Number 11:4-35 | Discontent | Don Romano

Well, good morning. If there are any kids left in the room and you want to make a beeline out, you'd probably be way better off.

You know, Want to bless the children, too. Especially the children. Ah. What was it that Debbie said at the end? When we worship God, we end up changed.

Hold on to that thought.

This is the second message in a series that we're calling wanderings and warnings.

And I got to tell you, it's a long passage. It's numbers to chapter 11 going from verse 4 through verse 34, 35. Maybe this series started because of that thought you're holding on to. Do you remember what that thought is?

When we worship God, we're changed. That's good. I might test you again later, so don't forget. It's just a little pop quiz. So this series came about when, as Pastor Alex said last week, we noticed God is doing more and more awesome things through you, through us as a congregation, through us as a fellowship.

We've seen God moving powerfully through Renovation Church. And we believe. And when I say we, I just don't mean Alex and I. I don't mean Alex and Nathan and I. I don't mean Alex and Nathan and the elders and I. But a lot of us, we kind of entered into conversations from time to time, recognizing what things the Lord has been doing lately, how he's been moving, how he's empowered, called empowered, and moved many of us to engage in the Crossroads clubs after school. We've seen people from Crossroads beginning to come to attend church here, and we've seen people saved.

Even last week, after the. After the service, there was a guy who came to know the Lord here, and Alex was able to lead him to a good, solid understanding of what it means to know the Lord. And so that's a good thing. That's an awesome thing. Only God can change lives like that.

Only God can. Only the Father can draw people to Jesus, and only Jesus makes it possible for lives to be changed in a way that honors God.

And when we honor God or worship him, it changes us. So to see that going on changes us.

And when we say that God is doing mighty things through Renovation Church, of course that means you. But I like to think of it this way because the story's really bigger than us. I like to think of it in terms that go something like this, and this is the small end of the scale. It gets bigger as you go out. But whatever God is going to do, let's just say in Bartlett for now, he is going to do through his people who are here.

Whatever God's going to do, he'll do through his people who are here. That's the whole purpose for spiritual gifts and also for the calling on our lives to go out and make disciples of all nations. So whatever God's going to do in Bartlett, he's going to do through all of the people that are his, no matter what fellowship they're a part of. So it's too small for us to say, oh, God is moving powerfully through renovation church, which is a huge thing. But in the big picture, there's a lot more going on, and we want to be a part of it, not miss it in any way, shape or form.

Alex also noted this, and this is what really brought this series of messages about. He said for us to be used by God in greater and greater power, we need to be willing to allow him to come in and clean house.

Now, I came up here under prepared, so if you have the insert that has the bullet points on it, can I ask one of you to give that up for me? Thank you, beloved. Thank you very much. So that term clean house means that there are things in our lives that block us from being used by God.

We call those things sin.

But sometimes I find that when I'm talking about sin, what I'm saying is not necessarily what the person I'm talking to is hearing. And the reason for that is twofold. It's because sin and sins are two different things. Sin is a principle. It's like gravity.

It's just one of those fundamental forces in the universe. In fact, I wrote right on the front page here to help us out that the sin principle is basically this. Those things that block us are empowered by the principle of sin in the world. And what I mean by the principle of sin is this. It is our nature to resist God.

Every one of us is born resisting God. And the enemy of our souls uses that tendency to resist God in order to produce in us actions, attitudes, thoughts, that sort of thing that oppose God. So not only are we born resisting God, but as we go through life, we become smarter, more able, more capable. We are human used by the enemy who takes our tendency to resist God, and he turns it into some really skillful resistance, even opposition against God. Unless Jesus Christ gets into us, does his work, and begins putting us on a different path.

And that process of getting us on a different path is what it means to clean house. So we must allow God the freedom to move in our lives in a way that cleans house in other Words remove thoughts, actions, and attitudes that oppose him. This must happen before we see him move through us and in much greater power. So we stand at a crossroads where these things need to happen. And so we want to enter into a season of house cleaning.

It's the middle of summer, but call it spring cleaning for the soul if you want. It kind of makes sense. Well, today we're in numbers, chapter 11. As I said, you may want to navigate there in your Bible or your Bible app. And we'll be looking at chapter 11, like I said, beginning at verse four and running all the way through the end of the chapter.

But first, allow me to set the stage.

You recall that God used Moses to lead the children of Israel out of slavery to Egypt by bringing 10 plagues against Egypt. The last plague was the death of the firstborn of Egypt, which took place the day that God passed over the houses of the children of Israel. God parted the Red Sea. Moses led Israel through the waters which closed behind them and drowned the Egyptians. And God led the children of Israel to Mount Sinai in order to meet with him and receive the law during the rest of that year.

Yeah, it took a whole year. God gave Israel the law through Moses and the tabernacle was built. And during that whole time, God provided manna for Israel to eat. And they were in the desert. He provided water as well.

He gave them shade from the hot sun by taking the form of a cloud by daytime. And he gave them heat and light at night by taking the form of a pillar of fire at night. Every day. Every night for a year.

Then one day, it was actually a year and about three months. And then one day, that cloud lifted during the daytime and started to move off. And Israel broke camp and followed that cloud for three days. Three days. This was God beginning to keep his promise to lead them away from slavery in Egypt and move them into a land flowing with milk and honey.

We need to remember that though they walked in the desert for 40 years, their destination was only seven to 10 days away.

Something happened.

We're going to look at the beginning of the downward slope that led to 40 years in the wilderness.

So that's where we pick up the story at verse four.

And what I want to do right now, before we kind of get into it, is I want to stop and pray together. Because what we intend is that we will be ready for God to speak to each of us individually and for each of us individually to respond and allow him to clean house. So would you stand with me for a moment in the presence of the Lord, as we seek his presence and his power.

Father, first, I thank youk that yout even care about such things. Who are we? You don't need us to accomplish what yout want to do.

Your strength is not waning. You don't need 140 extra arms, 140 extra feet in order to accomplish what you want to do in Bartlett. But you have chosen nonetheless to consider us, to invite us, to partner with you, and to empower us to carry your name. You have adopted us as your sons and daughters.

You have bestowed your spirit not just on us, but to dwell in us.

And Lord, we understand that when we come to you, we carry with us all of that potential that comes with the empowerment of your Holy Spirit, but also all of that resistance that is our nature by birth.

And so, Father, this morning my ask is this, that you so move through your word and through your call, through the blood of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives to clean us up in a way we don't even expect or understand, and to put in our heart a longing, a desire to follow you as you called Israel, to follow you in the wilderness. But even more, do it for the sake of your glory and kingdom. In the hearts of men, women and children everywhere, we ask that, believing that Jesus is asking the same thing even now. Amen. Please be seated.

Okay, I've got about a half hour to speak for about 50 minutes, so I'm going to try to do it in half an hour. In order to do that, I'm not going to read through the passage. You have it in front of you. You can refer to it all week long. You can try to see what I'm talking about when I'm getting there.

But I'm not going to read the pass. I'm going to kind of summarize the story.

So the same rabble that was complaining last week, starting at the outside edges of the camp, the rabble that was made up of maybe other slaves to Egypt who just kind of caught on the coattails of Israel as they went through the Red Sea and escaped with who knows what wet feet, maybe the same rabble that was maybe Egyptian malcontents or maybe proselytes to the Jewish faith. Whoever this rabble was, they were not children of Israel. They were hangers on on the outskirts of the camp. And last week they began to complain. And that complaining made its way from the outside to the inside in the camp and even right up to the edge of the tabernacle, where God could Hear it.

And God, of course, broke out in fire on the outside edges of the camp. And I don't think Alex said this, but I kind of think that he was like, well, okay, let's start at the source and just consume on the way in wherever there is sin. But he didn't do that. He stopped at the outskirts of the camp. And then moments later, days later, a week or so, this happened.

That same rabble started to have desires. Scripture says they had desirous desire. They had longings that they were longing after. It's a play on words. It means it was a really intense longing and desire.

In fact, that's what I'll call it. I'll call it a longing for their desires. So that happened. And what happened was the people on the outskirts, the rabble started that complaining, saying, hey, it's been 13 months, 14 going on 15 months, and we've eaten manna every day. How about some meat?

And of course, from the outside of the camp, it moved toward the inside of the camp. And the people, it says in numbers, started to weep. The children of Israel, as it got closer to the tabernacle, started to weep about not having meat. And so it came into Moses ears. And Moses was not happy about it.

The children of Israel were weeping. One translation says whining. And that very well could be. I mean, it could have sounded like whining. Well, Moses heard this weeping.

Let's stick with the translation we have. Moses heard this weeping, and he became displeased. And so he went to God, which is what a good leader should do, right? Go to God. See what God's got to say about it.

Besides, that's what Moses had been doing for a year. So he went in to meet with God, and he said, tell me, God, why are you being so hard on me?

Haven't I found favor in your sight? Didn't I do everything you asked me to do? Am I not continuing in my faithfulness toward you? Why are you being so hard on me? You've laid the burden of this people on me.

But I'm not their father. I didn't give them birth. Why have you called me to carry them for through the wilderness the way that a nursing mother carries her child?

This load is too burden for me. If it's going to be like this, just kill me now.

Pretty bold, Pretty bold. The load is too great for me to bear alone. Kill me now. Well, the Lord heard Moses, and he did this. Okay, Moses, I'm going to give you 70 helpers, 70 leaders from among the people, to help you lead this people through the wilderness, to bear this burden with you.

And on top of that, I'm also going to give the people meat. And I want you to tell them that I'm going to give them meat. Tell them I'm going to give them meat. Not for a day or two days or five or 10 or 20 days. I'm going to give them meat for a month till it comes out their nostrils and they get sick of it.

That's what I'm going to do.

So go and tell the people that, and then tell them. Consecrate yourselves. Get ready for God's provision.

Now, meat for a day or 2 or 5 or 10 or 20 or even a month sounds like provision. But till they get sick of it and it comes out their nostrils and they're loathing it, that doesn't sound like blessing to me. That sounds like something else. So consecrate yourselves, people. The Lord will give you meat.

And then Moses said this, until you're sick of it. Because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, living in the tent right in the middle of the camp, in the cloud, every day, in the pillar of fire, every night. He's right in the middle of you, and you have rejected him.

And you have whined in his hearing, wept in his hearing, calling for me.

Before Moses went to the people, he countered God and said this. Listen, God, there are 600,000 men here. That roughly equates to somewhere between two and two and a half million people in the desert.

God, there's 600,000 foot soldiers here and their families. Where am I going to get the herds to feed them? If I were to drain the seas of every fish in them, it wouldn't be enough for this people.

So God answered Moses, and he said, this is the Lord's power, limited.

I mean, think about it, Moses. What have we been through for the last 16, 18 months? Let's go back to the plagues. Is the Lord's power limited?

Here's what's going to happen, Moses. You're going to see whether my word will come true for you.

It hadn't already. But no, you're going to see. And that you, that's singular, this is just for you, Moses. I'm going to show you that my word will come true for you.

So Moses gave the message to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves. And what happened was the lord called the 70 and took the same spirit that was on Moses, put it on those people.

68 of them were present at the time, two hadn't quite made it to the meeting. But the spirit fell on them when they were out in the midst of the camp and they started to prophesy. The 68 who were in the middle of the camp and the two who were out in the midst of the camp began to prophesy. A young person saw these two who had been late to the meeting, prophesying out in the camp and ran to Moses and said, moses, these two guys are out here doing what you do. You're the guy, not them.

Whereupon Moses, right hand man named Joshua, the same guy who fought the battle of Jericho. Later on this Joshua said Moses, the stop them. Forbid them from doing that out there in the camp. Moses answer was, listen, if everybody had the spirit, my job would be a lot easier.

You know what happened next?

The wind began to blow in from the sea, and it blew from the sea. Quail. A lot of quail.

I mean, a lot of quail. How much quail? They fell onto the ground three feet deep. Three feet deep. About that deep from where I'm standing.

About this deep from where you're sitting. Okay, how much? A pile. Three feet high. No, a pile one day's walk in every direction and three feet deep.

That's a lot of quail. That's a lot of quail.

The people spent. Now this is two to two and a half million people working two full days. That's a lot of quail. And they gathered the quail together. It took them two days.

And they started preparing these quail to be preserved so that they could carry on for however long they would last.

And then they began to eat. And verse 33 of Numbers 11 says, While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people. And the Lord struck the people with a very severe plague. So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hatta Tava, because there they buried the people who had been greedy.

They called the place the graves of longing, the graves of desire.

So that's the story, but what's it about? I mean, Obviously it's about 2 million people in the wilderness. Their leader, the desire to have something other than what God was graciously providing above and beyond their need and how God dealt with them. But there's more to the story, and fortunately for us, Scripture comments on this passage. If you look at Psalm 78, it tells us this.

You can read through, but at verses 17 and 18 in Psalm 78, it says this. Yet they still continued to sin against him, even after all the things he had done for him. They continued to to sin against him, to rebel against the Most high in the desert. And in their heart, they put God to the test by asking for food according to their desires.

Here's some things for us to consider, and these points are in the notes. Here's the point for us to consider. These people were exactly, I mean, exactly where God wanted them to be.

He had let them from Egypt into the wilderness by Mount Sinai and then moved them three days out and stopped. And when he stopped, this was what they had to do. Set up the tabernacle in a specific orientation from north and south and east and west. And then they had to establish their camps. And they started from the tabernacle and moved out in a geometric pattern with the priests immediately around the tabernacle.

But then each of the tribes distributed outside of that. They each knew exactly where their area was relative to the position of the tabernacle. So all two or two and a half million of them were exactly where God wanted them to be.

God had promised them something. He had promised 600 years or more before that to their ancestor Abraham, to his son Isaac, and to his grandson Jacob, who later became named Israel. God promised them that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through their ancestors. When Moses came to confront Pharaoh, he promised to guide them safely to a land flowing with milk and honey where they would be free to worship him.

He promised to give them food and water along the way, which he did and had been doing consistently. So God had not just promised something, he was was bringing it about, he was making it happen. He was keeping his promise. God had rescued these people from slavery, and they're actually out in the wilderness going like this. We want meat.

We remember the fish we ate for free in Egypt.

We had cucumbers and melons and onions and leeks and garlic. It was awesome. It was the regular food channel network, whatever. And we had that. And you led us away from it to give us this manna.

Manna. Well, wait a minute. This passage also tells us something about manna. Manna was tasty. It was delicious.

It was like coriander. Do you know what coriander is today? What do we call it? Cilantro. It's cilantro.

We call it the plant cilantro. You know that every bit of that plant is edible now. It didn't come in plants. It came in flakes. The root is.

We call it the plant cilantro.

I don't know if you know, you gather manna from here, manna from here, and it tastes like seeds. You gather it from over there, it tastes like the roots, you gather it in the middle, it tastes like the stems of the leaves. And I don't know, but coriander is. It's tasty. It has great.

Not only that, the manna was versatile. They picked it up, they could grind it into flour, they pound it into meal, they make cakes with it, they bake it in the oven, they put it in their pot and boil it. They could do whatever they wanted with it. It was versatile. They weren't limited by God in what he provide, other than the fact that it was manna every day, it was manna, it was his provision.

Tasty, to delight them, versatile. So they were not bored by it. I mean, some people have five recipes. They run the same five recipes every week. Eat out on Friday.

You know, I don't know what's going on there, but if there was boredom with it, it's not God who created the boredom. You know what it was? It was the sin that dwelt in them. Remember that principle that we're born with that causes us to resist God, but the enemy speaks into our lives and actually builds not just resistance but skilled opposition in us. That's what was going on the outskirts of the camp.

The rabble started to complain last week and this week have strong desires and deep longing for meat.

Here's the next principle, the next point of the story. Leaders need the support of their people.

When the people continually come to their leader with problems to solve and needs to be met, it could become overwhelming to the leader, leading to discouragement like Moses had, or even despair. If this is the way it's going to be, kill me now so I don't have to live with my wretchedness.

Discouragement to despair. Yeah. The body affects the leaders, and the leaders are not immune to the effects of that. However, multiplying leaders is God's strategy to lighten the load. But you know what?

Each of those leaders was identified by God, spoken to Moses about them, called out, and then the spirit was put on them. Empowered by God, Called by God, identified by God. God is the one who provided the solution. It wasn't Moses.

And then, of course, here's the last main point. Judgment came to the nation through the fulfilling of their desire.

I don't know if you've ever read C.S. lewis, the story with the bus ride. Which one is that? The Great Divorce. Right.

If you've ever read that, one of the Things you'll find in there is this principle that each one of us is blessed or experiences judgment based on our desires.

That concept is reinforced here. God gave the people meat. They didn't specify, we want meat for a day, a week, a month. They specified only, we want meat. Something other than manna.

I mean, I gotta have it. I'm longing for it. I don't know if I can live without meat. I gotta have meat. God give me meat.

Moses, where's the meat?

So God gave them what they asked for.

It's only when we recognize two words that we've used already this morning that we understand how these two things, satisfying the desire and judging the sin comes in. We've used the word reject and rebel.

Moses said, because you have rejected the Lord.

And the psalmist said, they rebelled against God, against the Most High.

So what we're looking at here, obviously, is that there was desire for something, but that desire was motivated by something. It was motivated. You know what? Let's take that desire and call it what it was. It was discontent.

That's actually the title of today's message is discontent.

And it's kind of a weak title. Because though discontent was the way something manifested itself, it was the action that took place. It was the way people expressed the real condition of their heart, because that's what it was. That's kind of a weak title for this passage because the real underlying point is the people refused to exercise faith and trust and thanksgiving in what God had promised, was doing and was providing.

So what if all those things are true, then so what? What's that mean to us? Well, let me ask you a question.

Do you feel safe where you are?

Do you feel safe where you are? Hey, listen, I'm going to make this assumption that you're already exactly where God intends you to be. Right? Are you where God wants you to be? If you are, do you feel safe there?

Do you feel.

I think that's wrong. I think that's wrong. Are you exercising your will to be content with what God is providing in this place that he has? You don't get me wrong. This is not a simple thing.

I mean, there's. You know, if life was as simple as, all we have to do is walk out of the tent, gather the manna, eat it, and move when the cloud moves, Bring our sacrifices occasionally.

What kind of stress is that? Our lives are way more complex than that.

The issues we deal with are way more complicated.

But I think the question is, do we choose to be content with what the Lord provides.

A lot of times he may be providing discomfort.

He may at least be aware of discomfort we're experiencing. But in our discomfort, what does he provide and can we choose to be satisfied with it? Not just content about our circumstances, but this. What about thankful?

A psalmist declares that Thanksgiving is praise.

Can we be thankful for what God has provided? It might not feel like enough. It may be a challenge to make ends meet. It may be hard to live in the same house together. But what has he provided in order for us to deal with it?

Can we be content with that? Can we grab onto it?

Can we return praise by thanking him for what he's provided? Thanksgiving is praise. It's praise because you don't just say thanks and walk away. You look someone in the eye and you recognize what they've done and you express your gratitude. If we are expressing our gratitude to God for what he has done, what we're saying is you provide.

That is praise. You provide. You provide bounty. You provide delight. You provide satisfaction.

You provide what I need to be content. Will I be content?

And here's the last thing I want to express as a so what?

Pray for me.

Pray for your leaders. Me, Alex, Nathan, our elders. You know what? Those who are involved in overseeing ministries, those who are engaged in ministry, if you're not in any of those groups that I mentioned, become part of those groups and then pray for each other. Because really, when I said, you know, earlier that Moses said this man, if all the children of Israel had the spirit like that, my job would be so easy.

You know, that's Ephesians 4, 7, 11. He gave to the church some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. This is not the spiritual gifts listed in Corinthians and Romans. This is something different. This is the gift of Jesus to the church for the purpose of teaching the people how to do the ministry.

That's what Moses said. If everybody had the Spirit was engaged in taking care of themselves, wow, that would be awesome.

And that's how God intends it. Each of us in our sphere of responsibility, in our area of influence within our communities, to be carrying the gospel.

And we can do it under compulsion, or we can do it encouraged. We can do it thankful that God has invited us into partnership with him, that he is bringing increased honor to his name. Every time someone trusts in Jesus becomes God's child and and becomes thankful. Returning praise to the Father.

Amazing stuff.

Incredible stuff.

The process of how all that happens is the process of cleaning house.

Cleaning house does this. It takes the junk the devil has put in in order to turn our resistance into active rebellion.

And it throws it out. It says this, God, I'm done resisting.

I don't have it in me to partner with you and to stop resisting.

Do the work in me.

And one of the places we can start is by cultivating contentment. But we can only do it when we recognize what it is in us that motivates our resistance, our active working against God.

Fortunately for us, God provided Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our resistance. That which is in us by nature that, you know, just kind of resists God. Jesus came to make a way to deal with that, and he did it. And we're going to celebrate it at this table.