NU 20:1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
NU 20:2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"
NU 20:6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."
NU 20:9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
NU 20:12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."
NU 20:13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them.
1. Following God is a Great Adventure!
Steven Curtis Chapman has a song, or maybe a CD entitled the Great Adventure…. And friends, this is true.. Serving and walking with God is a Great Adventure. There is a Key to Making this Great Adventure “Great”, and I want to share that Key with you today..if you will follow along with me today in our story… you will know without a doubt what that Key is and you will need to ask yourself, do I have that Key.
What is that Key? I’m not going to tell you yet, that way you have to listen. Maybe you will figure it out.
Following God, in His Will truly is a Great Adventure. I can’t help but think about the Journey Nola and I have experienced so far… and were not even close to being through.
When I graduated from College, Nola and I met with the District Superintendent from the Dakota District, he told us about this small church in this Big town, in Grand Forks, ND… Nola and I prayed, we wanted to make sure that wherever we went it was where God wanted us to go… We prayed hard… we had very little information about the town, and the situation, but we both knew that God was saying to Go… We went, sight unseen.. Never had seen the town, the church, or met the people… The great adventure had started.
When we arrived in town we had four days to find a place to live, and to unpack all of our belongings. The first three nights, my mom, Nola and I slept in a store… luckily that store sold beds….The problem was that anybody walking by two sides of the store could easily look in the windows and watch us sleep…. That was a little unnerving. My mom slept with the covers over her head. But God had a plan… you see not only was there a small group of people there that needed a pastor to love them and help them heal from a bad situation they had just gone through… but there was a young lady there who was needing a pastor and wife to give her counsel over a crisis pregnancy…. You see, God knew our hearts, and he knew her need, and His Grace brought about a miracle that blessed Nola and I with our girls…. The truth is many times we can’t figure out what God is doing or Why as he Leads us…. But if you know the Key to this Great Adventure, and you use this key in your life…..you will truly be blessed and you will reap the benefits of your Faith in God.
The Great Adventure in Our Lives have brought us right here today, together God wants to take His Church to the Promised Land… the question is and has always been, even in the days of Moses and the Israelites… It’s the Key to the Great Adventure… do you want to know what it is?
The Key Question: Will You Trust God?
2. Understand up front, not everything will make sense to you!
Let me share something with you that you, that we all need to come to realize…. God is not really interested in whether or not we understand what He’s up to…. What He’s interested in, Is will You Trust Him and Follow Him even when you don’t know where or what He is doing in your life?
When Moses was in the desert for 40 years, before God called him to lead them out of captivity, do you think Moses understood what God was doing in his life? Moses came from a life of power and affluence… he had been number 2 power broker in all of Egypt… Just as we have been learning in Celebrate Recovery, God doesn’t use self made men and women, God only uses broken people…
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1 Cor. 1:25
1 Cor. 1: 27-31
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
But after 40 years of testing, God called Moses to a Great Adventure, one that would put His Trust in the Lord to the test.
Hear me today… the Life that God is calling you too.. Is a life of Trust.. It’s a life that will demand a strong Faith, Why? Because God wants to use you to carry out the Kingdom work, and that work can only be done through Faith and obedience to Him.. It can’t be done on our own power…. Were powerless to do anything of value for God in our own strength… Amen?
Let’s look at what is transpiring in our passage Numbers 20: 1-13
3. We all have the choice, to be miserable complainers… or to Trust God and Honor God as Holy.
Let me try to catch you up to speed on what is going on as we come to this passage, there’s a lot that has happened that will help you understand what’s going on in this passage.
Remember, Moses went to Egypt and through the power of God, Moses after the 10 plagues were sent upon Egypt, Moses led the Israelites out of their slavery… and you will remember that God, over and over again protected and met every need for His people… remember the Red Sea, God opened, divided the Red Sea and the Israelites walked through on dry ground, and then as the Egyptian army tried to follow, God brought down the walls of water and defeated the army….. The truth is God proved himself to be trustworthy over and over again, but guess what happened? The same thing that has happened to all of us in our own lives….they rebelled against this God who rescued, who saved them, who protected them, who provided food and water for them….even with all the evidence of God’s Goodness the people rebelled….. Who does that sound like?
Because of their rebellion, God said that the generation who rebelled against him would not enter the Promised Land, and so now for the past 40 years the people have been wondering in the desert, waiting for that rebellious generation to die off, and that’s where we find ourselves in this passage… the people have been living in the desert, God has continued to provide for their needs… but guess what continues to go on…..
NU 20:2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"
There are two camps that you can choose from. And be mindful, it’s your choice where you live everyday. You can choose to be miserable complainers…. That’s one camp… or you can choose to Trust God and Honor Him as Holy by believing that He will take care of you.
After 40 years of seeing God provide for every need, provide water everyday, food everyday…. You would think they would realize that God was going to take care of them, wouldn’t you?
Let me ask you… Have you seen God work in your life? Do you know that He’s Real? Has He protected you? Why is it so hard for us to Trust God when He has proved Himself over and over to us?
RO 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You will notice in the verse I just read, the God of hope will fill you with all Joy and peace, When?… it says as you Trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Listen, I know that some people have a harder time with this trust issue than others… and we could talk about past hurts, broken relationship, broken trust… all those things play a part in our lives, and can hinder us in being able to make the decision to Trust God. But I want to remind you of this one truth… no matter what you have come through… this is still the truth.
Trust is a choice. God has given you a great gift, that gift is choice. And everyone of us has to choose to Trust God…. For some that decision may come more difficult, but the truth is it’s still there for you to choose.
Friends, God has already choose you…. He has choose you to be apart of his great adventure… He has chosen our church to be a instrument that can change our community, as we choose to Trust God for the future. He has chosen You.
COL 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
1TH 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.
JAS 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
1PE 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1PE 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light
Rev. 17: 14 14 They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."
If you don’t believe me that you’ve been chosen, believe the Word of God… it’s true… The question is, Will you Choose to Trust God, the One who has Chosen You?
As we begin our Journey, the Great Adventure, the theme is going to be Trusting God… the Great Adventure is no Adventure at all it you don’t Trust in God, because His power and His Will will not be made evident in you until you choose to Trust in Him…. It’s a step of Faith… it’s a step you can take today… it’s a choice… it’s not a feeling…. There’s never going to be a time in your life where you will say, “You know, I think I understand this well enough now, I guess I’ll truth God now”.
You can’t understand all that God has for you… If you could, then you wouldn’t need to trust Him would you?
God is asking you to chose today…. He’s already chosen you… Make you choice… Don’t worry about how your going to do it…. That’s the beauty… if you will choose to trust Him, God will give you the power to follow through with your choice, He promises to provide all that we need to Follow Him…. Do you believe that?
Will you Trust Him with your life? With your marriage? With your Finances? With your children? With your Health? Let the Adventure begin today.
