Exodus: How Do We Become Radiant?

The word "radiant" reflects a profound biblical truth: those who look to the Lord reflect His glory (Psalm 34:5). Becoming radiant is not achieved by human effort, but by encountering the presence of God. This sermon outlines the spiritual progression of beholding God's glory, removing the things that substitute His presence, and reflecting His brilliance to the world.

Key Points
1. Remove God Substitutes
In Exodus 32, the Israelites created a golden calf out of impatience. The human heart is an "idol factory" that frequently elevates comfort, control, power, or approval to the place of God. Becoming radiant begins with recognizing and renouncing these functional idols.

2. Crave the Presence of God
In Exodus 33, God offers Israel the Promised Land but states He will not go with them. The people mourn this prospect. True freedom from idolatry is evident when God ceases to be a means to an end and becomes the ultimate end. A promised land is worthless without the presence of the King.

3. Experience God’s Character
Exodus 34:6-7 functions as the "John 3:16 of the Old Testament." God reveals Himself as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. These divine attributes are not merely intellectual facts; they are realities meant to be intimately experienced.

4. Respond in Worship
Upon seeing God's glory, Moses immediately bowed down. Worship is the natural, inevitable response to a revelation of God's worth. If worship feels difficult, the solution is not to try harder, but to pray, "Show me your glory."

5. Be Ruined for the Ordinary
An authentic encounter with God disrupts the mundane. It fundamentally changes how people work, celebrate, and live. True encounters do not allow for compartmentalized lives; they shift everyday realities and demand total transformation.

Conclusion
Moses served as an incredible mediator for the Old Covenant, but he ultimately points to Jesus. Jesus is the exact representation of God's being and the true radiance of God's glory. Through Christ, the veil is removed. By beholding Him, believers are progressively transformed into His glorious image.

Calls to Action
Identify and renounce the functional idols (comfort, control, power, approval) currently operating in your life.

Shift your prayers from asking for favorable outcomes to asking God, "Show me your glory."

Allow your encounters with God's presence to actively reshape your daily routines.

Transcript

Travis Aicklen 0:01

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