Covered
Sermon Notes
Passage
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’” So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb…Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:1-6, 12-16)
Overview
Over the past few weeks together, we have been working through that has become central to who we are and who we want to be as a community:
Canopy is a family of house churches learning to live free
One of the things that’s become clear as we’re taking this journey together is that standard definitions of freedom simply won’t do. We have been raised and thoroughly steeped in a context that equates freedom with independence. We have been trained to think that the goal of emancipation is self-actualization, that liberty means being released from all authority so that I have the ability to do whatever I want. But sloughing off other masters in favor of self-definition is simply trading one form of oppression for another. The Bible consistently demonstrates that when we give ourselves to any lord other than God, we are enslaved, and this applies even when (especially when) we strive to exercise independence and self-mastery. Independences is a myth, a dangerous lie, and the self a tyrant that must be deposed. Only when bow to God as Lord and Master are we free.
To learn how this plays itself out in community, we’ve turned to the book of Exodus, the quintessential freedom story to see what happens after emancipation, to see how God intends us to embody the freedom into which He had delivered us. And, in that story, we have seen that that true freedom begins with being claimed by God as His own people. In other words, we have been set free to know and worship, and when we do so we become free. Later, we learned that we are not free simply to enjoy our freedom but also to extend it others. We who have received from God commissioned to give what we have been given. Then, on Sunday, we discussed a third element for freedom: we are free because God is with us.
What’s most remarkable about this whole Exodus story and our own journey into freedom is that God does not simply emancipate us and then leave us to figure things out our own. He goes with us and leads us Himself into identity and purpose. The Exodus narrative continually draws attention to the fact that Yahweh is a God who is present with His people. He worked among and for them in powerful, visible ways. He personally guided, protected, and provided for them on their journey. He manifested Himself to them in ways that they could process and understand. He spoke to them revealing His character and priorities. He lived among them, making Himself available to them for their good. He is a God of presence. This is how He creates and sustains relationship with His people. He did not simply liberate them from captivity and then release them into the wilderness to fend for themselves. God’s people are not orphans. They are His children, His very own, and He is with them.
And, as we learned this weekend, the presence of God is everything to the people of God. Exodus 33 makes this abundantly clear. Immediately after the golden calf fiasco, God had finally had enough. For His people’s sake, God chose to let them go on without Him, and He even went so far as to offer an angel to go with them to ensure that they would receive everything He had promised them. But, in response, they mourned. Moses begged God not to send them into the Promised Land without Him. To be clear, God was offering them everything they had ever wanted, but they responded, “If you don’t come with us, we don’t want it.” In other words, they would rather die in the wilderness with God than prosper in the Promised Land without Him. So stunning and startling. This is exactly the opposite of what many people (including many Christians) today are saying with their lives. We ask God to give us everything we want but have no real desire for relationship with Him, no real awareness of or pursuit of His presence. We have something to learn from the Israelites: the presence of God is everything to the people of God.
Of course, God granted their request. He did go with them. and His people oriented their lives around His presence. They stopped when He stopped, set up camp around His Tabernacle (Numbers 2:2), and moved on only when He moved (Numbers 9:15-23). They didn’t wander in the wilderness for 40 years because they were bad with directions. They wandered because the cloud wandered, and they refused to go without Him. And, through His presence, they experienced three life-changing realities: authority, intimacy, and expectancy.
First, when we live in the presence of God, we live in the authority of God. God’s presence carries authority. The things that the people of Israel experienced and did cannot be explained by their own capacity. By living as a people defined by God’s presence, they were free from the incessant need to establish themselves through their own power. They were freed from their own limitations and so experienced the power of God. He did, in and through them, so much more than they could ever have done on their own. And, this is the great paradox of God’s people. Humility is a virtue. Dependence is strength. Little children are the greatest among us.
Second, as we have already seen, this authority is not given passively or impersonally but rather in relationship. In other words, authority flows out of intimacy. God does not go with us simply so that He can do things for us. He goes with us so that we can know Him and live in intimate relationship with Him. His presence does not secure gifts; His presence is the gift. Remember the Israelites, “If you give us everything we’ve ever dreamed, but you don’t go with us, we don’t want it.” It’s important that we keep things in the proper order: intimacy, then authority. Jesus described the same priority in John 15: “ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
Finally, if God is with us so that we can live in relationship with Him and, through relationship, experience His power, we should be living on the edge of our seats! Authority that comes from intimacy leads to expectancy. If everything that we’ve just said is true, God’s people should be the most expectant people on the planet. If God is with us and for us, then in any moment, anything is possible. Every situation, every relationship, even every hardship is an opportunity to experience the presence and power of God. God delights in answering the prayer Jesus taught us: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
All of this is true of us. All of this is our inheritance as God’s people. We are a people of the Presence, and as we grow in the authority, intimacy, and expectancy that accompanies His presence, we will increasingly learn to live free. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Discussion Questions
What dreams do you have? Imagine them all coming true but God not being a part of them. Would you still want them if that was the case?
How can I pursue humility and dependence on God’s presence in order to see the authority of God at work in my life?
What does intimacy with God look like in my life?
How do I cultivate expectancy in my life? How do we do it in our church?