SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we've come to confess the fact that we need you.
SPEAKER_01: We never outgrow needing you.
SPEAKER_01: We never grow up to the point, spiritually, where we're beyond uh what we need you to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't need you, we don't relate to you just out of need.
SPEAKER_01: We relate to you uh because you're God and you're the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we just relate to you out of need, then once things get better, we we we we we stop looking to you and we start looking to ourself and our stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we say we need you, we don't need you like sleepy people need caffeine for stimulation.
SPEAKER_01: We need you like birds need seed uh for nourishment.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we were created for.
SPEAKER_01: We were made by you for you.
SPEAKER_01: As Augustine said, our hearts were made for you and they're restless until they find their home in you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, speak to us today.
SPEAKER_01: Say something that has our name on it from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We did not get up today and shave our legs just to hear a man give a religious speech.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what Christ died for.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the church is about.
SPEAKER_01: We're the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Give us a deeper, fuller, juicier understanding of what it means to be your people today.
SPEAKER_01: From your word and by your spirit, we ask these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to open it up and uh to Exodus chapter 33.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus is the second book of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus chapter 33.
SPEAKER_01: We're going through the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: We've got about seven more sermons, uh, and we'll finish the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: And uh today we're gonna eavesdrop on a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I want to talk to you.
SPEAKER_01: The title of the sermon this morning is Eavesdropping on Friends.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you all heard the phrase, you know, hey, I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
SPEAKER_01: There's conversations, ask yourself, start this morning by asking yourself, of all the conversations you've ever heard about uh in history, which one do you cave you wish?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I wish I could be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, in 1957, there were eight young, brilliant engineers uh that worked for a company in California, and their boss was kind of an insecure, insecure jerk.
SPEAKER_01: And so all eight of these men got together, met at one of them's house, and they said this, hey, we could go get jobs.
SPEAKER_01: These are whiz kids, these are brilliant men.
SPEAKER_01: They said we could all go get jobs, but it's not about having a job.
SPEAKER_01: We like working together.
SPEAKER_01: So in 1957, these eight guys made a pact in one of them's living room.
SPEAKER_01: They said, We're all gonna work together.
SPEAKER_01: What that's what we want to do for the rest of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so they began to seek out people that would finance them uh working together, starting a company.
SPEAKER_01: So in 1957, it was the first uh example of what's called nowadays venture capitalism.
SPEAKER_01: They said to people, hey, we think we could build some incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Would you put some money behind us?
SPEAKER_01: And they sought out uh different different investors, and 30 people told them no.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, the 31st person said to them, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I believe in you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put 1.5 million dollars.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in 1957, that is a colossal amount of money behind you guys, and they started a company called Fairchild Semiconductor.
SPEAKER_01: Now, at this point, you're thinking, so what?
SPEAKER_01: Who cares?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Fairchild Semiconductor, out of that one company, those eight men, that one conversation, they spawned over a hundred companies.
SPEAKER_01: And now, if you trace it back, most people will tell you that is the birthplace of what we now call Silicon Valley.
SPEAKER_01: That's a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall when it took place.
SPEAKER_01: Or the conversation in 1975 between two baseball players, Andy Mesher Schmidt and Dave McInally.
SPEAKER_01: Two people you've never heard of, probably.
SPEAKER_01: 1975, Andy Mesher Schmidt and Dave McInally, they back then, when a baseball team drafted you, they basically owned you for the rest of your career.
SPEAKER_01: But they they thought, hey, we're not getting paid enough money for what we do.
SPEAKER_01: So they sought out a third-party arbitrator and they got to meet with this guy, and he and they convinced him, hey, they're not paying us what we're worth.
SPEAKER_01: And now that became the birth of what's called free agency.
SPEAKER_01: And so, though you've never heard of them, some of you have heard of a man named Alex Rodriguez who signed the largest contract in baseball history 10 years, this was years ago, 10 years,$252 million.
SPEAKER_01: And all that started back in 1975 when a conversation between Andy Mesher Schmidt and Dave McNally and a lawyer in the lawyer's office.
SPEAKER_01: Or let me give you another example of a conversation I would like to be on.
SPEAKER_01: There's a man named Bob Dillon, you may have heard of him.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Bob Dillon was notorious for being a straight shooter at a dinner party, over coffee, in an interview.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't mince words, he wasn't mean, but he wasn't phony, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so this reporter asked, and he said, What do you think about the Beatles?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I find John Lennon's lyrics a little fluffy.
SPEAKER_01: The reporter made a beeline to John Lennon and said, Hey, hey, this Yahoo over here, Bob Dylan, said that he thinks your lyrics are kind of fluffy.
SPEAKER_01: And John Lennon said, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't mad, I was convicted because he was right.
SPEAKER_01: We were writing just teeny bop ballads, and it made me think deeper and write on a deeper level.
SPEAKER_01: And out of that conversation, he wrote the albums, the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, and the White Album.
SPEAKER_01: All because of a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna start reading the Bible here in a minute, Exodus chapter 33, verse 12, and we're gonna read down to verse 23, and I'm gonna do something different this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read and just kind of tell you historically what happened in the text.
SPEAKER_01: But what we're gonna read today is us eavesdropping on a conversation that is indicated in verse 11 where we left off last week, where the Bible says this, and God met with Moses face to face in this tent of meeting.
SPEAKER_01: God met with Moses face to face and he spoke to Moses as a man talks to a friend.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna eavesdrop on that conversation because starting in verse 12 of Exodus 33 is a record of what they talked about.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Bring up this people, but you've not let me know who you will sin with me.
SPEAKER_01: You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
SPEAKER_01: Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
SPEAKER_01: Consider too that this nation is your people.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, My presence, God speaking now, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, If your present will presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
SPEAKER_01: For how shall it be known that I found favor in your sight, I and your people?
SPEAKER_01: 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_01: And the Lord said to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses says, Please show me your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I'll show mercy.
SPEAKER_01: But he said, You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by, and then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you read the Bible, and it's easy to kind of read it and kind of lose sight.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: You kind of get like what's going on, who said what, and why'd they say that?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to do this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to answer two questions.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, what do we see in the text?
SPEAKER_01: What happens in this conversation that we're eavesdropping on between God and Moses as they're speaking to each other, as men as a man speaks to his friend.
SPEAKER_01: And then secondly, what do we take away from the text?
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll get to that towards the end when I say, what do we take away from the text?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you four things that, hey, this is how this applies to us in 2016, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So I want to just go back, first of all, and just look at the text and ask the question: what do we see in the Bible today?
SPEAKER_01: One of the first things you see is a man that wants a deeper knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: A man that wants a deeper knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, Hey, or excuse me, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you've not let me know who you will send with me.
SPEAKER_01: You have said, I know you by name, and you've also found favor in my sight.
SPEAKER_01: Now, therefore, if I found favor in your sight, therefore, show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what what is happening here when when Moses says, Show me your ways, he's not just saying to God, hey, show me how you did that magic trick with that quarter or that card trick that my grandpa always did.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he's not, that's not what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, show me your ways, he's saying, God, I want to understand your moral character.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't want to just see what God does, but I want to understand why he does it and what motivates him to do it.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is, I want a deeper relationship, but there's also something here I don't want you to miss because Moses kind of he says, Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 13, he says these two words, now therefore, now therefore.
SPEAKER_01: Moses kind of says back to God, uh, hey, this is what you've said to me, and I am blessed by that, and I'm humbled by that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I found favor in your sight, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you know me by name, that is great.
SPEAKER_01: But Moses uses that to say, now therefore.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen carefully to me.
SPEAKER_01: He's not manipulating God, he's not backing God into the corner.
SPEAKER_01: Uh some people refer to this as the logic of intercession.
SPEAKER_01: The logic of intercession.
SPEAKER_01: Can we think a little bit at church this morning?
SPEAKER_01: You good with that?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, decaf, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Decaf.
SPEAKER_01: Uh when the logic of intercession, what I mean by the logic of intercession, here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: It's a request that is based on a truth that God has already established in the Bible, in his word, or a principle that he's demonstrated in his character.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: The logic of intercession is a request that is based on a truth that God has already established in his word, or a principle that he has demonstrated in his character.
SPEAKER_01: All through the Bible, God always says this to his people, hey, put me in remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: Not that God's forgotten, but that's what Moses does.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, Okay, uh, you know me by name, and I found favor in your sight.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now because of that, or in verse 13, now therefore, if I found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say, consider this nation.
SPEAKER_01: But what he's saying is, hey, he's not just praying for guidance.
SPEAKER_01: You can go through your entire Christian life and pray for guidance and never have a deeper, fuller knowledge of God because guidance is rooted in our need.
SPEAKER_01: What Moses is talking about is God's character, which is an expression of God's nature.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing we see in the text, uh, that it's in the logic of intercession, is a man that wants a deeper knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: You never want to get to the point where you just kind of coast.
SPEAKER_01: You get in this rut where you're kind of like, hey, I'm 58, I've been going to church my whole life, I got it, I know the stories.
SPEAKER_01: You realize you can know the stories in the Bible and not have a deep, intimate relationship with God, right?
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to get to that point.
SPEAKER_01: Because knowing the stories is in your head.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of a relationship flows out of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's not information, it's intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing we see in the text is redemptive leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Redemptive leadership, verse 14, he said, My presence will go, and God's speaking, and God says to Moses, My presence will go with you.
SPEAKER_01: That's singular.
SPEAKER_01: He's not talking about all the people.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a reason I'm telling you this, so just stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, This is Moses now, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
SPEAKER_01: For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I in your people?
SPEAKER_01: See, what Moses does is Moses connects, hey, it's it's great, God, that I found favor and you'll go with me, but I don't want you to just go with me.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go with us.
SPEAKER_01: Redemptive leadership, and we say this a lot around here as a staff.
SPEAKER_01: Those who lead should be the first to sacrifice for the sake of those that they lead.
SPEAKER_01: Like one Sunday I was walking out to the parking lot over here because the most inconvenient place to park here at Grand Parkway, if you're our guest today, we have this building here.
SPEAKER_01: We have our student ministry building we call the warehouse way back in the distance, and then our children's building right here.
SPEAKER_01: The most inconvenient place to park is way out there.
SPEAKER_01: That's called staff parking.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the staff parks.
SPEAKER_01: And I was walking out one Sunday and one guy stopped me.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Why do you guys park way out here?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Because we're the staff.
SPEAKER_01: We should lead by example.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Our last church, the pastor had a parking space with a sign on it said reserved for pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to disparage that.
SPEAKER_01: That's your business.
SPEAKER_01: I know, but here the staff park's the furthest place away.
SPEAKER_01: And we got to walk across the parking lot that ladies don't like to walk on with their dress shoes.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Because they email me.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor, can we get this thing paved or something?
SPEAKER_01: This is this tears my shoes up.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, for that and all your first world problems, keep them emails coming, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Hey, we park out there because we're not better than anybody.
SPEAKER_01: Well, those who lead should be the first to sacrifice for the sake they lead.
SPEAKER_01: So do you make the staff park out here?
SPEAKER_01: I don't make them, but I suggest to them it's a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I I see what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because redemptive leadership is not about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's about, hey, I want to do what's best for the people I lead.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to Moses, hey, I you found favor in my sight, and I'm pleased with you, and I'll go with you.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses says, That's not enough for me, because I'm not just Moses, I'm the mediator of these people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what God does, look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to miss this.
SPEAKER_01: What God does for Israel is based on how he feels about Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: He said to Moses, This very thing you have you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be led by men and women that have found favor in God's sight.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that's not a statement about me and the staff, as you'll see in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: So just what do we see?
SPEAKER_01: We see redemptive leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing we see is how God thinks about his people.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Still in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, My presence will go with you, and I'll give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.
SPEAKER_01: For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people?
SPEAKER_01: 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_01: Now, one of the things the Bible tells us is how God thinks about his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just acknowledge this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a big difference in how God thinks about us and how we think about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: There's a big difference in how we think about how God thinks about us and how we think about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: The way God thinks about it is because Moses says this, he uses the word favor.
SPEAKER_01: When is the last time you use the word favor to describe your relationship with God?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, uh, I'm uncomfortable for you even saying that once.
SPEAKER_01: Now the word favor is the Hebrew word hain, hain, and it means acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: Acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: It's not tolerated, not tolerance, but accepted.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's not this conditional because it's as certain as the means that secured it.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he says, Hey, you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name, and God is saying, Hey, this is how I think about you.
SPEAKER_01: I I think about you as an accepted child of God.
SPEAKER_01: And my acceptance of you is not conditional, it's not based on your behavior.
SPEAKER_01: When you do good, yay, I accept you.
SPEAKER_01: When you do bad, go over there and stand in the corner.
SPEAKER_01: You're an embarrassment.
SPEAKER_01: You're an embarrassment to me.
SPEAKER_01: You're just just just go stand over there because we act as if our depravity somehow catches God off guard.
SPEAKER_01: The second word he uses is the word distinct in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Is it not for your is it not you're going with us so that we are distinct?
SPEAKER_01: I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when he says distinct, that's the Hebrew word pala.
SPEAKER_01: Palah, it means marked out, distinguished, separated, to be wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: Marked out, distinguished, separated, to be wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how does God think about his people?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you got your Bible and you're in Exodus 33, turn to the New Testament, to the book of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_01: I want to show you something.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just a one-off kind of deal.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a reason the Bible tells us these things.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 9, when God says, But you are a chosen race, who chose you?
SPEAKER_01: That's some of y'all like, well, I don't want to say it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: See, he chose you.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You're a chosen race, you're a holy priesthood, you're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
SPEAKER_01: Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against the soul.
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes you read things in the Bible and you think, yeah, God's trying to tell them to act like they're sojourners and they're exiles.
SPEAKER_01: Sojourners mean they're just they're just passing through, they're just pilgrims.
SPEAKER_01: They're just, they're not here forever.
SPEAKER_01: They're just kind of somewhere for a short time.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when he says in 1 Peter, hey, I urge you as sojourners in exile, uh, he's not making that up.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: They are in exile.
SPEAKER_01: If you got if you opened your Bible actually to 1 Peter, just look back to 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: If not, it'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Look at how he begins this letter.
SPEAKER_01: He writes these words.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithania, according to the foreknowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the dispersion is they were scattered because of persecution.
SPEAKER_01: And then he lists all these cities that they were sent to, Pontus and Galatian, Cappadocian, Asia, Bithynia.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, This is where you went to, and this is why you went, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: He says, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, now let's think a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me this morning?
SPEAKER_01: He says, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, that means that God knew beforehand this was going to happen, and God did not stop it from happening.
SPEAKER_01: But that also means God is not morally culpable for what happened just because he knew.
SPEAKER_01: How can he not know he's God?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: God has foreknowledge of everything.
SPEAKER_01: And so something happens, and oh well, why wouldn't God keep that from happening?
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But but but God had knowledge of that before it happened, otherwise, he can't be God.
SPEAKER_01: And so God has foreknowledge of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, you people are scattered out of all these other places.
SPEAKER_01: This dispersion has come up, persecution has rose up, and you've been scattered to other cities, so now that you're sojourners in exiles, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: God knew beforehand it was going to happen, and he didn't stop it.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not morally responsible for it.
SPEAKER_01: You can't point to things that happen, either by man's sin or the fact that we live in a sinful world that's under the fall.
SPEAKER_01: You can't look at stuff and kind of go, because we all want a free will.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone wants a free will until something happens you can't manage, and then you want to look back and go, Well, why would God let that happen?
SPEAKER_01: You're the biggest hypocrite in the room right now.
SPEAKER_01: No, see, this happened uh according to the foreknowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing he says is in the sanctification of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this happened and God knew before, and he didn't stop it from happening, but he also can use that to sanctify you.
SPEAKER_01: That means to make you look more and more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, lest I sound like I got it all together.
SPEAKER_01: This past week I had a sanctifying experience with my 18-year-old daughter who's off at college, who texted me like on Wednesday and said, Dad, my car has a flat tire and the check engine light is on.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Okay, flat tire got check engine light.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just start thinking of all these scenarios.
SPEAKER_01: I can imagine my 18-year-old daughter pulling to a car repair place in Waco, Texas.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, my check engine light is on.
SPEAKER_01: Their eyes light up with dollar signs.
SPEAKER_01: Cha-ching.
SPEAKER_01: You need a new motor.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm like, well, you need to, hey, hey, let's get that tire changed.
SPEAKER_01: And she texts, I said, get the tire changed, and I'll find somewhere to take it.
SPEAKER_01: She writes me back, I can't.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Where's your car right now?
SPEAKER_01: It's in the parking garage.
SPEAKER_01: It's flat, it's sitting on the rim.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time today, and I'm so busy, I'm not gonna have time tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: What did what?
SPEAKER_01: And so, and then I said, Hey, you don't want that thing?
SPEAKER_01: You need to get that change.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, my friends Weston and and and Trevor said that they could change it for me because Weston has a tire repair kit in his truck.
SPEAKER_01: No, not for a nanosecond do I want two rednecks fixing a tire my kids gonna drive around on.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, girls, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go off to college and text your dad the name of some punky boy.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't never met.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you should pray for me.
SPEAKER_01: In like two minutes, I'm fantasizing about riding around the Baylor campus on my moped with a bullhorn and an axe and a clown mash.
SPEAKER_01: Trevor and Weston coming out, coming out wherever you are.
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's gonna give me peace.
SPEAKER_01: And then that liberal woman I'm married to in the kitchen, she's like, Oh, you just gotta let her go.
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna get this sorted.
SPEAKER_01: She can't even change the tire.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, I'm so busy eating lunch and studying.
SPEAKER_01: I in my mind I had to say, we're gonna have to replace the whole motor, and oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: And I called a friend of mine, he goes, Oh, yeah, take it here.
SPEAKER_01: These people are great, they're believers.
SPEAKER_01: I called the lady.
SPEAKER_01: And so my wife interceded.
SPEAKER_01: She interposed between the two of us because she could see her redneck husband getting lathered up.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Whoa! Here, my wife said, You know, when when our kids don't do what you want them to do, you start thinking.
SPEAKER_01: About white ways to punish them.
SPEAKER_01: I said, not punish them.
SPEAKER_01: Teach them a lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Like this went through my thought.
SPEAKER_01: About minute number three, this went through my head.
SPEAKER_01: I will take my old beat-up 2002-4 pickup, drive it up to Waco, go up to her parking garage and her dorm, change the tire, back her car out, put my truck in there and white shoe polish right on the window.
SPEAKER_01: Dad was here.
SPEAKER_01: And then underneath it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Weston, call me.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife just in there cooking, just smiling like, You done?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not done yet.
SPEAKER_01: Give me another minute, and I find I told my texting my daughter, hey, just tell me the hometown these boys are from.
SPEAKER_01: I'll take it from there.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're gonna go to their hometown and find them?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's not hard to find a kid who had his leg cut off with a chainsaw.
SPEAKER_01: Looking for a kid named Weston that walks with a limp now.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just being funny.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says, hey, according to the foreknowledge of God, in the sanctification of the Spirit, sometimes I so want to control everything that has anything to do with my kids.
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm not careful, they're gonna look more like me than they look like God.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you are like, what's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_01: You don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want your kids depending on you in a way they're supposed to depend on God.
SPEAKER_01: You don't.
SPEAKER_01: I know it feels good right now to be savior, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: I know it feels good to jump in there and go, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: You you you there's situations and circumstances that happen, and God says, I'm gonna use this to make your kid look more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing, he says, for obedience to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That means that in the midst of being sojourners and exiles, you they can still obey God.
SPEAKER_01: They can still do what God said to do.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is how God thinks about his people.
SPEAKER_01: So when he says back here in Exodus 33, when he says, Hey, you're distinct, that doesn't mean we're better than.
SPEAKER_01: That means that we have an opportunity in whatever circumstance we're in to respond in a way that conveys to everyone around us, hey, my God's a great God.
SPEAKER_01: I you can't just say, hey, I'm distinct and I'm marked out and I'm separate and I'm wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: That's easy when things are going great.
SPEAKER_01: But when your boyfriend breaks up with you, say the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Say the same thing because that's when the distinct nature of the believer needs to manifest itself.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing we see in the text, and we'll get to the application, is that goodness is enough.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: I lost you there talking about your kids.
SPEAKER_01: You feel that?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are kind of like, I'd like to, I want my kids to be.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, my wife is like, hey, you, you, she's a big girl.
SPEAKER_01: I yeah, my kid texted me, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm an adult now.
SPEAKER_01: I can handle this.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: You are 18.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing this is the way I roll at my house.
SPEAKER_01: As long as I'm paying your bills, you have a moral responsibility to me.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna get my money and then go off to Baylor, like, well, you know, Dad, I'm an adult now.
SPEAKER_01: Because I will come down there and set the kingdom down.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm here to enforce the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Where these boys are gonna fix your tire.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm gonna patch you.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, Moses gets a little excited.
SPEAKER_01: What did I say when I say goodness is enough?
SPEAKER_01: Moses, verse 18, said, Please show me your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Ah, check yourself before you wreck yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Moses got all excited.
SPEAKER_01: Now show me your glory.
SPEAKER_01: In this situation, glory, he's talking about the fullness of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: God, I just want to see you.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, You can't see me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not like you.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot look upon me and live.
SPEAKER_01: I'm my glory is so that overwhelming for you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, Moses said, Please show me your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I be gracious, and I'll show mercy on whom I show mercy.
SPEAKER_01: But he said, You can't see my face, for man shall not see me and live.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, let's remember that because we've got people writing a lot of songs these days about seeing God and touching God's face and hugging God.
SPEAKER_01: And when you hear songs like that, that's a person that spends more time with songwriters than they do with God.
SPEAKER_01: You you you you can't you can't do that to God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says he lives in unapproachable light.
SPEAKER_01: He's holy, he's glorious, and his glory he will not share with another.
SPEAKER_01: So what what what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm saying that really on a deeper, more theological level, really, God's kind of saying, after that whole golden calf incident back there in chapter 32, we're still good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of telling you, Moses, we're still good.
SPEAKER_01: You can't see my glory.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I'll I'll cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when you screw up, you think God's not gonna give you any more goodness.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: You start thinking about life in terms of what you deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't deserve anything.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God, I don't deserve a good, godly man because you know, when I was in high school, and then, you know, when I went to junior college, whoo, let's not talk about that, God.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll just take whoever comes along.
SPEAKER_01: And to you, God says, I'm gonna make all my goodness pass in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses came down the mountain and his face was glowing.
SPEAKER_01: People couldn't even look at him, his face was shining.
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't even see God's glory, he just saw God's goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If you've screwed up before, if you've screwed up yesterday, God's not out of goodness for you.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes he just lets it pass in front of you as if to say, hey, I saw what you did back there when you made that golden calf and attributed to that goofy idol, what should only belong to me.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm a God who's slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna forgive your goop, your goofiness, and here's my goodness passing by.
SPEAKER_01: You can't see my glory because if you saw my glory, it would kill you, and I don't want to kill you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to just remind you how good I am.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes what you need to be reminded of is not how bad you are, it's how good God intends to be.
SPEAKER_01: That's all that's in the text.
SPEAKER_01: So, what does that mean for us in 2016?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you four things.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we see in the text.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second point.
SPEAKER_01: Here's your takeaways from the text.
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times, this is why you should go to a church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, I'd love it to be this one.
SPEAKER_01: This is a great church.
SPEAKER_01: These people sitting around you are funny.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody asked me in the first service, hey, why do you get people to get up and tell their story?
SPEAKER_01: Because you had that little boy creepy, that 10-year-old kid, and yeah, I turned around to a lady sitting behind me in that first service, and I said, You're gonna share next.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, uh, what, what?
SPEAKER_01: I said, You're a stay-at-home mom.
SPEAKER_01: You got like 17 kids sucking the life out of you.
SPEAKER_01: You got something to say.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, I don't have that many kids.
SPEAKER_01: It just seems like when they all show up like a swarm of bees around you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to whip some of those kids, and they're not even mine.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, Well, let me pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: You've been in church a long time, haven't you?
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray about that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the deal: you're a woman, you're a mother, you're a child of God, you're a wife, you have something to say.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this the bane of this world are is preachers who pastor churches full of people who have something to say and they never get a chance to say it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'll be coming to some of you in the future and saying to you, hey, I won't you just and this is all Brandon?
SPEAKER_01: I just said to Brandon, just get up and tell where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Just where you are, what God's doing or not doing.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Because some of you were more, some of you will walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Let me be the first to say this, more encouraged by what Brandon Frelix said than anything I've said so far.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say amen to that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm great with that.
SPEAKER_01: I think.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm great with that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, here's what you take away from the text.
SPEAKER_01: Shh, stop laughing.
SPEAKER_01: You're in church.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to take away from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's easy to go to church, and hey, most churches don't read the Bible because they don't study to be able to know what's going on in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: So you go to church, it teaches you the Bible, gives you an opportunity to exercise your priesthood.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what we take away.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what this means in 2016 today.
SPEAKER_01: Four things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, God is reasonable.
SPEAKER_01: Not reasonable, he's reasonable.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said, remember we're eavesdropping on a conversation in the tent of meeting.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a little word, see.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said, get this, people.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said to God, see.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this logic of intercession.
SPEAKER_01: He points to something.
SPEAKER_01: He's referring to something.
SPEAKER_01: And God didn't say, I'm God, don't talk to me that way.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Go ahead, go ahead, state your case.
SPEAKER_01: I love people.
SPEAKER_01: They're like those great theologians, A C D C.
SPEAKER_01: They get back in the ring to take another swing.
SPEAKER_01: Not like, oh, well, God, you know, I turned my back and these people went crazy back there.
SPEAKER_01: And God's like, come on, reason with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to reason.
SPEAKER_01: I want a man or woman who's going to meet with me and not just be like, well, you know, if it be your will and if it's possible, I'm the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: Anything's possible.
SPEAKER_01: Don't bore me with what you don't understand or your insecurities.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, Hey, I'm here to plead my case.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Come on, my man.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, back in the Old Testament, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Man named Jacob, God blessed him.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Because you've wrestled with God and man and have overcome.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you got to get in the ring, man, and just get it on with God.
SPEAKER_01: Not in a disrespectful way, but just in a, hey, see?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is reasonable.
SPEAKER_01: He's able to reason.
SPEAKER_01: He says in Isaiah 118, come let us reason together.
SPEAKER_01: Though your sins be as scarlet, I'll wash you as white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the God who comes just to condemn you and kick you out.
SPEAKER_01: Come, let's talk about this.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing we take away is there's always more.
SPEAKER_01: There's always more.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I mean in your relationship with God, there is always more.
SPEAKER_01: You never arrive, you never get to a place, you're like, well, I know, you know, 10 Bible stories.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want, a cookie?
SPEAKER_01: The goal of this is not you and I knowing the Bible stories.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of this is you and I have an intimate relationship with the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That you walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, I'm such a nerd.
SPEAKER_01: I watched a documentary the other day on the ocean floor.
SPEAKER_01: And you know that we've not mapped all the all the bottom of the oceans?
SPEAKER_01: What are we doing?
SPEAKER_01: We can go to Mars, but we can't map that.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, you can be walking along the surface of the ocean.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, excuse me, the bottom of the ocean floor, and all of a sudden you come to a thing called the Mariana Trench, and it drops off straight down for two miles.
SPEAKER_01: Three people have been there in the history of civilization.
SPEAKER_01: We've sent more men to the moon.
SPEAKER_01: Yet there's just this doubt and this mystery out there.
SPEAKER_01: There's stuff that's lost in the ocean that we've never found.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't concern you.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make you curious.
SPEAKER_01: No, what you're thinking is, why are you telling us this?
SPEAKER_01: Because God's that way.
SPEAKER_01: He's that way.
SPEAKER_01: There's unfathomable depths to his character, and he's just waiting for men and women to get fed up with the ordinary and go, come on, I want to know more.
SPEAKER_01: And so Moses got in the tent with God and said, See, I just want to know your ways.
SPEAKER_01: If I found favor, you said I found favor and you're pleased with me, awesome.
SPEAKER_01: You know me by name?
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to do based on that.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, Yeah, yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing we take away from this is that we can accept being accepted.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: We can accept being accepted.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to, if you're a Christian, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to stop acting like God's acceptance of you.
SPEAKER_01: It's based on your behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll show you that here in just a minute, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to stop acting like, well, you know, I did good today, so God accepted me, but yesterday, you know, I had seven too many beers.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's probably too many.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and God wouldn't, he just, God didn't accept me.
SPEAKER_01: So, so is your is your relationship with God that willy-nilly?
SPEAKER_01: Is it based on your behavior or whatever?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the fourth thing you take away.
SPEAKER_01: You can see in Exodus 33 the basis of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: You can see in Exodus 33 the basis of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I told you about leadership, that this is redemptive leadership, that God does what God does for Israel based on how he feels about Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: And I said I'm telling you this for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: Because some of y'all are kind of like, you're not talking about yourself and the staff, are you?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, y'all park away out there, so what?
SPEAKER_01: Big deal.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not talking about us.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_01: We can see the basis of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: God does what he does for Israel because of how he feels about Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just a little type and a foreshadowing, just a forerunner to what's going to come in the New Testament because our salvation depends on the pleasure God takes in our mediator.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Our salvation depends on the pleasure that God takes in our mediator.
SPEAKER_01: You see, a lot of us we wonder how God can ever love us because of something we've done.
SPEAKER_01: We get down on ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We start asking, how could God ever be pleased with me or someone like me having done all the things I've done?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_01: I got friends that have been married multiple times.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell them, hey man, let's just let this one be the last one.
SPEAKER_01: Well okay.
SPEAKER_01: And every time, and they'll call me and say, hey man, I'm getting married again.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, are you sure you want to do this?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is like wife number three or four or six.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_01: And the common denominator in all five previous marriages is you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, man, these women, no, you.
SPEAKER_01: You sorry, rascal.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll give you 50 bucks and a bucket of chicken if you'll come to the city park and do my wedding.
SPEAKER_01: And invariably, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_01: We get there, and my friend, I have a friend that's been married.
SPEAKER_01: He's only sixth marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: He's messed up in his head.
SPEAKER_01: He blames all his previous five wives.
SPEAKER_01: And before this one, I said to him, Listen, you sorry rascal, stop cheating on these women.
SPEAKER_01: They leave you because you're unfaithful.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
SPEAKER_01: So at his sixth wedding, yes, six.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hey, next time you got to marry Liz Taylor, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You out of women, they're gonna marry you.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's I said, he said, Well, you know, I just feel bad and just pray for me, and I know God's disappointed with me.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: You think God relates to you on the basis of your behavior?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, I mean, uh, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Your salvation depends on the pleasure God takes in Jesus, your mediator.
SPEAKER_01: It's what he says to Moses, and he says to Moses, hey, I know you by name and you found favor.
SPEAKER_01: I'm pleased with you.
SPEAKER_01: You found favor in my side.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to make the parallel, go to the New Testament when your mediator Jesus is baptized, and God speaks from heaven and says, This is my son whom I love, with whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: He's pleased with Jesus as the mediator, and he's pleased with Moses as a mediator for Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And all God is doing is way back here, kind of saying, Hey, I don't want you to live like your salvation depends on you and your behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what I'm not saying, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying your behavior, just go do what you want.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying if you're a Christian, your relationship with Christ is secure because of what Jesus has already done for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's the basis of your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: My salvation doesn't hinge on my behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I'm a pretty good guy.
SPEAKER_01: Every once in a while I have violent thoughts about boys, I want to fix my daughter's car.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're an 18-year-old guy here and you want to come up and go, I can fix that, the answer to you is no as well.
SPEAKER_01: So get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, rascals.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, somebody came up to me after the first service and said, You shouldn't be so hard on them boys.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you can't stand the wrath of this father, you can't have my daughters.
SPEAKER_01: It's only wrath if you're a transgressor.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not breaking the law, you're okay.
SPEAKER_01: You can come to my house.
SPEAKER_01: But you break the law, I'm coming to your house.
SPEAKER_01: Bam.
SPEAKER_01: God is pleased with Jesus and anyone who trusts in him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only basis on which God is pleased with anyone.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this, and we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: For there's one God and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: There's one God and there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.
SPEAKER_01: That means you all can be free today because the ransom has been paid.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said on the cross, it is finished.
SPEAKER_01: What was he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Everything necessary for you and I to be forgiven and to have a secure relationship with God has been taken care of, completed, finished on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I say what we look at, we can see the basis of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It's not based.
SPEAKER_01: My behavior is in line with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel, in keeping with the worth of the gospel, not out of effort, but out of identity.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a distinct people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Once I was not a people, but now I am the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: What didn't matter over there matters a whole lot now.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't need to be checked on.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to be like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because my relationship with God is secure.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of my behavior, that ain't the basis, but because God accepted my mediator.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you see in Exodus 33.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what you got to ask yourself is does this apply to you this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Amen, sister.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thanks for the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks that the good news is that this doesn't depend on me living like I deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: On my best day, I do not deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: On the best day, I do the most good possible.
SPEAKER_01: I don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: But you chose me and said, I want you to have it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, that's the basis of my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: That God is a mediator.
SPEAKER_01: That God comes into the world and says, Ali, Ali, in free, come out, come out wherever you are.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're a bunch of lawless sinbreakers.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you do the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: Come let us reason together.
SPEAKER_01: Though your sins be as scarlet, I'll wash you as white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here this morning and you've never met this God that takes people like me that are just their sins are like scarlet and washes you white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a do-over or a second chance, it's a changed heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's the offer of God to you today.
SPEAKER_01: Now ask yourself, why would you not want that?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about these things for just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that there's some things in this world that are immovable.
SPEAKER_01: There's some things in this world that are not governed by polls and pundits and Monday night debates.
SPEAKER_01: There's some things that are immovable.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is immovable.
SPEAKER_01: The certainty of God's word is immovable.
SPEAKER_01: And the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice is immovable.
SPEAKER_01: You said in here that the promise is for you and for those who are far off, whom the Lord our God will call.
SPEAKER_01: I pray God that you would call some people in this room that feel far off today.
SPEAKER_01: That they would just hear, hey, maybe, maybe God's, maybe I can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, do what only you can do, and that's draw people.
SPEAKER_01: We trust you to do that.
SPEAKER_01: We ask you to do that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me just for a second.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times, uh it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is is it there's a lot there, and it's hard to get it all out in a you know the amount of time that I have.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the sermon this morning.
SPEAKER_01: When we sin, we try to we kind of move away from God.
SPEAKER_01: And God comes and says, Hey, this is so true, you can move back towards me.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gotta be afraid of me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't come to get you.
SPEAKER_01: If God wanted to get you, he'd already got you.
SPEAKER_01: But what if he came to forgive you and to give you a hope and a peace?
SPEAKER_01: That's Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And if you if you've never understood that or begun a relationship with this God, myself and some of our pastors will be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ask Brandon and his wife Lindsay to be available over here as well.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are waiting, some of you are maybe waiting for the same thing they're waiting for.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can get them to pray for you if you're waiting on something else, or you may want to just speak a word to them.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they'll be available, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when you came in, if you're a guest, when you came in, you're giving a little worship folder, and there's a part in there asked for some personal information.
SPEAKER_01: Would you take a chance and fill that out?
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of crease it and tear it off and drop in these wooden boxes by all these doors.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we collect our offering.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so if you're a guest today, we ask nothing of you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a privilege of the people of this church to support the ministries of this church.
SPEAKER_01: And so, for all of us today who worship through obedience or through generosity, that's where you'll do that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: The sureness of your salvation is not life.
SPEAKER_01: It is freedom.
SPEAKER_01: It is your freedom that Christ set you free.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.