Glimpsing God's Glory Series

Introduction:

A. You’ve heard it said: “There are two sure things in life: #1 – There is a God, and #2 – You are not Him!”

1. In our new series that we began last week, we are working to understand those two realities – there is a God and you and I are not Him.

2. We must realize that it’s not about us, rather it’s all about God.

3. Life and reality don’t revolve around us, rather they revolve around God.

4. Last week, I tried to give us a couple of handles to grasp this truth.

a. One handle is the illustration of the moon - we must be the moon that reflects the Son of God.

b. The other handle is the example of John the Baptizer who said, “He must increase, I must decrease” – John understood it was all about Jesus and not about him.

5. Last week, I mentioned that in the first half of this series, we will be focusing on our great God and will try to behold God, experience God and grasp God.

a. Then in the second half of the series, we will focus on how to reflect a God-centered mindset in our everyday lives.

B. So, today, I want to help us to begin to grasp the glory of our God.

1. As I mentioned last week, if we don’t rightly grasp who God is, we can’t rightly reflect who God is.

2. People often misunderstand God and try to put him in a box of their own making.

3. Even believers can be guilty of inaccurately portraying God.

a. Some people wrongly view God as “God the cowboy” who is ready to gun us down if we get out of line.

b. Some people wrongly view God as “God the good buddy” who is just a great friend.

c. Some people wrongly view God as “God the clockmaker” who wound up the universe and it just letting it run out on its own.

d. Other people wrongly view God as “God the good luck charm” who they only pull out when their in trouble.

4. There are many other inaccurate portrayals of God that we might end up with, and that’s why it is so important that our view of God is based on God’s true revelation of Himself.

5. Today, I want to take us on a short journey back to three moments in time when God revealed something of His glory.

6. I pray that these glimpses into God’s glory will help us begin to grasp the glory of our God.

I. Moses’ Glimpse of God’s Glory

A. Let’s start our journey today in Exodus 33, where we find an anxious Moses pleading with God saying: “God, you tell me, ‘Lead this people’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me…and are you traveling with us or not?” (Ex. 33:12, 16)

1. We can hardly fault Moses’ fears, right?

2. Moses had just spent 40 days on the mountain and during that time, God gave Moses the law inscribed by the finger of God on two stone tablets.

3. What an incredible mountain top experience that must have been for Moses, but then what did he find when he came down from the mountain?

4. He came down to find the Israelites, the people he was leading, had created a golden calf idol and were worshiping it with dancing, drinking and revelry.

5. Moses had to intercede for the people, asking God to forgive their sins, and God did forgive them, but He also punished them with the sword and with a plague.

6. So it is no surprise that Moses would be anxious about leading God’s people at this time.

B. But thankfully, God gives reassurance to Moses with these words: And he replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest…I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and I know you by name.” (Ex. 33:14, 17)

1. Those are pretty special words of reassurance, and you’d think that this would be enough for Moses, right? But it wasn’t.

2. Moses wondered if God might indulge him one more request.

3. What do you think Moses would ask for?

4. Keep in mind all that Moses has already seen God do…

a. Moses saw what God did in the 10 plagues…the Nile becoming blood, the air thick with gnats, the ground covered with locusts, the noonday blackness, the hail-pounded crops, the people covered with boils, and the funerals for the first born of Egypt.

b. Moses saw what God did at the Red Sea…how God turned the Red Sea into a red carpet for the Israelites, but turned it into a red velvet casket for the Egyptians.