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Eden Valley SDA Church

Frank Fournier

For The Sake Of Goodness

Have you turned with me to Exodus chapter 33?

We're told in Sons and Daughters, 259, paragraph 3, that in the last days 1 interest will prevail, 1 subject will swallow up every other subject, and that subject, of course, is Christ our righteousness.

That message, according to Ellen White, will be found, is found in Revelation 14, verses 6-12.

These are the 3 angels' messages and these 3 angels' messages, when internalized, will form, will develop the 144, 000.

The 144, 000 will have the name of God in their foreheads.

They're going to have His character internalized.

And when they do, the Lord is going to use them to enlighten the whole world with the glory of His character.

This is just a sequence of how things need to happen.

This is what is coming for God's people in God's church, and I'm just simply praying in my heart that you and I, all of us, can be partakers of that experience when the time comes.

How glorious is it going to be for God's people.

But here's the question, are you like God yet?

This is going to happen, but how is it ever going to happen?

The longer I am a Christian, the closer I come to Jesus, the more faulty I appear in my own eyes, and I am not looking at a deception here.

And so, when, how is it going to come to the place where I'm going to be so much like God that the world is enlightened around me?

That people can see and say, Whoa, this guy is just like Jesus.

Now we're told in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, and you know it by heart, that by beholding, we become changed.

Therefore, how we view God, How we see God, what we think God is like, is reflected in who we've become.

And you are a little image of the God you worship.

You are a little image of the God that you aspire to become like.

Not a very perfect image, is it, for most of us?

Some people who are harsh have a harsh God.

Some people who are permissive have a permissive God.

Some people who are easygoing must have an easygoing God.

You know, how is it, How is it that we come to the place where we actually reflect God as He is?

Well, in any case, Moses wanted to be like God, wanted to see what God was like.

I don't know how many times I have wished that I could sit across the table from Jesus, from God, and say, okay, listen here, I need to know something and I just want it straight, okay?

He's always asking me to just simply trust me, trust me, I'm God.

Well, Moses was like that, I think, that day.

Except that Moses could get closer to God somehow because in verse 18, we're in Exodus chapter 33, Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.

I just need to know what your makeup is all about, okay?

Now, have you ever noticed that if you should ask a person to tell you about themselves, that they seem to accentuate the positive and to minimize the negative?

Well, I don't know that I have never met a person.

I mean, I don't know that I've ever met a person that wasn't like that.

It's amazing how we like to accentuate the positive when thinking about ourselves.

It's not quite the same when we think about somebody else though, is it?

Do you think that when God speaks, He means exactly what He says and He says exactly the way it is?

And if he was thinking about himself, do you think he'd maximize all his qualities?

You know, it just brings to mind in Numbers 12, verse 3, you don't have to go there, but it says there, and it's written by the hand of Moses, and Moses says, Moses was the meekest man that lived on the earth.

Well Moses was writing under inspiration and I wonder if he kind of told God, now wait a minute, I don't want to say that.

I'm not going to say I'm the meekest man that walks this earth.

You know, I'm inventing a conversation here that probably never happened.

I don't know, but I can imagine God saying, hey, wait a minute, I'm God.

And so in verse 19, He reveals Himself as He is.

Verse 19, And He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I am gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." I want you to notice in this verse that there is an approach to writing which is called parallelism.

And so there are 2 parallel phrases in that verse that reflect each other, but with different words.

He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee.

Then he said, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.

And so we could see synonymously here that the name of the Lord and goodness are the same.

God is simply saying, here's my character, I am good.

Now when you get a picture of an individual that is good, what kind of picture do you have in your mind?

Have you ever thought, have you ever met a really good person?

How would you define the way that individual is?

Have you ever met a truly good individual?

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For The Sake Of Goodness

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