Show Me Your Glory

COME UP THE THE MOUNTAIN

Show Me Your Glory

INTRODUCTION:
– DEEP LOVE AND RESPECT FOR PASTOR MATT AND CRYSTAL
– WHO IS JOHN CANTU?
– FVC MEN’S ADVANCE DEBRIEF
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Exodus chapter 34, verses 1-10.
This morning I have the GREAT PRIVILEGE of speaking to you from one of the most
beautiful passages in the entire Bible.
Songs have been written about it.
Sermons have been sermoned.
And BILLIONS of Christian men and women, for thousands of years,
have fallen on their faces before God, asking Him what Moses asked of Him-
“GOD! SHOW ME YOUR GLORY!”
And BILLIONS of Christians have received an answer in Exodus chapter 34, verses
1-10.
I at first tried to take a topical approach to the preaching of this passage, but I simply
can’t.
We have to go verse by verse, because it is TOO beautiful and TOO powerful to fail to
deal with every single word of it.
And yet, we will still FAIL to be able to cover everything that is revealed in this passage.
God is too great!
He is too magnificent.
He is too glorious.
This is not an attempt to completely understand this passage.
This is an attempt to discover a DEEPER level of who He is.
This is an attempt to see His glory.
Would you stand with me for the reading of God’s Word?
Exodus 34:1-10 (CSB)
1The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on
them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me
on the mountaintop. 3No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen
anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that
mountain.”
4Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and
taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had
commanded him.
5The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the
Lord.” 6The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and
abounding in faithful love and truth,a 7maintaining faithful love to a thousand
generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.a But he will not leave the guilty
unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and
grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
8Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. 9Then he said, “My Lord,
if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a
stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own
possession.”
10And the Lord responded, “Look, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all your
people I will perform wonders that have never been done in the whole earth or in any
nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing with
you is awe-inspiring.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD.
PRAY.
Now if you remember from the previous 2 chapters in Exodus,
the Israelites have just egregiously sinned by making a golden calf.
They’ve been punished for it.
They’ve been forgiven for it.
But it JUST happened.
It’s still fresh.
And so, we see God’s mercy in full view here, because He continues to initiate a
covenant with a bride that had an affair ON THE WEDDING DAY!
Even though the 10 commandments are 10 LAWS that God gave to the Jews, the
giving of the 10 commandments in Exodus 19 and 20 on Mt Sinai looks more like a
ceremony than it does a court proceeding.
In fact, the Biblical account of what happens at Mt Sinai has all the components of a
Jewish wedding.
God was entering into a COVENANT CEREMONY with the Jews, and they BROKE that
covenant IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CEREMONY.
It’s like one of those stories where the bride or groom to be CHEATS the night before
the wedding.
It’s like, what?
That is some SEVERE dysfunction.
And you wouldn’t expect for the other person to be like, “Oh, sure, we can still get
married.”
But God…
He is SO different.
The Israelites REBELLED at the Red Sea, they complained in the wilderness, they
cheated in the MIDDLE of the wedding ceremony…
And yet God says, “YOU ARE MINE!”
And He continues with the ceremony.
Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.
Christ is the revelation of the Father, He is not the evolution of the Father.
Here we see the Father loving Israel the way Jesus loved the church, and the way we
are called to love our spouses.
That’s not to say that adultery can be swept under the rug, or that it doesn’t break the
covenant of marriage.
This is simply to say that the MERCY of God is PROFOUNDLY GREATER than our
mercy.
His GRACE is PROFOUNDLY GREATER than our grace.
His LOVE is so great that it seems reckless, even though it’s not.
From a human perspective, you wouldn’t MARRY someone who cheated on you in the
wedding, you wouldn’t give EVERYTHING YOU OWN to someone so irresponsible, and
you wouldn’t LOVE someone who continually breaks your heart.
Jesus does.
God does.
1The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on
them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Of course we know that Moses broke the first tablets when he came down the
mountain only to find the people had a made a golden calf.
So he threw the tablets on the ground and shattered them.
And here God says, “write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets,
WHICH YOU BROKE.”
Now, I suppose it could sound like God is being a little petty here, a little passive
aggressive, because Moses broke the tablets that God just spent FORTY DAYS
inscribing.
“Go grab new tablets and write what was on the first tablets- which you BROKE.
Pbbbf.”
That’s one way to look at it- God is just being passive aggressive.
But I don’t think that’s the correct way of looking at it.
I love watching my kids, or ANY kids, play spontaneous games that they made
up on the spot. Because they come up with a whole bunch of random rules,
but then as soon as those rules don’t benefit them, they change them.
They’ll be like,
“The couch is home base! You can’t touch me!”
and then two seconds later, they’ll run to the fridge and be like, “It just changed! Now
it’s the fridge! You can’t get me!”
That’s essentially what God is doing here.
He’s like, “Uh… YOU broke the rules, not me.
I’d just like to clarify that for the record.
In fact, Moses write that down.
Go ahead and put it in…Exodus chapter 34.”
Moses is like,
“Where do you want me to put it?”
God says,
“Let’s start out with that fact. Put it in VERSE 1.”
WE broke the rules!
NOT GOD.
Us.
Humanity.
The Jews did.
I did.
And you did.
We failed.
We sinned.
We broke the covenant.
But God is faithful, and He doesn’t change!
God NEVER changes!
He CAN’T change!
He’s the same God yesterday, today, and forever!
That means that the Father is just as gracious, merciful, loving and kind as
Jesus,
and that Jesus is just as angry and serious about sin as the Father.
I hope we realize that this morning.
The next time you’re tempted to blame God of ANYTHING, you should probably slow
down and think for a moment.
God is the GOD of COVENANT relationship.
He sets the rules, the laws, the relational boundaries, and He keeps them perfectly.
Jesus kept ALL TEN of the 10 commandments.
They were His relational laws, and He kept them all.
So when God says here, write the SAME WORDS on the SECOND set of tablets that
you did on the FIRST SET THAT YOU BROKE, He’s telling us, “YOU BREAK MY
COVENANT, BUT I DON’T. YOU CHANGE THE RULES, BUT I DON’T. WRITE THE
SAME SET OF RULES ON THIS SET OF TABLETS, MOSES. I THE LORD…DO… NOT…
CHANGE.”
2Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me
on the mountaintop. 3No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen
anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that
mountain.”
4Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and
taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai,
just as the Lord had commanded him.
“Be PREPARED by morning,” God says.
God expected Moses to do some WORK, here.
And it wasn’t unreasonable.
It was just a few hoops to jump through, a few steps to follow.
But nevertheless, Moses had to OBEY in order to come up the mountain.
You see, you don’t get invited up to the top of the mountain of God, without obedience.
If God can’t trust you to obey, then He’s not gonna MEET WITH YOU AND
SPEAK TO YOU.
Until you can be obedient to the Lord,
you aren’t gonna go into the deeper levels of relationship with Christ.
And don’t fool yourself- PARTIAL obedience will not do- God wants COMPLETE
OBEDIENCE.
King Saul didn’t obey the Lord COMPLETELY when he sacrificed the enemy livestock,
instead of destroying them like God commanded.
And God removed Saul as king!
Samuel told King Saul, “OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE.”
In our modern context, we could say, OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD, IS BETTER
THAN ALL THE GOOD WORKS YOU CAN THINK UP AND DO.
Jesus said in
Matthew 5:23-24 (CSB)
23So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother
or sister has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go
and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
So in other words, Jesus is saying,
“don’t think that you can just WALZ into the presence of God there at the altar and give
Him a sacrifice of praise, if you’re not willing to pursue forgiveness and reconciliation
with your brothers and sisters and Christ.”
Until you can obey COMPLETELY, you aren’t going to experience GREATER
INTIMACY with God, you’re going to be STUCK.
This is why the Israelites spent 40 years, STUCK in the wildernessBecause they refused to obey.
And until you begin to obey the Lord, you can’t go up the mountain to meet with God,
you can’t enter the Promised Land, and you will GREATLY hinder yourself from being
able to hear the voice of God.
Why?
WellDo you keep talking to people who are doing this?
(fingers in their ears)
“la la la la la la la…
I’m not listening!”
If you refuse to obey the Lord, then the Lord will begin to say only ONE thing to you,
over and over and over-
“REPENT.”
“REPENT.”
“REPENT.”
And that’s really the ONLY CONVERSATION that God will have with you,
until you repent and turn to Him and obey.
You know, in VERSE 9 of this passage, it talks about how the Israelites were
“Stiffnecked.”
Like stubborn donkeys, or stubborn goats…
When I was 9 years old, I had a goat named ZIGGY.
And man, he was a GORGEOUS ANIMAL.
Beautiful coat, wide shoulders, muscles bulging everywhere.
But he was STUBBORN.
And the harder i pulled on his leash, the harder he resisted.
I entered him into a 4H livestock contest and he was the best looking goat,
but I freakin got 4th place because he quote-
“lacked obedience.”
But afterwards, somebody wanted to buy him for $60.
And my dad was like, “i think they want to butcher him son, just so you know.”
And that made me so sad.
But the $60 made me happy.
So….goodbye ZIGGY.
How do we respond when the Lord calls us? When He guides us?
Are we like ZIGGY?
Are we lacking in obedience?
Maybe our lives look beautiful on the outside, maybe we look strong and sleek,
but when our master tries to call us, do we obey?
Do we follow?
My friends, there is a danger in this.
There is a danger in continual disobedience to the Lord.
After Jesus gave the parable of the sower, his disciples questioned why He was
speaking in parables, and His answer was profound.
He implies that when someone is not FAITHFUL with the revelation of God that
they’ve been given, they won’t be given MORE revelation,
they’ll be given LESS revelation.
In fact, the revelation they have will be TAKEN AWAY!
Matthew 13:10-13 (CSB)
10Then the disciples came up and asked him,
“Why are you speaking to them in parables? ”
11He answered, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for
you to know, but it has not been given to them.
12For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but
whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see,
and hearing they do not listen or understand.
WOW.
The sobering news is that if God gives you a WORD TO OBEY,
and if you refuse to obey it, then that word could eventually be given to someone else,
because the word of God will not return void.
That’s the sobering news.
But the AMAZING news is that the MORE YOU OBEY the word of God,
the more of God’s Word He will give you!
Because you are being FAITHFUL with it!
Moses was RESPONSIBLE with the words of God.
He obeyed them.
He taught them.
He UPHELD the law of God, the commands of God, the 10 commandments.
When Aaron and the rest of the Israelites were carried away with spiritual adultery and
unfaithfulness, Moses was on the top of the mountain of God, face to face with Him in
His presence.
Why?
Because He was responsible with the word of God!
And the more that we are responsible to uphold God’s Word, the further into the cloud
we will go!
The higher up the mountain we go!
Greater obedience to God always results in God saying
“let me show you MY GLORY, let me show you MY GOODNESS!”
Amen?
So I don’t know what kind of work YOU are being called to do in your covenant
relationship with Christ…
But I want to encourage you to step out in faith and obey!
Step out in faith and do what God is calling you to do!
Go find your two tablets of stone.
Chisel them out.
Carry them up the mountain,
and MEET WITH GOD!
Amen?
5The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name,
“the Lord.” 6The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and
abounding in faithful love and truth, 7maintaining faithful love to a thousand
generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty
unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and
grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
So, first of all, just a little plain exegesis here.
When God says that He will not leave the guilty UNPUNISHED, He is talking about
the unrepentant.
This proof comes from Joel chapter 2 and Jonah chapter 3. Joel and Jonah quote this
passage within the context of repentance. That is to say, that God doesn’t PUNISH
PEOPLE the guilty, if they come to Him in repentance.
And a second thing to understand is that when God says that He brings the
consequence of the father’s iniquity on the children and grandchildren and their
children and their children, He isn’t saying that He’s gonna punish you because you’re
grandpappy was a bootlegger, smuggling moonshine across the country.
Ezekiel 18:18-20 (CSB) says
18“As for his father, he will die for his own iniquity because he practiced fraud, robbed
his brother, and did among his people what was not good.
19But you may ask, ‘Why doesn’t the son suffer punishment for the father’s iniquity?
’Since the son has done what is just and right, carefully observing all my statutes, he
will certainly live. 20The person who sins is the one who will die.
A son won’t suffer punishment for the father’s iniquity, and a father won’t suffer
punishment for the son’s iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous person will be on
him, and the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him.
So it’s clear that there is more going on here.
And I’ll say this, God goes on to say in verse 25:
25“But you say, ‘The Lord’s way isn’t fair.’
Now listen, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair? Instead, isn’t it your ways that are
unfair?
I’ve come to the conclusion that God is better than we know.
And you can try to moralize with Him all you want, but you’re gonna find that His ways
are higher than your ways and His ways are higher than your thoughts.
And there comes a point where you just begin to START WITH THE FACT that God is
good, and you GO FROM THERE.
When you read something in Scripture that you don’t understand, when something
happens in your life that you don’t understand or prefer, you START WITH THE FACT
THAT GOD IS GOOD, and you go from there!
Don’t look through the Bible with the idea that God ISN’T GOOD, and try to get Him to
prove to you that He IS good.
You’re starting from the wrong premise!
If you came up to me and said that pastor Matt went out into the parking lot and
beat the mess out of somebody because the guy was wearing a Dallas Cowboys
jersey, my first thought would NOT BE, “I KNEW IT!”
Pastor Matt’s a VIOLENT GUY!

Show Me Your Glory

No, my first thought would be, “Pastor Matt is GOOD! Why would he beat up someone
in the parking lot, who is just trying to represent the Lord’s team?”
Totally kidding.
I preached a sermon about GRIEF one time, and I started out by saying,
“If you’ve been going through a season of grief, I just want you to know that I love you,
and I’m praying for you, and I also just want you to know that there are actually a ton of
people around you, right now, who can really help you through this, because they have
become EXPERTS on loss.
And then I said, “If you’re a cowboy fan, would you just raise your hand, so they know
who you are? These people have endured loss, after loss, after loss, after loss, after
loss…”
It was so funny to see Cowboys fans raising their hands.
They didn’t wanna say they weren’t Cowboys fans, so they all raised their hands to
admit they were losers lol.
Pastor Matt, what was I preaching about?
Oh yea…God’s goodness and stuff.
And so, if you came up to me saying that Pastor Matt beat some guy up in the parking
lot, my first response would not be, “Pastor Matt is BAD, let me go investigate to see
what I find.”
My first response is, “Pastor Matt is GOOD, now let me go investigate to see what I
find.”
So when God says that He is
maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’
iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
And your mind goes to, “God is UNJUST!”
Then you are doing exactly what I am saying.
You have already passed a verdict on God, and you’re starting from there.
But you can TRUST THAT GOD IS GOOD!
GOD IS GOOD!
AMEN?
ALL THE TIME!
In Exodus 20, when God gives the SECOND COMMANDMENT out of the 10
commandments, He says this same thing about generational blessings and curses,
but He says just a little bit more about the heart issues here- and it helps to understand
that it’s not GOD who isn’t good, it’s HUMANITY who isn’t good.
Exodus 20:4-6 (CSB)
4Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens
above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5Do not bow in worship
to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing
the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate me, 6but showing faithful love to a thousand
generations of those who love me and keep my commands.
So, rest easy my friends.
God is not going to PUNISH you because of your grandpappy’s bootleg operation in
the 1920s.
Because He’s good.
And He only deals with you according to YOUR OWN sin.
And by the way, He actually ISN’T FAIR, when He deals with your sin,
but probably not because of the way that you think.
Fair would be to give you what you deserve.
PRAISE GOD that He doesn’t give us what we deserve!
There’s a passage in Psalms that talks about how God REVEALED HIS WAYS TO
MOSES.
And at least in part, it’s talking about THIS PASSAGE.
In Exodus 33, Moses says, “God, teach me your ways.”
An then he says, “Show me your glory.”
And we are reading through God’s answer in Exodus 34 this morning.
He is showing His ways to Moses, and to us!
And so, Psalm 103 is referencing that, and this is what it says:
Psalm 103:7-13 (CSB)
7He revealed his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel.
8The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.
9He will not always accuse us
or be angry forever.
10He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve
or repaid us according to our iniquities.
11For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his faithful love
toward those who fear him.
12As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.
13As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
My friends, God isn’t a God of karma.
If He was, then we would have all gotten what we deserved, and we’d all be in hell.
God would just DESTROY each one of us, for the extreme evils we have committed
against us, and that would be the end of it.
If you sin against an infinite God, there is an INFINITE punishment to pay.
And yet, God offers FORGIVENESS to each one of us, when we don’t deserve it, when
we LEAST deserve it, He offers forgiveness, kindness, patience, love, and faithfulness.
Listen to all these things that our God is!
YAHWEH is a compassionate God
He is a gracious God
He is slow to anger
He is abounding in truth,
And he is maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations
He is forgiving iniquity,
He is forgiving rebellion, and
He is forgiving sin.
Can we just take 10 seconds to praise our God this morning?
And when you think about it, this story that we are reading about the Israelites here in
Exodus 34, is OUR STORY!
Because it’s really the story of THE PRODIGAL SON.
Israel was God’s son.
It’s the example of the Father and the son, even when the son messed up.
When the Father saw the prodigal son coming back, He RAN to him, and put a RING
on his finger- COVENANT!
And he put a robe around him- a PROFOUND symbol of forgiveness,
restoration, and the Father’s UNCONDITIONAL, COVENANT LOVE!
And this is what the Father is doing with the Israelites, and with you and me!
He is RUNNING to us, even after we have sinned HORRIBLY!
He is EAGER to be faithful to you and forgive you and your children, to a
THOUSAND GENERATIONS!
He is EAGER to demonstrate grace and kindness to you, even when you rebel- He is
EAGER to do it if you repent!
What a picture this is of UNDESERVED GRACE!
Israel has just committed spiritual adultery by worshiping the golden calf in
Exodus 32 and instead of abandoning them,
God renews HIS covenant, showing that His mercy is greater than their sin.
He commands NEW TABLETS of the Law to be made, signifying that Israel is
still His chosen people.
This is the heart of God in the story of the Israelites, the story of the prodigal,
and the story of John Cantu, the story of Matt Krachunis, the story of Crystal, and the
story of Acacia, the story of Todd, and Amanda, and Marcus, and JamesGod does not excuse sin, but He is EAGER to restore those who truly repent.
He treats us SO MUCH better than we deserve!
SO MUCH BETTER than we deserve!
How do we respond to this?
Let me tell you how we respond to this.
8Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.
WORSHIP!
He said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us
(even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept
us as your own possession.”
Other translations say accept us as your own INHERITANCE.
You know, in the story of the prodigal son, the son valued MONEY and physical
possessions as his inheritance, as his treasured possession.
But to the Father, those were not the truly valuable things!
You see, to the Father, it is the SON that is truly valuable.
The PRODIGAL SON, HIMSELF, is the treasure!
My friends, GOD NEVER CHANGES!
He is THE SAME, yesterday, today, and forever!
Here in Exodus, Moses KNOWS THE HEART OF GOD!
And so He says, “GOD! FORGIVE OUR INIQUITY AND OUR SIN, AND ACCEPT AS
YOUR OWN POSSESSION!”
“TAKE US AS YOUR INHERITANCE!”
And listen, that PLEASED GOD, to hear Moses say that!
GOD DID THAT!
He’s like,
“YES, MO! That’s IT! That’s what I want!”
10And the Lord responded, “Look, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all
your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in the whole earth or in
any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing
with you is awe-inspiring.
The Father values PEOPLE as His inheritance!
He values YOU!
He values ME!
No matter what you’ve done!
No matter what you struggle with!
God is saying to you,
“you don’t have to be defined by your past, you don’t have to be defined by your
darkness, you don’t have to be defined by the things that others have said about you,
or the things that YOU’VE said about you!
You can be defined by MY FORGIVENESS, and MY LOVE for you!
You can be my TREASURED POSSESSION!
And you know what is SO AMAZING about this?
So glad you asked.
(I’m gonna tell you, even if you don’t wanna know lol)
What’s so amazing about this, is that it occurs to me that MOSES was the ONLY ONE
who was allowed on the mountain!
NO ONE ELSE was allowed on the mountain!
No one else could ascend the hill of the Lord to meet with God on Mount Sinai!
BUT MOSES COULD.
And so we think,
“Well, what made Moses SO SPECIAL that God picked Him to go up on top of the
mountain?”
You want to know why?
God CHOSE Moses, because He knew that Moses would stand in the GAP and
MEDIATE for the Israelites, so that God could pour out His favor upon them.
So that God could make Himself known, and so that they would come into a
relationship with Him, and belong to Him in a covenant relationship!
God chose a man that would be an ADVOCATE for others.
And by the way, I gotta say, God is LOOKING for these kinds of people!
When the Israelites rebelled and made the golden calf, God wanted to destroy them,
but MOSES INTERCEDED!
MOSES MEDIATED!
MOSES STOOD IN THE GAP!
Listen to this!
Exodus 32:9-14 (CSB)
9The Lord also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiffnecked people. 10Now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn against them and I
can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God: “Lord, why does your anger burn
against your people you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong
hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill
them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your
fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people.
13Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—you swore to them by yourself
and declared, ‘I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will
give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever.’ ”
14So the Lord relented concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his
people.
God is looking for men and women who will STAND IN THE GAP for others, and say,
“GOD! Please don’t destroy this person! Please show mercy to them! Please show
them who you are and release them from sin and from destruction!”
Man, guys, the favor of God on your life is NOT JUST FOR YOU!
It’s for those around you!
THE FAVOR OF GOD WAS MEDIATED THROUGH MOSES, TO THE Israelites.
THE FAVOR OF GOD IS MEDIATED THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUS, TO OTHERS!
So cry out for people!
Intercede for people!
Stand in the gap for people!
Why?
Because it’s the attitude that Christ had!
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do!”
Moses is showing us WHO CHRIST IS in this passage!
Because Christ stood in the PERFECT AND COMPLETE favor of God, and then He
stood in the gap for you and for me!
And He died on that cross so that the favor of God that WE DID NOT DESERVE,
could fall upon us!
And now, God is not just calling MOSES up the mountain, He is calling YOU up the
mountain!
WHAT A PRIVILEGE!
Don’t forget how TERRIFYING God’s presence was in Exodus 19 and 20!
Exodus 19:15-22 (CSB)
15He said to the people, “Be prepared by the third day.
Do not have sexual relations with women.”
16On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud
on the mountain, and a very loud blast from a ram’s horn, so that all the people in the
camp shuddered. 17Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and
they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in
smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire.a Its smoke went up like the smoke of
a furnace,b and the whole mountain shook violently. 19As the sound of the ram’s horn
grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.
20The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord
summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up. 21The Lord directed
Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the Lord; otherwise
many of them will die.a 22Even the priests who come near the Lord must consecrate
themselves, or the Lord will break out in anger against them.”
You see, the Lord does not DISLIKE sin.
The Lord HATES sin.
Sin and disobedience makes God ANGRY.
So it’s NO SMALL THING that THROUGH JESUS,
God calls us UP THE MOUNTAIN, into His presence!
We forget what His presence actually is.
Have we separated His PERSON from His PRESENCE because we’ve
gotten comfortable and taken the GIFT of the cross and salvation and relationship
with God for granted?
My friends, this morning,
We get to be Moses!
We get to come up into His presence!
We get to come up to His throne!
God is literally inviting you up to the top of the mountain, 24/7, to be with Him!
And every time we worship in church, we have entered into the VERY REAL presence
of this VERY REAL God that we read about in Exodus 19, and Exodus 34 this morning.
We have ascended the hill of the Lord.
We have been called up to the top of the mountain!
AND YOU ARE IN A SACRED PLACE!
Every time we meet together, we are in a SACRED PLACE!
This is a sacred moment!
Church, can we praise Jesus for this moment?
Because it’s all through Him!
Hebrews 4:14-16 (CSB)
14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the
heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. 15For we do not
have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has
been tempted in every way as we are,a yet without sin. 16Therefore, let us approach
the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help
us in time of need.
And I want to end by reading verse 10 to you, ONE LAST TIME.
THINK OF THIS AS DIRECTED TO YOU!
A PROMISE FOR YOU!
10And the Lord responded,
“Look, I am making a covenant
-WITH JOHN CANTU – PUT YOUR NAME HERE
In the presence of all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in
the whole earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work,
for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.

Show Me Your Glory