Do What God Tells You To Do
July 23, 2006 Numbers 14:20-45 Acts 5:1-11 TEXT Numbers 16:1-45
Has anybody here ever gotten into trouble because you decided to change the rules on your own, because you thought you had a better way of doing things? How many of you have ever had to explain to your parents why you did not do exactly what they told you to do? Is there anyone here who if they could go back and do it over again, they would do exactly what they were told to do the first time.
Now there are many reasons we do not follow the rules. Sometimes we do not like the rule. Sometimes we do not like where the rules have placed us. Sometimes we are afraid to follow the rules. Sometimes we think that we can get by without keeping the rules.
Let’s meet John. John really needed a job. His friend Jeff owned a business, and John begged him to hire him. His friend said “okay, but expect to be treated like all the other employees. “John said no problem, “I’m cool.” It was not long before John, was coming in late. John was missing days. John was taking longer breaks.
The other workers told him,” man you better get it together or you will get fired.” John’s response was, “hey I’m cool with the boss. He and I are friends, and we go way back.” That same day Jeff called John into the office. He told him John, I really like as a friend, but you’ve taken advantage of my friendship. Your work has been terrible, you’re fired.” John said, “But I need this job.” Jeff said, “Funny thing is, you never acted that way.”
What was it that John lacked in the position other than he had poor work habits. He lacked a healthy fear or respect for the position his friend had over him. He thought he was really in charge of the circumstances on the job. You know God has called us to work in His kingdom. Many of us have thought of God as a friend, a buddy, a pal, someone to get us out of jail or trouble.
We have reduced God to the Big Guy, the Man Upstairs, the Higher Power. God is there for us at our beckoning call. Somehow we have misplaced and forgotten that verse that says, “Proverbs 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. We need a healthy dose of the fear of God.
Jesus talks to us more about the love of the Father than anyone else in the Bible, and yet even Jesus reminds us that God is awesome, powerful, and to be respected and feared. Jesus said in Luke 12:5 “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Why did Jesus have to tell us this? Because if you’re anything at all like me, I tend to forget that ultimately God is in control, and God can change my plans in an instant. I only look like I’m in charge, because God allows it.
In our Scripture reading, we saw a couple who wanted to love God, but did not want to fear God. They thought they could lie about their giving. They claimed to be giving all of the profit they had made off the sale of a piece of property, when in fact they had skimmed some off for themselves. If they had of just said, we’re giving 75%, that would have been cool with God. But it would not have been as impressive to those around them, so they lied.
God struck both of them dead that day about two hours apart in the church. They came at different times and told the same lie. When it happened, great fear fell upon the whole church. They would have had much longer lives if they had of just did what God told them to do, which was to be honest in their giving. So often we choose to impress others, rather than to fear God.
In our Old Testament Reading, God had used Moses and led the people right to the border of the promised land. God told them to follow Moses and go take it. But there were a group of people who said, “no way can we go and take it. The people in it are too strong. We will be wiped out by them. It will be a suicide mission.” These were the same people whom God had delivered out of the most powerful nation on earth, the same people who saw God split the Red Sea for them to walk through, and the same people who saw God destroy the entire Egyptian army.
They were thinking, “we do not care what God has done in the past, we will not go into the promised land.” They threatened to stone Moses and Aaron if they tried to make them go. They lacked a genuine fear of God, and they lacked the desire to be pleasing in God’s sight. When we lack the desire to please God , it is the beginning of the death of our relationship to God.
God finally showed up in His awesome power and decreed that the people would wander in the desert for 40 years until everyone over 20 was dead except for Joshua and Caleb, because they were the only 2 of the 12 spies who insisted they should got and take the land. The 10 men who had persuaded the people the job was too big were all struck with a plague and died. Moses told the people what had happened, and they all mourned and cried bitterly.
The next morning the people decided to overrule God’s judgment of not entering the promised land and announced to Moses they were ready to go to the land God had promised. Moses told them, “look you got into trouble yesterday because you would not do what God said. Now you’re about to get in trouble again, for not doing what God says. Do not go and attack those people because God is not going with you. You are going to get your behinds whipped by those people.” Some of the people went ahead anyways because they knew God was going to help them.
They went to try to take the promised land and was soundly whipped and defeated by the Amalekites and the Canaanites. When God has issued a judgment for us to experience, we cannot undo it, simply be trying to do now what we should have done in the first place.
One of the most important things about being a believer is obedience to the will of God for our lives. God is not simply attempting to turn us into nice people. There are a plenty of nice people still on their way to hell, and they are much nicer than most of us are. God is looking for an obedient people. Our homes are falling apart because of our disobedience and sinful nature. It is our own disobedience that kills the church. Families do not die, churches do not die and ministries do not die. We kill them through our disobedience. If your marriage is dying, somebody is killing it.
God’s goal is not simply to get us to say, “Yes,I believe in Jesus.” The goal is to get us to let Jesus live inside of us as we seek to live inside of Him. That is where life giving power is found. Living in Christ, produces life in our relationships.
It is only as we choose to grow in the will of God for our lives, that Jesus lives inside of us. We have to choose how to deal with anger instead of letting anger deal with us. When we choose to deal with it, we keep our cool and respond in a way acceptable to God. If we do not, we erupt like a volcano doing damage in all kinds of ways and directions at the same time.
We have to choose how to deal with envy and jealousy rather than letting it deal with us. When we choose to deal with them, we become thankful for what God has given to us and recognize God’s authority over our lives. When we leave them in charge, we become plotters, deceivers, slanderers, and gossips. Each day is a day in which we have to choose to allow Jesus to live in us. Our lives become an ongoing cycle of confession and repentance and rededication.
Can you think of anyone you are jealous of or envious of today. You can be envious of something you want to have but don’t for some reason or another. I can confess an envy of other ministries. It’s like God with all the hours we work for the kingdom and all the years we’ve put in, why hasn’t our church taken off like some of the other churches. I still struggle at times with envy. But I fight it by recognizing, that God’s plan for me is not necessarily what I think God’s plan for me should be.
The first time Jesus talks about greatness in the kingdom, he does not speak in terms of size, or speaking ability, or ministries. He talks about our obedience to the word of God. Whoever practices and teaches these things will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. We all have the same chance to become great, because we all have the same chance to choose a life of obedience.
There were four guys who became very jealous of Moses and Aaron. One was named Korah and he was a Levite. It was the Levites, job to take care of the temple. The Levites were the only tribe to be able to work in the house of God. The other three guys were Dathan, Abariam and On. They were from the tribe of Reuben. Reuben was Levi’s brother, and Reuben was the oldest of the twelve sons of Jacob. By law Reuben’s children would have been the leaders of the other tribes, but Reuben lost his place of being the first born, because he had sex with his step mother.
So Korah is upset, because even though he is a Levite, he is not among the priests that God had ordained and he wanted to be a priest. The other guys are upset, because they think their father still should have retained his position, and therefore they should be the leaders of the people, and not Moses and Aaron. Instead of accepting the place God had given them, they decided to try to over throw Aaron and Moses.
They got 250 other community leaders to go along with them, to put Moses and Aaron in their place and make them step down as leaders of the people. Now if you know anything about biblical history, you know that God chose Moses to be the leader, and appointed Aaron to be his spokesman. Moses did not ask for the job, did not want the job, and turned down the job. But God told him to do it anyways. Because of his healthy fear of God, He did what God told him to do.
Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On, tried to make their case from a religious sounding view. “ Hey Moses and Aaron. Who died and left you two guys in charge? Why do you go around telling the rest of us what to do like you have some secret connection to God? God chose all His people. And all of God’s people are holy. You have no right to be the leaders over us. Why then have you set yourselves above everybody else?”
Do you see how envy, jealousy, and a lack of a fear of God can cause us to see things in a very distorted manner. This whole group of 250 plus the four, were all among the group that would not go into the promised land. They all saw the miracles that God had done through Moses. They saw the fire when Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to talk with God. Now they’re saying, “that’s nothing—any of us could have done those things.”
Now Moses was not a pushover. The first thing he did was fall face down to the ground. I believe he first prayed, “Lord you got to help me deal with these people and I need something right now.” He then responded. You see when you are angry, speak first to God, and then to whom you’re angry. He said, “You guys have gone to far this time. We’ll let God settle the matter. Korah you and your 250 boys come here tomorrow to offer incense to God. Let God decide who is holy and who is not. At this point On must have backed out of the conspiracy because nothing further is said about him.
When some of the group left, Moses said “Korah, with all God has done for you, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You and the other Levites have a privileged place among all God’s people. But you’re not satisfied. You want to take over the priesthood itself. You have banded together not against Aaron and the priests. You’ve turned against the Lord.” When we reject the assignment God has given us, we’ve turned against the Lord? What assignment do you have, that you have intentionally neglected?
Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram sent back word, “Brother we don’t have to listen to you. You made us leave Egypt with all its milk and honey to die out here in the desert. You didn’t bring us into the promised land that you told us we were going to get. Now you think you can beat us as you please. We are not coming anywhere.” Moses got angry but kept his cool.
The next day each of the 250 and Aaron were to offer bowls with incense in it before the Lord. Everybody showed up at the Tent of Meeting. The glory of God showed up and God told Moses and Aaron to get away from the crowd because he was about to wipe them all out. Moses and Aaron got on their knees and prayed for God’s mercy and for the lives of the people . Now the people could not hear what God was telling Moses.
God told Moses to tell the people, to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Moses went to their tents and told the people, God said for you all to get away from these tents. So all the people started backing away. Korah, Dathan and Abiram are surrounded by their families at the tents. They were not about to back down. This was going to be their moment of victory.
Moses said, “look, these guys think they should be in control, because they do not believe that God has sent me. Look, if they die a natural death and experience what usually happens to men, then know the Lord did not send me. But if God does something totally new like splitting open the ground and causing them to fill into the grave alive then you will no these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”
Have you ever treated the Lord with contempt. I’m going to do what I want to do no matter what the word of God says. Each time we do less than what God requires of us, we’re treating our God with contempt. Just like John treated his boss Jeff. (Counseling session on marriage)
No sooner than Moses finished speaking the words, the ground underneath Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their families with all their possessions split open and they all fell into the earth alive and died. All the people started running in all directions saying, “the earth is going to swallow us too.” Even nature is at God’s command, and it only does what God allows it do.
As for the 250 men who were still at the Tent of Meeting offering incense to the Lord, fire came out from the Lord and consumed all of them and they became smoldering remains. They thought they could reinvent God to adjust God to what they wanted Him to be. We come back again to Proverbs 1:7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
When you think of Jesus, what do you think He is really trying to do in your life? Not only that, were do you picture Jesus as being. Is Jesus outside your life, somewhere on a cross dying for your sin? Is Jesus somewhere behind door number 3, waiting for you to call on him in your next crisis. Is Jesus somewhere far down a road you use to travel, but you do not go there anymore?
Jesus does not want to be on the outside waiting to be used as we might think convenient. Jesus wants to be on the inside, working for a change in our lives that we might have life and have it more abundantly. The men who rebelled against Moses, wanted religion, but they had no relationship with God. You can be religious by doing religious things.
You can only be a Christian by allowing Christ to bring you into a living relationship with God. A relationship that will involve love, respect, obedience, and fear. The call to follow Christ, is a challenge to quit trying to do everything your way, so that you can discover God’s true plan and purpose for your life. Obedience to God never works if only the head is involved. It only works when then heart wants to be changed.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
7/23/06 Numbers 14:20-45 Acts 5:1-11
Text Numbers 16:1-45
A. Hey, Why Not Just Change The Rules
1. I think I Have A Better Way
2. If Only I Could Go Back
3. John Gets A Job From A Friend Jeff
4. Healthy Fear Can Be Good
5. Who Exactly Is God
Proverbs 1:7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
B. How Important Is Fear
1. Jesus Talks About Fear.
Luke 12:5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
2. We Forget Who Is In Control
3. Ananais & Sapphira— Lacked Fear
4. Skimming Led To Death & Fear
C. How Important Is Obedience
1. Moses, The People, The Promise
2. We Can’t Do It
3. 12 Spies—2 Left Alive
4. The Vote To Overrule God Passes
5. God Ignores The Outcome
D. How To Become Great
1. Being Nice Is Not The Goal
2. Obedience Makes A Difference
3. It’s A Choice To Grow In God
4. Anger, Envy, Jealousy
5. Self Examination
6. Jesus—Not Size, Ability, Ministry
Matthew 5:19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
E. The Battle For Leadership
1. Korah—Levites Work In God’s House
2. Dathan, Abiram, On—Rueben
3. Just Not Satisfied Or Obedient
4. 250 Leaders Join In The Rebellion
F. Charges Against Moses & Aaron
1. You Took Over Illegally
2. Everybody Is Holy
3. The Past Is Forgotten
4. Moses Respond With Prayer
5. Moses Issues A Rebuke
6. Let God Decide Who Is Holy
7. Dathan & Abiram Reject Moses’ Call
G. God Chooses To Intervene
1. Moses & Aaron Prays For The People
2. The People Separate
3. God’s Judgment Falls
4. Korah, Abiram, Dathan Lose It All
5. The Fate Of The 250
6. Trying To Reinvent God
H. What Does God To Do For Us
1. Where Is Jesus
2. The Inside Connection
3. Religious Is Not Relationship
4. A Balance Of Love, Fear, Obedience
Respect.
5. God Has A Plan
