Let us pray. Lord thank you for how you have blessed Sherry and I here at CR. May CR always grow in their love for you and your word. amen.

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Antony Price
5 years ago
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1 Moses at the Rock: Doing Things God's Way Peter Lim Intro: Good morning. I just want to say that Sherry and I have enjoyed getting to know you all here at CR. I am so glad that the Lord led us to part of this fellowship. We appreciate your prayers for us and our future ministry, however the Lord will lead us to serve him. I hope that you all will continue to look to the Lord. In my preaching and pastoring, that has always been my hope, that people would not focus on me, but the Lord. If Sherry or I have been any help or blessing to you, please remember that the Lord was working behind the scenes, the Lord brought us here for this period of time, so praise and thanksgiving should go to the Lord. Let us pray. Lord thank you for how you have blessed Sherry and I here at CR. May CR always grow in their love for you and your word. amen. Last week we looked at the subject of making plans and how the Lord has a master plan for everyone, His plan of salvation. And often there is danger of forgetting to let God guide and shape our plans. Sometimes we do things our way, instead of God's way. But we need to do things the right way, God's way. I am reminded of this every time I drive around this area in La Paz. Especially when I first go to La Paz. I had to pay close attention to the direction of the streets. Some streets go this way, others go the other way, and some go both ways, so you have to remember to look both ways on some streets. I remember turning the wrong way on one street. Oh no, car are coming at me. I learn that any time I needed to boost my prayer life, I just needed to drive on this streets. Oh Lord, help me. Not doing things God's way is the same as driving down a one-way street in the WRONG way. You don't want to do it. Not doing things God's way is something we all have to be careful of. It does not matter if you have been a Christian for 4 days or for 40 years. Even believers who we consider great followers of the Lord have failed to do this before. Even great Bible leaders like Moses have at one time or another failed to do this. Last week we look at an important event in the life of Moses. Today we are going to look at another similar event in the life of Moses. In today's passage, the people of Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for about 40 years. There were a new generation now, and they were also thirsty and complained to Moses about a lack of water. In today's passage, God did again provide water from a rock. But there are also some differences from last week. So let's look at the passage now.

2 This is in Numbers 20: 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. 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 wilderness, 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! 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. 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. 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. 13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he was proved holy among them. This event is similar to the one we looked at last week. The one last week happened shortly after the people of Israel left Egypt and started their journey for 40 years in the wilderness desert. Today's event happened shortly before the people entered the promised land. So these two important events are bookends to their experience in the wilderness. The main point of today's sermon is that we need to do things God's way and not our way. Today we look at moses again. What can we learn from him about this? In this passage, we see 2 lessons to remember. How we often mess up How we can have hope. 1. So first of all, how we often mess up Moses had been a great leader. He had led them out of Egypt. He had led them in the wilderness for 40 years. And, of all people, he should have been the one to lead them finally to

3 their destination, the PL, the land of Canaan. But, in the end, God said Moses would not lead the people of Israel into the PL. What happened? God had told Moses to speak to the rock. Instead, v. 10 and 11 its says: 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. Moses should not have done this. This turned out to be wrong in so many ways. Moses was angry and he expressed his anger towards the people. "Listen, you rebels..." When he struck the rock twice, probably did that out of anger too. We all get angry sometimes. I get angry sometimes. Anger in itself is not a sin. It is a human emotion. But the problem is that anger can led us to do things that we will regret. Eph 4:26-27 says Be angry, and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger, nor give place for the devil. When we do not resolve our anger quickly, like today before we go to sleep, then the anger can fester in our heart. It can turn into bitterness, resentment. It will come out in our attitudes and actions. It will become like a cancer and destroy us and our relationship with others. The devil can use our anger in a way that destroys who God wants us to be. That verse in Eph says, do not give place for the devil, meaning don't give the devil the opportunity. So what do we do with our anger? We can do several things, but we start by bringing our anger to the Lord. We give it to him and ask for God's protection. What I mean by that is, often the devil will try to use people to get us angry. That is especially true for those those who are close to us, we respond to something they do in an angry way. When that happens to me, I ask the Lord to be like a barrier, and shield to protect me. The Lord needs to be first in our life, above any other person or thing. So you and I need to ask the Lord to be our help, our protection, our barrier, our defense from any one or any thing that would cause us to angry. We seek to please the Lord first in our life. So Moses was angry and he expressed his anger in the wrong way towards the people. Did God tell Moses to express his anger towards the people? No.

4 Did God tell Moses to declare punishment, wrath, and judgement on the people? no God just told Moses to speak to the rock in from of the people and water will come out. Was God planning to be merciful to the Israelites and provide for them? yes Moses had self-righteous anger. Moses called the people "rebels" but he himself was being a rebel because he did not do what God said to do. So not only was he a rebel but also a hypocrite. Sins have a way of multiplying themselves, like cockroaches. It is true that God does get angry in Scripture. But we need to be careful and not take on God's anger when we should not. Rom 12 "Vengence is mine, I will repay" Let the Lord judge and deal with things, don't take it on yourself when you should not. Instead just do what the Lord tells us to do, no more or no less. When I remember after I became a Christian in SF, I remember being part of a church there and like all the evangelical churches there, we wanted to reach the city for Christ. So we would be building relationships with non-believers, trying to show them how Jesus loves them and how the church wants to help them. And in the church that I was going to, some people we reached were from the large homosexual community there in SF. Some of these people were intersted in Jesus and were starting to turn away from their gay lifestyle. Others were still in their gay lifestyle but they visited the church. But every once in a while, some preacher from some other state would came to visit SF. He would have some rallies there. And very frequently, they would condemn SF and the gay community and past judgement comparing SF to Sodom and Gomorrah. And this would be in the secular news. This was not Billy Graham, it was some other preachers. Anyway, after a week or so, the preacher would leave. This type of thing would undermine a lot of what the church I was at and other churches in SF were trying to do. We would be left to pick up the pieces, to try to fix the damage that was done. We would have to start to rebuild those relationships with people outside the church. Christians need to be careful about having a self-righteous, angry and condemning attitude. That really doesn't draw people to Jesus. Moses' anger led him to strike the rock twice. That was the main reason that God would not let Moses lead the people into the PL. You see, God wanted to use the problem that the people of Israel had as a teaching moment. What did God want to teach the people of Israel? The people were suppose to see Moses speaking to the rock and then water coming out. Most

5 commentaries believe that God wanted the people to learn about prayer and fellowship with God. God would provide for their needs when the people come to God in prayer. Instead Moses struck the rock twice. Moses had done this in the past. It worked before, so why not do it again? Well, because God wanted to do something different this time. The application here is that we need to be open to how God wants to work in our life and thru us TODAY. Situations change, we change, and God may want to do things differently today than in the past. God's doctrines don't change but the way he wants to accomplish his purposes can change. So we need to be flexible for that. So Moses struck the rock twice. Instead of symbolizing a truth about prayer, Moses did something completely different and not what God wanted. Remember the passage last week, God told Moses to hit the rock and Moses did. The rock symbolized Christ and that showed that God's judgement came upon Christ. In today's passage, Moses is hitting a rock two more times. Wait a second. Christ the rock was already stuck once. He was already judged once. Christ's death was once and for all. Christ does not have to face judgement and crucifixation again and again. In Heb 6 it says that some people wrongly "crucify the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." So Moses was completely messing up God's symbolism of Christ as the rock. Moses did not treat the rock that symbolized Christ as holy and special. God said to Moses in v. 7, "you did not trust enough to honor me as holy in the site of the Israelites". After Moses did this, he did not lose his relationship with God. But God said he would not lead the people of Israel into the PL. 2. The second point is how we can have hope Moses surely did mess up. It can happen to Moses, it certainly can happen to you and me. But how do we respond when we do mess up? How did Moses respond to this rebuke by the Lord? After Moses blew it, he did not throw in the towel. He did not give up. He stayed faithful and made the most of the short time he had left. He Transferred the priesthood from his brother to

6 his nephew Eleazar when Aaron died. He met with God. He led the Israelites in battle. He took a census with the new Priest Eleazar. He appealed to God for a new leader for Israel and he anointed Joshua his successor. So Moses still keep serving the Lord, he did not give up. When we mess up, we need to kept coming back to the Lord. God is a God of grace. His grace continues to amaze us. At the end of Moses life, he went up to Mt. Nebo. God showed Moses the PL from the mountain. It says in Deuteronomy 34: 1-5 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it. 5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. God was gracious to Moses. Although Moses never led the people of Israel into the PL, Moses did actually get to the PL years later, Jesus himself brought Moses to the the PL. In Luke 9, Jesus was on a mountain in the PL with some of his disciples. The disciples caught of glimpse of Jesus full glory. It was the transfiguration. There Moses was with Jesus. Moses, through God's grace in Jesus, did come into the PL. The application is that there is always hope for you and I when we blow it like Moses. When our anger or whatever else, gets the better of us. Jesus died to forgive all our sins, the debt has already been paid. We do need to repent, to turn away from all sin, and embrace the grace that is found in Jesus. Concl. So this morning, we looked at this other passage where God also provided the people with water from the rock. But Moses did not do things the way God wanted him to. He did things his way, instead of God's way. In this passage, we see that 1. How we often mess up 2. How we can have hope

7 God did show his grace to Moses. And I hope ever person here has experienced God's grace in a real way. If you are not sure if you have, or you don't under God's grace, you can this morning. Maybe there is an emptiness in your heart or in your life. You are searching for something but you don't know what. God's grace and forgiveness in Jesus is what your heart is searching for. Also, some of you have messed up in the past, even after you have accepted Christ into your life,. Like Moses, the Lord wants you to continue to seek him and serve him. I am going to give an invitation to all those here who have ever messed up as a Christian. You can bring your heart to Lord, apologize to the Lord and have your fellowship with the Lord restored. You can do that this morning. Let us pray. Lord, we all come before you today so you can do a deeper work in our hearts. Now if there is anyone here who is not sure if you have experienced God's grace in you life, just go ahead and raise your hand and I will pray for you. If you are not sure, you can be sure this morning, go ahead and raise your hand, and I will pray for you. If you are searching for meaning in life, something to live for, well, Christ is calling to you this morning. Raise you hand I will pray for you. If you have experienced God's grace before but you know you have messed up, the Lord wants you to come back to him. If you want to renew your commitment to seeking and serving the Lord, raise your hand. God is ready to extend his grace once again to you. So just raise your hand. Lord I pray for all of us here. I pray that you would make your grace alive and real to all of us here this morning. We turn to you as our savior and lord. amen.

Will God Always Answer Prayers? Deuteronomy 3:23-29 When God says No!

Will God Always Answer Prayers? ~~ Deuteronomy 3:23-29 ~~ When God says No! Prayer creates expectation and hope. Hope soon turns into disappointment. Moses: o A great spiritual leader o A man of God o