1. Title: Coffee With God
2. Text: Exodus 33
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM crowd, April 10. 2005
4. Objectives:
-for the people to understand the nature of our relationship with God and how we can make it grow through prayer
-for the people to feel a longing for God’s closeness and love that will be satisfied only by spending time with Him in prayer
-for the people to establish a pattern of time with God that will ultimately help them be closer to Him by spending more regular time in prayer with Him
5. When I finish my sermon I want my audience to better understand the potential for our closeness with God and to work at it through more regular prayer time
6. Type: expository
7. Dominant Thought: Regular, deliberate seeking of God’s presence will result in a closeness with God that is far more intimate than most people believe we can have
8. Outline:
“So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mt. Horeb.” (Ex 33:6)
There are times when it’s just not appropriate to wear ornaments – times like when God says, “If I were to stay with you people, I might just destroy you. Take off your ornaments. I’m going to decide exactly what to do with you.”
God had just told them to go ahead – go ahead into the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – go ahead, I’ll drive out all the enemy nations ahead of you – go ahead into the land flowing with milk and honey – yeah, go ahead, but I’m not going with you, and, I might just destroy you on the way.
Israel didn’t want God telling them what to do. Sound familiar? He described that as being stiff-necked. So, He told them, “I will not go with you.” Ex 33:3.
It was a “take off your ornaments” kind of time in Israel. No celebrating. No dressing up. No partying. No dancing in the camp. It was time to put away the shiny stuff and dress in sackcloth and ashes. God said he wouldn’t go with them. “Go face it. On your own. Go ahead. It’s all laid out in front of you. Go take over from the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. March on in. But when you look over your shoulder, I won’t be there. I’m gone. Look for Me and I won’t be there.”
There’s a time when ornaments just don’t fit. The time is when God isn’t near.
What was the big deal? Ex 32. The Golden calf. Moses was a long time on the mountain getting the 10 Commandments and other laws from God, and while he was gone, Israel ran amuck. They took up a special offering – one where they took off their ornaments – a 600,000 pieces of gold offering, and then made it all into a golden calf. There! There’s your god, Israel! And then they launched into some kind of super-raunchy Mardi Gras.
God and golden calves aren’t a good mix. I Jn 1:5-6 says “…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”
So God wouldn’t go with Israel. God won’t accompany people on a sinful walk. God can’t accompany people on a sinful walk. His presence would be too out of place. His nature is so opposed to evil, it may destroy it. Remember that.
Moses was so angry when he returned and saw what had happened, he threw the stone tablets God had made. He was the first Israelite to break all 10 commandments all at once! He had the golden calf ground into powder, sprinkled it in the brook, and forced them all to drink it. Then, he sent the Levites into the camp and had them kill everyone they could – their brothers, their friends, their neighbors, until about 3,000 lay dead. Moses was mad. But Moses’ anger was nothing. In fact, his prayer is what kept God from snuffing out the whole nation. (32:10). And 32:35 says “God smote the people.” I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it couldn’t have been good.
But the seriousness of God’s anger really gets highlighted in ch 33 when He says to them, “I’m not going with you.” V.4 describes those as “distressing words.” They are.
You want a good reason to cry? You want a reason to take off the ornaments? You want a reason to feel insecure and scared? Have God tell you, “I’m not going with you.” Have God go from saying, “I’m right here with you,” to “I won’t be close with you anymore.” What would you do? How would you face hard times? How would you just live day-to-day knowing that your eternity isn’t secure – that your name isn’t written in God’s Book of Life? What would you do?
You might pray for closeness with God. That’s what we’re focused on this whole month.
Exodus 33 is an interesting look into closeness with God. I want to peer into it as a kind of window into this subject. When we’re done, we should be able to look at life with a better understanding of closeness with God and a better plan for getting there.
The first fact I want you to notice in this chapter is that…
I. There Are Limits To How Close We Can Get To God
Ill – We have a fireplace in our house. It’s nice to be able to start up a nice fire and warm up the living room. When you’re really chilled, you can even go sit on the edge in front of it. That sure feels good! But sit there too long, or sit too close, and ouch! It hurts. It’s a good thing, but you can only get so close. We can’t handle fire. We’re not made of asbestos.
Now, take an all – powerful, perfectly holy God, and the same is true. His presence is good, but there’s also something terrifying and dangerous there! Just like our human skin can’t take the heat of a fire, neither can our imperfect human selves take the full blast of God’s glory. We can’t fully “see” God and live.
Ex. 19:21, God has descended onto Mt. Sinai. The smoke from the top of the mountain roars up like a furnace. God’s thunder shakes the earth. He warns Moses “Make sure the people don’t break through the fence to gaze at Me. They’ll die. As God says in v. 20 “no one may see me and live.”
We ought to understand such a concept. Every time there’s an eclipse, eye specialists warn you to not try to look at it without some serious eye protection. Why? Gazing at the harmful rays of the sun can permanently burn your eyes. It’s more than they can handle.
Exodus 24:9-11
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
Now, the marvelous thing about this event that’s noted isn’t that they saw God. It’s that they saw God and still lived – that they were able to eat and drink another day!
Manoah and his wife (Samson’s parents) saw the angel of the Lord. They were just sure that they would die because of it.
Isaiah saw the Lord in a vision, and he said,
Isaiah 6:5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
All of these are situations where people did indeed see God, but they didn’t see the full glory of God. No one can do that and live. (remember v20?)
John knew these stories from the OT as he was writing in the NT. He said in Jn 1:18 and in I Jn 4:12 – “No one has seen God…” The same is true of Paul when he wrote I Tim 6:16 and said that no one has ever seen God nor can see Him.
Why? Because there are limits to how close we can be to God.
If we would give this some thought, if we would grasp this, maybe we could learn to better appreciate just what it means to have Jesus as our Mediator, our Advocate – the One Who brings us into the presence of God. If we fail to realize how imperfect we are in the presence of His perfection, we’ll fail to understand how amazing it is that He wants us to be close to Him at all. We’ll fail to approach Him with the right attitude.
I don’t know exactly what Heaven will be like. I’m not sure how much of God we’ll get to look upon. I just know that the Scriptures tell me no one can fully see God and survive it.
As we talk about being close with God, let’s start with this realization and perspective.
II. Closeness To God is Closely Tied To Personal Holiness
Have you ever noticed the tendency we all have to gravitate toward the people with whom we have things in common? Get in a big group. Parents with young kids get together and talk about their kids. Older folks all bunch together and talk about their grandkids. Kids get together and talk about the things they have in common. We look for those people.
Well, God says we’re supposed to be holy people – because He is holy. It only makes sense that we would be Closer to God Who is holy, when we ourselves are living a holy lifestyle. John writes
1 John 1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
When they gave up their personal holiness, Israel gave up God’s presence.
Some of you have tried that. You decided that personal holiness really wasn’t that important to you. Pornography looked fun. Cruddy language sounded cool. Toying around with adultery was exciting. Watching some crumby movie or TV show was entertaining. And when you did it, you hindered the presence of God in your life. We can’t claim to have fellowship with Him – to be close to Him – and have a lifestyle of darkness.
So, if you want real closeness with God, you need act like the kind of Person He is. Hb 12:14 says that without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
It works the other direction too – spending time with God will feed our personal growth.
Ill - The closer I walk with God, the more quickly I feel my sin and realize how much I need God. It’s like a huge mirror with a great big light over it. When we stand away from the mirror, things look pretty good: shirt looks in order; tie looks straight; the hair is combed. But as you begin to move towards the mirror, things begin to show up. The suit has a spot on it. The tie is a little bit wrinkled. The hair is out of place. The closer we get to the bright light, the more we realize our defects. It’s the same way when we get close to God. When we get close to him, we realize how much we need him and how far we are from him. We get convicted of our sin, and that’s what happens right before we change. Our closeness to God is tied closely to our personal holiness.
We also can see that…
III. Closeness To God Grows Out of a Genuine Longing
Moses had a genuine longing for God’s presence in his world. How do I know that? The same way you and I can identify if we have a genuine longing to be close to God:
1. Heartfelt
I can’t see Moses’ heart, but like Jesus said, “The mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart.” – what’s spoken on the outside is a reflection of what’s on the inside.
2. Spoken
So, take a look at Moses’ words again
v.13 – Teach me Your ways
v.15 – If You’re not with me, don’t send me!
v.18 – Show me Your glory! (God, close is good. Overwhelm me!)
Moses wasn’t afraid to say out loud that he needed God.
I also see one more evidence of Moses’ genuine longing to be close with God.
3. A planned pattern of closeness
Have you noticed that God likes patterns?
There’s night and there’s day – every day!
There’s a time for productivity, and a time for rest – even in the animal world
There are seasons that repeat every year – a time for planting, and a time for harvesting; a time for working and a time for resting.
There’s a repeating pattern of 7 days called a week., and a first day of the 7 set aside for God’s people to gather together.
Moses had a pattern of closeness with God. It wasn’t just “whenever God shows up’ or “Whenever Moses felt like it.”
Exodus 33:7-11
Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.
How did Moses stay close to God? He went to meet with Him.
Folks, prayer, and our regular practice of it is a vital part of being close with God. And prayer can be work sometimes, so there has to be this genuine longing to drive it. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
IV. Closeness With God is Intimate
It’s important to take all the groundwork we’ve laid now when you read v.11. Lest we should read it and consider visiting with God too trite, we have all these verses about not being able to see God in all His fullness and survive it. But we would also be wrong to think we can’t get close to God. Some people are there. They think their chances of getting really close with God are about the same as their chances of getting close with the President.
Moses spoke with God “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Moses wanted to be close to God. He said, “Now, show me Your glory.” and God gave that to him.
Exodus 33:19-23
And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."
We have, in our culture, a way of keeping close with people. One of those is to invite someone to have a coffee with you - if you drink coffee. It’s a way of saying, “I want to be close to you.” Friend. Face-to-face. It’s not necessarily a time to ask for a favor, or say thanks for one given. It’s a time for relationship-building.
It’s exactly what some of us need – coffee with God. We need an appointment to be together, sitting down to talk – to maintain a good relationship.
Understand, this is the kind of closeness to which God has invited us.
Ill – Have you met people who have a habit of calling you “Sweety” or “Honey”? I don’t mean your spouse – I mean a complete stranger, like when a waitress comes up and says to you, “Now, Honey, do you want any dessert?” That’s a little uncomfortable, because those are titles of endearment that I don’t use for just anybody.
We have received the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of adoption. It takes our relationship to God beyond the relationship of Creator and creature, beyond Master and servant. Paul writes in Ro. 8 that it’s by this Spirit that we cry to God: “Abba! Father!” That’s a pretty close word. In fact, that’s the Aramaic word that a little child would call his daddy. You don’t call very many people “Daddy” do you? That’s a word for a close relationship. Paul says that’s the kind of closeness that God has designed to have with us. Why, I can’t explain. But, I don’t have to. I’m not in management. I’m just in sales!
Here’s another cue to take from this whole story: When Moses returned from spending time with God, his face glowed. Just as sure as a glow in the dark ball will glow once you hold it up to a light, Moses’ face glowed from spending time in the presence of God.
How’s your face? It ought to be an indicator that you’ve spent some time in God’s presence. There ought to be something about you that makes it evident that you’ve been spending time with God.
Conclusion:
Moses understood that the nation of Israel needed God to “go up with them.” Moses needed God to help him be a leader. They were a big nation. They didn’t know what they were doing. It was a big desert out there. They didn’t have what they needed to survive it. They needed God.
That was the idea. God wanted them in a position where they would depend on Him. God wanted them to be humbled Later the Lord would remind them that their time spent wandering around in the desert was to humble them and to test them in order to show what was in their hearts.
There is an African proverb: Lord Jesus, make my heart sit down. That’s exactly what we need. We need to have our hearts sit down. We need to stop from our busyness, stop our self-dependence, stop our messed up priorities, and let the Lord Jesus make our hearts sit down. We need to be put in positions where we’re humbled and where the Lord tests our hearts. We need to have coffee with God.
Don’t you want to leave here this morning assured that God will go with you? It’s a big world out there. You don’t have all that you need to survive it alone. You need a Savior named Jesus to wash you clean of sin. You need the Holy Spirit living inside of you to help you become a person who lives a holy lifestyle. You need a relationship with God the Father that meets what He has designed it to be.
