God's Order and Planning
One Sunday Sermons • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsGod needs to lead in the order and planning of His Church
Notes
Transcript
This is the time of the year where we begin planning for next year. We review budgets, hear from ministry leaders, and as board set goals and create a vision for next year and the future of Amazing Grace.
Let’s be honest the Book is one of the less interesting books of the Old Testament. Right? — Develop
Let’s read Numbers 1:1-4; chair bible pg. 89
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head
3 from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall count them by their armies.
4 With you, moreover, there shall be a man of each tribe, each one head of his father’s household.
Are you ready for the message God has for us?
Cool let’s take our notes and begin
Our God always has a plan
There our times in our lives and in the church when it is easy to forget
There is a plan unfolding at Amazing Grace, and as God’s people we need patience and prayer
We never want to move ahead of God, but let His plan unfold in His timing and in His way
Poet William Langland around 1360 AD is believed to have coined the phrase, “Patience is a virtue.”
This phrase has come to mean the ability to wait for something without getting angry or upset is a valuable quality in a person.
It is a valuable quality not only in a person but also in the church.
Patience is not easy for us, and there are times it can feel impossible.
When I think about this typical human trait if impatience I think of Abram and Sarai.
They learned this the hard way.
In their impatience the tried to fulfill God’s plan there way and in their timing. Forgetting or ignoring God’s promise to them.
The account I am speaking of is found in Genesis 16. - Develop what happened
We learn over and over in scripture that trust, patience, and order all have a place in our following God’s plan.
We need to trust God completely
We need patience to follow God’s timing
We need to allow God to lead us, allowing His plan to unfold in an orderly fashion
This is where the people of God often make mistakes.
It was true of Abram and Sari and this is part of what is unfolding around Numbers Chapter 1.
What is Happening in the Text?
What is Happening in the Text?
The first four chapters of numbers reveal God’s plan for order in the camp of Israel
God organizes Israel very methodically
We read of Him assigning the duties for service in the tabernacle.
Organizing and assigning how to tare down and put up the tabernacle and in what order
Then God reveals how as a camp Israel was to be organized.
He divides them by clans and ancestral families, then further divides the nation into various camps assigning what side that ancestral family was to camp on.
Then he gives instructions that the Levites are the only tribe allowed to camp around the tabernacle and they are charged with defending it.
He also orders the Levites to kill anyone who comes to close to the tabernacle.
Then he divides the rest of the camps of Israel in strategic locations around the Levites.
I have a picture and this is what it is showing, the result is Israel divided into camps and companies like a great army.
Israel did what God commanded
Israel did what God commanded
Look at how each of the four chapters end:
54 And the sons of Israel did so; in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.
34 So the sons of Israel did all this; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they camped by their flags, and so they set out, everyone by his family according to his father’s household.
51 Then Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, at the command of the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
49 According to the commandment of the Lord through Moses, they were counted, everyone by his serving or carrying; so these were his numbered men, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Now we put these chapters of Numbers in the a chronological Biblical context.
These chapters open on the heals of the Golden Calf
In this Israel demonstrated again what happens when God’s people take matters into their own hands
Think about it as God was writing the 10 commandments, the instructions on how to follow God‘s plan, the people were at that very same moment violating the first three commandments —Exodus 20:1-5
1 Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
The rebellion, lack of trust, chaos, and disorder that resulted angers God
In this Moses steps in and the text tells us - Exodus 32:14
14 So the Lord relented of the harm which He said He would do to His people.
There is a tension here the texts tells us that after Moses spoke God relented the harm he was going to bring on Israel.
The word relented — to cease a particular activity, often with the implication that the relenting is a gracious act; in Rabbinical teaching they taught the Lord stopped from being angry with Israel.
I have wondered if this is God showing Moses what He was justified in doing, but Moses having compassion for Israel as their leader spoke on their behalf.
So God ceased in his anger and the harm he stated to Moses to allow his plan for Israel to continue to unfold.
We may never truly understand exactly what happened here, but I do not think this in any way changed God’s over all plan as it was unfolding, but a rebellious people needed to be dealt with and that is what happens next in the text. - Pastor T
From the people’s perspective Moses had been on the mountain for 40 days and nights while God methodically laid out his plan and strategy for Israel to Moses.
The people had not seen Moses in that time, they only heard the noise on and smoke rising from the mountain.
Being leaderless they took matters into their own hands, and Aaron the one left in charge makes an idol and declares it to be the god of Israel.
I consider Israel leaderless because Aaron was not much of a leader, he did not have Israel’s best interests in mind
Aaron was looking out for his own neck
Later Aaron makes excuses for his actions, “Hey all Idid was through the gold in the fire and out popped the golden calf!”
Numbers comes in after this and reveals that they did all that the Lord had commanded
Perhaps they had learned a valuable lesson from the golden calf incident
In the text of Numbers God methodically placed each tribe in the perfect position before they set out towards Canaan
Without God’s order and plan chaos would be inevitable while camped and on the move
How then does the text speak to us?
How then does the text speak to us?
While the example comes from the Old Testament the principle it teaches is Biblical
Using the body as a metaphor for the church consider what Paul tells Corinth — 1 Corinthians 12:24-25
24 whereas our more presentable parts have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked,
25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same care for one another.
Peace is a word synonymous with order
There can be no peace without God’s order!
Without praying about God’s organized plan for Amazing Grace it will be just disorganized chaos!
Paul says in — 1 Corinthians 14:33
33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
Thus nothing is accomplished in the Kingdom of God without divine organization - John 15:5
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
In His organization of the camp of Israel did you noticed that the presence of God is at the center?
This is because the tabernacle is at the center of the camp of Israel
When we choose to to place God at the center, He becomes the focal point through which all our thoughts, decisions, and directions take shape.
As He leads us, we can follow, with assurance and peace of mind.
Conclusion
We are given then the reason for the organization and plan of God - Numbers 10:11-28.
First to set out were the tribes on the east side starting with Judah in the lead, then Issachar and Zebulun, then the begin taking down the tabernacle
The next to move out was Rueben, then Simeon, then Gad, the tribes on the South
Now the Levites and their tribes and families responsible for the tabernacle set out
Now the tribes on the westside set out starting with Ephraim, then Manasseh, then Benjamin
Finally the tribes on the north side beginning with Dan, then Asher, then Naphtali
Notice again just as they camped so when they moved God, the tabernacle was in the center!
This organization is divinely brilliant because whether putting up, taking down, or sitting still the tabernacle is always protected and always at the center.
Just as God revealed His plans to the Israelites in an orderly fashion, He carefully and methodically orchestrates His plan for Amazing Grace, and we need Him to be the center of every move we make as a Church.
We need to let go, trust God completely, and allow Him to reveal His plan, His vision, in His time, and in His way!
He also had a plan for every individual in place before the world began.
The death of Jesus on the cross, to where the blood of Jesus would wash our sins away!
Have you come to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sons, to have the blood applied?
To be washed white and reconciled to God?