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I just want to share a little bit of how I was planning for this.

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A email got sent out to the school religion asking if anyone was available to speak here

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today and I was actually at a praise team rehearsal for another church that I play at

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and as I was playing piano I see this email come in on my phone and immediately I just

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say to myself, okay, you know, I should do this.

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So I just sent the reply, I said, yeah, absolutely, I'm all in.

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And when the rehearsal finished, I thought to myself again, wow, I just committed to

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a whole sermon in less than a few days.

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So what do I do?

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Now I need to put together a sermon and so as I thought and processed through the different

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topics that I could talk about, what God was laying on my heart, I prayed and prayed and

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prayed and prayed and I spent a whole day asking God, what do you want me to talk about?

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I believe it was Wednesday afternoon when I kind of got the idea of the message that

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I wanted to talk about.

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And it was about God's presence, about God's face, but I did not know how I was going to

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express it.

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I did not know how it was going to flesh out.

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So I kept praying and I said, Lord, you know, just impress me in my heart with the words

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that you want me to speak.

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And I sat down at the table, I pull up my laptop, I open it and I opened a document

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and title it, If I Could Only See Your Face.

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And I remember just staring at a blank piece of white paper on the screen and just thinking

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to myself, how do I say this?

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And in an instant, the first sentence came to my mind and then the second and the third

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and the fourth and so on and in a matter of two hours, I had fleshed out the entire sermon

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and by the end of it, I was asking myself, what in the world just happened?

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That did not come from me.

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So it's under that thought that I'm coming here today expecting God to even bless me

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with this because this was clearly not of my own, this was God.

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So I just ask that we can just bow our heads one more time and pray and invite God into

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this place.

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Lord, just be here with us, stir our hearts up and impress us in our minds, speak to us,

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change the way that we view you, change it fundamentally that we may have such a huge

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paradigm shift that when we leave this place, we leave absolutely madly in love with you.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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Look, God's face is so mysterious, it's so powerful, it's so incredible, it's such a

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mysterious topic to even talk about, right?

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It's the face of God.

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But when was the last time we asked to see God's face?

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When was the last time we've experienced God's presence in such a way that it left us completely

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changed?

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When was the last time that we experienced God's presence in a way that it filled us

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like nothing else?

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When was the last time we've experienced God's presence in a way that we would want to come

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back and come back and come back to it and not want to leave ever?

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When?

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When?

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When was the last time you prayed that prayer?

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And I just want to highlight a story in the Bible that talks about a man who desired this.

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We can turn to Exodus chapter 19 verse 18, if you have your Bibles, let's go there.

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And it's Moses, we're going to dive into the story of Moses and how he was after God's

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face after his presence.

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Exodus chapter 19 verse 18, all the way to 20 actually.

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So Exodus 19, chapter 19 verses 18 to 20 says, now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because Yahweh

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descended upon it in fire.

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And its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain trembled violently.

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And the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.

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Then Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.

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And Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain.

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And Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.

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You see, God had descended on the mountain of Sinai in such an incredible way.

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The mountain was on fire, right?

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There was smoke, a ball of smoke completely covering the top of the mountain.

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The Lord himself had descended on the mountain.

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It was a holy mountain.

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God's presence, his raw presence was on that mountain.

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Yet it's interesting that even God bringing himself down to earth touching the tip of

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the mountain asks people to stay away, to stay at a distance.

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Look at verse 23.

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We're still in Exodus chapter 19 verse 23.

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Look at what it says.

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When Moses said to Yahweh, the people cannot come up to Sinai for you have warned us saying

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set bounds about the mountain, set it apart as holy.

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Verse 24, then Yahweh said to him, go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you,

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but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to Yahweh, lest he

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break out against them.

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You see, the people had to stay away because if they came in the direct contact with God's

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presence, they would die.

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So God has come down to this mountain, his presence is there and he says, barricade the

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mountain, keep the people away because if they venture too close, they can die.

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But here is Moses going up the mountain all the way to the top in the presence of God.

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And you see, Moses has this fascination that David has with the presence of God.

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Moses desires to be in the presence of God so badly and David actually echoes this in

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Psalms.

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Look at Psalms 105 verse 4.

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Psalm 105 verse 4 says, seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually.

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And not just that, David also recognizes that there's nowhere that he can run to escape

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the presence of God.

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Look at what it says in Psalm 139 verse 7, where can I go from your spirit or where can

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I flee from your presence?

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David goes even further, even further than that and says that he does not ever want to

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leave God's presence by using the house of the Lord in that language.

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He says, Psalm 26 verse 8, oh Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place

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where your glory dwells.

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I just love it.

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I love where your glory dwells.

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I love the habitation of your house.

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Psalm 27 verse 4 says, one thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek that I may

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dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to behold the beauty of the

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character of God, to behold the beauty of the Lord, to behold the beauty of Jesus and

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to meditate in his temple.

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David just wants to be in the presence of God.

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He wants to behold the beauty of God.

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And that same beauty, that same presence was the presence of God that had descended on

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Mount Sinai in a very real and vivid way.

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Thunder and lightning shot forth from the mountain.

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That is the same God that David is talking about.

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And Moses has the same fascination with God's presence as David has.

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How many of us have such an ardent desire to know God in that way?

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How many of us have such an ardent desire to stay in God's presence, to abide in his

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house, to abide in his presence, to behold his beauty?

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How many of us have that desire?

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And when God came down on Mount Sinai, it was covered in smoke.

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Could it be that Satan also tries to cover the presence of God in smoke?

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That it seems like everything that God does is in the dark?

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That the Old Testament is just too bloody and too violent?

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That doesn't seem like the God of the New Testament.

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It just has to be some mysterious thing.

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It's just dark.

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It's just smoky.

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I can't see through it.

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But what happens when we walk through the lies that Satan has placed around the presence

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of God and we walk through, and as we're walking through the lies of Satan, as we're walking

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through the darkness, as we're walking through all the different pictures of God that don't

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align with his character and with his beauty and with his love, as we walk through that,

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we start seeing a light in the distance.

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We start seeing that light getting brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter.

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And as Moses walks in, we start seeing that there is a light so beautiful inside.

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If we could only be in his presence and behold God.

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That you could walk in the presence of God and not help but be left transformed, conformed

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to his image.

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But Moses doesn't stop here.

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You see, Moses wants more.

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Moses wants more.

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Moses wants an experience like no other.

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Moses is not just content with the presence of God.

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Now he wants to see his glory.

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He wants to see his face.

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While the people of Israel are shuddering in fear, while the people of Israel are afraid

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of the mountain because it's shaking violently and God has descended upon it, Moses is going

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up the mountain into the direct presence of God and he still wants more.

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He still wants more.

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How many of us are putting limits today on our relationship with God just because we're

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at a good distance from the mountain?

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How many of us are putting limits on how close we get to God just because it seems too mysterious

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to investigate?

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It seems too dangerous to go closer and closer.

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How many of us are staying at a distance and we just say, no, our devotionals in the morning

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are fine.

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Maybe just listening to worship music is fine.

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Maybe just reading one verse a day is fine.

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How many of us are putting boundaries between God and ourselves?

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How many of us are withholding and straining our own spiritual relationship with God because

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we just feel safer at a distance?

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We feel like we'd rather look at the big picture.

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We feel like we'd rather stay back.

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We don't want anymore.

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And Moses proceeds to ask God this one question.

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And I don't think many of us ask this question nowadays.

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I really don't think so.

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It's a question that I have not heard many people ask God.

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Turn to Exodus chapter 23.

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Exodus, sorry, not 23, 33.

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Exodus chapter 33 verse 18 to 23.

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Exodus chapter 33.

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Look at what it says.

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Then Moses said, I pray you show me your glory.

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And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name

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of Yahweh before you.

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And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show compassion on whom I will

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show compassion.

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But he said, you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live.

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No man at all.

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Then Yahweh says, behold, there is a place by me next to me, close to me, and you shall

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stand there on the rock and it will come about while my glory is passing by that I myself,

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I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed

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by.

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Then I will remove my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.

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My face shall not be seen.

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Guess what?

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David also expresses this same desire, this same fascination in the Psalms again.

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Not only does David seek for God's presence, David also seeks for God's face.

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So Moses and David are catching on to the same things.

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Because you see in Psalm 27 verse 8, like we read in the scripture reading, it says,

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you have said, seek my face and my heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek.

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This is the same desire that David has.

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And I want to ask you guys this morning, could it be that there is a connection between presence

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and face, that we need to be in the presence of God in order to have that desire to see

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his face, that if we're standing at a distance, we won't want to see his face because we haven't

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even begun to digest the presence of the Lord, that when we actually stand in God's presence,

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we start getting the desire, developing the desire, it starts growing in us, the Holy

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Spirit places the desire to meet with God face to face.

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What if it doesn't take being a Bible hero to see the face of God?

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What if it doesn't take being some renowned person to see the face of God?

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What if we could see the face of God in our families, in our problems, in our church,

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in our community, in our relationships, in our friendships?

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What if we could see the face of God nowadays?

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So Moses stood on the mountain and the people were at the foot of the mountain.

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They were afraid.

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They were standing at a distance.

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They did not want to walk any closer.

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And Moses says, let me see your glory.

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The people are at a distance and Moses says, let me see your glory from within the presence

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of God.

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Let me see your face.

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In the same way that David would echo years later.

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You see, God echoes his response in such a beautiful way.

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He says again, he says, I will put you in the cleft of the rock.

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I will cover you with my hand and I will remove my hand so you can see my back, but my face

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shall not be seen.

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Do we not see that God is a God that is open to communication?

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God is the God that establishes communication and conversation with you.

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God steps down to earth.

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We never step up to heaven.

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God always comes down, meets us where we are and still he takes the initiation of a conversation

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from Moses as very serious.

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And he wants to have a conversation with Moses where he's setting out kind of the boundaries

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of what Moses can experience and what he can't.

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And he says, you can see my back.

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God invites us into conversation.

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God wants us to know that he is beautiful, that he is safe, that he is approachable,

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that he's not just some God standing at the distance.

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God wants us to know that he's willing to talk with us in a safe manner and that he

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wants to reveal himself to us.

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He's not the God who wants to hide himself behind smoke.

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He's the God who wants to make himself known to you.

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And next thing you know, Moses just walks down the mountain with his face glowing and

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he must wear a veil over his face because of how bright it was to protect the rest of

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the camp.

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If we could only see the face of God, could it be that when we meet with God and we ask

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him to show himself to us, we cannot step away but be completely transformed with the

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very countenance of our face changed?

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Could it be that if we ask God to meet with him in such a powerful way, there is no way

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that you can leave from that place without feeling blessed, without feeling full, without

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feeling transformed, without feeling like you're different and that other people will

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realize that you are different?

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But hold on, wait.

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Did God not say that no one could come on the mountain?

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Did God not say that if anyone saw him, they would surely die?

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Why is it that only Moses was able to have this experience?

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Like it says in Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 10, and there has not arisen a prophet since

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in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

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Why is it just Moses?

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How come?

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How is it that just Moses got this experience?

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How is it that the people of Israel are in fear while Moses is having this completely

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spiritual experience at the top of a mountain?

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Why just Moses?

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And before we get there, I just want to mention a brief parenthetical statement.

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God is love in the most radical, life-transforming, crazy way.

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God is love.

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It doesn't say God is like love.

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The Bible does not say God has the characteristic.

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No.

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The Bible says God is love.

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Love comes from God.

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It does not come from anywhere else.

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God is the source for love.

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Love exists because God exists.

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When we fall in love with God, we fall in love with love itself.

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We fall in love with God and we fall in love with love itself.

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So when we walk into the presence of God, we're walking into the presence of love.

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Have you ever felt an embrace so warm that you just wanted to stay in that moment and

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soak it up?

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Well, the presence of God is so much more than that.

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The presence of God is the presence of love.

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When we enter His presence, we enter the presence of love.

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Hold on to that thought because we're going to use that later.

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And I want to propose to you something else that we're also going to hold on for later,

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that the face of God has a certain aspect that we have not yet ventured to talk about

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much, at least that I've heard about.

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That there could be some other aspect to the face of God that we have not considered before.

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What if when God tells Moses, you cannot see my face, it is you cannot see my face yet,

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period.

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Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6.

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Turn there to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6.

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Look at what Paul says.

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2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 says, for God who said, let light shine out of the darkness

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has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the

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face of whom?

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Of Jesus Christ.

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Jesus is whom we can see the face of God in.

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Jesus gives, he pours light into that dark mysterious thing that somehow we can't wrap

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our minds against.

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Jesus is the one who reveals what the face of God looks like.

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He's the one who sheds light into that mystery.

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Jesus came to bring light into the knowledge of the glory of God.

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So when we understand the face of God in Jesus, Jesus fulfills this.

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Jesus reveals the face of God.

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So God is love and Jesus reveals the face of God.

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Let's hold on to those two things.

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And look, I just want to realize the sequence in which things happen and just further emphasize

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this.

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Jesus was in God's presence before he asked to see God's face.

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We must be in the presence of God to experience his being, what he's all about, his transformative

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power.

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Yet that presence that caused the mountain to shake, that presence that had thunder and

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lightning going from its midst, that presence that was in between the Caribbean, in the

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Ark of the Covenant, at the top of the Ark of the Covenant, that presence that inhabited

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the most holy place, that same presence was the presence that Moses was in.

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But wouldn't we die?

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Wouldn't we?

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How?

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If this morning what God has for us is that his presence is approachable, how is it that

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we can approach it if we're sinners, if we're going to die?

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If the presence of God is so deadly, how are we to get close?

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How are we, if we're still sinners, and look, this is where it completely shakes my heart.

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This is where it completely changes everything for me because it happened on the cross.

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Jesus is hanging on the cross after fulfilling his ministry, his mission on earth here, and

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he dies on the cross, ready to explain why no one else could see the presence of God,

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why no one else could see his face.

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Jesus is about to answer this extremely difficult question in one moment for all of eternity,

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for the whole universe to understand.

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Turn to Matthew chapter 27, verses 50 to 52.

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You really do not want to miss this.

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If you get anything from today, get this, Matthew 27, chapter 27, verse 50 all the way

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to 52, Matthew 27, verse 50 says, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded

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up his spirit.

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And 51 says, and behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom and the

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earth shook and the rocks were split.

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And verse 52 says, and the tombs were open and many bodies of the saints who had fallen

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asleep were raised.

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When Jesus died, the veil tore in two.

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The presence of God that resided in the most holy place no longer resided there anymore.

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It was not there.

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The presence of God left that place.

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And where does it go now?

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The presence of God needs somewhere to stay.

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Where is it going to go?

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And look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16, do you not know that

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you are God's temple and that the God, that God's spirit dwells in you?

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We have become the temple.

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We have become the sanctuary.

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God's presence is now not some distant thing that we see on a mountain.

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God's presence is not something that's covered in a cloud anymore.

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God's presence is not something that's at a distance that we need to be afraid of.

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God's distance is inside us because of the sacrifice that Jesus paid on the cross.

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But how can he live in us if we're sinners?

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How?

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How can he live in us?

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Jesus died on the cross.

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Jesus died on the cross and because of that, Jesus resides in us.

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God resides in us because he sees the righteousness of Jesus, not yours.

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God sees the pureness of Jesus' heart, not yours.

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God sees a temple that is without desecration because it's the temple of Jesus.

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Jesus paid that once and for all and showed that God's presence was not something that

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needed to be hidden anymore.

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And God takes it upon himself to live in you and me.

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And now we are the temple and we are clean.

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No matter what you do, no matter what I do, you are clean, we are clean once and for all

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when we call upon the name of Jesus.

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We have become the temple.

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This is what David wanted.

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This is what Moses wanted.

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Look at this.

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In the sanctuary, in Leviticus, it talks about what the priests would do in the sanctuary.

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In the most holy place when they would kill the lamb, they would sprinkle the blood on

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the Ark of the Covenant.

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In the most holy place.

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Now you may ask, what in the world is a priest doing, sprinkling blood on the Ark of the

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Covenant in the most holy place where the presence of God is?

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This would desecrate the presence of God.

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Sprinkling blood in the most holy place of the sanctuary would ruin the presence of God.

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It would ruin his most holy place.

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It would ruin the glory and the beauty of that presence.

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And you know what that symbolizes?

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You know what that symbolizes when the priest would sprinkle that blood on the Ark of the

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Covenant?

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It means that the blood that was shed for you that symbolizes your sin, that blood that

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symbolizes the nasty things that we have done, the impure thoughts that we have thought,

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the life that we have lived, that sin got placed in the presence of God, on God himself.

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And in one moment God says, I myself am responsible for your sin.

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I myself am responsible for your sin.

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God says that's no longer your sin.

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That is no longer what you did.

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It's no longer what you thought.

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It's no longer what you lived.

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It's no longer the environment you were in.

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Now that's my sin.

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Now that's the sin that I committed because the blood gets sprinkled in my presence.

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It desecrates me.

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It makes me unholy.

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And that is what I'm willing to do so my creation can get back with me.

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That is what our God does.

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He takes sin upon himself and the responsibility for it.

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And it was shown all throughout the Old Testament.

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This is what the Jews would use to encourage themselves.

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My sin would become God's sin and his righteousness would become mine.

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That is the story of scripture.

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This is why we cannot see the face of God.

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This is why we could not see the face of God because, only because, he is love.

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And there is such thing as a moment where you are so emotionally overdone.

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When you are so burdened in your heart out of pain and sorrow and sadness that you can

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quite literally, psychologically speaking, have cardiac arrest.

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When God tells Moses that he cannot see his face and live when so many people died because

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they tried seeing God's face, when they tried handling the Ark of the Covenant in incorrect

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ways, when they tried entering his presence in incorrect ways.

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When we see God face to face, we cannot help but be emotionally overwhelmed because his

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eyes are so pure.

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His face is so beautiful and the love that he's loved you with is so perfect that if

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you were to look into his eyes, into the eyes of a loving God who's pursued you all your

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life and whom you've turned your back upon so many times, if you were to look into his

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eyes, you would feel so much guilt.

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So much of your life would be turned upside down in that moment.

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You would be so saddened and broken that you've broken the heart of God that you would be

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so emotionally overdone that you would die.

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00:32:09,620 --> 00:32:13,840
It's not because God is so holy that he's going to kill you.

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It's not that when you come into his presence, he's going to destroy you.

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No, it's just that you could not handle a being so perfectly loving as he is.

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You could not.

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And that is why Jesus comes and he fulfills two things, two things that Moses and David

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wanted.

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Moses and David desire to be in the presence of God.

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God, do not remove me from your presence, says David.

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Do not remove me.

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Let me stay in your house.

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That presence that David wanted.

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Now we can have it and it lives in us because of Jesus and Moses seeing the face of God.

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Now we can see it because we are righteous, because it's available to us.

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In Jesus, we can see the presence of God.

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In Jesus, we can experience the presence of God.

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Just let that sink in.

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The almighty creator of the universe, the one who's perfect, the one who has gone to

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extreme measures to show you his love for you, is living in you right now.

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And that proves that Jesus' sacrifice actually worked.

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All of us right now have a heartbeat because Jesus died for you thousands of years ago.

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You're alive and that proves it.

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God said to Moses, surely you cannot see my face and live because I myself would show

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it and will show it on a cross, hanging on a cross, wearing a crown of thorns for you.

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You can't see my face yet because I am going to show it on the cross and once and for all,

431
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:38,960
all of the universe is going to know that I am the God who weeps for my creation.

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I am the God who is eternally burdened for your salvation.

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Lord, thank you so much for your presence, for your love, for showing us your face in

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the face of Jesus, that when we talk and think about the crucifixion, we can know that the

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God of the universe decided not to stay inside a cloud.

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He decided to make himself known for us.

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God fill us with your presence.

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May it overflow, may today be the day that a new relationship starts with you, a new

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00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:37,880
relationship where we can understand the glory of your love, the presence of your love.

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00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,000
May that fill us day and night.

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May we not want to depart from it.

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Like David says, may we abide in the house of the Lord forever and that we may say, Lord,

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you said seek your face and that we may say, I seeked after your face.

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I was searching for your face.

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The verse that says, seek for me and you shall find me when you seek for me and search for

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me with all of your heart.

447
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That that verse may become a reality in our lives.

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That we may not be afraid to approach you, that we may not be afraid to have communication

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00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:25,960
with you, that we may not be afraid because we wear your righteousness, God, and you wear

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00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:27,960
our sins.

451
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:32,220
Right now you look at us and you see a clean person.

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You see someone clean that can be a vessel for your use.

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So God, I ask that this morning your spirit may come into us in a way that it hasn't before.

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That it may stir up our heart.

455
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That it may stir up our entire being.

456
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That our community may know.

457
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That our family may know.

458
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That our relationships with others, that our friends would know.

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Lord, just reveal yourself to us.

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May we desire to be in your presence.

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00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:17,760
And like Deuteronomy 34 says that there was never a person like Moses who was with God

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face to face.

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May we be a people that have encountered you face to face.

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If I could only see your face, God.

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If I could only.

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Thank you, Lord.

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In Jesus' name I pray.

468
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:35,520
Amen.