God wants us to pursue his presence. Dr. Tony Evans says too many of us spend our time chasing after public approval rather than God's grace. And I can guarantee you if you live for the applause of men, that's the only applause you will get. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. What separates Christianity from other faiths comes down to the difference between religion and relationship. Today, Dr. Evans talks about the importance of pursuing a deeper, more intimate connection with Christ in a lesson drawn from the life of Moses. Let's listen.
One of the ways you know that you're getting to know somebody. Is you know their ways. Their habits. Their intentions. Their ways indicate who they are.
Moses is saying, God, I have some unclarity about my next movement. Things are not fully clear to me. I know you brought me to this point, but this next leg of the journey that I'm supposed to go on, leading this people to the promised land, I still have some things that are unclear to me.
So let me in on what you are thinking. Let me know your ways. Moses is asking not merely for information. He is asking for illumination. Illumination is where the Holy Spirit takes the information And awakens it.
So you understand. How it applies. to you. Illumination is information applied, not merely information. Heard.
You've sat in the classroom, or you've sat talking to someone who's trying to explain something for you or to you. And you heard what they said. You heard the words. But it wasn't registering. It didn't click on.
It didn't, you couldn't quite grasp it. Although you could repeat it back. But you also know what it is to have the light come on, having heard it. Maybe it's been repeated two or three times, and then you say, oh, yeah. See, that's illumination.
Illumination is in the oh yeah. Illumination is where God turns the light bulb on so that your perception. has been clarified and not merely information that is given. One of the great fruits of growing close to God Is information that leads to illumination so that God is free to share his secrets with you. Moses says, I pray.
I'm asking you to illuminate my mind, to turn the light switch on, because I need some clarity. Things are fuzzy right now. And I suspect many of us here today need to pray that prayer because, right now, where we are in our circumstance in life, things are fuzzy. It's not that you can't repeat the Bible, it's not that you can't go to the verses. Is that you don't know the relationship of God's truth to how you should function?
in this situation and you need the light bulb to come on. He makes that a matter of prayer. He says, I want to know your ways. Moses says, I need clarity before I can go forward. And if I'm going to get chloridine, you've got to reveal it to me.
Because I don't know what it is. You're going to have to show me.
Now, Moses tells us why he felt free to make request number one. He says, Because you told me I found favor in your sight. It's hard to get God to tell you his secrets. If you haven't found favor. To find favor means God is happy with you.
He's content with you. He feels good about you. You know how it is when we fall out of favor with folk. Husbands and wives fall out of favor with one another. The fellowship isn't deep and rich.
Moses says, I want to know your secrets. Because you said you found favor with me. You are happy with our relationship.
So now you can show me deeper things. Don't ask God. To tell you his secrets. If you don't have his favor. If there is not the intimacy A relationship Because you don't want to tell folks secret.
who you're not in favor with because you don't know what they're gonna do with it. See you tell folks who are out of favor with you your secrets. They'll try to hurt you with it. Moses says, I want to know. your ways This is the ongoing illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Now, don't get me wrong, theologically, the Bible is sufficient. It is complete. But simply having the Bible does not mean having illumination. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to turn the light on. It's like witnessing to a non-Christian.
You can tell him the gospel that God, through Jesus Christ, died on the cross in your place for your sins. If you will place faith alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins based on his death and resurrection, God will give you the guarantee of eternal life. Anyone who has witnessed to a non-Christian about the good news of the gospel knows it's one thing for them to hear it. It's another thing for the light to come on. Because you go and say, did you understand what I just said?
They'll say, Yes, I understand.
Well, tell me what I just said, and then they will tell you, Well, I gotta. Keep the Ten Commandments. Totally the opposite of what you're talking about because the light has not come on. Moses says, I have found favor with you. And so I want You to show me exactly what to do in this situation.
Now, this was a crisis moment, by the way. The people at Had just built an idol. After having received the law of God and God is angry. With them.
So Moses is in the midst of a crisis. And he needs some direction in a crisis. Anybody ever been in a crisis where you need God to say something like right now? It can't wait. You don't have time to read the whole Bible to find the answer.
You came to church, and the preacher was preaching on something that had nothing to do with what you were going through. You needed a direct word from God. Moses says, look, I'm in a crisis. I need to know what do you want me to do? You say, but I prayed that and nothing happened.
Well, the question is, do you have favor? Is there the intimacy where God is free to tell you his secrets? Moses is in a crisis and he needs. Desperate direction. When a man is hungry, he doesn't need a menu.
He needs some food. That's why the verses that lead up to this are so important. It says, Moses, this is before the tabernacle, pitched a tent outside the camp. Why did he pitch it outside the camp? Because God wasn't inside the camp.
There's idolatry.
So, God was not fellowshipping inside the camp. Moses built a tent outside of the camp. And it says that Moses would go to the tent of meeting. That's what it was called prior to it being the tabernacle. He would go to the tent of meeting, and there he would meet with God.
And here it is, face to face. He says, show me your intentions. Illuminate me. I want to know your will for my life. I want to know your plan.
I want to know where you're taking me. as we move to the next leg of this journey. God says in verse 14, my presence shall go with you. and I will give you rest. What a great line.
I'm going to go with you. You're not going to be by yourself. And I'm going to give you rest. Victory! Success.
as you move toward the promised land. His second request. Verse 15. Then he said to him, If your presence does not go with us, Do not lead us up from here. The second request is for God's presence.
Now that's a curious request. It's a curious request because God had just told him after his first request. My presence will go with you, right? He just said in verse 14, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
So, why does he come back in verse 15 and prayer, prayer that's already been answered in the answer to the first prayer? If you don't go with us, do not lead us up from here. Many of us have traded past experiences for his presence. We can only talk about what God did yesterday. It's like going to the bakery and ordering.
Stale bread. I don't know about you, but in the hood I grew up in, they had. They had day-old bakeries. Remember the day-old bakeries? Yeah.
See, if you went there and got yesterday's bread, it was a little cheaper. Every community had them. If you grew up in the hood, they had their own bakery. That was the bread shipped from uptown to downtown that was unused. You got to buy it at a reduced price.
The Lord have mercy if it was two day old bread. A lot of our spiritual lives are stale. Because we living on yesterday's bread. There is no fresh wind and fresh fire. It's all what God did.
Not what he's doing. Oh, here's why. Many of us are substituting public approval for his presence. We live for the applause of men. And I can guarantee you, if you live for the applause of men, that's the only applause you will get.
Don't get me wrong. God blesses God. God doesn't want you to go out and intentionally cause disapproval among yourself. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, God wants us to pursue his presence.
Moses says, I want you, I want your presence, I want you. I want to know that you are there. And I can face anything. And once we see that glory, it has a way of sticking with us. Dr.
Evans will take a closer look at that when he continues in just a moment. Don't go away. Pain, uncertainty, and division seem to be everywhere you turn these days. until you look to Jesus. And now more than ever, the world needs to hear the hopeful story of the kingdom of God transforming hearts.
That's why today we're asking for your year-end gift to help meet our year-end challenge amount to keep that hope going out through the urban alternative. Your generous support will ensure you and more listeners all over the world can continue to be encouraged by God's word through the Urban Alternative Broadcasts. Please visit Tonyevans.org to give today. That's Tonyevans.org. Before we continue, I want to tell you about our current resource offer.
Tony's two-volume 12-message series called Soul Starved, Journey to the Source. If you've been waiting on God and wondering if He still sees you, The series will renew your hope and and help you recognize that your spiritual hunger has a divine purpose. We'll send you the full collection, including four complete messages not presented on the air. along with Tony's popular book, God Himself. In it, Dr.
Evans walks you through the attributes of God, helping you trust His timing, rest in His wisdom. and draw strength from His presence. These resources are yours as our way of saying thanks when you make a contribution to help us keep this broadcast coming your way. Just visit Tony Evans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements. Again, that's tonyevans.org.
or by phone, any time of the day or night, at 1-800-800-3222.
Well, let's get back to doctor Evans now. How do you know when his presence has overwhelmed you? He says in verse 16, because we will be distinguished. from everybody else. Because right now, out here in the wilderness, we look like everybody else.
You can find any nomad group passing through the wilderness and they'll look just like us. But when his presence shows up, you know it showed up because you are distinguishable. Different. And they will know that we belong to you. We'll have a testimony.
When God shows up, things will be different. If things are not different, you have not been to the tent of meeting enough. And spoken to him friend to friend, face to face. There has been no favor. His final request.
Oh, by the way, God says to him in verse 17, Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name. Show me your glory. is his third request. In verse 18, Moses says, I pray thee, show me thy glory. It's as deep as you can get.
You don't get deeper than this. Because God's glory is the sum total of his perfections. God's glory is God seen. It is the divine essence revealed. It is seeing his personality at work.
God's glory is the manifestation of his attributes. It's one thing to say God is omnipotent, all-powerful. It's another thing to see his power. It's one thing. To see that God is everywhere, omnipresent, it's another thing to see him show up where you need him right now.
It's one thing to say God is sovereign. He sits as the controller of the universe. It's another thing to see him take charge of your mess. It's one thing. To know God's attributes and be able to recite them, it's another thing to see them show up.
He says Show me your glory. Let me see your perfections unveiled. in front of my eyes. Show me your glory. God's glory is like a radiation zone.
When it shows up, it rubs off on you. Moses has seen some wild stuff. He seen a bush that wouldn't burn. He's seen the fire and thunder come on at the mountain when God showed up. Mausana?
He saw his shepherd's crook get thrown down and become a snake and become a shepherd's crook again. This dude has seen the openings of the Red Sea. He saw the ten plagues over Egypt.
So we're not talking about a novice here. Who hadn't seen God? Why, when you've seen all that, are you asking God to show you my glory? What Moses is saying is, I know there's a lot more behind that I ain't touched yet. I know that is so much.
in the infinitude of God. His Limitlessness. He's unlimited. That I want to get to the core of who you are. This man's after something.
He wants something. He knew there was a lot more to God than what he had already seen. God says to him in verse 19, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you. Goodness means splendor or beauty. I will let my beauty pass before you.
And will proclaim the name of God before you. That's the second thing. I'm going to give you my name. The third thing is, I'm going to show you my grace. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show compassion on whom I will show compassion.
Now there is a limitation, verse 20. You cannot see my face. For no man can see my face and live. I will let you see my attributes. I will not let you see my face.
That is the core of my being. You will explode. You could not handle the core. It's like going up and taking a visit to the sun, it's a wasted trip. I cannot give you the core of my being.
But what I will let you do is, I will let you see my splendor pass by. It's like seeing somebody go from one room and another room, and then you come in and only see their back part. You know who it is. But you catch the rear view, you don't catch the front view because it would be too large. My splendor will pass by you.
Then I'll show you my name. Yahweh from I Am. Which means the self-existent, all-sufficient one. I will be your sufficiency. And then I will let you experience my grace.
My face you will not see. My attributes you will see. I will let you see my beauty. I will let you see my supply. I will let you benefit from my grace.
I will show you things you have not already seen. When God shows you his glory, he shows you things you have never seen. He comes through in ways you have never known. The past is wonderful, but you want a new manifestation. Today.
He says In order to see my face, you must die. For no man can see my face. And move. Ponder that. Only dead men see God's face.
You can't live and see my face. You will die! If you see my face. Therefore, the qualification to see God's face. is death.
Why should it surprise us then that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 31, I die daily? It was he who got transported to the third heaven. to see unspeakable things. Why don't we see more of God's face? We're still too alive to ourselves.
Moses did get to see God's face. It was 1,500 years after he died. Jesus Christ went up on the mount of transfiguration. And deity. Blew out humanity.
As the humanity of Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 17 drops off. The disciples were sleeping. The Bible says when Moses died, nobody could find his body. Why? Because there had to be another trip.
That would come 1500 years later.
So God hid his body because his prayer was: I want to see your face. God says, but if you see my face, Moses, you're going to die. I'm going to let you see my attributes, but I got to hold off on seeing my face tell you, die. But after he died 1,500 years later on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Bible says that God called forth Moses. You remember Moses in Exodus chapter 33?
You wanted to see my father? Here you go, boy. When you die. to yourself. You get to see his face.
Because the face of God is resident in the person of Christ. And you get to see his face. And that's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. that we behold his face. and are transformed by his glory.
Yeah. And it transforms us. Moses went up to the mountain and the Bible says and his face began to shine. Because he had been in the presence of God, but when he came down the mountain, it says the glory would disappear because folk will take the glory from you. But the scripture says in the face of Jesus.
The Spirit transforms us from glory to glory. When we're like Moses and God knows our name. Things change. Because he delights in helping us to carry the load. Dr.
Tony Evans, talking today about what it means to come face to face with the Father.
Now, if the lessons in Tony's current series have reminded you that nothing else can fully satisfy your heart but God, you'll want to go deeper with his insightful book, God Himself. It's a journey into the wonder of who God is and how His presence restores what's missing in our lives. Learn how to move from knowing about God to truly experiencing Him day by day. You can get your copy when you make a contribution to help support the Alternative Ministry. And if you do that right away, we'll include all 12 full-length messages from Tony's current series on spiritual hunger.
It's called Soul Starved, Journey to the Source. And it'll help you discover not only why we long for God, but how we can go about satisfying that deep-rooted need. Make the arrangements to get the book God Himself and the Soul Starved series when you visit tonyevans.org. Details are right on the home page. or call one of our helpful resource team members any time of the day or night.
At 1-800-832-22. That's tonyevans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. As we approach Christmas, there's a lot to celebrate, and we don't want you to miss any of it. The food, the fun, the family time, and especially the point.
That's what Dr. Evans will be talking about tomorrow. I hope you'll join us.
