Sermon Central
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What Have You Done For Me Lately Series
Contributed by E. True Neilson on Dec 15, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: At first glance the book of Numbers reads a bit like an operations manual. It’s got numbers of soldiers, lists of names, and a bit of repetition. Tucked between those lists and numbers are some stories of real people, dealing with real issues of faith!
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BETWEEN THE NUMBERS
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?
NUMBERS 20
***This message tagteam preached with Billy (layperson in our church)
INTRODUCTION - VERSE 1 (ERIK)
-Everyone has funny things that gets said in their house with no one else around.
-For years one of our family jokes came from my wife Laura.
-When the kids were whining about doing chores, or if I was whining about doing chores she had this kind of shut down saying she’d use.
-“Why should I have to vacuum, or clean toilets, pick after the dog?”
-And Laura would say three little words, “I GAVE BIRTH!”
-It’s pretty hard for me to compete with that! If the world was a fair place mother’s might be exempt from bad chores for life because they gave birth.
-But you can only rest your laurels so long. You can only appeal back to previous good deeds so many times before people start saying, “That was a long time ago.”
-What have you done for me lately?
-In our Numbers story today we’re looking at critical chapter in the story of Israel’s Exodus.
-There has been one family that has been prominent in the leading of God’s people.
-MOSES, AARON AND MIRIAM HAVE BEEN GOD’S CHOSEN LEADERS FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS.
-They were mostly faithful people with a few hiccups along the way.
-They were key people that God used at key points to accomplish his purposes.
-But as we begin chapter 20 we see their season of leadership is beginning to wind down.
1 In the first month of the year, the whole community of Israel arrived in the wilderness of Zin and camped at Kadesh. While they were there, Miriam died and was buried.
-Miriam, the sister of Moses passed away after many years of service.
-God had said that only Joshua and Caleb would enter the Promised Land, but we’d kind of assume that Moses and his family would also make the cut.
-But Miriam’s time came. And in the midst of dealing with that loss, the people decide it’s been a while since their last rebellion and they begin another episode of faithless outbursts.
2 There was no water for the people to drink at that place, so they rebelled against Moses and Aaron.
-This wasn’t the first time they had rebelled against Moses.
-And this wasn’t the first time they’d complained about water. If you look way back
EXODUS 17 WAS THE FIRST TIME THE PEOPLE WERE CRYING OUT FOR WATER.
-Being really thirsty can make people cranky...they were talking about killing Moses if he didn’t find some water. That’s why our church has a water fountain right down the hall!
-God didn’t bring the Israelites out of Egypt just so they could die of dehydration.
-The first time God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff, and out came water.
-The people had more than enough water for themselves, their kids, their livestock.
-It was a miracle! God provided water out of nowhere.
-So here they are again, needing water and they’ve seemingly forgot about God, his power, his providence...but they hadn’t forgotten how to whine.
-Almost 40 years had past since that first incident, and once again the people need water, and once again they are mad at Moses.
-”We know we got water last time Moses, but what have you done for us lately?”
VERSES 3-8 (BILLY)
- Let’s set the scene a little bit before heading into verse 3.
- Imagine this: you and your family are going to live like nomads for a while: full-time camping
-No hotels. No showers. You are staying in tents. And on top of that you’ll travel to 42 different camping locations. 42.
- So there is a lot of stuff that you take with you, and you know we always take too much.
- Car is all loaded up with tent, food, clothes, dogs, camping equipment, probably an ipad, fishing poles and equipment.
-That is just a small list. Many of us tow a little trailer with even more in it.
-Now you get to the campsite and what do you have to do?
- Set everything up so that you can enjoy yourself!
-What is the least enjoyable time of a camping? Setting everything up!
-And just when you have everything set up, it’s time to take it down and move on.
-Repeat these steps again at the next stop
-You repeat this 42 different times
-You might have been excited with a giant smile on your face at the beginning of this adventure
-You were going to be out in nature, spending time with family, sleeping under the stars and roasting marshmallows (manna)
-But each stop along the way, that smile would grows more and more weary and the excitedness has begun to fade.
