Holy Spirit gives us Wisdom

June 23rd 2024

Series: Who is the Holy Spirit?

Sermon Title: Holy Spirit gives us Wisdom

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 27: 12-23 & Deuteronomy 34: 1-9

Topic: Holy Spirit, Wisdom

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will see how the Holy Spirit can give us wisdom and how that wisdom can help us all be a better leader.

***1st week ODD months add communion & target message at 15 pages.

***1st week EVEN months add space for dedication, baptism, or ministry highlight & target message at 15 pages.

***Green in sermons means illustration, something we are looking for a response from, and/or a picture that goes on the screens.

***Yellow means what is yellow will be on the screens and in the handout.

Dedication, Baptism, or Ministry Highlight (1st Sunday even months):

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

We are in a series taking a DEEP dive into who the Holy Spirit 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 reading the Old Testament and examining how the Holy Spirit was active there.

Today, we are going to continue looking at that.

Three weeks ago, we were in the book of Numbers and read about how the Holy Spirit can help us lead well…

And how the Holy Spirit can help others around us lead…

Today, we will examine another way the Holy Spirit can help us be better leaders.

Grab your Bible and open it up to

Numbers 27 & Deuteronomy 34

We will start in Numbers and then bounce over to Deuteronomy because it is about the same story but gives us another insight about the Holy Spirit.

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.

Let me just give a little background, and then we will jump into the Bible.

Where we pick up the Bible today is in the continuation of God’s people making their way to the land God promised them.

As they are traveling to the land of Israel, that God promised them would be theirs, they are going into battle after battle…

As we talked about in prior sermons.

Now, the leader, Moses, realizes he is close to the end of his life and needs to choose the next leader for God’s people.

So, let’s pick up on this story and see what we can learn about the Holy Spirit and how it applies to our lives…

PAUSE

Numbers 27: 12-23 Joshua to Succeed Moses

12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim (Eb-Ah-Rem) Range and see the land I have given the Israelites.

Let me show you a map real quick.

Here is a map of the journey the Israeli people have been on.

Leaving slavery in Egypt on the left side as you look at it.

Heading to the right side where Israel is.

This mountain range that Moses is on is by the Dead Sea on the Jordan side by that red dot labeled Dibon.

From that mountain range, Moses had an incredible view over the Dead Sea and into Israel.

PAUSE

And we even have a picture of Pastor Adam at the Dead Sea that shows this…

Oh wait…

That is not the right picture…

That was Pastor Adam wishing he looked like Pastor Erik…

Is there another picture?

There we go….

He is a picture that shows what it would have looked like for Moses…

On one mountain overlooking the Dead Sea into Israel.

PAUSE

And one last side note here…

If you have not been to the Dead Sea, you need to go.

It is drying up at a rapid rate and they think it will be totally gone maybe in our lifetime…

PAUSE

Remember…the Bible is real stories about real people transformed by God.

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading… Verse 13… God says to Moses

13 After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was,

14 for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.”

Stop here for just a second…

Circle that in your Bible and remember that…

It will be important later in the message when we get to Deuteronomy 34.

This verse talks about what they did in chapter 20; you can read that later today.

But in Exodus 20 God gave Moses and Aaron some CLEAR instructions and they did not follow what God told them to do.

They got angry…

Then acted out of their anger…

And their punishment for this was not being able to ever enter the promised land…

Remember that, we will come back to it….

PAUSE

But I want you to see something else here….

I want you to put yourself in Moses’ shoes for a minute.

I want you to imagine you have been following God for a VERY long time.

You have led God’s people to literally the EDGE of the land God promised them they would get.

You are standing on the mountain…

You are looking at the promised land…

And God says….

You can look at it…but then know you are going to die.

That is what verse 13 says…

PAUSE

What would you do?

What would you think?

What would be your focus at that moment?

What would you say to God?

What would you ask of God?

PAUSE

I am guessing a LOT of us would plead with God.

Ask God to not take us home to heaven yet.

NOT to let us die.

To just let us live out our days on this side of his promise.

PAUSE

Let’s see what Moses does… Verse 15.

15 Moses said to the Lord,

16 “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community

17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”

Wow….Stop there…

Wow….

Is that what you would say?

Is that what you would focus on?

Moses is this guy SO FILLED with God’s Spirit..

The HOLY Spirit….

That his focus is NOT on him!

Look in your Bible!

What is his focus on church?

PAUSE

His focus is on the people God has entrusted him to lead.

And so he does not debate God.

He does not argue with God…

I mean, he learned that lesson already…which is why he is where he is today!

So he submits to God’s plan…

And he says, “God, I am okay with your plan. Please give your people another leader to help guide them.”

Here is the point church…

Spirit-filled leaders are focused on what is best for OTHERS, not themselves.

Repeat

Moses wants what is best for those he leads…

And let me encourage the business owners here.

The managers here.

The coaches here.

The teachers here.

The parents here.

The grandparents here.

The foster-parents here.

If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, other people will see it!

Because you will NOT focus on what is best for you…

But you will focus on what is BEST for THEM!!!!

PAUSE

So God responds in verse 18 and says….

18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him.

There is that Spirit of Leadership!

We talked about that just a few weeks ago!

That the Holy Spirit will help us lead!

Here is the Holy Spirit yet again…helping more people lead!

19 Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence.

20 Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him.

21 He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord.

At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.”

22 Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly.

23 Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord instructed through Moses.

Moses does what God says…

Moses turns leadership over to Joshua…

PAUSE

Now let me show you one additional detail from this story we see in Deuteronomy 34…

Deuteronomy 34: 1-9 The Death of Moses

Verses 1-3 is God showing Moses the promised land.

Then God says in verse

4 Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’

I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”

And we know the reason he did not get to step foot into the land is because of what we just read in Numbers 27.

Because Moses and his brother CHOOSE NOT to listen to God’s direction.

That is the hard part with FREE WILL…

God gives us free will…

And we can choose to use it in the ways that God instructs to in the Bible…

Or we can choose not to…

If we choose not to…there will be consequences…

Which we ALL understand!!!

And we ALL support….well we all support it if we agree with it but we tend not to when we don’t agree…

We all agree that GOOD parenting will discipline a child who is doing things that may harm them…

Right????

But how many adults want God to discipline them for doing things that may harm them???

Anyone????

PAUSE

We have free will…

Our kids have free will…

But just because we can do something does not mean we should.

Moses made a choice out of anger NOT to do what God said.

It was his choice.

He let anger get the better of him.

And there was a consequence.

PAUSE

So, the Bible says… Verse 5….

5 And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said.

6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.

Pause here, and let me give you a cool side note. I bet no one here has paused to take note of.

Leave that verse on the screen…

Who is talking to Moses in this passage church?

That is NOT a trick question…look at verse 4 if you need help…

God….

So look at this verse…

Who is He?

God is talking to Moses…

Who is “He” that buried Moses?

Yes!

It is God!

God himself talked face to face with Moses; the Bible says that.

God and Moses had this incredibly close relationship.

And God ONLY buried ONE person in the entire Bible…

Moses…

Just a cool side note!

PAUSE

And Moses as and OLD dude…look at verse 7…

7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.

9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him.

So here we see yet another way the Holy Spirit changes us and helps us.

Write this down.

The Holy Spirit can give me wisdom.

Repeat

Like we saw in Numbers 27…

The Holy Spirit came upon Joshua and helped him lead.

Here, we see the addition of filling him with Wisdom to lead!

And it worked because the Bible says…

So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

PAUSE

Church….

We are 10 weeks into this series. Have you seen anything yet?

Jesus said it would be BETTER for Him to leave because the Spirit would not come until he did.

And Jesus leaving was BETTER because Jesus was a physical person and could NOT be everywhere…

But guess who can!!!!

The Holy Spirit!

Jesus’ Spirit!

God’s Spirit!

All these amazing things are open for us to receive if we CHOOSE to open up our lives and accept the Spirit’s leading in our lives!

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: How could you open your life to the Holy Spirit’s leading? What area of your life could you ask for the Spirit’s wisdom in?

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

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering: