Holy Spirit helps us lead

June 2nd 2024

Series: Who is the Holy Spirit?

Sermon Title: Holy Spirit helps us lead.

Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.

Key Passages: Numbers 11

Topic: Holy Spirit, Leadership, Delegation

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will see how the Holy Spirit can help us lead and speak through us.

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Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

Celebrate salvation / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Those of you who are new to Family Church, we are SUPER happy you are with us today!

We are in a series that is taking a DEEP dive into who the Holy Spirit actually was, is, and will always be.

How God the Father.

The Son Jesus.

The Holy Spirit….

How they are ALL the SAME…

And how they are ALL different…

PAUSE

We are in the process of walking through the Old Testament and looking at how the Holy Spirit was active there.

Today, we are going to continue looking at that.

Last week we looked at the references to the Holy Spirit in Exodus…

Today we will look at the next book of the Bible, Numbers, everyone's FAVORITE book of the Bible…. because it has endless numbers….

But there are several places in Numbers where we see the activity of the Holy Spirit, and so we will park in this book for a little bit and look at those.

PAUSE

Grab your Bible and open it up to

Numbers 11

That is the next place we see the Spirit moving.

And by the way…..

New Person Bible Connection:

If you do not have a Bible, that is ok!

After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

Just go to ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE and get one for FREE!!!

PAUSE

If you look in your notes….It lists all the locations in the first 5 books of the Bible where the Holy Spirit is mentioned.

Holy Spirit in the Old Testament: Genesis 1:2, 2:7, 6:3, 41:38. Exodus 31:3, 35:31. Numbers 11:17,25-26,29, 24:2, 27:18. Deuteronomy 34:9.

And today, we are going to look at the whole story in Numbers 11 because without the full context, we will not see as clearly what the Holy Spirit is doing here….

PAUSE

Let me give a little context for those of you who are newer to church.

The book of Exodus, and still here in Numbers, is all about God taking his people out of slavery in Egypt and getting them to where God wanted them to be.

God then teaches them how he designed them to live in relation to him and the people around them.

Where we pick up today is during the journey God’s chosen people are taking to the Promised Land….

And things are honestly not going GREAT in the people’s minds, as you will see shortly.

PAUSE

Let’s start reading.

Numbers 11: 1-35 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused.

Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.

2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down.

3 So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the Lord had burned among them.

Remember what I said…

Things are NOT going well…

The people are complaining about how long it takes to get to the Promised Land…

They are complaining about how HARD life is now that they are not slaves…which is ironic if you think about it.

And so, God gets frustrated…

And ANY parent in the room can understand that!

Have any parents ever had one of their kids complain about HOW MUCH longer it is going to take to get to vacation?

To get to the PROMISED Disney land?

Anyone?

Of course, it seems human nature to say, Are we…what church?

It is not natural for most of us to be patient, it seems…

PAUSE

But here is the problem…

They did NOT trust the Lord to provide…

They did NOT trust the Lord’s timing…

Which we struggle with still today…

Trusting God to provide a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife…when it feels like we have been waiting FOREVER…

Trusting God’s timing with our career…

Trusting God’s timing with our finances…

Trusting God with our marriage…

Trusting God with our education…

Trusting God to provide…

Trusting God’s timing…

IS NOT EASY!!!

PAUSE

But the story gets even more interesting…

In this story, we will see something new about the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Verse 4…

Quail From the Lord

4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!

5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost

Pause there….

Meat eaters...

Can I get an AMEN?

WE NEED SOME MEAT!!!!

But then all the vegans chime in…

—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.

I mean those are good things to flavor meat…but that is about it…

But I agree with verse 6 when you talk about vegetables…

6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Now I want to pause here….

Let me explain what they are talking about…

See, as God’s people walked through the desert with NO FOOD…

God miraculously provided them with something called Manna.

What is manna?

Here is an old-school picture.

But verse says…

7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.

8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar.

They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.

9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.

So God rained bread-like stuff from heaven, so they did not even know how to look for food…

But because it was ALWAYS the SAME food…

People overlooked the miracle of God…

And complained…

Just like we can overlook God in our lives…

And complain because God is not doing what we want God to do…

Let’s keep reading…

10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.

11 He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?

What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?

It sounds like a lot of managers from time to time!

Teachers… when you vent about your students!

He goes on to say…

12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth?

And NO, Moses was not making the 2024 statement that men can have babies…

We all know men cannot have babies…

He goes on to say…

Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors?

13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.

15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

Wow!

Moses as it at END of his rope.

Moses is ready for life to be over.

Maybe you are there today…

Maybe you are at the end of your rope.

Maybe you have asked God to take your life.

If so lean in….and see what happens…

16 The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people.

Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you.

17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them.

Pause here…

Here is where we see the Holy Spirit for the first time.

And note what the Bible says….

I will take some of the POWER of the Holy Spirit that is ON him…

And put it ON them….

And what will that accomplish????

Well, let’s see part of what it does…

And then we will see the other part later in this chapter…

They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Stop there…

Do you see what the Power of the Holy Spirit is doing here?

The Holy Spirit is helping people become leaders! The Holy Spirit is helping a leader who is overwhelmed empower others to share the burden of leadership!

Write that down…

The Holy Spirit will help me lead better when I am running on empty.

Repeat

If you are a manager…

If you are a company owner…

If you are a coach…

If you are a leader….

THIS SHOULD EXCITE YOU!!!!

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just change you…

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just give you identity.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just guide us…

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just empower us…

The Holy Spirit…when we are in tune with Him.

Following Him.

Doing what He wants us to do.

He will even empower those around us to help us be better and more successful leaders!!!!

PAUSE

If you are here today….

And you feel overwhelmed…

If you feel like you are drowning in life.

If you are not sure how you are going to make it to tomorrow, let alone next year…

PAUSE

Here is the point church…

Write this down…

The Holy Spirit wants to help me share the burdens of life.

Repeat

Did you hear the good news?

The Holy Spirit is here to help you overcome all of that!!!!

The Holy Spirit wants to help you overcome all of that!

The question isn’t will the Holy Spirit help…

The question is…

Will you seek the Holy Spirit’s help in your life????

PAUSE

But that is not all the Holy Spirit does here…Let’s keep reading…

18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat.

The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!”

Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it.

19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,

20 but for a whole month—

MEAT lovers! YES!!!!

God says here comes the Brazilian steak house of your dreams!

Until…..he says….

until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—

Now that is nasty….

Meat coming out your nose…

Why???? He says….

because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’

22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

Moses says to God how is this possible!

23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

God says…watch me!

24 So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent.

25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders.

Here again…

Note taking some of the Holy Spirit on him and putting it on the others….

For what purpose?

Well, here we see a NEW purpose!

When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.

26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp.

They were listed among the elders, but did not go to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.

Stop here for a minute…

So here we see something new….

Now, the Holy Spirit helps people prophecy.

If you are new to church, you might not know what that means.

Prophecy is defined as this…it is on the screens and in your notes.

Prophecy: to make a prediction, speak a message from God, or foretell future events based on divine inspiration or mystical understanding.

The Holy Spirit can literally speak through you and me when He lives inside us!

The Holy Spirit can literally help us know future events.

The Holy Spirit can literally inspire us.

Again, think about this from a business perspective!

That is all SUPER helpful!

Inspiration on new product lines….SWEET!

Foreknowledge of how things will go in a meeting…SWEET!

Knowing God’s best next steps to do…SWEET!!!

And the same thing can be said of every life in this room!

Having the Holy Spirit living inside you to help you with inspiration… SWEET!

Having the Holy Spirit living inside you to help you how things will go in life… SWEET!

Having the Holy Spirit living inside you to help you with the next steps in life… SWEET!

Write that down.

The Holy Spirit can speak prophecy through me.

Repeat

27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

Now let’s see God provide…

31 Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea.

It scattered them up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction.

Now stop there…

I went and researched this….

And what you just read would be around 1 BILLION quail!

A crazy number of quail God blows all around the camp, AND…

32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail.

No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp.

Side note…10 Homers of quail means 1,900 quail PER person!

Almost 500 LBS of quail PER person!

33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed,

the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.

34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.

Because the people did not recognize the miracle of God around them.

Because people did not appreciate what God was doing in their lives.

Because they complained instead of praising God.

God…punished them.

And rightly so….

This leads us to our life application today…

PAUSE

Let me share your life application with you today….

For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We end our messages with a Life Application.

It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.

Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message to your life.

So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.

Life Application: We can choose to see the Holy Spirit in our lives OR not. Examine your life and places where you might not be giving the Holy Spirit credit where you should.

As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

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***Each week we want to highlight a different way to give.

Week #1 –

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Have a great week!!!

Week #2 –

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Just open our app.

Click the give icon in the bottom right corner and it will walk you through the process.

It is super secure, and hundreds of people are already giving to us on a scheduled basis that way!

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Week #3 –

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It is as simple as texting FamilyChurchGive to 888-364-4483

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Week #4 –

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If you want to do that just email [e-mail] and she will help you out!

Have a great week!!!

Week #5 -

Did you know you can add Family Church into your end-of-life planning?

We have lots of people who have added Family Church to their will to leave 10% to their church.

It is a great way to show your family that leaving a Godly legacy was important to you.

Have a great week!!!