Revival – God Show Us Your Glory
Exodus 33:1-18 King James Version (KJV)
And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:
2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.
4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.
5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.
7 And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that everyone which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.
8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.
9 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.
10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.
11 And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
12 And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
17 And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
INTRODUCTION:
Let me begin by trying to catch you up to the events that are taking place here in Exodus 33. Moses had become a mediator between God and the Nation of Israel. Moses is a messenger, bringing a humbling message from God to the stiffed neck Nation. Moses is earnest with God in prayer….and prevails. God promises his presence to the people.
ILLUSTRATION:
A true story - a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Newman’s blue eyes caused her knees to buckle. She managed to pay for her cone, then left the shop, heart pounding. When she gained her composure, she realized she didn’t have her cone. She started back to the store to get it and met Newman at the door. "Are you looking for your ice-cream cone?" he asked. She nodded, unable to speak. "You put it in your purse with your change." Have you ever been so excited to be in God's presence, you forgot what you were doing?
Today, I want to talk about the Glory of God. Truly humbling yourself before the Lord and seeking Revival, seeking the very glory of God in your life and in your church.
We are going to center our morning message around Exodus 33:18 "And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory" (KJV Bible).
1. Humbling Message
In verses 1-6: The Lord said to Moses, you can go up to the land flowing with mild and honey, but I will not go with you, because of your disobedience. By the way, because you are stiff-necked, I might destroy you on the way.
A. The message from God that Moses brings to the Children of Israel was a message of displeasure. They were on God’s naughty list, they needed to make things right with God before HE would show his Glory to them…
Moses message to the people has a sobering effect.
II Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
B. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, God promises to hear and respond.
Daniel 10:12 says… 12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
Who’s responsibility is it? It is each one of our responsibilities to bow down, humble ourselves before the Lord. God doesn’t send HIS glory until we intentionally humble ourselves.
I Peter 5:5 5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
C. God opposes the Proud
What is being said here? God opposes the proud and responds, gives grace to those who humble themselves before HIM.
The second half of this verse “God resisteth” it can be translated “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”; This word oppose or resist was used when the army was lining up to go to battle.
So what is the scripture saying here? If you want to be stiff-necked, rebellious, proud, oppose God…God is saying he will line up his assets against you and you will be in a fight, a battle against God, but God doesn’t lose his battles!
Romans 14: 11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Ultimately, in the end, everyone will humble themselves before the Lord.
2. A Stiffed Neck People
Let’s look at verse 5; Stiff-neck literally translated means “hard of neck”; it is used both in the Old and New Testaments. It means stubborn, unable to be led. It could be easily applied and related to the Ox, which was a common domesticated animal and could be known as stiffed necked…and often related to the plowing of a field.
I Corinthians 9:9 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
The plow was usually drawn by two oxen. As the plowman required but one hand to guide the plow, he carried in the other an "ox-goad." This was a light pole, shod with an iron spike. With this he would prick the oxen upon the hind legs to increase their speed, and upon the neck to turn, or to keep a straight course when deviating. If an ox was hard to control or stubborn, it was "hard of neck," or stiff-necked. Hence, the figure was used in the Scriptures to express the stubborn, untractable spirit of a people not responsive to the guiding of their God.
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
ILLUSTRATION:
A family was out vacationing at the lake one summer. Dad had been puttering out by the boat house. Two of his sons, a 12-year old and a 3-year old were down playing along the dock. The 12 year old was supposed to be watching his little brother, but he got distracted. The 3 year old, little Billy, thought that would be a good time to check out the shiny aluminum fishing boat tied up at the end of the dock. So he went to the dock and put one foot on the boat, and one foot on the dock. He lost his balance and fell into the water, which was about 5 or 6 ft deep.
The splash alerted the 12-yr old who let out a piercing scream. Dad came running from the boat house, jumped into the water, swam down, but unable to see anything, came up for air. Sick with panic, he went right back down into this murky water, and began to feel everywhere around the bottom. He couldn’t feel anything. Finally, on his way up, he felt little Billy's arms locked in a death grip on one of the posts of the dock, about 4 ft under water. Prying the boy's fingers loose, they burst up together thru the surface to fill their lungs with life giving air.
Finally when the adrenaline had stopped surging, and nerves had calmed down a little bit, the Father asked his son, “What on earth were you doing down there hanging onto the post so far under the water? And little Billy’s answer was a classic, laced with the wisdom only a toddler could give. He said, "I was just waiting for you dad. Just waiting for you."
In order to have revival, to allow God to reveal his glory to his children, we need to be willing to let go of our strongholds. Those sins that are keeping us from having an intimate relationship with God.
3. Moses Prays and Prevails
THOUGHT:
In revival, the minds of people are concentrated upon things of eternity, and there is an awareness that nothing else really matters. (Brian Edwards)
How many of us have truly prayed that God show us HIS glory?
Understand the situation here, Moses had been on top of Mt. Sinai, and returned to find the children of Israel worshiping a golden calf. Moses lost his temper, threw down the 10 commandments and they broke.
God was ready to punish the children of Israel, but Moses interceded on their behalf. God granted HIS mercy and did not do away with them.
Exodus 33: 10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man in his tent door.
It was here that ALL the people rose up and worshiped;
(verse 12,13) It was here that I think Moses realized that he could not do it on his own. He asked God for Help…
V 15 “shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in they sight; and consider that this nation is thy people”
This is where, upon the realization that one cannot do things on their own, that we humble ourselves before God and seek the Glory of God. Moses speaks as though he dreaded going forward without the very presence of God…that should be the way we think…
Romans 8:31-34 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
4. Show me thy Glory
Is this our prayer today as Children of God? Moses desired more of God, he desired an intimate relationship, Shew me thy glory, make me to see it, make it visible to me oh God, enable me to see your glory.
Moses had only heard a voice up to this point from a pillar of cloud or fire, he humbly desired to see some representation of the true glory of God…
A. Separation from the Glory of God
It is clear from this scripture today that if you have idols in your life, if you are not humbling yourselves before him and seeking his face, God is not going to show you HIS glory. It is Sin that separates us from the Glory of God.
It is the little things in your life that you have taken for granted, your attitude, lack of faith, dirty habits, lack of devotion and consideration for God.
It is my prayer here today, that we become a church united in seeking the glory of God together. A church that is obedient to HIM.
B. Experiencing HIS Glory!
You may be asking, Pastor, how do I really experience the glory of God? How will I know when I experience that glory? Let’s look at
Exodus 34:30…
30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
If we could just have this desire, Exodus 34:8 says And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
Bowing down before the Lord on your knees is what we should be doing this morning….
