Well, let's look in God's word here in Exodus chapter 33. I want to read beginning in verse number 1. We've been in chapter 34, verses 6 and 7, and we're looking at these qualities of God as God introduces himself to his covenant bride. And in answer to Moses' question, what are you like and what is your name? Show me your glory. And God begins to give Moses this most In the quoted passage of the Old Testament, he gives Moses as his goodness passes by, and he shares with Moses what he is. Now, the fact is, God was all of these things before he revealed them to Moses, and he was these things after he revealed himself to Moses. And if you had the eyes of faith, you would have recognized that this is our God, and he's always passing by. Think about this. He's always passing by. Has His goodness passed by the doorway of your life lately? And this is the whole point. Lord, open my eyes to see that the goodness of God is the glory of God and it passes by. Goodness and mercy following us all the days of our life. And this now second quality of Yahweh in chapter 34, verse 6, the Lord God merciful and gracious. Gracious is the word. that we take up in our study of God's Word tonight, the grace of God. Now, before we get into chapter 33, I want to talk to you a bit about New Testament grace. When I talk about New Testament grace, I'm really talking about unmerited favor, the unmerited favor of God. We've taken the letters for grace and made this acrostic, G-R-A-C-E, God's Riches at Christ's Expense. I'm going to say it one more time, then I want you to say it. If you don't remember it, I want you to write it down. God's Riches at Christ's Expense. Everybody together. God's Riches at Christ's Expense. So grace is the unmerited favor of God. Now, we amplify that a little bit because grace is not just unmerited favor, it's actually merit in opposition to demerit. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, right? Have you walked the Romans road lately? And the wage of sin is what? The wage of sin is death. So, we are under a death sentence. Jesus said he came not to condemn the world because the world was condemned already. The world is at a demerit with God. We're born sinners. The songwriter said sinners by choice and aliens by birth. We're born in opposition to God. We sin because our nature is to sin and we have demerit. We have demerit on our account. We're in the negative with God. But it's not just that God takes the demerit away. He gives us merit in not giving us what we do deserve. That's mercy. Grace extends what we don't deserve. So we say mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. But it's really God giving us what we don't deserve, though we deserved exactly opposite of what he gave us. That's New Testament grace. But in the Old Testament, when we see this word grace, it's the idea of favor. Can we all say the word favor? Now, if you do me a favor, that's not what the Bible's talking about. Favor is the delight of God. The delight of God. Don't you desire in your life to have the favor of God upon you? This is exactly what Moses is praying for. God, we want your favor upon us, but we are at a demerit with you. It's chapter 32. This covenant people have broken the law of God. They've walked away from God. They've left Him at the marriage altar. They have made other gods beside Him. They've bowed down and worshipped Him. They've desecrated His name. No doubt there's all kinds of frenzied activities taking place in this naked situation as Moses comes down and he breaks the tables of stone because he believes that God is going to walk away from his obligations. He thinks all hope is gone and it gets worse in chapter 33 because God said as such, I'm not going with you. I'm not going with you and I'm no longer, I'm no longer with you. You're not my people. God can choose whomever he wants to, but Moses now intercedes with God. And I want us to read this passage and then I'll give you the outline tonight. Notice verse one, and the Lord said unto Moses, depart and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt. Now time out. Who brought the people out of Egypt? Well, God said Moses did. Now we are laborers together with God. but there's just a conversation going on. The writer, I think James called Moses, he called him, the idea that he was a friend of God. All right, let's get back into it here. Under the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying unto thy seed will I give it, and I will send an angel before thee, And I will drive out the Canaanite, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite unto a land flowing with milk and honey, 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. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments. 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 I do unto thee." And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb. 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 everyone which sought the Lord went out under the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp. And it came to pass when Moses went out under 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. 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 and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose up and worshiped and every man in his tent door and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend and he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle." So what did God say? I'm not going with you. You're a stiff-necked people that will not obey. And Moses begins to speak. 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. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace, favor, in thy sight, show me now thy way that I may know thee, that I might find grace in thy sight. And consider that this nation is, they're your people. Somebody said it's a good thing that Moses and God weren't mad at the people at the same time. And he said, verse 14, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And Moses now says unto God, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and my 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? 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. Father, thank you for the reading of your word tonight. Help us to understand the interpretation and application of this text to our Christian lives. We pray this prayer in Jesus name. Amen. For all the talk of success in our lives, we hear so little about the favor of God. Do you have the favor of God upon your life? I want to show you just a minute what I mean by favor. As D.O. Moody said, the greatest commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. Go with me to the book of Genesis and to chapter 39. Now this word grace, its first occurrence is found in the story of a man named Noah. Remember Noah? The Bible says the world had become evil, the imaginations of man's heart was evil continually, but Noah found, there's our word, he found grace, favor in the eyes of God. Now I want you to notice as this term is described in the life of Joseph. Joseph here is tested with Potiphar's wife and the Bible says in verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him, what's our word? Gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. It's the same word we find in Exodus. 3 in verse 21 and Exodus 11 verse 3. It's the idea that you always find favor in someone's sight. That's the translation. Found favor in his sight. favor, grace, or kind treatment. It's Ruth that found favor in Boaz's sight. It was Samuel that found favor in Eli's sight. It was David that found favor in Saul's sight. Many of you have found favor, Proverbs 18 verse 22, he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth, what's the word? Favor. of the Lord. Favor is a gift that is motivated by delight. I'm going to say that again. Favor is a gift motivated by delight. The idea is if God delights in us, he will give us favor. He will give us grace. So what Moses is saying back in our text in Exodus 33 is he's saying to God, how do we know that you still delight in us? How do we still know that we're the apple of your eye? Now, don't want to beat a dead horse or a brazen calf for that matter. We know chapter 32, we know exactly what they did and we know exactly God's response and the people feel like God has put them in timeout and he's not coming back to rescue them. He sent them to the corner and he's escaping out of their lives and they're going to have to fend for themselves in this waste howling wilderness where there's manna today but maybe not manna tomorrow. There was water out of the rock today but maybe not water out of the rock tomorrow. There are Jebusites and Perizzites and all of the ites and isms of this world that are coming to attack us. And now God is saying that He's so angry with us, He's so disappointed with us, that He is not making that trip into the Canaan land with us. And we are on our own. How do we know that God still delights in us? Maybe you wonder the same thing. Our church has been around over 50 years. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, we have already come. But is there grace to bring us safe thus far, and does God still favor us? I've been blessed my whole adult life to be in the gospel ministry. I started serving the Lord as a teenager, leading music and preaching. I was in prison a lot when I was a teenager. But I'd go in and preach and then they'd let me out. But how do I know that God still delights in me? As a matter of fact, when we were praying about coming to Calvary, the thing that came to my mind and the verse that really came to my mind is exactly what Moses prays when he says to God, if you don't go with me, I don't want to go. Now, be it clear, my wife and I would have loved to come back to the wonderful state of Florida and not too far from where she grew up and all of those things were satisfying to our senses and our desires in our life, but I meant it from the bottom of my heart. God, if you're not with me, I can't make the journey. Matter of fact, I can't even walk without him holding my hand. How many of you feel that way? How do we know that God still delights in us? So here in Moses' request to God, it details something about our fear and it details something about God's gracious favor and how we can know that the great God that brought us out of Egypt is the God that will take us into Canaan. The God that led us from the enemy of sin will lead us from the enemy of self and lead us into the presence of the Savior for all of eternity. How do we know that God still delights in us? So he makes this most brazen request, God show me your glory. Now I was thinking about this this afternoon. Remember when I said the problem, the sin of the children of Israel was in the first place, they wanted God to have a face. Moses delayed to come out of the mountain, and as Moses delayed to come out of the mountain, they wanted to know what this God looked like, and so instead of waiting on God's revelation of himself, they made a God that very much looked just like them. They made a calf. Why a calf? Because they worshiped calves in the land of Egypt. It was familiar to them. They wanted to see God's face. And what is Moses asking for here? It's interesting, isn't it? He's asking the same thing, just in a holier way. But he has a motivation. He truly wants to know God. And God says to him, I cannot pacify your desire because no man can see me and live. No fallen man in his own mortality can take in the glories of our immortal God. But can I give you some good news? Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved it doth not yet appear, but we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall See him as he is brother one day He'll make us like Jesus and we can absorb the very presence of God for all of eternity how wonderful But until that time, we crave to know that God's face is turned towards us in compassion and love and gracious favor. How do I know along the journey of life that God delights in me? Because guess what? I find myself at times in Exodus 32 conditions. But brother, we don't just have Exodus 32 sins in our life, we have Exodus 33 and 34 grace and mercy from the God who saved us and will be with us for all of eternity. Guess what? We're gonna learn next week that God is long-suffering. And it's the longsuffering of God that brings us to this place tonight. I want to give you three truths, if I may, from the lips of Moses regarding this delight, this favor he sought from God. Notice, number one, if you're writing notes, grace to guide us. Grace to guide us. Notice what Moses' request is in the 13th verse. Now, therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, isn't that an amazing statement? If I found grace in thy sight. Do you remember where he came from? Do you remember how far Moses has come? Do you remember that he was born under an infanticidal edict from the Pharaoh that all the little Hebrew baby boys would be slaughtered? Did you remember how his mother saw that he was a goodly child and she had value for human life? Because the value for human life comes from an understanding that we are all made by Creator God. She can't stand the thought that she would obey a government edict. So she puts him in a little protected ark. She takes him down to the banks of the Nile River and she commends him into the hands of God. And wouldn't you just know that it wasn't an irony, but a providential moment. Pharaoh's daughter was there at that particular point in the river on that particular day at that particular moment. And this little boy that is a Hebrew grows up in the Egyptian palace. He goes to Egyptian schools. He eats Egyptian foods. No doubt he understands Egyptian culture. He sits in high-level Egyptian meetings. He's considered by many as a son of Pharaoh's daughter. But one day his Hebrew heart beats in his chest and he recognizes, I'm not an Egyptian. He chose to forsake all of the advantages he had in the world to suffer affliction with the people of God. And he sees an Egyptian and a Hebrew sparring one day and he kills, of course, he kills the Egyptian. He hides the evidence and the next day he sees two Hebrews arguing and they know that he's committed this crime and he goes out in search of obscurity. He goes to the back side of the wilderness. He marries a priest's daughter and he settles down for a normal life. He's a nobody now. Nobody knows his name. Nobody knows where he came from. He has a lot of weird quirky things that would make you think he was raised in a palace. He understands languages at a very high level, and yet one day, he's now 80 years of age, he's on the backside of the desert, he's a shepherd, and all of a sudden there's a bush in the middle of a wilderness that's on fire and not consumed, and there's Jehovah God who calls out to him out of the midst of a burning bush, and calls him, and Moses says, here I am. I have an assignment for you. Okay, well, let's talk. What do you want me to do? I want you to go down to Egypt and say to the Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, let my people go. Well, there's a little problem because, see, my face is in all the post offices in Egypt. I'm a wanted man. And beside all that, though I had an Ivy League education in Egypt, I'm not very eloquent of speech. That seems ironic, doesn't it? But God says, I'll be with you. And Moses said, I'm not eloquent of speech. And God said, I am. And Moses said, I'm not politically connected. And God said, I am. And Moses said, I'm not able. And God said, I am. God has an I am for all of our excuses. He goes down and he speaks to Pharaoh and he says, Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, Yahweh says, let the people go. And Pharaoh says, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? We worship dust and stars and the sun and the moon and cows and frogs and the Nile and the firstborn. We worship all kinds of things. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Well, this is the King of kings. This is the Lord of lords. This is the God who will reign over all of your lowercase gods. God's been with him every step of the way and now Moses says to him, if I found grace in thy sight, aren't we so quick to forget every preceding grace of God that brought us to this place? But if I found grace in your sight, show me thy way that I may know thee. Show me your way, this favored way. But if God has led you... God has shown you his person. If God has met you in your place of need lately, let you know that he still delights in it. Moses is not saying here, God, can you give me directions for how to get to Canaan land? He's saying, God, your way is I want to know how you perform things. I want to know how you think. I want to know how you feel. Show me your way. He says, notice here, that I may know thee. How much do you know about God? Do you know why we fall out of this idea that God favors us, that God has given us grace? Because we stop learning about God. When did you stop learning about God? Think about Paul, for example, the Apostle Paul. You think Paul knew some things about God? Matter of fact, some will be encouraged by this. Paul didn't go to Bible college. Paul didn't go to seminary. He went to the wilderness. And he's there for three years. And the implication is that he's directly taught, led along by the Holy Spirit. It's amazing. You think Paul knows some things about God? As a Pharisee, he's memorized the Old Testament. Now he's come face-to-face with the resurrected Christ, taught by the Holy Spirit, authors half the New Testament. And what does Paul say in Philippians 3, verse 10? That I may know thee. Lord, show me your way. Lord, teach me about your person. You know, the older I get, I thought I wanted to know the Bible. I really did. I thought, I remember a conversation I had with my wife. I said, I want to be a great person of understanding of the word of God and preach great sermons and build a great church. And she asked the most obnoxious question. She said, why? She saw right through me. When I started out, I wanted to know about the Bible. You know what I want to know now? I want to know about God. Grace to guide us. Where is God's way? Listen, let's not ask for God to guide us in the way if he doesn't lead us into the scriptures. This is God's directing compass for your life. He leads us in prayer. He leads us in obedience. Moses says, Lord, if I found favor in your sight, show me thy way that I might know thee. Grace to guide us. Number two, I want you to notice grace to go. Grace to go. Notice verse 14, and he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up. Hencefore, wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Notice, is it not in that thou goest with us? Grace to go. God is our favored partner. He's with us. He is with us. In the book of Judges, if you'd like to turn there with me, there's a character introduced to us in Judges chapter number six that was called to do a great task, and he wondered who was with him. His name is Gideon. Gideon has a famous story here of putting out a fleece, and often have you prayed the Gideon prayer of the fleece when you've been called to do something for God? And he puts out the fleece, and if the fleece is dry and the ground is wet, and then if the ground is dry and the fleece is wet, he believes that God has called him to do this. Can I ask you a question? Is it not enough for God to call you to do it and you simply obey? God doesn't call you to put out a fleece. He calls you to obey. He's just humored by your fleece. How many times has God humored with the fleece that I've put out for him to answer me according to how I want him to do it rather than me just saying, yes, Lord, I heard what you said and I'm willing to obey. There's no sanctity in the fleece, there's sanctity in just obeying God. But notice what you're by. I'm sorry if I ruined your theology about the fleece. We can talk about it later. Verse 17, chapter 6, and he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. This is so interesting. As he's talking with this messenger of God, he says, if I found grace in your sight, then show me that you're actually talking with me. How amazing we skip over God's direction in our lives. two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24 who are so discouraged about all the struggles and trials of their life and this messianic character named Jesus that that was supposed to die and be buried three days and rise again and they said by the way it's the third day and we haven't seen him they'd given up the fact that Jesus might have resurrected and as they are discouraged and despondent and disillusioned Jesus himself is walking down the road with them and they're complaining to their traveler about the fact that Jesus is not with them when Jesus is the traveler and he is with them and he's walking down the road with them he's right here in our experience but we miss him because we wonder if we found favor in his sight and the fact is he is with us Well, God, if you were with me, I would do this thing or that thing. And God says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now, how do you know that you can know that God is with you? How do you come to that determination that God is with you? Well, I'm going to give you a really simple Bible answer. Keep going. Keep going. 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? Listen, if you'll go, he'll be with you. Now I want to quote Jesus. Can I quote Jesus? I want to quote the red letters tonight. He said unto them, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Do you believe that? Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the earth. Well, how do we know that he's with us? He said, go, and I'll prove to you that I'm with you. You know what we want? We want peace before we go. God says, go, and you'll have peace. God, give us a sign that we're supposed to go. Give us a sign that you'll be with us. God says, go, and I'll give you every manifestation of the reality that I am always with you. Can I ask you a question tonight? How long would it take you to acknowledge that the Lord is not with you? Let me explain. I was thinking of two Old Testament characters. One didn't know that God was with him and the other begged God not to leave. This is really interesting. There's a guy in the Bible. Now, again, you might disagree with me. I don't think I'm wrong, but I'm open to debate. I think he looks like Barney Fife. I think he's a scraggly old scrawny little guy because when he does a Herculean feat of masculinity, they wonder how he did it. If he looked like Fabio or Hulk Hogan, nobody would have to wonder what is the secret of his strength. Can I get an amen right here? Okay, I think he looks like Barney Fife, but I could be reading between the lines. He's been flirting with disaster for years. If you read the book of Judges 13, 14, 15, 16, you'll discover that the spirit of God spontaneously comes upon Samson and he does mighty feats. He lays his head in the lap of someone who he had no business being with. He trusted his heart with someone who did not have his best interest at heart. He was talking into her ear, she was talking into the ear of the Philistines. What's the secret of your strength? And he gives her the runaround. And then her daily vexation, her daily question wears down and thins his resolve. She cuts the seven flowing locks of his hair. Samson, Samson, the Philistines be upon you. And the Bible says he rose and shook himself and wist not that the Holy Spirit was removed from him. He didn't know. Why did he not know? Because he didn't live consciously in God's presence. His arm of flesh had been successful so many times. And you know what he said? I wasn't going to tell this story, but I think I will. He said to Delilah, if you cut my hair, I'll be like any other man. You remember him saying that? I was standing in the Valley of Elah with Dr. John Reynolds and a group of preachers. Brother Reynolds is giving the devotional. He talks about that Valley of Elah, what we call the Shephelah. These are the grounds of David and Goliath and Samson. In these grounds, Samson said, if you cut my hair, I'll be like any other man. And I'll never forget what Brother Reynolds said. He said God had done such a work in Samson's life that after God's power was removed from him, he couldn't be like any other man. Because he was someone God trusted with power. And when he lost the power, he'd never be the same. I'll never forget that. Well, if I just stop going to church, I'll just be like everybody else. You can't be like everybody else. God's done something distinct, powerful, and personal in your life. And I will tell you, the most miserable version of yourself you could ever be is to have tasted that God is good, to have seen God's hand of blessing in your life, and to walk away from what you know to be true. You talk about misery, walk away from the truth of Jesus and the light of Jesus and the love of Jesus, and you'll grind like Samson ground to powder because he didn't have God's power on his life. anymore. Oh God, don't take your power and favor off of our lives. And then there's David. You talk about a guy that sinned against his own convictions. He did. And when he comes to, he comes to himself. The prophet Nathan comes to him and tells David a parable. And in Psalm 51, David says the most amazing thing. He says, God, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. There's a man who lives his whole life not seeking to know God, truly know God, and there's a sinner, a king, who begs God, oh God, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. How do we know that you are with us? He says, I'll go with you. I'll prove myself to you. I'll give favor to your life. Number three, can I show you the third thing that Moses says here? They're the words at the end of Moses' question, is not it in that thou goest with us, so shall we be separated. Number three, grace to grow. Grace to grow. I'm almost finished, but I want you to hear what I say from my heart. Moses says, would you give us a favored purpose? How will we know that God is with us? He says, we'll know that God is with us. We'll know that we have God's favor when he separates us from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Separation is proof that God is with them. Now, separation is a four-letter word in a lot of religious settings, and I understand it. That's why I want to define it. separation. We'll be separated. Now, what do you mean? Let's go back very quickly to the 19th chapter of Exodus. I want you to see this. Exodus chapter 19, verse 1. Can I ask you a question? And you can respond to me here. How many of you think that Calvary Baptist Church ought to be a separated place? You can talk to me. How many of you think it ought to be a separated place? In other words, when you walk into Calvary, you should have a pretty good idea that you're in a religious context. Would we all agree with that? Now, that doesn't mean that we put robes on and sit in circles and hum till Jesus comes, but there ought to be something distinct. Somebody said to me the other day, and I just rejoiced in it, that when you come to Calvary, he said, when I came in the building, he said, I felt the presence of God. Don't you want that? And that you could feel the presence of God, that God manifested Himself through music and preaching and responding and worship and rejoicing and praying. You said, God, God is in this place. We ought to be a separated place. We ought to be a separated people. Now how do we do that? Well, this is where we need the favor of God to teach us what this means. Notice in chapter 19, Moses is sanctifying the ground upon which this covenant will be cut between God and the people. In chapter 20, he gives them the law. In chapter 19, he basically takes several days to say, hey, look, this is holy ground. Life will not be as usual when God comes on this mountain and enters into this covenant with us Don't come near this mountain. He says put a fence around the mountain. I don't want anybody on the mountain He said there ought to be people getting right with God and He even brings this to notice verse 10, go into the people, chapter 19, and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes. He says to those that are married, he says, I don't want normal intimacy shared between you for these three days. This is, there's something special that God is about to do. This is a sanctified moment. This is not a day for normality. This is a day to separate ourselves to a specific purpose because God's coming down. Verse 1, in the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. They were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountains, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. Verse 4, can we all read this together? Verse 4, You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Did he ever say anything more beautiful to them than that? You've seen what I did unto the Egyptians. and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and I brought you unto myself. Now therefore, verse five, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all the people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now, there's Egypt on one side and unto himself on the other. See it in verse four, I bear you on eagle's wings, I brought you unto myself. So separation has two extremes. It has Canaan on this side and it has Egypt on the other. And here we are. We have Egypt over here, we have Canaan over here. Canaan is not a picture of heaven. I hate to destroy your southern gospel music theology. is not heaven, it's the victorious Christian experience that we enter with our Joshua Jesus. Because when they get to Canaan, guess what they do? They fight, they sin, they fail. There is no fighting, sin, or failure when we get to God's heaven. But we're between Egypt and Canaan. And in this process of our lives, we call this sanctification. Now some people would say, I am a holy person. I am a separated person because I maintain a certain distance from the Egyptians. In other words, I don't go to the movies that the Egyptians go to. I don't listen to the music the Egyptians listen to. I don't go to the theme parks the Egyptians go to. I don't use the language that the Egyptians use. I am separated because I keep a safe distance from the Egyptians. But what does God say? God doesn't say, hey, keep a safe distance from the Egyptians. He says, I brought you out of Egypt to bring you in to the promised land. I separated you from the power of the Egyptians so I could bring you unto myself. And guess what happens? And I want you to listen closely. When God favors you and brings you unto himself, I wasn't seeking to maintain distance from the Egyptians. I was seeking to gain nearness to Jesus. And when we're separated to Jesus, he separates us from the Egyptians. Except our standards aren't based on ourselves or our power in keeping them. Our position is founded on a God who sanctifies, a God that equips, a God that empowers. And I don't glory in my standard. I glory in the God who separated me from the power of sin in my life. How will we know that you're with us? He separates us to himself. The goal is not separation, the goal is God. And when we seek God, he draws us, he brings us unto himself. Is separation about Egypt, Canaan, or both? It's about both, but the goal is God. We must keep our eyes upon God. How will we know? How do we know that God is with us? Well, he gives us grace to guide us. He gives us grace to go with us. He gives us grace to grow forward by faith for the glory of God. And notice this answer of God to Moses, I will do this thing, verse 17, that thou has spoken for thou has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. And Moses is hidden by God in the cleft of the rock. And God allows, the Bible uses this term his hinder parts because he can't see his face. He allows just the trail winds of his hinder parts to be seen in goodness and grace and mercy and kindness and longsuffering and mercy and the goodness of God passes by. And what I'm saying is, We don't need these supernatural moments of maybe explosive manifestation of the power and presence of God. We may seek those things, but watch. What I want you to look for this week is a million ways, a million ways every day the glory of God passes by the doorway of your life. Because if you're looking for God, I'm going to tell you something. You can see God's hand at work in a thousand ways on a thousand days for the glory of God. He's always passing by because he's a gracious God. And we have to thank him for it. Father, thank you for allowing us to spend some time in this passage of scripture. Speak to us about our position in Christ, whose we are and what we have in Jesus. Lord, I do pray. I do pray, Father, that we'll be a separated people. But Lord, I'd like you to guide us in that quantifying what it means to be separated to your purposes, to your person. Make us a holy people. Make us a truly holy people. but may it be based upon you and your direction and your delight in us. Help us all to seek to please Jesus and to know you and have fellowship with you. God, and help us, we pray in Jesus' name.