Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 16, 2023 | Numbers - The Fiery Presence

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April 16, 2023 | Numbers - The Fiery Presence · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning, everybody.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I just want to say, I mean, Jeremiah did.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have been I'm so happy for Kate and Kathy um with a decision that they made uh to recognize Jesus as their savior publicly.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I can we give them another round of applause.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is love that.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's my juice is flown.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um hey, if you are uh new with us uh since Easter, want to welcome you.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we are currently going through a series in the book of Numbers.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh with uh that being one of the earliest books in the Bible.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and then Numbers.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're right now, we're in about chapter nine.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it was a the poet, sort of naturalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, that coined the phrase, right?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the destination, it's the journey.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And to everybody who was reading at that time, like outed himself as having never gone through the TSA line at the airport, right?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where you say, it is much better to be in my destination than it is to go through this journey.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is better to be in Hawaii than it is to be on a plane to Hawaii, right?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it it really, whether you value the journey or the destination, it really kind of depends on your expectations, basically.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um if we look at a different example, like if we think about our lives, right?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just our whole life, well, if we only value the destination, the end point of it all, then we're missing out on a lot.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Our expectations aren't looking for anything really in the journey, but instead just waiting and biding our time until the very end.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: See, there are a lot of Christians today who would say things like, I don't understand why I should be here because I know where I'm going.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I know what is at the end for me, and therefore I don't I don't really get the point.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: This life is hard.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I want to look at today is basically, you know, is it possible that there is more in this journey than just waiting for our destination?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that there is more that God is trying to teach us as we are in this journey than just to be, you know, in a waiting room for heaven?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So in the nation of Israel, right, which is what we're looking at in the book of Numbers, they are uh wandering.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: They are wandering, and they uh their destination is the promised land.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, their destination is this area that God has promised to their ancestors, really to Abraham, and they've heard about it for hundreds of years.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And their journey is 40 years in the desert.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now in the next couple weeks, see, we're about to leave.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been with us through the series in numbers, you know that it has just been a lot of preparation, okay?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're about ready to disembark camp.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is really the last message before we start the journey itself.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless, they have they're going to wander through the desert for 40 years.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we'll learn is that they actually didn't have to wander for 40 years.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: They made it to the like edges of the promised land very quickly.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: It ended up being, though, that their disobedience and other reasons that God set them to wander for those 40 years.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that they ended up learning, and unfortunately for them they didn't learn well enough, though, is that there is both a meaning in the journey and the destination.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: That there was something that they could be looking forward to, but that God specifically had them going through the wilderness so that they might be prepared to enter into the promise.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning in chapter 9, verses 15 through 23, we're going to look at how God was leading them through this journey and what that tells us.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to turn to chapter 9, verse 15, that's where we'll begin.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It says, On the day the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant law was set up, the cloud covered it.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: From evening till morning, the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is how it continued to be.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: The cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: At the Lord's command, the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord's order and did not set out.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's get everybody up to speed here, right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: The nation of Israel has been redeemed from slavery.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: They were slaves for 400 years in Egypt, right?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: God says, Through Moses, let my people go.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: We have the plagues.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: He brings them out of Egypt, right?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is going to, he has redeemed them and he is going to bring them to the promised land.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the nation of Israel in the book of Numbers is on the way to the promised land.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And along the way, though, right, they get to Mount Sinai, which is kind of the first big stopover, okay?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first rest stop.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they camp at the base of Mount Sinai.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And God's presence sort of rests above the mountain.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a cloud that oftentimes is described as being filled with fire.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and it's here at Mount Sinai that we get a lot of instruction.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites are told all the things that they need to learn so that they can head to the promised land, right?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the book of Leviticus comes from.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are given the law, all right, and they are told about what they should do for worship.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then also, Moses is told, uh, well, God basically says, I'm gonna walk with you, okay?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: You guys, it's a long journey.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be with you.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're my people.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've made a covenant relationship with each other, and he says, I'm gonna walk with you, but in order to do that, um, basically, I need a place to stay.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds kind of weird to us, right, that the God, the one who is above all, the one who is omnipresent and everywhere at once, says, I'm also going to specifically be in this location.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what he did.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: The God who is everywhere said, I'm specifically going to be in this location with you.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: My presence is going to dwell with you in the camp.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, you've got basically a list of things that we need to construct here so that I can go with you on this journey.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those things was the Ark of the Covenant, and it rested within the tabernacle, okay?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And at the moment that Moses was finished building all of these things, it says that God's presence and this cloud that we're talking about today, and it was a cloud by day and uh fire by night, began to just sort of settle over the tabernacle itself.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what you see here in this drawing.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, briefly, let's go back to Exodus.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you this.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right, he's putting the finishing touches on all the things so that God can dwell with them.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so Moses finished the work.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Moses could not enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out, but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds similar, right, to what we just read in Numbers, but we get a bit more information.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, we see here when it says, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, okay?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: We we understand that there was nothing special itself about the ark or about the tabernacle, but it is this place where God said that he would dwell.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was, it was holy.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was a holy location.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that the last couple weeks, and also last spring in Leviticus, right?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: They were uh it was a holy God in the midst of an unholy people, and so there was this reverence and respect.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the way that God chose to show himself to the whole nation of Israel was through this cloud.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Moses could go and he could go into the tabernacle, and oftentimes the tent of meeting, it was called the tent of meeting because that's what they did.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Moses would go and be like, Hey God, and God is like, Hey Moses, and they talked, it's said the Bible says, as if they were friends.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But to the rest of the Israelites, they couldn't go in there.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so God reveals himself to them, he says, I'm with you, and they can see it all the time through this cloud.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's what we call a theophany, okay?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's when God sort of appears in a specific form in the Old Testament.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Another example would be like uh Moses in the burning bush, right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: When Moses, or yeah, when Moses encounters this bush that is consumed by flame but is not withering away, and he's like, that's probably God, because bushes don't normally do that, right?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be an example.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So this cloud, yeah, it's like you're talking so much about clouds.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: This cloud, okay, met the Egyptians, met the Israelites after they left Egypt.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So they are being chased, right?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they are being chased by Pharaoh and his army because he said, okay, you can let them go, and then he changed his mind.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna go and capture them.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so they are running for their lives, and they're headed towards the Red Sea, and this cloud meets them.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this cloud leads them.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: This cloud leads them through the Red Sea, okay?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then the cloud lands on Mount Sinai, and then they camp at the base of Mount Sinai, and then the cloud, which again is God, is now going to rest with them as they are moving through the desert.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine for a second that you're an Israelite.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: You might have also noticed in this passage in Exodus and back in Numbers how many times it said, When the clouds stayed, they stayed.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: When it moved, they moved.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It says it a bunch, and it'll keep saying it.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine for a second that you're an Israelite.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know your destination.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: You have heard since you were a child about the promises that were made to Abraham.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know that you have been, every single one of you that is on this journey was a slave.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you know that God has rescued you and you're heading to the promised land.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one of you.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And now you have the one who has saved you, who is also guiding you through this area.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But as we will encounter in the next couple weeks, they weren't pleased with the speed of the journey.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: They see God, right, and this cloud.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And at a certain point in time they go, It's been a long time since the cloud has moved.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Would really love it if we could, like, you know, get this show on the road here, right?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Would love to get to the promised land.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm not a huge fan of all this desert stuff.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's doing, you know, a lot of junk to my skin, okay?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get moving.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: This land of milk and honey is waiting for me.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the hard thing that the Israelites learned through a lot of trial and error, and the thing they needed to learn, was that God was using that journey, the time that they were taking, the lessons that he was imparting to them, he was preparing them for the promised land.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You might notice that that is the words that sit under the big word numbers in our series.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is that this whole journey through the desert was a preparation for promise.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's keep going in Numbers chapter 9, and we'll finish out the section we're looking at this morning.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: At the Lord's command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days, or a month, or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: But when it lifted, they would set out.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: At the Lord's command they encamped, and at the Lord's command they set out.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: They obeyed the Lord's order in accordance with his command through Moses.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of you have noticed if you've been reading through the book of Numbers or just the Old Testament, you're like, man, it seems like things get repeated a lot.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know if the writer realized that he just said that a set sentence ago.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And for a lot of you, you know, it can be a stumbling block.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, we get it, we get it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a reason, right, in God's holy word that things get repeated.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it is almost always because that is a lesson that needs to be learned.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about the future and the next couple weeks that we'll be going through this actual journey, you know, I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything, that the Israelites don't stick to this plan very long.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: They say, hey, when God gets up, we get up.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: When God sits down, we sit down, right?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: We follow him no matter what.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: If it's a day, if we just got, you know, if we just started camping and then the cloud moves, we're gone, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, they stop listening.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: They stop holding on to this.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we look at it and we go, well, okay, God.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it seems like, I mean, I would use the word arbitrary.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's random, okay?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: It says if it's two days, if it would be, you know, um uh a month or a year.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that word year is best translated as an indeterminate amount of time.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, it could be two months, it could be two days, it could be a month, it could be however long.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: The point, though, is not that they get this schedule beat down, that they develop this attitude and this heart that says, whenever God moves is when we move, no matter what.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we look at it and we say, man, like why was God doing this?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: What's with this stop and go stuff?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why did He not just immediately take them to the Promised Land?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a couple reasons.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: What was waiting for them in the Promised Land, God describes it as a land flowing with milk and honey.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was, in the ancient world, the best possible place to live.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was beautiful, it was fertile, it because of the cities that the sort of uh pagan nations had already built, it was a like pre-built home that they were moving into.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was safe, and God was over this whole area, right?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was the best possible place for them to be.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when they get into that land, they are going to be safe, they're going to be well fed, and they are going to be prosperous.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Those three things are things that throughout history have often made those who are faithful to God lose interest in him.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You are safe, you are well fed, and you are prosperous.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody who was relying on the manna that was on the ground when they were going through the desert, when they had no food and they had to pray for water, and they relied upon him day by day by day.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then they get to the promised land where everything is in abundance, and they go, Okay, thanks, God.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was really nice knowing you.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, of course they wouldn't do that, but they did.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, but no thanks.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: They say, We're ready to get to the promised land.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when we get there, of course, God, we will worship you.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we will keep your sacrifices, of course, we will, you know, maintain and build this temple for you.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Of course we will do all these things.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You will still be our God.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: We won't look like the other nations, we'll drive them out.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And none of those things happened.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that that is our story, too.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is particularly true in America, though it's not true for everybody, and it is true here in Topeka, though it's not true for everybody, that we are well fed, we are safe, and we are prosperous.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are comfortable in many ways that people around the world don't know what that looks like.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: We get to experience things and have a level of sustainability that is not known in many nations around the world.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Many nations that it might be added who have a devout faith in Jesus Christ.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes what can happen is we get into this space, right, where we get into trouble and we go to God and we seek him out.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh Lord, I need you for this thing, this is happening.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it could be something that is genuinely terrifying or hurtful or evil.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that we go to God for the wrong reasons, but the thing is, whenever that is finished and then it's solved, it is much more rare that we continue on in that faith-based relationship.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: We become comfortable, and then God is usually forgotten, even though the one, He is the one that has brought us that comfort.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible would be a lot shorter if the Israelites had like listened to this.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: You could get through it a lot faster if they were just like, you know what?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: When God says go, we go.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, what is going to happen the next chapter, or well in chapter 11, in two chapters, immediately they're like, actually, nope, we're gonna go against him.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I, you know, we look at the Israelites, okay, and then I want to show you one other example here, and then we'll talk about us.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we have got God who is before them day and night in this cloud.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: God who is with them as they are journeying, he is using this journey to prepare them for the destination.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites, they're not, they're not really grasping it, okay?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're saying that they're faithful to God, and it makes sense, right?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're, we're at Mount Sinai, Egypt's not that far away.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are a sort of sorry band of former slaves that certainly can't fight.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: We need God.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it makes sense, human nature, that they're going, okay, we'll follow after him.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the other nations actually that begin to pick up on the faithfulness of God.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: So later on in chapter 14 in Numbers, again we'll get to this, but there's a situation that happens where God wants to bring judgment on the Israelites for their unfaithfulness.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again, didn't take long.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what happens is Moses goes before God and he says, Lord, I know you want to bring judgment, but basically let me like hear out, hear my argument.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And God's like, okay.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses does not say, Lord, your people are faithful.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, all the other nations that have seen Israel, and they know of their presence.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, All of the other nations, they know you're faithful.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: They have already heard you, that you, Lord, are with these people, and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Moses says, Lord, it is not that Israel is faithful to you, it is that the other nations see how faithful you are to them, despite their unfaithfulness, and that is part of the message that is being learned and sent.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: These nations that worship demons are like, man, their God is faithful.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Other nations noticed.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And here we see the final trait that places us in Israel's shoes, which is that the one of the main narratives of the book of Numbers is going to be that Israel begins to very quickly become unappreciative of the fact that God is guiding them through the desert.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not that they don't want to ultimately get to the promised land, but they don't like the pace, they don't like the direction it's taking, and they don't like it's not really fitting their lifestyle.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a consistent refrain, though you might be shocked to hear it, is they say, hey, we'd, if it's not too much trouble, we'd rather like go back and be slaves again than continue on here, Lord.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: We would rather go back to Egypt because they had better food than this manna stuff.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: They they had more water, you know, we don't have to wait for it to come out of a rock or find a spring in the desert.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'd rather go back and be slaves.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so sad because they began to take God's faithfulness and turn it into a chain that was around their ankle.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: God who was consistent and present and guiding them.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we were able to step outside of this story, right?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Look at it and go, man, he was teaching them lessons, and they were heading to the promised land, and they got there so quickly, and and then they rejected it, and all of these things happened, but to them they said, you know what, I don't really like all the pressure.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: The cloud just set down and now it got back up, and now I have to follow it.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: The cloud, okay, the cloud's been here for two years, and I I just got settled.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I got my sand pit dug, and now I don't want to leave.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens when we don't follow the guidance of God, what happens when we don't follow his timing, is we get lost.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when we get lost, we begin to wander.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what this nation did.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much about Israel that we are similar to, but there is also a part of Israel where we say, if we learn from their mistakes, then we might be able to avoid some of the trouble as well.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: See, let's get real practical here, right?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I said we talked about Israel.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about us.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: What is our destination as a people who?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who love God.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for those who've accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, our destination is heaven.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: That is where we are going.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is a decision that is made by faith and the Son of God and His death and His resurrection.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is what Kathy and Cade just proclaimed.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: That faith is what covers us and brings upon us the righteousness of God and the forgiveness and the grace and mercy, so that we might enter into those gates.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong at all with desiring and looking forward to that destination.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong at all with that, right?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that is one of the greatest sources of hope in this life when things aren't going the way that we would hope they would go.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: When we experience this fallen world and disease and death and pain and sadness and all of those things, is we do look forward to this destination and we say, Man, I'm really excited because I know that God has prepared a place for me, and I know that I go get to go and be with my Savior forever.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that we are not there just yet.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: We are in, you might say, the mess.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the mess and we are swimming in the mess, and there is still, though, a point to be found in the journey.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: We are not just waiting for the destination.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is the journey for the Christian?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's the hard part where some of you might, you know, divide with me is you might hear some prosperity gospel charlatan say that the point is that because of God we might experience comfort and satisfaction and peace.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And those things can be found, but that is not the point of our journey.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they are certainly not guaranteed.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you might have the peace that comes from knowing Christ and that you are saved.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: You might have the joy knowing that you are one who is going to be rescued from the world that we are in.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But trusting in Christ does not mean that your life is easy.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Trusting in Christ does not mean that your path will be smooth or the waters will be calm.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the point in the journey is twofold.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: One, that you yourself are developed into the image of Jesus Christ through trials and circumstances, so that you might look more like the one who died for your sins.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is point number one.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Point number two is that through that journey, you might develop a host of skills and abilities so that other people who are in the mess and don't know Jesus Christ might be able to come to faith in him.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is the twofold purpose of your journey.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why we don't just believe in Jesus and head off to heaven is because your job is not finished.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: We are here to become more like Jesus Christ, and we're here to show other people Jesus Christ.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is why so many people love Romans 8.28.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, yes, it is good to trust in God.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: We have been called according to his purpose, and that in all things in life we should trust in him.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the question is, what is good?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the next verse tells us, for those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the good that God is working out in your life is not your comfort.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: The good that God is working out in your life is not your satisfaction.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: The good that God is working out in your life is your sanctification.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: A big word.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: You get a lot of points on Scrabble for it, which means that you are becoming more like Jesus.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And there is this dual nature to sanctification, which says that we have been sanctified in the sense that we are counted as holy because of Jesus Christ.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: But there is this other side to it, this sort of like, you know, the other bookend, which is that we are also gradually being sanctified to look more like Jesus throughout this life.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: That we, in case you don't know, we don't act like Jesus all the time.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: So even though we are counted as righteous by God, we are certainly not righteous people in totality and through our actions.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what part of this journey is for: is that we should eventually look more like Jesus when it's all said and done.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: The journey is about looking more like Christ.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is about preparing for the promises of the future, it's about telling other people about Jesus.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: The most direct route is not always the best route, even though we would often like the fastest route.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: If we look at the life of Jesus and we look at what he did, we would clearly say that he did not live a life of ease.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: He did not live a life that was counted by job promotions.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he worked for his dad, right?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, basically, you're just waiting, right?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Apprenticing.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not always marked by prosperity.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't own a home.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: He was wandering once he left his mother's house.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: He wandered with his disciples.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: He was constantly rejected, right?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was betrayed, he was mocked, he was beaten.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even the life of Christ later on, it says that we are supposed to take up our crosses daily and follow after him.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we're confused if we think that following after Christ by taking up our cross is defined by really easy life.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, not trying to be the Debbie Downer of the group, right?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, my point is that there are a lot of us who have confused what it means to follow after Jesus with the benefits and the grace that sometimes come from living in this world.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: God occasionally brings those to us, but they are not guaranteed.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: What God is far more concerned about for every single one of you, what he is much more desirous of, is not that you would have like a five-bed, five-bath house, but that you would be somebody who looks and sounds and has a heart like Jesus Christ, because that is what this world needs.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, he is sometimes letting you go through these difficult parts of the journey because that is the only way, and I emphasize only way that you are going to learn some of the things that Jesus did.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: You show me somebody who lives a hard life.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: You show me somebody who lives a hard life and knows Jesus Christ.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I show you somebody who is humble, who is often content, who has joy through trials and circumstances, who understands submission, who understands faith.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: You show me somebody who has rarely ever gone through difficulty in life, and I can often find somebody who does not know empathy and is prideful and is always searching for the next thing.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is the reality that we don't like to admit that it is often these hard parts of the journey where we're fighting against God's plan.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: When is this cloud gonna move?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: When is it gonna leave?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: When is it gonna settle?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the times in which God is working in your life to develop you into the image of Jesus Christ.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: When Kathy and Cade went down into the water, what that represented is way more important than the fact that that is an inflatable jacuzzi, okay?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: What that meant was that they were committed to journeying and seeing purpose in that journey so that they might arrive at the destination prepared for it.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: There are people who are going to set aside all of these lessons that can be learned because they want the simplest life possible.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it might be a simple life, but it is one that often does not possess much significance because we have skirted all of the things that would help us to look more like Jesus.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does this mean for us?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've got kind of a sentence or two, and I want to explain it, and then we'll be done.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: God's presence today is no longer a cloud, but the Holy Spirit within all who trust in Christ.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Move when he moves, and your journey will conform you to the image of Christ.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, there is no longer a cloud that rests over a tabernacle that tells us when to get up and when to sit down.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty straightforward life.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is not the life that we have.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: The life that we have now, and to make a long story short, is that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he said, I'm going to leave with you one that is my presence.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that presence is what we call the Holy Spirit.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: That Holy Spirit rests within every single person who trusts in Jesus Christ, and it does many things, but it has the same job as the cloud, because it is God Himself.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just intuition, it is not a feeling, it is not just this way that we describe being a fan of Jesus.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is God Himself, and the same Spirit that rested over the tabernacle is now in you.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a benefit that you have that the Israelites didn't.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: But then the question becomes, and the final question, is what do we do and how do we listen to it?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: This.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm holding up my Bible.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is my Bible.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's mine, no one else's.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is the one I read from.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is my cloud.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is my pillar of fire.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that tells me what I should do.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that says get up.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that says get down.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that says when and how and to whom.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is what we follow after.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites did not have the Bible.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have the Bible, and it is God's revealed word.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the hardest part about all of this that's a big statement.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've said a lot of hard things.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: One of the hardest parts about all of this is that for some of you, you would love it if God said, here are eight steps that you need to follow in order to do all the things that God has called you to be.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: In order to be like Jesus, buzzfeed 20 lists of things that you can listen to.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Six podcasts, okay?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then you've got it covered.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the hard thing is that God has given us general commands, right?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: They are things like the Great Commission.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Go forth into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, discipling them, teaching them my ways so that they may follow my word.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: These are the kind of things that we hold on to.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so far be it from me, if somebody comes and they say, Hey, I feel like God has told me something.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm supposed to leave my wife, I'd say, Boy, howdy, pretty sure God did not say that one.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty sure God did not do that just because your secretary is attractive.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit did not tell you that you were okay in that move.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's word doesn't say that.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is the thing that tells us to get up, and this is the thing that tells us to sit down.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, God's presence today is no longer a cloud, but the Holy Spirit within all who trust in Christ.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Move when he moves, and your journey will conform you to the image of Christ.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing I want to say there's some of you, I talked with somebody out in the hallway just before the service, who is going through something that very much does not feel like a lesson to be learned.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: It is just pain.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is just sadness.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be careful that we don't too quickly bridge into the point where we say every single hard thing that happens is because God wants you to learn a lesson.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is evil in this world, and God is not the author of evil, and we go through evil, and part of that process of enduring evil with hope in the future is that we do become and learn how to become more like Jesus.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a one-to-one relationship that God sends you cancer just so you will pray to him more often.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes, if you will talk to people who know Jesus Christ and have had cancer, what they will say is, I am closer to Christ now than I ever was before.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what God does is He takes the hard things of this world as we are journeying through this desert and says, You have a purpose and you have meaning in this journey before you get to the destination.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it is so that you may look like Jesus Christ and you may show other people Jesus Christ.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: God, once again, thank you for Kathy and Cade.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for their display of faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have brought them up from the dead because of the decision and faith that they have in you.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would help us as we are journeying through this desert to look upon your word and your spirit as our guide through this place that is often so confusing, makes us often ask the question, Lord, when, how, why?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: God, might you give us comfort and peace during those moments of our deepest questioning and help us to see that you are still using these things.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: That you are using what the enemy would intend for evil, Lord.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: You are bringing about good from it, because that is what you do.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for these things.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your word, and we thank you, Lord, for your spirit.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope you have a great week.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.