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Exodus 33:12-17 (KJV)  And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.  [13]  Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.  [14]  And {God} said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.  [15]  And {Moses} said unto {God}, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.  [16]  For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.  [17]  And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

What separates us as God’s people?
Is it not that God is with us?
That God goes with us, goes before us?
That He is in a very real way in our midst?

I was reading an article the other day written by a young Christian who thought that what made the Church was its music. Music is fine. I love music. I love all types of music. But you have music in a honkey tonk, in bars, at Walmart, and most stores. You have music in elevators. God’s people should be joyous, singing people. But if God is not in it, there is nothing.

When we gather, we gather under God’s authority for His glory. It is this type of gathering that causes God to be present. Jesus said:

Matthew 18:20 (KJV)  For where two or three are gathered together IN MY NAME, there am I in the midst of them.

It is not the number of people in a service that brings blessing, but that we are gathered together in His Name and for His glory. The Church has, in many respects, lost this in America.

We need the Lord in our lives, present, living, and real to us. There is no real healing in us unless God is with us. When Jesus healed ten lepers but only one returned to praise the Lord He declared:

Luke 17:17-19 ….. Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned TO GIVE GLORY TO GOD, save this stranger^{(the Samaritan)}. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

It is the faith that seeks God first and foremost that brings wholeness. We must worship the Lord.

God Will Not Walk With The Prideful

God is often better to us than we deserve. As Israel prepared to go into the Land of Canaan the Lord called out to Moses:

Exodus 33:1 And the LORD said unto Moses…

Don’t miss this. Don’t gloss this over. God spoke to Moses. Moses was having coffee one day and the Lord walked in. Moses, let’s talk. Oh what a blessing this would be! God spoke to Moses. He knew his name. He was on a first name basis with Moses. Oh, what a wonderful thing that is! The LORD – the Eternal and Everlasting I AM – spoke to the temporal Moses. He said:

Exodus 33:1-2 … Depart, and GO UP HENCE, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: 2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: [3] Unto a land flowing with milk and honey:

You GO UP Moses – GO UP on the Mountain that I promised to give you. When you go I will send an angel before you and I’ll drive out the bad things and the bad people. I’m going to give you the Mountain. Just Go UP.

You’re going to get everything you ever wanted.
You’ll get the land. You’ll be at rest.
Your enemies will be chased out.
Your children will keep the land.
You will have a progeny.
The land will literally flow with milk and honey.

It will be ALL that you dreamed. You will have it all. However, Moses …

Exodus 33:3 … for I WILL NOT GO UP IN THE MIDST OF THEE; for thou art a STIFF-NECKED PEOPLE: lest I consume thee in the way.

You can have it all – but I won’t be there.

What if God told you the same thing. “You can have it all, but I won’t be there with you”. What would you think? God said …

… the people are too “stiff necked”.

You may not know what that means, but ancient farmers did. When a horse or an ox decided it didn’t want to be trained it would stiffen its neck and fight the bit. It was its way of saying “You’ll not be my master no matter what!” To be “stiff necked” is to refuse to bend, to refuse to honor God as Lord and King.

The people would not honor God. God said “I’m not going to go with you for YOUR OWN SAKE, because if I go I MAY CONSUME YOU INTHE WAY”.

God cannot tolerate pride and arrogance.
God will not go with the prideful.
He will not be disrespected by pride filled people.
God is God!

When the Seven Deadly Sins are mentioned in Proverbs 6:16-19 do you know what the number one Deadly Sin is? P-R-I-D-E. Yes, Pride!

Proverbs 6:16-17 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an ABOMINATION unto him: 17 A PROUD LOOK ….

The proud look, the stiff neck, the “I am the center of the Universe” pride is an abomination to God. The word ABOMINATION means:

“That which causes disgust or hatred”

Why would God call pride an “ABOMINATION”?
Because pride leads us from Him Who loves us.
Pride depraves a nation and a people.
A pride filled people descend into idolatry.
They worship CALVES rather than their CREATOR.

Proverbs 16:18-19 PRIDE GOETH BEFORE DESTRUCTION, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

PRIDE caused ADAM to fall from Paradise.
Pride said “God is depriving you – go ahead, EAT”.
PRIDE caused the destruction of all but eight in the FLOOD.
PRIDE caused SAMSON to fall for Delilah, then fall to Philistia.
PRIDE lead King DAVID to adultery and murder.
PRIDE caused LUCIFER to become Satan, the arch evil angel.
PRIDE causes many to reject the GOSPEL of Christ,
And leads them to a fiery Hell.

Listen to me – if you have something, you have it because God allowed it. If you have a talent, it is because God gave it to you. If you have beauty, or a powerful job, or even life itself it is because the LORD our God gave it to you. Do not think that you are self sufficient.

Without God we are but dust in the wind. God is the Giver, and we need His Presence.

Pride Is Horrid Because It Blinds
The Prideful To Their Condition

You cannot correct a prideful man. You cannot lead a prideful woman to repentance. Why? Because pride convinces me I AM RIGHT and EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG.

Some of the saddest words in Scripture are those that follow. Moses shared what God said to Israel, but the Israelites could not hear what God said. Read with me:

Exodus 33:4 And when the people heard these EVIL TIDINGS, THEY MOURNED: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

The people MOURNED. The word ‘ABAL means to cry aloud, to wail. They began to wail and weep. Was it because they realized they were going into the Promised Land without God? No, but we are told:

Exodus 33:5-6 (KJV)  For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee IN A MOMENT, AND CONSUME THEE: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.  [6]  And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

They mourned because God said He was going to destroy them. They did not mourn because they realized they realized their sin.
They mourned because they were going to be punished.

Part of what blinded them to their condition was their ornaments, their stuff. They had lots of “stuff”. Now this was “stuff” that God let them have, but now God told them “get rid of those ornaments, those trinkets, because that “stuff” is bringing you to destruction. God said the same thing to the Church at Laodicea in:

Revelation 3:15-17 (KJV)  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  [16]  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  [17]  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

That Church – like Israel – had lots of “stuff” … but the didn’t have the Lord. Jesus said “You think you are rich, but you are LUKEWARM, a nasty taste in My Mouth”. This is where Israel was. They had trinkets, but not God. They had

Four wheelers
Fishing boats
Two or more cars
Televisions in every room
Healthcare
good bank accounts
Several vacations a year
Condominiums
Jewelry
Social networks
Good jobs

But they did not have the Lord’s Presence in their daily lives. They had no sense of God, so lived senseless lives. I have seen so many obituaries lately of young people – 65 years old and younger still – who lived their lives empty of God. How do I know? The obituary spoke nothing of the Lord. Nothing. Nothing. They had no Church family, no pastor officiating their final service, and in many cases no final service. They had STUFF but did not have the Lord.

What gives us the POWER to OVERCOME in life is GOD’s PRESENCE!

The Scripture says:

1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God OVERCOMETH the world: and this is the victory that OVERCOMETH the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that OVERCOMETH the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

If God is with me, I can OVERCOME all things. Canaan is no challenge if I go to Canaan with God. But even if God casts all of my enemies out of Canaan, if He will not go with me, then Canaan will not be Canaan.

One day Jesus sought to explain to His disciples – and US – the importance of God in our lives. Jesus stood in front of a beautiful field filled with wildflowers, and birds, and bees. Jesus stopped, and presenting the field to His disciples said:

Matthew 6:25-33 (KJV)  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?  [26]  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  [27]  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?  [28]  And why take ye thought for {clothing}? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  [29]  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  [30]  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  [31]  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  [32]  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  [33]  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

God takes care of those who love Him. Seek HIS Presence. This is what Moses did next. He sought God. He told the people to quit seeking stuff and to seek God. Read with me:

Exodus 33:8-9 And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, AFAR OFF FROM THE CAMP, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. 8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. 9 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.

Did you read with me? Did you see what Moses did? He set up a place to meet with the Lord. It was a place far from the camp. Why? It wasn’t convenient to Israel. Some people say “I’ll stay home and worship God by watching Charles Stanley on television”. Go ahead, but you won’t find God there. God isn’t your God just when it’s convenient to you. God is not an APP that you dial up on your phone. God is God. Moses set up a place outside the camp

Afar Off From the Camp

a place you had to get up and go to. It wasn’t a McDonald’s sort of Christianity that Moses proposed to Israel. You had to be inconvenienced. You had to get up, get in your cart and donkey, and drive to it. Who experienced God? Those who went to the Tabernacle. Those who sought the Lord.

Jesus Christ went without the camp to pay for our sins. He calls us to go without the camp to worship Him. To step outside of our comfort zone. To intentionally seek God.

Hebrews 13:11-14 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. 12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

When we worship the Lord without the camp, we will worship Him in the home. We see that next.

Exodus 33:10 And ALL the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and ALL the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

Our homes would be blessed if we loved the Lord outside the camp. If we sought Him at Church, in our businesses, in the marketplace.

Oh, How I Need The Presence Of God In My Life!

Many of the songs we sing every Sunday emphasize our need of God’s Presence in our daily lives. We need the Lord. We need the Lord more than stuff. We need Him every moment of every day. Moss told God:

Exodus 33:13-14 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. 14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

It is the Presence of God in our lives that gives us rest. Moses did not want the Promised Land without the Precious Savior. He did not want Canaan without the Creator. He said:

Exodus 33:15-16 And {Moses} said unto {God}, If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

If You are not with us, God, we don’t want the Holy Land.
We don’t want the stuff without You.
We desperately need You!

That is the mark of God’s people, that they want God.
That they hear God.
That they love God.
That they represent God.
That they follow God.
That they are God’s own.

Are you? Are you God’s own? May God touch your hearts with His Word.