Title: Trusting God’s Guidance
Focus: God’s people need to learn to recognize God’s guidance and follow where he leads in their lives
Function: To motivate the hearers to seek out God’s direction in the lives
Title: Trusting in God’s Guidance
Text: Numbers 9:15 - 10:16
Intro:
1. Airplanes are off course about 90% of the time
a. But commercial planes have Global Positioning System
b. It is constantly making course corrections for wind and weather
c. God has a GPS
- See it in birds. Know when and were to fly south
- Some fly direct route over gulf of Mexico
- 2 week trip, and not get lost
2. God’s people would have enjoyed internal GPS - But God had other plans
a. Wanted his people simply to trust his leading
b. He would provide for their needs, they just needed to follow him
c. So, they had an “external” GPS
d. Num 9 - 12 give instructions on how to stay on course
3. Context - Preparation made that started back in Exodus 19
a. Tabernacle built, priests ordained, the people consecrated
b. God have Torah (instruction) his GPS system
c. FINALLY they ready to march
4. Long text - Num 9:15 - 10:16
a. Not enough to merely acknowledge God’s power, must follow him
b. How. Ways
I. By following his instructions
A. Lot of preparation for this part of the march
1. Num 1-10 seem to have a positive tone
2. All is well, things as they should be, they getting ready to march
B. However, under surface a sense of danger
1. Repeated warnings interlaced throughout text in these chapters. 2. Why? Look at what has already happened
a. Came to holy mountain, God thundered at Sinai
b. Golden Calf in Exodus - 3,000 died
c. Nadab and Abihu
- Fire came out consumed offering
- All shouted and fell on faces
- Except Nabad and Abihu
- Then they brazenly offered strange fire - Then died
3. Not enough to merely acknowledge God’s power like at Sinai
4. (Jas 2:19) - Believe God is one, you do well, but.. so do demons
1. Faith without works is dead
2. (Jas 1:22-25) - Be doers of the word
C. How many looked into the mirror this morning?
1. How many said - Hello beautiful and walked away?
2. How many said - “ugh” - Got a lot of work to do
3. Purpose of bathroom mirror? - To see self and straghten it
D. When look at God’s law, his “Torah,” his “instruction” it is the same
1. Not enough to merely acknowledge God
2. Must act on it as well
3. Must follow his guidance, his instruction
II. You must follow where he leads
A. God gave 2 distinct ways to recognize when and were to go
1. Cloud moving up from temple
2. Trumpets to know what and where to go
B. But God not have cloud or trumpets today. How know where he lead?
1. People often ask - What is God’s will for my life?
a. Sometimes it’s decision of whether or not go into ministry
b. Maybe it is whether to marry or not
c. Maybe it is which college to go to
d. Or what activity to do. What does God want me to do?
2. Sometimes may wish we had trumpets or clouds for GPS
a. After all, it would be so much better right?
b. Know exactly what to do, and have much greater faith
c. Wrong. That generation didn’t make it due to unbelief
d. I don’t think their challenge any easier than ours
3. What is our GPS? Some things are fairly straightforward
a. Bible tells us not to steal, cheat, kill, curse, adultery
b. Don’t want to belabor those types of things
c. Those are rather simple.
d. What about the more difficult decisions?
4. (Rom 12:2) - Transformation of mind to “discern” the will of God
a. Discerning his will has a lot to do with wisdom
b. 1 Cor 2 - Paul speaks about word to babes & mature
- A spiritually mature person can appraise all things
- This a matter of growth and wisdom
c. It not always easy
C. I remember when we were considering going to Harding
1. Wanted to make sure it was God’s will
2. Didn’t want to by like Jonah - going against God’s will
3. Have learned there is not just one choice that is God’s will
a. Often there is a number of choices can please God with
b. Could have went to a number of schools
c. Could have not gone to school and stayed put
4. May be a little disoncerting to have so many choices
D. That why important to be discerning - How determine what is best?
1. Lots of prayer, careful planning
2. Talk it over with mature spiritual people
3. Think Biblically about all things
4. “Appraise” all things in light of God’s character & will
III. Remember how God has led his people in the past (10:10)
A. There is a reason why these stories are preserved for us
B. Prevents us from reducing God to a set of rules. He bigger than that
1. Pharisee made this fatal error
2. Job & freinds also made the same error
3. God is a holy being, the creator
a. He feels, reacts, weeps, hurts, rejoices, loves
b. Can ask, “How does God feel about.....?
c. From two things - His instruction, and the stories
d. O.T. Stories give us a glimpse of God’s character
4. Best glimpse of God’s character is Jesus
a. He is the radiance of his glory - Heb 1:3
b. IN him fullness of deity dwells bodily - Col 2:9
C. It is like teaching a child
1. Start out with rules orientation
2. As grow and able to discern more, start to understand why
a. The rituals and festivals were by wrote at first
b. As children grew, learned to appreciate what God did
c. It shaped how they lived their lives
d. That why we tell Bible stories to children
3. I learned to be quick to listen, slow to speak from my Dad
a. He didn’t drill it into me by commanding it
b. I witnessed it in him time after time
c. Example is the strongest teacher
4. That is why O.T. preserved, and why the word became flesh
D. So remember how God led and guided his people
1. Those things written for our learning, as examples
2. Read the Bible, but O.T. and N.T.
3. Get better aquainted with God
4. Will be able to better discern God’s will
Concl:
1. We must follow God’s guidance into the promised land
2. Parallel between Israel’s journey and ours
a. Red Sea = OUr baptism and freedom from bondage
b. Wilderness = Our time on earth. Have to keep moving, growing
c. Jordan River = Death
d. Canaan = Promised land, our rest in Heaven
3. Jesus is preparing a place for us now - We need to follow God in wilderness
4. Have you crossed the Red Sea yet?
5. If you are in wilderness, have you lost way. Need to listen to GPS?