Numbers 16:1-50 | Grumbling and Rebellion | Alex Culpepper

The Bible. And so this morning, I want to talk to you about the idea of being under discipline and being under authority. Being under discipline is one of the most spiritually vulnerable places that you can be, whether it's the Lord's discipline, where he's brought you to a circumstance where you can understand his love and you need to let go of something. And so he's allowed you to go through a season of discipline where you might be confronted with the reality that you need to let go of that thing, or whether it's consequences from a work situation or a family situation, or it could be some other kind of discipline from another authority in your life. But there is something about us that despises being put under the thumb.

We just don't like it. It's not comfortable to us. We don't like being told that we can't have something like we don't like being, like, coming under the evaluation of somebody else, right? Where they're going to tell us the things that we're doing right and the things that maybe we're not quite doing right. We don't like being told that we've transgressed a certain rule or a certain boundary.

But it does need to be said that authority is one of God's greatest values. Authority is one of God's greatest values. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean a couple of things. The first thing that I mean is that God cares deeply about how those who have authority use their authority, right?

This is why Jesus made such a big deal about when he came as the king of the universe, but made himself flesh. He says, I am among you as the one who serves. He would point to leaders in the world who would use their own authority to lord their authority over people, to break people down with their authority. But Jesus says, I am among you as the one who serves. God cares deeply about how those who have authority use their authority.

But God also cares deeply about how people under authority respond to authority. And to the extent that Christ himself submitted to the rule of the Roman governor, Pilate, right? You know, Pilate and Jesus are having these exchanges. And Pilate goes, hey, Jesus, are you a king? And Jesus says, yeah, but my kingdom is not of this world.

And you have an authority that's been granted to you by my Father in heaven. And so, however you need to use your authority, you use it. Jesus submitted himself to the authority of Pilate, even though Jesus authority was higher than that of Pilate because he recognized the value of the worldly authorities that were there. And so time and again, scripture displays that there is kind of no greater vulnerability within the people of God than how we both use and respond to authority. Like, scripture just displays that time and again in the world and our flesh and the devil, they all conspire together towards getting us to reject authority.

Right? Like that's what's going on. And so I'll just tell you, I have been a part of a number of different churches. I have had interacted with a number of different pastors. I've watched conflict take place in those churches, or I've heard about conflict taking place place in the life of those pastors.

I've heard the stories of various kinds of struggles. And I just want to tell you, like, I don't care how good of a pastor the pastors are, if the. If the congregation doesn't handle authority well, those churches don't bear kingdom fruit universally. Like, a congregation can have a great pastor. But I've watched great pastors walk into certain congregations, and if the congregation doesn't handle authority well, the then the church doesn't bear fruit.

And likewise, if a good congregation ends up with a pastor who doesn't handle authority well, then again, you end up in a situation where those churches don't bear kingdom fruit. Now, don't get me wrong about any of this, because what I realize is that there is a certain part of us that does appreciate and value and like authority. Like we like authority when those in authority give us what we want, right? We appreciate it when people in charge give us the thing that we're looking for. But here's the thing about authority.

The very nature of authority is that those who have it will inevitably need to lead us into seasons and situations that we don't love. And also those who have it may need to lead us into seasons and situations that take that things from us that we really appreciate. And so already you may notice that there's like a significant interplay here between your own desires and your relationship with authority. Because more often than not, what we do is that we will prioritize our own desires over honoring and recognizing legitimate authority. And the thing is, is that God, because of his value for authority, God will prioritize and recognize legitimate authority.

And he honors that above giving us what we want. So what displays this Perfectly is Psalm 37:4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. We want to flip that order, right? We want to say, hey, God, would you give me the desires of my heart heart? And then I'll Delight myself in you, right?

You give me what I want and then I'm going to be happy with you. But God's order is actually, no. Once you delight yourself in the Lord, the Lord conforms and changes and brings your heart along to align with his desires. And so learn to love God as your leader and your desires will follow too. I say all of this because we're continuing a series called Wanderings and Warnings.

We're looking at the Book of Numbers. And the crazy thing about the Book of Numbers is that there are all of these stories about the people of Israel and the ways that they royally mess up time and time again as they are wandering through the desert. Like, we just. There's something about them. Like they don't seem to get it about who God is.

They don't seem to get it about where their role is and what they need to be doing and what it means to obey God. Even though we're all reading this and they're like, isn't God like above them and a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire? Then they see his miraculous works in the wilderness. But. And so we look at them like, what's going on with these people?

But the reality is these stories about the ways that they mess up, not only are they history of the people of Israel, but they are also stories that are intended to reveal to us and help us think about sin in our own hearts, about the ways that we are opposed to God, about the ways that God has worked in our past. And yet we seem to forget the ways that he has worked. And so today is about what happens when we find ourselves and our hearts at odds with the authorities that God has placed in our lives. So numbers 16, verses 1 and 2. Now, Korah, a son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram, sons of Reuben, took men and they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 Chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well known men.

So Korah, Korah, it says, is a son of Levi. What this means for us. The Levites were the priests. They were the people responsible in all of the people of Israel for caring for the holy things of God. They were the people who facilitated worship around the tabernacle.

All of the people of Israel, when they would worship, they would have to come to the tabernacle and make their sacrifices in order to come near to God. And the Levites were the ones who were responsible for helping them come near to God. So that's Korah. He's the son of Levi. And then you have Dathan and Abiram.

They're from the tribe of Reuben. And these three, these three are kind of like ringleaders in a conspiracy. They work together. And what they do is they find 250 chiefs. And these chiefs are likely leaders of hundreds and leaders of thousands in the people of Israel.

They're chosen. They're people who had been chosen for Moses. So Moses is the prophet that God has chosen. And then Moses, in his authority, established leaders to help him administrate the people of Israel. Because what was happening is you had 600,000 people, and all of the people were coming to Moses with their problems.

And so Moses had to establish some other people in the camp who could help administrate and judge some of these issues that were taking place. Exodus 18, verses 21 and 22. Tell us about this. Says, moreover, this is Jethro Moses, father in law, giving him some guidance about how he can help himself and not have everybody come to him. Says, moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, men who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of 50s and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times.

So the ringleaders, these three people, what they do is they go and they find some of these chiefs, 250 of these chiefs that have been established, people who have influence in the congregation, people who some of the people in the congregation really like, and they find them. And then what did they do? In numbers 16 2, they rose up before Moses. Now, this is not saying that they stood up. This is saying that they organized together and confronted Moses.

They intended to challenge Moses. Verse 3. They assembled themselves together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, you have gone too far.

So who's Korah? We talked about this a little bit. Korah has this blessed, amazing responsibility. He is the one who is supposed to care for the holy things of God. He gets to be a part of facilitating worship in the people of God.

And Korah and his two buddies are discontent with the things that they have received. Now we have to remember the things that they received. We have to kind of reflect back on the story. So what had happened with these people? These people had been given a promise by God.

Right? You're going to go into a land that I'm giving you. It's flowing with milk and honey. It's a blessed land, and it's for you. This is my promise to you.

And so, time and again, God had proven himself to be keeping that promise. He brought them out of the land of Egypt. He set. He brought them through the desert till they get to the edge of the land. And when the people get on the edge of the land, there are some spies who go in and they see some really scary people.

And when they see some really scary people, they. They come back, they tell the whole congregation. And everybody's kind of like, yeah, we know God gave us that promise, but I don't think we're going to go in. We're a little. We're a little afraid.

We're a little too scared. Yeah, God has done all of this stuff before for us before, but this time, certainly God is not going to save us. God's not going to be strong enough to do what needs to be done. And God then, as a response to these people, because of their unbelief, because of their faithlessness, his response to this generation of Israelites was, you're going to wander now through the desert for 40 years until every one of you dies off. And I'm going to take in a new generation into that land who actually know who I am, who believe that I can do what I say I will do.

That's what God told these people. This story. This story about Korah takes place a short time after that verdict has been issued. And I want to help us see something that may not be totally clear as we read the passage. When we read these passages, kind of we imagine everybody.

We see God talking to Moses, and we imagine everybody being able to hear the things that God is saying, right? Because we read that and we're like, well, we can hear it. And so everybody probably heard it. But I just tell you, like, the people do not experience what we read in the passage as this is happening. This is what the people experience.

They see above them a cloud that moves by day in front of them, that shields them from the sun. They see a pillar of fire by night that provides warmth to the camp and light for the camp. They see this occasional blinding light that shows up when the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation. They see many miracles that occur through the leadership of Moses. And they have, of course, God's instruction that has been given to them, but only through the words of Moses, right?

That's. They don't hear God speak. This is interesting, because when they got to the Mount Sinai, when they received the law from God, God started speaking to the people. But the people told Moses, hey, we don't like it when he talks to us. And so would you go and talk to him and you just come and tell us what he said to you?

And that's the arrangement that's going on here. And so what we do is we get to see what God said when we read the story. But the people don't actually hear God speak. They only hear what Moses tells them. So God has validated Moses ability to speak through various miracles.

And all the people hear like they don't hear God's voice. They God's voice. They just hear Moses voice. And the result is that God is leading them through Moses words. And you know what can happen if you do that long enough.

Some people can suspect that Moses is making up his own words.

And that's what's happening in this story. These people said to Moses and Aaron, you have gone too far. They're not accusing the Lord. They're accusing Moses and Aaron, you have gone too far. For all in the conquest, all in the congregation are holy, every one of them.

And the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? This is their response to the loss of the promise that God had given them. This is their response to the punishment of wandering now through the wilderness. This kind of death sentence of being stuck in jail for the next 40 years, right?

So they quote God's words because God has said this, you are my chosen people. You are my holy people. Holy to the rest of the nations. They're going to see you as my holy nation. And then they reference God's presence.

Well, God is among us, isn't he? Doesn't he go with us? And so what they do is as they challenge Moses and Aaron, they speak out affirming words over the people, make the people hear the things that they want to hear, while at the same time that they question the leader that God has chosen for the people. And their primary complaint, the thing that they have, is they're looking at Moses and Aaron and they're saying, hey, you know what? We can do this without you.

You push us around too much. You issue too many commands to us. You lead us poorly. We don't need you. And in their discontent with the lot that God had given them, and in their grumbling, they sought to remove these guys who were just doing what God told them to do.

That's all they're doing. So watch how Moses responds in Numbers 16:4. When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. Now, if you've been paying attention to the story in the way that it goes, this Happens every single time. Every time the people rise up and challenge Moses, Moses always falls on his face.

This is his persistent posture before the Lord when he is confronted with the reality that these people are stiff necked and they do not listen to the Lord. This is what Moses does every single time that people complain. This is what Moses does every time a problem arises or a conflict arises. And so I just want to talk real quick about why is it that Moses always falls on his face. Why does Moses always fall on his face?

Number one, he does it to worship the Lord in the face of adversity. To fall on your face is an acknowledgement of God's authority over you. It is a posture of worship before the Lord. It's a recognition of your need for the Lord. So in every way, Moses is kind of laying himself down as a way of saying, this is not me, right?

To lead these people is not in me. I need to go to the Lord for the sake of these people. I need to glorify his name. I need to make sure that he is lifted up above me. The second thing, the second reason that Moses always falls on his face is he does it to mourn over the sin and unbelief in the people, right?

Every time they confront him, he sees another reality of like, goodness. You guys don't get it, you just don't see. And that breaks his heart. And so he takes this posture as a way to mourn. The third reason Moses falls on his face is he does it to intercede and to advocate for the people, right?

From this posture of falling on his face, we see that the Lord is like, hey, Moses, I'm going to smoke him. If you're ready, like, we'll go. And Moses always says, don't do that, God, right? I'm going to intercede for them. I you protect this people.

By protecting these people, you're going to protect your reputation. And Moses always quotes God's word back to him, right? The fourth thing that this, the fourth reason Moses falls on his face is to seek God's solution for the people, right? God, tell me what to do. I don't know how to respond to this situation.

I'm at a loss. And so for anyone who is called to lead in the people of God, whether it be the people of God then or the people of God now, Moses sets a pattern for us. This is the heart that God wants for leaders and his people. This is the posture that he calls us to take. It's not easy, right?

Especially as we have to not only deal with sin and baggage in the people. We have to deal with sin and baggage in ourselves as well, right? And that becomes evident in this story as we watch it. But this is how God calls leaders amongst his people to lead. And so verse 5 says this after he falls on his face says, moses said to Korah and all his company, in the morning, the Lord will show who is his and who is holy.

Do this. Take censers, Korah and all his company. In verse seven, it says, put fire in them, put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far. So they said to him, you have gone too far.

And Moses tells them, actually, you're the ones who have gone too far. Sons of Levi, verse 8, Moses said to Korah, is it too small a thing for you that the God, that God of Israel, has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself so that you can do service in the tabernacle, so that you can facilitate worship for the people. He's called Levi, this special group amongst the people of Israel who get to do and care for the presence of the Lord and lead people into worship. And is this not enough for you, Korah, would you seek the priesthood also? What he's saying is actually, Korah, would you seek to be high priest also?

Are you trying to elevate yourself to that level? Aaron is high priest at this point, but Moses is discerning that Korah intends to make himself high priest. So, so, so Moses says to Korah, hey, Korah, guess what? You had one job, right? And your job was meant to be the most delightful job in all of the congregation of Israel, the most purposeful, purposeful job, the most significant job.

You get to tend to the presence of the Lord, the one place in all the earth that he calls his dwelling place. You get to care for it. And his tabernacle, his sacrifices, his sanctuary. God has set every son of Levi apart for this most delightful task. And you exist to tend to the space where God gets to meet with his people, but that's not enough for you.

You clearly want this leadership of a high priest. And so Korah is literally what he is trying to do is he is trying to undo the order that God has established in the people of Israel, not only by trying to make himself high priest, but Moses discerns that his selection of the 250 chiefs of the congregation, along with the other two ringleaders, that their selection of these people was not simply about Trying to establish a new leadership. Korah was trying to establish a new priesthood. He was trying to make himself the Lord of a new priesthood that he would establish. And so Moses said this.

Therefore, it is against the Lord, right? They gathered against Moses and Aaron. But Moses tells him, it's not against us that you come. It is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him?

Like, we're just pieces of flesh up here. Like, who are we? Why do you think we're significant? Or we're important? The Lord is the one who put us in this place.

We're only here because of his command and his word. So Moses, after falling on his face, he gets this discernment to see what is actually going on in the heart of this rebellious movement. And so this is Moses posture. He's surrendered to the Lord. He's going to let the Lord show the people who is holy and who's not.

He doesn't need to fight for his own reputation. He knows he's completely secure in the fact that God has put him in this place. And so he says, well, let the Lord tell us. So he does this by a test, right? And here's the test.

It's not always easy to discern what the test is, but there's a little detail. Earlier in the passage, Moses says, well, Mark the one who is holy and the one who is not. So back in verse six of number 16, Moses says, Do this right? Here's the test, Korah, take sensors. Sensors are like golden bowls that the priests carry around on, like, a chain.

And they kind of. They wave around like this, and they have. The sensors have fire on them, and there's smoke that rise out of it. And so he says, take censers, Korah and all of his company, put fire in them, put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow. And the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy One.

That word holy means set apart. It's the one that is different from all of the other ones, right? That's what he's saying. So the test is like when the people God have ordained for the purpose of burning incense before the Lord, of starting a fire in a sensor and burning that incense, the smoke was holy, right? The incense that rose, the smell, the appearance, it was holy.

And that's objectively true because they were doing it the way that God had told them to do it. But I just want to let you know, we think of it like, oh, they did it in alignment with God's Command. So that's what makes it holy. But it seems that this word holy also refers to something that was observably different about the fire and the smoke in their sensors, right? There's something about when this must be a miracle of the Lord, right?

That's the only way that I could explain it. But that when God's chosen priests, priests burn incense in the way that God commanded them to burn incense, that you can tell the difference, right? There's something visibly, noticeably different about the way that God's priests burn incense versus the way that everybody else would burn incense. And so Moses, he tells Korah, he tells this new chosen priesthood that Korah has come up with, right? He says, hey, bring censors with you.

And how the incense burns will reveal who God has chosen to be priests. We're going to let God show us who he has chosen. And so the next day they come forward for the test. So we're going to skip ahead to verse 18, verse 18. So every man took his censer and put fire in them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

So now they're at the place where God's presence dwells. They're before for the presence of the Lord. God is inside the tent, they're standing outside the tent. And these guys, these 250 people, along with Korah and Datham and Abiram, they, they actually believe that the Lord is going to pick them, right? They are so full of pride and they're so angry at the consequences that have come to them through Moses that they believe God is actually going to display his approval of them over against his approval of Moses and Aaron.

And verse 19 and the glory of the Lord appeared to the congregation just there. Again, patterns in this book. Every time the glory of the Lord shows up, it's never a good thing. It's bad news bears, man, I just, it's not good. There's this blinding light and heavy smoke and weighty miraculous presence.

Now remember, they don't hear what the Lord says. They just see this like awe inspiring, like shaken in your boots kind of miracle that happens in front of them. And verse 20, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. So from God's perspective, this is not just a sin of the 250 people who are coming to challenge Moses, this is a sin of the entire congregation. Because this congregation has allowed rebellion to bubble up amongst them.

They have allowed gossipers and backbiters to conspire together to make a plan. They have allowed these people to undermine the leaders that he has chosen to communicate his words and desires to this people. And once again, we see that God is ready to give these grumblers what they have been asking for. And once again, Moses and Aaron, if you read the rest of the passage, Moses and Aaron, and they intercede to the Lord. And they said, lord, not the whole congregation.

Don't go against the whole congregation. So the Lord relents. They intercede. The Lord relents, right? This is the pattern that we see establishing for us.

So verse 24. Say to the congregation. The Lord then gives this command to Moses and Aaron, say to the congregation, get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. This whole exchange. So by the way, all of this talking back and forth, the arrangement, get away from the tents of their dwelling.

All of this is happening while these 250 men have just started to burn their incense before the Lord, right? So is it holy? Is it not? We don't know. Verse 27 goes on and says, so they sort of.

Moses gives the command, all right, everybody clear out. Get away. And they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives, their sons and their little ones. Verse 28.

And Moses said, hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works and that it has not been of my own accord. Verse 29. If these men die as all men die, or if they're visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. So here's what Moses is saying right now. These men are about to be judged.

They're about to die for carrying out rebellion against the Lord. But you, I need you to know, because this is in the mind of the people, right? The people think that Moses is a sorcerer. The people think that Moses is some kind of guy who's able to use magic and execute his will on these people. They've been deluded into this kind of thinking.

And Moses is like, I need you to know that I am not just some magician who does these things. I need you to know that it's the Lord that has appointed me. And so if they die of, say, a heart attack, or if they die of some disease or some plague, then you'll know that the Lord has not sent me, right? Because in their minds, this is how a sorcerer, you know, if he were going to do this. This is what a sorcerer would do.

So verse 30. But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord. So Moses is saying, hey, sorcerers, they don't command the earth to split open. So if the ground splits open and these men fall into the pit, then you'll know. You'll know that it wasn't me, that it was the Lord.

And so verse 31, as soon as he had finished speaking all of these words, the ground under them split apart. And those men were judged for the rebellion that they had led. Their families were judged for the rebellion that they had led. So I want to then skip Forward to verse 35, because we have still the 250 guys standing outside the meeting place of the Lord. They've lit their incense and verse 35 tells us what happens to them.

And fire came out from the Lord, Meaning fire comes out of the tent where the Lord's presence dwells. Fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering incense. So apparently their incense was not holy. So verse 37, tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, to take up the censers and put take up the censers out of the blaze and then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy. What God is saying here is that when they lit the fire on their little incense altars and they were carrying it around, it was not holy.

But now they have been judged for their rebellion. And now that they have been judged, look at the fire. It's holy now. You can see that it's holy now. And so now you're going to take this and scatter it far and wide.

And verse 38, as for the censors of these men who have sinned at the cost their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar. For they offered them before the Lord, and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel. So these things that became holy in the judgment of the Lord against these rebels, what they're going to do is that the people who administer the tabernacle are going to take these plates, they're going to hammer them onto the altar, so that every time somebody from the people of Israel come to offer their sacrifice, they come to draw near to the Lord. They're going to be reminded of what the Lord does with rebellion.

So verse 41. On the next day, all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, you have killed the people of the Lord. They still don't get it. I just don't get how they don't get it, but they don't get it. Verse 44.

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, get away from the midst of this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. And what did Moses and Aaron do? They fell on their faces.

After this little incident, the Lord then sends a plague. The plague starts making its way through the people of Israel. Some of the people actually start dying in the midst of this plague. And so Aaron comes out and he brings his censer from the fire of the altar, and it is the holy censer. And he literally goes out and he intercedes for the people by standing between the pathway of the plague and the rest of the healthy people.

And as Aaron does that, he used his censer to make atonement for the people. And the Lord relented from the plague so that it did not move through the entire congregation because Aaron went and blocked it off. These people stood up against Moses and Aaron and accused Moses and Aaron. And the Lord is getting ready to carry out his judgment on these people. And what do Moses and Aaron do?

They show us the thing that they've been showing us the whole time, that they are meek and that they are going to go to the Lord and they are going to make atonement for these people so that the Lord does not do what they rightfully deserve. Deserve every step of the way. God shows through this story that Moses is the prophet that I've chosen to hear my voice and to tell you like, and Aaron is the priest that I've chosen to make atonement for you. And these are not perfect men. I just want to let you know the point of this story is not that Moses or not that Aaron is some kind of perfect man or perfect person.

That's not the point. The point is that God gave his word and truly chose them by his word. And God is issuing now these consequences through them. And you may not like what is happening, but they're the ones that God has put in these roles. And so, church, our main point this morning is simply this rebellion blinds, hardens, deceives, and ultimately destroys you.

It's a very dangerous thing. Mess with, right? We're talking about. Okay, Lord, what do you need to show me? What do you need to root out of my soul?

If there is any ounce of Rebellion in us. We need to be quick to lay these things down before the Lord, because this is the thing. If you look through the story of scripture, you have the story here of Korah. But if you go forward into the king, the kingship of David, you have the story of his son Absalom, who organized an entire rebellion against him and the people. And if you go forward into the New Testament, you get concerns about disunity and people who rise up within churches and carry away people with them.

And rebellion is always the thing that is the threat to the people of God. That's why God takes it so seriously. So, so what? Number one, I just want to give us some patterns that contribute to rebellion. Now, before I talk about these, I just want you to rest assured, like, there is no problem that I am aware of in this church that I am trying to address with this sermon, right?

I just want to give you all the comfort in the world that, like, I'm not trying to make a case for something, right? I'm just bringing the word of God to you. Yeah, thank God. That's exactly right. I am just trying to help us learn from the warnings of scripture.

And so looking at the characteristics of these guys in this story, I just want to look at some patterns. The first pattern that contributes to rebellion, impatience and fault finding in leadership, that this would be your heart, or you would all the time be looking for a way that a person let you down, or a person wronged you, or a person didn't do the thing that you thought they should do. That if that is the posture of your heart, you just need to be on guard because that is the beginning. That's a seed that can start rebellion. Number two, gossip about leaders, right?

So now if this thing in your heart has taken root to such an extent that you will go and talk to other people about the way that leader didn't do what you thought they should do, or the way that that leader down, or the way that that person judged you, or the way that that person said this thing about you. Gossip about leaders, again, is a seed, right? Because how did this start in the congregation? Well, these three guys started talking to each other about the things that they were frustrated with and they organized together and they thought, you know what, we need to draw some more people into this. And so the third thing, the third pattern that contributes to rebellion, resistance, to feedback and correction, right?

So the heart of everybody who is a follower of Jesus, because Jesus made himself meek for our sake, he became a servant for our sake, we should Just be humble in the sense that if people have maybe a word of criticism to bring against us or maybe a word of correction to bring against us, you know, it's not always good to have a critical heart, and sometimes those things hurt, and sometimes the heart that people say it with is not great. But we want to have ourselves in a posture of not always, like, being defensive and like, our security is in the Lord, right? It's not in what those people think of us. And so we just need to have this heart that. Okay, like, I'll receive that.

I'll pray about that. I'll think about that. We receive correction and feedback with a humble heart. The fourth pattern that contributes to rebellion is self promotion, right? So anything that you need to do to make yourself look good in the eyes of other people, you know, the three ringleaders, they went and they found people who were well known in the congregation.

They wanted this movement to look really good in the eyes of the congregation. So self promotion. And then the final piece that I would encourage us here, final pattern of rebellion, is any currying favor to build influence, right? You go out and you do a nice thing for this person. You go out and you do a nice thing for this person.

You make that person like you and that person like you so that you can have enough people who like you at the end of the day so that when it comes time to challenge, it's like, well, look at the people that I've got. Look at the people that you've got. It's democracy, man. It just works great.

So I love our country, by the way. I love constitutional republic and all this. All right, cool. Number two, be careful. Find leaders who lead from their faces.

So what? Number two. So here's the thing. It is not always immediately or obvious who leads from their faces and who doesn't like, because you don't like. If all you do is you see me preach, right, it's not going to be immediately obvious to you what is the posture of my heart.

But I want you to kind of tell you some things that each of you, all of us are going to be tempted to look for in a leader. You want to look for somebody who makes you feel good, or you want to look for somebody with a lot of knowledge, or you want to look for somebody who's highly skilled or highly talented, right? And all of those things are secondary at best to one key thing. Does their character reflect obedience to God? Because the 250.

I just want to think about those 250 chiefs from among the people, those 250 chiefs, they found people who made them feel good. They were well known in the congregation. And following these 250 chiefs led them in the right direction. That ended up just right into opposition against God. As the people listened to these 250 chiefs, they would have led them into this rebellion against God.

And so the pattern of Scripture is that man looks at the outside, but God looks at what's in the heart, right? So do they have a teachable spirit? Do they have humility? How do they talk about other people? Do they grab quickly for influence?

How do they respond to conflict? Do they keep their word? Do they strive for unity? When God speaks, do they obey? Number three, so what?

Number three rebellion has touched all of us in some way. And Jesus is our intercessor. So Colossians 1, chapter 21 says this. Sorry. Colossians chapter 1, verse 21 says this.

And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds like we were, this is the thing about humanity. This is the thing about our hearts. The natural state of us before we come to God, the natural inclination before God does anything inside of us to change us, is that we are aimed against God. Right? We are opposed to him.

Right. We are both alienated, separate from him, but not only separate from Him. We are actually hostile in our thoughts and in our thinking against Him. We will not have this man rule over us is the attitude that we carry in other ways. The Bible says we were dead in our trespasses and sins, or we were already condemned, or we were doomed as those who were hostile to him.

That's us, verse 22. He has now reconciled us in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you to God, holy and blameless and above reproach before Him. So what is this saying? This is saying that the living one, Jesus Christ, stepped into death. The one who was alive stepped into death so that by his blood he might make peace for us.

Right? So we've declared war on God. And Jesus stepped into death so that by his blood he might make peace between us and God. And then he reconciled us. So that word reconcile is like what in the world.

We don't use those words anymore. The word reconcile is about a settling of accounts, right? It's about. It's about equalizing things, right? Right.

So we had death. That's what we had. That's where we were. And he had life and his blood had life. And so we're at a depletion, and he's at an increase and so what does he do?

He gives his blood so that we can have life too, right? That's that. He adds to our account. He equalizes our account so that his blood might be attributed to us, so that we who have rebelled against God could be presented to God. We can now walk before God as those who are actually holy and actually blameless because we've been covered in the blood of Christ.

So some. Some of you have seen rebellion in yourself this morning as I've been talking, and you might be going, okay, what do I do? Like, I see. I see these tendencies in my heart. I see the concerns.

I see the list of five things, and I do a few of them, right? And so you go, what do I do? I just tell you, like, okay, when I was 22 years old, God confronted me with my rebellion, right? He kind of showed me face to face what I was doing, and I was kind of going along and yeah, I was doing. Doing some church stuff and then doing my own thing.

And I said, God, you know, I would prefer to just do things my way, right? I want. I want what I want and I'm gonna do what I want. And I know you say I shouldn't, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway. And then the Lord said, that heart is not accepted.

Acceptable with me. You either need to go or you need to stay, but you need to figure out what's going on here, man. And so God confronted me with my rebellion. And I just came to face to face with, okay, this is actually what my heart is doing, right? Like.

Like, I'm not just like, oh, yeah, I'm not just like tripping up every now and then. And I'm not just failing. No, I'm just telling the Lord, you know what? It'd be better. I like your benefits, but I don't really like doing the things that you would have me do.

So what do I do? What do I do when I realize that that is actually what's in my heart?

Look to Jesus. That's the response that we're given.

The seriousness of the rebellion that is in your heart is a disruption of the very order of Christ creation. And Christ gave the life of his blood and rose from death so that you, who were a rebel could be called a friend of God. So what do I do? You rejoice in the wonder of life with God that has been freely given to you, and you decide to take it. You decide to actually go after it instead of playing the rebellion game.

So I'd invite you to pray with me as we prepare our hearts for communion. God, thank you for the gift of what you have accomplished for us in Jesus. I pray that you would lift and direct our hearts now towards Jesus as we take these elements and take the juice and take the bread. And, Lord, receive the good news of what you have accomplished for us by your death and resurrection, Lord. And let that transform us from the inside out.

That we had death. That's what we brought to the table. But you have brought to us life.