From Sinai to Calvary: Jesus, the Greater Moses

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:00:58] Let's lift up our voices as we worship.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:01:01] There's a man on the throne.
[00:01:05] He's in his hands.
[00:01:21] A son, a father, who defeated his love.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:02:17] Holy Spirit.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:08:01] To worship with us today, my name is Krista, and we're just glad you're here.
[00:08:06] Let's talk about a few things coming up around here at Watermark.
[00:08:10] First up, attention all you teens out there.
[00:08:13] this evening is our galentines and palentines hangouts at seven o'clock or excuse me five to seven don't show up at seven it'll be over we're gonna have some dinner girls you're invited to our home we're gonna be painting some cute little mini canvases and have some fun sweet sparkly
[00:08:33] bubbly drinks so come on over boys you're gonna be at the church due to the rain you're gonna be grilling some dogs, nine square, hide and go seek in the dark, all the good stuff. So we just want
[00:08:43] to hang out with you guys. Come on out. Next up, we have one week left for our baby bottle campaign.
[00:08:51] I'm sure some of you already have your cute little bottles at home. If any of you would like to stop at the cart in the lobby and grab one, that would be great. You can fill them with change, cash,
[00:09:02] or checks. All those proceeds will support our local pregnancy centers. We just need those bottles back by next Sunday. And last but not least, we're going to turn our attention to the screen behind me and we're going to check in with our team
[00:09:16] who is currently serving in the DR. Good morning Watermark! We made it! Your

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:09:24] Watermark mission team is in Haravacoa, Dominican Republic. We are here with our ministry mission partners, Errol and Agrima Zimmerman. We love them and we're so grateful to be able to serve alongside them this week. This morning we'll be up
[00:09:42] at the Mountain Church. We'll be leading worship up there and then later this evening we'll be leading ministry of Light and Grace Church. We're excited about that. We're also going to be doing a lot of ministry during the week right
[00:09:54] here on this campus of the Light and Grace Ministries. We'll be doing workshops with the teens here. We'll be doing Bible studies with the children and the teens.
[00:10:04] we'll be hanging out with the soccer team doing some things with them so we've got lots of good stuff going on here but in addition to that we've got some work projects one we're really excited about is building a chicken house right here
[00:10:18] on the campus of light and grace and we're hoping to provide chickens for them and eggs for the ministry and all the children here so we're excited about that we'll give it a go never built a chicken house so we'll see how we do we
[00:10:31] hope you have a great week. Keep us in your prayers, and we'll look forward to seeing you next Sunday.
[00:10:37] Blessings.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:16:47] are dead are breathing in life again you cause your son to on darkest night for all that you've done we will pour out our love this will be anthem song jesus we love the doorless have found
[00:17:47] The orphans now have us lost As we sin in these rags You've done so sweet Jesus, our affection Our devotion Poured out of Jesus Jesus, our affection 1414 says, the Lord will fight for you

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:23:54] You only need to be still He is the roaring lion that fights the battles on our behalf So whatever we are going through Be it circumstances, our sin, or attacks of the enemy Be encouraged because he fights for us
[00:24:12] So let this praise be our battle cry

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:24:15] My battle shield, sword for the fight Igniting thy delight And God, that's our prayer this morning, that we need you to be our vision.

[00:26:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:26:03] Guide us, open our hearts this morning, whatever we're going through.
[00:26:08] We pray over the sermon as Pastor Dan brings your word.
[00:26:14] We also pray for the team that's abroad in the Dominican, that you protect them from physical harm, from spiritual harm and spiritual attacks.
[00:26:24] And God, we just thank you for who you are.
[00:26:26] and we just praise you this morning amen well hey good morning for those of you don't know me I am

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:27:00] Dan friend of watermarks friend of Joel's and I am so excited to be here with you today and to be able to continue just a little bit of this story of Moses that you've been going through I think
[00:27:10] it's really cool that you've been able to really take a lot of time and go through the story of Moses and how God has used him and so as if you've ever read you know some of Moses before there are
[00:27:20] definitely unique challenges he has and some that are common. And sometimes it reminds me a little bit of some of the challenges I've been through myself as I was looking at this passage. So if
[00:27:31] you know me or you've heard me before, you know I work in public education. I've worked in public education for almost 18 years. I actually love working in public education. Believe it or not, I actually really like it. When we were snowed out and there were no kids, I was kind of like
[00:27:43] a sad puppy. And when they came back, it was like, oh, there's kids again. It was great. But for three years I did take a pause from public education and I got to work at a local church
[00:27:53] it was a multi-site church and I got to be a campus pastor for that church so I got to be a part of leading a core group and establishing a place to meet and leading this campus kind of
[00:28:05] doing the you know the daily operations and making sure the the services happen and it was a really cool job to be able to have I got to learn a lot in fact the reason I have any level of comfort
[00:28:16] really teaching the bible some things that i learned at that church but there was also this weird transition and so some of you might have been through something like this before there's this transition from the excitement of the newness of starting something new to the drudgery sometimes
[00:28:36] of the day-to-day leading the thing right so i remember there was so much excitement like we're we're picking out a place i'm meeting people who live in the area but have been a part of the
[00:28:47] church farther away and we're like hey we're bringing a campus to where you live and there was excitement we're picking a facility we're getting a company to come in and put sound and audio equipment in there i'm going into coffee shops and meeting with leaders and getting life
[00:29:02] i mean it was a very exciting time some of my favorite memories are just those day-to-day or or those weekly setup and teardowns.
[00:29:11] My daughter had just turned two when we launched the campus, so she got used to sleeping in her clothes on Saturday night so I would literally just go in the mornings and I would pick her up, put her right in the car
[00:29:22] and drive in and we'd do the setup.
[00:29:23] I mean, a lot of excitement.
[00:29:25] But again, once we kinda get through the excitement of getting it going, and don't get me wrong, there was a lot of joy of leading it, but we started running into challenges that 27 year old me, quite frankly, was not ready for.
[00:29:39] Okay, and so one was honestly really heartbreaking.
[00:29:43] And but so we had this couple, they were gonna be one of our life group leaders.
[00:29:47] They were very active.
[00:29:49] We were really excited to have them on board.
[00:29:51] And so they called me one day and they said, Hey, Dan, we've kind of got a challenge we've run into and we're wondering if you could just come over and talk to us.
[00:29:58] I'm like, absolutely.
[00:30:00] Right, here I am, I'm gonna go save the day.
[00:30:02] 27 year old me, I thought I knew everything.
[00:30:04] I'm sure I was the only one.
[00:30:05] and so i go over there right and we meet with them and so just to kind of give you background this couple had five kids so they had adopted a little girl uh when she was i'm wanting to say
[00:30:16] a toddler and then they'd had four boys after her and so by the time i met with them the girl was like 10th or 11th grade they had had her since she was just a little girl uh well as you can imagine
[00:30:26] if anyone knows anyone who has adopted children there's a lot of joy there but those kids have seen some things and sometimes that brings their challenges with them into the home and so that had been the case in this family so i came over thinking i'm going to be there to encourage them
[00:30:40] and they said no dan we're thinking about terminating the adoption what now we don't want her to be our daughter anymore oh i wasn't ready for this okay uh long story short we sat for a long time we went through a lot of things we brought some other people in who are far more
[00:31:01] experience dealing with crisis situations with me. The good news is they did keep the daughter.
[00:31:06] Okay. I forgot to bring that up in the first service and people came to me afterwards. You left me hanging, Dan. Did they keep the girl? Yes, they kept the daughter. But this was one
[00:31:14] of those challenges I didn't see going. And it was a huge shift of that excitement of the newness to, oh my, this is going to be hard. Right. And maybe you've not been able to have the opportunity
[00:31:25] to lead a campus like that, but we've all been through some sort of experience of that newness and then the everyday, right? Like you're so excited to have a baby, and then there's the 2 a.m. feedings, right? Or you're so excited about the new promotion only to find out that everything
[00:31:41] is your fault, right? Or just all these things, like whatever it is, there's always that excitement over the new thing, and then there's the transition of the day-to-day challenges of what's going on.
[00:31:53] And in the passage that we're getting into with Moses' story today, that's a lot of what's going on with Moses is he's going from being that charismatic, incredible leader who helps lead these people out of slavery. That's already in the past. He takes them to Mount Sinai. They get the
[00:32:10] law. He overcomes a major challenge with the golden calf. That's all in the past. They've got the law. They're building the tabernacle. They've got the worship set up. Like they've done some things. There's motion going on. This is a lot of excitement. And now it's time to start that
[00:32:27] day-to-day leadership of dealing with a group of people who are sometimes frustrating. I think we can say that, right? Who are sometimes frustrating. And so he's dealing with the day-to-day kind of administrative leadership responsibilities that sometimes is really, really hard. And so we're
[00:32:44] going to go through a lot of texts today. We're not going to do all of it, but we're going to go through portions of five different chapters of the book of Numbers today. And Numbers gets a bad
[00:32:54] rap sometimes because it starts with a military census and most of us don't read genealogies for fun, but it's chock full of narrative and seeing God's faithfulness of what's going on. And so we're going to go through a lot of these challenges of what Moses is going through. And as I was
[00:33:07] reading through this text, what I really noticed is four unique leadership challenges that Moses ran into. So that's kind of be what we're looking at. And so we're going to get, so we're going to
[00:33:18] start in numbers 10 verse 11, if you've got a Bible or an app, or you can follow along with the insert, but challenge one is misplaced nostalgia, misplaced nostalgia. Like they're going to be excited about some things that they were never excited about before. And again, so
[00:33:35] in number 10, the people of God, they're at Mount Sinai, right? They've built the tabernacle. They're getting their heads together. Like they're gathering things. About a year has passed since they got out of slavery and they're getting ready to leave Sinai on their way to Canaan,
[00:33:51] the promised land, the land of milk and honey, the thing they're all so excited about, right?
[00:33:57] And Moses intended to lead them there. So chapter 10 of Numbers verse 11, it says, on the 20th day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. Then the tabernacle was taken down and the Gershonites and Morarites who carried
[00:34:14] it set out. So again, this is excitement, right? Like when, when the, when the scriptures say that the cloud lifted up, that means, all right guys, time to go, right? We've been gathering around Sinai. We've been learning. We've been gathering. We've been getting things in place. Now it's time
[00:34:31] to go. We're going to the promised land. We're going to Canaan. We're going to get that milk.
[00:34:35] We're going to get that honey. This is a big day. We're exciting, right? That's what the cloud's doing. Like when the cloud goes up and it starts moving, that means God's telling you, let's go,
[00:34:44] right? So we get to move and it's exciting, right? So anytime you step into a leadership role, what you're going to see though, is even when there's an exciting transition, there's always that group, always, right? I'm sure we have none of those here, but there's always that group,
[00:35:06] right? That anything you have, right? So you step in that leadership role, there's always the group in this particular passage, they're going to be called the rabble, right? They complain hard.
[00:35:16] They complain loud. They complain fast, right? Like we're not even getting very far. So we'll pick up a chapter 11 verse one. Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord. And when he heard them, his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them
[00:35:34] and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. God got to it pretty quickly, right? Like this is just a generic complaint. We don't really know what they're complaining about. We just know they're complaining about something. And God says, all right, I'll set part of your camp on fire.
[00:35:50] Okay. Right. So we don't really know again what they're complaining about. They're just, and so Moses graciously pleaded with God. God put the fire out, but he's sending a message.
[00:36:00] We're not going to do this complaining. That's not what we're about. Remember what I got you out of. Remember where we're going. We're not going to do the complaining, right? So we'll move ahead to verse four and the complaints get more specific. The rabble with them began to crave
[00:36:15] other food. And again, the Israelites started wailing and said, if only we had meat to eat.
[00:36:22] We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost. Also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna. You know, the free bread that was falling on the ground? This particular complaint is what I call misplaced
[00:36:44] nostalgia, right? The scriptures warn against nostalgia anyway, right? Ecclesiastes 7.10, verse 7.10, for instance, says, do not say, why were the old days better than these? For it is not wise to ask such questions. And in this passage, Solomon's just talking about normal
[00:37:03] times. They're not looking back on normal times. They're looking back on slavery. They're like, remember slavery? Wasn't it so good? Y'all, we ate all the time. It was like buffet every day.
[00:37:19] It was so good. Man, I miss slavery. Like that's what they're saying. Come on folks, right? And so the times they're looking back on is bad, right? And there are several paths, like they're all like,
[00:37:31] man, why'd you bring us out? This was so good. No, no. There's several places in Exodus where it literally says God heard their cry, right? They wanted out. They clearly wanted out. And now they're talking about and reminiscing over it like it was a family vacation and God took it
[00:37:48] personally. All right. Verse 10, Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry and Moses was troubled, right? Ultimately that complaint gets to Moses and it becomes a huge discouragement for him, right? It's easy to forget
[00:38:05] this but think about it i mean he really put himself at god's lead right but he put himself at significant risk when he did what he did to help them be freed from slavery right you don't
[00:38:17] just walk up to pharaoh and start bossing people around i don't know if you know this right i don't even go up to my boss right like i'm an assistant principal i don't go to the principal and boss him
[00:38:26] around i just don't right and he couldn't put me to death like pharaoh could right so moses is coming in he's bossing fair around he's telling him what to do he's taking significant personal risk he is going through like he's going through the ringer for these people and now he signed up
[00:38:41] to lead them for the rest of his days and they're complaining about their freedom so one of the maxims of leadership in general is that you cannot cannot make everybody happy it's true in christian
[00:38:58] in leadership. It's true in leadership in general. And don't get me wrong. Like if you are in leadership, whether it is leading your children, whether it's leading your friend group, or whether it's leadership at work, if that is your position in any way, it is a privilege. Don't get me wrong.
[00:39:12] And there is joy in it, but you can not make everybody happy, right? That's why Nick Saban, one of the most winningest college football coaches of all time said, if you want to make everyone happy, don't be a leader, sell ice cream. For the record, it still won't work, right?
[00:39:31] So some of what Moses is going through is classic leadership frustrations, but part of it is unique because Moses had a unique calling. He was working as a leader, but he also had a very
[00:39:43] unique calling that no one else had to oversee their freedom from slavery, to lead them into the promised land, so he thought at this point, right? And to lead them to establish the law, to get worship going, to write a whole bunch of the Old Testament, right? Like he had a unique
[00:39:57] calling. And so because of that, what we're going to see is we're going to see God really come to his defense in many ways. And listen, you and I, none of us have the calling that Moses had,
[00:40:07] but the good news is if you are doing what God has called you to do, there may be challenges.
[00:40:12] There is nothing about reading anything of Moses' story that makes you think that leadership will be easy, but it does show you that God is going to come to your back, right? Or as Charles Swindoll
[00:40:22] said it, you don't have to run your own defense. God runs the defense for you. And that's what we're going to see, right? So we're going to go verse 11. Moses asked the Lord, why have you
[00:40:34] brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me
[00:40:44] to carry them in my arms as a nurse carries an infant to the land you promise on oath to their ancestors where can i get meat for all these people they keep wailing give us meat to eat
[00:40:54] i cannot carry all these people by myself the burden is too heavy for me if this is how you're going to treat me please go ahead and kill me if i found favor in your eyes and do not let me face
[00:41:06] my own ruin right he's discouraged i mean i get the discouragement right after all he's done for them right right like think about again parents you get it like my kids are great right but there
[00:41:18] there are moments, right? There are moments, right? So just to summarize this next passage, God knows Moses really does have a heavy leadership burden. After all, he is one guy trying to lead all these people. So he puts a plan in place. He says, take, we need you to go
[00:41:34] appoint 70 elders. They're going to lead for you. I'm going to take some of the spirit that I put on you. I'm going to put it on them, have them gather around the tent. They're going to prophesy
[00:41:43] and everybody's going to be like, okay, they're here to be in charge too. Honestly, Moses probably should have known this. This is the second time somebody's had to tell him about distributive leadership, right? So Moses really should have known this, right? But nonetheless, that's what
[00:41:56] he does, right? So he appoints the elders, brings them out of the tent, they start prophesying, boom, next step, right? But then we run into the next challenge, potential jealousy. Potential jealousy, right? Now Moses is going to handle it well, don't get me wrong, but there is a threat,
[00:42:12] a way that we're going to look at some potential jealousy. So verse 26, it says, however, two men whose names were Eldad and Medad had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but they did not go out to the tent. Yet the spirit also rested on them and they
[00:42:28] prophesied in the camp, right? So the 70 were supposed to gather around the tent. They prophesied in the camp. So they're out kind of in a different area. A young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and
[00:42:39] Medad are prophesying in the camp. He was probably like 13, 12. I don't know. Verse 28, Joshua, son of none who had been Moses' aid since youth spoke up and said, Moses, my Lord, stop them.
[00:42:53] They're being godly leaders. Tell them to quit. That was a side note. Paraphrased. Anyway, Moses had enough wisdom to recognize that these men were genuine and enough maturity to be okay with it. Listen, anytime, again, whether it's leadership or whatever, there's always going to
[00:43:11] be somebody that comes in as a threat. And if you're constantly feeling threatened by people, then you're going to be so consumed with jealousy that you're just going to not get anything done but that's not what moses does right verse 29 but moses replied are you jealous for my sake
[00:43:27] i wish that all the lord's people were prophets and that the lord would put his spirit on them right so this one was a smaller challenge right he had a he had a potential threat to his authority
[00:43:36] right but he handled it well and he and so it did affect one of his closest advisors and friends but he didn't get jealous. Okay. It was a little challenge. He handled it well. We move on. But the
[00:43:47] next one, much more personal because this one comes from his own family members. So the challenge three is a false scandal, false scandal. They're going to get upset about something that's not even legit and they're going to attack them. Right? So this is chapter 12, verse one, Miriam and Aaron
[00:44:10] began to talk against Moses because of his cushyte wife for he had married a cushyte has the Lord spoken only through Moses they asked hasn't he also spoken through us and the Lord heard this so there's a couple challenges right here
[00:44:28] so like for one thing the kingdom of cush was in Africa's around Ethiopia and Sudan so there could have been some racism here they didn't like that Moses had married out of his own race. There, there could have been some there. That's not specifically
[00:44:41] what they're complaining about. Uh, but, but there, that very well could have been some of what they're complaining. That could have been some of their complaint, right? Regardless, God's not having it. Cause what we do see they're complaining about is Swindoll says
[00:44:53] the real problem in their minds was that Moses hadn't turned to Miriam and Aaron to seek their counsel. Hey, mind if I marry this lady? He just did it on his own, right? Like that's ultimately,
[00:45:03] they're like, you're not coming to us. We're not getting to speak into your life. Okay. So regardless of what's happening, Miriam and Aaron were clearly threatened. They were jealous over Moses's unique calling and they took it out on him and his wife. And again, God's going to have
[00:45:20] his back, right? This one's going to put chills down your spine if you've ever been a kid to a father, right? So verse four, at once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, come out to the
[00:45:30] 10 of meeting all three of you. Anybody else just get that fear of like when your dad said, come here. So the three of them went out. Verse six, he said, listen to my words. When there is a prophet
[00:45:42] among you, I, the Lord reveal myself to them in visions. I speak to them in dreams, but this is not true of my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house with him. I speak face to face
[00:45:56] clearly and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? So God used this as an opportunity to affirm his unique relationship with
[00:46:10] Moses. Moses' unique calling. His was different. And he backed him up with physical evidence, right?
[00:46:15] I love how much God defended Moses. He's like, listen guys, Moses isn't my guy. Don't mess with them, right? Don't question him because you feel threatened. But again, to back up Moses and to prove that Miriam and Aaron are in the wrong, he showed them physically. Verse 10, when the cloud
[00:46:35] lifted up above the tent, Miriam's skin was leprous. It became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she had a defiling skin disease. And he said to Moses, please, my Lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.
[00:46:52] Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away, right?
[00:46:59] Once again, God comes to his defense.
[00:47:03] And once again, Moses is going to pray for them and intercede for them on their behalf.
[00:47:08] They straight up attack him and he still prays for them, right?
[00:47:14] Praise that God will remove the disease.
[00:47:16] and he eventually did, but he made her sit in it for a week. One thing I keep noticing about Moses is that he's so humble when people attack him. Listen, Moses has his flaws and you're going to
[00:47:27] see some of them next week. But when people attack him, he's humble. He prays for them. He intercedes for them. He like, he takes the criticism and art. Is there something I did wrong here? Right?
[00:47:39] So his brother and sister attack him. God vindicates him. And instead of rubbing it in their faces, he prays for them. Now, the final challenge we're going to look at might be less personal, but it's the one that Moses spends the most time explaining to all of them. This next
[00:47:55] text, and again, we're not going to hit on every passage, but this next text is the longest narrative in the book of Numbers. And it's the one where there's most, there's more pivoting, there's more change, right? Because at this point, they're going into Canaan. They're on the way to
[00:48:10] the land of milk and honey, but something's going to change in the next story. So what happened is God tells Moses hey you've got 12 tribes I need you to pick one leader from each tribe have them
[00:48:20] go scope out Canaan send them for 40 days a little over a month right have them go check it out see what the food's like see what the people are like see what the land's like so they can report back
[00:48:29] to people right and the idea is it should be a good report and so they do they go they're there for a little over a month according most commentators believe they traveled over 200 miles
[00:48:38] right and they got to see a lot of what they saw and apparently not as intimidated as they're going to pretend to be so what we're going to run into is our fourth challenge is he was almost sabotaged
[00:48:48] by fear sabotaged by fear because folks are going to come back they're going to be afraid and they're going to change the people's mind so again now we're in numbers 13 we're going to pick
[00:49:00] up on verse 23 when they reached the valley of eshcol they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them along with some pomegranates
[00:49:13] and figs. Let me be real, y'all. I've been to a lot of grocery stores. I bought a lot of grapes.
[00:49:18] I have never bought a cluster of grapes so big that I needed a buddy to help me carry it on a pole. These were some good grapes, some good land, like this was working, right? So they're coming
[00:49:33] back like, check it out. A lot of grapes, right? Along with some pomegranates and figs. The land was good. Verse 27, they gave Moses this account. We went into the land to which you sent us and it
[00:49:45] does flow with milk and honey. Here's its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The concern is that there's literally giants. So these spies, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, were so
[00:50:04] overwhelmed, so intimidated that they lied. They twisted the truth. Like, what are they afraid of?
[00:50:11] Had they not seen God be faithful before? I'm glad I've never questioned God's future faithfulness based on his past faithfulness. Okay, maybe I have. But they told lies that don't even make sense, right? Like here, they're like, y'all, the land's good. It's making giants. But then they
[00:50:30] change it, right? Check it out, verse 32. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they'd explored. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people saw there of a great size. Okay. Which one is it? Is it making giants or is it eating people?
[00:50:46] I mean, which one is it? Right? Like they can't even get their story straight. They're lying.
[00:50:50] They're twisting. They're making people afraid, all kinds of things right there. Right. So regardless, they got so discouraged and they convinced the people of Israel to follow suit so effectively that they have basically orchestrated a mutiny. So verse chapter 14,
[00:51:04] verse four, and they said to each other, we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.
[00:51:10] And it's more than just an attempt at mutiny. They're going to try to kill him. Verse 10, but the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent
[00:51:20] of meeting to all the Israelites. God's already taken them through some big stuff. And now we're like at the finish line. Oh no, we can't go in there. We're not going to make it. God's not
[00:51:37] going to be faithful enough. And God obviously took this very seriously. Moses was God's man.
[00:51:44] He had carefully selected and prepared him for this exact task. So this rejection was a rejection of Moses and ultimately a rejection of God himself. So verse 11 says, the Lord said to Moses, how long would these people treat me with contempt? How long would they refuse to believe in me in
[00:52:01] spite of all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they. Now, again, we're kind of not hitting all the passages. The 10 leaders, so Caleb and Joshua said, guys,
[00:52:16] we can do this, right? The other 10 spies, God did strike them down with a plague, right? A little bit later, Israel's going to say, oh man, we were wrong. Let's go in. And they're not going to make
[00:52:26] it. They're going to lose because they're not going with God's blessing. But here God says, I'm just going to strike them all down with a plague. And once again, Moses intercedes.
[00:52:38] Verse 11, the Lord said to Moses, how long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the signs I performed them? That's the part I just
[00:52:49] read already, wasn't it? Verse 13, Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear about it.
[00:52:55] By your power, you brought these people up from among them. In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people. This is verse 19. Just as you have pardoned them from the time
[00:53:04] they left Egypt until now. In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now. You know, one thing that
[00:53:18] makes these stories in Numbers and really the story of Moses and his leadership so compelling is it's so real, right? It's like a 40 year, are we there yet? It's just, it's just constant. Like
[00:53:34] you can't make them happy. It's like you plan these things and everybody's upset. Nobody wants to do it. They're afraid of every challenge. It's just one thing after another, right? So whether you identify with Moses, who's tried to lead people well, only to have constant attacks,
[00:53:52] or whether you're reading this and you're like, man, I'm like Israel. I just gripe all the time.
[00:53:57] I'm constantly doubting God. I'm constantly wondering why he brought me into this challenge.
[00:54:01] I'm constantly wondering what he's trying to do I'm blaming him for everything right so whatever it is like these stories are so compelling because we see them ourselves in them and they're real stories of how God dealt dealt with frustrating faithless people just like you and just like me
[00:54:18] so we've all experienced this right we've all experienced whether we're like Moses or whether the people right and the idea is like like Moses like if you've been in leadership for 20 minutes you know the challenges of being blamed for everything right guy in charge is
[00:54:36] just guy gets the blame right and all these things right so so to have to listen to this loud complaining to make the best decision you can only to see people upset you see but there's something else right beyond the fact
[00:54:47] that the stories are real and to make some compelling and it's true they are real stories and they are compelling but one of the other things here is it again as I'm reading through and I keep seeing Moses humility and I keep seeing Moses
[00:55:00] willingness to plead with God on behalf of people who are so frustrated, who are attacking, literally trying to kill him at one point. And God ultimately is merciful with them as well, right? But you see the Old and New Testaments are inextricably linked, right? Moses' leadership was
[00:55:18] real, but it also pointed to something greater. As we're going through these passages today, we didn't, again, we didn't have time to hit on every passage, but during all those times, we looked at where people complained, blamed, accused, lied, twisted the truth, right?
[00:55:35] Moses kept interceding for them. He knew they were guilty. He knew God is holy and he knew that he needed to intercede for them, to stand between, to stand between people and God and to say,
[00:55:48] be merciful with them. And he knew that he needed to intercede for them. It happened three times in this passage, right? When they complain and God set part of their camp on fire, Moses prayed,
[00:55:59] God puts the fire out. When Aaron and Miriam fussed at Moses for marrying a Cushite woman, Moses once again cried out to God to heal Miriam of her leprosy, and he does. When the people of
[00:56:12] Israel stage a mutiny and try to put Moses to death for leading them into the promised land, he pleads for God to forgive them, and he does. Now, there's consequences. We're going to see that that group of people, they don't get to go in. Pretty much everybody from 20 up are like,
[00:56:28] all right, y'all just going to die in the woods, the wilderness, not the woods, right? Y'all just going to die in the wilderness. Just going to, you're going to walk, you know, just going to
[00:56:35] hang out for 40. You're not going in. Your kids are going to go in, right? Y'all aren't going in, right? There's consequences, but God did forgive them. And about 1500 years later, there's another prophet like Moses. He's not just a prophet. He's more than a prophet, but he's sure not less than
[00:56:50] a prophet. In fact, Peter described Jesus this way, right? Deuteronomy says that he will point a prophet like Moses later on and in Acts 3 22 Peter says it's Jesus he's the one who's like
[00:57:02] Moses but it's better he's the one who's leading people out of slavery who deals with the frustrations and does it in ways that Moses could never imagine like Moses whom God spoke to face to face like he
[00:57:14] says in Noah in Numbers 12 8 Jesus had a unique relationship with the father where he approached him like a father and a son Moses interceded and pleaded with God to be merciful to a very stubborn
[00:57:26] people but moses died and the author of hebrews tells us that jesus always lives to intercede for us moses was rejected over and over by those whom he helped rescue and he tried to lead him
[00:57:39] into the promised land and john tells us that jesus was sent to his own and his own did not receive him moses was real and jesus is real and jesus is greater than even moses moses had that
[00:57:53] unique calling where he led them out of slavery into freedom. And that's what Jesus does for us.
[00:57:59] And he does it even greater. So Moses is real, but it points to something even better. And while Moses failed to intercede well enough so that the people could go into the land that God had promised
[00:58:12] them, Jesus' intercession succeeds, right? We're not there yet, but we look forward to something better than a landfill with milk and honey. We look forward to what Revelation says, where there will be no more night they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun for the lord god
[00:58:29] will give them light and they will reign forever and ever jesus is the greater moses he leads us into something better something moses could never imagine some of the people of israel could have never imagined because they would have still had struggles they would have still trials but he's
[00:58:44] leading us into something better y'all got excited moses was a true prophet but jesus is better and this story points to him. And he's the one that you and I can rely on today. Let's pray. God,
[00:59:00] we thank you so much for the real stories of the Old Testament, for the real stories of where we see that according to your steadfast love, you forgave a people over and over and over and over
[00:59:13] again. That when they went wrong, when they complained, they got frustrated like you, like, like everyone in this room, we all do this, right? And God, you forgave, you looked the other way.
[00:59:24] And when Moses interceded, you forgave them, you healed them, you transformed them. And God, we live in a time now where we are transformed from the inside out because Jesus, who is even greater than Moses, who leads us out of the slavery of sin and hell, and who leads us into
[00:59:43] the greater promised land of a new creation, as new creation. So God, we thank you so much for these stories that are true and real, that you show us so much about how you work through people
[00:59:57] like Moses in the past and the way that you redeem us through the greater Moses of Jesus today.
[01:00:05] And God, I pray that you will transform us more and more on the inside, that we will see more and more your glory as the only son of the father who truly speaks to the father face to face
[01:00:16] on our behalf. God, we praise you. We thank you for your work in Jesus name. Amen.

[01:01:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:01:21] Lord. It's your breath in our lungs so we pour

[01:01:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:01:31] it's your breath in our

[01:01:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:01:39] lungs so we pour out. You give love you are love. You bring

[01:02:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:02:01] life to store. Father Mike, like always

[01:05:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:05:52] it is such a privilege to be with you. Thank you so much for letting me come.
[01:05:59] Y'all are really great people to teach the Bible to. I do want to take a moment in just a second to pray for the team Dominican Republic again.
[01:06:06] it is really exciting to be able to see just a glimpse of what they're getting to do who knew you could build chicken houses to the glory of God, like how cool is that and so we're going to pray for them
[01:06:17] we're going to pray they stay healthy and safe as they go out, but that more than anything is that God will use the work they do and the word they proclaim to transform lives for the gospel
[01:06:27] in the Dominican Republic so let's do that now God we do thank you so much for the work you are doing here, we thank you so much that a team is able to take the work you're doing here and take that work to the Dominican Republic
[01:06:40] and to proclaim the glories of Jesus Christ in the Dominican Republic. I pray that you will give them the right words to say. I pray that you will give them hearts to love the people that they
[01:06:50] encounter. I pray that you will help them avoid illness. I pray that you will keep them safe and that you will use them for your glory, that they will be able to see that front row seat of
[01:07:02] you doing what only you can do when your people show a willingness to go where you've called them to go. And so God, I thank you for the work that they are doing. I pray that you will be with
[01:07:12] them and that you will bring them safely home to be able to worship here once again at Watermark Church. God, we thank you for who you are, for what you're doing in all of us. And we pray that
[01:07:21] we will be able to remember the greater Moses as we go throughout this week, this week and every encounter we have in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks everybody.