Desert Living

Moses  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  42:52
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Wednesday night we launch REACH! Yes!!!! This church is one of the most valuable things we do as a church. REACH for us is the first touch with families in our area. We bus in approximately 80-100 students under the age of 18. We will feed dinner to 200 people and about 140 will be under the age of 18. For some, this opportunity will be their only opportunity in their life to hear and understand the Gospel!
Matthew 18:5 HCSB
And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me.
I remind you that the number one asset this church has is the children. The children are more important than the chairs, this building, the Village, the buses or this sound equipment. The children are the number one asset to this church!
God has designed a cool way for everyone to come and be a part of this unique way to REACH children in our area with Gospel of Jesus.
I sometimes forget where we once were. I remember well when all the kids that attended this church fit in 3 classrooms. I remember when one 15 passenger van ran 1 trip to pick up kids. I remember when one trip became 2 and the 47 passenger bus we were given to us. I remember well the time my wife made lasagne for everyone and our kitchen in our apartment looked like a disaster of lasagne had taken place in our kitchen. I remember when the adults had to meet outside for Bible study because their was not enough room for everyone inside.
I remember the night we started to pray and I was telling the kids to take less food because we did not have enough and I was instructed to just pray for the food and so I took it serious and prayed. I prayed for the Lord to bless the food and at the end of Amen here came a huge bucket of Fried chicken that never ran out.
I will never forget in this building when Janis Cravens suggested for the kids to be seated instead of standing up so that they could be served rather than go through a line.
Here we are getting ready to once again launch REACH. There will be some changes but not as drastic as in years past but some changes.
This morning we fast forward for just a moment in the story of Exodus and the life of Moses.
Numbers 11
(Show Picture)
At this point, the Israelites have escaped slavery. They have seen God do some amazing things in their lives. They find themselves in the desert. Notice on the screen that you can see some green areas on this map. Look at the upper left what do you see? Some green area. This was Egypt and now look to the upper right and what do you see? Some green space this was the promise land. This area in between is the desert. Desert is defined as...
Desert: a dry, barren area of land, especially one covered with sand, that is characteristically desolate, waterless, and without vegetation.
synonyms:wasteland, wastes, wilderness, wilds, barren land; dust bowl
Certainly here in Numbers 11 the Israelites are in a desert literally but sometimes life brings us to the desert.
Ever feel like you are in a dry, barren area of land that is desolate, waterless and without vegetation. It feels like a wasteland a wilderness so to speak.
These deserts could be change in career, college students change in major, graduation, marriage struggles, new area of unfamiliar parenting or new life stage for your kids, new job, new school, new life in sobriety, relationship status change. New changes to REACH
These things can make us feel as though we are in a desert of life.
Numbers 11:1–9 HCSB
Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. So that place was named Taberah, because the Lord’s fire had blazed among them. Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!” The manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium. The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.
So for two years they have been eating this manna and the word manna in Hebrew means what is this?
Exodus 16:15 HCSB
When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was. Moses told them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.
They called this Manna and the word meaning what is this. So they have been eating this for two years.
Imagine eating the same food every meal for two years. You would grow tired of it. Day one breakfast, lunch and dinner. Day 2 breakfast lunch and dinner and day 3 breakfast lunch and dinner.
I love this description
Numbers 11:7–9 HCSB
The manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium. The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.
Reminds me of the time in Honduras when they took us on a tour of the town and took us to the famous bakery where we could all buy some Rosquitas. Famous bakery item in Honduras. We all loaded up. We get back to the place and we dive in to these corn based treats and the leader says man that is my favorite part of the trip watching everyone buy those things and then find out how they taste. He just laughed at all of us.
Numbers 11:4–6 HCSB
4 Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? 5 We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6 But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”
Complaining
Complain and the Lord provides
Exodus 15:22–26 HCSB
22 Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water. 23 They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah. 24 The people grumbled to Moses, “What are we going to drink?” 25 So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he threw it into the water, the water became drinkable. He made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah and He tested them there. 26 He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”
Exodus 16:2–4 HCSB
2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow My instructions.
So the people complained and the Lord provides
The desert does not grow a lot of things but in a desert one thing that does grow is complaints.
All the while the Lord is teaching the people to trust Him. The Lord shows these people that living water comes from Him and that He is the bread of life.
God uses the desert in their life to teach.
Numbers 11:10–15 HCSB
10 Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry; Moses was also provoked. 11 So Moses asked the Lord, “Why have You brought such trouble on Your servant? Why are You angry with me, and why do You burden me with all these people? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so You should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nursing woman carries a baby,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers? 13 Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me: ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me. 15 If You are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now. If You are pleased with me, don’t let me see my misery anymore.”
The Lord answers
Numbers 11:16–23 HCSB
16 The Lord answered Moses, “Bring Me 70 men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself. 18 “Tell the people: Purify yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: ‘Who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and cried to Him: ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ” 21 But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with 600,000 foot soldiers, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ 22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? You will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”
The Lord disciplines
Numbers 11:31–35 HCSB
31 A wind sent by the Lord came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them at the camp all around, three feet off the ground, about a day’s journey in every direction. 32 The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail—the one who took the least gathered 50 bushels —and they spread them out all around the camp. 33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord’s anger burned against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague. 34 So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat. 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth and remained there.
The Lord disciplines to bring redemption and restoration.
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