One day, Jay Leno got a letter from a kid saying he was in trouble because he had told his friends that Leno was his uncle and that they would drive around in his uncle’s Lamborghini. The kid’s friends called him a big liar, so the boy asked Jay Leno if he could drive him to school in his Lamborghini. Leno said, “It so intrigued me that I called the kid, of course speaking to his mother first, and said, why don't we do this next week?
So, Leno drove out to where the kid lived and picked him up. Then they waited until the opportune time, when most of the buses are in front of the school and all the kids are hanging out. That’s when they pull up in front of the school. The doors go up on the Lamborghini. The kid steps out and goes, “Bye uncle Jay!”
And Leno responds, “OK, Billy, take care, I'll pick you up next week and we'll go driving.”
This leaves the mouths of all the boy’s friends hanging wide open (Drive Team, “A little bull goes a long way,” Drive, 4-14-21; www.PreachingToday.com).
Jay Leno’s presence changed that boy’s life. How much more the presence of God in your life? Is that what you want? Then turn with me, if you will, to Exodus 33, Exodus 33, where Moses shows you how to realize the presence of God in your own life.
Exodus 33:1-3 The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people” (ESV).
God offers to Israel His protecting angel and a prosperous land, but He threatens to withdraw His presence from them, because their stubbornness angers Him. Earlier, they had complained that they had no bread or water in the wilderness, questioning whether God was with them (Exodus 17:7). Even so, God provides manna from heaven and water from a rock. Then, while God was giving the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, the people of Israel reject the One who had provided for them for a golden calf. They are obstinate in their rebellion, so in order to protect them from His wrath, God declares that they can go on without Him.
Exodus 33:4-6 When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward (ESV).
As a sign of mourning, they stripped off all their jewelry. Now, when they left Egypt, they stripped or plundered the Egyptians of their jewelry (Exodus 3:22; 12:36). Here, they strip themselves of that same jewelry to express sorrow for their rebellion, and to demonstrate their desire to turn from their sin back to the Lord. They realize that it is not enough to have God’s provision and protection. They need God’s presence, as well. My dear friends, if you want God to go with you through life, do what Israel did here.
REPENT OF YOUR REBELLION.
Grieve over your sin. Mourn over your stubborn resistance to God’s will.
James 4 says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:8-10).
Do you want the presence of God in your life? Then grieve over the sin in your life.
Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
There is an old story from the Middle Ages about a young woman who was expelled from heaven. An angel told her that she could return only if she brought back the one gift God valued the most. So she brought back drops of blood from a dying patriot. She collected coins given by a destitute widow for the poor. She brought back a remnant of a Bible used by an eminent preacher. She even brought back the dust from the shoes of missionaries who served many years in a distant land. Although she brought back these things and more, heaven’s gates refused to open for her.
Then, one day, as she watched a small boy playing by a fountain, she saw a man ride up on horseback and dismount to take a drink. When he saw the boy playing, he thought of his own childhood innocence. But he looked into the water of the fountain and saw a reflection of his hardened face. He was overcome by the sin in his life, and in that moment, he wept tears of repentance. The young woman took one of those tears back to heaven, where the inhabitants welcomed her back with joy (“Jesus the Judge,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 129; www.PreachingToday.com).
Tears of repentance are precious to God, opening the door to God’s presence in heaven itself.
In the days of the Russian revolution, the Soviet state tried to stamp out Christianity and convert everyone to atheism. Jim Forest, an American author and Russian Orthodox theologian, tells the story of a popular Russian comedian during that time. He developed a stage act in which he played a drunken Orthodox priest. Dressed in wine-stained robes, he did a comic imitation of the ancient but beautiful liturgy.
Part of his performance was to chant the Beatitudes. But he used distorted words—such as “blessed are they who hunger and thirst for vodka” and “blessed are the cheese makers”—while struggling to remain more or less upright. He had done his act time and again, for which the authorities rewarded him as he promoted atheism and made worship seem ridiculous.
But on one occasion things didn’t go as planned. Instead of saying his garbled version of the Beatitudes in his well-rehearsed comic manner, he chanted the sentences as they are actually sung in a real Liturgy. His attention was focused not on the audience but on the life-giving words that were coming from the Bible, words he had learned and sung as a child. He listened to the memorized words, and something happened in the depths of his soul.
After singing the final Beatitude, he fell to his knees weeping. He had to be led from the stage and never again parodied worship. Forest says, “Probably he was sent to a labor camp, but even so it’s a story of a happy moment in his life. He had begun a new life in a condition of spiritual freedom that no prison can take away” (Jim Forest, “Climbing the Ladder of the Beatitudes Can Change Your Life,” Jim and Nancy Forest blog, 8-16-17; www.PreachingToday.com).
In one of those beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
Do you want the comfort of God’s presence? Then mourn over the sin in your life. If you want God to go with you through life, 1st, Repent of your rebellion. Then 2nd…
RELISH HIS PRESENCE EVERY DAY.
Enjoy regular time alone with the Lord. Meet with Him on a regular basis away from the crowd. That’s what Moses did.
Exodus 33:7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp (ESV).
This was not the tabernacle, because it hasn’t been built yet. This was a special tent just for people to meet with God. However, Moses seems to be one of the only ones who went out to the tent.
Exodus 33:8-11 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent (ESV).
Everybody else merely watched as Moses went out to the tent. Joshua stayed with Moses and lingered at the tent of meeting. I wonder. What did Joshua want? Did he desire the intimate, face-to-face relationship Moses had with God? Or did He just want to bask in the glow of God’s presence for a little while longer?
I wonder. What do you want? For you can be as close to God as you choose to be. So, what will you do? Stand in front of your own tent, or come to God’s tent on a regular basis? Come to God’s tent and let Him talk to you face to face like a friend.
Now, your “tent of meeting” can be your dining room table, or a special chair in your living room, or an inner closet as Jesus’ suggests (Matthew 6:6). Just find a time and a place to get alone with God every day and enjoy the friendship you have with Him as a follower of Christ.
For Jesus said to His followers, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends” (John 15:15).
C. Austin Miles, a 19th Century song writer, had attended the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the University of Pennsylvania and became a pharmacist. But, in 1892, he abandoned his career to write gospel songs for the Hall-Mack Company. He later became editor and manager of the music publishing company and served them for 37 years.
Miles' hobby was photography, and he had managed to build his own “darkroom” for developing his film. He discovered one day that he could read his Bible in the special “red lighting” of the darkroom. He often read passages of scripture as he waited for the developing process to finish.
One day in March 1912, Miles was developing film and waiting for the process to complete when he picked up his Bible. It fell open to John, chapter 20, where he read the story of Mary's coming to the garden to visit the tomb of Jesus. As she looked into the tomb her heart sank because Jesus wasn't there. Then, He spoke to her from outside the tomb, and she recognized Him. Her heart leaped for joy!
Miles imagined that he was present with them in the garden on that glorious occasion, witnessing the wonderful event. When his thoughts returned to the business at hand in the darkroom, he was gripping his Bible. His muscles, according to his own recollection, were tense and vibrating. Reverently he thought, “This is not an experience limited to a happening almost 2,000 years ago. It is the daily companionship with the Lord that makes up the Christian's life.”
In the inspiration of those moments, he wrote a poem. Then, that same evening, he composed the music for the poem. The song, since then, has become extremely popular. More than a million recordings and printed copies have been sold all around the world, and it is in every hymnal in print today. The song—In the Garden (Lindsay Terry, “Story behind the song: 'In the Garden,'” The St. Augustine Record, March 5, 2015, www. staugustine.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2015/03/05/story-behind-song-garden/16247416007).
Listen to the words that C. Austin Miles wrote over a hundred years ago.
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses.
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me,
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known (C. Austin Miles).
That can be your experience with the Lord every day if you so choose. Just come to your “tent of meeting” to enjoy your friendship with God. If you want God to go with you through life, 1st, Repent of your rebellion. 2nd, Relish his presence every day, and 3rd…
PRAY.
After God talks to you, talk to Him. Interact with the Lord about the things He lays on your heart. That’s what Moses does.
Exodus 33:12-14 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (ESV).
Moses asks God for direction, and God promises Him so much more—His presence and His rest. You do the same!
Ask God for direction. Ask God to show you His ways. For when you walk in His ways, you experience His presence and His rest.
Helen Roseveare, a medical missionary in Africa, was the only doctor in a large hospital. There were constant interruptions and shortages, and she was becoming increasingly impatient and irritable with everyone around her. Finally, one of the African pastors insisted, “Helen, please come with me.”
He drove Helen to his humble house and told her that she was going to have a retreat—two days of silence and solitude. She was to pray until her attitude adjusted. All night and the next day she struggled; she prayed, but her prayers seemed to bounce off the ceiling.
Late on Sunday night, she sat beside the pastor around a little campfire. Humbly, almost desperately, she confessed that she was stuck.
With his bare toe, the pastor drew a long straight line on the dusty ground. “That is the problem, Helen: there is too much ‘I’ in your service.” He gave her a suggestion: “I have noticed that quite often, you take a coffee break and hold the hot coffee in your hands waiting for it to cool.” Then he drew another line across the first one. “Helen, from now on, as the coffee cools, ask God, ‘Lord, cross out the “I” and make me more like you’” (Matt Woodley, in the sermon, Servant, www.PreachingToday.com).
In the dust of that African ground, before a hand-drawn cross, Helen Roseveare learned that life and ministry is not about what “I” am doing, but about what CHRIST has already done on the cross.
God’s way is the way of the cross. It’s taking the “I” out of your life and surrendering to His will, trusting Him to do His work through you. Then, and only then, do you experience the rest His presence brings. So, when you pray, ask God for direction.
Then ask God for His presence. Ask God not only to show you the way, but also to go with you along the way. Ask God to accompany you on your journey through life. That’s what Moses did.
Exodus 33:15-17 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name” (ESV).
Moses refuses to take one more step unless God goes with them, because God’s presence demonstrates God’s special favor.
Warren Wiersbe says, “It was the glorious presence of God that distinguished Israel from all the other nations. Other nations had laws, priests, and sacrifices. Only Israel had the presence of God among them” (Wiersbe’ Expository Outlines on the Old Testament).
Here's the good news! As a believer in Christ, you too have the assurance of God’s presence with you! The Bible says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebews 13:5-6).
Leonard Sweet, in his book Soul Salsa, describes a tribe of native Americans, which had a unique practice for training young braves. On the night of a boy's thirteenth birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But on this night he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of thick woods. By himself. All night long.
Every time a twig snapped, he probably visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he wondered what more sinister sound it masked. No doubt it was a terrifying night for many.
After what seemed like an eternity, the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was the boy's father. He had been there all night long (Leonard Sweet, SoulSalsa, Zondervan, 2000, pp. 23-24; www.PreachingToday.com).
Even in the scary darkness, God stands just a few feet away. So lay aside your fears and depend on His presence to get you through. When you pray, ask God for direction, ask God for His presence.
Then go one more step and ask God to reveal His presence to you. Don’t be content just to know He is near. Ask God to show you His glory. Ask God to display His brilliant goodness to you. That’s what Moses did.
Exodus 33:18-23 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen” (ESV).
No man or woman can survive seeing God in all His glory. So God promises to show Moses some of His glory, to give Moses just a glimpse of His brilliance.
Earlier this year (2024), astronomers found the brightest known object in the universe so far. It’s a glowing core of a galaxy, called a quasar, located 12 billion light-years away. Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe, each consisting of a supermassive black hole. But the black hole in this record-setting quasar is gobbling up more than a sun’s-worth of mass every day. That makes it the fastest growing black hole scientists have ever seen.
The brightest quasar is also one of the biggest. The gargantuan object stretches about seven light-years across, and it shines more than 500 trillion times brighter than our own sun.
Christian Wolf, lead author of the new study, said, “This quasar is the most violent place that we know in the universe. It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now.”
The black hole in the quasar is ravenous, consuming an amount of material equivalent to as much as 413 suns each year, and its black hole weighs about the same as 17 billion suns.
Wolf said, “It looks like a gigantic and magnetic storm cell with temperatures of 10,000 degrees Celsius, lightning everywhere and winds blowing so fast they would go around Earth in a second.” He told reports that he doesn’t think anything will ever top this record for the universe’s brightest object (Will Sullivan, “Astronomers Discover the Brightest Known Object in the Universe, Shining 500 Trillion Times as Bright as the Sun,” Smithsonian Magazine, 3-21-24; www.PreachingToday.com).
You can barely look at the sun in our solar system without hurting your eyes. Think about looking at an object 500 trillion times brighter! Then think about looking at God, who is infinitely brighter than any quasar He has made. You would instantly evaporate—poof!
No one can see God in all His glory and live, but God is willing to give you a glimpse of His glory. In fact, God gave us a glimpse of His glory in His Son. Those who walked and talked with Jesus testified, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
So when you ask God to show you His glory, ask God to show you His Son. Pray with the Apostle Paul that you “may know him” (Philippians 3:10), not know ABOUT Him, but KNOW Him personally.
C.S. Lewis talked about the distinction in an essay he titled “Meditation in a Toolshed.” In that essay, he wrote:
I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.
Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead, I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam and looking at the beam are very different experiences (Michael Reeves, Evangelical Pharisees, Crossway, 2023, p. 29; www.PreachingToday.com).
In the same way, knowing about God and knowing God are very different experiences. Pray that you might KNOW God. Ask God to give you glimpse of His glory.
If you want God to go with you through life, repent of your rebellion, relish his presence every day, and pray.
Lynette Kittle, from Spring Hill, Florida, talks about missing the days when her teenage children were babies. As infants, they would display sheer joy whenever she walked into the room. They simply wanted to be with her—and found comfort in being carried or held on her lap.
Lynette says, “I wonder if God sometimes feels that way about me. Now that I've ‘grown up,’ do I still express excitement about simply being in his presence? Does God miss me lifting up my arms for him to hold me?” (Lynette Kittle, Spring Hill, FL. , "Heart to Heart," Today's Christian Woman; www.Preaching Today.com).
Oh dear friends, just lift up your arms for God to hold you today.
