Inside Rebellion

Intro: story, father and his little girl.

But in her little two year old mind she now was just far removed from the big box that had the food in it.

So she would trow a temper tandrum and cry a river of tear and wiggle her way out of the chair and the march and stamp the little feet back across the floor

One day on a farm, was a little boy who began to cry during dinner.

One day on a farm, was a little boy who began to cry during dinner.

And they wanted to know why he was crying, he said, “I don’t want no beans.”

And they wanted to know why he was crying, he said, “I don’t want no beans.”

And they wanted him to eat his beans but he continued to protest eating the beans and so they finally took the beans away.

And they wanted him to eat his beans but he continued to protest eating the beans and so they finally took the beans away.

Whether

Whether they did the right thing or not remains to be seen.

But a little bit after that he began to cry again and as he cried they asked, “what is the matter, why are you crying for now?” He said, “I want some beans.”

Now my father and mother hadn’t heard about this kind of psychology when I was small,

He said, “I want some beans.” Now my father and mother hadn’t heard about this kind of psychology when I was small, I don’t think It would have happened the same way if they would’ve taken away the beans, because I didn’t like beans either which way, regardless of the psychology.

I don’t think it would have happened the same way if they would’ve taken away the beans,

because I didn’t like beans either which way, regardless of the psychology.

I discovered when I was small that the things I had to eat, I didn’t want to eat...

and to my surprise after I was married, and started cooking whole lot more,

I found a whole family of foods, including beans, that I love today, that I didn’t like before.

And the reason I like them to a great extent is because I don’t have to eat them anymore.

Well this has something to do with what we want to say today.

See if you can find out where it shows up because we are following the children of Israel from Egypt to the promise land.

And more specifically today we are following from Mt. Sinai to a place called Kadesh-Barnea.

Our Scripture passage begins with . If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 1.

As you know, Deuteronomy is the review of the wonderings of the children of Israel by Moses on the borders of the promise land just before he died.

So you have Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers which share much of the story of the Exodus and its background…

then you have Deuteronomy as sort of a summary view of the whole thing.

I will begin reading in verse 19. Read .

So notice the Lord has done what with the land? He has given it to them.

The promise land was a promise, a gift. It was called the promised land on purpose and do you fight for a gift?

Not only was this true with ancient Israel, but with modern Israel who are headed for the heavenly Canaan.

Do you fight to gain what has been promised?

Well from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea was about 150 miles.

They figured about 11 days journey from point A to point B. So it wasn’t that big a deal as far as distance is concerned.

And when they got to Kadesh-Barnea they were right on the borders of the land of Canaan.

But let’s notice a couple of interesting things that took place between Mt. Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea as we go.

Turn with me for our story to . Read .

Now something happened 3 days into their journey from Mount Sinai.

“The ark was of the covenant of the Lord went before them during those 3 days to find a place to rest.”

This we will continue to follow in (READ).

Now this had begun with the mixed multitude that the NIV calls the rabble..

and the mixed multitude were the people who had been Egyptians...

and who had followed the children of Israel because they were impressed by what had happened...

and the mixed multitude chose to go to the promise land but their hearts were still in Egypt.

So they chose to complain over the menu and God heard their complaining…

and verse 10 of says that Moses heard the people as well.

Everyone was weeping at the door of his tent and it says that the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly and Moses also was displeased and troubled.

And verse 33 tells us that God in His anger struck the people with a severe plague.

as God’s anger burnt against the people, and struck them with a plague and many were buried who craved other foods and rebelled against God.

When people get tired of angels food, is the problem with the people or with the food? Let me ask that again!!!

Well we say that the people must’ve gotten tired of manna muffins and manna mush, and manna hotcakes and…

manna milkshakes, and manna cookies, and manna roast and…

manna baked, and manna fried, and manna boiled...

And I suppose that there is something to that. But there are deeper issues here than just variety.

What was the real issue? The real issue was rebellion.

And I suppose that rebellion is the bottom line for many of the issues that we grapple with only on the surface.

There are many stories in the Bible that speak of rebellion

.

King Saul is a prime example of someone with a rebellious attitude...

and the prophet Daniel is an excellent example of faithfulness, the opposite of of rebellion.

Turn with me to and here in this context, God asks king Saul to punish the Amalekites for all their wickedness.

Part of the punishment was to not spare any of the animals as spoils of war.

Yet, Saul rebelled against the will of the Lord, and let his army keep the animals for themselves.

The story of Samuel and Saul in .

Let’s pick up the story with God speaking to the prophet Samuel regarding Saul’s rebellious heart. , (READ).

Now Samuel had the unfortunate task of confronting Saul about his disobedience.

And notice how Saul welcomes Samuel. ( READ).

It is interesting that how Saul tried to convince himself and Samuel that he actually carried out God’s instructions. When he actually did the opposite.

And that is one of the problems with rebellion. It leads to self-deception. But notice Samuel’s response, ( READ).

Sounds like Samuel has a sense of humor even in a tense situation, but pay attention to Saul’s response again (Verses 15, 20 READ).

Saul not only excuses his sin, but makes it sound like he is rebelling against the command in order to worship the Lord.

And notice the punchline by Samuel (Verses 22, 23 READ).

Rebellion is like the sin of divination, another translation says, it is like the sin of witchcraft.

Rebellion puts us under the spell of self-deception... and

we excuse our sinful behavior, and try to make it sound like we are not rebellious but actually serving God.

The prophet confronts him with his rebellion and instead of repenting...

he tells the prophet that he has it all wrong, it is not rebellion, but true worship.

Story of dad and little girl with the big box with food in it.

This story reminds me of both Saul and the Israelites…

and how God was putting them in the right positions to receive His blessings,

but they would try to wiggle out of God’s plans and throw a temper tantrum in the process.

There are many positives examples of individuals who chose not to rebel but to submit and obey to the will of God.

One such example is the life of Daniel. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 9 and let us listen in to one of Daniel’s prayers. Let’s begin by reading the context of Daniels prayer in , .

What is amazing to me is that it is the reading of Scripture that leads Daniel to prayer.

We ought to read God’s Word passionately and faithfully.

And when you faithfully read God’s Word, it will lead you into a deeper prayer life.

Now notice his prayer beginning with verse 4. We will read just a portion of his prayer, verses 4-6, 9, 10, and verse 19.

Please make note of the fact that Daniel’s confession goes to the root of the problem.

And the root of the problem is rebellion.

Rebellion is to know God’s will, read or hear God’s Word, but not listen and obey.

Can you hear something and not listen?

Sure you can, my husband does that to me all the time.

Especially when he watches football.

We all have rebelled in one way or another, but...

will we be like Saul and excuse our rebellion?

Or learn from Daniel to confess our sins, ask for forgiveness and for a heart that is faithful to the Lord.

You see, The Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt,

fed them with manna, gave them water to drink,

led them up to the promise land and all they had to do is by faith accept the gift...

but they chose to rebel instead.

Same thing with Saul, God chose him as king, blessed him...

and all he had to do was submit to the Lord, but he chose to rebel.

Remember that self-deception and rebellion go hand in hand.

Have you ever watched American Idol? Especially the tryouts for American Idol.

If you don’t believe people are easily self-deceived, you only have to watch these tryouts to change your mind.

It’s difficult to comprehend how many horrifically bad singers truly believe they deserve to be the next vocal superstar! While we often laugh or cringe at how a person can be so out of touch with reality,

the truth is that we all have blind spots. We all view reality based on the glasses we look through.

Two friends were on a ski trip and as they were heading up the ski lift, one of them said, look at the moon, it is so beautiful and pink.

And her friend just looked at her and asked, “What are you talking about?”

It turned out that her ski goggles had a pink shade to it and she saw her world pink and didn’t even know it.

Coming close to Jesus, spending time in His Word,

He will help us see our blind spots, those things we deceive ourselves in.

As the Psalmist says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” , .

After my kids spend a long day playing in nature, I always have them check themselves for ticks.

So we as well, ought to allow God’s Word to examine us of those ticks that may poison our souls.

And when our blind spots are revealed, the ticks are found, we ought to turn them over to Jesus and not rebel.

Ask for his help to transform us, change us, give us a submissive spirit.

Think of the life of Jesus, was he ever tempted to rebel against His heavenly Father?

Let’s turn to our last verse this morning in .

The author of Hebrews gives us a glimpse into the experience of Jesus.

Especially his prayer life and his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

For it was in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before the crucifixion,...

that Jesus offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears,

pleading with His Father to remove the cup of suffering from his lips.

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”

But his prayer did not end there. Jesus added the phrase, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Story of Jesus:

In another words as the author of Hebrews says here, “he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

Jesus could have rebelled in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus offered up prayer with fervent cries to the one who could save him, He held that cup of death in hishands and with all the human oz of His being and that he could have rebelled and choose not to drink the cup...

He could’ve easily told the Father right there that he will not give his life on the cross for you and me.

He could’ve handed back the cup of suffering and choose not to drink it. Yet for our sake, for our salvation, He obeyed,

He reverently submitted to the will of His Father.

Today, you and I have the opportunity to not only choose Jesus as our Savior?

But to choose him as our Lord as well and to submit to His will.

Today, we may experience deliverance through the cross, through Christ’s shed blood on our behalf. We also may receive the water of life and the bread of life. We may eat the Word of God daily and often. But as we open His Word, will we by faith follow the Lord or rebel?

yet he chose to obey the father and carry the eternal salvation for each one of us.

APPEAL: Suppose you are driving from Dayton to Niagara Falls...

and on the way you notice a hitchhiker with his hand out, thumb up, asking for a ride.

You seem adventurous this day, so you pull over to pick them up.

You have your Bible, purse, backpack in the front seat next to you, so you tell him that he can sit in the back seat.

But he shakes his head and says no. Well perhaps they don’t want to be in the backseat and you realize that it might’ve been an insensitive proposal,

so you throw your stuff in the back, except the Bible, that you nicely place in the back

and you offer the front seat to them. But again he shakes his head and says no.

Then you ask the hitchhiker why in the world did they pull you over?

To this he replies, “I want to be the driver of the car.”

I would probably look at them like they are crazy and take off faster than you could say “Jack Robinson.”

But you know as we journey through life,

one day Jesus stopped us in our tracks and we offered him to travel with us, haven’t we?

And perhaps we offered Jesus the backseat of our journey.

And maybe we realized that it was an insensitive proposal

and decided to give him the front seat of our life.

When all along, Jesus does not want the back seat, nor the front seat,

but if we would ask Jesus, what part of our life he wants, he would want to be the driver. He wants to be the Lord of my life.

Jesus wants to take the wheel and lead your life and my life.

May our prayer be as the song says, “Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands, ‘Cause I can’t do this all on my own.” AMEN!