journey to know God
Try to get contact info from new people….meeting agenda
The church is: people on a journey to discover God
Talking about the church. Begin with what, to me, is one of core descriptions of who we are as a church.
God led the Israelites out of the desert.
Acts 7:34-36: Stephen recounting history of Israel. Tells of Moses leading people out of Egypt. 40 years in desert.
What was going on here? Why so long?
Simple answer: People rebelled, God punished. I think that’s too simple of an answer.
Imagine being one a young man or woman among those Israelites. All you’ve ever known is life in Egypt. Egyptian customs, styles, even Egyptian gods. At this point God had not established any laws, rituals for worship of Him. All you have is some stories of the God of your descendants Abraham, Isaac and Joseph promising to make them a great nation.
What would it have been like to leave all you’ve ever known behind and go of into the desert. You may have realized that you are not taking the most direct route to the Promised Land-Exod. 13:17-“If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” Something strange going on here.
Honestly try to put yourself in the place of one of these people. What would you be thinking & doing?
-Certainly relief & excitement at first-released from slavery. Finally, God has come to rescue. You are also experiencing these amazing acts of God-parting the sea, pillar of fire/cloud, manna, clothing not wearing out. No god you’ve known has ever done anything like this before. This is truly a god worth worshiping!
Over time, though,-especially as the wandering continues-that feeling is going to wear off.
-You are going to start experiencing a certain amount fear, worry. You are wandering in the desert...not really sure where you are going. You have spent your life in a fertile strip of land along the Nile river...now you are out in a barren wasteland.
Can you really trust this Moses? You've heard about him-how he was the privileged one-adopted son of Pharaoh. Did he really have your best interests in mind. Was this cloud you were following really God...or was this some sort of divine punishment from one of the Egyptian gods.
These are normal human responses. Regardless of what we might be experiencing and what we've been told, we fall back on our past training and conditioning in times of stress.
When they were worried about how they would survive in the desert, of course they wished they were back in Egypt. As harsh as it was, it was home.
When Moses disappeared for a long time when God was giving him the Israelite laws, of course they fell back on their old worship habits. They didn't know any other way of trying to appease the Gods.
You can relate can't you? I find myself doing the same thing when life seems to get out of control. In my youth-struggled with feelings of self-doubt & failure. God has done much to help me overcome those feelings-lies-but there are times when life gets to me-when I start to fall back into those old habits...even though I know the truth.
So I can understand the Israelite response. If we really thought about it, we could have predicted this is how they would have responded.
And I'm sure God did to. He knew they would react this way...
When we look at his response, though, we assume He's just reacting in anger-the same way we so often do. (Makes us doubt this is the same God that would send His Son for our forgiveness).
God not simply reacting-not a simple matter of getting angry and punishing. He needs them to learn a lesson-measured response. Like a parent-certainly get frustrated when kids don't seem to be getting it, but don't simply punish our kids to make them pay for things they do. Sometimes need to react strongly to make an impact, but goal is to teach valuable lessons.
God making an impact here. He knows it's going to take some time to really mold these people into the nation He wants them to be. Need time alone. Need to grow old influences out of the people. Need time to be refined into a people who know God...who trust God and who depend upon God. The goal-for the nation and for each individual was that they would learn to depend completely upon Him.
In time, some of the Israelites began to see their experience as the incredible adventure is really was. Chosen by god..experiencing His power and presence in their lives. Began to trust in His promises...did bold things for Him. Changed the world. Joshua most well known among these.
What does this all have to do with us? A lot! God has plans for us all. He has things he wants us to know. He wants to release us from the bonds of slavery to old habits, ideas...lies...knows it's going to take time, experience with Him. We are all on a journey-similar to that of the Israelites. God is leading us through experiences in life. He shows himself to us in multiple ways...but knows we will fall back on our old habits when the glory of those moments begins to fade. He will allow us to experience tough situations...to give us opportunity to trust Him. As we grow in our faith, he will continue to gradually give us more/greater opportunity & influence. (Won't give us more than we can bear)
Also relates to all of us as a church. We are on a journey to discover God and His purpose for us together. I see our experience in this school building as part of that journey-this is our desert experience. Challenges, but great opportunity as well. Need to learn to see God working-overlook the challenges, trust Him, see him working, take advantage of opportunities He gives us.
As we learn to embrace whatever He presents us with, we will conquer great obstacles together and accomplish great things for Him. God is refining us all into a powerful instrument of his purposes and in time we will change the world!
Whatever we face in life...need to remember we are a people on a journey. Led by God to discover God. Seeking True North. In times of stress, remind and encourage one another to look past those circumstances, see past our old habits at what God is doing and learn to trust/desire Him first....