God, I Want to Know You

This morning I want to tell you a story and it's a great story from one of the very earliest sections of the Bible and you're thinking oh a Bible story I've heard all the Bible stories I can almost guarantee you that you have never heard this Bible story and probably certainly have never heard a sermon preached on it even though this Bible story has the single verse that is the most quoted Bible verse in the rest of the Bible.

There's a verse in this story that is repeated and paraphrased dozens of times for the rest of scripture and yet this story has almost completely fallen off the radar of modern Christians. In fact I have a big thick systematic theology book like this that was given to us as seminary students and this Bible story is not mentioned in that book one time.

Now why should you be interested in this story? Well if you really listen patiently and you let this story capture your imagination it reveals how you can have what you most desire. Plus it's just a weird fun strange story so if you're interested in following along grab your message notes we are in a summer series that we call authentic and what we've been doing every weekend in this series is looking at different surprising encounters that people have with God in the Bible because how the Bible talks about authentic spirituality is often different than the stereotype people have of the Bible.

Possibly the strangest of all the surprising stories we're gonna look at this summer is in this text that we're gonna look at today it's in Exodus chapters 33 and 34 and as our story begins here is what has been happening God has just delivered the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt Pharaoh has said please just Moses take your people and get out and you'll remember all the crazy stuff that happened right there's been the plagues and locusts and the angel of death and snakes and fiery hail and all kinds of really weird stuff that's been happening during that time.

Then the Israelites leave Egypt but the Egyptian army changes its mind and it pursues them God parts the Red Sea for the Israelites but then it crashes and destroys all the charioteers in Pharaoh's army and then they go out into the wilderness and Moses goes up on Mount Sinai and there's fire on the mountain and Moses gets the Ten Commandments and then God says something amazing he says I am going to lead you into the promised land and I am going to tabernacle among you.

Now the tabernacle was a big tent that probably looked something like this remember the children of Israel they're in the desert and they're all living in in tents or in the open air and they're on the way to the promised land and God says I'm not only gonna lead you there I am going to put my presence right there with you and so that your leaders can come in and meet with me and I can guide you and you can draw near to me and so that's what's just been happening like in the weeks of months right ahead of this story.

So how do the people respond to all this the people of Israel do they go right on we get to have God living with us lead on God? No they basically stick their tongues out at God they rebel they sin in every way you can imagine they even fashion idols and deliberately turn their back on God and worship the golden calves that they fashion instead of God.

In Exodus chapter 33 there's kind of a humorous exchange between God and Moses God says you know what go up to the land flowing with milk and honey in other words the promised land but I will not go with you because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.

Raise your hand if you're a parent and you've ever lost your patience with a child anybody here relate to what he's saying here right he's saying I will give you the land because I promised it to Abraham so it's a promise and I keep my promises I'll give you the property I'll give you the power to take it over I'll give you the prosperity I'll give you the prestige of being a new nation but my presence no I will not be dwelling in your midst.

Now the funny thing is to me a lot of people would consider this a dream religion right a lot of people this is exactly what they want from God they want the prosperity they want the blessings they want the property they want the power they want the prestige they just don't want the presence of God right there in the middle of their lives right messing with them and Moses and the Israelites are being offered this by God but Moses doesn't want this.

He says God if you're not gonna give us your presence don't give us anything next verse then Moses said to him if your presence doesn't go with us then do not send us up from here because now watch this fascinating sentence what else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?

This is super interesting because what distinguishes you from everybody else on earth in your imagination in your mind is what gives you identity right it's what makes you you and you probably think of something you're like you know what distinguishes me is I really am skilled at this well I really have this kind of a nice personality or I've had this amazing experience of God's blessing in some way or where I live or the job I have or the degree I have or where I got my degree that's what distinguishes me.

In other words I have power I have property I have prosperity I've God's blessing so I feel like I am somebody but Moses is saying actually I know better actually none of those things are what satisfies you none of those they're not my deepest longing and so what is and how do I get it?

Well what happens next is this mysterious story from the book of Exodus and it's in three acts act one the daring request after Moses says to God you know what I'm not gonna go anywhere I am not moving without your presence and God says to Moses okay I will go with you and then Moses says and I want something more.

Now what else could Moses possibly want then all that? Well watch what he asks for verse 18 then Moses said and let's all say that quote together out loud now show me your glory if you've got a pen or a pencil with you take take that and circle the word glory in your notes because this little story is all about glory and if you don't understand glory you can't understand this story and that means we've got a serious problem because glory has become one of those religious words it's kind of a cliche word and its meaning has been totally lost.

Glory glory to God glory give God glory ho you know like hallelujah nobody knows what it means anymore so what does glory actually mean? I want to try to define this and I got a lot of this from Tim Keller who is a pastor who used to be a language arts professor before he went into ministry and he points out that in English we don't really have a word that precisely matches the nuances of the Hebrew word for glory but he says the closest matches we have he suggests are the words weight and probably the English word that comes closest is the word matter because in English matter means substance or weight and it also means significance.

Right so glory something's glory is weight or matter or mass to say God is more glorious than anything else means God has more weight God has more spiritual mass more matter than anything else. Now there's something this story teaches us Moses is being offered all of this and he says now show me your glory and one of the things this means is that human beings cannot live without glory we all need glory right if glory means matter we all have a deep need to sense that we matter.

Nobody wants to not matter we want to have weight nobody wants their life to be just insubstantial and so we always try to find something to give us glory and my glory is what I believe makes me matter.

Now different people glory in different things you hear people talk about professional glory artistic glory financial glory sports glory and what they're really looking for are people to come up to them and say you're the best at that I read your stuff you're the best we want to hire you in your field you're the best you know I've looked at the way you parent and as a mother or as a father I think you're the best as a teacher you're the best that makes us feel good you feel like you matter and you need that all human beings need that a sense that your life has some weight to it.

Now some human beings don't seek glory in those ways they would say I don't care about artistic glory or financial glory or professional glory they are after love you know why because when somebody loves you that's a sense of glory too when someone touches your cheek and they look at you in the eye and they say I love you you feel like I matter to someone right and you feel this reflected glory like my life has meaning I feel substantial I feel real in some form we all need glory.

I mean it's devastating when we don't have it when you see a person who's really depressed what do they say nothing I do matters I feel like I don't matter to anyone my life is insubstantial that is devastating to people the problem is all sources of glory fade right and are fading.

I read an ESPN interview that was done just this past week with Michael Phelps and Michael Phelps and raise your hand if you've heard that name Michael Michael Phelps one of the most famous people in the world right he has won more Olympic gold medals than any other human being who has ever lived ever and so in ESPN the magazine they were asking him how is it that you had this downward spiral after the 2012 Olympics and you were rested for a DUI you started using I mean you were smoking dope you were drinking you you had to go into rehab and you were suicidal you tried to take your own life how could that be how could that be?

And you know what he said in the interview this is just this past week he said I looked at this pile of gold medals and I realized they don't matter he said I realized all the glory I've ever gotten in my life is because of my athletic skill and that's not gonna last another 10 years and he said I felt like I don't have a reason for living because that's so insubstantial then he said I literally didn't want to live anymore and they said well what turned you around and he said I read a book called the purpose driven life and he said I discovered that there is a greater purpose for life than getting Olympic gold medals.

Now I don't know they didn't go into detail on that so I don't know where he's at with his faith but he's onto something all sources of glory fade and are fading except for one and this is true if you're Michael Phelps or if you're you you know if you think this is what distinguishes me I'm I'm well known in my field I am skilled at this I have achieved success at this I was able to buy property in Santa Cruz it's amazing you know or I have good looks or I'm athletic they all fade and if you're very self is based on one of those things what will actually happen is it'll drive you into the ground because you'll overwork trying to keep it that glory and you'll burn out.

On the other hand if you're seeking love that is great I hope you are but if you're seeking love in order to matter if you're looking at somebody your husband or wife or your kids or your grandkids or your friends and you're saying if you love me then all know I really matter then you're putting way too much weight on that relationship and you actually will end up driving them away.

All sources of glory fade and are fading except for one and Moses knows this and so when God offers him all this glory think about it he's saying you can have the land you can have property and prosperity and power and prestige Moses actually knows that kind of glory is not enough and he goes show me your glory not behind temples not behind veils I want to see you face to face God I just want to know you I want to know you beyond the benefits and this is huge.

Now follow me here sometimes we ask God for blessings because we're doing some new venture and we ask for blessings that's good I hope you do or we were confused and we ask God for wisdom because you need clarity that's great or you're weak and you ask God for power I hope you do but in all those prayers God is still a means to an end it's only when you pray to God God I just want to know you just show me your glory that's when you're saying God I just want to know you just for you yourself even if everything else goes wrong on my life I just want to feel connected to you I just want to know you.

I actually think every single human being longs for this as Tim Keller puts it to see God's glory is to see God as beautiful and not just useful isn't that good to see God's glory is to see God is beautiful and not just useful?

Now look up here for just a second how do you ever feel this how do you encounter this you know what I think that all of us kind of get a little glimpse of this at certain moments of our lives raise your hand if you have ever taken a hike or a walk for example through the redwoods around here anybody ever been to a redwood forest right I love to go up when I was hiking yesterday at Camp Hammer the day before at Henry Cowell I love it when you are standing there looking at trees that are taller than the Statue of Liberty and you're looking at trees that are as old as you know they were born back in the days of Jesus Christ these 2,000 year old 325 foot tall trees.

What happens you get this sense of I am so small in comparison and my lifespan is so short yet I'm connected to something vast and big and it gives you the sense of peace right and not just the redwoods when you look at the starry night sky and you imagine the distances between the stars you think of the same thing or probably this summer you went someplace pretty like maybe a national park like Yosemite and you stand in the Yosemite Valley and you get that feeling or maybe a place like the Grand Canyon and you get lost in a kind of rapture you have pleasure just in its beauty and it is nothing to do with its usefulness right nobody looks at the Grand Canyon and goes what is the Grand Canyon done for me lately right how is half dome putting food on my table you just experienced pleasure just in beauty.

In fact there's a whole new field of science called neuro aesthetics it's just emerged like in the last five years and they do brain scans and they study people looking at beautiful things and you know what they've discovered they discovered when you see beauty it can give you as much joy as feeling head over heels in love because it activates the exact same parts of the brain and they interviewed people what's it feel like one person said when you're in the presence of something beautiful your soul finds a kind of rest that pushes you outward from a focus on your own needs you know everybody's got ingrown eyeballs and then you see something beautiful you just go wow another person put it this way seeing beauty right sizes you don't you love that?

Okay now think of this if I sense that when I look at beautiful waves and trees and canyons and sunsets how much more will I sense that when I look at God the source of all those beautiful things Wow and humans just long for this and I'll show you you could see this in so much poetry and songs I think this is what George Harrison former beetle was saying when he sang in my sweet lord I really want to know you God I really want to see you.

This is what JRR Tolkien author of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings meant when he said the chief purpose of life for any one of us is to increase our knowledge of God and to be moved to say we proclaim your glory we thank you for the greatness of your splendor deep down we all say to God please show me your glory this is what Moses wants to see God and then God says no I told you it was a weird story God says no no and that's act to the mysterious answer.

Exodus 33:19 the Lord said well you cannot see my face for no one may see me and live I can't show you my glory it might destroy you now what does that mean it means there's an incompatibility between a holy God and sin it's like putting fire and water together or acid and base or I don't know AC and DC or something they can't exist together the infinite holy God in contact with finite sinful creatures what would happen is just and the creatures would just vaporize and that's bad news for us because we are sinful finite creatures every single one of us and God goes yeah you can't see my glory it's too much for your circuitry.

And so the one thing in the world we most long for is the one thing we can't have is that the point of the story I don't think so because God doesn't say no and leave what he does next in this strange little story is a foreshadowing of the future it says then the Lord said starting in verse 19 the Lord said there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock and when my glory passes by I'll put you in a cleft in the rock a little a little crack in the rock and I'm gonna cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Now the Bible says all over the place that God is a spirit he doesn't actually have a body and so when he talks about a hand and stuff that's that's a metaphor what God is saying here is I can't show you my full glory right now but I will make a way for you to begin to see it you can see a hint and I'll protect you so you don't die and so Moses goes up on the rock and then God shows up and what comes next is God's great self description this is the verse that is the most quoted and paraphrased verse in the whole rest of the Bible Exodus chapter 34 verse 6 you know you could ask a hundred people finish the sentence God is and a hundred people would finish it a hundred different ways.

Well what if you ask God hey God finish the sentence God is what would he say that's what happens in this verse so what are you gonna see you know you're you're it's like you're you're opening up the furnace and you're seeing inside the core of God this is the engine of God now remember they've just seen fire on the mountain and they've seen plagues and they've seen the angel of death they've seen some scary stuff so what kind of nuclear explosion is Moses gonna see here right watch this and he passed in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord the Lord the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness and rebellion and sin.

It's just this giant fire hydrant burst of love in fact really quick I want to look at some specific words God uses here to describe himself so you could just feel the momentum building here first compassionate and the Hebrew word translated compassionate here means love rooted in a deep bond.

Now wait a minute rooted in a deep bond remember the context the people are all spinning in God's face they're rebelling in constantly they're complaining constantly they're breaking the deep bound there's no deep bond that they're feeling to God so what does this mean love route what the bond there's no deep bond I explained it this way I think I have shown admirable restraint so far in this sermon in not talking about my grandson Freddie but the time has come so we we got to babysit him last week and and I took like a thousand pictures you know you're here so look look oh that's cuter that's cuter now he's cuter now he's cuter now he's cuter just becoming cuter right in front of my eyes right.

So here's a picture what Laurie and I are both like holding him fighting over him and we're feeding him his bottle and he's just adorable right how many of you've ever held a little baby that you love anybody here ever out of six threads then you'll know what I mean when I say I looked at Freddie and I thought I would literally he's five weeks old when I took this picture a few days ago I would literally die for him literally you know what I mean I mean like somehow or another if he was playing in front of a truck or something and I saw the truck bearing down on him and I knew in an instant I got to push him out of the way and the truck's gonna hit me and I'm probably gonna die I would I wouldn't even think about it right and you probably feel the same way about your own little baby that you love that you held of course you would give your life for this baby.

Now here's my question what has Freddie ever done to earn my love right Freddie is the most high-maintenance human being I know right now all he ever does is take and take and take and the only thing he contributes to the world is a mess he poops and he spits up and he screams and he doesn't let us sleep but I would die for him die for him there is a deep bond Freddie doesn't even know I exist he's not creating the deep bond he's not generating this he's never done anything to perform for me to earn my love the deep bond totally originates in me toward this human who doesn't even know I'm there and do you understand that this is exactly how God feels about you?

You don't have to perform for him he's not like you're too high-maintenance so I don't love you anymore you make messes and he would die for you because there's a deep bond that he feels toward you his beloved child and that's just the first word he says he's compassionate he has this deep bond and then he says he's gracious and the Hebrew word here means a heartfelt response by someone who has something to give to somebody who has a need he says you got a need and I got everything to give and so I'm just gonna lavish it on you.

And then he says slow to anger and that's a funny phrase the Hebrew expression used here literally means long nosed and that's a metaphor for the tendency of human beings noses to get read when we're super mad you know your face gets red your nose gets red right and God is saying it takes a long time for my nose to get red contrary to popular opinion God does not have an anger management problem he's saying I'm in no hurry to judge centers aren't you glad to hear that and then the word abounding abounding in what check it out love and faithfulness.

Now think about this for a minute feelings of love are useless unless there's also faithfulness right I mean someone you know may have told you I love you and they might have even really meant it when they said it but they weren't faithful and it broke your heart and God is saying I'm not like that I will never say you know what I don't love you anymore in fact next he says maintaining love I love that picture he actively maintains love like somebody maintaining a pipeline of water but God is maintaining a pipeline of love to who the good people know to the wicked the rebels and the sinful people.

In other words in like word after word after word after word there's just this waterfall of love that's God's description of himself is absolutely unbounded unconditional unending infinite love love love love love and yet look at the very next verse yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished what he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and the fourth generation.

Now wait a minute wait a minute you read that you go that that's that's that's a contradiction how can he be all infinitely loving and yet not let any sin go unpunished ever that's super bad news to me because I'm sinful and this listen this sets up this tension that doesn't get fully resolved for the whole rest of the Bible and the tension is how can God be totally loving and also totally just?

You know any good movie or any good story or plot has what storytellers call a mystery box and you're like it's it's a mystery like like in the TV show lost it was like what is the island and you're trying to figure it out for the whole rest of the plot well the mystery box in the Bible is this how can God from the very first pages here say he's infinitely loving and yet how can he be totally holy because how is it that God never wants anybody to be lost because he's so loving but how is it that God could also never let any sin go unpunished because he's totally holy so you feel like saying well God you can't have it both ways you can't be totally holy not ever letting any sin go unpunished and a hundred percent loving and forgiving because that means you let some sin go unpunished they can't it can't coexist.

It's like you can't be a Dodger fan and a Giants fan that's impossible right you can't be a Cal fan and a Stanford fan you know you can't be a Raider fan and live in reality the two just don't go together you got to be one or the other right but what God is saying is but see that's my glory and you're if the Bible ended here you'd be like scratching your head how how is that possible right now watch even this mysterious answer is enough for Moses to have the greatest experience of worship he has ever had in his life it says and Moses bowed down to the ground and worshiped and this part of the strange little story ends but there is something more for us and that is act three the beautiful solution.

Because this tension develops all through the Bible and almost at the very end of the Bible it gets resolved and it says the resolution is in Jesus Christ in John 1:14 watch this the word that's God the Creator became flesh and watch this made his dwelling among us the phrase John uses for made his dwelling literally means he tabernacled among us deliberately evoking that strange story in Exodus and watch this he came to live with us right in Jesus Christ humanity God tented among us he was present with us and then he says and we have seen his what his glory.

He's saying at last the tension is resolved at last we see in Jesus Christ something so beautiful that it takes our breath away and it's like looking at the Grand Canyon or the stars or a sunset how is it that God could be totally holy and totally loving and forgive everybody well on the cross what happened God's love and holiness met and Jesus Christ took on himself the punishment of sin that was due to all of us and I know that's sometimes hard to understand and this is inexact but in Santa Cruzy terms he took all our bad karma so that there was payment for all the sin that human beings ever did and now there is no condemnation for us anymore only this fountain of love.

And see if you don't believe that you might believe in a God that loves everybody right but that's not gonna move you to tears that's not gonna just break your heart it's just God is love it's kind of like a little slogan like have a nice day and that idea just kind of kind of lays there without the other half or you might believe in a God who's only holy and just and righteous but not really loving and you know you got to toe the line and keep all the laws and pray the prayers and if you don't you don't go to heaven but does that really move you with its beauty?

No it's when you look at Christ and you think on the cross the justice and the love of God met perfectly on the cross that's when your heavenly father saw the truck bearing down on you and he pushed you to safety and he took the punishment that was due to you because he loves you that's when you look at that and you think God I rejoice in the splendor of your glory and remember we said human beings all need glory a sense that they're they have matter right well it's on the cross that God looks at you and he says here's how much you matter to me you were lost and I died for you before you even knew I existed and that sense of glory that that'll never fade away and it gives you both a sense of humility and a sense of confidence humility because you go I'm just a sinner and confidence yet God says I matter and and and it transforms you like looking looking at some beautiful landscape only better.

And this is why the Bible says and this has become my all-time favorite Bible verse in 2nd Corinthians 3:18 and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory we get to do what Moses really wanted to do and we get to do it we gaze at his glory and we are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory you look at the glory of God in Christ and it changes you it right-sizes you that's the key to change it's the key to peace it's the key to satisfaction is the gaze at the beauty of Jesus that's where it all starts because the bottom line is this in Jesus Christ the mercy and the justice of God meet perfectly.

Now listen today's the first weekend of the month that's when we here at TLC always take communion and so I want to say right now for the next five minutes just get lost in his beauty let's pray together Heavenly Father thank you for giving us all things in Christ Jesus thank you for the beauty of Jesus thank you that there's nothing out there in the world that can satisfy us like the beauty of Jesus Christ and God we ask that you would just help us gaze at you just gaze at Christ and as we gaze transform us from the inside out in your name we pray amen.