Sermon Title: Don't Hinder the Mission!
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This Week’s Theme: The Church Succeeds As One
Memory Verse: Numbers 32:18 “18 We will not return to our homes until every one of the children of Israel has received his inheritance.”
This Week’s Word is Discourage: A sense of unhappiness arising from a loss of confidence in one’s own abilities, in the reliability of God or in the power of the gospel. Discouragement can occur in the Christian life, especially when there is resistance to the gospel or in instances of personal failure
Essence of the Text in a Sentence: The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh asked for the land east of the Jordan and Moses understood their request as an instrument to destroy unity among the people of God.
Sermon Objective: I want those in attendance to unify the brothers and sisters in the body of Christ by avoiding the words, ways, and works that destroy unity.
Sermon Text: Number 32:1-32
Numbers 32:1–2 (NKJV)
1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock,
2 the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,
4 the country which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
5 Therefore they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.”
6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?
Introduction:
Transition sentence: Through this Old Testament story, God provides His children assistance in keeping ONENESS. One of the first thing that needs to happen is for us to do is . . .
I. Don’t Divide
I. Don’t Divide
6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?
Explain:
Luke 11:17 (NKJV)
17 . . . Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.
10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Illustrate:
Apply:
Are you guilty of dividing the God’s church rather than uniting it?
Have you gotten to place of peace, joy, patience, faith, etc and are sitting on the sidelines while your brothers and sisters struggle?
What are you doing to help your brothers and sisters in Christ at Holy Temple gain victory over the flesh, the world, and the enemy?
II. Don’t Discourage
II. Don’t Discourage
7 Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them?
9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them.
Explain:
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” ’
12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.’
8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’
9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
Illustrate:
Apply:
Are you guilty of discouraging the brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, in particular Holy Temple?
What words have you spoken, ways you have acted, or things you have done that have discouraged the hearts of the saints of God?
Are you living in a way that encourages your brothers and sisters in Christ to make disciples to the glory of God?
What will you start doing to encourage rather than discourage your brothers and sisters in Christ?
III. Don’t Direct
III. Don’t Direct
11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me,
15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”
Explain:
4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
1 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV)
16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
1 Corinthians 11:1 (NKJV)
1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
Illustrate:
Apply:
Because no Christian is perfect, what area(s) are you not following the LORD fully?
What will you stop doing so you will follow the Lord more fully?
What will you start doing so you will follow the Lord more fully?