RISE UP! IT’S TIME TO MOVE!
Numb. 10:5-6
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. An Ohio businessman abandoned his broken-down car during a torrential downpour in Louisiana. He stood in the pouring rain; most cars had pulled over. It rained harder.
2. Suddenly he saw a slow-moving car creeping, ghostlike, through the rain. It paused. He was scared but thought it might be his only hope.
3. He opened the door and climbed in. It began moving again. There was no driver and his hair stood on end. When the car headed for the ditch, suddenly a hand appeared in the driver’s window and turned it back into the road. Fear gripped him; he broke into a sweat.
4. A quarter mile later he spotted a café and jumped out and ran for his life. He related his strange experience to the patrons while he drank coffee. They speculated that it might be powerful voodoo at work!
5. 30 minutes later Boudreaux & Thibodeaux came in, looked around the café, spotted him, and said, “There’s the clown who got into our car while we were pushing it!”
B. THESIS
1. Israel had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. At last the signal came for them to fold up their tents and move out toward the Promised Land. God is giving US the signal too!
2. God is saying, “Rise Up! It’s Time to Move!” Will we hear it? Will we respond?
3. Tonight were looking at the hindrance & promise of spiritual deserts, that the desert isn’t our destiny, and what WE need to do to get moving again for God.
I. GOD’S PEOPLE STUCK IN A DESERT
A. WHAT A DESERT IS
1. Deserts are arid or dry regions and receive less than 10 inches of rain per year. Deserts usually have extreme temperatures, and sparse vegetation.
2. The world’s deserts occupy almost one-quarter of the earth’s land surface, approx. 20.9 million square miles.
3. Just as deserts are a big part of the world – one-quarter, Christians should not be surprised when they encounter “desert” times in their lives. There will be times when our lives will be dry, have extreme temperatures, and seemingly few people around us to support us in our trials. Don’t be surprised; it’s part of the life experience.
B. WHAT SPIRITUAL DESERTS LOOK LIKE
1. A PLACE WHERE GOD’S PRESENCE SEEMS MISSING
a. David was God’s chosen vessel, the ancestor to Christ, and anointed with the Spirit, yet David still had desert times in his life.
b. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you…in a dry and weary land where there is no water” Ps. 63:1. “I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” Ps. 143:6.
c. If David, whom the Spirit remained on, had periods that seemed like deserts to him, we shouldn’t be surprised if such times occasionally occur in our lives. The key is to seek God.
2. A PLACE WITHOUT THE WORD OF GOD
a. “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD” Amos 8:11.
b. Another desert time is when we haven’t heard from God personally. Neglecting the Word of God can cause this. God also speaks through our pastor, other believers, circumstances, and in prayer.
c. This often is an unnecessary famine, for God is constantly speaking, we’re just not listening. So, seek the Lord.
3. A PLACE OF TESTING/ TRIALS
a. We read in Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”
b. This tells us clearly that some deserts are God’s will for us, and that one of the deserts we all must pass through is the desert of testing. God “tempts” no one, that’s the devil’s work; but God does test us.
c. Testing is an important part of promotion. Once you’ve passed the test, you can go on to a higher level of productiveness. God will have a tried and tested people.
4. The Israelites were led out into the wilderness and tested for 40 years. When it was finished, they were ready for the promised land! To be prepared for heaven, we too will have to be tested on this earth.
5. A PLACE OF REVELATION/ MIRACLES
a. Deserts aren’t all bad; they are also a place of REVELATION. Think how God revealed Himself to Moses and Israel in the desert.
b. God can reveal Himself better in the desolation and stillness of a desert than the business of a city. Think of Elijah and the still small voice.
c. The desert is also a place of MIRACLES. When there is no material help, God will reveal Himself as Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider! God fed the Israelites with manna, quails in abundance, and water from the Rock. He opened the Red Sea and the Jordan River. “The Lord is my helper; whom shall I fear and of whom shall I be afraid?”
II. GOD’S TIMING: ‘GO TO PROMISED LAND’
A. ISRAEL BOGGED DOWN
1. After their failure of faith – to enter the Canaan land and take it by force – the Israelites settled down at Kadesh Barnea for almost 38 years. (At the end of this message is an itinerary of their journey).
2. All of the fighting men (603,550) who rebelled against God in unbelief (except Joshua & Caleb), died there and were buried. A whole generation of kids grew up there. To them, Kadesh was home. They didn’t know any other life.
3. Maybe you, like them, used to have victory but you’ve gotten bogged down. We need to remember, WE MAY BE IN THE WILDERNESS, BUT THIS WILDERNESS ISN’T OUR DESTINATION!
4. God created you for the extraordinary! You’re not meant to settle down here, but to go forth conquering, and to conquer!
5. “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me, from Heaven’s open door, and I won’t be at home in this world anymore!”
6. Today, like springtime, God is stirring you. It’s time to get moving! It’s time to grow!
B. THE SIGNAL TO MOVE
1. Whenever the 2 ½ million Israelites set out, it had to be done in an orderly fashion. Each time they camped, the campground covered an area two-thirds the size of the state of Rhode Island, or a total of 750 square miles.
2. Numbers 10:5-6 told how trumpet blasts would signal the people of God when to move; “When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes camping on the east are to set out. At the sounding of a second blast, the camps on the south are to set out. The blast will be the signal for setting out.” The tribes fell into line in a specific order, Numbers 10:11-27.
3. At Pentecost, the first trumpet was blown, and the church began to move. Other trumpets have been blown down the ages. But we’re rapidly approaching the Second Coming of Jesus; we’re in the final stretch. I think I hear another trumpet blasting: “Rise up! It’s time to move!”
4. Israel had been in the same place for 38 years. At last, the Lord stirred them up to move, saying, “You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward!” Deut. 2:3, NKJV. It’s was God’s order to start the last push for the border of Canaan land!
III. THE QUESTION: “CAN YOU BE MOVED?”
A. IT’S NOT COMFORTABLE TO MOVE
1. I’m sure that during many of the 40 times the Israelites had to pack up their belongings and begin to trudge across the desert, people didn’t want to listen to the trumpet and start moving. I’ve never noticed a law (scripture) that said they had to move or some terrible punishment would happen to them.
2. Knowing human nature, I’m sure there were quite a few rebels who decided they didn’t need the Church (God’s people) anymore and decided not to fall in line, when God’s people started to move. Undoubtedly some of their bones are still out in that desert.
3. Those who stayed in their tents and didn’t stir themselves up to get moving with God, later found themselves ALONE out in a howling wilderness. No God & no people.
4. Suddenly they realized there was nothing to eat or drink or burn out there. There were many dangers – snakes, mountain lions, scorpions, wild-dog packs, and worse, human bandits and cut throats.
5. If we want to stay alive spiritually, we must get up, stir ourselves up and get moving for God!
6. Reinhard Bonnke said, “Jesus will lift you out of the deepest pit, but He will not lift you out of your armchair.”
B. WE NEED REVIVAL! WHAT IS REVIVAL?
1. A spiritual reawakening from a state of dormancy and stagnation (death) into vibrant spiritual LIFE.
2. The tearful resurfacing of your LOVE for God.
3. A new PASSION for God, His Word, & His church.
4. A new URGENCY to please and obey God, whatever the cost.
C. HOW CAN I GET MOVING FOR GOD?
1. Get on a daily Bible reading schedule. Next set aside a half hour to pray to God every day. Go to church every time the doors are open.
2. Begin stretching your faith; step out and do things beyond what you’re doing: begin helping people in need; Call people who are low or hurting; volunteer at church to serve the Body.
3. Go on a mission’s trip or a weekend retreat to get fired up. Ask the Pastor if there’s something you can do around the Church.
4. Read a biography of a great Christian. Get involved in fellowship groups and prayer groups at your church. Come early to church and pray for the services. Pray for the Pastor and church to have revival!
5. Begin to witness to everyone around you and pray for the lost to receive Jesus as their Savior.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Sometimes finding God or His will for your life feels like a giant game of hide and seek, in which you constantly look in all the wrong places until you find the right hiding spot.
2. But hearing God’s voice is more like the game Marco Polo—except, in reverse, because God (as Polo) doesn’t move around. Instead, every time you call on His name He answers, and He stays where He is until you reach him.
3. Like Isaiah said, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (55:6-7).
4. One time a friend was invited to a Scotman’s house for dinner. Tea, of course, was served. When the guest asked that he might have some sugar, the Scotsman said, “Man, the sugar is already in the cup of tea. Stir it up, my friend!” [Knight’s Master Book of New Illus., p. 745]
5. The good things of God are already available; stir them up!
Is your relationship with God bland? Stir it up!
Do you want the Joy of the Lord? Stir it up!
Have you lost your victory? Stir it up!
6. The power of God, the wisdom of God, the help of God – it’s already accessible to us; all we have to do is stir ourselves up to take hold of it!
B. THE CALL
1. Are you stuck in a spiritual desert? Don’t panic! Your desert is the place you’ll find God’s presence, His Word, His revelation, and His miracles.
2. How many of you have gotten bogged down & can’t figure out how to get moving again? God can get you going again!
3. The most important thing – are you willing to do everything YOU CAN to change your heart? Let’s PRAY!
[The title of this message came from Ian Johnson]
[CHRONOLOGY OF THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY
The basic chronology of events in the wilderness journey: (length of time between stops)
• Part 1: Passover to Crossing Red Sea: 24 days
• Part 2: Arrive at Desert of Sin: 7 days
• Part 3: Arrive at Mount Sinai: 16 days
• Part 4: Tabernacle Set Up at Mount Sinai: 300 days (10 months) [348th day]
• Part 2: Leave Mount Sinai: 49 days (7 weeks) [397th day]
• Part 3: Journey to Kadesh Barnea: 311 days (10.4 months) [708th day]
• Part 4: Dwelling at Kadesh Barnea: 13,590 days (37.75 years)
• Part 5: Arrive in Canaan / Cross Jordan River: (20.3 months)
Elapsed time from the 1st Passover in Egypt to Crossing the Jordan River is 40.8 solar years.
MAIN POINTS
• Israel was not wandering for 40 years in the desert. For almost 38 years they were in Kadesh Barnea and for almost 1 year they were at Mount Sinai [Arabia]. They were traveling a little less than two years. That is still a lot of traveling for 600,000 men plus women and children and animals.
• The time at Sinai was not idle. Of the 300 days after arrival at Mount Sinai, the first 95 days Moses was up and down the mountain receiving the Law and getting instructions for the tabernacle; and the next 205 days were spent gathering supplies and constructing the components of the tabernacle.
• Shortly after the Tabernacle was constructed they left [Arabia]. The goal was to set forth to conquer the Promised Land not to spend eternity in a desert in front of a desolate mountain.
• When the spies brought a bad report, the community was shut up at Kadesh Barnea. The sentence was to wait 40 years until all the males over 20 years old that came out of Egypt died.
The years at Kadesh were wasted time. This may explain why there is no report of events that occurred in this gap of dead space. The end of the stay at Kadesh was marked by the rebellion of Aaron and Moses at Meribah. God moved into the Promised Land with fresh leaders.
• It took 20 months to go from Kadesh to the Jordan River across from Jericho. Israel was smitten with delays: Edom refused direct passage; Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel resulting in the Sin of Peor and ensuing plague; Sihon King of the Amorites refused direct passage and fought Israel; Og King of Bashan fought Israel; and in vengeance Israel destroyed the Midianites.
This info is from www.biblenumbersforlife.com]
