Leaving Egypt: Unveiled Glory

Exodus 34: 29 - 35, II Corinthians 3: 7 - 18 

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SPEAKER_03 0:18

Would you now stand for the reading of God's Word? We've got two passages we're going to be looking at this morning, parallel passages. One is in Exodus, the other is in 2 Corinthians. The Exodus passage is Exodus chapter 34, beginning of verse 29. If you want to stick a finger in that one and turn over to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning at verse 7, that's page 1025 in your red Bible. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning at verse 7.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant, because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw what his that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord. Now to Second Corinthians chapter 3, verse 7. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory. Transitory, though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness? For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts? Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is red. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day, when Moses is red, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit, the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Thanks be to God. May be seated. Thank you, Drake. Let's uh pray as we come to the Lord this morning and to his word. Let's pray. Father, as we come now to your word, we would ask that you would show us your glory. Lord, as we saw last week in Exodus, Moses approaches you and asks that you would show him your glory. We know, Lord, that this is your great desire to reveal yourself to your people. And Lord, we need to behold you this morning. Because, Lord, when we see your glory, when we see the fullness of your glory in the face of Jesus, we're changed. We're transformed. We need that this morning. So would you come and by the power of your spirit reveal yourself through your word? In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So a question to get us started this morning for our young people and really for everyone. Have you ever had what you might call an aha moment? You ever had an experience where suddenly thing you you maybe you learned something, maybe you heard something, but you you began immediately to look at everything differently. It's like everything clicks, everything comes together in a moment. Some call it an epiphany, some some call it an aha moment where everything, all of a sudden, you see it in a totally different light. Um has anybody ever seen The Sixth Sense? Yeah, just mainly old people in here like me. It's 1998 when that came out. I thought it was like, you know, five, ten years ago. No, sir. No, sir. It's been a while. It's been a minute. But it was, it was, it was a really good movie, but it was uh, you know, it's the movie that you know the the the phrase, I see dead people. That's kind of like the the the takeaway phrase from the sixth sense. But it was uh it was a movie by this guy, um M. Knight Shyamalan, I think I'm pronouncing that right, but but he would he is a director and and he is like he is known for directing these movies that have this moment of a twist where everything for for the audience that's seeing it, everything all of a sudden is seen in a different light. And it's very much the case of the Sixth Sense. Now, spoiler alert, stick your finger in your ears, but in the movie, one of the main characters played by Bruce Willis, um, throughout the movie, he's present with the other characters. And uh, you know, you you think he's a child psychologist helping this young man that sees dead people, and and throughout the movie is with him, helping him to process this sixth sense that he has in his life. And then at the end of the movie, the very last scene, there's this twist. You discover he was a ghost. And and in the experience in that reveal, the the audience, the viewer, immediately begins to go back through the whole movie and say, wait a minute, how can that be? He was with people, and you start to think, oh, but he never interacted with them. It's one of those experiences where learning that information at the end changes your whole perspective on everything about the movie. And one of the cool things I read this week is that he actually kept that secret from the entire cast. The cast didn't know. They didn't know that really the heart of the movie was the fact that this guy wasn't really there. And the the time that the cast learned it was at the first screening. And someone described being at the first screening. I mean, these are actors that they played in the movie, they were, they were all, they put on the movie together and they were seeing the entire plot in one particular way, and they're sitting in the movie theater and they're watching the screening for the first time. And the reason he did that is because he did not want them to act like as they were acting the part. He didn't want them to act in a particular way as if they knew the ending. And so he kept it secret. And in the movie, when it got to the end, and this is the cast, this is all the people who produced the movie seeing it as one whole for the first time. In that moment, the description was a great gasp was let out in the movie theater. And then everyone stood and applauded. Like, oh, unbelievable, right? It's a brilliant piece of cinema. And uh he he tries to do that in other movies. I don't think he does it as good as he does in that one. But but I think it's a great illustration of how the gospel works in the biblical story. You know, whenever we first come to the Christian life, when we first come to Christianity, it's very easy to imagine Christianity to be something you do. Right? It's it's learning certain doctrines, believing certain things, taking certain practices in your life. Maybe it's I stopped doing certain things in my life and I start doing other things in my life, and it's the Christian life is basically about these things that you do or things that you believe. But actually, as we come to the scriptures, what we learn is that Christianity is described as something far more profoundly deep in the human heart. That it's like going from death to life, that it's like going from being blind to seeing, that it's like being born again. Just think of the image. It's like all of a sudden you come into a new life, a new way of seeing everything. And that happens through the gospel of Jesus. As the penny drops with the gospel, as it clicks in your mind who the person of Jesus is and how everything was ultimately about him, it changes how you view everything. It's like an epiphany in your life. Here's what we're gonna see in our passages today. We're looking at two passages. They're really parallel passages here, but what we're gonna see is that we are transformed, transformed, fundamentally changed. We are transformed into ever-increasing glory as we behold the glory of Jesus in the gospel. So let's jump into our passages here, and we are coming to the end of our study of the book of Exodus, and I wanted to look at both of these today because if you've been with us through Exodus, you've noticed that almost every week we're looking at an Exodus passage, and then we go to the New Testament teaching on that passage, and we get an example of that today in these two passages where you get Exodus 34, you get this passage that we're looking at, but then we jump over and we see the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians here actually taking this scene in Exodus and unpacking it for us. So we we we actually see the biblical writer doing exegesis for us, doing exposition, actually teaching us this is what this ultimately means. And I hope as we look at it, we'll you'll see a pattern of what we've been doing each week as we're looking at the book of Exodus. So as we come to this here, we come to Moses. One of the things that we've seen at the end of the book of Exodus is that it's really about worship. It's about God uh forming his people as a worshiping people. That's really the ultimate goal of all of his rescue of them, that they would be brought to him and that they would become his worshiping people. They're brought to him in covenant. And one of the things that we've seen is that Moses for them is a covenant mediator. He represents the people to God, and he represents God to the people. He brings them together. And we saw last week, Moses has this audacious request of the Lord, Lord, show me your glory, and the Lord passes by and reveals his glory to Moses. But then in this passage, in Exodus 34, we see this description of that when Moses comes down from the mountain, when he comes out of the tent of meeting, when he when he exits from being in the presence of the Lord, his face was shining, was radiant. He would be in the presence of the Lord, he would be beholding God's glory, and and the experience of seeing God, of being with God, of being in his presence was literally transforming to his appearance. And so he would come out of that experience of being with the Lord, and his face was shining so much so that it was terrifying everybody. You ever tried to look into the sun? You know that experience of, oh, I can't look directly at it. It hurts. It's painful, right? And something like that is occurring here. Now, it wasn't the glory of Moses, it was a reflected glory because he had been in God's presence. But the Israelites had to be reassured, the leaders had to be reassured. No, no, you, Moses says, You come closer, come closer. I want you to see the reflected glory in me. And so they were able to see something of God's glory through the reflection of God's glory through Moses. But then after he would leave, being with the Israelites, he we are told he would put a veil over his face, and he he would keep that veil over his face until he went back into the presence of the Lord. Now, to encounter that story for the first time, it's a little confusing. What's happening here? What's going on? Why the veil? Why all those things? And then the Apostle Paul he unpacks the whole thing for us. Okay, and that's so that's what I really want to focus on as we're looking at our time today. So the Apostle Paul, as we come to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 here, in this section, he begins with this contrast of the old covenant and the new covenant. And a part of what Paul wants us to see here is that both covenants come with glory. The old covenant that God entered into through Moses, it came with glory. I mean, obviously, and he's pointing that out. Moses was in the presence of God. He would reflect that glory to God's people. There was glory in the law, there was glory in the tabernacle, there was glory in the old covenant. But a part of what he wants us to see here is that the new covenant in Christ is far surpassing in his glory. And he talks about a number of ways in which the new covenant is so much more glorious and radiant than the old covenant. One of those ways is that the old covenant was external primarily. And we points that out in verse 7 that the old covenant was engraved on stone, referring to the Ten Commandments. It was the tabernacle, it was rituals, all of these things that guided God's people into a worship of God. But it was primarily external. But the new covenant is internal. It is, as Paul describes it here, the ministry of the Spirit. It is God's presence, not just being seen and beheld in a tabernacle, but God's presence actually coming into the very lives of his people. So Paul says, it's so much more glorious because it's not an external law that you're called to obey. It's not external instructions that you're to live by. It is an internal presence and ministry of God within you. He also talks about how the old covenant was one that brought condemnation. Now that wasn't the ultimate intention of the law and the old covenant. It was actually a revelation of God's character and who we have been created to be and called to be in God's presence. The law is a beautiful thing, it's a glorious thing. But the problem is the human heart. We see that with Israel over and over and over that no matter how much God pursues his people and rescues his people, their hearts, and we would say our hearts are programmed to go their own way. So the law and the old covenant could not change his people. It could not change them. In fact, it could only condemn them because it could only reveal the fullness of their heart's rebellion against God. So the old covenant, ultimately, it brought condemnation. But the new covenant brings righteousness. How does it bring righteousness? It brings righteousness not because it teaches us how to build a righteousness of our own. No, no, no. It brings righteousness because it offers for us and shows us the righteousness of another that becomes ours by faith. The righteousness of Jesus. It shows us that Jesus has come and he has kept the law in our place, that he's lived the life that we failed to live, that he has achieved a perfect obedience to the law for us. And that when we are united to Jesus in covenant with him, his righteousness, his record becomes our very own. The new covenant actually brings righteousness, and then by his spirit actually changes and empowers us to become a new people. But then also, the old covenant was temporary. The old covenant was put in place to point ahead to something else. It was always intended to be there that it would give way to the real thing. In the book of Hebrews, it's called the shadow of the real things, the copy, the real thing is presented to us in Christ. That's what Paul's saying. The new covenant is so far superior to the old. Well, then he goes into this description in verse 12 of the veil. You know, there's, we see when we read the story in Exodus, we think, what is what's the deal with the veil, right? What's going on there? And so Paul here in verse 12, he kind of locks in on that idea of the veil and he uses it as a metaphor. Here's what he says in um, particularly in verse 13, we are not like Moses who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. This veil was for Paul a metaphor of how it was preventing a seeing of the full glory. It was preventing them from seeing what the old covenant was really intended to point to. In other words, they couldn't see the end. They couldn't see what was the future fulfillment. They couldn't see that the tabernacle and the law and all the different aspects of the old covenant was actually intended to point them ahead to a Messiah that was veiled to them. They could not see it, and so therefore the old covenant became a way of making themselves right before God. The veil is kind of this metaphor for Paul of veiled religion. You know, the natural tendency of the human heart is to build our own righteousness. I mean, that's really the essence of every religion and philosophy throughout the history of the world. There's something deeply programmed in our hearts, hardwired in us to try to build our own righteousness, to try to have some achievement or something about ourselves, or sometimes it's how we look, our fashion or our achievements, or our success, or our being in the right circle, the right crowd. We're always chasing after this righteousness. It's the heart of the, it's so deeply programmed into the human heart. And so when we are veiled to the true purpose and meaning of the old covenant, we tend to approach Christianity as a way to make ourselves right before God. That's what happened for the Israelites. All of those things intended to point to something else became the point. And they were sought, they were seeking to build their own righteousness. They were veiled to the meaning of it. So they thought, this is how we're made right with God. By obeying the law, by getting it right, we're made right with God by this, whenever this was actually intended to point to something else. Verse 14, their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. Paul says, if you come to the Bible and you read the Bible, apart from seeing it's all about Jesus, you will turn it into law. You will turn it into moral lessons, you will turn it into being about you. It's the most natural thing in the world. It's the nature of the human heart. We come to Scripture and it's a moral lesson. It's about me. Get your act together. Do this, make yourself right before God. And you can get that anywhere, even in the New Testament, because a veil is over the heart. But the veil is lifted. Says Paul, when we turn to Christ. It's like the reveal. It's like all of a sudden you see, oh, wait, this isn't about me at all. It's about him. It's all about him. The entirety of Scripture from beginning to end is all about Jesus. When we come to Jesus and we see that, the veil is lifted. Verse 16, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. It's lifted. Only in Christ is the veil lifted, and we begin to see it is all fulfilled in Jesus. All the tabernacle, all the law, all the stories in Scripture, everything is intended to point to and find its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. So what happens to us and in us? What happens in a person when the veil is lifted? What happens when you see the reveal? Just like in the sixth sense. When you see, oh my goodness, I was looking at the whole thing from the wrong direction. It's like have you ever tried to look out of a telescope through the wrong end or a pair of binoculars? You're like, this ain't helping much at all. Right? And then you turn it around and all of a sudden, whoa, it's completely different. That's what it's like when you begin to look at scripture through the lens of Christ. Or really when you look at all of life through the lens of Christ. So what happens in us when the penny drops? Verse 18, we are transformed. That's what happens. When the veil is lifted in a person's heart and they begin to see Jesus is the center of it all, he fulfills it all. It's all about him. It's all about a revealing of his glory. It's not about me and what I do, it's about what he has done. When that hits home in the heart, what Paul says in verse 18 is that we are transformed. Look at verse 18. And we all who with unveiled faces, who's he talking to here? He's talking to those of us who've had the veil lifted in Christ, who have had that sense, that epiphany in the heart, that being born again, that blind eyes being opened, all of those things. It's those who have come to see Jesus is the center of it all. Jesus has fulfilled it. It's the righteousness of Jesus, not my righteousness that brings me to the Father. It's when we see that, that's what he means by with unveiled faces, that we come and we see God through the lens of Jesus. We see Scripture through the lens of Jesus. When we come to God through Jesus, it's coming with unveiled faces. We're seeing the real thing, we're seeing him rightly. And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate or behold, that is to see, to enjoy, to delight the glory of God through Jesus. We behold him like Moses. Remember Moses? Show me your glory. I want to see you. I don't just want you to do stuff for me. I just don't, I don't want to just know things about you. I want to encounter you and behold your glory. That's what Paul's talking about here. And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image. Christianity is about transformation. That's the goal. Transformation. Being changed, becoming a new person, like life change. It's the entire goal of Christianity. And what does that transformation look like? It looks like Jesus. That's what he says right here. We are being transformed into his image. Who's his? Jesus. That's who he's talking about. We are transformed to become like Jesus with, as Paul says, ever-increasing glory. Right? So that's uh that means this thing grows. It deepens. Like that transformation is not just something that happens at the beginning of the Christian life and you're done. Very easy to believe that until you've lived a little bit, right? And you realize, oh, I'm still broken. Right? This transformation that begins when we come to Christ is something that is ever increasing, something that continues to grow and deepen, a glory, it's a reflected glory. But it is a glory, a transformation where we become like Jesus. We are made like Him. This is not talking about behavior modification. It's very easy in the Christian life when we think about change and we think about growth to think about behavior modification. What is behavior modification? It's changing my outward behavior. You know, which it's good to change your behavior. There's many behaviors I need to change, and probably you too. Behavior change is good. But when we think that change is merely external, well, you're gonna be disappointed. Right? Because the way that change happens is that it has to be internal. The heart's gotta change. The autopilot's got to change. You know, it's like a it's like a boat that's set on autopilot to go our own way. So you might get in that boat and grab that wheel and say, I'm gonna turn it and we're gonna go over here. Well, what happens the moment you let go of it? Goes right back. That's what the human heart's like in nature. It is bent on rebellion. We have a God allergy. We're allergic to God. We want to go the other way. That's what's natural in our hearts. And so the only way for us to have lasting change, like ever-increasing transformation, is for something to happen on the inside. And that comes from the Lord. That's what he says at the end of the passage. Which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Man, that's good news. We don't change ourselves. What does he say here? We are being transformed. That is a passive, perfect tense of a verb. It's something that's happening to me. He's changing me. That is why the Christian life's not a burden. Not easy. Don't hear me say that. Not easy at all. In fact, it is an invitation to die daily, right? But it is not a burden because I do not change myself. He changes me through the work of his spirit in my life. That is freeing. Real transformation that comes through him. So here's a question. Are you being transformed? Maybe you should ask that question to someone in your life who knows you really, really well, right? Are you being transformed? Is change happening in your life? Now, what I don't mean is like change like this. You know, change is change is more like this, right? You know, two steps forward, one step back. It's not a like this increasing victory, you know, where, you know, tomorrow I'm so much more glorious than I was today. No, that's not what it looks like. Oftentimes it feels like you're stumbling, you're falling on your face. Oftentimes it feels like in the Christian life, when you're actually being transformed, you're actually feeling the wickedness of your sin more deeply. That's oftentimes what heart transformation looks like. Your heart is more broken over things that it wasn't bothered by earlier. That's often what it looks like. But still, the question is so important. Am I being transformed? Am I the same person I was five years ago? That's a great question. Because what Paul's telling us here is that when the veil is lifted and we turn to Jesus and we see the glory and the fulfillment of Him, we're changed, transformed at the fundamental level. Doesn't mean you're doing more things. Sanctification, growing in Jesus looks like you filling your calendar with church things, right? The church will often do that. That's not transformation. Remember what Paul tells us here is it is into the image of Jesus. So the question when we talk about transformation is am I looking more like Jesus? Like, just spell it out a little bit. Am I getting more gentle with people? Am I becoming a more forgiving person? Or am I just kind of locked into some bitterness here in my life? Right? Am I becoming more bold? Jesus was bold but loving. Am I becoming more courageous in mission? He was very courageous relationally in his life. Am I becoming more courageous? Am I seeing fear lessen in my life? That is a great question for Christ-likeness. You know, we we live in the age of anxiety. That's what's what many sociologists are calling this generation right now. The age of anxiety. I mean, we've got more wealth, we've got more uh luxury, we've got more safety than any culture in the history of the world, and those are facts, and yet we are the most anxious. Isn't that ironic? So maybe security and peace don't come through stuff. Maybe, just suggesting it, right? We're anxious. We're fearful of everything. We're fearful for our children, we're fearful for our bank accounts, we're fearful for all the stuff that we might lose. I am. I'm including me in there, right? So the question for transformation is am I becoming less fearful? Because that's who Jesus was. I mean, he's like in the middle of a storm, asleep in a boat. You don't go to sleep in the middle of a crisis unless you have absolute peace, right? And where did that peace come from? Utter dependence on the Father. Are we becoming more dependent on the Father? Are we more compassionate? Like when you see people in misery, are you like, uh I can't handle that. That's too much. Or is our heart just moved? Jesus saw brokenness, his heart was just moved. It's like an immediate reaction. Are we becoming like him? Are we becoming more gracious with people who disagree with us? This is just Christ-likeness. Are we being transformed? And how does this happen? Change, like we said, is not something that we do, it's something that he does in us. But we do have a part to play. And what is that part? Well, according to Paul here, it is with unveiled faces beholding the glory of Jesus. That's how we change. The whole Jesus. Sometimes we try to change by looking at our sin constantly. That won't work. In case you haven't figured that out yet. It won't work. You gotta look at Jesus. That's basically the message of the book of Hebrews. Fix your eyes on Jesus, right? With unveiled face. I see you. You're everything. The more that we behold the glory of Jesus, the more there are hearts are taken with him, and the more by his spirit he transforms us at the deepest, most fundamental level. That's why we say our mission as a church is to enjoy Jesus together. That's like our whole goal. Like we're we are here to enjoy Jesus, to delight in him, to see him, that he would become bigger to me and more beautiful to me. I would become more secure in him, that I would enjoy him because that is the power of change. That's what Paul's saying here. With unveiled faces, behold Jesus. So I just close with this. This is a great illustration of this. Many of you know the story of the road to Emmaus, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke chapter 24. It's a great, great picture of exactly what we're talking about here. So you got two disciples who had been with Jesus and they witnessed the crucifixion, and in their mind, it's all done. This is over. You know, they they their hopes were that he was gonna be the Messiah. He was gonna fulfill all the Old Testament hopes. You know, he's gonna fill the earth with the kingdom of God. That was gonna start with kicking some Roman tail and setting his people free. And like this was him. And then they watched him be nailed to a cross, crushed, utterly crushed. You see, the veiled hearts. They see the truth. They knew the facts. They recount them to Jesus. They knew the facts, and yet all of the facts and the circumstances told them it was over. And so they're walking and they're heartbroken, and Jesus comes and begins to walk with them. The risen Christ is walking with them, but they don't recognize him. Why? Their hearts are veiled, veiled hearts. And Jesus listens for a minute, but then he says, How slow of heart you are to believe all that the prophets have written. And then it says, and beginning with Moses, he went through all of Scripture describing how it was all about him. Can you imagine that Bible study? You imagine what that was like. So Jesus is there walking with them, and he was like, you know, Abraham when he went up on that mountain, thinking he's going to have to sacrifice his one and only son? And he went. But then, right in the moment, God provided a ram. That was me. That was me. You know, God's people when they were in slavery in Egypt and they were rescued out of Egypt through the blood of a lamb, as they were covered, as their families were covered with the blood. They were protected. They were free from the judgment of God. It passed over them. You remember that? That was me. Do you remember that promise that God made to David in 2 Samuel 7? That covenant that he made with him, that one of your sons will sit on your throne, and his kingdom will fill the whole earth like justice, just corner to corner, covering the whole place. You remember that promise? That was about me. That's what Jesus was doing in that moment. He was lifting the veil and they were saying, Oh, my stars, it's all about you or him. They didn't recognize him yet. And so they get back to the house and they're like, You can't, you got to keep doing this. Keep doing this thing. We, we, we, we need more. And so he comes in and they sit down at the table, and Jesus takes bread and he breaks it, a clear reference to communion. He breaks bread, and in that moment their eyes were opened and they see Jesus, and he disappears from their sight. And they look at one another, and I love what they say to each other. They look at each other and they say, Were not our hearts burning when he opened the scriptures to us? That burning heart is what we're talking about here. The burning heart is what we mean by enjoying Jesus. The burning heart is what Paul means by, and we who with unveiled faces behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus. That's the burning heart. When you're seeing it's all about you, the heart burns. And that burning, that worship, is the unleashing of the Spirit's power that transforms us from the deepest places. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Now we got just a few minutes to talk about this. We do this each week to apply the sermon, to not just be hears but doers. We have a few moments to share with each other how the truth of Scripture is impacting us, how it's challenging us, how it's speaking to us, what's happening in you. Are there any burning hearts in here? As you hear Jesus is the blazing center of all of God's glory. If that don't turn you on, you ain't got switches. Let's hear from each other.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Um I feel emotional during your sermon, and I don't necessarily think it's sadness. Um I'm hoping it's burning. Um, like what they were talking about in Luke. Um, I was thinking of the verse, and I'm terrible with references. Um those who look to the Lord are radiant, their faces are never recovered in shame. And I was just thinking, God is gracious that He um a veil isn't made of like wool. It's made of normally like a sheer material where you can get glimpses of him. But until you're filled with the Spirit, you can't fully see his radiance and be radiant with him. And when you said that we have a God allergy, I think, I think I keep trying to pull that veil back over and and um inoculate myself with self-selfish sin. And I don't want to, I want to be burning and always have my face uncovered. Um and I think I don't know how to do that and not feel shame at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Yeah. Well, one I would just say I resonate with what you're saying. What you describe is is really the experience of the Christian life that I'm divided. I mean, we're if if you feel a little schizophrenic, take heart. It means you have like two people in there, the old and the new. And uh, if you've only got one in there, you should actually be concerned, right? So it it is the the battle and the war that really is the reality of the Christian life, where I feel the power of my flesh. And it's always there. It's always there. It's it's always it is allergic to God, it wants to go my own way, it wants to seek life and created things, and that that is that is the old person in us. But the incredible truth of the new covenant is that that's not who we are. And I love this in uh Romans chapter 7 is one of the best places where Paul actually talks about his own experience of um having this war within. You know, what I want to do, I don't do. The things I hate, those are the things I keep on doing. Um it is as it is, it is not I, it is not I who do it, it is sin living in me. You know, so he has this idea of like, that's not me. The old is not me. Who I am is this this person in union with Christ. That's my identity. And so I think the way that we fight in the Christian life, the way that we uh pursue sanctification, realizing it's his work in us, is just constantly coming back to root our identity in Jesus, fixing our eyes upon him, beholding his glory continually. And um that doesn't mean that the battle is not still painful, because it is, but the the hope that we have in it is that it's not up to me to defeat that thing. And those wicked desires that still live in me don't define me. It's not who I am. You know, the way that Paul describes it in Philippians is he says, let us live up to what we've already attained. And I think, what a great description of the gospel. Like I'm already righteous. I'm already, in one sense, glorified. I'm already, you know, Paul says we are seated with him at the right hand of the Father. How are we seated with him? Well, Jesus is seated there. That's who I am. So I mean, so it's it's it's this battle of continually coming back to our identity in Christ and just fixing our eyes on Jesus. And don't do it alone. We we got to do it in community. We we, as a community, we're here to remind each other when we're beat down by accusation and struggle. We need brothers and sisters in our life who are like, hey, you know who you are, right? You are united to Jesus. You're clothed in his righteousness. In Christ, you're forgiven. So it's preaching the gospel to ourselves and to one another. Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

So something that was on my mind was feeling God's presence and his and seeing his glory. And I was listening to something yesterday. Um, you were talking about just how this is the the age of anxiety in a way. And I think a lot of it has to do with like, man, we just don't feel God's presence a lot. And you know, there's the presence of God, like his omnipresence, but a lot of times his presence, we want to feel it and we want to like, oh, God's there with me.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

And one of the ways it was a podcast, he was like, Yeah, we're like the we're like the teenage son at lunch with his father just on his phone, and the father is there, just like, yeah, I want to teach you something and I want to show you something.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

And another thing it was talking about was, you know, seeing God's glory uh in the world, and it's like, you know, we get lost in the mundane of life. And he was talking about on short-term mission trips, you know, from the moment you land on the plane or drive or wherever you're going, you're like, God, how are you gonna use me? What are you gonna do? And you have these eyes, and I would say unveiled eyes, of just like, God, where are you gonna use me? What's what's gonna happen? I'm in the car with this, you know, local, you know, how can I talk to them?

SPEAKER_03 46:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

And he made the point of like, how do we just get lost in the mundane of how are we not always on mission?

SPEAKER_03 46:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Like you, you know, you see God's glory working um through you and through, you know, his divine work, but like, how do we get lost in the mundane of of life? How are we just not on this constant mission, you know, having this mindset of mission even in our own mundane life? So it's just random thought.

SPEAKER_03 47:00

Yeah, it's like the the um the problem is not his presence or lack of his presence. The problem is with our awareness of his presence. And and it's a great illustration, the phone. You know, I mean, we all know that reality where I can be with someone sitting next to each other, and yet we're not present to each other because we're somewhere else, right? That is so often the case of our relationship with the Lord. And so what it it takes is a lot of discipline to get present with him, to build our awareness capacity. Um, the problem is not his presence, it's our awareness of it. And so it takes work to be able to become aware of God's presence, to sense his presence, to hear from him, to encounter him in his word. It takes work. Just like any relationship. It takes work. So it's a really good point. Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have lifted the veil from our eyes, that you have opened our hearts to see the light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ. And I pray that you would pour out your spirit upon our hearts, that Lord, you would help us to see more and more, to behold, uh, to be those that are like Moses, to say, show me your glory, Lord. And then we go to look at Jesus. We go to see Jesus in his word, in community with each other, in prayer, in communion. Uh, Lord, would you reveal your glory to us, your people? That we would be transformed by your spirit and work in our hearts as we fix our eyes on Jesus. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.