Trust in Uncertainty

2020 @ Bridge of Faith

I want to look back at God’s faithfulness to us this year.

We were one of the first churches to receive a Convoy of Hope truck at the beginning of the pandemic.

You all as individuals swung into action and started packing bags during a time of uncertainty.

We partnered with the schools to see that kids were being fed when kids did not go back to school. We were picking up meals and delivering to people who could not come to the pick up locations.

The schools were giving us their left overs to then distribute when we heard their was a need.

We had an overflow of items and we started sending them out through Taney, Stone and Christian counties.

Chadwick needed milk and the Lord provided milk.

Produce trucks started rolling in and we partnered with others to get these throughout the county.

We also were hosting drive through events and delivering food door to door to students and families.

During all this my mom graduated into the presence of our father where she awaits his return to make all things new.

Also Kristen Clemmons is there along with Angie Monroe this year.

We were able to do our Summer program in July this year. If you remember, we sent home food with every kid on the weekends giving them food for Friday Saturday and Sunday.

We completed the OneHeart Holistic Center building. This will host our Biblical counseling center.

Wally was able to redeem his property, purchase a mobile home, move it to his property, and get moved in.

We hosted a baptismal service outdoors and baptised 6 people!!

Fall Festival turned into trunk or treat and was a great outreach to the community.

Thanksgiving shifted to thanksgiving baskets and over 160 families got baskets that represented 635 people.

Christmas in the Village for the first time took place. The affordable Christmas store was also a great success this year.

Dayle, Steve, and Team launched Living Free recovery this year.

We also poured the basketball court and put up the goals this year.

This does not name everything God has done but as I look back over 2020, times were definitely uncertain but God was faithful.

God was trust worthy when I did not trust. God was certain when I was uncertain. God was loyal when I was not loyal. God was not tired when I was tired.

Make sure you see the story is not about us but the story was all about God. God’s plan was in action way before 2020 was even thought about. God was so so faithful during 2020.

Numbers 11

(Show Picture)

At this point, the Israelites have escaped slavery. They have seen God do some amazing things in their lives. They find themselves in the desert. Notice on the screen that you can see some green areas on this map. Look at the upper left what do you see? Some green area. This was Egypt and now look to the upper right and what do you see? Some green space this was the promise land. This area in between is the desert. Desert is defined as...

Desert: a dry, barren area of land, especially one covered with sand, that is characteristically desolate, waterless, and without vegetation.

synonyms:wasteland, wastes, wilderness, wilds, barren land; dust bowl

Certainly here in Numbers 11 the Israelites are in a desert literally but sometimes life brings us to the desert.

Ever feel like you are in a dry, barren area of land that is desolate, waterless and without vegetation. It feels like a wasteland a wilderness so to speak.

These deserts could be 2020, change in how church is done, change in career, college students change in major, graduation, marriage struggles, new area of unfamiliar parenting or new life stage for your kids, new job, new school or new way of doing school, new life in sobriety, relationship status change.

I was thinking about this and I thought is it not funny that before 2020 we all were trying to escape normal. 2020 comes and now we are trying to navigate our way back to normal or the “new normal”

This leads us to a desert in life were we are trying to figure out what is going on and where is God in the middle of all this. We encounter uncertainty in life, relationships, worship, careers, and we begin to ask where are you God in this.

Numbers 11:1 HCSB

1 Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

God had been so faithful to Israel. This was God’s chosen people. He had rescued them from slavery and bondage.

It’s interesting that right before this Moses is on a Spiritual high with all that God is doing.

Numbers 10:29–32 HCSB

29 Moses said to Hobab, son of Moses’ father-in-law Reuel the Midianite: “We’re setting out for the place the Lord promised: ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.” 30 But he replied to him, “I don’t want to go. Instead, I will go to my own land and my relatives.” 31 “Please don’t leave us,” Moses said, “since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes. 32 If you come with us, whatever good the Lord does for us we will do for you.”

The Lord is doing great things for Israel and bringing about victories leading them to the promise land.

Numbers 11:1–3 HCSB

1 Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So that place was named Taberah, because the Lord’s fire had blazed among them.

The people had left a relative fertile ground of Mount Sinai and found themselves in the desert. Literally the desert.

The desert is not a fertile ground.

Notice what grows in the desert.

Complaints

Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary i. Taberah (11:1–3)

A modern traveller would sympathize. But the biblical writers did not (cf. Deut. 9:22; Ps. 78:17ff.). For them the complaints of Israel were proof of national rebelliousness and unbelief.

Careful that complaints are not the beginning of a heart of rebellion and unbelief.

This is the constant desire of the flesh to rebel against the Lord and to act in unbelief. Look back at Genesis and the fall of man. The heart of man in Genesis was to rebel and to believe that Adam and Eve knew better than the Lord.

Here they see the fire of the Lord and cry out for help in verse 2.

Notice that as they cry out to the Lord his response is that fire died down.

More Complaints

Numbers 11:4–6 HCSB

4 Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat? 5 We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6 But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

They are wining and complaining. They want normal back. I want to go back to the old way of doing things. For them, normal was bondage and slavery.

Manna

manna: what is this

Numbers 11:7–9 HCSB

7 The manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium. 8 The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. 9 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

So for two years they have been eating this manna and the word manna in Hebrew means what is this?

So they have been eating this for two years!

Imagine eating the same food every meal for two years. You would grow tired of it. Day one breakfast, lunch and dinner. Day 2 breakfast lunch and dinner and day 3 breakfast lunch and dinner.

Summer Lunches (there is only so much variety that you can put in the bags that meet the requirement)

I remember when we first started picking up the lunches my kids and myself were so excited.

By about the 3rd or 4th week, it was like awe man not this again.

You see the manna was good but day after day meal after meal they keep eating this same what is this.

They are grinding it, crushing it, boiling it and shaping it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil.

Moses

I am sure the leader the great Moses is doing well with this. He is the leader and leaders have things together.

Moms in the desert you are the leader in schedules, with school for the kids, with the kids in general, supporting your husband, cooking meals, keeping the house clean and making sure the family gets through the desert. You got this!

Men in the desert keep a straight face, keep finances flowing, lead well spiritually, love your wife well, encourage your children, coach them, teach them, in this don’t break down and don’t for any reason ever cry. Whatever you do keep it together and don’t ever cry don’t do it. You are a leader. So lead you got this.

Keep it together like the great heroes of the faith.

Watch Moses

Numbers 11:10–15 HCSB

10 Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry; Moses was also provoked. 11 So Moses asked the Lord, “Why have You brought such trouble on Your servant? Why are You angry with me, and why do You burden me with all these people? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so You should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nursing woman carries a baby,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers? 13 Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me: ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me. 15 If You are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now. If You are pleased with me, don’t let me see my misery anymore.”

The imagery of Moses as the parent of Israel and he blames God for these people.

Don’t miss this Moses does not keep it together. Moms you got this, Dads you got this. Stay strong. Notice that Moses didn’t keep it together.

The story is not about Moses and the story is not about you either.

The story is all about God and his faithfulness in uncertainty.

God is Trustworthy

Numbers 11:16–25 HCSB

16 The Lord answered Moses, “Bring Me 70 men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself. 18 “Tell the people: Purify yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: ‘Who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and cried to Him: ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ” 21 But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with 600,000 foot soldiers, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ 22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? You will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.” 24 Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He brought 70 men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent. 25 Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the 70 elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they never did it again.

God provides!

Numbers 11:31–32 HCSB

31 A wind sent by the Lord came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them at the camp all around, three feet off the ground, about a day’s journey in every direction. 32 The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail—the one who took the least gathered 50 bushels —and they spread them out all around the camp.

Careful what you pray for while our heart is full of complaints

God’s Judgement

Numbers 11:33–35 HCSB

33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord’s anger burned against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague. 34 So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat. 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth and remained there.

The desert is a place where complaints can grow, uncertainty can grow and it can be a place for the Lord’s discipline.

This is a great story when kids are complaining about dinner.

Eat your food or you will die.

The value of contentment in times of uncertainty.

Contentment shows trust in God.

Contentment shows that God your bread is enough.

God uses pain to rescue us. God uses discipline to develop trust in him.

God is teaching them to trust him. God is shaking things up so that his people will trust him.

Trust is the glue that holds relationships together

Jeff Manion

The desert is a place where growth happens or it is a place where faith goes to die.

The flesh wants to rebel and complain about life. The flesh wants to rise up create an idol and say God you are not enough and I need more meat.

God is faithful. God is trustworthy. God has provided for you in 2020.

The story is not about you. The story is not about Moses. The story is about God.