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How did we see God move this week as we tried to live out the Spirit’s leading? What challenges did we encounter? What victories can we celebrate?

12 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 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?” 17 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.”

18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 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. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Recall from Sunday:

Exo. 33:12-14 – God brings rest by his presence…

Exo. 33:15-17 – …to his people…

Exo. 33:18-23 – …in his grace

Reflect: What sticks out to you personally from the passage?

What impacted you on a personal level from Sunday’s sermon?

Moses knew that a land flowing with milk and honey would provide no real rest without the presence of God. When you’re exhausted or frustrated or anxious, what do you go to for rest and relief? Are there ways you pursue God in those moments? How could you better pursue the experience of God’s presence first and foremost as the source of real rest?

Moses and Jesus both weren’t interested just in God’s presence for them, but also for others. Who else around you is exhausted and anxious? What’s draining them? Do they have a relationship with God they can rely on?

Until Moses saw God and heard of his grace, he had no idea how a holy God could stick with a sinful people, but God shows grace and mercy in face of our sin. Have you hesitated to seek God’s presence because your anxiety comes from your sinful choices? Do you know the grace and mercy of God toward you?

Identify the things you run to besides God for rest and relief. If they are sinful, take time to confess those to God and receive his grace. Consider as a group how you could use Psalm 42 or another passage of scripture to redirect your soul to God to find rest.

For those people you know who are exhausted, let’s share the rest we can receive in God. If they don’t know Jesus, see if there would be an opportunity this week not just to pray for them, but to pray with them for their trouble. If there’s a believer you know who is struggling consider together how you could share the encouragement from this series we’ve been receiving.