Moses pleaded with God in Prayer

Deuteronomy 3:23-27,

23 And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, 24 O Lord God, You have only begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do according to Your works and according to Your might? 25 I pray You, [will You not just] let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain country [with Hermon] and Lebanon? 26 But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not listen to me; and the Lord said to me, That is enough! Say no more to Me about it. 27 Get up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan.

I.       Moses did not do what God had asked of him

A.    Let me give you some back ground information

B.    Once before God had told Moses to go to a rock for water

1.     Exodus 17:6, Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel

C.    Now let us look in

1.     Numbers 20:6-12,6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them. 7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. 9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

2.     Here God tells Moses to speak to the rock

3.     Moses smites the rock twice

a)     Moses is mad at the people

b)     His anger gets the best of him

c)     He disobeys God

4.     Water still comes out even though Moses disobeys God

a)     God blesses even through Moses disobeys Him

b)     But Moses will pay for his disobedience

(1)   Moses has sinned

II.     Moses could not go into the promise land

A.    That which was most dear to his heart

B.    Moses paid and paid dearly for his sin

III.    Moses prayed to God about it

A.    We find in verse 25 Moses praying to God to go over to the promise land

1.     The Hebrew text implies that Moses keep asking God about going into the promise land

B.    Moses spend his whole life severing God

1.     He does something wrong and because God is righteous He can’t answer Moses prayer

C.    God does not answer all prayers

1.     The Apostle Paul did not get his prayers answered

2.     Put God still has mercy on Moses.

a)     God lets Moses go up to the top of Mount Pisgah.

D.    Moses must pay for his sin.

1.     Moses pays with what was closes to his heart

2.     Going into the promise land

a)     He had spend 40 years going through the wilderness waiting for the day to inter the promise land

3.     All because he did not do what God wanted him to do

IV.   There are many lessons for us to learn from this today.

A.    Each of you must exam what was said here today

B.    Each of you needs to see how it applies to your life and take that before the Lord

C.    We must learn of this and apply these things to our life’s

Sunday morning biker Service 9/24/06