I'm God...and You're Not - Part B

It's not about what I have to offer or what you have to offer to me. It's what we're offering to Him.

It's about Him. And every revelation of any kind that God gives to us through His Word demands that humble response of, I worship you in what I just found out about you. That's the response.

That's the right response. Bible scholar D.A. Carson said, If the text is God's Word, it is appropriate that we should respond with reverence, a certain fear, a holy joy, and a questing obedience. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip talks about how you can have an encounter with God just like Moses and what your response should be. But before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that will help you get to know God more personally so you can experience a richer faith. Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, C.S. Lewis, all are outstanding men with amazing life stories.

But in all of history, one biography stands out above the rest. I'm excited to announce the release of my new book, The Biography of God, which gives an in-depth look at God's character and nature, diving into the theological and personal profile of our Heavenly Father. I invite you on a journey to search the scriptures to discover who God is and how sensitive He is to the human condition.

This process will both lift you up and humble you. Here's how to get your copy of my newest book, The Biography of God. Skip's new book is our thanks when you give $35 or more today to help keep this ministry on the air.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Exodus chapters 33 and 34 as we get into our study with Skip Heisen. Whenever I'm absent from my family, I take pictures with me. Now, I can carry them now on my phone or computer, but before those days, I actually had a little bed stand frame that would open up, picture of my wife on one side, picture of my son on the other, and wherever I go, whatever hotel, I'd set it out there. And I'd look at it. It would remind me of them. Because I'd miss them. Now, here I have a representation of them in a picture. It wasn't enough. I never said, well, you know, I have their picture.

I can stay here for a few years. This is fine. Just their picture, that's enough. No, looking at their picture accentuated the loss that I had for them personally. I could call them on the phone.

Hi, how are you? And hearing their voice just also accentuated the loss. I wanted intimate reunion with them.

I wanted to see them again. I wanted to put it in the words of the story, see their glory, their face, their expressions, their body language. Well, here's Moses. He has seen, he has heard, he's experienced already a lot with God.

But Moses is not satisfied. And you know what? Neither will you be until you and I see him face to face. Now, listen carefully. Whatever worship experiences or miraculous things you've ever experienced with God up to this point, all of the great, spiritual, deep, worshipful times with God were never meant to satisfy you, simply to stimulate a thirst for more. You need to know that. And I can prove it. If you've ever had a real great time where in your own personal devotions you read the Bible, you pray or you sing, and for some reason that day God just seems so present.

Or at a worship service or at a retreat, wow, God was there. I've never experienced that. You don't walk away going, I'm done. Been there, done that, I never need anything like that again. That's enough to tide me over.

No, you go, you know, that was so cool. I want to see and experience that again. And heaven will be the culmination of all of our worship experiences. All of these things just whet our appetite. I give to you the words of Tim Stafford. I'm rereading his book, Knowing the Face of God.

He writes about this. I believe this longing can only be fulfilled when our eyes are opened on the loving and glorious face of God. Such will someday be our joy.

But not yet. The Bible does not hint that our intimacy with God can be satisfied through prayer or through ecstatic worship experiences or through the Bible. If Moses could not get what he wanted, then we should not be too surprised at our own sense of incompleteness. Our longing is a mark of God's touch. We long to know Him completely because we've come to know Him in part. Now I've got to just add a little P.S.

to this, a little note. Fast forward years later, when Moses got his prayer answered, not on Mount Sinai, but on the Mount of Transfiguration, when he, along with his buddy Elijah, saw Jesus appear in His glory, it says in Luke chapter 9. Four tastes of coming attractions. Okay, so there was a revolt. Moses had a request. God, I want to see you.

I want your glory. And if he didn't get that, the question is, well, what did he get? What did God give him? He gave him a revelation. Look at chapter 34 now, beginning in verse 5. Then the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed, notice that, He proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, here's God talking, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generations. Now he didn't see God directly. God said, you can't see my face and live. I know that's what you want.

You can't have it. Rather, what did God do? He proclaimed, it says, God will give him now a nine-fold description of his attributes. Now, please see the difference between what Moses wanted and what he got. He didn't get a sign from heaven.

He did not get an apparition or a vision of heaven. Did not get the face of Jesus in a tortilla. He got, he got what? What did he get? He got words.

He got words. God, I want to see you. Moses, come here. Let me tell you about myself. Let me give to you my autobiography.

Let me give you words that describe me. It's not what Moses asked for. He gave Moses wonderful words that describe who God is and what God does. Now, here's what I'm giving you. Sometimes you ask for something from God and you say, God, I really need that. And if you discovered that God doesn't always think you need what you think you need, and so you don't get it, even though you cry for it, I really want that. I need that. God says, no, I know what you need more than you know what you need. Here's what you need.

This is what I'll give you. So, in the New Testament, Paul really said he needed a miraculous healing, right? He had what he called a thorn in the flesh. And he said three times, I beg God to take it away from me and heal me. God, I really need a miracle. I need to be healed. Did he get it?

Nope. God said, you don't need that. My grace is all you need.

And my strength will be made perfect in your weakness, Paul, because when you're weak, you're going to be relying on me every day. So here's Paul saying, I need that. God says, don't need that.

Here's what you need. Here's Moses saying, I need to see you. God says, you don't need that. And gave him words, a verbal proclamation and description of God. Pause and go forward to the New Testament. After Jesus died and he rose from the dead, not everybody knew he had risen from the dead, not even all of his disciples. And a couple of those disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

Remember the story, Luke chapter 24. And they're kind of walking like this, bummed out, talking to one another. What a bummer. What a drag.

Life's horrible. Jesus comes walking alongside of them. They don't know it's him. And he goes, hey, how come you guys are so bummed out? I'm paraphrasing.

It's the NSV, the new Skip version. And they said, dude, are you a stranger around here? Don't you know what's happened?

The things that have gone on? Jesus goes, like what? And they tell him about Jesus.

And it says this. And beginning at Moses, Jesus expounded to them all of the scriptures concerning himself. So Jesus rises from the dead, comes up to the disciples, doesn't give them a sign, doesn't glow for them over in the corner. Doesn't go, watch this.

Ta-da. He gives them a Bible study. A Bible study? Words? Yeah, words. And you know what happened?

This is what they did. The disciples said to one another, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us? That's always fascinated me. They got heartburn.

Biblical heartburn. And what's interesting is it wasn't because they saw some visible miraculous sign. Okay, he was alive from the dead, but it was the scriptures that they had been raised with. They'd heard all those stories.

They were Jewish kids. All their lives, the same familiar stuff. But it's like they'd never heard it like that before.

They understood it now. It's like opening a curtain, letting the light flood in the room, flooding all the dark corners, and they walked away going, I get it. Didn't our hearts burn within us as he spoke the words to us?

I think you know where I'm going with this. Everything you and I need is found right here in the words of God. Man shall not live by bread alone. That's physical, invisible, but by every word of God. Peter put it this way. Everything you'll ever need for life and godly living comes through the knowledge of Him who called us.

Everything you need comes from His word. I heard about a man who always wanted to go on a cruise. He saved his whole life to go on a cruise. He finally got up enough money to buy a ticket.

Well, here's his mind, his thinking. He goes, I have enough money for the cruise. I just don't have enough money for all that great food that they have on those boats. So he bought a ticket, and when he packed, he packed bread, peanut butter, and a little jelly. He got above, on board, unpacked, put his bread and peanut butter away. He'd go out and every day he'd walk by the food line.

Beautiful meat and cheese and crap and lobster. It was so good. He'd walk by it, go to his room, peanut butter up his bread, eat it. And he did this for like a couple of weeks.

Well, it was like the last day of the cruise. He's had enough of this peanut butter. He can't handle this anymore. He walks by that food line.

He stops a porter and he grabs and he goes, look. Please. I'll wash dishes. I'll do anything. I just want a meal. One meal.

That's all I want. I've eaten peanut butter for two weeks. The porter looks at him like, are you weird? He says, don't you know that when you buy the ticket for the cruise, all the food comes free. It's part of the package deal. Poor bummer guy.

Two weeks he's had peanut butter and he could have had the whole meal. Well, that's like a lot of Christians I know. Always looking for something more. Searching for something more in the Christian life that others don't have. I want more power. I want more of the Holy Spirit. I want more blessings. More glory. More, more, more. And God's saying, it's yours.

It's always been. Everything you need, I've given to you in my words. That if you apply to your life, you'll see things happen. Now I have a question for you. Are you as excited about his words as you are about his wonders? Because I know some people, some Christians who would have to answer that honestly.

No, I'm not. I want the miracles and the wonders. And if I don't get that, if I have to settle for like a Bible study. God is asking you, are you as excited about his words as you are about his wonders? God proclaims his name.

He gives a list of nine attributes that are his reputation. It's so cool that we're going to spend next time looking at this autobiography of God in this section. And this is the only place in the Bible where God does this, lists his own attributes, his own autobiography.

It's referred to 12 times after this. The scripture will point back to this great time where the Lord appeared to Moses. So, let's look at verse 8 and we'll close. We've seen the revolt of the people, the request of Moses, the revelation that God gave to Moses.

And let's see the response. What does Moses do? Verse 8, so Moses made haste. That means he hurried up. Doesn't mean he actually made, excuse me, God, I'm making haste.

I'll be right there. And he bowed his head toward the earth and he worshiped. Okay, here's Moses not getting what he asked for, but worshiping God after God revealed himself in his proclamation or words to Moses.

You never read of Moses going, ah, hey, God, time out. This is not what I asked for. This is not what I signed up for. I want tingles, man. I want an emotional movement in me.

You got to perform here. No, he worships God. Because Moses saw God as he is in the verbal description of what God said he was. And in getting the whole picture based upon what God said, Moses also saw something about himself. And in bowing to worship, it's as if he's saying, God, it's really not about me.

It's not about what I want. It's really all about you. You're God and I'm not. See, up to this point, it's been all about Moses. I got to see you.

I can't make it through unless I, you got to do this for me. He gets this revelation from God and he worships. He's saying, you're God. It's not about me. It's about you. Now, this is a message that needs to be emphasized over and over again today in our generation. Because frankly, we have lived in and live in now what's called a me generation. It's all about me. It's all about my needs. Bless me.

Give something to me. I felt good. When? It was years ago.

I'm thinking 24, 23 years ago. We weren't even in this building. We were in our other building on Snow Heights. Some of you are old enough to remember that. When we were there, it was a Sunday morning. I think it was second service. And I remember a couple came up to me.

It was their first time at church. I'll never forget this because the guy just sort of rose up like this. Cocked himself back and introduced himself and says, this is my wife.

We're here to see what you have to offer. I should have bit my tongue. I know that. I just couldn't help myself. I heard those words come out. And when he said, we're here to see what you have to offer.

I said, well, that's great. But you know what? What do you have to offer? And isn't really that something we need to evaluate? It's not about what I have to offer or what you have to offer to me. It's what we're offering to him.

It's about him. And every revelation of any kind that God gives to us through his word demands that humble response of, I worship you in what I just found out about you. That's the response. That's the right response. So we close, but I want to leave you with three take home truths.

Ready? Three truths for you to apply and take home. You can write these down unless you have like a perfect memory.

You can remember everything all the time. If not, take these down. Number one, longing is part of loving. Longing is part of loving. The longing that you have in your heart to know God and be close to God is a good thing.

It's part of loving him. It's a mark of God's touch in your life. In fact, God will respond to that longing.

We read in Hebrews just a few weeks back. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Longing is part of loving. But understand this, that your longing won't be fully satisfied until you leave this earth and see him in heaven. Because you can't handle seeing him right now.

You would zzzz. So, as you're longing for God, and you keep longing for him, God isn't saying no to you. He's just saying not yet to you. It's very different. Children, learn this very quickly. They're 12 years old.

Can I drive, mom and dad? And you don't say, no, never. Or, we'd like to.

It might be a better thing. And we say, not yet, honey. Not yet.

One day you'll be able to do it. Or when it gets to be around November and the Christmas decorations start going up. Well, actually, now it's like August. When the Christmas decorations start going up and we start seeing lights and pine trees and we smell candle scents and we start getting then into December and our children, it's like too much to bear because now they see the presents, a few of them under the tree and they might ask you around December 22nd, can I open my presents?

And you say, not yet. Because Christmas is special. You're going to do it on that day.

We're going to wait for that day. I remember when I was young and I wanted a bicycle. And I was thinking I was going to get one. It was Christmas Eve and it was really early, like 2 in the morning. So I got out of bed and I snuck into the room where the presents were, where the tree was, and I thought in the dim light, I saw my bicycle under a bunch of stuff and I started moving over to it, not knowing my mom was right behind me. She followed me and she went, ahem, not yet. Back to bed. She wasn't saying, no, never. Can you ever have that bicycle? She said, you've got to wait.

Wait a few more hours, go back to bed. So longing is a part of loving and God is saying, you'll get to see me. But not yet. Number two, worshipping is better than wondering. Rather than just wondering, how come God won't do this for me or that for me?

That other person says God spoke to him today. How about just worshipping God for what he's given you in his word? And when you worship him, you're saying, whatever you've done for me, whatever you've given me, I just acknowledge you and I'm saying it's enough for now. I trust you. I worship you. Longing is a part of loving. Worshipping is better than wondering.

Here's the third point and we close with this. Invisible does not mean unavailable. Just because you can't see God doesn't mean God isn't there and won't work in your life. But I can't see God. But he can see you.

Job discovered that. He was looking for God. He said, I go forward to find God and he's not there. I go backwards and I can't perceive him.

But then he said, but he knows the way that I take. And when I come through this, I'll come forth as gold. David in Psalm 139 wrote, Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there.

If I make my bed in the depths, behold, even there your hand will lead me. Years ago on television, there was a circus. It was a circus made for television. And the primary act in the circus was the Tiger Act. Bengal tigers placed in a cage and the trainer would go in. The doors would be locked behind him. And he's in a room, a cage with all of these tigers. On one particular episode, the lights went on, the camera zoomed in, the trainer was locked in the cage with these tigers, when all of a sudden something happened and the lights went out.

Now put yourself in the trainer's shoes. You're locked in a cage with animals you can't see, but they can see you because the cats see in the dark. 20 to 30 long seconds, that awareness of they can see me, I can't see them.

He just stood there till the lights went on, 30 seconds later and the show continued. God can see in the dark. God can see your thoughts.

And that should be, well, it can be a terrifying thing depending on how you live, but it should be a comforting thing. God can see me. He'll walk with me. He loves me. I can't see him. I can't perceive him, but he knows the way that I take. And we're not talking about Bengal tigers.

We're talking about the lion of the tribe of Judah, the one who paid the price for your sins and mine and loves you with an everlasting love. Invisible does not mean unavailable. Final question, and I'm done. Just like the children of Israel had an excuse and Aaron had an excuse. I threw the stuff in the fire, calf walked out. Lame excuse. Question, what lame excuse are you still hiding behind to not give your life to Christ? Whatever excuse, I'll do it next time. Well, my so-and-so won't like it or I'm waiting for it.

It's a lame excuse. When are you going to let it go and do what God always created you to do, and that is know him. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series The Biography of God. Now, here's Skip to tell you how you can help keep these teachings coming your way as you help connect others to God's Word.

We live in a self-styled culture that is focused on pleasure and possessions. Because of that, we strive to promote a lifestyle that's all about Jesus. We do that by sharing biblically solid teachings. But did you know that there are expenses that we have to meet to make that happen? I'd like you to consider partnering with this ministry so we can continue sharing God's unchanging Word around the world with friends like you. Here's how you can become a partner today. Call 800-922-1888 to give. That's 800-922-1888. You can also give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate.

As always, thank you for your partnership. Did you know there's an exciting biblical resource available right at your fingertips through your mobile device? Skip has several Bible reading plans available in the YouVersion Bible app. Simply download the app and search Skip Heitig. And real quick, did you know you can catch Connect with Skip Heitig on the Hillsong Channel on Saturdays at 4.30 p.m. Mountain or catch it on TVN on Sundays at 5.30 a.m. Eastern? Check your local listings. Be sure to come back Monday as Skip explores the biography of God, showing you what God has to say about himself and why it really matters to you. Make a connection Make a connection at the foot Of the crossing Cast all burdens on his word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.