Travis Aicklen: Our teaching text for today comes from Exodus 34.
Travis Aicklen: And I'm going to read verses 29 through 35.
Travis Aicklen: When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.
Travis Aicklen: And when Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.
Travis Aicklen: But Moses called to them.
Travis Aicklen: So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him and he spoke to them.
Travis Aicklen: And afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.
Travis Aicklen: When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.
Travis Aicklen: But whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.
Travis Aicklen: And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw his face was radiant.
Travis Aicklen: And then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went to speak with the Lord.
Travis Aicklen: I had coffee with a high school friend.
Travis Aicklen: We went to Golden West in the mid-90s and then he left town.
Travis Aicklen: And so he was coming back through town and he wanted to meet up.
Travis Aicklen: So we met at Component for a cup of coffee, but he was unaware that a coffee shop was next to us.
Travis Aicklen: What he remembered is Planing Meal Pizza, because before Component, it was Planing Meal Pizza.
Travis Aicklen: But we got to talking about all the other things it's been as well.
Travis Aicklen: Because before Planing Meal Pizza, it was Dharmas.
Travis Aicklen: And before Dharma's, it was Paco's Tacos.
Travis Aicklen: Because during Monday night football, you could get all you can eat tacos for 10 bucks.
Travis Aicklen: And the goal of a high schooler would be to see how cheap you could make those tacos.
Travis Aicklen: Could you get them down to 10 cents a taco if you just kept eating over the course of hours?
Travis Aicklen: So we were telling stories about Paco's Tacos, and then what occurred to us is there was a point for Paco where he wanted out and he sold tacos tacos.
Travis Aicklen: And I believe he sold it to one of his friends or one of the employees who took the business and then called it tacos tacos.
Travis Aicklen: I think I don't want to be a racist here, but I believe it's one of his white friends bought the business and called it tacos tacos.
Travis Aicklen: And I remember thinking in high school, like, come on, man, you got there's nothing else, nothing else that's coming to mind.
Travis Aicklen: We're just gonna go tacos, tacos.
Travis Aicklen: A few years later, I would have an opportunity to name something and realized how difficult it is.
Travis Aicklen: I mean, at up to that point I'd like named my cars.
Travis Aicklen: Um, but some of you are about to experience naming a child for the first time, and it's there's a lot.
Travis Aicklen: There's a lot to it.
Travis Aicklen: And I know when it came time to name this church, I was completely overwhelmed, right?
Travis Aicklen: A couple couple reasons.
Travis Aicklen: One, it's not my church, it's his church.
Travis Aicklen: And so you're trying your best to say, Jesus, what would you have for us?
Travis Aicklen: Which is a little bit difficult, but it was overwhelming.
Travis Aicklen: I don't know how you feel about the name Radiant.
Travis Aicklen: Um, I don't know uh if it works for you.
Travis Aicklen: I don't what would you have named it?
Travis Aicklen: Maybe turn to your neighbor and say, had I been given the opportunity to name this church, I would have named it.
Travis Aicklen: Nice.
Travis Aicklen: So Tiffany was the one that came up with with Radiant Church, and when she f`irst said it to me, I had a couple of issues with it.
Travis Aicklen: The first is it felt pretty braggadocious.
Travis Aicklen: There was something kind of arrogant about it.
Travis Aicklen: There was something kind of look at me, you know, about it.
Travis Aicklen: Does that make sense?
Travis Aicklen: Um that was an issue.
Travis Aicklen: I didn't love that.
Travis Aicklen: That we were like, hey, we're the new church in town and we're radiant.
Travis Aicklen: You know, I was like, oh, gag.
Travis Aicklen: And then the other piece of it is I was a little nervous that naming it something like Radiant would be a fad that I would later regret.
Travis Aicklen: You know, that something becomes trendy at a time, but it's then not timeless.
Travis Aicklen: You know that, right?
Travis Aicklen: Some of you have tattoos that say that was trendy at a time, but it's not timeless, you know?
Travis Aicklen: That barbed wire you got was so cool at the time, and now it's like, okay, we know where you were at in the 1980s in Pismo Beach, you know.
Travis Aicklen: Some of you were like, yeah, dream catchers.
Travis Aicklen: They were so.
Travis Aicklen: Anyway, there's this, you know, there's this nervousness when you name someone or something that it's gonna be a passing trend.
Travis Aicklen: And so those were my two issues.
Travis Aicklen: I didn't want it to be arrogant, and I didn't want it to be like a fad, something we would uh move on from.
Travis Aicklen: But it's it's really difficult to name something.
Travis Aicklen: This church, Radiant Church, is a part of a family of churches, and we got to name that as well.
Travis Aicklen: And so I was with a team of people actually in a hotel room for days trying to come up with a name for our family of churches, and we landed on confluence, and again, even at the end of that, we were like, I don't know, this has some issues, but we had to come up with something.
Travis Aicklen: It was brutal because we were naming it with a team of people, some were in their 30s, some were in their forties, some were in their 50s, and some were in their 60s.
Travis Aicklen: And it's pretty tough to agree on anything with such a span.
Travis Aicklen: The guy in his 60s, while we were pressing in, arguing about what to name our family of churches, had a stroke.
Travis Aicklen: It's not funny, he had a stroke.
Travis Aicklen: I mean, we were like, he's from the he's from Atlanta.
Travis Aicklen: He already talks kind of slow, but he was talking really slow.
Travis Aicklen: And then he was like, I need to lay down.
Travis Aicklen: And we were like, wow, naming this just took it out of him.
Travis Aicklen: And then we're like, no, he's having a stroke.
Travis Aicklen: Like, we pushed this guy to the brink, naming something.
Travis Aicklen: And some of you know about this, and at the end of the day, you just gotta you just gotta go with something because the baby's here, right?
Travis Aicklen: That's what happens.
Travis Aicklen: So I was really encouraged when I started exploring the idea of naming our church Radiant.
Travis Aicklen: I was encouraged by a couple things.
Travis Aicklen: One, it is a timeless phrase, it's not a trendy one.
Travis Aicklen: It's actually really scriptural.
Travis Aicklen: I was seeing the word everywhere in the Bible, including the passage we just read today.
Travis Aicklen: And so it wasn't a trend or a passing fad, was something that was here to stay because it's in the scriptures that aren't going to pass away.
Travis Aicklen: And then the other thing I noticed is that every time the word was referred to in the Bible, it had to do with something God had done, not something that a group of people had worked up, conjured up, or made themselves.
Travis Aicklen: It always referred to something that had happened because the people of God were in the presence of God.
Travis Aicklen: It's something that he's up to.
Travis Aicklen: I discovered passages like Psalm 34, 5 that says, Those that look to him are radiant, not those that plan a church or strive or are trying harder than the rest.
Travis Aicklen: Those that look to him are radiant, their faces are never covered with shame.
Travis Aicklen: And the word radiant became more like biblical and less braggadocious because it was always the result of God being up to something with a group of people.
Travis Aicklen: Ephesians 5 talks about husbands loving their wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Travis Aicklen: So this isn't a trend, this is a trajectory.
Travis Aicklen: We're all headed to this place where we are this bride without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, and this is something Jesus is up to.
Travis Aicklen: So in naming our church Radiant, I was just kind of saying, when the saints go marching in, I would like to be in that number.
Travis Aicklen: I'd like to be a part of that group that are being transformed, washed by the word, cleanse, and are blameless on that day when we stand before Him.
Travis Aicklen: So after telling you that this is not something you can do in your own effort, I found myself reading the scriptures this week, wondering, how does one, if one wanted to, become radiant?
Travis Aicklen: How do we have what Moses had on this day?
Travis Aicklen: We've seen this before, right?
Travis Aicklen: Where somebody has met with God and it has changed their countenance.
Travis Aicklen: It's not just that their words are telling you a story, their whole face is telling you a story.
Travis Aicklen: They've seen God, and you can see the result of it on their face.
Travis Aicklen: How many have seen that before?
Travis Aicklen: It'll be what happens when our kids come back from New Day.
Travis Aicklen: I guarantee it.
Travis Aicklen: We'll come back from New Day, we'll baptize, and we'll think.
Travis Aicklen: Those kids went to the mountain and they saw God.
Travis Aicklen: And we can see it in their countenance.
Travis Aicklen: They're reflecting Him.
Travis Aicklen: We've been doing these mountain retreats, taking groups of men and women up to the mountains for four days to pursue freedom.
Travis Aicklen: And when they come home, they testify.
Travis Aicklen: We can't remember anything any one of them has said.
Travis Aicklen: I mean, can you?
Travis Aicklen: I can't.
Travis Aicklen: And I'm here for two services in the front row.
Travis Aicklen: I can't normally remember what they said, but you can remember the way they glow.
Travis Aicklen: And you go, oh my goodness, I don't know what happened.
Travis Aicklen: But obviously you've seen some things because we can see the result of that on your face.
Travis Aicklen: So as I read Exodus, I found myself thinking, how do we get that?
Travis Aicklen: How do we be that?
Travis Aicklen: How do we be radiant?
Travis Aicklen: How do we behold Jesus and then be a reflection of him?
Travis Aicklen: How do we put his brilliance on display?
Travis Aicklen: So here's the idea.
Travis Aicklen: Step one, get rid of your God substitutes.
Travis Aicklen: Back up with me a little bit to Exodus 32, because there's a progression of things I want you to see here.
Travis Aicklen: While Moses is at Mount Sinai getting the Ten Commandments, the people of God are down the hill breaking the Ten Commandments.
Travis Aicklen: The first two commandments are worship the Lord your God, Him only, right?
Travis Aicklen: And then don't make any idols.
Travis Aicklen: And while Moses is getting those commands, the people are down the hill breaking those commands, worshiping a golden calf.
Travis Aicklen: This is what it says when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down, he was taking too long.
Travis Aicklen: The people gathered themselves together to Aaron, this would be Moses' right-hand man, and said to him, Up, make us gods who will go before us.
Travis Aicklen: As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him.
Travis Aicklen: This is really key because they see some delay take place, and rather than wait on God, they decide to make gods.
Travis Aicklen: They want someone or something to be in that place of ultimate in their lives, and so they make for themselves idols.
Travis Aicklen: I think we struggle probably to connect with this idea of idolatry, but think of it this way: God substitutes.
Travis Aicklen: Things that you trust in, things that are ultimate in your life, things that you ascribe value and worth to.
Travis Aicklen: We all have these things.
Travis Aicklen: Idolatry is not for far-off people and far-off places.
Travis Aicklen: Our hearts, in fact, are idle factories.
Travis Aicklen: I didn't say that about you.
Travis Aicklen: Martin Luther said that about you, along with a number of other pretty harsh things that he said in his pursuit of reformation.
Travis Aicklen: But your heart is an idol factory, constantly producing idols, putting people, putting creation in a place that only belongs to our Creator.
Travis Aicklen: So the process, the first step in becoming a radiant people is that we identify those God substitutes in our life and get rid of them.
Travis Aicklen: Throw them down because our idols enslave us.
Travis Aicklen: It starts like this.
Travis Aicklen: You have an experience, and you're like, wow, that's amazing.
Travis Aicklen: And then over time, that experience has you.
Travis Aicklen: You can't stop it.
Travis Aicklen: It starts like this.
Travis Aicklen: I have money.
Travis Aicklen: Wow.
Travis Aicklen: This feels amazing.
Travis Aicklen: And then in time, that money has you.
Travis Aicklen: It starts like this.
Travis Aicklen: Oh, I have a family.
Travis Aicklen: What an incredible gift from God.
Travis Aicklen: And then in time, if you exalt that family to a place that belongs only to God, that family will have you.
Travis Aicklen: It'll direct, dictate, be the thing that you worship, and it just can't hold the weight of your worship.
Travis Aicklen: So we want to be rid of our idols, our God's substitutes.
Travis Aicklen: And often I find that we're just so busy, so preoccupied, so distracted, just constantly filled with these substitutes and therefore missing out on the real thing.
Travis Aicklen: So the people of God recognize and renounce the idols that they're worshiping.
Travis Aicklen: That's the beginning of becoming radiant.
Travis Aicklen: And if you're having a hard time recognizing the idols in your life, sometimes it can be someone, sometimes it can be something, but I find that this graph is super helpful because I do think that we worship comfort.
Travis Aicklen: And that's the idol that gets touched when grace asks us to engage in worship in a way that's uncomfortable to us.
Travis Aicklen: And some of us were really into control.
Travis Aicklen: I know for this group of people, they wanted gods, they wanted figurines, they wanted gods that were not gods so that they could be in control and they could be as gods.
Travis Aicklen: They wanted something they could manipulate.
Travis Aicklen: They wanted that because ultimately what they want is control or power.
Travis Aicklen: Or Aaron, if you remember, gets pressured by the people and cares so much about their approval that he dishonors God.
Travis Aicklen: God is no longer in the ultimate place that belongs only to God.
Travis Aicklen: But approval is what Aaron seeks and what Aaron wants most.
Travis Aicklen: It's what he's worshiping in this moment.
Travis Aicklen: So the first step to getting radiant is starting to recognize the other things that we're worshiping and the way that that enslaves us and keeps us and separates us from the presence of God.
Travis Aicklen: Step two is that once you're done with the filler in your life, you wake up to what your soul craves most.
Travis Aicklen: Turn with me to Exodus 33, the next chapter.
Travis Aicklen: Daniel preached on this last week, but the Lord says to Moses, after this debacle, where God's like, Hey, you didn't even go hours without breaking the commands that I've given you.
Travis Aicklen: I asked you not to worship other gods, I asked you not to make idols, and you did both of those things on day one.
Travis Aicklen: I'm done.
Travis Aicklen: And God says, Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants.
Travis Aicklen: I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
Travis Aicklen: Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey, but I'm not going with you.
Travis Aicklen: I'm not going with you because you're a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way I've had it.
Travis Aicklen: And when the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn, and no one put on any ornaments.
Travis Aicklen: They didn't get ready to go.
Travis Aicklen: They broke.
Travis Aicklen: One of the ways that you know that you've dealt with your idols is you no longer see God as a means to another end, but he's the end.
Travis Aicklen: So he's not a way to get something.
Travis Aicklen: He is that something that we want most.
Travis Aicklen: And that's what we're seeing here.
Travis Aicklen: Not just Moses, the whole group of people is told, You can go, I'll give you everything I promised you.
Travis Aicklen: It's not like God's saying, hey, my feelings are hurt, you're on your own, good luck with that.
Travis Aicklen: He actually says, I'll send an angel to deal with your enemies, and I will give you the land that you've been longing for, but I'm not going to go with you.
Travis Aicklen: And one of the ways that you know you've dealt with your idols is you go, I don't want it.
Travis Aicklen: What's a kingdom without my king?
Travis Aicklen: You're not for us, God, a means to some other end.
Travis Aicklen: He's promising to take care of their enemies.
Travis Aicklen: You'll have a life of peace.
Travis Aicklen: They're like, we don't want peace if it's not also with you.
Travis Aicklen: Then he says, You'll have a land, not just any land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Travis Aicklen: You'll have wealth.
Travis Aicklen: And they say, we don't want that, because that's not a means to the good life.
Travis Aicklen: Your presence is what we long for most.
Travis Aicklen: And you know, you've dealt with your idols, when God's not a way to get what you really want, the peace you want, the family you want, the career you want, the wealth you want.
Travis Aicklen: When he's not a means to that end, but you go, no.
Travis Aicklen: If you're not going, I'm not going.
Travis Aicklen: And if you're not there, I don't want to be there.
Travis Aicklen: You're it for me.
Travis Aicklen: You're not a means to another end for me.
Travis Aicklen: You're ultimate.
Travis Aicklen: This is what takes place.
Travis Aicklen: I think it's really powerful.
Travis Aicklen: I want you to see the progression here as we move on, because I was noticing it as I read this, really, what I believe to be a block inside of Exodus.
Travis Aicklen: But it starts with dealing with and getting rid of all the God substitutes, all the filler, all the things that we turn to besides him.
Travis Aicklen: Once we address that, remove that, there's a hunger, an appetite, a stirring inside of Moses where he's like, I'm not going if I don't go with your glory.
Travis Aicklen: I'm hungry to see you.
Travis Aicklen: I don't want just wealth.
Travis Aicklen: And I don't want that just this land.
Travis Aicklen: We want to go with you.
Travis Aicklen: You're what we treasure.
Travis Aicklen: This appetite is stirred.
Travis Aicklen: And this appetite, this crying out, is what leads to this encounter and this revelation of the character of God.
Travis Aicklen: So look at the progression.
Travis Aicklen: I'm done with this.
Travis Aicklen: I'm done with this cheap substitute, this filler.
Travis Aicklen: I now have an appetite that's awakened.
Travis Aicklen: And now it's going to push me towards an encounter and a revelation of the character of God, which is what we receive in Exodus 34.
Travis Aicklen: I want to make a little comment before we jump into this, before we say step three.
Travis Aicklen: Step three in your journey to getting radiant is you get a little taste of the glory.
Travis Aicklen: Chapter 32 and 33, the ones we just referred to, show us how God is renewing his covenant, namely through Moses and the friendship that Moses has as a mediator between God and man.
Travis Aicklen: It also points us to Jesus and how Jesus would mediate a new covenant with God.
Travis Aicklen: But chapter 34 shows us why.
Travis Aicklen: Why God renewed the covenant.
Travis Aicklen: And it's because he's gracious.
Travis Aicklen: It's because of his character.
Travis Aicklen: Remember, it's at this mountain that Moses encounters the burning bush.
Travis Aicklen: In Exodus chapter 3, Moses encounters a burning bush.
Travis Aicklen: He turns aside to look, and it's there that he receives the divine name.
Travis Aicklen: God reveals himself as Yahweh.
Travis Aicklen: Now Moses is back there a little over a year later, and Moses isn't just going to get God's name, he's going to get God's character.
Travis Aicklen: God's going to reveal his character.
Travis Aicklen: Character to him, this will become the most quoted verse in the entire Old Testament.
Travis Aicklen: Gary Brashir says it this way: this is the John 3.16 of the Old Testament.
Travis Aicklen: It's referred to over and over again.
Travis Aicklen: But this revelation, this encounter with God is not possible without an appetite and a hunger for Him and a cry in Moses' heart that says, Show me your glory.
Travis Aicklen: I don't want the wealth.
Travis Aicklen: I don't want peace if you're not going with us.
Travis Aicklen: This is the first explicit summary of God's character in the Bible.
Travis Aicklen: Now, on every page of the Bible, we can see who he is through the things he's done, but this is God writing his own bio.
Travis Aicklen: This is not man speculating based on God's actions as to who he is.
Travis Aicklen: This is revelation from God.
Travis Aicklen: This is also incredibly relational.
Travis Aicklen: I don't know if you read this and notice this, but every one of these terms, God's describing himself in a very relational way.
Travis Aicklen: And these are not just intellectual facts, these are attributes to be experienced.
Travis Aicklen: We're here, I'm not against intellectual facts, but you've got to experience the steadfast, abounding love of God.
Travis Aicklen: You have to experience his loyal friendship.
Travis Aicklen: And many of you have, and you can nod and be like, that guy has stuck with me, and I've done nothing but dumb for many, many years.
Travis Aicklen: And every time I think this has got to be the last time, he's done with me.
Travis Aicklen: He's gracious towards me, and he receives me back into his arms.
Travis Aicklen: We know this.
Travis Aicklen: That's why we're here.
Travis Aicklen: This is to be experienced, not just to be understood and spouted off.
Travis Aicklen: So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and he went up to Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.
Travis Aicklen: And then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name the Lord.
Travis Aicklen: And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Travis Aicklen: Again, in Exodus 3, Moses was given the divine name.
Travis Aicklen: In Exodus 34, he's going to get the divine character, but it starts with him saying the divine name twice.
Travis Aicklen: Yahweh.
Travis Aicklen: The one who is.
Travis Aicklen: And just a quick recap how this starts.
Travis Aicklen: This revelation from God starts like this: God is self-existent.
Travis Aicklen: No one created him.
Travis Aicklen: He's the creator, forever to be worshipped.
Travis Aicklen: Number two, God is eternal.
Travis Aicklen: He's always existed and will always exist.
Travis Aicklen: That's what he's saying when he says, I am who I am.
Travis Aicklen: And thirdly, God's with his people.
Travis Aicklen: He's not just transcendent, he's close to his creation.
Travis Aicklen: When he says, I am, he's saying, I am very much in the mix.
Travis Aicklen: And those are the things that are being said along with much more.
Travis Aicklen: The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God.
Travis Aicklen: The Hebrew word for compassion here is Rahum, which means soft like a womb.
Travis Aicklen: That God is gentle in his dealing with us.
Travis Aicklen: That's why this covenant is still on.
Travis Aicklen: That's why we can come boldly into his presence, look to him, and be made radiant.
Travis Aicklen: He's gentle with us.
Travis Aicklen: Isaiah 66 says that a mother comforts her child, but I, God, am going to comfort you.
Travis Aicklen: And through the Gospels, we see Jesus embody this characteristic because he's constantly moved with compassion.
Travis Aicklen: He's moved in his guts with compassion for those who are suffering.
Travis Aicklen: The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God.
Travis Aicklen: Hanun is the word used for grace.
Travis Aicklen: And it means that God gives generously as a part of his nature, whether we give back to him or not.
Travis Aicklen: So this God is not tit for tat going, I'll give as long as I get, and when I stop getting, I'll stop giving.
Travis Aicklen: That's not the relationship.
Travis Aicklen: He gives because of who he is.
Travis Aicklen: I love this that he doesn't just feel compassion because many of us feel compassion for people, but he's moved to do something about what he feels.
Travis Aicklen: He's generous.
Travis Aicklen: He extends himself in generosity.
Travis Aicklen: Verse 6 says that he's slow to anger.
Travis Aicklen: And it's important that you understand that God does get angry and it's an expression of his love.
Travis Aicklen: It's impossible to love and care for someone and not get angry.
Travis Aicklen: I have no respect for someone who doesn't get angry when they should get angry.
Travis Aicklen: In fact, I want to grab them and shake them and say, this should upset you.
Travis Aicklen: If you really cared about this person, you should be really upset right now.
Travis Aicklen: I also have a hard time respecting someone who's quick-tempered and they fly off the handle.
Travis Aicklen: They're quick, they're impatient, their anger is immature.
Travis Aicklen: James says that human anger does not bring about the righteousness of God, and that's what he's referring to.
Travis Aicklen: This kind of quick-tempered flying off the handledness isn't it.
Travis Aicklen: But our God is slow to anger.
Travis Aicklen: And his anger does bring about the righteousness of God.
Travis Aicklen: So he's patient.
Travis Aicklen: So it's not no anger like God's aloof and indifferent towards what's happening here.
Travis Aicklen: And it's not blow anger like he's like flying off the handle.
Travis Aicklen: He's slow to get angry.
Travis Aicklen: He's patient, but he will punish.
Travis Aicklen: Abounding in love.
Travis Aicklen: Oh, this is fun.
Travis Aicklen: It's worth saying.
Travis Aicklen: I've said it before, but the word slow to anger means long of nose or nostril.
Travis Aicklen: So the idea is that anger would show up in someone's nose and their nostrils would flare.
Travis Aicklen: So the idea here in Hebrew is that it takes a lot for God's nostrils to flare.
Travis Aicklen: He's long of nose.
Travis Aicklen: It's the opposite of saying someone has a short fuse.
Travis Aicklen: That's what it is.
Travis Aicklen: Verse 6, he's abounding in love and faithfulness.
Travis Aicklen: The word love here is the famous Hebrew word Hasid, which is, I guess, the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek term in the New Testament, agape.
Travis Aicklen: It's a love that sacrifices.
Travis Aicklen: It's not like loving the Dodgers, and it's not like loving chips and salsa.
Travis Aicklen: It's more than that.
Travis Aicklen: Walter Brugeman says this Hesed is tenacious fidelity in a relationship.
Travis Aicklen: It's readiness and resolve to continue to be loyal to those to whom one is bound.
Travis Aicklen: It's got a sort of tenacity to it.
Travis Aicklen: And he's abounding in it.
Travis Aicklen: Meaning there's no shortage, there's no scarcity in his love.
Travis Aicklen: It's not like, well, I'm sorry, I gave everything I had to this person.
Travis Aicklen: I've got nothing left for you.
Travis Aicklen: Which is how we feel as parents at times.
Travis Aicklen: Verse 7: maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.
Travis Aicklen: This is not just a reference to thousands of people, but thousands of generations.
Travis Aicklen: He maintains love to thousands of generations.
Travis Aicklen: He forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin.
Travis Aicklen: This is really important because I know Israel would have been wondering, like, man, we broke our covenant on the day we made our covenant.
Travis Aicklen: How will we continue in a relationship with this God?
Travis Aicklen: This is how.
Travis Aicklen: He's abounding in a steadfast love.
Travis Aicklen: Verse 7, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Travis Aicklen: He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
Travis Aicklen: Wow, that lands on such a downer.
Travis Aicklen: All the grandkids are just taking it.
Travis Aicklen: And you may think this is a really depressing way to end a glorious string of God's attributes.
Travis Aicklen: But there's a couple things to ponder here that I think are really important because I think this line actually, far from standing out, it harmonizes in several ways.
Travis Aicklen: The first is that it is possible to experience God's compassion and love through discipline and punishment in your life.
Travis Aicklen: And I know that you could testify to this.
Travis Aicklen: That He disciplines those that He loves.
Travis Aicklen: And so it's possible for us to be forgiven by God and still have to walk out the consequences of our sin.
Travis Aicklen: And it's a mistake even to go to your spouse and say, I thought you forgave me.
Travis Aicklen: Therefore, there should be no consequences for what I did.
Travis Aicklen: You better believe that it's possible to be forgiven and still have to walk out consequences because of our mistakes.
Travis Aicklen: So we will be disciplined by the Lord.
Travis Aicklen: That's one possibility.
Travis Aicklen: The second way I think this harmonizes is it's possible for someone to altogether reject God's love and compassion and therefore receive the full just punishment for their sins.
Travis Aicklen: If we resist his forgiveness and grace, wrath and judgment is all that's left because he will rid this world of sin.
Travis Aicklen: He will deal finally with sin and death.
Travis Aicklen: So either you'll bring it to him and he'll deal with it, or you'll hide it from him and it'll be dealt with.
Travis Aicklen: Step four, once you've had a revelation, a little taste of the glory.
Travis Aicklen: Step four in being a radiant people is that you would do what you were created to do.
Travis Aicklen: Moses bowed to the ground and at once worshiped.
Travis Aicklen: So he's like, show me your glory.
Travis Aicklen: I'm ready.
Travis Aicklen: God reveals himself.
Travis Aicklen: Moses goes face down and worship.
Travis Aicklen: It's all that you can do when God shows up.
Travis Aicklen: When he reveals himself, even for a man whose face has been stuck in a rock, it's time to hit the ground.
Travis Aicklen: All you can do is bow.
Travis Aicklen: Worship is always a response for us, a response to the revelation of God's worth.
Travis Aicklen: And we worship in other areas too.
Travis Aicklen: When we see something that's valuable, we see something that's beautiful, we see something that's important, we ascribe value, worth, and importance to that thing.
Travis Aicklen: It's always a response.
Travis Aicklen: And it's the same way with God.
Travis Aicklen: If you're struggling to worship him, I would suggest that you might not be seeing him because if you saw him for who he really was, you'd have a much easier time worshiping him.
Travis Aicklen: So the prayer shouldn't be, Lord, help me to worship.
Travis Aicklen: It should be show me your glory, and I will do automatically what you designed me to do.
Travis Aicklen: I will ascribe value and worth to your name.
Travis Aicklen: I have to see you.
Travis Aicklen: Because God is merciful, we fall at his feet.
Travis Aicklen: Who God is determines how we worship.
Travis Aicklen: How we see him determines how we worship him.
Travis Aicklen: And when we see him as the merciful king, we throw ourselves at his feet.
Travis Aicklen: When we see him as victorious over Satan's sin and death, we shout and we celebrate.
Travis Aicklen: When we see him as holy and awesome, we zip it.
Travis Aicklen: Don't ruin it by talking.
Travis Aicklen: Have you ever come through the tunnel of Yosemite and someone's ruining it by talking?
Travis Aicklen: It's just like just it's just best if you just keep your mouth shut.
Travis Aicklen: There are those moments where you step into the holiness of God and you're like, shh, just stop talking.
Travis Aicklen: Stop singing, stop the instruments, stop the noise.
Travis Aicklen: God's here.
Travis Aicklen: You're God in heaven.
Travis Aicklen: Hear my on earth.
Travis Aicklen: There's a big gap.
Travis Aicklen: Let my words be few.
Travis Aicklen: Who God is determines how we worship him.
Travis Aicklen: Because he's honorable, we stand.
Travis Aicklen: And we applaud.
Travis Aicklen: Because he's powerful.
Travis Aicklen: We lift up our hands and go, could you pick me up?
Travis Aicklen: It's not getting any better down here.
Travis Aicklen: Step five, be ruined for the ordinary.
Travis Aicklen: What Moses saw didn't just ruin him.
Travis Aicklen: It ruined everybody.
Travis Aicklen: I mean, it fried his motherboard.
Travis Aicklen: Like it's over for him.
Travis Aicklen: Everything's over.
Travis Aicklen: Then the Lord said to him, I'm making a covenant with you before all your people.
Travis Aicklen: I will do wonders never before done in any nation and all the world.
Travis Aicklen: They just saw the ten plagues, by the way.
Travis Aicklen: The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.
Travis Aicklen: And then he says, Do what I command you today.
Travis Aicklen: And here's what's really wild is a bunch of ordinary things in life are affected by this encounter.
Travis Aicklen: And some of you know this.
Travis Aicklen: Some of you have gone up the mountain, some of you have met with God in some deep, dark places, and it doesn't just affect your church attendance.
Travis Aicklen: It doesn't just affect how you worship on a Sunday.
Travis Aicklen: It messes with everything.
Travis Aicklen: And if you continue to read on, it has a lot to do with ordinary, everyday aspects of life where God is saying everything you do is going to be different from now on.
Travis Aicklen: You won't make idols again, will you?
Travis Aicklen: And they're like, no, we learned that the hard way.
Travis Aicklen: And you're not going to be like the other nations.
Travis Aicklen: You're going to be set apart because you have a revelation of who I am.
Travis Aicklen: Everything is going to change for you.
Travis Aicklen: And he actually says, if you read on in Exodus 34, he says, you celebrate like this.
Travis Aicklen: You're going to party like this because you're my people.
Travis Aicklen: Celebrate like this.
Travis Aicklen: Don't celebrate like the other nations.
Travis Aicklen: Party like you're my people, like you know who I am.
Travis Aicklen: Commit the first and best to me, because you know my worth.
Travis Aicklen: You'll never come before me empty-handed.
Travis Aicklen: He goes on to give commands about work.
Travis Aicklen: Even your Monday through Friday is going to shift because you saw me.
Travis Aicklen: The way you work is going to change.
Travis Aicklen: The way you cook is going to change.
Travis Aicklen: It says clearly at the end of 34, do not cook a goat in its mother's milk, which apparently was something they were doing, and God was like, don't do that anymore.
Travis Aicklen: Everything's going to change, including your cooking of a goat and its mother's milk.
Travis Aicklen: That's wrong.
Travis Aicklen: The idea here is don't go back to life as usual.
Travis Aicklen: Don't compartmentalize your life.
Travis Aicklen: Many of us have had encounters with him.
Travis Aicklen: Many of us have met with him.
Travis Aicklen: Many of us have seen him.
Travis Aicklen: Many of us have gotten a little taste of the glory, and yet we compartmentalized our life and we went back to normal.
Travis Aicklen: And Monday through Friday didn't shift for us.
Travis Aicklen: And how we went to school didn't shift for us.
Travis Aicklen: And the friends we had didn't shift for us.
Travis Aicklen: And we continued to worship those idols.
Travis Aicklen: Don't do it.
Travis Aicklen: No more idols.
Travis Aicklen: I don't know about you guys, but as we get to the end of the book of Exodus, I'm very impressed with Moses' leadership.
Travis Aicklen: I'm like, this guy is something else.
Travis Aicklen: This guy has a genuine friendship with God.
Travis Aicklen: And I feel so impressed.
Travis Aicklen: What you need to know is Moses is meant to just point us to Jesus, who is the ultimate mediator of the new covenant.
Travis Aicklen: The things that we see in Moses' life that are worth repeating are just a glimpse of what Jesus would one day do as our mediator, as the one who would go up the mountain and meet with God, so that we could be brought into this new glorious covenant.
Travis Aicklen: And we're going to respond by coming to the table this morning, remembering Christ's body broken for us, his blood shed for us, so that we could come boldly before God.
Travis Aicklen: We're going to receive prayer from a prayer team that's available to you.
Travis Aicklen: If you're like, man, I did, I promise you, I threw down those idols two weeks ago, and then guess what?
Travis Aicklen: I'm back at it.
Travis Aicklen: We'd love to stand with you because God's gracious and compassionate.
Travis Aicklen: He'll receive you when you run to him.
Travis Aicklen: And then we're just going to glorify Jesus in song together.
Travis Aicklen: But before we do this, I just want to read three amazing scriptures from the New Testament that describe Jesus' ministry as being better than Moses.
Travis Aicklen: That describe Jesus' ministry as being the radiance of God's glory.
Travis Aicklen: When we behold him, we become like him.
Travis Aicklen: Can I read these over you?
Travis Aicklen: Would you close your eyes unless you're falling asleep and then open them?
Travis Aicklen: Open your eyes.
Travis Aicklen: But if you're like not on the cusp of falling asleep, close them.
Travis Aicklen: Hebrews chapter 1.
Travis Aicklen: In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets like Moses.
Travis Aicklen: He spoke it many times and he spoke in many ways.
Travis Aicklen: But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the universe.
Travis Aicklen: The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Travis Aicklen: After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
Travis Aicklen: John chapter 1, verse 14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we've seen his glory.
Travis Aicklen: The glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
Travis Aicklen: Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
Travis Aicklen: For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Travis Aicklen: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is Himself God, and is in closest relationship with the Father, Jesus has made him known.
Travis Aicklen: Second Corinthians 3, so if the old way, the old covenant, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new one, which remains forever?
Travis Aicklen: Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.
Travis Aicklen: We're not like Moses.
Travis Aicklen: He put a veil over his face, so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even when it was destined to fade away, but the people's minds were hardened.
Travis Aicklen: And to this day, whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds, so that they cannot understand the truth.
Travis Aicklen: And this veil can only be removed by believing in Christ.
Travis Aicklen: Yes, even today, today, when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
Travis Aicklen: But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Travis Aicklen: For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.
Travis Aicklen: So all of us who've had that veil removed, we can see and we can reflect the glory of the Lord.
Travis Aicklen: We can look and become radiant.
Travis Aicklen: And the Lord, who is spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.