PASTOR JOHN COWLES
BRIDGE CHURCH

The Point of God’s Presence – Week 5
Exodus 33:1-23
June 22, 2025

Exodus 33:1-3 ESV – “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. 3 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.”

Exodus 33:4 ESV – When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.

Exodus 33:15 ESV – If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

GOD’S

IS THE

Reveal Answer

!

John 17:3 ESV – And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

GOD’S

IN

Reveal Answer

!
In Eden - In Exodus - In the Temple - In Jesus - In the Holy Spirit

Revelation 21:3 ESV – And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

NEVER BE

WITHOUT HIS

Reveal Answer

!

And if we’re honest, many of us have accepted a life without God’s presence. We’ve become so self-sufficient, so good at managing outcomes, that we’ve forgotten how to desperately depend on Him.

WHAT IS THE

OF GOD?
Exodus 34:5-6 ESV – The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

• His mercy that meets us in our weakness.
• His holiness that calls us out of sin.
• His power that sustains us when we’re exhausted
• His love that never gives up on us.

Do you have that sense? That personal, heart-level awareness of God’s presence?

TO REALLY

GOD!

Philippians 3:9-10 ESV – And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

BUILD A

OF

Reveal Answer

!

Exodus 33:7-9 ESV – Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.

Build a Tent of Meeting
- Create a space in your daily routine
- Spend unhurried time with God
- Open your Bible not like a textbook but like a letter from a dear friend.
- Pray with honesty and hunger.

Psalm 27:7-8 ESV – Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

Jeremiah 29:13 ESV – You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.