Made to Count
Numbers
When you study the book of Numbers there are many interesting interactions between God, His leader and His people. God placed His people on a path to really be spiritual victors for the kingdom. God wanted His people to know that victory was assured and He wanted them to know that every life lived for Him is not in vain.
Today He still wants that for His people. He wants us to know that we are made to count. I’m sure everyone wants to live a life that makes a difference but will that life make a difference for the kingdom.
But how can we make a difference for the kingdom? We need to evaluate who we really are. In the book Made to Count, Bob Reccord says, “We should evaluate both our strengths and our weaknesses with a focus on God, not on us.”
Ultimately the Bible teaches and the book of Numbers teaches that what we can or cannot do is of little consequence because God can do all things. God has hardwired into all of us abilities that we can use for His glory. But He has also given us those abilities to make a difference in the lives of others.
I want to add value and significance in the lives of my family and in the lives of God’s church family. I want to help young people called by Him get started in the ministry and help all people find the ministry they can use for God. I don’t want to impact the world. I want to let God impact the world through me. I want to my life to be count and I want your life to count.
Here in Numbers we see the children of Israel on the verge of going into the Promised Land. As we have already studied God had promised that land to them and set their lives up to possess all that God had for them. However, they just like Christians today, got caught in the vicious cycle of relying on God, then disobeying God and then the punishment of God. It is a cycle of faith.
“When Mohandas Gandhi was the spiritual leader of India, a missionary asked him what he thought was the biggest obstacle to Christian missions in India, and Gandhi replied, ‘Christians.’” (Be Counted, W.W. pg.21) We may not like his answer, but we do need to face the fact too often God’s people get in the way of God’s work.
If you and I are going to live lives that are made to count then we must do what God says to do. We must obey him, follow Him and love Him in order to stay in His will as we serve Him. So let’s look at the cycle of faith and where we need to be in order to be Made to Count.
**Numbers 1:1-5a**
I. Obedience (1:1-9:14) Here we see the first stop on this cycle and it is the stop we are to continue in. Someone said you can take the entire Bible and break it down into two words; trust and obey.
Too often in our world, and especially here in the United States, we tend to view almost everything as optional—an either/or situation. But there are some things in life that are not optional. Our obedience to God is not optional.
These first nine chapters really is God outlining the spiritual authority He has placed over our lives. He lists them here and throughout the Bible in a 3-fold manner:
A. God’s Authority—He has the right to do with us and through us anything He sees fit. He is our ultimate authority. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 6:24-25, “The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”(NIV)
B. Priest’s authority—just like the book of Leviticus God spells us in these chapters that He has given the priest His authority to serve God through the spiritual leadership of the people. The Bible says in Numbers 13:39 that God put the tassels on the garments of the priests so the people would remember to obey the commandments of the Lord.
The Bible also says in Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (NIV)
C. Husband’s authority—Here in Numbers God makes it clear that the husband is the head of the household. This Biblical principle is consistent throughout scripture. Ephesians 5:23-24 says, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” (NIV)
The husband is called of God to be the spiritual leader of the home. When that is out of order there will always be problems in the home and in the church. Most of the difficulties I have had in 12 plus years as a pastor have been from wives who have a problem with the area of spiritual authority.
II. Arrogance (9:15-12:16) **9:15-20** Whenever the children of Israel needed to be reminded of God’s presence all they had to do was look toward the tabernacle. The place of worship served as the central place of God’s presence, protection and provision. How I wish God’s people, Christians would see that in their lives today.
This next step in the vicious cycle of Christianity is the first step toward loosing that presence, protection and provision.
**11:1-2** Aren’t you glad that when we whine and complain God doesn’t do that?
**11:5-6** God is making manna fall from heaven, remember manna means, “What is it?” and all the people could do was cry about God providing. See we get comfortable where things are in our lives and we begin to gripe about things because we forget about how God has provided for us.
I imagine Moses at this point was greatly discouraged and depressed.
**11:11-14** Folks listen, Moses is crying from a pastor’s heart. When people complain, murmur to a shepherd he feels like he is not leading the sheep to the place they want to be. It might not be the place some want to be, it might be the place they need to be.
**11:16-18** God gave Moses some staff members to help him bear the burden and then God gave in, because of Moses and gave the people some meat. Moses then in his arrogance doubts God can supply enough meat for them and God says, and shows Moses just how well He really does provide.
**11:31-34** These birds migrate in March or April from Africa. God sent a wind that blew them in from the sea. Bible scholars disagree on just how much meat there was. Some suggest it was a 2’ or 3’ pile of quail 16 miles in diameter. Others, however, believe that the birds flew 2’ off the ground and were easily caught. It really doesn’t matter because 2 million people gathered at least 10 homers, 60 bushels each.
Because they got what they wanted their arrogance overcame them and they gorged themselves on God’s goodness. That’s what happens when God’s people get proud and take their eyes off Him.
**12:1-10** They began to complain against god’s authority and then they criticized the leader’s authority. It always hurts when people say hurting things to you. I can tell you as a pastor when you are seeing God move it is just a matter of time before the enemy uses someone to stir up trouble
This leads us to the third step in this cycle of faith:
III. Insurgence (13-14) The rebelled against God’s authority. 12 spies are sent out to the Promised Land. They really didn’t need to go but they convinced Moses that spies should be sent before all the people go in. Everything they came back and reported God had already showed them, even the names of all the tribes.
Of the 12 spies only two Joshua and Caleb gave a good report. They said if God wants us to take the Promised Land we will. The other ten said it is impossible. Ladies and gentlemen sometimes the majority can be wrong. This inability to do God’s will is not just a lack of faith, it is an act of rebellion.
The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15:23
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” (NKJ)
The devil is behind division. He convinces God’s people to doubt God’s word, discourage God’s people and then disobey God.
**14:1-5** There they go again pick a new leader and go back to where we were. The land of comfortable, forget the fact that they were slaves and that’s not working out so good.
In verse 6 Joshua and Caleb plead with the people;
**v.8-9** Rebellion is an opinion that refuses to bend to God’s will. Let me say that again…Sometimes Christians already have their minds made up what they want to do before they have prayed and asked God what to do.
This leads to the next step in this cycle of faith:
IV. Instruction (15:1-20:13)
They begin forty years of wandering. The only two adults that get to enter the Promised Land in the book of Joshua are Joshua and Caleb. The two spies who submitted to God’s authority and Moses’ authority.
In these five chapters God sends them back to basics. When we get the disciplining hand of the Lord on our lives it is almost like going backwards to refocus on what really needs to be our priority.
**17:1-10** God reestablishes His authority and reestablishes the priest’s authority. God doesn’t want us to have to go back to the basics in the school of discipline. He doesn’t want to put us in time out. God wants us to grow up spiritually so we can be a witness for Him to others.
There is a N.T. scripture that parallels this instruction. It is found in Hebrews 5:12, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (NIV)
If we heed God’s instruction this leads us to the last step on this cycle:
V. Emancipation (20:14-36:13) God saved us to be free. God wants us to walk in the spirit of freedom in our lives and let the Holy Spirit have freedom in the church.
There are two wonderful passages in these chapters. Chapter 21 again has the people disobeying God and then receiving God’s discipline. Chapter 22 tells of a talking donkey. How God used this donkey to reveal His power.
The donkey’s owner was a false prophet that God used to show the God was on the side of His people. God was going to deliver the children of Israel into the land He had promised them. God’ promises are irrevocable.
God takes another census and numbers His people in preparation to the land He promised. Then God ends the book with a review of all God has done.
I wonder tonight if we could rewind a year ago. Remember how we felt as we started out together on this journey. We took on a budget $120,000 dollars greater than the year before. We launched out on vision night with what seemed to be an impossible renovation and reorganization of spaces and ministry.
We found a youth pastor through a hospital visit. We’ve seen our children’s ministry explode sometimes to overflowing. We have had some worship services where God has showed up and we have seen God send numerous families to join our family.
I wonder tonight does anybody want to go back to Egypt. We have come a long way but we still have a ways to go. It’s not time to give up we have just reached the Jordan River there is so much more to do.
Conclusion: If we are going to be the church God wants us to be and the Christian God wants us to be we can never leave the first step of this cycle. We move when God says to move and we stay when God says to stay.
We need the faith to enter into the Promised Land. Becky Edmondson attended a seminar where Norma McCorvey was the guest speaker. Norma McCorvey was the Jane Roe of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
Norma had gotten saved and she told her testimony of working in an abortion clinic but she was befriended by Christian who worked next door at a Crisis Pregnancy center. Becky knew God was calling her to open a Crisis Pregnancy center and she felt it needed to be right next door to an abortion clinic. She drove by the clinics the next day and wouldn’t you know it there was a house for sale right next door, the house and the clinic shared the same wall.
God then provided the money and the “A Woman’s Choice Resource Center,” opened to rescue the perishing. They began to pray for the workers in the clinic and prayed that God would give them opportunities to share their faith. They also prayed by laying hands on the wall that God would close the clinic.
(When God Builds a Church pg.128)
One year later it did. One year boy, God can do a lot in one year. I wonder if we are one year away from God’s blessing of victory and freedom? Or are we one year away from wandering and instruction?
Where are we church on this cycle of faith? Where are you tonight on this cycle?
PRAY
