Following the Lord is FUN!!!

GOD IS IN THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE

Welcome to SummerBlast 2024!

How many of you have ever been camping?

Camping and hiking can be a lot of fun, it can also be very tiring, but what makes it better is when you have the people with you.

Who is someone you would want to go camping with?

Over the next several weeks we will be reading from the book of Numbers.

Now that's a strange title, but what it is really called is “In the Wilderness”.

In the book of Numbers, God’s people are wandering in the wilderness heading to the promised land. Think of it as hiking and camping for a really long time. Their trip began right after leaving Egypt at Mount Sinai where they got the 10 Commandments from God.

Now they will be camping for a long time. How long they think they will be camping? 40 years!

That’s a long time, but there is something important that I want you to know. Camping and wandering in the wilderness can be tiring but with the right people it can be a lot of fun, especially when God is with you.

That is our main point for this week FOLLOWING THE LORD IS FUN! God was providing all the things they needed.

What are some of your favorite foods when you go camping?

How would you feel if you could eat that all the time? That would be awesome right?!?!

Well God was providing the people with manna which was used to make something kind of like bread. It was sweet and delicious!

So that is what the Israelites are doing, following God, hiking and camping wherever God leads them, and eating this delicious food.

But they were going to be in the wilderness for quite a while so they needed some structure.

Lets see what Numbers 2:1-2 says

Numbers 2:1–2 (ESV)

1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.

At the very beginning of verse 1, who does it say is speaking?

God is speak to Moses and Aaron

And God tells Moses that they need to camp with the banners of their fathers houses. So each tribe or large family group will stay together and they have this big banner that signals their particular family.

What are they supposed to face when camping?

The tent of meeting.

Why? Because that is where God was.

When you go camping, where do you normally put the campfire?

Is it outside the camp where it doesn’t give light and warmth for the campers?

Or is the campfire normally in the middle of the camp with all the tents around chairs around the campfire?

That is what the people of Israel were doing. All the people were split into their different tribes and they all set up all around the tent of meeting facing the tent which is where God was.

Why do you think God wanted to be in the middle of the camp?

God wants to be in the middle of his people because he loves his people and wants them to focus on him.

The rest of this chapter tells us where each family or tribe was to be set up.

God tells them where they should each setup their camp around the tent of meeting whether it was the north, east, south, or west side.

Numbers 2:32–34 (ESV)

32 These are the people of Israel as listed by their fathers’ houses. All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603,550. 33 But the Levites were not listed among the people of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses.

34 Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they camped by their standards, and so they set out, each one in his clan, according to his fathers’ house.

Do you know how many people that is?

That is all the people in New Braunfels, 6 times!

And what did the people do?

They listened to what God told them to do.

Remember God was providing all the things that they needed, they just needed to listen to his commands and to focus on Him.

They obeyed God and followed Him wherever He went.

During SummerBlast, we will be working on memorizing some Bible verses. The verses for this month are

Numbers 6:24–26 (ESV)

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

God loves you and wants you to follow him. This is a prayer that God told Aaron to pray for Israel.

I want you to remember, that FOLLOWING THE LORD IS FUN. We need to make sure that we are doing what God tells us to do, that we follow Him wherever He tells us to, and that we obey his commands.

In just a moment, we are going to break go into our tribes. In that time, you will have a snack with your tribe, your going to begin working on the memory verse, and discuss with your gorup about what it means to follow and obey God and then do a group project to make a banner for your tribe.

Let me pray for you.