November 24, 2025 • 28 mins
Listen to this week’s sermon, In the Wilderness preached by Pastor Jason Dunn from Numbers 28-36.
Scripture Reading:
Numbers 33:1-2; 33:55-56; 34:1-2; 35:34
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Rev. Benjamin Kandt (00:06):
Hello everyone, this is Pastor
Benjamin.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, Orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourFather answer the Lord's
Prayer.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at Newcity Orlando.com.
Joshua Esquivel (00:21):
Good morning.
Please join me in reading thePrayer of Illumination.
Holy Spirit, open our hearts tohear your word, and through
your word, create in our heartsa home for your presence, that
we might live for the glory ofthe Father and the kingdom of
his beloved Son.
Through Jesus Christ, we pray.
(00:42):
Amen.
Our scripture today comes fromNumbers.
These are the stages of thepeople of Israel when they went
out of the land of Egypt bytheir companies under the
leadership of Moses and Aaron.
Moses wrote down their startingplaces stage by stage by
command of the Lord, and theseare the stages according to
(01:05):
their starting places.
But if you do not drive out theinhabitants of the land from
before you, then those of themwhom you let remain shall be as
barbs in your eyes and thorns inyour sides, and they shall
trouble you in the land whereyou dwell, and I will do to you
as I thought to do to them.
(01:27):
The Lord spoke to Moses,saying, Command the people of
Israel and say to them, When youenter the land of Canaan, this
is the land that shall fall foryour inherit for you for an
inheritance, the land of Canaanas defined by its borders.
You shall not defile the landin which you live, in the midst
of which I dwell.
(01:48):
For I, the Lord, dwell in themidst of the people of Israel.
This is God's word.
Pastor Jason Dunn (01:59):
Well, good morning.
Good morning.
That's okay.
Wasn't a big response.
Well, my name is Jason, and Iam one of the pastors here at
New City.
And as Ben already alluded to,we are ending our wandering
through the book of Numbers.
I got a laugh, Ben.
(02:21):
Ben didn't think I was going toget a laugh, but I did.
So today we come to the end.
And now your bulletin actuallyhas a misprint because we did
chapters 33, 34, and 35 for ourscripture reading today.
But Ben, he kind of left usback at chapter 27.
So we were at a Mount ofErebim, and I'm supposed to take
(02:42):
us to the end of Numbers, whichis chapter 36, at the plains of
Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
So that's roughly 10 chapters,and we're not going to get to
all of it today, but I thinkwe're going to get to something
really significant.
For me, I think some of us arekind of excited about moving on
(03:03):
from the wanderings in the bookof Numbers.
Right?
As Ben just alluded, we'regoing to be beginning our Advent
series here next week, and weget to talk about Christmas and
the coming of Christ.
And there's just so muchgoodness that happens in that
holiday season.
Also, it means that we'removing from the Old Testament
book here in the fall, and we'regoing to a New Testament book
in the spring.
(03:23):
So that's kind of exciting forsome of us.
But for me, honestly, theslowing down in the wilderness,
it has been really, really goodfor my soul.
And we've called the wildernesshere at New City God's
Discipleship School or God'sformation school.
He is forming us in thewilderness.
(03:44):
This is a picture of ourpilgrim journey into a
particular people for aparticular person.
That's Jesus Himself.
But if you never really slowdown, if you never go stage by
stage, you will miss what God isdoing in that.
You'll miss who we truly are asa people of God, and you will
(04:07):
miss who God truly is.
So, like the Israelites, as weend our numbers series, I'm
inviting us to continue to slowdown, to look at the stage that
God has guided us in.
In our text that Josh had readthis morning, there was this
really interesting line.
God warns us as we continue inthis journey about the barbs in
(04:30):
our eyes and the thorns in ourflesh.
These are the challenges thatwe face as we move from stage to
stage where we are being pulledaway from dependence and trust
in God.
And so we're gonna we're gonnasee this this morning in this
way that God is the one whoguides us stage by stage toward
the promised land.
(04:51):
And that is our two points thatGod guides us stage by stage,
point one, point two toward thepromised land.
If you have a Bible or device,because this is not in the
bulletin, please look with me atchapter 33, verse one.
These are the stages of thepeople of Israel, when they went
(05:13):
out from the land of Egypt bytheir companies under the
leadership of Moses and Aaron.
The point is this that we areall in stages.
God works with his people in adevelopmental way.
If you heard the sermon fromlast week, it was awesome.
Ben preached, and he weaved inthe psychosocial Eric Erickson
(05:34):
developmental stage theory withRonald Roehiser's discipleship
stages.
There was this interweavingthat Ben did.
The points really stuck out tome is the struggle to get your
life together, the struggle togive your life away, and the
struggle to give your deathaway.
But there was a theme there forme.
As I kind of sat in thesechapters of Numbers and I looked
(05:55):
at the book of Numbers, it wasthe fact that all of those
stages are defined by struggle.
No matter where you are on thejourney, no matter which stage
you're in, there is a struggle.
That's just the definition ofthe wilderness.
That's the pilgrim journey thatwe are on.
That's the reality of thealready but not quite yet
(06:18):
kingdom of God.
This might be coming from theguy who kind of sits with our
people in their brokenness andfragmented wildernesses, but I
actually don't think you guyscan deny it.
It's the stage four cancerdiagnosis, way too early in
life.
It's the loss of a job, anuncertainty of the way forward.
(06:41):
It's another miscarriage andthe shut door of infertility.
It's the death of a dream ordeath of a loved one.
It's broken relationshipsbetween husbands and wives,
between parents and children.
It's our hope being deferredonce again.
That's the wilderness that weare in.
(07:02):
That's the struggle weexperience.
So life is hard.
And God, but the beautifulthing is that God does not leave
us alone there.
He actually guides us stage bystage.
And that is the hope that wehave.
Victor Frankel, who is apsychiatrist and a Holocaust
(07:22):
survivor who survived theconcentration camps of World War
II, he has he did the work ofhis psychiatry.
He looked at people withinthose camps.
And so he continued to practicethe vocation that God had given
him.
And he saw two types of peoplewho endured all of that
suffering in the concentrationcamps.
There was those who could makemeaning in the suffering, and
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those who could not make meaningof their suffering.
And those who could makemeaning of their suffering, they
had hope.
They experienced life withgreater joy, with greater help,
with greater purpose.
He concluded that hope insuffering is only found in
meaning in that suffering.
And he called this the last ofthe human freedoms that no one
(08:08):
can take away from you.
We actually have meaning in thestruggle.
We have meaning in oursuffering because God is the one
who guides us stage by stage.
Yes, we are pilgrims, but Godguides us.
So a natural question comes tomy mind, God, if you're guiding
us and there's meaning in oursuffering, why are you choosing
(08:31):
to do this in a suffering and inthe wilderness?
Well, right there in our text,in verse 1 of chapter 33, it
says, They went out of the landof Egypt.
They were under the leadershipand the authority of who?
Pharaoh, the ruler and the ruleof the world, right?
And they were compromised, theybeing the people of God, and we
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are compromised by being underthe rule of the world.
Even Moses, right, doesn'tenter into the promised land.
They had biases and practicesthat were not of God.
They had idols deep withintheir hearts that needed, that
demanded God's formation schoolto get out of them.
They needed liberation not justfrom a geography, but from
(09:17):
their imaginations and fromtheir hearts.
We too need that liberationfrom the world, the flesh, and
the devil.
More on that in a minute.
Look down with me at chapter 33again, verse 2.
Moses wrote down their startingplaces stage by stage by
(09:38):
command of the Lord.
So again, God is the one who isguiding them.
And these are the stagesaccording to their starting
places.
Now, why do you think Moseswrote those down?
I guess if it's a command ofthe Lord, you better listen,
right?
And this gives credence to thefact that here in our tradition,
we believe in organicinspiration, that God works
(09:59):
through human authors to createthe living and active word.
We believe that the word of Godis so inspired by God that it
can actually change who we are.
It confronts us, it changes us,it conforms us.
And that's why uh it actuallyit comforts us too.
So it's not all just thenegative.
And this is why we actuallypray and read scriptures.
(10:20):
This is why we have a dailypractice of reading God's word.
But also, with Moses writingthis down, it gave me the idea
that it gives credence to thefact that we are a people of
stories.
We have stories that go stageby stage, and we need to
rehearse our personal storieswith God.
We actually need to write downour stories for ourselves, but
(10:44):
also for our children.
We need to find our stories inthe grand story of God.
And here at New City, realquickly, we talk about that in
the four-chapter story.
Creation, the way things uh hadought to be, the way that God
created them, we're all good.
The fall, this is the way thatthings are right now, and this
is me describing a little bitthe struggle, the way things can
(11:07):
be, which is redemption, andthe way things will be, where
there will be no more tears, nomore pain.
And so, where is yourparticular story in that grand
story?
This actually reminds me thatwe need to be we need to
practice the discipline ofjournaling, the discipline of
being reflective about what Godis doing in our lives.
(11:28):
And if you have your Bibles oryour devices, again, this is not
in the bulletin.
I would encourage us, let'slet's look at chapter 33.
There's all these stages, allthese places that are listed
there.
It's not an exhaustive list ofactually all of their journey
for those 40 years, but youknow, 42 sounds like a
(11:49):
significant number.
God does that sometimes withthe numbers in the Bible.
It could be six stages ofseven, and now they're about to
enter the seven set of stagesinto the promised land of rest.
But regardless of like thenumbers there in terms of the
number of stages that arerepresented, uh, you can, I I
was helped by a commentator, youcould break out the stages into
(12:10):
three different categories.
So look with me.
So in uh the first category isthe stages represent the Lord's
faithfulness in our daily needs.
If you look at chapter 33,verse 8 or 9, there is God
working with the provision ofwater at Elam, or making the
water, the bitter water sweet.
So that's one whole category ofstages that are represented
(12:33):
here, the Lord's faithfulness.
The second big category ofstages is the Lord's
forgiveness, or I'm gonna callit the Lord's forgetfulness.
So if you read in the text inverse 8 or 9, they actually make
uh comments about whathappened, how the Lord provided.
But then there are other stagesin the second category of the
(12:55):
Lord's forgetfulness, is whereuh the Israelites rebelled, they
grumbled, their sin was known.
But it makes no mention ofthose specific things because it
doesn't want to draw yourattention to the fact that the
Israelites sin.
It wants to draw your attentionto God's forgetfulness, God's
kindness, God's forgiveness.
Hebrews 8 reminds us that Godwill be merciful toward their
(13:19):
iniquities and I will remembertheir sins no more.
So we have a bunch of stageshere about God's faithfulness,
we have stages about God'sforgetfulness or forgiveness,
but the bulk of the stages thatare listed here in chapter 33 of
the 42 are just the Lord'sordinary means.
We don't really know whathappened in those stages.
(13:39):
They're listed here, but it'sit's in my mind, it's building
out this theology of theordinary.
So as we go stage by stage, weneed to be reminded of these
three things.
And we need to write ourstories down in light of these
things, of these three things: God's faithfulness, God's (13:53):
undefined
forgiveness and forgetfulness,and our call to the faithfulness
and the mundane of life.
So the question I have for youall is can you name the stages
or milestones of your journey?
Even before Jesus and afterJesus?
Where are you in that?
(14:15):
Where have you seen God'sfaithfulness, his forgetfulness
or forgiveness, and your call tothe mundane life?
Now, I've been thinking aboutthis stage thing from stage to
stage, obviously, because that'sa bulk of chapter 33 this week.
And my attention was drawn to 1John chapter 2.
Now, the apostle he gives uskind of another overlay of
(14:37):
stages that a Christian can goon on a Christian journey, the
way that we are discipled ordeveloped along the way.
And you can overlay thisactually in the whole book of
Numbers.
There's a first generation andsecond generation, but real
quickly from 1 John chapter 2,John talks about little
children, young men or women,and fathers and mothers.
(15:02):
Little children, young adults,and fathers and mothers.
Stott does a really good job ofexplaining this.
He says the little children arethose who are newborn in
Christ.
Young men or women are moredeveloped Christians, strong and
victorious in spiritualwarfare.
Whereas fathers and mothers,they possess the depth and
stability of ripe Christianexperience.
(15:23):
It's really an interestingpassage in 1 John 2.
So it's super simple.
Where are you all in thatframework of children, young
adults, or spiritual fathers andmothers?
The point is that God isworking in a developmental way
with us all.
He is the one who's guiding usstage by stage.
And the only way out isthrough.
(15:46):
And the only way forward is bylooking back, looking back at
God's faithfulness, looking backat God's forgiveness and
forgetfulness, and looking backso that we can actually embrace
what lies ahead.
God is the one who guides usstage by stage.
Now I want to tell a story realquickly.
This was some time ago when Ihad a little bit of means.
(16:07):
I was a single guy, and uh Igot I decided to have get LASIK
surgery done.
I don't know if you guys knowthe beauty of LASIK surgery, but
it's amazing.
They take blind people and theymake them see.
Uh and they do it with lasers,so it's like Star Wars in your
eyes, you know.
And I don't know how it works.
I just paid my money and didit.
(16:29):
And so I was in a kind of astage in my life where I was
doing some traveling and Ididn't want to have like my
contact and kind of stick it inmy eye with all this bacteria
and all this other stuff.
So I had the surgery done.
And in this in this timeperiod, I uh I found myself, you
know, traveling the world.
I was in the South China Sea,and as one does in the South
China Sea, I climbed a mountainon a small island, and here I
(16:52):
was walking along, not reallypaying attention to the path
that I was on, but I was talkingto my buddy, and uh there's
these big bamboo stalks alongthat path.
And I don't know if you've seenbamboo, but there's segments
and they have these little pokeythings that like poke out.
Uh and I ran right one into myeye and a barb broke off.
(17:13):
And uh here I was on a remoteisland in the South China Sea.
My vision was not really thatgreat, and I was unable to find
the next stage of my journey.
It didn't really matter that Ican see 2015 anymore, because
the barb in my eye was going tolead me astray.
Now, in the same way, thatstory connects to our passage
(17:35):
here in Numbers, uh, chapter 33,verse 55 and 56.
It's the end of the chapter.
Look down with me as I readthis.
But if you do not drive out theinhabitants of the land from
before you, then those of themwhom you let remain shall be as
barbs in your eyes and thorns inyour side, and they shall
(17:58):
trouble you in the land whereyou dwell.
So God is actually calling usto remove and drive out the
inhabitants of the land.
He's calling the Israelites,right, as they enter the
promised land, but he's alsocalling us, this text is for us.
If we do not drive out thetemptations and hindrances that
call us to compromise, they willbe like those things that are
(18:22):
like barbs in our eye.
We won't be able to see, wewill be led astray, and the sin
that so easily entangles Hebrews12, it will get us.
There are besetting sins,little areas of compromise.
Maybe saying a quick word abouta coworker who's not around so
that you get ahead and they gobehind.
Maybe that's parenting withanger and control.
(18:45):
Maybe that's consumingdigitally and physically all the
stuff that you should not do.
And what God is saying here tothe Israelites, and what God is
saying to you, beloved, is thatif you do not deal with these
things, they shall be trouble tous in the land in which we
dwell.
God wants us holy.
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That means all of you and holy.
He wants to he wants you to beset apart.
And he does not, he does notwant you to be led astray.
And here at New City, so youmight be thinking, like, how am
I gonna find these barbs andthorns?
Uh, we do that in community.
We talk about community as aspace where you're known and
(19:27):
loved.
Community, but also in circles.
And so I invite you to be knownand loved, be connected to
people, that they can help you,be connected to young adults, be
connected to spiritual fathersand mothers, where they are able
to say, like, hey man, there'sa barb right there, and you need
to deal with that.
Or there's a thorn in yourside, and you're kind of walking
with the limp there, and youneed to deal with that.
(19:49):
So wherever you find yourselfin this struggle on the journey,
know that God is the one thatguides us stage by stage.
Now, this leads me to my secondpoint.
God guides us stage by stage,where?
Toward the promised land.
Turn with me now.
This is in your bulletin,chapter 34, verses 1 and 2.
(20:10):
The Lord spoke to Moses,saying, Command the people of
Israel and say to them, When youenter the land of Canaan, this
is the land that shall fall toyou for inheritance, the land of
Canaan as defined by itsborders.
So as I said, we look back sothat we can embrace what lies
(20:31):
ahead.
And what lies ahead is thepromised inheritance, the
promised land, God Himself.
Again, here in these shortverses, we're taught that the
Lord spoke.
So God is the one who guides,God is the one who provides, God
is the one, but also whoderides our sin in our lives.
And so he's forming us, he'sworking with us, he's
(20:55):
developmentally asking us to gothrough these stages to change
us.
But God is not walking, he'snot asking us to walk through
the wilderness aimlessly, right?
He knows what lies ahead.
He knows that what lies aheadis so great, is so good.
So God goes ahead and definesthe borders and the boundaries
(21:18):
of our inheritance.
And I love how precise, if youread the whole of chapter 34
this afternoon, his hisprecision is so precise.
He he his precision, I think,is kindness.
His precision is love.
Now, Katie and I, when we uhwere in 2018, we had fortunate
enough experience to buy ahouse.
And so when you buy a housewith a mortgage, you got to get
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it surveyed, right?
And so a surveyor comes out andhe marks he marks the lots of
the line with these big stakes.
And it was wonderful.
You know, we signed our name toa big thing, and and then we
had this house, us and the bank.
And uh, and so it took me ayear or more, though, to remove
the stakes out of the ground.
And part of it was you mightthink, well, geez, did Jason
(22:01):
have a feud already with one ofhis neighbors about the fence
location?
No, that wasn't it.
But it was a reminder to me ofthe beautiful inheritance that
God had given Katie and I.
So in the same way, he'sdefining the boundaries and the
borders for the Israelites aboutwho they what the inheritance
is ahead.
(22:21):
Turn with me to chapter 35,verse 34.
Again, it's in your bulletin.
You shall not defile the landin which you live, in the midst
of which I dwell, for I, theLord, dwell in the midst of the
people of Israel.
So, what is the greatinheritance that God so aptly
defines its borders?
(22:43):
It's that we get to dwell withhim.
This is how the story began inGenesis, Adam and Eve dwelling
with their creator, and then ithits a blip there in Genesis 3.
But this is how the story ofthe Bible comes back to us
dwelling with God.
And this is the story that weunfold in Numbers.
(23:05):
That God wants to be in themidst of his people.
But you saw the warnings,right?
You saw the barb and the thorn,and you see the beginning of
chapter 35, verse 34, that wehave a problem.
The Israelites had a problem.
We are defiled.
(23:25):
We still have Egypt inside ofus.
This is why God warns them, youshall not defile the land.
And this builds off thewarning, as I said in chapter
33, about the barbs and thethorns.
Now back to the house thatKatie and I bought.
When we bought it, it waswonderful.
We figured out which trees wereours.
And there were certain trees inour house that were really
(23:47):
close to our uh the structureitself.
But I left them, you know,because I'm like, that provides
shade for the for the house andit provides shade for the patio.
But these were like volunteertrees, they weren't really great
trees.
And one of them was so close tothe house that it started
causing damage to the house.
And uh this reminds me of anold saying, and this gets back
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to the barb and the thorn and uhGod calling us not to be
defiling in the land.
But an ounce of prevention isworth a pound of cure.
So I wasn't there when thislittle volunteer tree actually
first came out of the ground,but if I was, you could have
just picked it up out of theground.
But then over time, over 10, 15years or wherever it's taken
that tree to grow, it's gonnatake like heavy equipment, maybe
(24:30):
a chainsaw.
I may have to ask a friend ortwo to come over to help me take
down this little volunteertree.
And so I strongly encourage us.
The barbs and thorns, they willbe like those trees that grow
up and become bigger issues forus to deal with.
An ounce of prevention is wortha pound and cure.
So pull the weeds, do the work,drive out what so easily
(24:53):
entangles.
Don't ignore the thorns in yourside or the barb in your eye.
Jesus tells us the way isnarrow and the road is hard, but
the road of the struggle thatGod is guiding us in is to the
promised land.
It is to himself.
Hebrews 12 reminds us, I keepquoting this, about sin that so
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easily entangles us.
How do we throw off everyweight and sin which so which
clings so closely and run withperseverance, stage by stage?
Hebrews 12, 2 says, by lookingto Jesus, the founder and
perfecter of our faith, who forthe joy set before him endured
the cross.
So you know that the story doesnot end well for the
(25:38):
Israelites.
They fail to deal with thebarbs and the thorns, they
become defiled in the land.
And these are little areas ofcompromise that led to actually
the destruction of their kingdomand the expulsion, uh, exile of
God's people.
And that's what these littleareas of compromise will do to
us too.
(25:58):
And the reality is that we'reunable to do the work ourselves.
So we need a savior.
And this is ultimately, sincethis is a series completion,
this is ultimately what numbersis pointing us to.
We need someone outside ofourselves to actually save us.
The Lord wants to dwell in themidst of his people, but we are
(26:20):
unable to drive out theinhabitants.
We have barbs in our eyes andthorns in our sides.
We are defiled.
But Jesus is the one who comesand drives the money changers in
the temple and drives out allhis and our enemies.
Jesus is the one who takes onthe crown of thorns, so we no
longer have a thorn in our side.
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Jesus is the one who says, Cometo me, follow me.
He has gone before us, stage bystage.
He knows, Hebrews again says,for, he knows our weaknesses.
God dwells with his peoplethrough our union to that
perfect priest, to thatsacrificial lamb.
And that means that thepromised inheritance is Jesus
(27:05):
Himself.
King David, who had rights overall the land, this is later in
the story from Numbers, he hadrights over all the land.
But he says this in Psalm 16The Lord is my chosen portion in
my cup, and you hold my lot.
The lions have fallen for me inpleasant places.
Indeed, I have a beautifulinheritance.
(27:26):
So King David, who had all ofthe land, he's choosing what?
The Lord as his chosen portion.
That is our beautifulinheritance, is Jesus Himself.
So union to Jesus, not ourperformance, not our ability to
pull the weeds, actually securesour place in God's promised
land.
So numbers is not about how weget to God, but how God gets to
(27:50):
us.
Jesus guides us stage by stage,and there is grace in every
step of the way toward thepromised land of communion with
Him.
Let us pray.
Father, we are grateful foryour love for us in this, that
(28:11):
you sent your son stage bystage, from the incarnation to
his ministry, to his act ofobedience, to his passive
obedience on the cross, toransom a people to be your
inheritance.
Jesus, you are the faithfulpromised one.
(28:32):
You are our inheritance, andyou are the one who has brought
us to dwell with God, to dwellin his midst and spirit.
You dwell with your people.
Fill us up, help us throw offall that which entangles, help
us to see those barbs and thosethorns and move toward us in
love.
We give you the glory.
(28:53):
Amen.
Hello everyone, this is Pastor
Benjamin.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, Orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourFather answer the Lord's
Prayer.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at Newcity Orlando.com.
Joshua Esquivel (00:21):
Good morning.
Please join me in reading thePrayer of Illumination.
Holy Spirit, open our hearts tohear your word, and through
your word, create in our heartsa home for your presence, that
we might live for the glory ofthe Father and the kingdom of
his beloved Son.
Through Jesus Christ, we pray.
(00:42):
Amen.
Our scripture today comes fromNumbers.
These are the stages of thepeople of Israel when they went
out of the land of Egypt bytheir companies under the
leadership of Moses and Aaron.
Moses wrote down their startingplaces stage by stage by
command of the Lord, and theseare the stages according to
(01:05):
their starting places.
But if you do not drive out theinhabitants of the land from
before you, then those of themwhom you let remain shall be as
barbs in your eyes and thorns inyour sides, and they shall
trouble you in the land whereyou dwell, and I will do to you
as I thought to do to them.
(01:27):
The Lord spoke to Moses,saying, Command the people of
Israel and say to them, When youenter the land of Canaan, this
is the land that shall fall foryour inherit for you for an
inheritance, the land of Canaanas defined by its borders.
You shall not defile the landin which you live, in the midst
of which I dwell.
(01:48):
For I, the Lord, dwell in themidst of the people of Israel.
This is God's word.
Pastor Jason Dunn (01:59):
Well, good morning.
Good morning.
That's okay.
Wasn't a big response.
Well, my name is Jason, and Iam one of the pastors here at
New City.
And as Ben already alluded to,we are ending our wandering
through the book of Numbers.
I got a laugh, Ben.
(02:21):
Ben didn't think I was going toget a laugh, but I did.
So today we come to the end.
And now your bulletin actuallyhas a misprint because we did
chapters 33, 34, and 35 for ourscripture reading today.
But Ben, he kind of left usback at chapter 27.
So we were at a Mount ofErebim, and I'm supposed to take
(02:42):
us to the end of Numbers, whichis chapter 36, at the plains of
Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
So that's roughly 10 chapters,and we're not going to get to
all of it today, but I thinkwe're going to get to something
really significant.
For me, I think some of us arekind of excited about moving on
(03:03):
from the wanderings in the bookof Numbers.
Right?
As Ben just alluded, we'regoing to be beginning our Advent
series here next week, and weget to talk about Christmas and
the coming of Christ.
And there's just so muchgoodness that happens in that
holiday season.
Also, it means that we'removing from the Old Testament
book here in the fall, and we'regoing to a New Testament book
in the spring.
(03:23):
So that's kind of exciting forsome of us.
But for me, honestly, theslowing down in the wilderness,
it has been really, really goodfor my soul.
And we've called the wildernesshere at New City God's
Discipleship School or God'sformation school.
He is forming us in thewilderness.
(03:44):
This is a picture of ourpilgrim journey into a
particular people for aparticular person.
That's Jesus Himself.
But if you never really slowdown, if you never go stage by
stage, you will miss what God isdoing in that.
You'll miss who we truly are asa people of God, and you will
(04:07):
miss who God truly is.
So, like the Israelites, as weend our numbers series, I'm
inviting us to continue to slowdown, to look at the stage that
God has guided us in.
In our text that Josh had readthis morning, there was this
really interesting line.
God warns us as we continue inthis journey about the barbs in
(04:30):
our eyes and the thorns in ourflesh.
These are the challenges thatwe face as we move from stage to
stage where we are being pulledaway from dependence and trust
in God.
And so we're gonna we're gonnasee this this morning in this
way that God is the one whoguides us stage by stage toward
the promised land.
(04:51):
And that is our two points thatGod guides us stage by stage,
point one, point two toward thepromised land.
If you have a Bible or device,because this is not in the
bulletin, please look with me atchapter 33, verse one.
These are the stages of thepeople of Israel, when they went
(05:13):
out from the land of Egypt bytheir companies under the
leadership of Moses and Aaron.
The point is this that we areall in stages.
God works with his people in adevelopmental way.
If you heard the sermon fromlast week, it was awesome.
Ben preached, and he weaved inthe psychosocial Eric Erickson
(05:34):
developmental stage theory withRonald Roehiser's discipleship
stages.
There was this interweavingthat Ben did.
The points really stuck out tome is the struggle to get your
life together, the struggle togive your life away, and the
struggle to give your deathaway.
But there was a theme there forme.
As I kind of sat in thesechapters of Numbers and I looked
(05:55):
at the book of Numbers, it wasthe fact that all of those
stages are defined by struggle.
No matter where you are on thejourney, no matter which stage
you're in, there is a struggle.
That's just the definition ofthe wilderness.
That's the pilgrim journey thatwe are on.
That's the reality of thealready but not quite yet
(06:18):
kingdom of God.
This might be coming from theguy who kind of sits with our
people in their brokenness andfragmented wildernesses, but I
actually don't think you guyscan deny it.
It's the stage four cancerdiagnosis, way too early in
life.
It's the loss of a job, anuncertainty of the way forward.
(06:41):
It's another miscarriage andthe shut door of infertility.
It's the death of a dream ordeath of a loved one.
It's broken relationshipsbetween husbands and wives,
between parents and children.
It's our hope being deferredonce again.
That's the wilderness that weare in.
(07:02):
That's the struggle weexperience.
So life is hard.
And God, but the beautifulthing is that God does not leave
us alone there.
He actually guides us stage bystage.
And that is the hope that wehave.
Victor Frankel, who is apsychiatrist and a Holocaust
(07:22):
survivor who survived theconcentration camps of World War
II, he has he did the work ofhis psychiatry.
He looked at people withinthose camps.
And so he continued to practicethe vocation that God had given
him.
And he saw two types of peoplewho endured all of that
suffering in the concentrationcamps.
There was those who could makemeaning in the suffering, and
(07:46):
those who could not make meaningof their suffering.
And those who could makemeaning of their suffering, they
had hope.
They experienced life withgreater joy, with greater help,
with greater purpose.
He concluded that hope insuffering is only found in
meaning in that suffering.
And he called this the last ofthe human freedoms that no one
(08:08):
can take away from you.
We actually have meaning in thestruggle.
We have meaning in oursuffering because God is the one
who guides us stage by stage.
Yes, we are pilgrims, but Godguides us.
So a natural question comes tomy mind, God, if you're guiding
us and there's meaning in oursuffering, why are you choosing
(08:31):
to do this in a suffering and inthe wilderness?
Well, right there in our text,in verse 1 of chapter 33, it
says, They went out of the landof Egypt.
They were under the leadershipand the authority of who?
Pharaoh, the ruler and the ruleof the world, right?
And they were compromised, theybeing the people of God, and we
(08:54):
are compromised by being underthe rule of the world.
Even Moses, right, doesn'tenter into the promised land.
They had biases and practicesthat were not of God.
They had idols deep withintheir hearts that needed, that
demanded God's formation schoolto get out of them.
They needed liberation not justfrom a geography, but from
(09:17):
their imaginations and fromtheir hearts.
We too need that liberationfrom the world, the flesh, and
the devil.
More on that in a minute.
Look down with me at chapter 33again, verse 2.
Moses wrote down their startingplaces stage by stage by
(09:38):
command of the Lord.
So again, God is the one who isguiding them.
And these are the stagesaccording to their starting
places.
Now, why do you think Moseswrote those down?
I guess if it's a command ofthe Lord, you better listen,
right?
And this gives credence to thefact that here in our tradition,
we believe in organicinspiration, that God works
(09:59):
through human authors to createthe living and active word.
We believe that the word of Godis so inspired by God that it
can actually change who we are.
It confronts us, it changes us,it conforms us.
And that's why uh it actuallyit comforts us too.
So it's not all just thenegative.
And this is why we actuallypray and read scriptures.
(10:20):
This is why we have a dailypractice of reading God's word.
But also, with Moses writingthis down, it gave me the idea
that it gives credence to thefact that we are a people of
stories.
We have stories that go stageby stage, and we need to
rehearse our personal storieswith God.
We actually need to write downour stories for ourselves, but
(10:44):
also for our children.
We need to find our stories inthe grand story of God.
And here at New City, realquickly, we talk about that in
the four-chapter story.
Creation, the way things uh hadought to be, the way that God
created them, we're all good.
The fall, this is the way thatthings are right now, and this
is me describing a little bitthe struggle, the way things can
(11:07):
be, which is redemption, andthe way things will be, where
there will be no more tears, nomore pain.
And so, where is yourparticular story in that grand
story?
This actually reminds me thatwe need to be we need to
practice the discipline ofjournaling, the discipline of
being reflective about what Godis doing in our lives.
(11:28):
And if you have your Bibles oryour devices, again, this is not
in the bulletin.
I would encourage us, let'slet's look at chapter 33.
There's all these stages, allthese places that are listed
there.
It's not an exhaustive list ofactually all of their journey
for those 40 years, but youknow, 42 sounds like a
(11:49):
significant number.
God does that sometimes withthe numbers in the Bible.
It could be six stages ofseven, and now they're about to
enter the seven set of stagesinto the promised land of rest.
But regardless of like thenumbers there in terms of the
number of stages that arerepresented, uh, you can, I I
was helped by a commentator, youcould break out the stages into
(12:10):
three different categories.
So look with me.
So in uh the first category isthe stages represent the Lord's
faithfulness in our daily needs.
If you look at chapter 33,verse 8 or 9, there is God
working with the provision ofwater at Elam, or making the
water, the bitter water sweet.
So that's one whole category ofstages that are represented
(12:33):
here, the Lord's faithfulness.
The second big category ofstages is the Lord's
forgiveness, or I'm gonna callit the Lord's forgetfulness.
So if you read in the text inverse 8 or 9, they actually make
uh comments about whathappened, how the Lord provided.
But then there are other stagesin the second category of the
(12:55):
Lord's forgetfulness, is whereuh the Israelites rebelled, they
grumbled, their sin was known.
But it makes no mention ofthose specific things because it
doesn't want to draw yourattention to the fact that the
Israelites sin.
It wants to draw your attentionto God's forgetfulness, God's
kindness, God's forgiveness.
Hebrews 8 reminds us that Godwill be merciful toward their
(13:19):
iniquities and I will remembertheir sins no more.
So we have a bunch of stageshere about God's faithfulness,
we have stages about God'sforgetfulness or forgiveness,
but the bulk of the stages thatare listed here in chapter 33 of
the 42 are just the Lord'sordinary means.
We don't really know whathappened in those stages.
(13:39):
They're listed here, but it'sit's in my mind, it's building
out this theology of theordinary.
So as we go stage by stage, weneed to be reminded of these
three things.
And we need to write ourstories down in light of these
things, of these three things: God's faithfulness, God's (13:53):
undefined
forgiveness and forgetfulness,and our call to the faithfulness
and the mundane of life.
So the question I have for youall is can you name the stages
or milestones of your journey?
Even before Jesus and afterJesus?
Where are you in that?
(14:15):
Where have you seen God'sfaithfulness, his forgetfulness
or forgiveness, and your call tothe mundane life?
Now, I've been thinking aboutthis stage thing from stage to
stage, obviously, because that'sa bulk of chapter 33 this week.
And my attention was drawn to 1John chapter 2.
Now, the apostle he gives uskind of another overlay of
(14:37):
stages that a Christian can goon on a Christian journey, the
way that we are discipled ordeveloped along the way.
And you can overlay thisactually in the whole book of
Numbers.
There's a first generation andsecond generation, but real
quickly from 1 John chapter 2,John talks about little
children, young men or women,and fathers and mothers.
(15:02):
Little children, young adults,and fathers and mothers.
Stott does a really good job ofexplaining this.
He says the little children arethose who are newborn in
Christ.
Young men or women are moredeveloped Christians, strong and
victorious in spiritualwarfare.
Whereas fathers and mothers,they possess the depth and
stability of ripe Christianexperience.
(15:23):
It's really an interestingpassage in 1 John 2.
So it's super simple.
Where are you all in thatframework of children, young
adults, or spiritual fathers andmothers?
The point is that God isworking in a developmental way
with us all.
He is the one who's guiding usstage by stage.
And the only way out isthrough.
(15:46):
And the only way forward is bylooking back, looking back at
God's faithfulness, looking backat God's forgiveness and
forgetfulness, and looking backso that we can actually embrace
what lies ahead.
God is the one who guides usstage by stage.
Now I want to tell a story realquickly.
This was some time ago when Ihad a little bit of means.
(16:07):
I was a single guy, and uh Igot I decided to have get LASIK
surgery done.
I don't know if you guys knowthe beauty of LASIK surgery, but
it's amazing.
They take blind people and theymake them see.
Uh and they do it with lasers,so it's like Star Wars in your
eyes, you know.
And I don't know how it works.
I just paid my money and didit.
(16:29):
And so I was in a kind of astage in my life where I was
doing some traveling and Ididn't want to have like my
contact and kind of stick it inmy eye with all this bacteria
and all this other stuff.
So I had the surgery done.
And in this in this timeperiod, I uh I found myself, you
know, traveling the world.
I was in the South China Sea,and as one does in the South
China Sea, I climbed a mountainon a small island, and here I
(16:52):
was walking along, not reallypaying attention to the path
that I was on, but I was talkingto my buddy, and uh there's
these big bamboo stalks alongthat path.
And I don't know if you've seenbamboo, but there's segments
and they have these little pokeythings that like poke out.
Uh and I ran right one into myeye and a barb broke off.
(17:13):
And uh here I was on a remoteisland in the South China Sea.
My vision was not really thatgreat, and I was unable to find
the next stage of my journey.
It didn't really matter that Ican see 2015 anymore, because
the barb in my eye was going tolead me astray.
Now, in the same way, thatstory connects to our passage
(17:35):
here in Numbers, uh, chapter 33,verse 55 and 56.
It's the end of the chapter.
Look down with me as I readthis.
But if you do not drive out theinhabitants of the land from
before you, then those of themwhom you let remain shall be as
barbs in your eyes and thorns inyour side, and they shall
(17:58):
trouble you in the land whereyou dwell.
So God is actually calling usto remove and drive out the
inhabitants of the land.
He's calling the Israelites,right, as they enter the
promised land, but he's alsocalling us, this text is for us.
If we do not drive out thetemptations and hindrances that
call us to compromise, they willbe like those things that are
(18:22):
like barbs in our eye.
We won't be able to see, wewill be led astray, and the sin
that so easily entangles Hebrews12, it will get us.
There are besetting sins,little areas of compromise.
Maybe saying a quick word abouta coworker who's not around so
that you get ahead and they gobehind.
Maybe that's parenting withanger and control.
(18:45):
Maybe that's consumingdigitally and physically all the
stuff that you should not do.
And what God is saying here tothe Israelites, and what God is
saying to you, beloved, is thatif you do not deal with these
things, they shall be trouble tous in the land in which we
dwell.
God wants us holy.
(19:07):
That means all of you and holy.
He wants to he wants you to beset apart.
And he does not, he does notwant you to be led astray.
And here at New City, so youmight be thinking, like, how am
I gonna find these barbs andthorns?
Uh, we do that in community.
We talk about community as aspace where you're known and
(19:27):
loved.
Community, but also in circles.
And so I invite you to be knownand loved, be connected to
people, that they can help you,be connected to young adults, be
connected to spiritual fathersand mothers, where they are able
to say, like, hey man, there'sa barb right there, and you need
to deal with that.
Or there's a thorn in yourside, and you're kind of walking
with the limp there, and youneed to deal with that.
(19:49):
So wherever you find yourselfin this struggle on the journey,
know that God is the one thatguides us stage by stage.
Now, this leads me to my secondpoint.
God guides us stage by stage,where?
Toward the promised land.
Turn with me now.
This is in your bulletin,chapter 34, verses 1 and 2.
(20:10):
The Lord spoke to Moses,saying, Command the people of
Israel and say to them, When youenter the land of Canaan, this
is the land that shall fall toyou for inheritance, the land of
Canaan as defined by itsborders.
So as I said, we look back sothat we can embrace what lies
(20:31):
ahead.
And what lies ahead is thepromised inheritance, the
promised land, God Himself.
Again, here in these shortverses, we're taught that the
Lord spoke.
So God is the one who guides,God is the one who provides, God
is the one, but also whoderides our sin in our lives.
And so he's forming us, he'sworking with us, he's
(20:55):
developmentally asking us to gothrough these stages to change
us.
But God is not walking, he'snot asking us to walk through
the wilderness aimlessly, right?
He knows what lies ahead.
He knows that what lies aheadis so great, is so good.
So God goes ahead and definesthe borders and the boundaries
(21:18):
of our inheritance.
And I love how precise, if youread the whole of chapter 34
this afternoon, his hisprecision is so precise.
He he his precision, I think,is kindness.
His precision is love.
Now, Katie and I, when we uhwere in 2018, we had fortunate
enough experience to buy ahouse.
And so when you buy a housewith a mortgage, you got to get
(21:40):
it surveyed, right?
And so a surveyor comes out andhe marks he marks the lots of
the line with these big stakes.
And it was wonderful.
You know, we signed our name toa big thing, and and then we
had this house, us and the bank.
And uh, and so it took me ayear or more, though, to remove
the stakes out of the ground.
And part of it was you mightthink, well, geez, did Jason
(22:01):
have a feud already with one ofhis neighbors about the fence
location?
No, that wasn't it.
But it was a reminder to me ofthe beautiful inheritance that
God had given Katie and I.
So in the same way, he'sdefining the boundaries and the
borders for the Israelites aboutwho they what the inheritance
is ahead.
(22:21):
Turn with me to chapter 35,verse 34.
Again, it's in your bulletin.
You shall not defile the landin which you live, in the midst
of which I dwell, for I, theLord, dwell in the midst of the
people of Israel.
So, what is the greatinheritance that God so aptly
defines its borders?
(22:43):
It's that we get to dwell withhim.
This is how the story began inGenesis, Adam and Eve dwelling
with their creator, and then ithits a blip there in Genesis 3.
But this is how the story ofthe Bible comes back to us
dwelling with God.
And this is the story that weunfold in Numbers.
(23:05):
That God wants to be in themidst of his people.
But you saw the warnings,right?
You saw the barb and the thorn,and you see the beginning of
chapter 35, verse 34, that wehave a problem.
The Israelites had a problem.
We are defiled.
(23:25):
We still have Egypt inside ofus.
This is why God warns them, youshall not defile the land.
And this builds off thewarning, as I said in chapter
33, about the barbs and thethorns.
Now back to the house thatKatie and I bought.
When we bought it, it waswonderful.
We figured out which trees wereours.
And there were certain trees inour house that were really
(23:47):
close to our uh the structureitself.
But I left them, you know,because I'm like, that provides
shade for the for the house andit provides shade for the patio.
But these were like volunteertrees, they weren't really great
trees.
And one of them was so close tothe house that it started
causing damage to the house.
And uh this reminds me of anold saying, and this gets back
(24:07):
to the barb and the thorn and uhGod calling us not to be
defiling in the land.
But an ounce of prevention isworth a pound of cure.
So I wasn't there when thislittle volunteer tree actually
first came out of the ground,but if I was, you could have
just picked it up out of theground.
But then over time, over 10, 15years or wherever it's taken
that tree to grow, it's gonnatake like heavy equipment, maybe
(24:30):
a chainsaw.
I may have to ask a friend ortwo to come over to help me take
down this little volunteertree.
And so I strongly encourage us.
The barbs and thorns, they willbe like those trees that grow
up and become bigger issues forus to deal with.
An ounce of prevention is wortha pound and cure.
So pull the weeds, do the work,drive out what so easily
(24:53):
entangles.
Don't ignore the thorns in yourside or the barb in your eye.
Jesus tells us the way isnarrow and the road is hard, but
the road of the struggle thatGod is guiding us in is to the
promised land.
It is to himself.
Hebrews 12 reminds us, I keepquoting this, about sin that so
(25:13):
easily entangles us.
How do we throw off everyweight and sin which so which
clings so closely and run withperseverance, stage by stage?
Hebrews 12, 2 says, by lookingto Jesus, the founder and
perfecter of our faith, who forthe joy set before him endured
the cross.
So you know that the story doesnot end well for the
(25:38):
Israelites.
They fail to deal with thebarbs and the thorns, they
become defiled in the land.
And these are little areas ofcompromise that led to actually
the destruction of their kingdomand the expulsion, uh, exile of
God's people.
And that's what these littleareas of compromise will do to
us too.
(25:58):
And the reality is that we'reunable to do the work ourselves.
So we need a savior.
And this is ultimately, sincethis is a series completion,
this is ultimately what numbersis pointing us to.
We need someone outside ofourselves to actually save us.
The Lord wants to dwell in themidst of his people, but we are
(26:20):
unable to drive out theinhabitants.
We have barbs in our eyes andthorns in our sides.
We are defiled.
But Jesus is the one who comesand drives the money changers in
the temple and drives out allhis and our enemies.
Jesus is the one who takes onthe crown of thorns, so we no
longer have a thorn in our side.
(26:40):
Jesus is the one who says, Cometo me, follow me.
He has gone before us, stage bystage.
He knows, Hebrews again says,for, he knows our weaknesses.
God dwells with his peoplethrough our union to that
perfect priest, to thatsacrificial lamb.
And that means that thepromised inheritance is Jesus
(27:05):
Himself.
King David, who had rights overall the land, this is later in
the story from Numbers, he hadrights over all the land.
But he says this in Psalm 16The Lord is my chosen portion in
my cup, and you hold my lot.
The lions have fallen for me inpleasant places.
Indeed, I have a beautifulinheritance.
(27:26):
So King David, who had all ofthe land, he's choosing what?
The Lord as his chosen portion.
That is our beautifulinheritance, is Jesus Himself.
So union to Jesus, not ourperformance, not our ability to
pull the weeds, actually securesour place in God's promised
land.
So numbers is not about how weget to God, but how God gets to
(27:50):
us.
Jesus guides us stage by stage,and there is grace in every
step of the way toward thepromised land of communion with
Him.
Let us pray.
Father, we are grateful foryour love for us in this, that
(28:11):
you sent your son stage bystage, from the incarnation to
his ministry, to his act ofobedience, to his passive
obedience on the cross, toransom a people to be your
inheritance.
Jesus, you are the faithfulpromised one.
(28:32):
You are our inheritance, andyou are the one who has brought
us to dwell with God, to dwellin his midst and spirit.
You dwell with your people.
Fill us up, help us throw offall that which entangles, help
us to see those barbs and thosethorns and move toward us in
love.
We give you the glory.
(28:53):
Amen.
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