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Today we're starting a series on the glory. Everybody
say the glory. Now we sing that word, and we
hear that word, but do we actually understand
what the glory is? Have we ever experienced the
glory? The glory is something that each one of
us have the opportunity to experience. Okay?
So. We're going to start in Exodus chapter 33.
I don't have enough time to read the whole chapter
because we're going to multiple places. I am
going to focus in on several verses, but let
me set up where we are. God's people had spent
a long time at Mount Sinai, coming out of captivity
in Egypt. They went to Mount Sinai. You've heard
of the Ten Commandments, right? You've heard
of Moses destroying the first set and then having
to make another set. Him spending 40 days on
the mountain at least a couple of times. God's
people saw. I mean, it was a long time before
I understood this or recognized this, but God
spoke to everybody at first. He spoke to all
of them. But then all of a sudden God's people
said, that's too frightening for us. And they
said, from now on, God, we don't want you to
talk to us anymore. We just want you to talk
to Moses. And then let Moses know what to talk
to us about. Because it was an amazing demonstration
of the glory of God. But it was too much for
them to take hold of. Look at the person beside
you and say, it's not too much for me to take
hold of. It's not too much for me to take hold
of. Well, they had been there for a while. It
was time for them to leave Mount Sinai. If you
look at the first part of Exodus 33, it started
with an E anyway, right? Look at the first part.
God is telling them that it's time to leave.
It's time to leave, and it's time to go to the
land of promise, flowing with milk and honey.
They had already built the tabernacle, the tent
that they built. to travel through the wilderness
that they actually kept until the time of David,
was their meeting place for God. The tabernacle
was built. The Ark of the Covenant was in the
Holy of Holies of the tabernacle. Now, Moses,
they would set the tabernacle, the tent of meeting,
outside the camp. Not right in the middle of
the camp, but outside the camp. And Moses would
go there. You can find this in chapter 33. Moses
would go there, and when they knew that Moses
was going, everybody would come outside of their
tents, and they would see Moses going into the
tent of meeting, into the tabernacle. And when
Moses would go in, a pillar of cloud would hover
over the entrance. That's awesome, right? And
one thing that I thought about while I was preparing
this week's message, I've never looked at the
Ark of the Covenant this way. I should have,
but how many of you know you can spend a long
time in the Bible and not really catch things?
But God had told his people, he had told Moses,
I'm going to meet with you between the cherubims,
above the cherubims of the Ark of the Covenant.
That's where I'm going to meet with you. Now,
we can look at that, the Ark of the Covenant,
as the earthly throne of God. God is in the throne
room of eternity, right? But this became his
earthly throne. We used to sing a song. I'll
be more undignified than this, right? We used
to jump around, act crazy. When I was younger,
my knees were better. My back was better. But
it's a Crowder song. I don't know if you've ever
heard of it or not. I'll be more undignified
than this. And I would talk about that the presence
of God was with the Ark of the Covenant. And
during the time of David, the Ark came back to
God's people. So the presence of God returned
back to God's people. Why David was so excited
and his wife got on him and said, you acted like
a fool today. He said, this is my version. Bless
your heart, I wasn't doing it for you anyway.
Right? When it comes to me celebrating and worshiping
with God, worshiping God, I'll be even more undignified
than this. You haven't seen it all yet. So, but
the ark was there. The earthly throne of God,
the pillar of cloud, when Moses would meet with
God. And God's saying, all right, it's time to
leave. It's time to leave and go to the promised
land. And Moses made a statement in verses 15
and 16. Then Moses said, because God had actually
said, if you read it, God had actually said,
these people, you know, by the way they've been
acting. I'm going to send an angel to help you
out. I'm going to still help you. If I'm with
you all the time, these people aren't going to
want me to be with them all the time, the way
they're acting. You can read it for yourself.
Then Moses said to God, listen to his heart,
if you don't personally go with us, Don't make
us leave this place. Just letting us sit there
a minute. He so desired the presence of God that
he didn't want to go anywhere or do anything.
If he was doing it, away from the presence of
God. If you don't personally go with us, don't
make us leave this place. He said, how will anyone
know that you look favorably upon me or on me,
on me and your people, if you don't go with us?
And then I found something else that I've just
never seen before. How many of you have read
the Bible and you've read something so many times
and then all of a sudden it's like, how could
I have missed this? That's coming up. Moses says
to God, for your presence among us sets your
people and me apart from all other people on
the earth. Now last week, we talked about something
that set us apart. How we will be recognized
as God's people. Does anybody remember what that
is? They will know that we are Christ followers
by our... Say it loud. They will know that we
are Christians by our love. Everybody say love.
And I've always focused on that. and talked about
that, and preached about that. But here we find
something else that's very important. God's presence
among God's people sets his people apart from
all the other people on the earth. God's presence.
A few verses later, Moses responded, show me
your glory. Show me your glorious presence. I
mean, had Moses not seen the glory of God? Spending
40 days with God on the mountain and the glory
of God just covering Mount Sinai. him speaking
out of the clouds, Moses responded, God, show
me your glory. Show me your glorious presence.
And right after that, we find the story of God
saying, okay, here's what's going to happen.
My goodness, everybody say goodness, because
God's a good God. All right, we've got to get
that down pat. We've got to know that God's a
good God. We can't let situations that we go
through interpret who we think God is. Because
God's a good God. Thank you for helping me. He
said, my goodness is going to pass before you.
God's so good, you can see his goodness. Just
think about that. He says, but you can't see
my face. You can't see my face. I mean, this
is Old Testament. Everybody say Old Testament.
You can't see my face. So here's what I'm going
to do. My goodness is going to pass before you.
I'm going to cover you up with my hand, and then
I'm going to let you see my glory as I pass by.
And that's what happened. glory. That Hebrew
word is called, called bode. And here's what
it means. It means weight. Everybody say weight.
And this version of the word is always used figuratively
and it's always used in a good sense. The root
of the word is not necessarily always good. All
right. It's weight, but it can be a bad weight,
a crushing weight. This particular version of
the word is figuratively, it's in a good sense,
and it's translated glory. Everybody say glory.
Splendor. Everybody say splendor. Honor. Everybody
say honor. That's the way it's translated in
our English language, but it's called boat. It's
a weight. I've just got to share with you, every
time I've experienced the manifested presence
of God, the glory of God, it's felt like a weight.
Not a bad weight. Not a bad heaviness. Because
we all know what a bad heaviness is like, right?
We've had heaviness before that was not good
heaviness. But every time I've experienced His
glory, It's always felt like a weight. A weight.
And I believe his glory can be experienced. The
main reason is because I've experienced it. I
mean, the Bible tells it, and I agree with that.
I believe everybody in this room can experience
the glory of God. I really do. But it's going
to take something on your part. We could describe
this as one of the most daring prayers in all
of Scripture. Most people, when they pray to
God, they're asking Him for something. We went
through a series on powerful prayer. We're asking
God for something. We're asking God for success
in whatever we're going through. We're asking
God for stability. We're asking God for comfort.
We're asking God for blessing. But Moses wasn't
asking God for any of that. He was asking for
God Himself. He was wanting to continue to experience
the manifested presence of God. He didn't want
to leave Mount Sinai and say, well, remember
that? Remember? Remember when God appeared to
us? Remember when God talked to us? Remember?
I mean, you know, back in the day, I spent 40
days with God on the mountain. It wasn't good
enough. He's like, I got to have it. I got to
have the presence of God. I've got to have the
glory of God. So he was praying for God, not
for blessing, not for comfort, not for success.
He's praying for God. Moses wasn't hungry for
better circumstances. He was hungry for God's
presence. And I'm going to be straight up with
you. The only way you're going to experience
it is if you're hungry for it. We're hungry for
a lot of things. Right? We have passion for a
lot of things in this world. But we've got to
be passionate for God if we're going to experience
His presence. The glory of God. Is the manifested
presence of God. You might say God's everywhere
all the time. What are you talking about? God
is omnipresent. Right? He's everywhere all the
time. So what are you talking about? I can't
go anywhere and not be in the presence of God.
Right? You can't. You cannot hide from God. But
there are some times when he's more here. Everybody
say more here. There are times when he's more
here than his omnipresence. Just like we already
talked about when I said when we gather together
in his name, what does the Bible say? He is here.
He's here. Well, if he was already here, then
why does it say that? Well, it says it because
there's sometimes when he's more here. That's
the glory or the manifested presence of God.
God didn't rebuke Moses. God answered Moses and
revealed himself to Moses. Now in Chile, I've
never been to Chile. Has anyone ever been to
Chile? In the middle of the driest desert in
Chile, there are patches of ground that look
permanently dead. No moisture, nothing green,
no life. And it's so dead that scientists call
it the place where nothing grows. The place where
nothing grows. But every 10 years, about every
10 years, a big rain sweeps across. More rain
than they've had in the whole 10 years combined.
I mean, just a big rain comes through. And guess
what happens? The desert, the place where nothing
grows, explodes with color. Purple, yellow, white,
and red wildflowers stretched across miles of
land that was once barren. No one went out there
with seeds to plant seeds. No one tended or cultivated
the soil. Nobody fertilized the ground. Those
seeds were already there and they were just waiting.
Just waiting on the rain. Sat there for 10 years,
dormant, just waiting on the rain. Many believers
live like deserts. Has anybody ever had a dry
time? Know what I'm talking about? Some people
don't even know that there's anything but a dry
time. I've never experienced anything above that.
But many believers live like deserts, dry, distracted,
spiritually barren. Here's the deal. Hunger for
the presence of God, hunger for the glory of
God is the rain that will make the dead places
in your life and in your heart come alive. Only
those who are hungry for God will experience
the glory of God. You're not going to experience
the glory of God by accident. It's not just going
to happen. You're not going to experience it.
Listen, you're probably not even going to experience
it if the person sitting beside you experiences
it. Someone else's hunger can't bring an experience
of the glory of God to you. It can't come from
somebody else. It's got to come from you. Here's
what David said one time when he was in a desert
place. Oh God, you are my God. I earnestly search
for you. My soul thirsts for you. My whole body
longs for you in this parched and weary land
where there's no water. Here's why he was, what
was he doing? He's earnestly searching. His soul
is thirsting. His whole body is longing. You
know why? Here's why. He says, God, I have seen
you in your sanctuary. I have gazed upon your
power and glory. I've seen it. It's kind of like
Moses. Moses has seen it, and he don't want to
live without it. Because once you see it, you
want it even more. And David had seen it. David
was hungry because he had seen something. And
even if you've never seen it, I hope you get
hungry today just by knowing that you can see
it. One glimpse of God ruins you for the normal.
You just don't want to have just normal, dead,
dry anymore. When you get a glimpse of God. Once
you've sensed his presence. Once you've touched
his glory. Once you've tasted his goodness. Everything
else becomes insufficient. Just got to have more.
Hunger prepares a place for glory. It prepares
a place for glory. How else can we. a place for
glory in our hearts, in our homes, in our lives,
in Alation Church? How can we prepare a place
to experience the glory of God? Well, one way
is through worshiping God. And remember, worship,
genuine worship, real worship, has to begin in
our hearts. And we sing these songs not as entertainment,
not as a little kumbaya, let's sing together
and smile. We sing these songs so that we have
an opportunity to come together and express our
hearts together to God. That's why we sing them.
To prepare for the glory through. our worship.
2 Chronicles 5 .13 says this, the trumpeters,
this is one of the great displays of the glory
of God in the Old Testament. The trumpeters and
singers performed together in unison to praise
and give thanks to the Lord, accompanied by trumpets,
cymbals, and other instruments. They raised their
voices and praised. They praise the Lord with
these words. He is good. His faithful love endures
forever. Let's say that together. He is good.
His faithful love endures forever. Let's change
the he to God. God is good. God's faithful love
endures forever. Come on, say it again. Say it
from your heart. Don't just say it like you're
reading something in the second grade all together
as a class. Let's say it together. God is good.
God's faithful love endures forever. He's good
and His mercy endures forever. That's what they
were doing. That's what they were saying. And
listen to what happened at that moment. A thick
cloud filled the temple of the Lord. The priests
could not continue their service because of the
cloud. For the glorious presence of the Lord,
Yahweh, every time it's capitalized L -O -R -D,
it's Yahweh. For the glorious presence of Yahweh
filled the temple of God. I know y 'all would
love it if the glory showed up in such a way
that I couldn't even preach. I would love it
more than you would. That's what happened when
they came together and they were worshiping God
from their hearts. Not just going through the
motions, but worshiping God together. That word
cloud. It's all known, and it's translated cloud.
This was something that they could see. It's
not just something that they could feel. This
is something that they could see with their eyes.
Cloud, clouds, a heavy mist. Did I not think
about that while I was coming to church this
morning at 7 o 'clock, going through that fog,
and I'm like, I'm about to preach about this.
This is just like... It'd be awesome if this
was inside the church today. Not just up and
down 27 getting here, but if it was inside this
heavy mist. Listen, their worship did not create
the glory. Just because you get goosebumps doesn't
mean that the glory is there. Because you can
go to some show of some famous singer that really
has a powerful voice and a moving song and you
get goosebumps even if they're singing about
ducks or something. So the worship. Has anybody
ever had legit glory bumps? Oh, when you sense
the presence of God and you got like goosebumps
on your arm? Not saying that that's... Could
not be an indicator. But it's not always an indicator.
The worship didn't create the glory. The worship
just prepared the room for the glory. So we can
prepare the room through worship. We can also
prepare a place for the glory of God through
expectation. Everybody say expectation. Here's
something that I found out. Most people, when
they come to a worship gathering together, they
normally get what they expect. I need to say
that again. People normally get what they expect.
I mean... So many times people come to a worship
service, they just want to rub a little bit of
Jesus. You know, like putting on sunscreen. Just
going to rub a little Jesus to help me get through
this week. Just need a little bit of Jesus. Don't
want too much of Jesus to mess with my life.
Just a little bit of Jesus to help my conscience
through the week. We're not going to experience
the glory of God unless we expect it. We expect
God to show up. It's going to change the way
we act. I'm just letting it sit. Just let it
sit. We expect God to show up. It's going to
change the way we act. We're going to act like
it. We're going to come. See, I'm glad no one...
at Elation Church comes to leave. But I want
to ask you a question. Have you ever gone to
church to leave? I've met, hey, I preached on
the road for 20 years. I've met a lot of people
that came to leave. Believe it or not, one day
in North Carolina, I don't know why this happened
in North Carolina so much. One day... One day
out on the coast of North Carolina, I mean, I'd
only been preaching for five minutes. And this
lady stood up and went... They had had about
a 45 -minute presentation of seeing the same
12 pictures of the mission trip that only meant
something to the people that had been on the
mission trip. Have you been through one of those
presentations before? And then I was the guest
speaker. It was homecoming. We were having...
food after the service, and this lady gets up
and goes, she's calling time on me. I didn't
used to be as nice as I am now. But the second
time she did it, a few minutes later, I said,
I said, ma 'am, if you need to leave, right now
is a good time. Because you're distracting everybody
else in the room. So if you need to leave, right
now is a good time to leave. She grabbed her
purse, grabbed her husband, who was ashamed,
and stormed out. You know what happened when
she stormed out? Everybody started clapping.
I guess nobody had the guts to tell her that
before. I was just there that day. I'd never
see these people again, so why not? I traveled
so many hours just to get there. I wasn't about
to stop in five minutes. I hadn't even got through
my introduction yet. I was at another church
in North Carolina, not on the coast, not on the
coast this time, but I was preaching, and a guy
goes, About the third time he did that, I just
walked over in front of him and I said, I'm going
to tell you something you need to do. You need
to take that watch off your arm and you need
to throw it across the room. I threw my watch
across the room. What happened? I was there a
whole week. He never did it again. He didn't
leave, but he never did that again. I don't know
why I got to keep telling stories. Now I'm going
to call out Alabama. Is anybody from Alabama?
Alabama. Went to this guy's house. They invited
us to their house before the meeting even started
on Saturday night. The guy said, I had to sit
at the men's table. Again, I had to sit at the
women's table. The guy told me in front of, his
parents were the patriarch and the matriarch
of the church. That means for somebody to introduce
somebody like that, it means they think they
own it. So he told me, he said, now preacher,
we get out of church at 12 o 'clock. And we don't
have services more than an hour. So every night
this week, from when we start to when we finish,
one hour. Everybody say one hour. One hour. So,
I said, well, this is, I said, how long have
y 'all been praying for this? Well, I don't know
if they only prayed an hour at a time, but. They
had been having what was called in the old days
cottage prayer meetings, even though those were
kind of out by then. They were having cottage
prayer meetings. They were praying for God, for
an outpouring and a moving of God in the church.
Praying. I said, how long y 'all been praying?
Because I knew they had been having prayer meetings.
Oh, we've been praying for about eight weeks.
I said, now you mean to tell me. You've been
praying for eight weeks, but you're going to
limit what God's going to do to an hour. He got
offended. Good. Anyway, I got to speed this up
because I got more to talk about. Listen, I didn't
know who I was. Oh, that's what he told me. He
said, you don't know who you're talking to, do
you? Guess what? He was the chairman of deacons.
He was the treasurer of the church. So that means
he's going to be the one writing our check at
the end of the week. You don't know who you're
talking to, do you? And I about dropped my teeth
when I looked over because I had to lead the
congregational music and I looked over and guess
who's playing the piano? Chairman of deacons,
piano player. And the church treasure. Most of
you would have said, well, did you preach more
than an hour? Well, I only preached an hour and
15 minutes, but the music went about 45 minutes,
so it was a two -hour service. It's coming. Sunday
morning. While I was preaching, his face would
get so red, like right at time when he thought
it was time to be finished. His face, I thought
the man was going to stroke out. Sunday morning,
red face. Sunday night, red face. Monday night,
red, just breathing. I kid you not. But Tuesday
night, listen, when I gave the invitation again,
When I said, is anybody here, you realize that
you've just had a relationship with religion
and not a relationship with God? I'm not asking
you if you've been dip -dunked or sprinkled or
if your name's on a church roll. I'm asking you
if Jesus is your Lord. And that night, Tuesday
night, when I shared the gospel, nobody's looking
but me. There he is sitting on the front row.
His hand goes up. He accepted Christ. Can you
believe? Somebody was the chairman of deacons,
the treasurer of the church, and the piano player
doing it all in the flesh without a relationship
with Christ. That's a miserable person. That's
why he was a miserable person. Wednesday, I saw
him come into church. He had a smile on his face.
And I walked up to him and I shook his hand.
I said, how you doing? These are the exact words
out of his mouth. I feel like a new man. Feel
like a new man. He was a new man. Listen, if
we come to leave, If we come with everything
else on our mind, going through a religious duty
or religious activity, we're not going to experience
the glory of God. Here's the way we act when
we expect to see God show up. We come in with
anticipation. We lean in. We worship with intention.
We remove distractions. And we make room. Make
room for God. God meets us at the point of our
expectation. What does hunger look like? Look
to the person beside you and say, listen fast.
Listen fast. What does hunger look like? Hunger
seeks. Hunger seeks. Jeremiah 29, 13. God says,
If you look for me wholeheartedly, if you seek
me with all your heart, you'll find me. You'll
find me. He's not holding out. He's not going
to hold out. Never has held out. If you look
for him wholeheartedly, you'll find him. You'll
find him. See, genuine hunger seeks not casually
seeking, but passionately seeking, wholeheartedly
seeking. Real hunger prioritizes the presence
of God over personal preferences. That's the
only way you're going to see it. Hunger also
sacrifices. Hunger says, I'll turn off the noise.
See, listen, church isn't the only place that
you can experience the glory of God. I've shared
this before, but I've experienced the glory of
God in my car on I -4 before they added the other
lane. When it would take an hour and 15 minutes
to go 15 miles. I've experienced the glory of
God in my car. But you've got to turn off the
noise. You got to remove the distractions. You
got to create a space for God. Oh, how I want
you to experience it. Hunger also stays. Stays.
Sustained hunger. Sustained hunger is the mark
of a people ready for the glory of God. Sustained
hunger. God always meets hunger with glory. He
always does. Moses cried, show me your glory.
God responded. David longed for his presence.
What did God do? God revealed his power and his
glory to David. We didn't talk about this one
this week, but we will. The early church. cried
out in one accord to God, and heaven filled the
upper room. It's available. It's available. I
think we're going to have four more weeks on
the glory of God. This is just to try to stir
up your hunger. It's letting you know. what it
is, how you can get to that point. It's going
to take hunger. It's going to take preparing,
preparing the way, preparing your heart, preparing
the atmosphere. Hungry people see outpourings.
Is there anybody in this room? Who would love
to see an outpouring in this area? Is there anybody
in this room who would like to see thousands
of people come to Christ? Hungry homes see transformation.
Hungry churches see revival. Hungry generations
see a visitation. You can look back through history.
You can even look at some of the things that
are going on in places around the world today.
In college campuses in the United States, you
can see. Hungry generations can see. Visitation
from God. This online worship experience was
brought to you by the friends and partners of
Elation Church.