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Speaker 2Alright.
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Speaker 1Would y'all stand up and we'll sing? We'll start singing, some hymns and get going. Here we go. Love lifted me. How about hymn number five zero eight?
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We'll sing them in from the vestibule back there.
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Speaker 2I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore very deeply stained within sinking to rise no more but the master of the sea heard my despairing cry from the waters lifted me now safe am I lifted me lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me love lifted me even me when nothing else could help lifted me all my heart to him I give ever to him I'll cling in his blessed presence live ever his praises sing love so mighty and so true merits my soul's best songs faithful loving service to to him belongs love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help. Souls in danger look above Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by his love out of the angry ways he's the master of the sea billows his will obey He, your savior, wants to be be saved today. Love lifted me. Love lifted me.
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When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help
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Speaker 1me Amen. We've got, how about there is a fountain? Do y'all know this song? Okay, hymn number three thirty six. There is a fountain.
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Speaker 2Fountain filled with blood drawn from me, Manuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains and sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoice to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he wash of my sins away wash all my sins wash all my sins away away and there may I though vile as he wash all my sins away heir sins by faith I saw the street by flowing wounds of life redeeming love has been my thing and shall be till I die and shall be till I die and shall be till I die redeeming love has been my theme and shall Amen.
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Speaker 1I like that song. Y'all can have a seat. A few announcements this morning. We have Monday nights at First B is happening. It'll be happening tomorrow night in the Fellowship Hall at 06:00.
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That's what happens most every Monday night. Tomorrow, the meal will be Felix in Guadalupe. Our Mexican feast will happen tomorrow night, 06:00. Right? Felix in Guadalupe will be cooking, and then the meal music will be the band, you know, 09:00 band, the Monday night band, are the same band.
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That'll be fun. And then the message tomorrow will be brought by Eugene Morningstar. So if you've come to the 09:00 service for the last six and a half years until six months ago, Eugene was our electric guitar player. And he went to YWAM, which is Youth With A Mission, up in Montana, and then he went to Greece and to other parts of Central Asia, and he is coming back and he is just filled to overflowing right now. If you wanna hear anything about his testimony or about his testimony as especially it relates to God's heart for the nations and missions, he's gonna be doing that tomorrow night at Monday night.
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That'll be the message. Also, Bernadette Spotts. Bernadette Spotts is singing with the band in the first service now and she is going with YWAM, and it's very much like Jackson Ave, somebody who's coming from somewhere and somebody else who's going out from here. That's the way we are, coming and going all the time. Bernadette is also going with Youth With A Mission, but her sending or her base is gonna be in Australia.
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That's coming up fairly soon, and she's raising funds, just letting you know that ahead of time if you wanna wanted to support that. Bernadette. Monday nights at first B is happening. It happens at the same time as Awana. Awana starts out in this room then moves all over the church, and we pour scripture into the minds of the children from age three to fifth grade to reach their hearts.
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It's a great great program. Precept study is happening on Thursday mornings. They are in the book of Acts. They're up to, I think it was Acts 15 this week. Yep.
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So nine to 11:30AM in the fellowship hall. It's a great study. Their baby bottle campaign for Turning Point. We're in the midst of it, right in the middle of their baby bottle campaign, and there are a few baby bottles that are left out there. If want you to grab one and fill it with funds to help fund Turning Point, the Pregnancy Resource Center, or if you know anybody that needs that service actually, just mention that to them.
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Turning Point does ultrasounds and they do help people with pregnancy. So that's happening right now. Community Bible study is still having their study of Hebrews. I think they have two more weeks left on Wednesdays at 09:30AM and 06:30PM. They're meeting here also in the fellowship hall.
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It's a great study of Hebrews. We had a trip meeting today in between services. I don't think anybody looking around. I don't think anybody's in here that was not in there but we several folks from the church, 22 of us, in fact, are going to on a trip to Israel during spring break this year So and y'all can be praying for that trip. It is a tour, not as much a mission this time, but we're going to get our feet wet, seeing what it's like.
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Connect hour happens between services, and I think that that's it. There is one more that's not listed up here, but it is in your bulletin. It has been for several weeks, is on Thursday, we're not we're not of the world, but we are in the world. And after seeing so many different school shootings and church shootings also, we have asked for the Jackson Police Department to come in and do some training. So people on the frontline team and the elders and several of us are gonna be doing an active shooter training here at the church this next week in hope of being sheepdogs to protect sheep.
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Okay? We're looking to be protecting this body. So if you would be praying about that, it's a little bit disconcerting to even think about, but at the same time, we do wanna prepare ourselves as best we can for any eventuality. So that's happening Thursday evening at 06:00 here at the church. If you want to be a part of it, come on.
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If it's open to that, but we're looking mostly leadership is going
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Speaker 2to be
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Speaker 1there. Anybody have anything else? Alright. If you would, greet one another. You've got bulletins as you came in.
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If you didn't get one on the way in, grab one on your way out. There's all kinds of interesting stuff in there. But stand up and greet one another, and we'll bring you back together with a song.
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Speaker 2Holy, holy, holy, holy, your God almighty. Holy gracious father gracious father we're so blessed to be your children gracious father and we lift our heads before you as a token of our love gracious father precious Jesus precious Jesus we're so glad that you've redeemed us precious and we lift our hands before you as a token of our love come and fill our hearts anew Holy Spirit, we lift our voice before you
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Speaker 1Now, I belong to Jesus. It's hymn number five zero one if you're looking up your part.
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Speaker 2Jesus, my lord, will love me forever. From him, no power of evil can sever he gave his life to ransom my soul now I belong to him now I belong to Jesus Jesus belongs to me not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Once I was lost in sins, degradation, Jesus came down to bring me salvation, lifted me up from sorrow and shame. Now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus belongs to not for the years of time alone but for eternity joy floods my soul for Jesus has saved me, freed me from sin that long had enslaved me.
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His precious blood he gave to redeem. Now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity
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Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. I'm going to invite the frontline team forward if they'll come forward. And would y'all pray with me? God, I thank you for a beautiful morning this morning for that blessed sunshine, your creation, Lord. Truly, sunshine or rain declares forth your glory, Lord.
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It speaks it forth day after day and night after night and there's no language where that can't be understood. So, I praise you lord that you are evident. Lord, we understand that we're without excuse before you. Thank you for calling us. Thank you that now, lord, we can't belong to Jesus.
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Thank you that it's not for the years of time alone but for eternity. I pray lord that you would use the obedient servants that are gathered here in your name, lord. To bless others that these tithes and offerings would be used to further your kingdom, lord. That your reign on earth would be as it is in heaven, that we would be a part of what you're doing here, lord. I pray that you would resource the need through us.
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In Jesus name, may you use all of these funds to advance your good gospel here in our community, state, region, country, but lord to the uttermost part, do your will through your servants. We come before you humbly asking your blessing and your multiplication of these gifts. Amen. Thank you. Amen.
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So, last week, we covered almost all of second Timothy four nine through 22 and y'all know we go in order. That's what we've been doing for a long time. Expository preaching in chronological order. We started way back six years ago, almost. We went through life of Jesus in the book of John which is a later book and Acts, we did the life of the early church and then we've used it as a framework.
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Y'all know that. We are up to the last words that Paul wrote, that we know Paul wrote. Second Timothy four nine through 22. And that's the last paragraph of Paul's writing that we have. And it's important.
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And I was going through it and trying to cover all the personal details of Paul to Timothy, but also our trip to Africa, and as I was going through, I hit upon in the first service a time and I thought, oh, I gotta finish this, But I also missed something in my slides. I said in the middle of the sermon to both services, I said, I'm skipping verses seventeen and eighteen for now, and I'm and I did. And then I was coming back to him at the end, and I flipped the slide, and I had something that looked like this. Four seventeen is up there and I went into talking about those Greek words right there that the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. Now, you know, Paul had been talking about he's in prison.
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He'd been through his first defense and no one stood with him. Alexander the coppersmith, as a matter of fact, did great harm to me and no one stood with me but the Lord stood with me and he strengthened me. Praise God. Jesus says, lord, I'll be with you always even to the end of the age. Lord stood with me and strengthen me so that through me the proclamation and he had just said proclamation.
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He just said to Timothy too, preach the word. Preach it in season and out of season. Be ready at all times. Preach the word, train, and rebuke and exhort and reprove. So that through me, the proclamation, the preaching might be fully accomplished and that might hear.
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That is all the Gentiles might hear. And I I changed it to pontata ethne because I want you to hear ethne. Ethne is ethnicity. It's all the people groups, all the different ethnicities. Really, it's all the different families of the Earth.
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All the nations is the way that we it's not geopolitical states though, okay? It's people groups is a better way to think of it. All the peoples. But the Lord stood with me and he strengthened me so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles might hear and I stopped right there. I made it up to there and I just stopped.
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So, was only verse 17. I actually skipped over the end of verse 17 and all of verse 18 inadvertently because of my slides. So, I left from here. Everything was fine. I did the first service and the second service, and I didn't think in between, oh, I feel like I'm missing something.
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I thought that when I got home and then I thought, I didn't say anything about the lion's mouth. If you look back, verse 17 ends this way, and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. Now, I think this is figurative. I think it is. It could have been literal, but most likely, it's figurative.
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Nero was emperor at the time and they were building the coliseum so that they could have sporting games to offer Christians and criminals and whatnot to the lions but he says that he was rescued out of the lion's mouth. I think he's actually quoting from Psalm 22 that be delivered out of the lion's mouth. But I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. Meaning, he made it through his first defense without being decapitated. That was his eventual fate.
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Would be to be beheaded. I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. Then it goes into verse 18. Now, he's very confidently. He says, I was rescued, past tense, out of the lion's mouth and then very confidently, he says in the future tense, the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed.
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He'd said, Alexander the coppersmith has worked much harm against me. No one stood up for me. The Lord did and the Lord strengthened me, delivered me out of the lion's mouth but the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed. Other people towards him and his own. He recognized that and he stated confidently and he said and he will, the Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.
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Praise God that we have that incorruptible hope Peter talks about that we can look forward to the heavenly kingdom. And then he ends right here and this will be the last thing that we hear out of Paul for a long time. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. And so when I got home last Sunday and thought after several hours of being around here, I got home and thought, I skipped something.
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The lion's mouth reminded me of it and then I thought, oh, the glory of God. I I handled it lightly. I didn't handle it at all. Didn't really think about the glory of God. Honestly, I just skipped it because it wasn't in the slides.
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I blacked it out unintentionally but I thought, man, that's something I hate to do that because the glory of God's such an important thing. Now how many of y'all hear glory all the time and you hear glory bowl here in this valley? You think a glory bowl if you're a skier or a snowboarder or whatever. Avalanche danger, glory bowl, you hear that. But glory, you hear it and it's a churchy word you hear a lot, but nobody really defines it very often.
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Thus, we come to the end of our study in this way. We come to the end of our study of second Timothy. Now when I got home after thinking about this and realizing I missed glory, part of what led me to that conclusion is I saw Paschal had written out this hand lettered page. She likes to do calligraphy and hand lettering stuff. And so she wrote this out and it says, for God is not even a memory verse.
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This this is one of those things where it caught me off guard. I was like, I don't know. That's cool that she thought that that was something to write on a piece of paper by itself but for God who said, let light shine out of darkness made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. The second Corinthians four six and it's about God's glory and I just thought, wow. I don't do this very often but I think we're going to do a rare topical sermon on the glory of God.
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How many, how long has it been since I did a topical sermon? Long time But I pick it up with finishing off what we were doing in second Timothy there. But it's also a rare, mostly Old Testament sermon, and that's even more rare than a topical one is for me to speak from the Old Testament. But it's on the glory of God. It might seem kind of tangential to you, but I pray that God will use it.
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Glory in Hebrew is kavod. Kavod is the word for glory. I'm not a Hebrew scholar. You don't hear me preaching a lot from the Old Testament because I don't understand Hebrew very well, quite honestly, but it's kabod. In Greek, I do read Greek and love it.
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So doxa, the glory of God. Doxology, we get glory. It's a study of God's glory, a doxology. Yes. Doxa.
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And then if you look it up in Latin and I looked it up in Latin, that's not one of the original biblical languages, but the Latin vulgate covered both the Hebrew and the Greek and was used by the church, the Roman church for a long, long time. And I was just doing this for reference. In Hebrew, the Old Testament, 39 books. You see Kavod used 200 plus times as the noun, and then you see verbal forms more than that. I don't I couldn't get a like I said, I'm not as big a scholar in Hebrew, so I couldn't figure out how many verbal forms, but it's a lot.
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Greek is used a 167 times in the New Testament, just the twenty seven twenty seven chapter books of the New Testament. It's used a 167 times as a noun and 67 more as verbal forms. And if you took the Latin Vulgate in Latin and you examined it all, it's five thirty seven times in the Latin Vulgate. The concept of God's glory comes up. What does it mean?
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What exactly does it mean? If you look up definitions, they fall mainly in two categories. One is fame or renown or pop not really popularity, but kinda like that. It's to be known and to be known for good things. That's one, glory, and that's the typical human way that we think of that.
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And then the second one will be resplendent, brilliant, beauty, shining forth. That's something along those lines if you look up dictionary definitions. I like John Piper's definition probably more than any other, and his is based scripturally on Isaiah six. We talked about this fairly recently. We talked about it when we started first Peter about the holiness of God.
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Isaiah's vision in the year king Uzziah died. Isaiah saw the Lord high lifted up in the temple and he was surrounded by Seraphim, six wings, two that cover the eyes, two that cover their feet, two they're flying, and they're singing back and forth. Antiphonal praise, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The earth is full of his, is it holiness? Is it love?
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It's glory. So, what Piper says based on that and a few other things, he says that glory can be defined as God's holiness when it goes public. That makes sense. God is holy other. He is wholly different.
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We think of ourselves because he tells us that we were created in his image and sometimes, we do the reverse engineering on that and we just turn God into an anthropomorphized, just bigger version of us but he's not that. He is completely other and when his holiness is seen, that's called glory. So does that help? Is that helpful? Maybe.
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It was helpful to me. I want you to look at this too. So usage of the word glory. If you start looking up definitions on the Internet these days, you will see it'll have the definition one, two, three, four, and then down below that, there's usually a little graph on, you know, Wiki or Google or whatever it is. And this is in English since 1800 up through 2008.
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The last year, they have good reliable numbers, I guess. You see the usage of the word glory in print. As a percentage of printed word, that's how often glory comes up. Are you with me still? I know that y'all lost an hour last night.
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Are you alright? You're not nearly as comatose as that first service, but you see in eighteen hundreds, 1820 around there, there's a peak and then it slopes off from there. We don't talk as much about the glory of God as we used to. Are you with me? So it's even more evident if you look at it from 1500 up to 2,008.
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From 1500, there are not a whole lot of things written down. Now this is in English. It's in English, not just in every language, but it's in English. If you look at it just after 1500, so 1516, you remember, it's what? 1516, 1517 is Martin Luther's Nail into the Door.
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That's in German, but Wycliffe starts and Tyndall has started his Bible translation and Wickliffe's translation gets to be pretty popular and you see that little blip right there? That's English versions of the Bible speaking of God's glory and it shows up and then, they said, we can't have people reading this in English. Stop it. Quit. It can only be in Latin so it goes back down and then we see it go up.
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When the church says, no, we are going to print these Bibles and we're going to print and we start paying attention to God's glory, okay? When it goes public and I think this is a pretty good way of showing when something goes public, the printed word in English. If you see the spikes, they are at times of the first and second great awakening. We're concerned with God's glory during those times. Is that cool or what?
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I like that. So, if you have your Bibles, would you start to flip em open to the book of numbers? It's in the front, okay? Know I don't usually do this but Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Number four.
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If you flip to em, we're going to go to numbers 20 but just the introduction. I actually have a big old Bible up here, a big large print Bible actually on the pulpit with me. I usually do a lot of reading of the Bible on my computer, and I have my other tiny little Bible that I use. I've got a large print one this time. And I was reading the book of numbers.
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I wanted to read it before I got up here and spoke. This is one of the reasons I don't speak a lot from the Old Testament because there's a lot of history you feel like you have to cover before you can understand the story. Numbers though, the introduction says this, in this Bible, the Israelites cried out to God and God heard and raised up Moses. God raised up Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage they had been in slavery. The children of Israel had lived in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.
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Most of those years as slaves and after camping at Sinai, they were to go to Canaan, promised land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And at last, they would see the land with their own eyes and God would go with them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. You know the Exodus story about how that happens. Soon, the journey would begin but first, there must be a numbering like a census of all of the sons of Israel from 20 years of age on up, okay? So that's the introduction to the book of numbers.
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There are three main sections in the book of numbers. One of em is when they are encamped at Sinai, and this is kind of the plan. This is laying out the plan for how things are gonna go. Some of it is legal. Some of it is geographic.
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Most of it is about this is the way things are gonna go. They're encamped at Sinai from one one to 10:10. That's where they take off. And these chapters are characterized by obedience. If you read them all, I read them this week.
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And you could even say optimism because you knew God was planning something. He's gonna move his people. And they'd only been less than a year out of Israel, about a year out of Israel at this I mean, of Egypt at this point, and they're headed towards the promised land. These chapters are characterized by obedience and maybe even optimism. And I'll let you look at some of those.
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I accidentally inadvertently skipped chapter two I think or named it wrong but numbers one fifty four. Last verse of numbers one is thus, in this way, thus, the sons of Israel did according to all which the Lord had commanded Moses so they did, obedience. Numbers, I think this is three fifty one is what it says. Then, Moses gave the ransom the money to Aaron and his sons at the command of the Lord just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So, they did it exactly as God had commanded.
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At the command of the Lord just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Chapter two also says, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Numbers four forty nine says, according to the commandment of the Lord through Moses, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Chapter five, and the sons of Israel did so and they sent them outside the camp just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Thus, the sons in this way, thus, the sons of Israel did.
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Number six, oh, what a beautiful blessing this is. So, at this point, God has established that Moses is in charge. Aaron is his right hand man. Aaron has the priestly duties and the Levites all under him and this was going to be the Aaronic Aaron's blessing that Aaron would give. It's the blessing from the Lord though.
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It's not Aaron blessing. It's Aaron proclaiming the blessing of the Lord and it says, after this and the Lord would bless. Numbers six twenty four through 27. How many times have I been in a hospital room welcoming a new baby in with this or seeing a dear departing saint going out with these verses? The Lord bless you and keep you.
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The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. My family actually sang this. My whole family sang this at my grandmother's funeral. Ended with a seven fold amen. The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace and give you peace.
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The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Number seven follows that up with a very orderly and timely account of offerings and how they were to be offered. It's legal but it also is just setting forth. This is what this is how this is going to go.
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In the eventuality that you need to give an offering, this is the way that it should happen and it's very prescriptive. Numbers eight, Aaron therefore did so. He mounted its lamps at the front of the lampstand just as in the same way that, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Numbers eight twenty says it again, thus, in the same way, did Moses and Aaron and all the congregation, the sons of Israel to the Levites according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites. So, the sons of Israel did to them.
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You see, it's about obedience. This whole first 10 chapters, number nine here, nine twenty three. At the command of the Lord, they camped and at the command of the Lord, they set out. They kept the Lord's charge according to the command of the Lord through Moses. Amen.
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Three main sections. So, these chapters are characterized by obedience and even optimism until the end of chapter 10. Chapter 11 will start something new but look at this. This is this is the optimistic note that the last of chapter 10, very last words of chapter 10. It's Moses' prayer.
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Then it came when the ark set out. Now, they had gotten a prescription for exactly how this was supposed to go and and then they were following that prescription and it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, rise up, oh Lord, and let your enemies be scattered and let those who hate you flee before you and when it came to rest, he said, return, oh Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel. That's great. So, daily, when they would set out and when they would rest, he had this prayer and then, it begins this next section, journeying and numbers 11 strikes a very different to Now, the people began, oh, now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled. He had provided, he prescribed, he had told him how this was to go and they were obedient.
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Moses, Aaron, and the sons of Israel, they had all been obedient about how this was going to go but now that they're journeying and they're walking the walk and they're going through it, they start to complain. God hears it and his anger was kindled. Numbers 12, even Aaron and Miriam. Aaron is Moses' brother. Miriam is Moses' sister.
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Even Aaron and Miriam started to complain and they complained and they go against Moses and going against Moses, they go against the Lord. They complain. Now, that didn't go well. Numbers 13, they're spying out the land. Let me back up.
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Numbers 12, I'm not drawing this by comparison. Please don't think that I'm drawing this by comparison that I'm Moses and y'all or anybody else, okay? I've heard this message preached that way before. Aaron and Miriam spoke out because everyone else was complaining and they were questioning Moses' leadership and they thought, why shouldn't I? I saw a little blurb about Miriam yesterday and it said, amazing Miriam, just ask her.
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Boy, oh boy. Aaron and Miriam complaining they go against Moses and then God says, but Moses is the humblest man on Earth. That's why I've chosen to use him. He's a humblest man on Earth and he strikes Miriam with leprosy and Moses falls down on his face before the Lord and says, please do not hold this sin against either of them and the Lord says, even if she had done a little petty sin, she would have to suffer for at least a week so he lets her have it for a week and then he takes it away from her. That didn't go well for Aaron and Miriam but it did end well for them because God brought them back in, mercifully brought them back in but numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam complain against Moses and the Lord and then, numbers 13, they're spying out the land.
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It indeed it is a good land but 14, says all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 13, they sent out those spies and they all went out. 10 came back with a report. It's great land but we can't take these. We're like grasshoppers in their sight.
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Only one guy in chapter 13 said, no, we can take em. Caleb said, yeah, we can take Now, the next chapter, Joshua says, yeah, we need to take em. We we have to. Joshua never wanted to leave the presence of the Lord. Joshua hung out with Moses and he hung out anywhere where he could get close to God's glory.
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He wanted to be there and he questioned anything other than that. Numbers 14 says, and all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land just to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?
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And so they said to one another, let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. Now, who did it say in the beginning? It said, God raised up Moses to lead these people out. He's the one who went to Pharaoh under God's direction. He'd seen the glory of God like nobody else at the burning bush, took off his sandals because the place where he stood was holy ground, right?
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But they said, let us appoint a leader for ourselves and return back to Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. It was a terrible place to be. Numbers 15 is legal stuff about atonement. Now it comes in pretty handy that when you start grumbling and complaining against the Lord, you start sinning against him that you need some legal stuff about atonement.
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Right? Number 16 is the Korah rebellion. Korah and a bunch of other folks were in rebellion against Moses' leadership and thought that they should take over. Thought that that would be a good thing. That's not a good thing.
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If you know the story, my goodness. If you don't know the story, read it. Number 16, when you get home, it's Tanya's least favorite Tanya's least favorite passage in the whole Bible. She was supposed to teach it to first graders one time and she saw that and said, I'm not doing this. Core Rebellion.
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It's tough but they set themselves up against the Lord and it didn't go well for him. It's about disobedience. First 10 chapters are obedience and optimism. These next few are about disobedience and the earthly consequences of disobedience. Number 17, God reaffirms Moses and Aaron as his leaders.
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He does that through miraculous circumstances with Aaron's rod. 18 is more legal stuff about guilt and atonement. People are still grumbling and complaining and this just goes back into the legal, this is how this is gonna go. Numbers 19 is even more of that legal stuff and then we get up to chapter 20. Now the three main sections are encamped at Sinai on the one end of the journey and encamped on the Plains Of Moab at the other end but journeying is in the middle.
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That journeying took thirty nine years and the real truth of the matter is they were waiting for people to die off. They're just waiting for the disobedient grumblers to die off. Wow. So, we're going to talk about the journeying section in specific. It's just 13 verses.
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You have em in your bulletin from Kadesh. Chapter 21 through 13 begins this way. Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, the sons of Israel, everybody that was on this journey, the whole congregation, they came to the wilderness of Zen in the first month, first month of the year. And the people stayed at Kadesh. And so for those of you who like maps, here we are.
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Here's a map. That's a globe. We're gonna center in on it a little bit more. You can see on the globe we're talking North Africa, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, you'd recognize those pretty well. You get closer and you see that little V section between North Africa and Saudi Arabia.
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Modern day is the Sinai Peninsula. We get a little closer right there. This is a map that shows modern day names on here. You can barely see them, but Israel and Jordan and Egypt is over here. You see this fertile delta up here and the Nile River.
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This the Red Sea, we've got the Gulf Of Aqaba and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Beirut, Lebanon, all up there. But this little pinpoint right there is about where they are, close enough to see Israel from there. And they're only in about the first year of their desert wanderings. They got thirty nine more years because of disobedience. So that's the location of Kadesh Barnea.
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I hope to see that on our trip. And it says, now that we've been given a time marker and a place marker, first significant event that is noted right here is now Miriam. That's the sister of Moses. And I mentioned her grumbling against or complaining about Moses, but they had a good relationship. He prayed.
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He laid down on his face before God and prayed that her sin wouldn't be held against her, and God heard his prayer. Though she suffered some earthly consequences for her disobedience, she was not by any way cast out, but she did die on the journey and Kadesh, Barnea, is the place where Miriam died and was buried there and think about Moses. He is traveling with a very large group of people. And his sister dies. His sister and his second command, Aaron.
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Also, his sister dies. Since I've been here, I've done a lot of funerals and I know y'all and I know that y'all have lost people that mean a lot to you and if you put your place, put yourself in the place of Moses right here in a difficult circumstance because he's wandering through the desert with a whole lot of people that he feels responsibility for and has been given responsibility by God for and his sister died. Now, Miriam died there and was buried there. Second verse of chapter 20 says this, there was no water for the congregation. That's a mere statement of fact.
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There was no water for the congregation. They were thirsty and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron, their leaders. The people thus, in this way, contended with Moses and they spoke and they were saying, if only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Actually, that's probably a reference to the Cora rebellion where they rebelled against Moses and he said, if only we had perished when they perished, they were swallowed up by the earth, earthquake. Some of em burned with fire and they're wishing now that they had been with them.
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The people thus contended with Moses and spoke saying, if only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord why then have you brought the Lord's assembly into this wilder for us and our beasts to die here Why have you made us come up from Egypt to bring us into this wretched place It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates nor is there any water to drink and that's a statement of fact. Most of those things are statements of fact and then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting. That was a tabernacle where they gathered. Moses and Aaron, leaders, came in from the presence of the Lord. I mean, for the presence of the assembly, from the people, and they came in to the doorway of the tent of meeting.
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It's a place where God dwelt and at the door, they fell on their faces. Now, The next line says, and then, the glory of the Lord appeared to them. So, I've been talking about glory, right? This is topical sermon about glory. This is God's holiness when it goes public.
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Now, at this point, it's going public to just those two guys, Moses and Aaron. It's not for the whole of the people. Although, earlier in numbers, it said and the whole of the people saw God's glory. He still spoke to Moses. Moses and Aaron, whose sister just died, they were grieving.
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Shouldn't they be on a meal train having people bring them casseroles? But they had the people grumbling against them. The people grumbling for good reason. They didn't have any water. And Moses and Aaron were feeling the responsibility and when they came in from the presence of the assembly, they fell on their faces before the Lord.
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I think that the place where we have the most significant milestones in our life and where we see the glory of God is when we are at our most desperate. How many of y'all received Jesus at a really great and lovely, wonderful time of life where you where everything was going great Maybe in childhood Yeah. There are couple of us. I didn't have anything major catastrophe but usually when I get the closest to the Lord is when I'm going through the most difficult time. Feel the weight of the responsibility of what God has given and going through grief.
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The glory of the Lord appeared to them and the Lord spoke as is common throughout Exodus, throughout numbers. The Lord spoke to Moses and he spoke saying, although he appeared to both, Moses and Aaron, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take the rod. Rod, symbolic, every place that he shows that the rod is symbolic of his authority. Remember that rod, that rod, the one they threw down in front of pharaoh and it turned into a snake and you remember that we do we covered that a few weeks ago. It also was take your rod.
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Take your rod and he it was common for that to be his authority was shown by that staff that he had. He was shepherding these people and that rod was showing his authority. So, take the rod and you and your brother, Aaron, Moses, take the rod and you and your brother Aaron, assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes that it may yield its water. Take the rod and you and your brother, Aaron, assemble the congregation. That's all of the sons of Israel, right?
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And speak to the rock before their eyes that it may yield its water. You shall thus, I've said thus and in this way, that's what thus means. You shall in this way bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink. Now, the glory of the Lord had appeared and it's something that we aren't to trifle with. It's the holiness of God.
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It's a serious matter and you shall in this way bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beast drink. God was hearing the prayers. He he heard when Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and he spoke. In response and so Moses took the rod from before the Lord just as he had commanded. So far so good.
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Obedience. This is looking good and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock and we can add, just as the Lord had commanded him. And he said, to what did God said? Speak to the rock and he said to them, He said to them, listen now you rebels. Listen now, you rebels.
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Shall we bring forth from this rock? Moses and Aaron. Listen now, you rebel. Shall we bring forth for water for you out of this rock? That is an arrogation of the divine prerogative if you're a theological nerd.
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They took on themselves, shall we bring forth for you out of this rock? Shall we bring forth out of this rock water for you? God had said, he would provide the water. But Moses called them rebels. Now, earlier, everywhere else in this whole book, up to this point, every time anybody had sinned, the prayer of Moses was God, I don't hold this against him.
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Please, don't hold this against him. They haven't seen your glory the way that I have seen your glory. They don't know you the way that I know you. Please don't hold this against him and most of the time, most often, God listened. In the core rebellion, Moses just said, listen, this is how it's going to be.
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We're going to come before the Lord and whoever's eliminated is eliminated and then they were eliminated and Moses wasn't. So, he's the man, okay? But in this case, Moses gets a little big for his britches. I don't, I've never played this game, I've never heard this game before but I heard a pastor years ago talking about this and he says, or weeks ago I heard it again actually. But the guy says when their child was in a high chair, a game that they played in their part of the country was when the kid's in the high chair and you go, how big are you?
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How big are you? And the kid goes, so big. And that preacher said he goes, that's a good game to play with your kids. That's not a good game to play with God. How big are you?
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Not very and that would have been Moses's response throughout the rest of this book. It was Moses's response. When Aaron Aaron and Miriam raised up against him, God answered, God answered and said, but Moses is the humblest man on Earth. That's why I use him. What have we learned from the New Testament?
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We've hit it three times. God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. He can use the humble and this is the first place that we have seen Moses in numbers at least. First place we've seen Moses that takes a prideful stance. Now, listen now, you rebels.
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All the rest of the time he's praying that God would forgive them for they know not what they do. Very Jesus like in most cases but this, listen now, you rebels. Shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? And then Moses lifted up his hand and he struck the rock twice. He did not speak to the rock.
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He spoke to the people. He he took he took on himself that which belonged to God and then he smacked that rock twice with his rod, his own authority and water came forth abundantly. Now, the text before that says, you shall thus. Thus, what does that thus mean? You shall speak to the rock before their eyes.
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Now, put yourself in Moses' position again. Moses haven't seen the glory of God and haven't heard from him. It's great but then when you go out and the whole assembly is gathered and everybody's looking at you and you're the one upfront and you're supposed to speak to a rock. So that it would give forth, I mean, how close to the surface is that stuff that my voice is going to cause it to? But God said, speak to the rock in front of them.
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So, he is in that position and he looks out on the masses and he thought, they've been complaining against me this whole time. Smack, smack. Rebels. He doesn't do exactly as the Lord had commanded him. Now, the rest of the time when it says he did exactly as the Lord had commanded him, it all is going well, you know.
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Here we go. Then, Moses lifted up his hand. He struck the rock twice with his rod and water came forth abundantly and the congregation and their beasts drank. You know what? The sons of the house of Israel, the whole of the congregation, they didn't care that he hit that rock.
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Didn't bother them at all. Their beasts drank. They drank. They hydrated so as not to die. They were thankful that they had gotten the water.
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The congregation and their beasts drank, they probably didn't even notice because they hadn't heard from the Lord that he was supposed to speak to the rock. They just knew that they got water. They were happy. So, we hit but oh, I would usually like love em. Extra large, adversative conjunctions.
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Yeah. In the New Testament, we see em all the time. It's like, but God, but God. In this case, this is one of those that's pretty tough but the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, both of em because you have not believed me. Wow.
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This guy's leading lots and lots of people in the desert and this is one of those places as a pastor where I feel like, lord, when I'm witnessing to somebody, please don't let me have to explain why you did, what you did to Moses at this place. But God's glory and his holiness are completely other and we cannot fully understand it but I can understand that Moses was disobedient. It was that and there are earthly consequences for our disobedience. Can I get a witness? Yeah, there are earthly consequences for our disobedience.
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That's true. But the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, because you have not believed me, They they were there. They saw the glory. Moses heard him say, because you've not believed me, because you've not believed me, to treat me as holy, like I said, glorious when his holiness goes public. So, what God had shared of his glory to Moses and Aaron right there, they were to show to the rest of the people of the congregation.
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Speak this to the rock before them in front of them so they may see. Me as holy. This is because you have not believed me to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel Therefore, there were consequences. Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I've given them. In chapter fourteen twenty nine, I think it is, he said that because you're disobedience and you're gremlin, you're constant complaining and you're not trusting me or my leader that I've raised up.
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All of y'all that are older than 20 are gonna die before you get to go in. So, like I said, thirty nine years in the desert wasn't because I couldn't find the place. Thirty nine years in the desert waiting for people to die. Moses had not been a part of that group. He still had the blessing of God to be their leader but he says, because of that, incomplete obedience.
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It's it's disobedience but incomplete obedience is disobedience. Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. That sounds like harsh consequences, doesn't it? But that's just, it's earthly consequences. Moses still led them.
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He still got em right up to the edge and Deuteronomy is all about the second stating of the law before and with the blessing they went in. Joshua who never wanted to leave the presence of the Lord. Joshua who came to Moses and said, there are other guys that are prophesying and Moses said, oh that everyone would be able to prophesy, that everyone would have the same spirit that I have that would be able to prophesy. Joshua gets to lead him in. You shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.
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And then a summary statement here and those, those were the waters of Meribah, the place name. Those were the waters of Meribah because listen to this, the sons of Israel contended with the Lord. It wasn't because Moses had prayed. Those people were in desperate need and they were calling out to God. They were calling out to God through their leader and then the leaders disobedience had consequences for the leader.
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The people were still blessed. The people were still blessed with the water. The animals were still blessed with the water but the this shows that the sons of Israel were the ones that were contending with the Lord and it says, and he, he will not share his glory with another. You remember that? He proved himself holy among them.
1:00:00
It's about God's holiness and about his glory. We should not ever take upon ourself that which is only God's, okay? If there is a Christian witness, it is that we give glory to God. The blame is all ours but glory goes to God. Does that make sense?
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Credit is to him. So that's the end of that story. There are earthly consequences for incomplete obedience or disobedience, and we see that throughout. But even Moses and some people when somebody caught me in the hall on the way down the hall and said, well, why why was it that he wouldn't didn't let him in? I was like, well, that's what the sermon was about.
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It was in complete obedience. It was disobedience, and I said it didn't take away his heavenly home. It didn't he was looking forward to Christ the same way we look back to him but there are earthly consequences to disobedience. So, what is it about the glory of God? I think that we are to be good stewards of the glory of God especially as Christians who have had God shine his light in our hearts as second Corinthians four six says, Biblically, God has shown his glory through these things.
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Four things, I think. Creation, no doubt about it. Why do we have so many people come here? Because the creation here is amazing. Just absolutely beautiful and Psalm 19 says, the heavens are telling what?
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Of the glory of God. It's his holiness going public. It's very public. Romans one says, you're without excuse. Just seeing this, the heavens are telling the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands day after day.
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It pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words for this voice. Their voice is not heard. So he shows his glory through creation. He also shows his glory through his people Israel.
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In the Old Testament, they were to be a light to the nations. They were to be a light to the nations and they were supposed to show the holiness of God. The suffering servant passages from Isaiah forty three forty eight, forty, fifty. What it, all of those that I went through right before Christmas this year, Those, it uses Israel as a light to the nation and to share the glory of God, the holiness of God. There's no doubt that he shows us his glory through Christ.
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Christ is the exact representation Hebrews one and three or so somewhere in there. It says, he is the exact representation of God shows his glory. I had another fellow right here in the first service and he said, I I got an analogy. I got something. Testify, brother.
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He said, I've got one. He said, Jesus was a perfect mirror of what God looked like. Perfect mirror of that and then at the cross with all of our sin, that mirror was shattered and now, we individually have little pieces, the body of Christ, our little pieces of the shattered image. Pretty good analogy, I thought. We don't have it all.
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We don't all have it all, not Moses. He didn't. We don't. But there's coming a day, glorification. That's what it's called.
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We've got salvation and sanctification but coming a day is glorification. When that image will be complete again. He shows it in Christ but he also shows it in the church. For God said, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness. That's creation.
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Let light shine out of darkness. He created it and that is declaring his glory. He is the one who has shown in our hearts. He's called us out. He's shown in our hearts.
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That's Christians to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So, this has three out of those four right there represented. The capital C church, not just this little manifestation right here, this little church but the capital C church. All of those believers throughout all time, throughout all history that are looking forward to and looking back to the sacrifice of the Messiah, the capital C church shows forth the glory of God. This is following this verse.
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So, this one that Paschal hand lettered, this for God who said, let light shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts. To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. We carry the message of the glory of God with us as Christians. Are you with me there? Do you think that's true?
1:04:43
We are to reflect his glory. That's what we are to do. We're not to take his glory. We're not to accept the praise of other people if anyone should think to. We deflect that and put it back to God.
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The blame is ours. Credit is God's. If there be any good, it is of God. This is what follows that verse right there. That goes into this but we, church, have this treasure in earthen vessels, okay?
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We have this treasure. The glory of God in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. What is Ephesians two eight nine say? It says, for it is by grace that we're saved through faith and that is not of ourselves but it is the gift of God so that no one should boast. 10 says, and we are his workmanship.
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We were created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he has prepared in advance for us to do. Not from ourselves In fact, it goes on to say this, we are afflicted in every way. Can I get a witness? You feeling afflicted? We are afflicted in every way but we're not crushed.
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We are perplexed. Can I get another witness? Yeah. Confused sometimes. At the text, sometimes we're perplexed, you know, perplexed by why God does what he does, how he does it.
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We're perplexed but we're not despairing because we do trust in God through Christ. We're persecuted but we're not forsaken. Paul started out this sermon today with but the Lord was with me and he strengthened me. Persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body, the dying of Jesus because at the death of Jesus is the place where we see the plan coming together.
1:06:35
The glory of God, he humbly took on death even the death of a cross in obedience complete obedience to the spirit by the father's decree, always caring about in the body, the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. It's not in my body. It is in our body, the body of Christ, the church. Are y'all with me? That's amazing to me.
1:07:02
God wants to share his glory with the world. He wants for people to see his holiness and if you're thinking, well, he's a megalomaniac then. Some people say that. God is self centered. No, God is God centered and God deserves the the praise.
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He deserves the glory. Completely. He is holy other than we are but we are to carry about in our body, the dying of Jesus so that we may manifest the life of Jesus of complete and utter surrender and obedience to God. I think that's the last slide. I've got a benediction too but would you all stand with me as we sing and why don't we just sing the doxology?
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How about that? Can we just, I'll just, I'll just acapella it. How about that? Okay. Because I'm a little over here.
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Speaker 2Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above you heavenly host praise father son and holy ghost
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Speaker 1Amen. Amen. And the benediction today is from Ephesians three twenty and twenty one says this, it's about God's glory. It says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. Did you think that was a prosperity gospel verse?
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It's about God's glory. Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us to him be the glory. In the church, and in Christ, to all generations forever and ever. Amen. God, may it be so.
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May we fall on our faces before you looking for your glory, hearing from you, and then acting in outright and immediate obedience. In Jesus name, amen.
