Speaker 1: Father.
Speaker 1: That is the prayer of our hearts today, god, that you are holy and there is no one like you.
Speaker 1: God, because of who you are, you are worthy of all of our praise.
Speaker 1: As Paul says in Romans 12, god, you're not just worthy of our words, god, but you're worthy of the sacrificial offering of our very lives.
Speaker 1: And so, god, that's our response today to you.
Speaker 1: We lay our lives before you and, god, we ask that you would have your way in this place today.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, and everybody says Amen, you can be seated this morning.
Speaker 1: Worship team.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for leading us.
Speaker 1: We're going to move into a time now of celebrating the Lord's Supper together.
Speaker 1: On your way in this morning, you should have gotten a handout of the elements.
Speaker 1: If you did not get one of these and are planning to participate with us this morning, if you just raise your hand, we got some people in the back who will bring one to you.
Speaker 1: But you need to know that at Summer of Obab, we practice what's called an open table regarding the Lord's Supper, meaning that it doesn't matter what denominational background you're a part of or whether or not you're a member of this church.
Speaker 1: If you're a follower of Jesus, you've given your life to Christ, you've been saved by grace, through faith.
Speaker 1: You're invited to participate with us at the table of the Lord's Supper today In Corinthians.
Speaker 1: Paul is addressing the observance of the Lord's Supper with the Corinthian church.
Speaker 1: He just reminds them why it is that we celebrate the Lord's Supper.
Speaker 1: He says For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said this is my body, which is for you.
Speaker 1: Do this in remembrance of me.
Speaker 1: In the same way also, he took the cup after Supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Speaker 1: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Speaker 1: So Paul says One reason that we take and celebrate the Lord's Supper together is we are remembering the body and the blood of Jesus, his body broken for us, his blood shed for us so that I could be forgiven and you could be forgiven.
Speaker 1: That's why we celebrate the Lord's Supper.
Speaker 1: And Paul says we're going to do this from now until Jesus returns.
Speaker 1: We're going to remember the sacrifice of Christ in our place.
Speaker 1: It's about remembrance, but if you read 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, it's not just about remembering the sacrifice of Christ.
Speaker 1: If you back up a little bit, paul is he's getting on the church at Corinth a little bit and he's fussing at him.
Speaker 1: He says I hear that there are divisions among you.
Speaker 1: Some of you you're not actually taking the Lord's Supper.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and eat your whole meal.
Speaker 1: And his point is this that not only is the Lord's Supper about remembering what Jesus has done for us, it's about uniting as the body of Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: So there's a remembrance factor and there's also a unity factor.
Speaker 1: And so for us today, in this moment, we remember the sacrifice of Christ, but we also declare to God and to one another and to the world that, as the church, we're united together on this mission of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And isn't that a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1: It is the person in work of Christ that has saved us, it is the person in work of Christ that continues to change us, and it is Jesus in whose name we are gathered here today and for whose sake we live our lives.
Speaker 1: And so what a beautiful picture today is we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we remember Christ and we celebrate him together in unity as the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: So if you take the cup and the bread that you received on the way in, turn it over and open the bread portion, don't do what I did at the first service.
Speaker 1: I opened it the other way and the bread fell on the ground.
Speaker 1: And a great start for me.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 1: I'm glad.
Speaker 1: Jesus is gracious and has a sense of humor.
Speaker 1: So take the bread.
Speaker 1: And on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread, he broke it and he gave thanks.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to ask Joe Wilson, one of our newly elected and ordained deacons, to come and pray over the bread today.
Speaker 2: Let's bow.
Speaker 2: Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for a time of remembrance, and, lord Jesus, we thank you that you came to offer Yourself our true manner for eternal salvation.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 2: We give you praise, now for ever and ever, in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: And then take and eat that same night.
Speaker 1: Jesus took the cup and he held it up as the new covenant of his blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sin.
Speaker 1: He gave thanks and I'm going to ask Jack Anderson, our chairman of the deacons, to come and to pray over the cup today.
Speaker 3: Let's bow, dear Heavenly Father.
Speaker 3: Lord, we thank you for all your blessings, for all that You've done for us.
Speaker 3: Especially, the most precious gift you gave us was your life, that you gave for our sins that we don't deserve.
Speaker 3: We pray that you give us the opportunity to serve you, lord, and do this in remembrance of you.
Speaker 3: In the name of pray, amen.
Speaker 1: And take and drink.
Speaker 1: Amen, our Father in heaven, we are grateful today as we remember the sacrifice of Christ, we celebrate the forgiveness available.
Speaker 1: In His name, father, we celebrate the unity of the body.
Speaker 1: Thank God, you've taken all different people from all walks of life, all places and spaces, and you've united us together in the name of Jesus, god, you've given us a mission and a calling.
Speaker 1: God, you're continuing to work in us to change us by the power of your Spirit.
Speaker 1: Father, what a gift it is to know you, to be your people.
Speaker 1: May this church, your body, shine as a city on a hill, light in the darkness.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen, amen, thank you, guys.
Speaker 1: Kids, why don't you all stand to your feet and head out to Kids Men?
Speaker 1: Let's give it up for our kids this morning as they go.
Speaker 1: It's a happening place down the hall in Kids Men, y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I'm telling you so, hey, we're wrapping up our Vapor and Rust series.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in Exodus, chapter 33, here in just a moment, where we're jumping into a moment in the narrative story of Moses.
Speaker 1: Moses was handpicked by God to lead God's people out of Egyptian slavery there.
Speaker 1: They're now out of Egypt and they're in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: I just want you to picture that for a second.
Speaker 1: God is at work.
Speaker 1: He's led the people out of slavery and into the desert and now they're wandering in the desert.
Speaker 1: They're at Mount Sinai.
Speaker 1: Moses is meeting with God and there are a lot of questions in the nation of Israel about what does the future look like.
Speaker 1: And that's what God is addressing with Moses, because he's like hey, moses, now is the time for you to step into the future that I'm calling you to.
Speaker 1: But there's an issue, and we're going to see that in the text this morning.
Speaker 1: Beginning in Exodus 33, verse 1, the Lord said to Moses depart.
Speaker 1: Everybody say depart, depart, go up from here.
Speaker 1: You and the people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt to the land of which I swore to Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying to your offspring, I will give it so again, just to locate us in the story.
Speaker 1: They've been at Sinai for a while and now God says it is time.
Speaker 1: You're standing on the brink of the promised future that I have for you.
Speaker 1: It's time for you to leave the mountain.
Speaker 1: And you weren't at the mountain in the wilderness, with Israel.
Speaker 1: So you're like okay, no, this is a big deal big moment.
Speaker 1: We're going to see why.
Speaker 1: I will send an angel before you, god says, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Speaker 1: Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go among you lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.
Speaker 1: When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned.
Speaker 1: We're going to pause there, fast forward a little bit.
Speaker 1: We get a little narrative insert about the tent of meeting, which was the place where Moses would enter the tent and the glory of God would come down on the tent.
Speaker 1: A pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance and God would speak face to face in the tent of meeting with Moses.
Speaker 1: And the text says it was like as a man speaks to a friend.
Speaker 1: That's how God met with Moses.
Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing, like this is what's going on in the tent of meeting.
Speaker 1: And so we then flash forward a little bit to a scene in the tent.
Speaker 1: Moses said to the Lord see, you say to me this is verse 12, bring up this people, but you've not let me know whom you'll send with me.
Speaker 1: Yet you've said I know you by name and you also have found favor in my sight.
Speaker 1: Now, therefore, if I've found favor in your sight, please show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
Speaker 1: Consider to that this nation is your people.
Speaker 1: And God said my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.
Speaker 1: And he said to him.
Speaker 1: Moses said to God if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here, for how will it be known that I found favor in your sight, I and your people?
Speaker 1: Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?
Speaker 1: And the Lord said to Moses this very thing that you have spoken I will do For.
Speaker 1: You have found favor in my sight and I know you by name.
Speaker 1: And then, verse 18, moses said please show me your glory.
Speaker 1: Please show me your glory.
Speaker 1: The title of this message this morning is audacious faith.
Speaker 1: Can you say that this morning, this faith?
Speaker 1: About a decade ago, I was part of a youth trip to Myrtle Beach, south Carolina, and that just brings back all kind of bad flashbacks right there.
Speaker 1: Youth trip, myrtle Beach, south Carolina just doesn't go together.
Speaker 1: But I was part of the chaperone team leading this trip to Myrtle Beach.
Speaker 1: I actually I celebrated my 21st birthday at a seafood restaurant with a bunch of middle schoolers in Myrtle Beach on this trip.
Speaker 1: That just came to me.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think about that until right then, but it was a great trip.
Speaker 1: Great trip.
Speaker 1: The theme of camp that week was devoted right, which that's a great theme for a youth summer camp.
Speaker 1: Devoted right.
Speaker 1: God is devoted to his people.
Speaker 1: God's been gracious and good and merciful.
Speaker 1: He's poured out his love on his people.
Speaker 1: God's been devoted to us.
Speaker 1: So what is our response to God?
Speaker 1: We should be devoted to him.
Speaker 1: That'll preach to a room full of middle schoolers and high schoolers, will it not?
Speaker 1: And then at the end of that week of camp, they ran a promo for the following summer.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the promo, the theme, the theme word for the next summer popped up on the screen.
Speaker 1: And the theme word for the next summer was audacious.
Speaker 1: Which devoted to audacious.
Speaker 1: There's a jump there, y'all, because middle school, they don't know what audacious means, they don't know how to spell it, they don't know how to say it.
Speaker 1: It captured the heart, that day of one middle school boy in the room and his name is Sam.
Speaker 1: Sam loved that word audacious.
Speaker 1: Sam also is wearing a North Carolina jersey today, so we might need to pray for him anyway.
Speaker 1: That's a whole other topic of conversation, but anyway, that's another subject for another time.
Speaker 1: It captured Sam's attention and affection.
Speaker 1: Sam loved the word audacious.
Speaker 1: He couldn't pronounce it.
Speaker 1: He said audacious, but that's not the point either.
Speaker 1: But every time Sam led worship, for like the next three years, he used the word audacious in some narrative form.
Speaker 1: In his worship leading.
Speaker 1: He was calling every group that he led in worship to an audacious faith, which is great.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 1: This is one of the greatest memories of my life and I'm so glad he's here so I can pick on him today.
Speaker 1: Audacious, right, what a great word.
Speaker 1: Audacious.
Speaker 1: How many of you would have to Google it, just know what it means.
Speaker 1: You don't have to raise your hand.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 1: I Googled it just to make sure.
Speaker 1: And this is the Merriam-Webster definition of audacious.
Speaker 1: It is an adjective and it means intrepidly daring or recklessly bold.
Speaker 1: And so I Googled audacious and I saw that and I was like, well, that's a lot of help, because I don't know what intrepid means either.
Speaker 1: So I got to now I'm Googling intrepid, and intrepid means without fear of consequence, right, so that's a little more helpful.
Speaker 1: Now we're getting somewhere, so we're not fearing consequences in our daring pursuit of something.
Speaker 1: There's some reckless boldness involved, which is why I love the pairing of the word audacious with the word faith.
Speaker 1: Audacious faith, a daring faith, a reckless faith, a bold faith, a confident faith.
Speaker 1: And what we're saying when we talk about audacious faith we're talking about without fear, without fear of what may happen to the consequences of this decision.
Speaker 1: We are throwing ourselves at the mercy of Almighty God.
Speaker 1: Audacious faith, we are boldly pursuing God.
Speaker 1: We are confidently pursuing God.
Speaker 1: We are daring to trust in God in the face of, maybe, what we feel, what we think, what we see, our confidence, our future, our hope is all in on God.
Speaker 1: Audacious faith and isn't that what we see from Moses in Exodus 33?
Speaker 1: This daring, bold, I am at God's mercy, kind of faith.
Speaker 1: And y'all, if I'm honest today, I think that's what God's calling us to as well.
Speaker 1: A daring, bold, reckless faith that says God, whatever it costs me to follow you, whatever you call me to wherever you lead me, that's where I want to go.
Speaker 1: There are four components of audacious faith that come right out of Exodus 33 that we're going to talk about this morning and we're going to do so in order to talk about where God's leading us, because that's the context of Exodus 33.
Speaker 1: Like God is moving his people into the future, so today, here on this campus in downtown it's almost kind of a vision Sunday when is God leading us as a church?
Speaker 1: Well, I think God's leading us to an audacious faith in him.
Speaker 1: The first component of audacious faith is audacious patience.
Speaker 1: You didn't see that one coming, did you?
Speaker 1: You're like we're talking about moving into the future, right?
Speaker 1: We're talking about taking ground and stepping out and doing stuff and getting after it.
Speaker 1: Now, you're like patience.
Speaker 1: Anybody like patience.
Speaker 1: Anybody need patience.
Speaker 1: Anybody got kids right, patience right.
Speaker 1: We don't like patience.
Speaker 1: We like to do things, we like to move, we like to see the future and step into it.
Speaker 1: I think I told you guys a few weeks ago one of my goals for 2024 was to have more patience.
Speaker 1: It lasted like 12 hours and was done.
Speaker 1: You know, like patience, like no, why are we talking about patience?
Speaker 1: But I want you to see what happens in Exodus 33.
Speaker 1: The Lord says to Moses depart, leave time to move on, go up from here, clear, right.
Speaker 1: God says it's time for y'all to go.
Speaker 1: The promised land is ahead.
Speaker 1: You've been waiting on it since Abraham and now it's time for you to move into what's been promised.
Speaker 1: First glance it's like, hey, it's amazing, right, we get to be the ones who receive the promise, like if I'm Israel, if I'm Moses.
Speaker 1: In this moment I am pumped right Because it's like hey, we're here, what we've been waiting on for generations.
Speaker 1: We spent 400 years enslaved in Egypt and now God said, hey, go, the time is here to move into the promised land.
Speaker 1: And not only that, but an angel's gonna clear the way for you.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that's about.
Speaker 1: An angel ever cleared the way for you?
Speaker 1: You ever gotten that word from God?
Speaker 1: Hey, I know your Tuesday meetings are gonna be rough, but my angel's gonna go before you.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about your boss, my angel's got that under control.
Speaker 1: You know like?
Speaker 1: I don't know like what.
Speaker 1: A word from God for Israel in this moment.
Speaker 1: But then God says this go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you Lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people and we got a plot twist here, don't we?
Speaker 1: God's like hey, go lands ahead of you, but when you go, my angel's going before you, but I'm not going with you Because you're stubborn and you want your own way.
Speaker 1: Stiff-necked, you're like okay, why has God called in the Israelites?
Speaker 1: Stiff-necked?
Speaker 1: Let me show you why, why.
Speaker 1: You flash back literally one page.
Speaker 1: There's a moment where Moses is at the top of the mountain.
Speaker 1: He's receiving the 10 commandments, the law, the requirements for dwelling in the presence of God, from God smoke, fire, cloud on top of the mountain.
Speaker 1: You all know the scene, right God's meeting with Moses within sight of all of Israel.
Speaker 1: It's happening right there.
Speaker 1: And what happens?
Speaker 1: Israel gets impatient.
Speaker 1: They want what they want in their timing, in their way, and so they're like, hey, we can help God out a little bit here.
Speaker 1: We know we're supposed to be worshipers, but Moses has taken a while up there.
Speaker 1: So here's what we're gonna do we're gonna pull all of our gold together, all of our resource, and we're gonna build an object of worship.
Speaker 1: And so, rather than waiting patiently on God, israel takes matters into their own hands and, in Exodus 32, they build themselves an object of their worship, a golden cow, and begin to worship the golden cow in the sight of the God on top of the mountain.
Speaker 1: Isn't that fascinating, and don't we do the same thing?
Speaker 1: God's at work, all around us.
Speaker 1: But if it's not our timing, if it's not what we think God ought to be doing, if we think we can help God out a little bit, there's a better way, like, hey, maybe if God would get on board of my plan, things might happen quicker.
Speaker 1: And so, rather than trusting in God's timing and waiting on God's direction, israel walks by their own timing and tries to forge their own direction.
Speaker 1: And so God's response to that is Israel, you're stiff-necked, you're stubborn, you're rebellious, you want what you want in your own way, and I am the same way and you are the same way.
Speaker 1: How many times has God looked at us and been like that?
Speaker 1: Still stiff-necked people?
Speaker 1: Aren't you grateful that God doesn't abandon us in our stubbornness and our rebellion, that God doesn't reject us, even when we forget that he's right nearby?
Speaker 1: We begin to do our own thing and go our own way.
Speaker 1: God is still gracious to us, audacious patience.
Speaker 1: And so what happens?
Speaker 1: Well, people hear this disastrous word, there's mourning, nobody puts on their ornaments, and then Moses says to God.
Speaker 1: In the section that we read a few moments ago, moses says to God if your presence will not go with me.
Speaker 1: Do not bring us up from here.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 1: Moses says to God hey, the thing that sets us apart is not us.
Speaker 1: The thing that sets us apart is not our gifting, it's not our talent, it's not our ability, it's not that we're really likable and the rest of the world is not.
Speaker 1: No, the thing that sets us apart is the presence of God.
Speaker 1: And so Moses says hey, god, if you're not going with us, then we'll just stay in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: We'd rather be uncomfortable in your presence than to be in the land of promise without you, god.
Speaker 1: I'd rather be walking through the difficult day than to live in comfort without your presence, god.
Speaker 1: I'd rather dwell in the land of darkness and know that you are with me than to be in a place of ease and convenience and all by myself and y'all.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a challenge to get to that place?
Speaker 1: Because we live in a world that prioritizes comfort and convenience and sometimes it's really difficult to wait on God in the midst of a difficult season.
Speaker 1: But God's timing is not often our timing.
Speaker 1: And can I just tell you that what we learn from the biblical story and what we learn is we live our lives is the presence of God cannot be replaced by anything in this world.
Speaker 1: No amount of comfort can make up for God's presence.
Speaker 1: So patience is required for audacious faith.
Speaker 1: We're gonna wait until God says move, and then, when God says go, guess what we're going.
Speaker 1: But we're not going anywhere without the presence of God.
Speaker 1: The second component of audacious faith is the presence of God.
Speaker 1: Of audacious faith is audacious prayer.
Speaker 1: So in this conversation with God, the subtitle of this section is Moses' Intercession.
Speaker 1: Moses says to God in verse 13, now, therefore, if I found favor in your sight, please show me your ways.
Speaker 1: Isn't that an audacious prayer?
Speaker 1: What Moses is saying is God, I wanna see the world like you see the world.
Speaker 1: I wanna think like you think.
Speaker 1: I wanna live like you would live.
Speaker 1: God, I want to know what you would do so that I can do what you would do.
Speaker 1: God, show me your ways.
Speaker 1: Then there's another prayer that Moses prays in verse 16.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, verse 18.
Speaker 1: God says to Moses hey, what you've asked I'll do.
Speaker 1: You found favor in my sight.
Speaker 1: I know you by name.
Speaker 1: I'm going with you.
Speaker 1: Then, verse 18,.
Speaker 1: Moses said please show me your glory.
Speaker 1: Now we use the word glory a lot, do we not.
Speaker 1: We sing about glory at church.
Speaker 1: We talk about glory.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, if you're in the sports world, you hear the phrase glory.
Speaker 1: They got glory for their exploits on the field or in the moment.
Speaker 1: In crunch time, in the last couple of minutes of the game, they stepped up and they made a play in fame and glory.
Speaker 1: It goes hand in hand with that.
Speaker 1: When we talk about the glory of God, that's a whole different category.
Speaker 1: When we talk about the glory of God, there are a couple of things that we can mean.
Speaker 1: One we can talk about the glory of God as an attribute of God.
Speaker 1: The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible talks about the glory of God as his majestic beauty, his awe-inspiring wonder, his sense of overwhelming, all inspiring presence.
Speaker 1: Now think about seeing something, the brightest shining light that you can imagine, and then trying to put words to that.
Speaker 1: How do you describe the indescribable?
Speaker 1: How do you explain the unexplainable?
Speaker 1: How do you articulate that which can't be captured by human words?
Speaker 1: That's what we're trying to do when we talk about the glory of God as an attribute Like.
Speaker 1: How do you capture with words, with human language, the beauty and the wonder and the splendor and the majesty and the holiness of God.
Speaker 1: Well, we use the word glory.
Speaker 1: It's his glory, it's his light, his beauty, it's what calls his Moses, his face to shine so much after he's been in God's presence he's got to cover his face with a veil.
Speaker 1: It's his glory.
Speaker 1: But we can also talk about God's glory not just as an attribute of God, but as the very presence of God.
Speaker 1: It was the glory of God that was manifested to Israel at Mount Sinai smoke, fire, cloud on top of the mountain.
Speaker 1: It was the glory of God that was made visible to Israel in the wilderness journey in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Speaker 1: It was the glory of God that came down on the tabernacle where the ark was held as the people of Israel traveled into the Promised Land.
Speaker 1: Later in the Old Testament story, when the Philistines steal the ark and leave Israel behind and take the ark away, it says the glory of God departed from Israel.
Speaker 1: The presence of God was no longer dwelling with the people.
Speaker 1: So it's not just the sense of God's beauty and wonder and majesty, it's the very presence of God himself.
Speaker 1: God intends to dwell with his people and the problem all throughout the Old Testament is that the people don't live up to their end of the bargain in order to dwell with God, and so sometimes the glory of God's there and sometimes the glory of God's been carried off by the Philistines in the ark.
Speaker 1: Does it make sense?
Speaker 1: But then in the New Testament, things change.
Speaker 1: John, chapter one.
Speaker 1: John writes these words in verse 14.
Speaker 1: The word Jesus became flesh.
Speaker 1: The Logos of God became flesh and dwelt, which literally means tabernacled among us.
Speaker 1: So the tabernacle now has dwelling among us and we have seen his, what, his glory, his glory.
Speaker 1: We've seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1: So John says about Jesus that in Jesus, the son of God, the glory of God, the presence of God was made visible to the world.
Speaker 1: And y'all?
Speaker 1: Here's what's beautiful about this.
Speaker 1: In the Old Testament, the glory of God comes and goes right.
Speaker 1: It's based on the faithfulness of Israel.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God's presence is with them, sometimes God's presence is removed.
Speaker 1: In John, chapter one, verse 14, the word becomes flesh and tabernacles among us, whereas Eugene Peterson puts it the glory of God moves into the neighborhood, not because people got their sin stuff under control.
Speaker 1: Isn't that good news?
Speaker 1: Like Jesus doesn't come because everybody finally figured it out and stopped sinning Like, oh, they're good enough.
Speaker 1: Now the tabernacle, the presence of God, the glory of God can dwell with the people.
Speaker 1: Now this is, what's amazing about Jesus is that in Christ, the glory of God, the presence of God, comes to sinful, broken humanity and moves into the neighborhood and reveals to us the grace and truth of Almighty God.
Speaker 1: Not in order to condemn us, jesus says later in John, but that the world, through Jesus, can be saved.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God intends to dwell with his people.
Speaker 1: Y'all.
Speaker 1: Audacious prayer it's not just about praying for God to do what we want and meet our physical needs.
Speaker 1: It's about praying for people who do not yet know the loving kindness of Jesus to come to salvation in his name.
Speaker 1: It's praying that people who right now are far from God and convinced that there's no way God could love someone as messed up as them, would come to this place of realizing that the Son of God came full of the glory of God, full of grace and truth, to invite broken people back into relationship with Almighty God.
Speaker 1: That's what audacious prayer is about.
Speaker 1: Moses says God, show me your glory.
Speaker 1: And if we think about our prayer list today, is there something on your prayer list that if you were to share it with the people around you or the people at your dinner table later today, or if you were to text your friend in another city, another state, and say, hey, this is what I'm praying for, is there something on your list that would make your friends, your family, your text message companion go?
Speaker 1: Hmm, really, that's a big prayer.
Speaker 1: If there's not, here's a prayer Exodus 33, verse 18,.
Speaker 1: God, show me your glory, because, see, god then defines for Moses what that looks like.
Speaker 1: God said to Moses I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name.
Speaker 1: I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Speaker 1: But he said you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.
Speaker 1: I love this because, in response to Moses' prayer to see the glory of God, this is what God says.
Speaker 1: God says I'm good.
Speaker 1: You wanna see my glory?
Speaker 1: You need to know that I'm good.
Speaker 1: God says I'm gonna tell you my name.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be revelation that comes.
Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing, y'all, that God wants us to know him?
Speaker 1: He's not, I think.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we think that God's playing hide and seek with us.
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, if we look hard enough, we look in the right place, then we'll find him.
Speaker 1: God's just waiting on us to ask him to show us his glory.
Speaker 1: There's goodness, there's revelation, there's grace.
Speaker 1: God said I am gracious.
Speaker 1: There's mercy, god is merciful and God is holy.
Speaker 1: God says there's a.
Speaker 1: You can't see my face, moses.
Speaker 1: Man shall not see me and live.
Speaker 1: There's a holiness element to the glory of God.
Speaker 1: This is an audacious prayer.
Speaker 1: God, show us your beauty and show us your presence, because we are marked by Almighty God.
Speaker 1: May that be true for our lives, that we live with audacious patience and audacious prayer.
Speaker 1: The third component of audacious faith is audacious vision.
Speaker 1: Audacious vision.
Speaker 1: I love that Moses in Exodus 33 has the ability to almost see into the future a little bit, to see the unseen.
Speaker 1: He says to God in verse 16, how will it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I in your people?
Speaker 1: Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I in your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?
Speaker 1: See Moses in this moment.
Speaker 1: He has insight into what it is that marks the people of God.
Speaker 1: It's the presence of God and Moses says there's a bigger story at play.
Speaker 1: God's doing something.
Speaker 1: Through this people, we're gonna live with audacious faith.
Speaker 1: We need audacious vision.
Speaker 1: Here's why Proverbs, chapter 29, verse 18, it says this where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, or the people are discouraged.
Speaker 1: But blessed is he who keeps the law.
Speaker 1: And I know it sounds kind of strange right now we're talking about prophetic vision and like the glory of God sitting down on the Tabernacle, like what kind of church is this that we're talking about today?
Speaker 1: Right, but here's the point of Proverbs 29.
Speaker 1: God is calling us as his body to move in unity, and in order for us to move in unity, there needs to be a clear target at which we're moving towards.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Like if we're gonna go somewhere together, we need an end goal.
Speaker 1: That's what the New Testament authors call the telos the aim, the charge, the mission, the aiming point.
Speaker 1: We need a telos, we need a vision, because if there is no aim, if there is no prophetic vision, here's what happens people cast off restraint and get discouraged.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been part of an organization that really didn't know why they existed?
Speaker 1: You ever been to a meeting that really didn't know why it was a meeting.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And it's like we've been here for 45 minutes and ain't nobody said anything yet.
Speaker 1: We're talking a lot, but we're not moving the ball down the field at all.
Speaker 1: What are we doing?
Speaker 1: And there's nothing more frustrating than doing things that are not enough but not getting anywhere.
Speaker 1: Right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Say, we're doing a lot of stuff, but it's like what's what one guy described as an octopus on roller skates there's a lot of motion happening, but nothing's moving in the same direction.
Speaker 1: It's like have you seen an ant hill?
Speaker 1: You ever dropped a rock on an anthill?
Speaker 1: You're all much more mature than I am.
Speaker 1: I can't help it.
Speaker 1: I was out walking my dog with my four-year-old the other day and he was like Dad, I'm a dog, my four-year-old.
Speaker 1: It's like Dad, there's an anthill.
Speaker 1: I was like there's a rock beside it too, bud, he's like oh yeah, rock anthill, boom, ants everywhere.
Speaker 1: Right, that's the picture of a people without vision.
Speaker 1: They've cast off restraint.
Speaker 1: There's movement in all directions, but nobody's going the same way.
Speaker 1: We get on the same page.
Speaker 1: We can build the ant.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen an anthill?
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen one of those ant farm things and seen the intricacy, the beauty of that.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: These ants these are ants, y'all and look, they build things like that Rock in the midst, all over the place.
Speaker 1: The end result of a people who are scattered and all over the place is discouragement.
Speaker 1: But the proverb here reminds us that there's blessing that comes when we keep the law, the word of God.
Speaker 1: So how do we get everybody moving in the same direction?
Speaker 1: Well, we need to clear a target right.
Speaker 1: It's Vision Sunday.
Speaker 1: Well, about a year ago, we as a church entered into something called the Kingdom Come Capital Campaign.
Speaker 1: We pledged a certain amount of money over the next few years running through March of 2026.
Speaker 1: And we've been giving towards that now for about a year.
Speaker 1: If you haven't jumped on board with that, there's still time for you to get on board with that and the reason we felt like as a church that God was leading us into a future that was going to include some renovations to our downtown location and ultimately, one day, some land and a building or a permanent location for this campus and then, even beyond that, additional campuses in the future.
Speaker 1: This Kingdom Come Capital Campaign we're giving in preparation and readiness for what God's going to do in the future.
Speaker 1: Today, downtown Randy is presenting to the church a plan to enter into a third hour of worship at our downtown campus on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1: Since we've launched here, we created a little bit of space, but they've since added some more people and two services on Sunday mornings, downtown or full.
Speaker 1: We need a third hour of worship on Sunday morning, isn't that amazing?
Speaker 1: And so Randy is presenting today a plan for what that could look like, and we're committing, as the Pinewood campus, to pray for the downtown campus in that endeavor.
Speaker 1: For us.
Speaker 1: I got some good news today, y'all.
Speaker 1: We think God's opened the door for a piece of property for this campus that will prayerfully, hopefully one day be our permanent home, and it's in the summer's corner area, right in the.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can clap for that, absolutely.
Speaker 1: It's in the summer's corner area, about 15 minutes from 16 minutes from this location, right in the midst of all sorts of new growth, and we're in the process now of going through some talks and we got some soil testing that's got to be done.
Speaker 1: So that's a prayer request we need.
Speaker 1: We need God to continue to open some doors there and for this to be a viable option.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to bring you in Randy's, telling the downtown campus the same thing today, because we want this to be a church thing, not just a staff thing or an us.
Speaker 1: Now, this is a, this is a we thing, and our prayer is that God would use the things that we're walking through today to impact generations to come, cause that's how God works.
Speaker 1: You know we're we're short-sighted, we're limited time space.
Speaker 1: We see this moment not often very far beyond.
Speaker 1: God sees the end from the beginning and God's thinking generationally.
Speaker 1: And is it possible that over the next couple of years, the second location that we build, we'll see our grandkids grandkids come to faith at that campus.
Speaker 1: We'll see people who aren't even yet in Somerville meet Jesus at that campus and we're praying, believing for hundreds, thousands of people to come to know Jesus because of our faithfulness in this moment, but ultimately the faithfulness of God to do what only he can do.
Speaker 1: So I invite you to live with audacious patience as we try to figure out what the next little bit looks like.
Speaker 1: We're going to keep loading in and loading out as long as it takes, but I also ask you to live with audacious prayer to go before God on behalf of our future, the future downtown and say God, open the doors that you want to open, close the doors that you want to close.
Speaker 1: We just want what you want and we want to be a place where people who don't know Jesus can come and meet Jesus.
Speaker 1: For this generation, but for generations to come.
Speaker 1: It's where we're going.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, what do we do?
Speaker 1: Well, moses finds himself hiding in the cleft of a rock, waiting on the glory of God to pass by.
Speaker 1: Can I just say today y'all that waiting on God is never a bad place to be.
Speaker 1: If you feel like you're waiting, you feel like you're needing God to show up, but you're waiting in faith, that is not a bad place to be.
Speaker 1: As Moses is in the cleft of the rock, god covers Moses with his hand and verse six of chapter 34 says the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed his name the Lord, the Lord or Yahweh.
Speaker 1: Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity?
Speaker 1: The fathers and the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.
Speaker 1: So God shows up and says to Moses you want to know me, you want to see my glory?
Speaker 1: This is who I am.
Speaker 1: I'm merciful and gracious, slow to anger, I'm patient, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Keeping steadfast love to the thousandth generation.
Speaker 1: Aren't you glad for that today?
Speaker 1: Forgiving sin and transgression, but who, by no means clear the guilty?
Speaker 1: God says this is what I'm like.
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm just, I'm righteous, I'm holy.
Speaker 1: I keep steadfast love to the thousandth generation.
Speaker 1: And then, verse eight Moses' response Moses quickly bowed his head and worshiped.
Speaker 1: And y'all, that's where we're going to land today.
Speaker 1: God is worthy of our worship, whether he does what we want him to do or not.
Speaker 1: God's worthy of our worship not because of what he does, but because of who he is.
Speaker 1: And so, moses, in this moment he gets this revelation of God's nature and his character.
Speaker 1: He hears God tell him his name and Moses' response is audacious worship, y'all.
Speaker 1: That's the fourth component of audacious faith.
Speaker 1: That's a willingness to praise God in whatever, through whatever, because God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1: He's worthy of our worship.
Speaker 1: Father, we are in all of you this morning.
Speaker 1: God, your story of faithfulness to us is overwhelming.
Speaker 1: And God, there are going to be so many stories told in the days ahead of what you've done and how you've gotten us to this point.
Speaker 1: But, god, in this moment, our response is simply to worship you because of who you are.
Speaker 1: God, help us to see your glory, to live with audacious faith, to pursue you through whatever you lead us to.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen, we're going to stand and we're going to close together in song.
Speaker 1: We're going to sing.
Speaker 1: It is well with my soul.
Speaker 1: It is well so as we stand and sing.
Speaker 1: This is a moment for you to respond.
Speaker 1: If you need to pray, I'll be at the back.
Speaker 1: If you need to join the church, you need to give your life to Christ.
Speaker 1: We'd love to have that conversation with you.
Speaker 1: You can come pray up front.
Speaker 1: You can grab somebody around you, pray where you are.
Speaker 1: This is a moment for us to respond as the Spirit leads today.