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Recognizing God
Exodus 33:12-13
Tonight we are going to continue our look at the games we play. If you
remember last week when we started this journey together I said that we
were going to use some board games as our jumping off place to explore a
bigger game that we have all played.
In 1949 the Hasbro toy company introduced us to the board game Clue. A
wonderful game of intrigue, and suspense. The object of the game is to
go from room to room collecting information and taking notes until you
can become acquainted with the murder and then reveal him or her to the
rest of the group.
Revelation is a wonderful thing. That moment in time when we finally see
everything clearly and all our questions get their rightful answers.
Think for a moment what are some things in your life that you would like
a little revelation or a clue about. What about your future? Or how
about the reasoning that God is allowing something to happen at this
moment or in time past? What about how your children will turn out? One
of the most exciting things in life is that we don’t always know what is
going to happen next.
Ok let’s get a little closer to home. I believe there are more things we
would like a clue about than just the future. Remember when you were
little and someone would say a word and you had to say that first things
that came to your mind? Well what if we were to play that game tonight
and I looked at you and said God. What is the first word in your mind?
What do you think about?
Some of you here tonight see a Sheriff whose whole purpose is to catch
you sinning so He can put you in jail? Is that how you see God as
someone out to get you?
Some of you see God as a Mechanic who’s so busy fixing the broken things
and generally running the universe that he has no time for you. Do you
see a God who has time for you?
Then there are some of you here tonight that picture God as a Butler
whose only purpose is to get us what we desire? Is God you cosmic Santa
Clause who only exists to give you the whims of your heart?
Then I know that there are some here that think since God created the
world 6,000 years ago and hasn’t performed a miracle in the last 2000
years see God is an old man who’s so out of touch that he will never
begin to understand our problems? Is your picture of God a God relevant
to what’s going on?
Then there are some of here tonight who see and treat God like a Jehovah
in the box. We pull Him out on Sundays and Wednesdays and sing songs
like How Great Thou Art and O Worship The King but come Monday we put
Him right back in his box and forget about him?
Tonight if this is your view of God then it is a far cry from what we
see in the Bible. You need to play a little game of clue and find out
that we serve a God that has a strong desire to be intimate with His
creation.
There are a lot of us in the church today that can identify with Moses.
He had already done some great things for Jehovah and most of us would
consider that he had a close and personal relationship with God but turn
with me to the Book of Exodus and in chapter 33:12-13 let’s see what
Moses asks of the Lord.
Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but
you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said,
‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 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. Consider
too that this nation is your people.”
By the time we get to the thirty-third chapter of Exodus Moses has
walked with the Lord for some time and had obeyed God’s instructions. He
had delivered the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. He had helped the
Israelites pass through the Red Sea. He had even led the Israelites to
Mount Sinai where God gave them the Ten Commandments. Moses had obeyed
God’s instructions, but from this text we see that he still did not know
God in an intimate way.
I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased
with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor
with you.
What a sad statement by the leader of God’s people, “Lord I know by
name.” But an even sadder truth is that there are many of us in the body
tonight that still follow God’s commands and instructions, but do not
know Him in a personal and intimate way. We only know His name.
Now even though there are some of us here tonight who would never admit
that, it’s still true. It shows in your life and it shows in mine as
well. When I became a Christian, my sole responsibility was to find out
what God did not want me to do so I wouldn’t do it. I lived in fear of
God because I believed that if I sinned, God would zap me and strike me
dead. I was scarred of God. My Christian life was void of joy,
excitement, and peace. So the first few years of my walk with God was a
relationship of obedience and fear instead of love and intimacy.
When I was in college I discovered a passage that changed my walk with
God. God introduced Himself to me, not as a God of wrath, fury, or
anger, but as a God of Love. Tonight I need to share that passage with
you as well so that we might have a clue about the God who created us
for a joyful and intimate relationship with Him.
Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood
with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed
before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s
children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
In this wonderful passage, God is describing His character to Moses and
to us as well. Tonight let’s look at three characteristics of our God
and see if we gat get a clue on how to have a more intimate relationship
with Him.
The first characteristic that God shared with Moses is that He is a
compassionate and Gracious God.
The Psalmist does a wonderful job of expressing this in Psalm 145:7-9
They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your
righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
rich in love. The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has
made.
Compassion is such a wonderful word but it is in such short supply now a
days that it is hard to get a grasp on what compassion truly is. Has
anyone ever been compassionate to you? Have you ever been compassionate
to someone else? Or have we just given lip service to compassion?
In 1975 in the state of New York Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Dunn gave birth to
a son and named him after his daddy. In the Associated Press article I
read about him, they said that at his birth he suffered severe
retardation due to a skull fracture and oxygen deprivation. Being in
love with this helpless and beautiful little child his parents went
about the task of raising a special needs child. As Raymond grew, the
family discovered further impairments that made life for the family
hard. His body twisted as he grew and he suffered up to twenty seizures
per day. He lived his life in a chair unable to see, talk, or move on by
own will. And to make matters even worse he had terrible food allergies
which made finding him something to eat almost impossible. With the
doctors help they were able to find one and only one food that he could
eat without any repercussions, a meat-based formula made by Gerber
Foods.
Ten years after his birth in 1985, Gerber went through a marketing
change and discontinued the formula that Raymond lived on. Raymond’s
mother Carol scoured the country to buy what stores had in stock,
accumulating cases and cases, but in 1990, her supply was running short.
In desperation, she appealed to Gerber for help. They had found no
substitute for him to eat and with out this particular food he would
starve to death or die from an allergic reaction.
The matter was brought before the employees of the company and they
acted with compassion. In an unprecedented action, volunteers donated
hundreds of overtime hours to bring out old equipment, set up production
lines, obtain special approval from the USDA, and produce the
formula—all for one special boy.
In January 1995, Raymond Dunn, Jr. passed from this world into the next.
But during his brief lifetime he called forth a wonderful thing called
compassion.
God has the kind of compassion for us as the Gerber Company had for this
boy. Our God looks down upon our plight and treats us with care, and
concern. While we are very quick to acknowledge when things don’t go our
way, we too often forget the times that he has done extraordinary things
to help us.
Our God is a compassionate and merciful God! He is so compassionate that
when we sin and ask for forgiveness, He forgives us, even if we have
petitioned Him a thousand times before.
He is so compassionate that He heals our illnesses, both spiritual and
physical.
He is so compassionate that He blesses us with food, shelter, and jobs.
And sometimes He is compassionate enough to let us go home.
James 5:11 says "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."
When was the last time that you focused on God’s compassion and mercy?
When was the last time you counted your blessings, naming them one by
one? When was the last time you spent time on your knees thanking Him
for being so wonderful to you.
The next characteristic the God shared with Moses and with us, He is
slow to anger.
Living in our world where people and Christians who fly off the handle
so quickly, being slow to anger is almost as hard to find as compassion.
As a result of his upbringing, my dad vowed to never spank my brother
and me out of anger. So there were many days that I sat in my room
waiting for him to calm down enough to deliver my punishment. But, one
summer when we were living in New Orleans, I had become enamored with
the Martial Arts and spent all of my birthday money at the flea Market
buying Chinese Throwing Stars.
On Friday Nights, my family would gather to watch TV: The Incredible
Hulk at 7:00, Dukes of Hazzard at 7:30, and then Dallas and Falcon
Crest. But after the Dukes went off, I left. In my bedroom on the north
wall, my parents had hung a rather large cowhide. So one Friday night I
began to throw my Chinese Stars into the cow hide not thinking that they
would go through. My dad heard the thumping and came back to my room to
see what was going on and caught me in mid throw. Well this must have
upset him greatly and lifted the cow skin to reveal several hundred
small holes in the wall.
To my remembrance, it the only time he spanked me in anger and it was
the worst spanking in my life.
Growing up in the church we have all heard the stories Lot’s wife
getting turned into a pillar of Salt and God striking Nadab and Abihu
for using strange fire that we live in fear. If God could zap those
people then what’s going to happen if I do something to make God mad at
me?
Is cancer a result of God’s anger? What about when I lost my job, is
that a result of God’s anger? How about when my marriage fell apart is
that because God is angry with me? The truth is that when we make a
mistake, God is patient with us and slow to anger.
The psalmist says in Psalm 103:8-11 "The LORD is compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse,
nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins
deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the
heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear
him."
No matter how hard we try to make God like us we can’t. We were made in
the image of God; He was not made in the image of us. When we get angry
our natural inclination is to get even. Retaliate with vengeance.
However, God is not that way at all. In fact, God is a loving God who is
slow to anger who does not treat us as our sins deserve.
Finally, if we are going to be intimate with God we must understand that
He is abounding in love.
Mankind has done many different things to show their love. Our range of
expressions has stretch from songs and poetry that have been written, to
Van Gough cutting off his ear, to the war waged at Troy. And no matter
how your heart goes, pitter patter when that love is expressed it all
pales in comparison to God’s expression of Love for you. The greatest
act of love that God has shown us is when He sent His son Jesus to die
on the cross for our sins.
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal
life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through Him.”
No greater act of love has ever been demonstrated than when Jesus gave
His life in order to save ours. It is through His blood that we have
forgiveness of our sins which enables us to be reconciled to God and
have a relationship with Him. If you want to know about love, then look
to the cross.
God's final words to us are etched on a Roman cross. They are blood red,
and they scream to be heard. They say, "I love you."
Paul writes in Romans 5:8, "That God demonstrates His own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.
And then John writes in 1 John 4:8 “God is love.”
The very nature of God is the embodiment of Love. But could He be
anything else?
Church if there is no joy in your life then you cannot have an intimate
relationship with God.
If there is no peace in your life then you cannot have an intimate
relationship with God.
If there is no compassion in your life no forgiveness, no love then you
cannot have an intimate relationship with God.
And if you don’t have an intimate relationship with God you cannot Him
very well. God has introduced Himself to us. He has made His goodness
known to us, we have experienced it. He personally proclaimed Himself to
us.
Let’s close tonight with our text Exodus 34:5-7 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.
God has introduced Himself to us, shown us who He is. May we get to know
Him better so that we will have a more intimate relationship with Him.
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