do I have a witness here?).
Is there anybody here that is tired of the passive praise?
Is there anybody here that wants to get out of the same old same old?
I don't know about you, but I need my daddy to keep His promise to me. I like the way that David said it, “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”
I need my God to transform me… transform my life… renew my spirit… renew my strength… and take me into the holy of holies.
Look at the Bible story...
Moses and the children of Israel have walk out of Egypt and stepped into the path of uncertainty. They have been pursued by Pharaoh and his army… watched the power of God evaporate the waters of a raging Red Sea… tread upon the dry desert sand and not get their feet wet… they have seen how at their petition God can make rivers of water flow from a desolate stone… they have satisfied their hunger for meat and bread in watching the provisional power of Jehovah Jireh produce manna from heaven and quails in the midst of the arid nothingness that surrounded them on every side.
Yet they still could not be satisfied with everything that God had provided for them. They took time out from their contentment to complain… they stopped their feasting to begin fearing…
What can be more comforting than to have the power of God available to you night and day ... at a moments notice… in the blink of an eye? Yet and still the children of Israel did not avail themselves to the power that was in front of them all the time.
Isn't that like church folk? Trying to get over on yesterday's blessing… wondering why God is moving in everyone else's life and not in their own… looking around to see the church down the street erect a new edifice… wondering how they can all be blessed at the same time and not me… Well as I look around and think things over; all of my good days outweigh my bad days. (Y’all don’t feel me here…) When it seems that the wicked are prospering and I have cold Ramen Noodles… when everybody is driving a new car, but me… in fact, while they are riding good and I am walking around looking for a job… (I’m gonna leave that alone… I’m gonna leave that alone…)
The Bible says that Moses went up on the mountaintop to speak face to face with God; in order to create a livable society. I can imagine in my spirit that God had to take time out to create a community of law and order that would be sufficient for them.
And after some time, as Moses was in the presence of the Lord receiving the tables of the law, the children of Israel saw that he was “delayed to come down from the mountain” so they gathered together around Aaron and begged him to make them a god that they might worship… [Tell the story.] The children of Israel felt abandoned and alone in the wilderness as they could not see God. So the story goes that Aaron gathered all of the gold that was between them in the camp and proceeded to fashion an image that would be familiar and recognizable to the people. It was in the Meditereanian area that certain deities had faces that would become immediately recognizable to the people. And the Bible says that Aaron labored over what would become the figure of a bovine… a golden calf, if you would.
Ain’t that like church folk? They know God is there… they feel His presence all around… yet we want immediate blessings. (Oh I wish I could get one somebody who knows what I’m talking about.) We want God to be up in our face right away with what we ask. But I heard the songwriter say, “He may not come when you want Him, but He’ll be there right on time.”
And because Moses was delayed in returning to the people they began to dance around the figurine of the golden calf. The Bible says that they began to lose their mind in an orgy of music, singing, dancing, and sex. I can imagine in my spirit that this must have presented a sight to Moses as God had been busy on their behalf up on the mountain. The Bible says that God told Moses to go back down the mountain and deal with the people, their problems, and their lack of patience. And as Moses had gotten down to the people his heart was angered and he threw the tables of the law to the ground. The Bible says that he took the pieces of the table ground it up into dust… poured it into the water and made them all drink it.
Moses returned to the presence of God and received a new set of tables with the same laws that were written of the first set of tables that were destroyed. But when he came down from the mountain, the Bible says that there was something different about him . . . something changed his very countenance when he got into the presence of the Lord . . . something on the inside was bursting to get on the outside . . . and the Bible says that those around him could not understand that the presence of the Lord is here . . . the presence of the Lord is here. I can feel it in the atmosphere . . . the presence of the Lord is here.
The Israelites began to back away from Moses. Light and darkness cannot dwell in the same place. Either the light is swallowed by the dark, or darkness is conquered by the light. Well I'm so glad that my God's light is more powerful than the darkness of this world . . . I'm so glad that there is a "light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not". One songwriter said it like this: we'll walk in the light, beautiful light; walk where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright. Shine all around us by day and by night. Jesus the light of the world.
Well look at the Bible story . . .
1. (Presence) In order to receive the promises of God we need to get into the presence of the Lord.
Moses went up the mountain, prepared to be with the Lord. He knew that he was going to spend some
time meditating on the Word of God . . . walking with God . . . talking with God . . . day and night. . .
night and day. He knew that God wasn't a God of rushing through and giving any old commands. He
knew that God was patient and kind ... he expected to be where he was for a long time . . . and the
Bible says that he spent forty days and forty nights up on the mountain with God ... he didn't eat and
he didn't drink. He spent all of his time communing with the Most High God.
We need to take look at the example of Moses. When we come into His presence we need to put all the other things away. Like Paul said, "when I was a child, I spake as a child, I though as a child, I understood as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things." We need to grow up and get into His presence. We need to put away the childish things of life. We need to move on up into His sanctuary and allow His being to saturate every fiber of our being.
Look at the Bible story...
2. (Project) When Moses got into the presence of the Lord and we receive the promise of God, the
Bible says that his face began to shine on his face. The promise of God should project from our faces.
Moses had stayed in the presence of the Lord so long, waiting on the message of God, that the glory
of God was actually radiating as a bright light upon his face. He had been in communion with God for so long that God began to show up on his face. He had been in prayer so long that God just imparted some of His glory into the very being of Moses. What a glorious lesson that is for us today. We need to seek God so much that He has to impart His glory into our very being ... so much that it shows up on our faces.
Moses experienced just what the scriptures declare we should all be experiencing ... he beheld as in a glass the glory of the Lord and was changed into the same image from glory to glory. Oh I want to see Him ... to look upon His face . . . there to sing forever of His saving grace ... on the streets of glory let me lift my voice . . . cares all past, home at last ever to rejoice . . .
Moses face was changed into the very glory of God. I want that same glory to radiate from me.
Not only that, but look at the Bible story . . . 3. (Proclaim) Moses had to veil his face (Preach it...work it!).
