The Point of My Christianity

Porch, we really believe those words we're singing. We genuinely believe there is no place better to be than to be near God. So, what we're doing tonight is we're flipping the script. We're taking the entire service of how we normally run things, and we are turning it on its head, because as we've been journeying through the series we've been doing here, a series called Revive (which I'll tell you a little bit more about in a minute), what we know is that, often, if we want more of God, he wants more of us in return.

So, we want to clear space on the back end of tonight to worship him together, to respond rightly and really to the God we long to be near to. So, I'm going to pray for us, and then we're going to go right into the Word. We're going to go ahead and teach this evening, and then we're going to let the truth of God's Scripture…not my ideas, not my thoughts, but the truth of his Word…lead us to a place where we respond appropriately. So, let me pray for us really quickly.

God, we love you, and it's crazy to even say that. How could we, an unrighteous, unholy, and sin-filled people, ever dare say we love you? The reason, Lord, is because you have first loved us. You have made such a reality possible. So, God, we know there is not a single person here by happenstance.

It doesn't matter where we are on our spectrum of spirituality, whether we have known you all of our lives, we recently came to know you, or we don't know you nor want to. If you are who you say you are, which, Jesus, we know is the truth, then there's not a person here tonight who is here coincidentally. You have something you want to teach to every single person.

I'm asking you, Porch, as you're listening to me pray right now, take my word for it. What is it going to cost you to just lean into the possibility that God has something for you right now? I want to give you a chance to pray for yourself. Take a moment and just ask God, "God, would you speak to me?" Maybe you're here and you don't know him. What's it going to hurt you to pray that prayer and ask anyway? So take a moment and pray for yourself.

Then I want to ask you, if you would, would you pray for me? Would you ask that the Lord would speak through me, that it wouldn't be my voice you hear but it would be his truth you hear, that it wouldn't be my thoughts you walk away with but it would be his Word you walk away with. Would you take a moment and pray for me?

Father, we need you tonight, but not only that. Just as we prayed, we want you tonight. We want you here, Jesus. Come, have your way amongst us, we pray. In your name, amen.

Porch, how are we doing tonight? Are we doing okay? Great to see you. Thanks for making the time to join us this evening. I know we have some new faces in the room, so thanks for giving us your Tuesday night, and thanks to not only those of you in the room, but all of our Porch.Live locations tuning in this evening or at a different evening in the future. Special shout-out to Porch.Live Dayton, Fort Worth, and Wheaton.

Several years ago, my wife Brooke and I were living in Houston, Texas, when Snowmageddon struck our great state. Do you remember Snowmageddon, the snowpocalypse? Now, before our northern friends join us for choosing such a dramatic name for a winter weather event such as this, you need to know a couple of things.

This was not any ordinary winter weather event. This winter weather event actually impacted every single county in the Lone Star State. Not only that; it left over 10 million people without power. Did anybody lose power because of this thing back in 2021? Show of hands in here. Yeah, it was widespread and massively impactful, yet we knew it was coming. We knew in Houston that we were no exception to this specific storm, so we prepared ourselves.

We watched the forecast. We made sure to batten down the hatches. We pulled out our ski gear, because we knew we might need it; yet, despite the fact that we felt really prepared for the storm that was heading in, we decided to start second-guessing our choices when we realized our thermostat, internally, was dropping from 72 to 65 to 58 to 50 degrees.

It was in that moment that we started questioning our life choices, and we decided we needed a change of scenery. Fortunately for us, my parents had power, which meant they had heat, but, unfortunately for us, my parents lived four hours away, and the distance between us and them was covered by iced-in roadways and snow-covered highways, so we knew we had a journey if we wanted to get there.

So, what did we do? We took our chances. We decided to load up my wife's Ford Escape, and we made the journey across the state of Texas. Now, shout-out to anybody who drives a Ford Escape in here. That is a strong and sturdy vehicle, because it had no business being on those roads, but it actually made the drive. We found ourselves traversing a winter wonderland of sorts and making really good headway.

At the beginning of the drive, we really enjoyed ourselves. We were talking about things we hadn't caught up on in a while, taking in all of the scenery, and listening to whatever murder mystery podcast was popular at the time, but about an hour away from our destination, things started to get a little bit dicey. We realized the snow was really piling up. Our tires were slipping around. We were not getting good traction any longer. The visibility from our front windshield and back windshield was getting worse and worse and worse.

It was in that moment, as a young husband, that I began to panic internally. I didn't show it to my wife, but I began to worry for our safety. Like an answer from heaven, behind me, through the blizzard, came the headlights of one massive Mack truck, just peeling forward, plowing snow out of the way, and heading the exact direction we were going. It struck me in that moment, "I guess even angels drive 18-wheelers," because we took our car and ducked in right behind that truck.

You see, in that moment, the presence of that truck changed everything for us. It moved the needle in a way that we could not move on our own any longer. We found, as we fell in line behind it and rolled within its wake, that we started regaining traction, the traction we had lost before. We started finding new visibility, because as long as we could see it, we could see where we were going. The fact of the matter was we made up time that we had lost previously. The presence of that truck changed everything for us. So long as we were close to it, we got closer to our destination.

Now, why do I tell you that? Because in this life, everybody, regardless of your religious background or your socioeconomic status or your political affiliation or your ethnicity or your job position or your social influence… Regardless of who you are, we are all seeking the same destination. We're all seeking flourishing. We all want fulfillment, happiness, and satisfaction. The difference between those who seek it and those who find it is whether or not you find one whose presence can make the difference.

You see, there are a lot of us who are not just journeying through this life but are journeying here right now in a way where we're trying to do it on our own. We're looking around, and we realize, "Man, you know what? I'm making pretty good progress." No different than Brooke and me on our drive. We were like, "You know what? This is actually pretty nice. I feel like I'm making good headway."

Yet, what you need to know is, at some point in the future…maybe it's sooner, maybe it's later…there's going to come a point at which you will not be enough in your own strength. Circumstances are going to start piling up, no different than the snow around us did. You're going to begin to lose traction and feel the wheels of your life spinning in place.

You're going to begin to lose visibility of who you are and why you do what you do and "Where am I even going with my life anymore?" This is going to be the case for all of us, because none of us are sufficient in our own strength. We require the presence of someone greater. We require the presence of God in our lives.

Now, as I say that, some of you are here, and you're like, "You know what, Kylen? Maybe that's true for other people, but things are pretty good for me right now. I'm pretty happy about the way things are going in my life. I have the job. I have the girl or guy. I have my 401(k) match. I have the corner office already. I have everything I want. I have things to do and not enough time to do them. I feel good, man. I think I'm doing pretty well for myself."

Here's what I would tell you. You might be doing well right now, but you will not do well regardless. Something is going to come that is going to sideline you, put you on the shoulder of whatever highway in life you're driving. You need someone greater.

Here's the great danger facing young adults, not just young adults, generally, who are out there in the ether, but young adults here, right now, people like you, sitting to your left and right. (You can judge them if you'd like.) Every young adult is facing this great danger that we will settle for lives of passable pleasure when insurmountable satisfaction is available. This is the danger facing us. We will find ourselves settling for quiet pleasantries when there is something bold and beautiful and grand awaiting us if we would only choose to follow it instead.

I'm convinced that Jesus Christ in the life he lived…leaving heaven, coming to earth, living 33 years and facing temptation in every way you might, dying a death he did not deserve to die so he could take your place and offer you your salvation… Not only did he die; he rose from the grave and took back his life into his own hands. He beat death by death itself, and he rose victoriously.

I believe Jesus did all of that for more than a lifestyle of above-average morality, fighting the nagging guilt of a missed quiet time, and living off the lessons of people who care about God more than you do. I think he wants more for you. The question is…Do you want more for yourself? If you're here, and you want more for yourself, then I want to tell you how to find it. The place that we're going to do that is in the book of Exodus. That's the second book in the Bible, and we'll be in chapter 33.

We've been in a series called Revive where we've been studying the principles of personal renewal. If you think about personal renewal, another way of thinking about it is rekindling the love you have for Jesus, because like a fire, often, the love we have for God can grow dormant. It can even feel like it has faded, yet, when you look at a fire that has gone out… Has anybody been camping and stoked a fire together?

You might see that fire and realize, "Man, there's no smoke rising. All the light is fading. There's no warmth to come near to," yet the possibility of fire is still present. Why is that? Because there are embers glowing underneath. What you have to do is you have to provide two things to those embers. You have to provide fuel, and you have to provide care.

Fuel. That's what we've been doing here. Every single week in this series, I've been trying to hand you fuel for the fire of your faith. I've tried to lead us along and show you, "Hey, this is how you break up hard-heartedness. This is what it looks like to cultivate hunger, a hunger for God. This is how you walk in repentance, genuine repentance. You turn away from that which you were seeking and, instead, turn toward him and pursue him again. This is what it looks like to commit your life in consecration."

The same idea we were just talking about: giving up not just bad but even giving up good to get more of God. Then, how do you persist in zeal? Tyler did an amazing job of walking us through that last week. Tonight, I'm going to help you understand how you can become a presence-centered person. I will give you the fuel. I will add to your life the logs, but I cannot care for your fire. You have to do that. That's your job.

Here's the thing. If you'll care for your fire and you'll care for your fire and you'll care for your fire, what happens is individual spot fires of renewal band together into a wildfire of revival. That's what happens. And what happens when wildfires take root? They spread. They spread not just in your life and not just in our room; they make their way out of our doors and into your neighborhoods.

They find themselves amongst your family, saving those you thought could not be saved. They make their way into your office spaces, into your classrooms. They end up not just impacting our church or your apartment complex; they impact the rest of our city, burst out into the nation, and eventually, impact a generation. This is how revival happens.

What's amazing is God is already doing this. I'm not just looking at you and kind of throwing ideas and hoping something sticks. We can look at the data (which we have, and you can go back and watch it) and see that God is already moving in amazing ways. It may be bold, but, Porch, I think he wants to move here. I really think that. I really believe the Lord wants to move here.

He has been moving, to be clear, but I think he wants a special outpouring of his Spirit in this place, and he doesn't just want to do it for all of us together; he wants to do it for you individually. The way that comes is by us saying "Yes, God, more of you, please." It's by doing what Moses is going to teach us tonight, becoming a presence-centered person.

Just for some context before we jump into the passage, we're in Exodus 33. In the chapter before it, Exodus 32, we see Israel on the heels of one of its very worst moments. In Exodus 32, they decided, while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God… And when you hear "Ten Commandments," you can't think about rules to follow; you have to think about vows in a marriage.

Moses comes down with those Ten Commandments, and as he comes down, he realizes everything has gone haywire. These people are not waiting for him; instead, they are worshiping someone else. They are worshiping not just a god they found, a golden calf; they are worshiping a god they made. They took off their jewelry. They removed their gold and melted it into a place where they could begin to worship.

To give you a picture of what this would look like, this is the wedding day of God to his bride Israel, and they have just cheated on the groom with a cheap groomsman instead. That's not just idolatry; that's treachery. So, God looks at Moses and says, "I'm out. I'm done. I've put up with them long enough. I've dealt with their grumbling and complaining through the wilderness. I've provided for their every need. Have they not seen what I've done? I split the Red Sea. I brought plagues to deliver them from their persecution, and this is what they're doing."

Moses intercedes. He talks God off the cliff and tells him, "Hey, don't forget your commitment and covenant to these people. We have a promised land we're going to." As that conversation continues, we pick it up in verse 1.

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, "To your offspring I will give it." I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.'"

If we jump down to verse 15, we see Moses' response to God. "And he said to him, 'If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.'" Let me ask you… What would possess Moses to say something like that? That's crazy, isn't it? I'll put it in your situation. What if God promised to give you the good life…happiness, health, job satisfaction, six figures going on seven? He decided to move you into a situation where you had the perfect apartment in Uptown, had six weeks of paid vacation, and drove a brand-new Rivian.

What if God was like, "I'll give you all of that, but I will not be with you"? What would you say to that? Listen. Can we just be real? That would be hard to say no to, yet Moses, facing a similar internal crisis, looks at God and says, "Listen. I would rather have the desert with you than the Promised Land without you."

"But, Moses, it's the Promised Land. This is the thing that your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were promised and have looked forward to for generations. This is the very land the nation of Israel dreamt of indwelling during the 400 years of their enslavement to the people of Egypt, yet now God has delivered them out and is leading them on. You're journeying through the desert. That has been brutal, yet you're finally at the doorway of it. It's a land that's flowing with milk and honey."

Has anybody ever wondered what milk and honey are? It's milk. It's nourishing. It's rich in resources. But it's also honey. It's pleasant. It's delightful to be a part of. "This is the place, Moses, where God is going to take your people, and you're telling me you don't want that?" "No, I don't want that. I don't want that if you're not going with me." Why? What would compel Moses to say something like that?

Our first point: he knows that God's presence is the point. It's not just the point of this story; it is the point of all history. The entirety of your Bible is pointing to the fact that God's presence is the center of it all. It's the center of our faith. We see it in Genesis 3. We find that God is walking in the cool of the day through the garden, and he's looking for those he wants to be with.

He's calling out to Adam and Eve. It's amazing. In that moment, he didn't just give them a couple of rules to live by. "Hey, you can eat of any tree, but don't touch that one." No, he wanted a relationship with them, yet they royally blew it. They're kicked out of the garden. And guess what? God goes with them. He stays with them.

As we make our way into Exodus, we find that God meets with a man named Moses. God in his presence indwells a burning bush, and he calls Moses to save his people. As Moses goes and saves his people, we get to chapter 13, and we realize that God's presence leads these people by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Later in the book of Exodus, that same presence of God comes and dwells amongst the people. They build a tabernacle at Mount Sinai, and God's presence comes and fills it. If you look at pictures of the way it was all set up, that tabernacle existed at the center of God's people, not by happenstance, because he was meant to be the center of their entire reality.

As they go from Mount Sinai and journey through the wilderness, we see that they get to the land of Canaan, and he speaks to Joshua. "I will be with you." God is going to be with his people as they go in to conquer the land that was promised. You get to 1 Chronicles 13, and you see that one of David's first orders of business as he comes into his kingdom is he wants to take the ark of the covenant back from the Philistines and restore it to its rightful place, because he wants it to be the center, God's very presence, of all his people.

You get to 2 Chronicles. You get introduced to David's son, King Solomon, and King Solomon builds not only a tabernacle; he builds the temple. God's presence moves from the tabernacle and indwells the temple, because he wants to be near his people. Tragically, you get to the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel, chapter 10, you see that as Israel continued in its idolatry and hypocrisy, God's presence leaves. He dips out the side door. He exits stage right.

Yet, despite years of silence, you turn to Matthew 1, and you hear a child's cry, a child whose name is Immanuel, which means God with us. The presence of God has returned to his people. At the end of Jesus' life…Immanuel, God with us…we see that he says, "Hey, it's better for me to go; that way, the Holy Spirit might come. Why is that good? Because not only will you have the presence of God in me; you will have the presence of God in you, because I will indwell you by way of my Spirit."

When you get to the very end of the entire story, at the book of Revelation, in chapter 21, you see what it has been building to. "The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God will also be among them." Don't you see it? God is the point. The presence of God is the point. That's what all of this is building to. This is the central truth: God wants to be with you. "With me?" Yes, with you. "But does he know what I've done?" Yes, he knows what you've done. "Does he know what I want to do?" He knows that too, yet he still says, "I want to be with you." That's his heart.

We know this is not just generally speaking either. Yes, God is omnipresent. Meaning, he is everywhere at all times all at once. There's no place that God is not. We read this in Psalm 139:7-8. David says, "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!"

There's nowhere you can go that God will not be. What a mind-blowing reality to consider. God is infinitely present, yet what we're reading in the story of Scripture is there's more. It's not just that God doesn't want to be distantly present with you; he wants to be directly present with you. That's what we find. He doesn't just want to be omnipresent; he wants to be manifest in presence. The Hebrew word, as we read this idea of presence, is the word paniym. It means face.

As anyone in the Scriptures and you in your life seek the presence of God, what you're doing is trying to seek God's face. You want to know him. How do you know someone's face? Well, a few things have to be true. There needs to be proximity. Right? You can't know someone and what they look like if they are standing across the room. You back there, young man, I have no idea what the contours of your face look like, yet I know that if I were to come close, I could figure some things out.

People come up to me all the time, and they're like, "Man! You look different." And I respond, "Thank you?" What they're saying is "I've never been up close. I've always seen you at a distance on a screen." There has to be proximity if you're going to know someone's face. The same must be true if you're going to seek God's presence.

But proximity isn't enough. You also have to have consistency. Everybody has someone they recognize the face of who they don't actually know. You always see them at the gym, and you just recognize them, because you're always in the same place. There is a level of frequency in your encounters. Or maybe they frequent the same kind of coffee shop you go to. Maybe it's not that. Maybe they're sitting in the same section as you here tonight, and that's why you choose to sit in that section every single Tuesday: you know they'll be here, and you just love gazing upon their face.

There is a consistency and a frequency involved in knowing someone's face, but then there's something else that's important. There has to be intimacy. It's not enough to be close, and it's not enough to be constant. There also has to be an element of time spent with one another. You can't rush time with someone. If you spend a long time with someone, you can study who they are. You can learn the different facets of their being.

I've always thought it strange when people love to look upon their beloved while they sleep. Why do they do that? Because they're studying their countenance. They're engaging in an intimate moment where they can learn exactly what they look like. In a similar way, if you want to know God, to seek his presence, then you need to be intimate with him.

You can't carve just 15 minutes every morning out of your day to study the Scriptures or pray to God and assume that will be enough. There's no one in your life you know well whom you simply spend 15 minutes a day with. No, you spend considerable time with them. It's no different. You should spend considerable time with God.

Moses knew God. In verse 11 of this exact same chapter, it says, "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." They were familiar with one another. That's what that's getting at. They weren't strangers; they were friends. So, let me ask you here: What are you familiar with? What have you familiarized yourself with?

Is it YouTube videos about how to fix your banana slice off the tee box? Is it following whatever social media influencer you like, and you like to know what they like to know, whatever that thing is? Is it the latest input or opinions of your favorite podcast personalities…Rogan, Huberman, Shapiro, Peterson…and you want to know what they have to say about whatever current event is happening? Is it an emerging market so you can be the first to invest?

What are you most familiar with? Is it people in your life that you love to track with what they're doing and who they're dating and where they're going and where their latest travel escapades were? What are you familiar with? Listen. If God feels more like a stranger and less like a friend like these, I just want to love you enough to tell you you're missing the point. The point of creation is God's presence, and it's the point of not only this story but your story too. God wants to be near to you. You should long to be near to him as well.

What we find is as we seek his presence, we find more of it, and the differences are significant. That's where Moses goes next. He says in verse 16, "For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?"

Let me just talk to the believers in this room for a moment. The Porch is always a place for any person, regardless of spiritual background, yet there are moments in the Bible where the text is speaking very specifically to God's people, and this is one of those moments. So, let me just speak to the Christian.

I have been a Christian for a very long time. When I studied this specific passage years ago, I found something like a bombshell. It shifted my paradigm completely, because what I realized in this moment was Moses is saying, "Hey, what is going to distinguish you, to set you apart, is not what you know, not what you believe, and not what you do." Well, what is it, Moses?

God's presence distinguishes us from the world. That's your second point. It's not that we're Calvinist or Arminian. It's not that we believe the sign gifts are present or dormant. It's not "Well, I'm a part of this denomination" or "I'm a part of no denomination." It's not "I read the ESV" or "You read the NASB. Which version is correct?" It's not that you're pro-Trump or anti-Trump.

All of the ways we love to self-identify when it comes to our faith are none of the ways that Moses is self-identifying here. You see, when you study the Scriptures, all of our heroes of the faith are not known for the theological tribes they belonged to. What they're known for is that they were with God. Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. Abraham was a friend of God. Jacob wrestled with God. Moses spoke to God face to face. We just read that.

Hannah prayed and trusted in God. David was a man after God's own heart. Elijah met with God. Mary and Martha were friends of Jesus. Then, what you see in the book of Acts is Peter and John had clearly been with Jesus, as attested by the very men who put Christ to death. In this world, you, Christian, are not known by your doctrinal distinctive, your worship preferences, or what Christian influencer you happen to know personally. What you're meant to be known by is God's presence.

People should look at you and say, "You've been with God." That should be the reality for you, yet this isn't the case for so many of us. So many of us major in the minors and minor in the majors. What matters most is that we abide in Jesus and bear the fruit of that abiding, that we produce the fruit of the Spirit, that we look more like him, that we exemplify his character to a world that is in desperate need of it.

What's amazing is that as we do this, what we see is that when God's presence becomes the distinguishing force for us personally, it becomes the distinguishing force for us communally. That's what Paul writes to the Corinthians. He says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" The you there is plural. It's y'all.

What he's saying is that when you're individually distinguished by God's presence and we come together, we are communally distinguished by God's presence, and that's compelling to the world. The world looks at it and says, "Man, God must be among you," which is what Paul says later in the book of 1 Corinthians.

I like the way Charles Finney puts it. He's a revivalist from the Second Great Awakening. He says, "If the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in. If the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out." That's a big distinction. Listen. Either the church will impact the world or the world will impact the church.

I'll just level with you. People in the world don't want a church that looks like the world. People in the world want a church that looks like the church, and they want Christians who look like Christ. We're seeing this right now. It's fascinating. If you study the quiet revival in the UK, there are two specific denominational groups that are rising in their church attendance.

Do you know what they are? It's the Catholic church and the Pentecostal church, which is fascinating, because they could not have less in common with one another. They are wildly different in their spiritual expression, yet they share very strongly an emphasis of their spirituality. The world looks at them and says, "You don't look like us. You look like Jesus. You look religious. You look spiritual. You look different."

Porch, to the Christian very specifically, it is time for the church to become spiritual again. We don't just gather for service; no, we're drawing near to God when we come into spaces like this. We're not just reading the Bible; we're listening to God speak. We're not just praying some prayers to an empty ceiling; we actually believe that we have a God who hears.

We're not just confessing our sin; we're seeking God's forgiveness because we know forgiveness can be found. We're not just hanging out with our friends; no, this is the body of Christ. When we gather, he's present amongst us. Do you see it? There's something deeply spiritual happening as God's people come together in community.

Now, here's the thing. As I share all of that and talk about how we have to up our spirituality, it sends people in a variety of different directions. Some of you are worried that things are going to get kind of weird in here. Others of you are already weird in here, and you're like, "Good. It's time for people to catch up." Let me speak to both camps.

For those of you who are more intellectually acquainted with God, the goal is to become more intimately acquainted with God. That's the step for you. That's going to require some feelings. You cannot be intimate with someone if you do not have feelings for someone. There's a big difference in knowing about someone and knowing someone personally.

Let me put it to you like this. Would you believe that I love my wife if all I could do was report to you the facts of our marriage? If I could tell you when we met, what the weather was like on our wedding day, and where we went on our honeymoon, would you feel convinced that I actually love my wife? No, because it's not in reporting the facts but reliving the feelings that you're convinced I love her, that I can look at you and say, "Man, I'm genuinely embarrassed about how long it took for me to make a move and tell her that I liked her."

I remember, when we went on our very first date, I, like a small-town kid, did not realize you needed to make reservations at a restaurant in the big city of Dallas. On our wedding day… She and I both feel some regret over the reality that the weather was colder than we thought it was going to be for an outdoor wedding. When we went on our honeymoon, I unashamedly wanted to go to an all-inclusive, because I wanted to feel guilt-free ordering a BLT in the middle of the night. This was what was true for us.

You know I love my wife because I have feelings to back it up. Listen. Emotions add veracity to your faith. What that means for some of you in this room is you need to respond with some emotion. Everybody, lift your hands. You have just proven to yourself you, in fact, can do this. Some of you were unsure. Some of you have questioned if you can actually raise your hands in moments of worship. You can do it. We can all do it, and as you do it, what happens is you become convinced of the very thing you claim to believe.

Listen. You may hate me for this, but every week, our care team sits down to my right and to my left, and they're here so you have to walk across the room to engage with them if you want prayer. I am committed to making that as awkward and uncomfortable for you as possible. Why? So that when you turn around and leave you will be convinced that you took considerable action and your faith is, in fact, real. That's why we do that. You need to add emotion to your faith.

To those of you who are weird (I'm just kidding), who are emotionally oriented, the goal is not to stay emotionally oriented but to become experientially oriented. You see, when we gather, we're not seeking a feeling; we're seeking his face. That's what Psalm 27:8 says. Psalm 27:8 says, "You have said, 'Seek my face.' My heart [the seat of my affections] says to you, 'Your face, Lord, do I seek.'"

Everything we do here is relationally focused, because we're seeking a person when we gather in this room. We're meeting with Jesus. So, it shouldn't be the bass that stirs our souls; it should be the words we sing that stir us instead. It shouldn't just be some clever story or line I give you that leads to conviction; it should be a work of the Spirit that produces conviction.

You see, it's not the trappings of ministry that should evoke your feelings; it's the person of Jesus, the center of Christianity, that should do it instead. We don't just want to feel something. In this room, we want to feel someone. We want to experience God. We want to be a people who rightly and really worship God.

Jesus describes it like this in John 4. He says this to the woman at the well. "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him." Did you catch that? God is seeking a people that will worship him in spirit and in truth. "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

So let me ask… Which way do you lean? Do you lean toward truth? That's good. That's a great thing, but you should be two at the same time. Do you lean toward spirit? Then you need to add truth to that as well. God is seeking a people that do both. He wants a people that both have a faith of fact and a faith of feeling. That's what a full-hearted faith looks like, and that leads us to be genuine worshipers. God is seeking a people like this.

What happens whenever we lean into it and believe it's true is we actually start seeking after him, which is what Moses does next. This is our final point. He says in verses 17 and 18, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.'" God just conceded. He's like, "Yes. Okay. I'll go with you. We'll go to the Promised Land. I won't just go with you; I will go with them."

Then Moses says, "Please show me your glory." I think this is simultaneously the most confusing yet convicting part of this story and perhaps one of the most convicting parts of the entire Bible. Moses just got what he needed. God just said, "I'll come." Yet he doesn't stop there. Moses goes further.

You see, Moses not only needs God in the future; he wants God in the present. The reason for that is he knows God's presence is worthy of wanting. Moses makes a major distinction in this moment that while God is dependable… "He's dependable. He can drive out our enemies. He can bless our people. He can distinguish us from the nations." He's also desirable.

Here's the thing. As I say that, I know that some of you are just shaking your head. You're like, "Yes, I agree; I know this," yet you don't know it as well as you think. There's a big difference in saying, "God, I need you" and "God, I want you." Both are good, and both are necessary, but both are different. One is about sustenance, and the other is about satisfaction. I'll put it to you this way.

Sustenance is about getting what we need. If you've ever been backpacking, then you know the food you eat on the trail is anything less than a five-course meal. Your meals consist of things like mac 'n' dac, sausage and beans, rice and tuna. This is the food you eat, because the goal isn't satisfaction; the goal is sustenance.

You know what your body needs. It needs nourishment, so you're willing to eat protein and carbs to keep you going down the trail ahead. Yet, sustenance ends the minute you come off the mountain. The minute you return to the big city, your eyes are not looking for that which will nourish your needs; instead, you start looking for that which will satisfy your stomach. You start moving toward that which you want.

When my friends and I would go backpacking, we would, in the final few days, dream about what we would eat…double cheeseburgers, pizza (Meat Lovers only), steak and potatoes, because that's actually the only right answer. We would start fantasizing about the food we would find, because long gone were the days of seeking sustenance. Now was the day of seeking satisfaction. There's a big difference in pursuing what you need and pursuing what you want.

I need you to hear me on this. You have heard repeatedly, from this stage and stages like it, so you know it very well, that Jesus is the source of all satisfaction. Why, then, does your relationship only exist around sustenance? Often, we come to Jesus on the basis of what we need. "Jesus, I need your help because I have this conversation coming up at work, and my boss is crazy" or "Jesus, I need you to give me some support because of a conflict with my mom; it never goes well" or "Jesus, I need you because my chronic pain is crippling."

Jesus delights to be needed. That is part of the Christian experience. Do not be mistaken. We need Jesus to save us from our sin, to forgive us of our trespasses, to heal us of our hurts, to be the Lord of our life. We need Jesus, but he is also worthy of wanting. So very often, we need Jesus, but we don't want him. The reason for that is, when we're out of options, he's always the one we turn to, but when we have other options, he's seldom, if ever, the one we turn to.

You see, you'll have a free Saturday morning, so you'll hit the gym. You'll go to spin. You'll take up brunch. You'll do whatever you want to when, in reality, you could take some of that time to read the Word. You'll have some downtime at the office, so you'll spend it shopping for a new top for the summer, for a dress for that wedding, or new shoes to add to your collection, and you'll try to bury it in a million different tabs so your boss will never know. What if you took the time and journaled five things you're grateful for to Jesus instead?

You have an evening free for once. You could take the evening and seek him, pray to him, but Love Island just came out two weeks ago, and you're already one episode behind. Listen. We laugh at this stuff, but we do this stuff. I do this stuff. We are all a part of this moment together. Let me be very clear. Jesus is not trying to guilt trip you. He's not against your pastimes or your hobbies. (He might be against Love Island.)

But what we do know is that Jesus wants to satisfy you, yet if we only ever interact with him out of need, we should never be expected to be satisfied. You cannot come to him in moments where you are needing sustenance and expect him to give you satisfaction. You have to come to him when the options are open and you choose him instead because you want him most.

One of my favorite quotes from A.W. Tozer says, "Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us he waits so long, so very long, in vain." God waits to be wanted, not just needed. So, friends, we should want for more of God and not just need more from God. Moses wanted more of God, so God gave Moses more of himself. This is where we'll end, in verses 19 and 20.

"And he said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name "The Lord." And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,' he said, 'you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.'"

Friends, listen. Do you want more of God? You can have him. You can have more of God, and you can have more of God in a way that Moses himself could not have, for Moses could not look upon the face of God, but we have looked upon the face of God in that we have seen Jesus Christ himself. Moses knew he could not see God and live, yet those who live have seen God in that they have seen Jesus himself. Moses asked to see God's glory, but we have seen God's glory in that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

We know that Jesus always understood God's presence is the point. God has always longed to be near us, and in order to make that happen, Jesus came close to us. He left heaven and came to earth, not just to save from someone's general sins but to save you from yours. We know that Jesus understood "It's my presence which will distinguish them, so I will live and die and rise that they might have my presence within them, my Holy Spirit, that will distinguish them from the rest of the world."

We can also be convinced that Jesus knew "My presence is worthy of wanting, but they don't want it. They don't want it because they do not realize that their wanting is warranted, so I will want them first. I will come closest to them, and by way of me doing so, they will want me, not just today, not just tomorrow, but forever."

Do you want Jesus here tonight? We're going to move into a time where we're singing in worship as a declaration of our desire that "God, we want you." If you don't want him, then what you need know is we have some people down front who would love to pray with you. The walk is awkward and very uncomfortable, yet they would love to process with you why you may be lacking in desire.

We want to take time over the rest of the evening, and we just want to sing, and we want to respond, and we want to rejoice, because we believe, not just in head but in heart, that he is worthy of wanting, and we want to convince him that that's true. Let me pray that we would.

Father, we love you. We said that at the beginning. We believe that now. I'm grateful that your Word is so very sufficient, that, Jesus, you have met us in our need, and now, God, we pray you would cultivate our desire, that you would hear from us hearts of worship, worship of wanting, desire to be near. Would the cry of this room be yearning, longing to have more of you. We sing to you now. It's in Jesus' name, amen.