How Can I Relate to God? - Part B

You see, all of the greatest spiritual experiences you may have had up to this point, all the great retreats you've been on, all the great worship conferences you have attended, were never meant to satisfy you.

They were meant to create a deeper thirst to whet your appetite for the full and final encounter. Sometimes we wish we could just see God, but that's where the faith comes in. Today on Connect with Skip Heisek, Skip talks about how God revealed himself to Moses and how he reveals himself to you even today. Then at the end of today's program, Skip and his son Nate share how you can help connect children around the world to the Lord. Reaching their spiritual need, their need for Jesus Christ and realizing that any true change in society, and this doesn't matter where the society is, whether it's here in America or whether it's around the world, in Burma, Thailand, the Middle East, true change is going to come into society from a revival and a relationship with Jesus.

Thank you Skip and Nate. If you want to hear more, please stay tuned after the teaching. Now we want to tell you about a great resource that will help you tap into a deeper faith and more meaningful prayer life. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China said, it is possible to move men through God by prayer alone. Ian Bounds, who authored nine books on prayer said, God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be. And Billy Graham said, to get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.

Here's Skip Heisek. You know, the Bible says that we will experience God's peace when we pray, and it tells us to pray about everything. We want to help you know how and what to pray and what to expect. That's why we're offering Lord Teach Me to Pray in 28 Days by Kay Arthur. When you give to support this ministry, prayer is meant to up the game of peace and joy in our hearts. Lord Teach Me to Pray is our thanks when you give $25 or more today to help keep this ministry on the air, connecting you and others to God's word.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Exodus chapter 33 as Skip Heisek starts today's study. Now that word glory kavod in Hebrew means your weight or your heaviness.

Please show me how heavy you are. Meaning I want to, I want to, it refers to a person's weighty reputation or honored position. One translation says please show me your own self. So here's Moses saying to God, I want to see the full disclosure of your glorious person.

Sound familiar? Does it sound like a New Testament character who said to Jesus, his name was Philip, show us the father. That's all we need. Show us the father and that will be sufficient. Now God in verse 20 here in the Moses story, in verse 20 says, no can do, Mo.

That's the NSV, the new Skip version. No can do, Mo. I can't show you my glory. If you see me, you'll die. No man can see me and live. You can't see my face. You can't see the full expression of my glory. I guess it'd be like a bug zapper, right? You know, you plug that thing in and it's a little light outside and bugs kind of are attracted by it, but if they get too close, I'm sure seeing the glory of God would be much the same way. We in our mortal bodies getting too close to perfection, bug zapper. Question, why did Moses ask this from God? Show me your glory.

Now I want you to think about that question because I remember when I first read this and I thought, that's an odd request. I mean, if I'm Moses, I'm thinking I've seen enough already, right? I mean, if you think of what Moses saw and experienced with God up to this point, it's more than all of our experiences with God put together. Moses heard God's voice out of a bush. When did that happen to you?

Probably not, unless you're on drugs. A burning bush talked to him, gave him instruction. Plagues from heaven rained down upon his enemies.

A body of water called the red sea opened up, letting a couple million people through and closing to kill the enemies of God. Did that ever happen in your lifetime to you? Did you see that? No, Moses saw all of that and more, and yet he has the audacity to say, I want more. Show me your glory. I want to see everything.

Why? In a word, I'll call it this, God hunger. God hunger. He was hungry for God.

All human beings that I have ever met have in their core a deep hunger for God, no matter how brilliant they are, no matter what they believe in, no matter how erudite and spiritually knowledgeable and theologically advanced they might be, they all have a desire to see God. Here's an example. When you have a relationship with a person on earth that you really love and you're distant from them, let's say your family. So I'm married, I have kids, I go away on a business trip and I miss my family, but I carry something with me, their image, a picture of them. In the old days there used to be things called photographs.

You put them in your wallet or purse. Nowadays we have our smartphones and we can show people pictures or videos of them or we can even FaceTime them or Zoom meeting with them and we can hear their voice and we can see their picture, but do we ever in seeing their picture and hearing their voice say, well, that's all I need. I'll never need to get together with you ever again because I've just had this experience so bye forever. No. In seeing their picture and hearing their voice, all that does is accentuate the loss all the more. You know, it doesn't really satisfy me completely.

It temporarily does, but it accentuates the loss. I am now longing for their tangible presence or in the words of the text, their glory. I want to be with them. So Moses, after all his experience, is still not satisfied.

And you know what? You won't be either until you see him face to face. You see, all of the greatest spiritual experiences you may have had up to this point, all the great retreats you've been on, all the great worship conferences you have attended were never meant to satisfy you. They were meant to create a deeper thirst to whet your appetite for the full and final encounter, and that is heaven. Because in heaven that'll be the culmination of all of our worship experiences, and then and only then will you be satisfied. Psalm 17 verse 15, as for me, I will see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awaken your likeness. When you see God is when you'll be fully satisfied.

That's when you'll go, ah, this is what I've always wanted. Tim Stafford, who wrote a book that influenced me greatly, said, 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 have come to know Him in part.

It's so good. We long to know Him completely because we've come to know Him in part. So now we understand this request, show me your glory. Now back to the Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus sort of gives the same stages in a relationship. You first come admitting you're poor in spirit.

I'm bankrupt. I'm a sinner. You then mourn over that condition called repentance. Then the third thing Jesus said is blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

They will be filled. That's where the request comes in. That's where the growth comes in. That's where the sanctification comes in. So this is always the third step.

You come to know Him, but you want to grow in Him. Now let me give you a spoiler alert. Moses' prayer was finally answered years later in the New Testament. On the Mount of Transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke chapter 9, we are told that Jesus was transfigured before them, and Moses and Elijah were with Him, and it says Jesus appeared in His glory. Show me your glory. Okay, hold that thought, Mo. It's answered in the New Testament, seeing the glory of God and the person of Christ.

Okay, back to our story. Moses said, show me your glory. God said, no can do, Mo. You can't see my glory and live. Bug zapper, can't see my glory and live.

Bug zapper. So if Moses didn't get what he longed for, then what did he get? Well, I'm glad you asked. Look at verse 19, the very next verse in chapter 33. Then he said, that God said to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before you, now watch this, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.

Now go to chapter 34 verse 5, because that's where God did what He said He was going to do. The Lord descended in a cloud and stood with Him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before Him and proclaimed. That's the third time we hear the word proclaim. You know what proclaim means? It means to speak, to announce, to declare, to teach, to preach.

That's the idea. And proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, 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 upon the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. Now I'm going to cover that next week, that little self-disclosure, that autobiography of God.

But this takes us to the next step, revelation. So Moses says, show me your glory. Does God show him his glory?

No. He doesn't get an apparition, he doesn't see God directly, there's no grand vision, there's no Jesus appearing in a tortilla. What does he get? Words. Words. God proclaimed something, God spoke something to him. You go, words? He asked for glory and he got words?

Yep. He got 51 glorious words, a nine-fold description, a list of attributes, a theology spoken by God himself. So Moses says, show me your glory. And he says, you know what?

I'm going to tell you who I am and I'm going to tell you what I'm like. I'm going to give you my autobiography and that's all you need for now. That's all you need for now.

Have you ever discovered this truth? Sometimes we think we need something, but God knows we need something else. Oh, we're convinced, I need this, God.

No, not really, you need that. You might think you need this and pray for this, but I'm going to give you that. Show me your glory. I'm going to give you words. I want to see an apparition. Here's a Bible study.

Well, I want, I want tingles. Here's a theology. This is what you need.

So here's an example of that. Paul wanted a miraculous healing. God knew he didn't need that.

God said, my grace is sufficient for you. It's all you need. You want that, but this is what you need. Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to prevent Lazarus's death. That's what they wanted. They didn't need that.

You know what they needed? A resurrection. So Jesus came and raised Lazarus from the dead. Moses wanted a vision of God's glory. God comes and says, let me tell you about myself. So God reveals himself through his word.

And when he does that, it forces us to live by faith because we can't live by sight. We don't see it. We believe it. We hear it.

We respond. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now listen, that's going to have to be enough for you right now for a while. That's why this series 2020 seeing truth clearly is so important because I'm hoping through this, you're going to realize everything we actually need is found in the pages of this revelation, God's words. Second Peter chapter one, everything that pertains to life and godliness comes through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. A lot of times people are searching for for more, more in the Christian life, something others don't have the next level. I want more power. I want more holy spirit. I want more blessings. I want more glory, more, more, more.

Good. I understand that, but God gives you his word. And my question to you is, are you as excited about God's word as you are about God's wonders? No, I want some tingles.

Well, let me tell you about myself. Now that leads us to the, to the fifth and final stage, at least in this Bible study. Of course there are more in our growth, but that is Moses response. Look at his response in verse eight of chapter 34. So Moses crossed his arms and said, not good enough. No, it didn't say that.

I misread that on purpose. So Moses made haste. That is he hurried up and he bowed his head toward the earth and he worshiped.

What? He didn't get what he wanted, but he paused, hurried up and he worshiped. He didn't get what he wanted. He got what he needed and he worshiped.

Moses didn't say, excuse me, God, time out. This is not what I came for. I came for some goosebumps. I came for tingles. I want to be lifted. I want to get really emotional, have a touch and, and, and a vision. I want to be moved.

I want to quiver. He didn't get that. He got a Bible study and he worshiped.

Now listen to worship when you don't get what you want is true worship. Job didn't get what he wanted. His kids got killed.

He lost his health. He lost his goods and he bowed down and he worshiped God. He said, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

In all this, Job did not charge God or do wrong. He worshiped. To worship only when you feel blessed, only when you feel lifted up, only when you are having no anxiety, only when you have perfect health.

So what? Pagans do that. To worship God when you don't get what you expect or want or think you need, you say, God, I don't get it, but that's okay. You're sovereign. You're a God. I'm not. Praise you.

You're good all the time. So that's his response. Now let me quickly give you three takeaways to sum it all up. Number one, longing is a part of loving.

Take this away from this Bible study. Longing is a part of loving. You long for more. You long to be close to God. That's good.

That's a mark of his touch, says Stafford. Longing is a part of loving. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, but you won't be fully rewarded till you leave this earth and enter heaven and you're able to see him. So when God says no, what God is saying to Moses isn't no forever. It's just no, not now.

I want to see your glory. No, didn't mean no, not ever, but not now, not yet. Right? So it's like when your kids want to drive and your 14 year old son says, I want to drive and you tell him, what do you tell him if your kid says, give me the keys. I want to drive. You say no. Now when you say no, you're not saying no forever. No. When you're 30, you're never going to drive.

You're saying not yet. Next year, I'll teach you how to drive. And the next year, when you're 16, you'll get a driver's license. I think that's way too young. Should be 18, but that's another opinion.

Found in Second Opinions, chapter three. Or December 23rd rolls around and your daughter says, can I open the presents? No. No. You don't mean no never. You mean not today.

Maybe tomorrow night on Christmas Eve or the day after on Christmas day. Yes. So longing is a part of loving. Number one. Number two, worshiping is better than wondering. Instead of wondering why God isn't more dramatic, wondering why God doesn't show up more. Let his word be enough for now. Knowing that full satisfaction will come when you see him face to face and you will.

So longing is a part of loving. Worshipping is better than wondering. And number three, invisible does not mean unavailable. It's because you can't see God because there's no immediate evidence. Doesn't mean he's unavailable. In fact, the issue isn't I can't see God.

The issue is God can see you. That's what Job said. Job said, I'm looking for God. I went forward. I couldn't find him.

I went backward. I couldn't perceive him, but he knows the way that I take. I can't see him, but he can see me. Psalm 139, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

Answer, nowhere. God is everywhere. Like in that opening illustration, the mother surrounds us. She's, we're in her. We live in him. We in him, we live and move and have our own presence.

We in him, we live and move and have our being. Years ago on television, they televised circuses for People's Entertainment. They had a live audience. And in one particular act in the live audience and televised was the Bengal Tiger Act. So a trainer would go into a cage and it was filled with tigers, Bengal tigers, the door locked behind him and the people, you know, the cameras move around, the people are applauding and the guy puts the tigers through all their paces, all their tricks, the crowds, you know, excited.

It's, it's, it's pretty cool. And suddenly right in the middle of the act, the lights went out. Now picture, you're the trainer. You've just walked into a cage filled with man eating tigers and woman eating tigers.

He's no respecter of persons. You're in that cage, door's locked behind you. All of a sudden the lights go out and you look around and you can't see anything. You realize I am in a cage filled with tigers and I can't see them. But then you have a second thought, but they can see me because they're felines. They can see in the dark.

It would be a little disconcerting. What I want you to know using that illustration is God sees in the dark. In your darkness, God sees to the darkness of COVID and job loss and rioting in the streets and you feeling anxious because of it because the world is so weird right now and so dark right now. God sees in the dark.

He's not a Bengal tiger, but he is the lion of the tribe of Judah and he can see it all and he has got you covered. So invisible does not mean unavailable. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series 2020. Now let's head into the studio with Skip and Nate as they share how you can help connect children around the world to the Lord.

Well it's important to remember that just because God is invisible doesn't mean that he is unavailable. Nate, you and mom have traveled overseas. She's been part of a thing called Reload Love that she started turning bullets into charms and supporting people on the field, especially children impacted by terrorism. But we've taken it to a whole new level and you've traveled with her overseas.

Was it to Thailand? And it's a whole new opportunity that is developing because of that. Fill us in. Yeah, you know, we found, and this is the story and this is historically true, oftentimes in the midst of crisis, God has historically used the church to fulfill the need that people have. We see this all throughout history. Great organizations like the Red Cross and YMCA, the list goes on and on. We're founded by Christians with the desire to help people and the primary way that he does that in community is through a church. And so we had this heart and this desire looking at Reload Love to expand Reload Love's goal to not only build playgrounds, which are a resource for community, but to build churches, which can become the ultimate resource in the community to, yes, meet people's physical needs of feeding them, giving them schooling, giving them resources, but more importantly, reaching their spiritual need, their need for Jesus Christ and realizing that any true change in society, and this doesn't matter where the society is, whether it's here in America or whether it's around the world in Burma, Thailand, the Middle East, true change is going to come into society from a revival and a relationship with Jesus.

And so we shifted our vision. We're partnered with an organization called Stadia to go into these communities and help them build churches that we can then see flourish and blossom to meet the needs of the communities and the kids in those communities to bring them some safety and to bring them some normalcy. And not just to build churches, but then to go back to those churches and give input to leadership, raise them up, give them discipleship programs, train the trainers, and have an ongoing relationship. One of the things we're most excited for our work in Burma and Thailand is partnering to support full-time missionaries, to people groups that have yet to hear the gospel. You know, we know that as Christians, part of our job that Jesus has given to us is to go into the world to make disciples of all men. And we know that Jesus isn't going to return until every ear has heard, everyone has had the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. And so there's some great weight upon us to make sure that we're spreading that message and we'll be able to partner and for $10,000 support a full-time missionary for years to go out and do this work.

And we're really excited about that. Pete and we'd love to have your help. Thank you, by the way, to our listeners for helping in the past. I know many of you have done that.

You can find out more information at reloadlove.com. Thanks Skip and Nate. We hope you enjoy getting to know Skip and Nate through this conversation. Now we invite you to help keep these teachings coming your way as you connect more listeners like you to God's word by giving today at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in again tomorrow as Skip Hysek explores God's autobiography in scripture, helping you know him even more personally. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Hysek is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.