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Let's start putting the Bibles
together. The book of Numbers, chapter number 32. Numbers, chapter number
32. I have not forgotten that we
have not finished the book of Jude yet. It boggles my mind,
it's only one little tiny chapter. We'll, Lord willing, get back
to it next Sunday. Numbers, chapter 32. Would you
stand with me as we read Numbers, chapter 32? We'll start reading
at verse number one. Numbers, chapter number 32 and verse number
one. if you're taking notes, the title
of the message is The Sin of Sitting. Numbers 32, verse number
one. Now the children of Reuben and
the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle. And
when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that
behold, the place was a place for cattle. The children of Gad
and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses and Eleazar,
the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying,
Adirath and Diban and Jazer and Nimra and Heshban and Elali and
Shebam and Nabo and beyond, even the country which the Lord smote
before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy
servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have
found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants
for possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said
unto the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, shall
your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore
discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going
over into the land which the Lord hath given them? Thus did
your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea, to see the
land. And when they went up unto the
valley of Eschol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart
of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land
which the Lord had given them. Look now at verse number 16.
And they came near unto him and said, we will build cheap foals
here for our cattle and cities for our little ones. But we ourselves
will go ready armed before the children of Israel until we have
brought them unto their place. And our little ones shall dwell
in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
We will not return unto our houses until the children of Israel
have inherited every man his inheritance. For we will not
inherit with them on yonder side of Jordan or forward, because
our inheritance has fallen to us on this side. of Jordan eastward. And Moses said unto them, If
ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord
to war, and will go all of your armed over Jordan before the
Lord until he hath driven out his enemies from before him,
and the land be subdued before the Lord, then afterward ye shall
return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, and
this land shall be your possession before the Lord. Verse 23. But
If you will not do so, behold, ye have, what, sinned against
the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Father, I
pray that you bless the time of the Scriptures this evening.
Thank you so much for, Lord, the word of testimony of your
goodness and what you've been doing. Thank you, Lord, for this
opportunity we have this first day of the week. to set this
day aside as a first fruits of this week and the rest of the
time that you allow us to be here. And Lord, may we do the
best that we can for your honor and glory as you give us, Lord,
our breath to breathe and the will and ability to move. I pray
that we'd serve you with all that we have. We pray in Jesus
name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. You
may be seated. If you're familiar at all with
the Old Testament, you understand that it's dominated with the
exodus of Israel out of Egypt land. They were down there in
slavery for over 400 years and God brought them up out of the
mighty hand. You're familiar with the 10 plagues and how they
were expelled out after they spoiled the Egyptians. And they
began to make that journey. Now the Bible says that that
journey should have been an 11-day journey. And you know it took
them more than 11 days. It took them over 40 years. 11
day trip took them over 40 years. And God was very clear in how
he directed them when they came up out of that land. They didn't
go straight north. They went underneath the Dead
Sea. The Bible says that they did
not go the way of the Philistines because the Lord knew that if
they saw war, they were returned to Egypt. Exodus 13 verse number
17. And so they're on their way to
this promised land and now they're on the east side of Jordan and
they're going to have to cross Jordan into Canaan land, the
promised land, to cross Jordan to get there. It's in this time
when Gad and Reuben have a conversation with Moses. But before we talk
about that conversation, let's get it in context. We're reading
here in the book of Numbers. What an interesting book the
book of Numbers is. It starts off with the Lord having Moses
number the people that are able to go to war. In chapter number
1, verse number 1, let's turn there very quickly. Numbers chapter
1, verse number 1. He has them number the people,
and that's why it's called the Book of Numbers. He numbers them here,
and then he has them numbered again in chapter number 26. Numbers 1, verse number 1. The Lord's speaking to Moses
in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation,
on the first day of the second month, the second year after
they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, take ye the
psalm of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after
their families, by the house of their fathers, With the number
of their names, every man by their polls. Polls are the registered
heads. It's people. It's the heads of
the people. It's a head count. We even say
today that people are going to the polls. So he says, I want
you to number the people before you go into that land. Even after
they're disqualified in chapter 27 or chapter 26, he has them
number the people again. God's concerned about the number
of people that are available to serve. Now, before we dive
deep into chapter number 32, let me say this. Why would God
have Moses number the people? And I would suggest to you for
this very reason that every single person mattered. If I could put
it this way, that every single person was needed. And so they were numbered. Is
everyone here? Is everyone available? Is everybody
on board? I also find it interesting that
in chapter one and chapter number 32, verse number two, that this
group of people that have been numbered are referred to as the
congregation. They are called the congregation
in the wilderness. In Exodus chapter 17, verse 1,
and all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the
commandment of the Lord. The word congregation literally
means the bringing together or the assembly of people. Now,
do you know the New Testament? Do you know that we are called
the church, that we are the ecclesia, that we are the assembly, we
are the congregation? I'll go one step farther, that
even in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter number 7 and verse
number 37, the Bible says this, This is that Moses which said
unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall
you hear. Listen to this, verse number
38. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness. The
angel would speak to him in Mount Sinai. This congregation that
we're greeting right now is referred to as the church in the wilderness. Now I have to be very doctrinally
clear right now. The church today does not replace
the nation of Israel. All right, it's very clear. There's
a lot of replacement theology going on out there. When we get
later on in the book of Romans, chapter number 11, Paul makes
it very clear that God is not done with a nation of Israel,
not at all. And so the church does not replace
Israel. But what we see here is that there are very important
similarities between this congregation and that church in the wilderness
and the local assembly today. You say, well, Pastor, are there
things that we should learn from there? Absolutely. Romans chapter 15,
verse 4, for whatsoever things are written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures,
might have hope. So there's things that we ought
to learn. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11, now all these things
happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our
admonition, but whom the ends of the world are come. So the
things that happen in this congregation, the things that happen in this
church, there are things that happen that we need to learn
from and there's things that happen that we should be admonished.
Now it's one thing to learn and it's another thing to be admonished.
Admonished is a little bit more stern. Admonished is you learned
it but you didn't do it. And that's a totally different
thing. It's a warning. And so as we
go back to the Old Testament in this very text of this congregation
and this church, I think there's some things that we need to learn
and maybe even some things that we need to be admonished by.
Well, what might they be? Well, we find out that they're
gonna cross this Jordan River. That was the intent, that was
the plan. But Gad and Reuben, these two
tribes, they were cattlemen. The Bible says at the end of
verse number one, behold, the place was a place for cattle, this
land on the other side of the Jordan. And then verse number
four, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation
of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants, Have cattle. What a coincidence. They said,
no, we've noticed that this is a place for cattle. Now, I don't
know if you know this or not, but I'm a cattleman myself. Big
hat, no cattle. I have four cows. Yeah, I do. And as little as
they are, and as small as they are, and as small as the herd
is, I can't believe how hard it is to find hay. This is a
rough summer. The field is full of weeds, no
grass. You're buying hay. And then I
bought five round bales of hay, and it wasn't cheap. And my daughter
steals my hay and gives it to her horses at the camp. Where's
my hay? She's stealing hay. It's just
amazing. I'm not saying I know how they
feel, but I'm saying this. They said, you know, we have cattle. And they had much cattle. And
they said, we have cattle. And you know, this is a great
place for cattle. So you know what I'm thinking?
I'm thinking there's no need for us to go over there. We can
have our inheritance here. We can have our inheritance now.
And we don't even have to cross the Jordan River. This would
be good. Now, they're going to run this by Pastor Moses. Verse number six, and Moses said
unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, I'm
sorry, they said this to Moses in verse number two, the children
of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses and Eliezer
the priest and the prince of the congregation saying, hey,
we can go, verse number four, even the country which the Lord
smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle
and we have a lot of cattle. Verse five, wherefore said they,
if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given
unto thy servants for our possession, and bring us not over Jordan.
Hey, why don't we just stay here? Your servants, I'm trying to
get out of service, your servants have much cattle, so let's just,
can we just stay here, Moses? Would that be okay, Pastor Moses?
Would that be all right, and you guys get yours, and we already
have ours? Won't that be good? Now, do you
understand that Moses was not happy with this at all? Moses,
I'm sure in his mind, by what he says, he goes back and says,
listen, I've seen this play out before. I've seen this same problem
before. And he asked them this, verse
number six, Moses said unto the children of Gad, and to the children
of Reuben, shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? They're gonna cross the Jordan
River, your brethren are, and they're gonna go to war, And
they're going to work on the other side of Jordan, and you're
going to be OK with sitting here getting your cattle fat while
they're over there fighting. You all right with that? I want
you to think about what you're asking. Are you OK with that?
I think that's a great question. If I could apply it to the Church
of the New Testament, the local assembly, I want to remind you
that we are in a war. I want to remind you that there
is ground to take, that God needs to get more glory and souls need
to be saved. I want to remind you that we
have generations of young people in our church that need Sunday
school classes and need a camp to go to and need a bigger sanctuary
to meet together. I'm saying there's things to
do. And in this congregation, is it acceptable for anyone that's
part of the church, and by the way, just like them, they're
all needed in the New Testament church, and every single person
is needed. That there's no, well, I'm just kind of a filler and
nobody really needs me. We covered in Corinthians extensively
that every single member is needed. Even the ones that you might
think they are not the more comely parts. You think, well, I'm not
the hand, and I'm not the eye, and I'm not the foot, therefore
I'm not needed. You know one of the ugliest parts
is your heart? I used to think a heart looked
like this. Remember that? Oh, look at the heart. The first
time you saw a real heart. I saw there was a necklace. I
saw a necklace, and it was a heart necklace, but it looked like
a real heart. Like, ew. But can I say how much needed
that heart is? That's a pretty important member. And he makes
it very clear that every single member, every single person is
needed. And that there is no room for
anybody to sit. That there's no time, there's
no reason, it's not right for anyone to sit. And let everyone
else bear the burden of the task that God has that congregation
to do. This is gonna be a good one, folks. You're gonna be so
excited about this. Here's a problem. When people sit, when you sit, number one, you don't exercise
your faith. When we sit, we do not exercise
our faith. They said, you know, everything
we have is right here. We don't need anything else.
We're going to sit here and take care of our own little cattle
and our own little families, and you guys go over there. So
that means this. That means there's no putting
your feet in the Jordan River. That means there's no seeing
the water's parts. Are we right? There's no seeing
God tear down and destroy the walls of Jericho. There's no
step of faith whatsoever, because everything I have and everything
I need is right here. And if I sit here, I don't have
to exercise faith, because I have everything I need. But I'm going
to tell you that when you decide to stand up and not sit, when
you decide to cross the Jordan River, then your faith will be
exercised. that your faith will be required
to do what God's called you to do. I was reading this when they
finally get to go there over the Jordan River, finally. Let's
go to Joshua chapter number three. Keep your finger there, number
is 32. But Joshua chapter number three. I believe that there's
a lot of people sit because they are faithless, because they don't
trust the Lord. They're not willing to step up
by faith. But in Joshua chapter three,
look at verse number 11. Joshua three, verse number 11. The Bible says, Behold, the Ark
of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before
you in Jordan. Now, therefore, take you 12 men
of the tribes of Israel out of every tribe of man, and it shall
come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that
bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest
in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall cut
off from waters that come down from above, and they shall stand
up in heaps. Now, can I tell you, this is
an amazing thing. This is an incredible thing.
Could you imagine being there? Could you imagine being there,
and the ark's going before you, and here come the priests, and
there's a man from every tribe? Now listen, if Gad got its way,
if Reuben got their way, there wouldn't be 12, there would be
10. But could you imagine being there?
I love putting myself in this situation. Here we go. Hey, I
wasn't there. I'm with a different generation.
I didn't see the parting of the Red Sea. But I want to see this. And they come up there, and the
priests put their feet in that water. And you watch that river
roll back. And you see the water, apparently
the water's still building up. I'd love to cast the line right
sideways in the heaps of water, see if you'd catch anything.
That's something. I believe this, I believe that
the reason we don't see God do more is because we are unwilling
to step out by faith. And I know this from the first
run they had, the problem was a lack of faith. The problem
was, well, we can't do it, we're grasshoppers in their sight.
And there's not three men. Moses, Caleb, and Joshua did
not have enough faith for the rest of the congregation. And
you know the pastor doesn't have enough faith for the whole congregation.
He could say, I think this is what the Lord wants us to do,
let's step up by faith, and you take a vote, and the answer is no. So we wind
her around for 40 years. Let's get really personal. When
we first talked about the camp, how many of you really, be honest,
you won't hurt my feelings, how many of you thought, I was out
of my mind? Go ahead, raise your hand, go
ahead. Oh yeah, everybody's on board now. Where were you guys
four years ago? Oh, yeah, we thought we had as
much faith as you. Come on now. We can't, but I'm
gonna tell you this, as a church, did we not step out by faith?
And have we not seen some amazing things that we would have never
seen if we just sat down, that we would have never seen if we
didn't step out by faith, if we never saw it? And I'm just
telling you that I believe that our God's a great God. And if
he has something for us to do, he will provide. And if you just
sit, you're never gonna see God work. You're never gonna see
God move. If you just sit and you're content
with where you're at, you got your cattle, you got your hay,
you got your grass, We have to exercise our faith. And sitting
doesn't cut it. Look at chapter number four.
Joshua chapter number four, look with me at verse number five.
Joshua chapter four and verse number five. Joshua four, verse number five.
And Joshua said unto them, pass over before the ark of the Lord
your God in the midst of Jordan and take ye up every man of you
a stone upon his shoulder according unto the number of the tribes
of the children of Israel. How many is that class? Verse six,
that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask their
fathers in time to come, saying, what mean ye by these stones?
Then ye shall answer them, that the waters of Jordan were cut
off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it passed over
Jordan, and the waters of Jordan were cut off. And these stones
shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel for how long? Ever. You imagine this, if they
sat down, they didn't exercise their faith, there'd only be
10 stones. and because they didn't exercise
their faith in the next generation and the memorial. What does Reuben
tell his kids? Well, you know, yeah, that's
when they went over. That's when God did that for them. That's
when God crossed that river over there. That's when they stepped
out by faith. That's what they did. Listen,
I've never been content with talking about they. I've never
been content about talking about them. When I played sports, I
did not want to ride the bench. I wanted to be part of it. I
wanted to be involved in it. I just didn't want to sit. I
wanted to get in. And by the way, when I first
started playing basketball, I was horrible. I'd tackle people. But I wanted to be in the game,
not sit. Maybe you're here and you're
just sitting. I'm here to tell you, you're needed. And if you
just sit, you'll never exercise your faith, you'll never please
God, you'll never grow, and never be where God wants you to be. Are you with me? All right, maybe
I'll lose you on number two. When you sit, you don't exercise
your faith. Number two, when you sit, you don't encourage
your fellows. Go back to our text in Numbers
chapter number 32 and verse number seven. Numbers chapter 32 and
verse number seven. The Bible says, Moses looks at
them and says, and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the
children of Israel from going over into the land which the
Lord hath given them? Wait a minute, wait a minute,
wait a minute. If you don't go over, then you're not gonna exercise
faith in God and you're not gonna be where God wants you to be
and do what God calls you to do, but number two, you're not
gonna encourage your fellows. As a matter of fact, you're going
to discourage them. Discourage. To extinguish the
courage of, to dishearten, to depress the spirits, Discourage
now we understand that this way, you know into the promised land
was already discouraging The Bible says the numbers chapter
21 verse 4 and they journeyed from our or by the way of the
red seed It can pass the land of Edom and a soul of the people
was much discouraged because of the way So it's already hard. It's already difficult But we
can handle that I feel like we can handle any opposition. We
can handle tax bills and permits, and we can handle government
restrictions, and we can handle bad doctrine and the corruption
of the world. We can handle all those things, and some of those
things are extremely discouraging. But I'm going to tell you the
most discouraging thing that gets most people out of the fight
is while they're in it and engaged, and they're trying to get after
it, and look, and someone that should be by their side, someone
that should have their back, are doing nothing but sitting. I don't know why I thought of
this, but I'm going to tell a story on Kevin for a minute. We were having junior camp, and
I was a director at a junior camp in Connecticut, and he was
the assistant director there, and it was, we were having our
first Western theme. And so I, Kevin and I went to
a store, and we both bought cowboy hats. Remember this? We both
got cowboy hats. Now, I lived in the inner city
of Hartford. Now, when I say inner city, it's
worse than you're thinking right now. I promise you it's worse
than you are thinking. Is that an overstatement? It's
worse than you're thinking right now. And so we come back from
the store, got our new cowboy hats on. I'm driving home, and
I see there's like three or four guys, and they're slapping and
punching this woman, like in the middle of the circle. They're
just slapping her and punching her. And I said, I said, let's go. Jumped out of the truck, and
I started running down the road. Didn't even drive. I started running
down the road. As I'm running down the road, I could see the sun behind
me. I could see my shadow. And I
could see my cowboy hat on my head as I'm running through the
inner city. And all I could hear was, in
the eyes of a ranger, the unsuspecting stranger, you better know the
truth. I said, hey! I said, hey, you
want to hit somebody? Hit me. Let's go. And they all
scattered like cockroaches that they were. And a lady sat on
the curb. Some other lady came up to help
her. And I said, well, Kevin, at least we didn't have. And
Kevin was still back in the truck. He goes, you had it. You had
it. What? I was the Lone Ranger is what I
was. He would have jumped in. He says, you got something over
there all by themselves? You can discourage them. Now,
we have a lot of folks in the church that are active and are
serving. And honestly, a church our size,
we have a lot that aren't. And I know this, I know that two
are better than one in their labor. I know this, I know that
it's very easy for us to see the things that we have to do.
We're on this side of Jordan and this is my property and this
is my responsibilities, this is my little ones, this is my
cattle, this is what I have to do. Not realizing that you have
brothers that are discouraged because you should be with them.
You should be by their side, taking ground for the glory of
God. And now there's 12 tribes and there's a whole lot of people,
and what's two out of 12? It's a lot. And it's not even
the fact that they have less numbers, they would have less
numbers going over Jordan. The fact is is that the ones
that were going over, not only are they fewer in number, but
they are now discouraged in their endeavor. One of the dangers of a church
our size, I got a call yesterday from a pulpit committee, and
they were asking me about a pastor that I know that they're considering
to be the senior pastor. They were asking me questions
about this man and about ministry and different things. And they
said, well, brothers, how big of a church do you pastor? And
I told them a little bit about our church. And what all are you guys trying
to do? And I went, well, you got a minute? Well, that's a lot. He said,
but you have the size. I mean, your congregation is
bigger than any church we know in our area. So you're trying
to do a lot, but he says, that means the church that big, that
means you have a lot of help. And I said to that man on the phone
last night, I said, not enough. Not enough. It's not enough. And what happens is when there's
not enough, then the ones that are involved, the ones that are
crossing the Jordan River, the ones that are trying to take
ground, end up looking back and then now they're discouraged.
So they want to retreat and they want to give up and they want
to sit down And so then the work never gets done. I'll be honest
with you at the we're at the point right now I think in our
church that either that we either we have More people get off the
sidelines and get involved to do the things that they can do
Some of you are might be elderly and all you can do is is pray
and give and then pray and give and some of you could teach Sunday
school some of you can knock on doors some of you can knock some
of you can run buses some of you can swing a hammer and Some
of you can do plumbing and electrical work. Some of you are great at
cleaning and organizing and cooking. With what we're trying to do,
if there's not enough, we're trying to start churches in the
mid-Atlantic area. We're trying to train pastors.
We're trying to have a camp. We're trying to help troubled
teens and troubled youth. We're trying to build a new sanctuary.
We're trying to remodel a building. We're trying to run a bus. I
mean, we're trying. But we're at the point that if
there's people that are content with sitting and they're not
willing to stand up and get involved, then we're gonna have to stop
doing some of the things that we're trying to accomplish. Now
that's a problem. Because I believe, listen, I
believe I'm the steward of this church and I'm gonna give an
account to the Lord and I'm not trying to get ahead of God. So
the things that we're trying to do, I believe with all my
heart, God has for us to do. So the idea of having to try
to cut back so that the ones that are crossing the Jordan
River are discouraged and run down, talking about stepping
back from some of those things would be a tragedy. And I think
I would have to give an account of why we didn't accomplish those
things. We all right? Philippians 2,
verse 4, look not every man on his own things, but every man
also on the things of others. Well, this is what I have to
do, this is my responsibility. Yeah, but that kid down on Laurel
Drive needs Christ as his savior. That kid from, I talked to a
pastor in DC, he says, listen, he said, I'll take whatever,
he said to me, he said, I will take whatever scholarships you
can give me, I'm in the heart of DC, I will send as many kids
as I can. If you give us scholarships,
we will send those kids. Hey, you know what? Those kids
need to be fed. And you might not be able to teach a Sunday
school class, but you can cook. Hey, those kids need a cabin to stay
in. You can give. You can swing a
hammer. We voted on starting a new church
down in Chesapeake Way, and he's in a special area down there. He needs help. He needs support. It's Romans 15 verse one, we
then that are strong ought to bear the affirmatives of the
weak, not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good edification, for even Christ pleased not himself.
So if we're just pleasing ourself and we're just working our job
and worried about our little ones and ourself, and we're not
looking at the needs of others, he says this, he says at the
end of chapter 15 verse number two, let every one of us please
his neighbor for his edification. I don't wanna discourage them,
I wanna build them up. So I have to help. The Bible
says in Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse nine, two are better
than one because they have a good reward for their labor. What
am I saying? I'm saying that if the congregation,
if part of the congregation decides to sit, then they'll never exercise
their faith. If you decide to sit, then you'll
never encourage your fellows. As a matter of fact, you'll discourage
them. Number three. Not only will we not encourage,
our fellows, number three, will not engage in the fight. Will
not engage in the fight. Chapter number 32, verse number
21. Verse number 20, Moses said unto them, if you will do this
thing, if you will go armed before the Lord to war, it will go all
of your armed over Jordan before the Lord until he hath driven
out his enemies from before him. He said, hey, you need to get
engaged in the fight. You need to get engaged in the
fight. I was talking to a pastor's wife
at that ladies' fellowship yesterday or the day before, I don't remember
what day it was, and she said this, she says, you know, I don't
know about you, but I know my husband and our church, we're
having a really hard time getting men engaged. Engaged. You know why I believe that is?
I believe this. I believe that sometimes our churches are geared
more towards women than men. We all right with that statement?
I believe this, I believe that the average guy that sits in
church thinks that Christianity is nothing more than showing
up on Sunday with your Bible, hearing a message, hear the pastor
yell at you for an hour, and then go home. Not realizing, listen,
that we are literally engaged in a battle. That we are, listen, that we
are fighting for the glory of God. That we are striving and
engaged in this battle for the souls of men. That our little
ones and our children are at risk. We're trying to see young
people saved. We're trying to see churches
started. We're trying to see our young people escape the pollution
and corruption of this world. I'm saying that we are in a battle.
And if you look around and you watch politics and you see the
news and you see what's going on in this world, then you better
wake up and realize it's not time to sit, it's time to fight. All right, am I talking about
this? I'm not talking about this. You know what I'm talking about. There's some that are here, you're
busy. The word busy, it's a pretty commonly used word. And it's
almost a badge of honor. If you have someone that owns
a business, oh, how's it going? Oh, I'm really busy. Right? Oh, I'm really busy. We have more things in our lives
to try to keep us from being busy. There's so many things
in our life that are time savers. Right? Busy. You know, being busy does
not mean you're productive. I had a pastor tell me, well, you
know, we're really busy, aren't we? Woo, we have Vacation Bible
School this week, and you know that's the busiest week of the
year. Really? Really? We put the word
vacation in Vacation Bible School. Busy? I told somebody the other
day, if the devil can't make a man bad, he'll make a man busy. Just keep him out of the fight.
Keep that strong man tied up in things that do not profit
so he doesn't get engaged. Isn't it funny that In Egypt
land, when Pharaoh, who's a picture of the devil, who Pharaoh, he
says, you know what, I'm a little bit worried about these Israelites
going to war, so we need to distract the men. Give them some stubble
to chase. Hey guys, go chase stubble. Right? And if that doesn't work, then
we're just gonna have to kill them. Kill those baby boys. The devil doesn't want men engaged.
The key to any strong church is having men that are engaged
in the gospel, engaged in God's word, engaged in the ministry,
not sitting, serving. I know you're busy. Did you ever
get burned out? Have you ever been burned out? Someone would say, well, I've
never been asked. If someone would ask me to do
something, I would do it. I'm asking you right now. Will
you stop sitting? Will you find something to do
in this ministry for the glory of God? Something? Well, I'm
already doing something. Some of you, praise the Lord.
I'm not coming down hard on you. I'm not saying there's nobody
here that serves. Some of us could do more. Some
of us need to do something. Something for the glory of God
in this local assembly. Something. Now, you started off pretty good and
I know you feel like, I hope you don't feel like I'm beating
up on you. I'm really not, I promise I'm not. But I know this, I know that
our church is a very special church. I've probably been in more churches
than most of you around the country, and this is a very special church.
And I'm not saying it's a special church because I'm the pastor,
I'm saying it's a special church because we have a special group
of people. And we have so many things and
so many opportunities and so many ways to glorify God, but
every single one of them, requires somebody to stop sitting and
start serving. We have a nursery, yeah, well
that means you gotta stop sitting and you have to start serving. There's a bus, yeah, that means
somebody's gotta stop sitting and start serving. It means somebody's gotta knock
on doors and check up on them. It means somebody's gotta start
building and somebody's gotta start praying and somebody's
gotta start giving and somebody's gotta start organizing and somebody's
gotta start I've never heard a pastor say,
we just have too many people to serve. I just don't know what
to do with them all. I just don't know what to do with them all.
No, the fields are white on the harvest. The problem is the laborers
are few. Let me make one more point. And
if I didn't lose you yet, I'll lose you here. In chapter number
32, verse number 23, and let me just say this, listen. And
honestly, I'm not, I don't want anybody to leave, but I will
say this. If you just wanna sit, the best way to do that is to
find a larger church doing less. Okay? Because there's plenty of churches
you can go to, and I guarantee you they preach the gospel. I
mean, they're probably not as good a preacher as I am, Okay,
they're probably better, but preach the gospel, for sure,
but as far as requiring members or church folks to do anything,
you'll be required to do nothing. As a matter of fact, you can
come in five minutes before the service and sit down, nobody
even knows you're there, finally, man, you're out the door, first
one at Cracker Barrel. You could sit, sneak in, sneak
out, nobody misses you, nobody calls on you, you'll never be
asked to serve, you'll never be asked to pray, but it's not
that way here. We're small enough that we see
you. And we're trying to do enough
that we need you. Moses says this in verse number
23, and I've seen this verse taken out of context and preached
all different ways. Verse 23, but if ye will not
do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure
your sin will find you out. I've seen that verse used in
all kinds of sin, all kinds of things. Moses, are you saying
that if we don't do what we're supposed to do, that if we don't
stand up and stop sitting and get over there and help them,
make a commitment to be engaged, are you saying that that's sin? Well, go to James chapter four
and we'll end here. James four. James four, verse number 13. James 4 verse 13. The Bible says
in James 4 verse 13, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city and continue there a year, buy and
sell and get gain. So these people are involved
with buying and selling and getting gain. Now there's nothing wrong
with buying, there's nothing wrong with selling, and there's
nothing wrong with getting gain, nothing wrong with those things, but
that's what their life is centered around. right, that we are gonna
buy and sell and get gain. That's why we're here, that's
why we operate, that's where our heart is. Verse 14, whereas
you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and
then vanishes away. For that you ought to say, if
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. Look up
here, verse 15 is saying this. More important than buying and
selling and getting gain is the Lord's will. So instead of saying, I'm gonna
go by, wait a minute, if the Lord wills, we will go by. Well, I'm gonna go get, wait,
wait, if the Lord wills. So that puts God's will over
our own will. That puts God's will over our
own wants. Is that right? Verse number 15,
for that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live
and do this or that. Verse 16, but now you rejoice
in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that
knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is a problem. To him it is what? it is sin. Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Well, can I ask you a question? Are you sitting? Some are sitting because they're
resting on their laurels because of what they used to do. I don't I would never criticize someone
that served in the military, but all of us have met a guy
in our past that served in Vietnam, and they still, in their minds,
are in Vietnam. The bumper stickers all over
the car. I served Vietnam. Their clothes, their hats, All
their friends, if they're still alive, it's all about what they
did in Vietnam. And some of them served valiantly
with no honor whatsoever while they fought or when they came
home. Is that right? But they are stuck in what they
did 50 years ago. That's all past. The question
is, what are we doing now? See, it's not enough to say,
well, I served then, and I did that. This is what I did. If you're
still breathing, you shouldn't be sitting. Somebody says, well,
I'm older. Listen, we do what we can do.
One of my favorite meetings, we were sitting down. We were
going to knock on doors, and Dick Cooley's sitting there, and Paul
Wakeman's sitting there. And Paul says, well, Pastor,
I'm going to do what I can do. I can't do stairs, and so I'm
going to have to send the young man up the stairs. And he points
to Dick Cooley. I can't do stairs fast when you
get up there and knock on those doors, so I'm gonna send the young whippersnapper
up there. But Paul could do the first floor. And that's what he did. So my question for you is this.
Are you engaged? Or are you sitting? Let me say a word to those that
are engaged. and are not sitting, and that perhaps you're discouraged.
Would you imagine if you, remember one time my wife came to me when
I was pastor in Hartford, she came to me, she's crying. I said,
what's wrong? She said, you know, one of the reasons I married
you is because you're such a good preacher. She said, we've been married
now for three years and I've hardly ever heard you preach
because I'm in the nursery every service. Do you know how discouraging
it would be if you were in the nursery every service? Would
that be discouraging? Yeah, because I can hear them.
We spent all that money on that real fancy soundproof insulation. I want my money back. You'd be
discouraged if you were in there, you got crying babies, and smelly
babies, and puking babies, and screaming babies. And you're
looking through that window, and you see all these ladies
here sitting. And now, one of them's willing to sign up and
give you relief for one service. That'd be discouraging, wouldn't
it? That's not our only ministry,
folks. We have a lot to do. That's what I'm asking. Are you
just sitting? I'm asking, is the Holy Spirit
saying, listen, there's more for you to do. You could be doing
more for the kingdom, more for the cause of Christ, more for
the souls of men. You could be doing more. And you're sitting
on the wrong side of Jordan. To finish the story, when they
did get back over there and Joshua, Reuben, and Gad pick up their
arms, crossed the Jordan River, stepped out, exercised their
faith, encouraged their fellows, and engaged in fight. But it
wasn't until Pastor Moses said, hey, you can't just sit. You
can't just sit here and let them do all the work. Can't do that.
You can't do that. Father, thank you so much for
this example in the scriptures, Lord. And I do believe that there
are so many parallels between that congregation, our congregation,
that church in the wilderness, and our church. Lord, I don't
want to come across this evening as unthankful for the people
that do serve. I am so thankful because, Lord,
we couldn't do all the things we're doing without the people
that stood up and became engaged in the ministry. But Lord, I
do know this. I know that there are some that
are not engaged at all. Lord, you've given me the task
to know the state of the flock. And I know that there's some
that used to be engaged, but for one reason or another, they've
backed off. Lord, I pray that you convict
us and show us. Lord, not that we are doing it for ourselves
or for pride, but Lord, we need to get busy. We need to occupy
until you come. And Lord, you have blessed and
honored and called us to serve in local churches. And so I pray
that each one of us could prayerfully seek your will and seek your
work and be committed to do it for your honor and glory. We
love you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
The Sin of Sitting
| Sermon ID | 915242311307657 |
| Duration | 47:40 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Numbers 32:1-23 |
| Language | English |
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