Good morning, everybody. My name is Gregg Hampton.
I'm one of the pastors here at the house. If
we've never met, I would love to meet you. We
could get a coffee. I enjoy coffee, but if you
don't like coffee, we could get a soda or water
or whatever works for you. But I would love to
hang out with you and get to know you and just
hear your story, maybe even talk about Jesus.
We are in our third week of a series that we're
calling The Wilderness. Week one, we looked at
the story of Hagar. She said that I have met
The God who sees me. We were reminded that we
are not invisible. God has not lost track of
us. Last week we looked at the story of Moses
in the burning bush. And remember that God invites
us to be part of the solution. We're also reminded
that we're never meant to lose our spiritual
curiosity. There was something in a spiritual
curiosity that caused Moses to go and look at
what was happening. And we are meant to keep
our eyes open in the same way because we never
know when we're going to see a burning bush and
have to decide whether we're going to ignore
it or whether we're going to go see what God
is doing. Today, we're going to jump forward
a bit. in the scriptures to when the israelites
were wandering in the wilderness so let's go
ahead and jump in if you have a bible let's open
it up to the book of numbers if you don't have
a bible there's blue bibles on the tables you
can open up uh one of those you can take one
of those home if you really need one download
the bible from uh bible app It goes Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Numbers
is the fourth book of the Bible or the fourth
book of what's called the Torah or the Pentateuch.
And this might be the first sermon we've ever
done straight out of Numbers. I'm going to get
a shirt that says straight out of Numbers. All
right. And we have a tradition that during the
sermon, when the scriptures are read in the context
of the sermon, that we give it our full attention.
You can do that any way that you see fit. But
if you would like to or able to stand with me,
you are welcome to do that as well as I read.
Numbers 9, starting with verse 15. Numbers 9,
verse 15. On the day the tabernacle was set up,
the cloud covered the tabernacle. The tent of
the covenant. And from evening until morning
it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance
of fire. It was always so. The cloud covered
it by day and the appearance of fire by night.
Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent,
then the Israelites would set out. And in the
place where the cloud settled down, there the
Israelites would camp. Verse 18, at the command
of the Lord, the Israelites would set out. And
at the command of the Lord, they would camp.
As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle,
they would remain in camp. Let us pray. God of
every tribe, every tongue, every color, every
nation, we thank you for the scriptures, that
they have persisted throughout the millennia,
that we still have them to consider, to learn
from, and whatever you have for us today, I pray
that it would stick, that it would become a part
of the framework of our faith. That our faith
would become stronger as we become more like
your son, Jesus. Amen. Thanks, y 'all. You can
have a seat. Okay, so the Israelites are in the
wilderness, but why are they in the wilderness?
I'm going to go... All the way back 400 years
earlier, Jacob was the grandson of Father Abraham,
and Jacob had many sons. That old song, Father
Abraham had many sons. That's actually wrong.
Abraham did not have many sons. It was Jacob
that had the many sons, but Abraham is the patriarch
of the Israelite people, and so it's credited
to him. Jacob had 12 sons that were the beginning
of the 12. But it says that Jacob actually favored
one of his sons. Anybody know which son that
was? Joseph. He favored Joseph above all the
others. And so the older brothers actually became
very jealous of Joseph. Have you ever heard of
Joseph in the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
That is a reference to this story. Because his
father gave him a very special robe that... made
him distinct and stand out. So everyone else
was jealous of him. And so what happened is they
pretend that Joseph died. They tell their father,
Jacob, that his favorite son had been killed
by an animal. But what had actually happened
is they had thrown him into a pit and then they
sold him into slavery. Long story short, Joseph
ends up in Egypt and God elevates him to second
in command in Egypt next to the Pharaoh. And
he's reunited with his family, bringing them
to Egypt, saving them from famine. And they stayed
there for the next 400 years. By the time we
get to Moses, the scripture says that there was
a Pharaoh that did not remember Joseph, that
did not remember what Joseph had done for Egypt.
And he grows intimidated and afraid. And so he
becomes abusive and oppressive to the Israelite
people in the Egyptian lands. Last week, we talked
about how God called Moses to go back to Egypt
and lead the people out. Spoiler alert, they
got out. And now the Israelites are in the wilderness
because that is exactly where God wants them
to be. They're in the wilderness because it's
exactly where God wants them to be. Not forever,
but for now. When we feel like we are in a wilderness
of our own, it's not always a comfortable thing
to think that it is exactly where God wants us.
Not because he wants us to suffer or feel spiritually
dry or lonely. That's not at all why he had the
Israelites in the wilderness. It was so that
they would learn how to follow. It was so that
they would find who they really are. For hundreds
of years, the Israelites were enslaved in a polytheistic
culture. Remember, last week we mentioned this
polytheistic or polytheism. It just means that
there are multiple gods that get worshipped.
But the Israelites, their roots were in what's
called monotheism, the worship of one God, that
there is only one God. And over the centuries,
they had had their culture stripped away, their
identity diluted by the prevalence and power
of their surroundings. Their worship of the one
God of their ancestors had been displaced. If
you actually go back and look at what God tells
Moses to do, he said, I want you to lead my people
out that they might worship me at this mountain.
When Moses goes, that's what he says. We want
you to let us go just so that we can go out and
worship. He's calling them back to the worship
of the one true God of their ancestors. Their
worship had been displaced. Their worship, their
identity, their culture had been diluted and
erased. If you don't know what I mean by that,
we... did the same thing here in this country
to the people that we kidnapped and enslaved
from other countries. We brought them here. We
stripped them of their original culture. We told
them to assimilate. And to this day, even though
they are free, there is still a journey of discovery,
finding what it looks like to be fully themselves
in a land that stripped their ancestors of everything.
More generally speaking. There is an ongoing,
centuries -long desaturation of honest -to -goodness
Christianity in America. We underestimate to
what extent our surroundings and prevailing culture
can dilute and strip away what God is really
calling us to be. Who we really are. Just think
for a second. About any number of things that
are happening in America right now in the name
of being a good Christian. And ask yourself,
does that look like America or does that look
like Jesus? So much of Christianity has been
wrapped with an American flag instead of the
body and blood of Jesus Christ. but if history
teaches us anything, it's that empires can only
stand for so long before God raises up a voice
like Moses, like a Dr. King, and lifts up a people
like the Israelites to break the chains. But
even then, it isn't always a straight line from
oppression to the promised land. I'll say that
again. It is not always a straight line from
oppression to the promised land. There is often
a wilderness in between. And that wilderness
is almost always the place that we are meant
to meet God so that we can learn how to follow,
how to reject our cultural conditioning, to find
who we are really meant to be. And so in the
wilderness, God had the Israelites all alone.
All to himself for 40 years outside of the polytheistic
environment that they had been in for hundreds
of years. The place where the culture of Egypt
could now fade away into the sand, under the
dirt. Now that doesn't mean that there weren't
bumps in the road for them in the wilderness.
If you've ever heard of the Ten Commandments,
maybe you have. You might be familiar with the
idea that while Moses was meeting with God, getting
the Ten Commandments, that the people of God
were down in the valley fashioning a golden calf.
That they might worship and say that this is
the God that has done all of the good things
for us. Because their Egyptian conditioning was
not completely gone yet. It's no coincidence
that the first commandment is, I am the Lord
your God. You will have no other gods before
me. It's after this that God gives them something
new. At first, the idea was that they would see
the pillar of cloud and the appearance of fire
at night, and that that would be enough to believe
that God was there. They'd already seen all the
miracles in Egypt, the parting of the sea. What
more? Could they ask for? But there's something
about us humans. We like something tangible.
Something that we can touch. It's part of the
reason that they fashioned a golden calf. It's
because they could touch it. It looked like something
they could identify. But God doesn't give them
an idol. He gives them a place to worship him.
It gives them a tabernacle, a place to worship,
a place to be reminded that there is only one
God. And the presence of that God will rest on
that place. And you will know that this is our
place, my place, because my presence will be
there. And every day or week or month when God
would move, they would pack up that tabernacle,
follow the pillar of cloud, and it rest whenever
it. would rest. All they had to do was follow
this one God. Why does it seem like it's so much
easier to follow a hundred gods than just one?
The God of money, the God of work, the God of
popularity, the God of intelligence, the God
of... Why does it seem so... We become so fractured,
and it seems like, why is it easier to follow
100 ideas instead of one? All they had to do
was follow, but also, all they had to do was
stay when God stayed. I wonder if we actually
undervalue just how much of finding ourselves
is found in learning how to stay where Jesus
stays. and only going when Jesus goes. And I
wonder if it, at least for the Israelites in
this story, that maybe the staying was the harder
part of the following. If you open Numbers back
up to that same chapter, verse 17 that we read,
it says they would stay when it was time to stay.
Verse 18, it says they would stay when it was
time to stay. And then in the next five verses
that we did not read, in all five of them, it
says it again in different ways. Verse 19, and
they would not set out. Verse 20, they would
remain in camp. 21, only when the cloud lifted
would they set out. 22, the Israelites would
remain in camp and would not set out. Verse 23,
in the command of the Lord, at the command of
the Lord is when they would set out. Every single
verse reiterates that they only moved if God
moved. They always stayed when God stayed. I
feel like we should stop here for a second and
every single one of us just listen to the Lord.
Just for a second. Stop listening to me and just
listen to the Lord. Ask if... Our heart needs
convincing that even if we are in a wilderness,
that we do not need to get moving. Even if we
feel that we are experiencing wilderness, that
maybe we don't need to be in a hurry. We don't
need to get our feet moving. We don't need to
pack up the tent yet. Because part of learning
to follow is knowing how to stay. Part of learning
to follow. He's learning how to stay. God will
always lead you into the promise in his right
time. And if we are in a hurry, we might forget
that promises aren't always entered without a
fight. For the Israelites, the other side of
the wilderness was not just a promised land,
but it was what? It was war. It was battles.
It was fights. The Israelites didn't enter their
promise peacefully. Some of us might be in too
big of a hurry to get out of the wilderness because
we don't realize there might be a battle coming
that we're not actually ready for. And God is
using this time to teach us who we are, to teach
us how to follow. To show us how to only go when
God goes. And to stay when God stays. So that
when we meet adversity, not the passive adversity
of a wilderness, of course the question of, oh,
where's food going to come this morning? Oh,
well, maybe God will just drop it on the ground
just like he did yesterday. Not just the passive
adversity, but the active adversity of a battle
that stands between us and God's promise. We
will need to know. Who God says that we are in
those moments. My kids, when they're having challenges
at school, one of the things that we tell them,
one of the most important things you need to
know is who God says you are. Because that will
shape everything else that you do. We will need
to know who God says that we are. We will need
to trust that God is who God says he is. And
we will need to follow God's lead. implicitly.
Without time in the wilderness, we could reach
that day and think that we can do all of it on
our own. But if there are battles worth fighting
for your future, a battle of faith, a battle
of meaning, a battle of belief, a battle for
family, it's better that we learn now. That God
is actually the one that fights not only with
us, but for us. So that we don't believe that
we're in this all alone. So that we don't believe
that we don't need God to overcome the challenges
in front of us. As I close, I hope... all three
weeks really, I hope that in this series that
what you're hearing is that even if you're in
a wilderness, it is not forever. It's for now.
But there's purpose there. A wilderness is not
an accident. It is a place of shaping, a place
of defining, a place of learning to follow, a
place of seeing that God is the one who sees,
a place of curiosity, a place of finding yourself.
Because you find God. And then, the last word
is this. The really great news is that we don't
have to look for a pillar of cloud or a pillar
of fire resting over a building like this. Some
of us might think that would be really great.
Oh, then I would know that I'm definitely at
the right church. Or I would definitely know
where God is moving. Or I would... If I could
just see the pillar above the building. But what
the scriptures now teach us is that we, each
of us, are the temple of the living God. That
each of us are traveling tabernacles with the
presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
And in some ways that feels harder. Because remember
us humans, we like something tangible. I think
the most tangible thing that I can point you
to is to just look around the room. Just notice
the other people. The other people that are filled
with the Holy Spirit, that are just trying to
follow the Lord. And if ever you wonder... Is
the Lord in this place? I'm not talking about
this church. I'm talking about wherever you are,
is the Lord in this place? Just reach out and
grab someone from this room. And stay when God
stays. And then together, go where God goes.
Amen? Let's pray. Jesus, for 12 years, we've
been praying that we would become more like you.
Jesus, my hope, my ask is that the battles that
so many in this room have been fighting, that
they would see victories by your hand, that they
would feel more than ever that they know who
they are because they know who you are, and that
this year would be the year that so many of us
feel... That more than ever, that we are defined
by the likeness of Jesus. That we would look
like you, talk like you. That our cultural conditioning
would fade. And then what we would see in ourselves
and what the world would see in us is you. Amen.