["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
We are going to sing page number 449 we're going to sing it on the second.
All right.
But when you get to that praise God you got to say that like a Baptist.
All right.
Praise God.
Say it like a Baptist on the second.
Far below the storms of Gallopon, is the king.
Sons of men in battleorn, the enemy will stand.
Safe am I within the castle of God's word retreating.
Nothing then can reach me to zoom out and I'm living on the mountain underneath the cloudless sky.
Praise God! I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.
Oh yes, I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply for dwelling in moonlight.
Alright, 449. Now that, praise God, that was like Presbyterian's level, alright?
So let's just get it up to Baptist. It doesn't even have to be independent funeral Baptist, alright?
Just Baptist, 449 on the third.
I'm living on the mountain underneath the cloudless sky.
Praise God! I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.
Oh yes, I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply for dwelling in moonlight.
Good, finish it out strong on the last.
View and hear the words of God I hear in contemplation.
Hearing now His blessed voice I see the wicked plan.
Blowing in the spirit of the sun.
Gladly will I tarry in New York land.
I'm living on the mountain underneath the cloudless sky.
Praise God! I'm drinking at the fountain
that never shall run dry. Oh yes, I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply for dwelling in moonlight.
Amen. Good singing this evening. We welcome you of course to the Sunday evening service here at Verity Baptist Church.
I call it the most exciting service of the week and I'm glad that you are here.
Let's begin the service with a word of prayer and let's go ahead and bow our heads together.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together today.
Lord, we pray that you would bless everything that happens today.
The singing, the preaching, the fellowship, that it would bring honor and glory to your name, Lord, that we might draw closer to you.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, well normally on Sunday nights we take favorites, but I'm not going to do that because if I have to leave the music we're going to sing all my favorites.
So let's go to page number 412 and we're going to sing Onward Christian Soldier, 412.
Onward Christian Soldier, and let's sing it out on the first.
Onward Christian Soldier sing it out on the first.
Onward Christian Soldier marching us to war.
At the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ our royal master leads against the foe.
Forward into battle see his manner go.
Onward Christian Soldier marching us to war.
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Let's sing it on the third.
Onward Christian Soldier marching us to war.
At the cross of Jesus going on before.
Page number 24 and can it be 24 and can it be, let's sing it out on the first.
Page number 24 sing it out on the first.
Here we go, sing it out.
Let's sing it on the third.
Here we go, sing it out.
Let's sing it out on the third.
Page number 24 sing it out on the first.
Onward Christian Soldier sing it out on the first.
Page number 24 sing it out on the first.
Let's sing it out on the third.
Page number 24 sing it out on the first.
I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
I cannot bear these buildings alone.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus all of my trials.
Sing it out on the last.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus all of my trials.
Sing it out on the first.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
228, 228 let's sing I love to tell the story.
228 and let's sing it out on the first.
228 on the first.
I love to tell the story of one sleeping above.
Of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.
I love now a story because I know it is true.
That satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.
I love to tell the story, twirl me my feeling glory.
To tell the old story of Jesus and his love.
228 sing it out on the last.
I love to tell the story for those who know it best.
So hungering and thirsting to hear it like the last.
And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song.
Tell to the old, old story that I have loved so long.
I love to tell the story, twirl me my feeling glory.
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
261, 261 are you tired yet?
Let's see how long you can go.
261 turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Sing it out on the first.
261.
I got to let the musicians get there.
261 on the first.
Oh soul are you weary and troubled.
No light in the darkness you see.
There's life for a Lord God the Savior.
There's life for a Lord and life for a mother and baby.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in his wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strange in them.
The light of his glory and breath.
Let's sing the second stanza.
Through death into life everlasting.
We pass and we follow him there.
Hold us in no more abdomen.
Then conquer the earth.
Sing it out.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in his wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strange in them.
In the light of his glory and breath.
Page number 81.
Can we do another one?
Page 81.
Page number 81.
When we see Christ.
Of times the day seems long.
Our trials are to bear.
We're tempted to long play.
To murmur and to swear.
Our cries will soon appear.
To fight and ride away.
All the years forever over.
In God eternal.
Please sing it out.
It will be worth it all.
When we see Jesus.
Our trials will seem so small.
When we see Christ.
One clams of his dear face.
All sorrow will erase.
So bravely one will raise.
Till we see Christ.
To the third stanza.
Life's day will soon be o'er.
All storms forever pass.
Whom cause for grace divine.
To glory safe at last.
We'll send the joys of heaven.
Our heart for home a crown.
The tempter will be banished.
We'll rain on burning.
Now, here we go.
Sing it out.
It will be worth it all.
When we see Jesus.
Our trials will seem so small.
When we see Christ.
One clams of his dear face.
All sorrow will erase.
So bravely one will raise.
Till we see Christ.
All right.
This is the last one.
I promise.
471.
This will be the last one.
Let's sing it out.
Cleanse me.
Sing it on the first.
Search me, O God.
And know my heart today.
Try me, O Savior.
Know my thoughts I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me.
Cleanse me from ev'ry sin and send me free.
Can we do the last one?
O Holy Ghost.
Revival comes from Thee.
Send a revival.
Start the work in me.
Thy worthy prayers.
Love will supply a need.
For the blast is now.
O Lord, I am afraid.
Amen.
All right.
Well, let's take our bulletins.
We'll look at some announcements real quickly.
If you do not have a bulletin, raise your hand.
One of our ushers will come by and get one for you.
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up
and we will get one for you.
The verse this week, Luke 631.
And as ye would that man should do to you,
do ye also to them likewise.
And that's a good verse there.
We like that.
If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time,
Sunday morning service, 1030 a.m.
We had a wonderful service this morning.
We're glad you're back out tonight for the evening service.
And of course, we encourage you to be with us on Wednesday night
for the Wednesday night Bible study.
We call the midweek service the most encouraging service of the week.
We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 4.
We're going to be studying about the Sabbath,
learning about the Sabbath day and about rest.
And I encourage you to be with us, of course, for our Bible study.
If you look at our soul winning times,
our main soul winning time is on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
And then we have additional soul winning times, Thursdays and Fridays at 2.
Those are postponed for now.
But we have a Sunday soul winning time at 2 p.m.
And we'd love for you to be a part of that.
And if you are a soul winner,
please make sure that you add your salvations on your communication card.
If you have a map that you did not finish,
please clearly mark what was done, what was not done
and put it in the bin in the foyer so that we can get it recycled through.
And if you're running late, you can call us or text us there
at the number there, 916-868-9080.
Let us know your plan on being there, but you're running late.
That way we can make sure we have a map and a partner for you.
If you are a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church,
we're glad you're with us.
We have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building tonight.
If you go out our main foyer or if you go out our secondary foyer,
you'll see a little table set up.
And on that table, you'll see these little gift bags.
Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight.
There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have.
The one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made.
It's called Being Baptist, very well made, very interesting.
We think you'll like it, and we want to give this to you as a gift.
So please make sure you don't leave here this evening
without grabbing one of those gift bags on your way out.
And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment
to fill out the communication card which is inserted in your bulletin.
If you need a pen, just raise your hand,
and one of our ushers will bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen,
and you're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well.
We're not going to do anything odd with your info.
We would just like to have a record of your attendance,
and we would actually like to send you a little gift,
but we need your information to do that.
So please take a moment to fill the card out.
When we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song, all right?
And when we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering,
and as the offering plate goes by, you can drop the card in the offering plate.
I'm not the usual song leader around here,
but I did want to be a song leader before I became a pastor,
and maybe I'll just retire and go song lead somewhere.
That'd be nice.
I wouldn't have to worry about budgets and buildings and all your problems.
Anyway, I don't know how we got off on that.
But communication card, put it in the offering plate as it goes by.
You'll notice there we are a family-integrated church.
Children and infants are always welcome in the service.
We don't separate children from their parents for any reason.
We do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
All the rooms have comfortable seating.
You have monitor setups so you can watch the service and listen to it.
So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service,
so if you need some privacy, we would encourage you to use those rooms as needed.
If you look at the announcements, the big announcements right now are the workdays,
and we've got workdays this weekend over at the new property,
the new building over there.
Of course, we've got a 400-seat auditorium over there with four acres of land,
and we've got to get that place remodeled and ready to go.
So Thursday, November 16th, Friday, November 17th, and Saturday, November 18th.
Work will be going on from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., except on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
There are shifts that you can sign up for.
There's clipboards in the foyer.
So please make sure you go by there and sign up for those.
We could really use your help in all of those areas.
And next Sunday is Worker Appreciation Sunday.
That's Sunday, November 19th, and we're going to be recognizing all of the volunteers of our church.
So if you're a volunteer, make sure you're here for Worker Appreciation Sunday.
We have a special gift for all of the volunteers as well, so you want to make sure you don't miss that.
Annual Pie Social is coming up on Wednesday, November 22nd at 7 p.m.
That's the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, and we'll be enjoying dessert after the service.
We'll have a Pie Social, so we ask that you please bring a pie.
If you can bake a pie or buy a pie, we'd appreciate your help with that.
And then there's a Turkey Bowl on Thursday, November 23rd at 7 a.m.
That, of course, is Thanksgiving morning.
And if you guys would like to sign up to be part of the Turkey Bowl, there's a clipboard in the foyer as well.
Choir, they had their first practice today at 5 p.m.
Children's Choir begins Sunday, November 19th.
That's next Sunday.
They'll be practicing in the playroom.
That is the room off to the side of the main entrance.
And then, of course, the adult choir will continue here at 5 p.m.
Homeschool group, they've got PE classes Thursday, November 16th.
There's other things there for you to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so that they're not a distraction to anybody.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of November.
We have today is Suzette Suniga's birthday on November 12th.
And tomorrow is Brother Shah Redari's birthday, November 13th.
Jude Neltescu has a birthday, November 15th.
Isaiah Gonzalez has a birthday, November 15th.
Amelia Gonzalez has a birthday, November 16th.
Everly Usher has a birthday, November 17th.
Brother Jose and my sister, Miss Michelle Cruz, have an anniversary on November 17th.
And Faith Santos has a birthday on November 18th.
Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at.
And I think that's it for all of the announcements.
So let's take our song books.
We're going to sing one more song before we receive the offering this evening.
And we're going to sing page number 145.
Page number 145, It Is Well With My Soul.
And if you remember, there's a guys side piece and there's a ladies piece.
The ladies sing that first, It Is Well.
The men sing that second, It Is Well.
All right, let's sing it out like a great army, 145 on the first.
When peace like the river attendeth thy way,
When sorrows like sea, bellows blow,
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Ladies, sing that first part.
It is well, men, it is well, ladies, men, with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Now, I know you're tired.
We sang a lot, all right?
Just one and then you can just sit there.
I'm going to preach, all right?
So, 145, sing with passion on the second.
Though Satan should profit, though trials should come,
Let Christmas last sure and unfold,
But Christ has regarded my helpless astray,
And have sent his own blood for my soul.
Ladies, sing it out.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
145, we're going to sing it on the third.
Let's just slow it down just a hair.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin not in part but the whole.
Think about these words as you sing them.
It is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul.
145 on the third.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin not in part but the whole.
It is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul.
Ladies, sing it out.
It is, it is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Let's sing it out on the last.
And Lord, it is the day when my faith shall reside.
The clouds we hold back, the halls we hold.
The storm shall resound, and the rain shall be slain.
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Let's sing it out.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul.
Amen. Good singing.
Why don't the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
We thank you for the opportunity to sing, to sing praises to you.
And Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering, to give them the giver.
We pray that you'd bless the time set aside for the preaching of your word.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Please open up to number 17.
Numbers chapter number 17.
If you have a Bible, please put your hand up.
And a messenger can bring you a Bible.
Numbers chapter number 17.
Just keep your hand up and the show will come by.
Numbers 17, we'll read the entire chapter as our custom.
Just keep your hand up and the show will come by.
Numbers 17, verse number 1.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel,
and take every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers,
of all their princes according to the house of their fathers' twelve rods.
Write thou every man's name upon his rod.
And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi,
for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.
And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation
before the testimony where I will meet with you.
And it shall come to pass that the man's rod,
whom I shall choose, shall blossom.
And it will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel,
whereby they murmur against you.
And Moses spake unto the children of Israel,
and every one of their princes gave him a rod of peace.
For each prince won, according to their fathers' houses,
even twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness.
And it came to pass that on the morrow
Moses went into the tabernacle of witness,
and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded,
and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel,
and they looked and took every man his rod.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony,
to be kept for a token against the rebels.
And thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.
And Moses did so, as the Lord commanded him, so did he.
And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying,
Behold, we died, we perish, we all perish.
Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die.
Shall we be consumed with dying?
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening.
God, I thank you for your word and for the book of Numbers.
Please give us all a tender heart to the message tonight,
and as you please be their pastor to strengthen them and to fill them with your spirit.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Alright, we're there in Numbers, chapter number 17.
And of course, we've been going through a series on Sundays called Wilderness Wanderings.
We've been wandering with the children of Israel through the book of Numbers,
and this morning we finished up Numbers chapter 16,
and tonight we're going to cover Numbers chapter 17.
It's a short chapter, there's only 13 verses,
and there's really just one concise, straightforward story,
and it's a very famous story known as the story of Aaron's rod that budded.
And we're going to look at the story, and then I'd like to make just a couple of applications for you.
But notice there in Numbers 17, verse 1, the Bible says,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
and take of every one of them a rod.
Now, a rod would be like a straight bar,
and of course in this time it would be something made out of wood.
In fact, we would think of it like a stick.
It might even just be a branch that was taken from a tree
and then whittled down and sanded down to be a rod.
And this is something that people would have in those days, especially men, especially shepherds.
And here God is commanding the children of Israel to take every one of them a rod
according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers.
And notice what He says, there's 12 rods,
and of course it's one rod for every tribe of Israel.
There's 12 tribes of Israel, so they were to take 12 rods,
and the Bible says,
So we had these 12 men that represented the 12 tribes of Israel,
and these would be the leaders of those tribes,
and they were supposed to hand Moses their rod,
but they were to write their name on the rod,
and this was to be a representation of their leadership.
This rod was a representation of their leadership,
and also it was a representation of the tribe of the children of Israel.
And let me just make the comment that all throughout the Bible you see an emphasis upon human leadership.
And of course we are supposed to follow leaders as they follow Christ,
and ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ is our head,
but the Bible does teach that God sets leaders and authority over us,
and we are to follow them.
So I want you to notice that in these rods that represented the tribe and the people,
the name on the rod was the name of the leader.
Write thou every man's name upon his rod, verse 3,
and thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi.
Now of course if you remember and were continuing with the story that began in number 16,
where we had this rebellion against Moses and against Levi that was brought by Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram.
And of course we saw that they tried to usurp the authority,
they tried to take the priesthood,
and we see here that God, of course we've been studying it now for a couple of weeks,
we saw that God opened up the earth and swallowed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
We saw that God sent a fire and consumed the 250 princes that followed them.
We saw that God sent a plague to kill all of the bleeding hearts and all of the sympathizers
the next day that were sympathizing with Korah.
We talked about that this morning and how Aaron stopped the plague by standing between the living and the dead.
But now we see in chapter 17 that God again is just going to solidify the leadership of Aaron.
Look at verse 3.
And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi,
for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.
And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony,
where I will meet with you.
And of course the tabernacle is a location that they had set up in the middle of the congregation.
It was a tent that was set up.
And this is where God met with the children of Israel.
The tabernacle houses the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God.
And they were to take these 12 rods, the Bible says,
and they were to lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation, verse 4,
before the testimony, where I will meet with you.
And it shall come to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall choose.
Notice again, God is solidifying and he is emphasizing who his man is,
who the leader is that he has chosen.
He says, the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall bloom.
The word bloom means to produce flowers or to produce fruit.
And I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.
And I just want to highlight again as we've been going through the book of Numbers,
how irritated God is with complaining.
And he just brings us up over and over again.
He says, I just, and it's almost like God is saying, I just want to make it stop.
I will make, notice that verse 5, I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel,
whereby they murmur against you.
And it irritates God when the children of Israel, it irritated him when the children of Israel murmured.
We saw in Numbers 11, the first time we really saw them murmuring against the man,
the Bible says that it displeased the Lord.
It displeased the Lord that they murmured against Moses and against the provision of God.
And look, it's the same for you and I.
When you and I murmur and complain about things in our life, it irritates God.
It upsets God.
And it upsets God because God is the one that has given you everything you have.
And the Bible says that every good gift is from above and comes down from the Father of light.
So it irritates God.
And we see here in verse 5, he says, I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel,
whereby they murmur against you.
Verse 6, And Moses spake unto the children of Israel,
and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince won, according to their father's house,
even twelve rods, and the rods of Aaron was among their rods.
So we've got twelve rods, and Aaron's is one of their rods.
Verse 7, And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness.
And it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness,
and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded.
And the word budded means it was beginning to blossom.
It was beginning to produce flowers and fruits.
Notice, it says, and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds.
So they take these twelve rods, and it's a rod for every tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel,
with the name of the leader, and God says, look, I'm going to show you who it is that I have chosen
to be, in this case, a priest, to be the priest of the children of Israel.
And they take these rods and put them in the tabernacle, and they go to bed.
And then on the next day, they wake up the next day, Moses goes to grab the twelve rods,
and eleven of them are exactly the same, but one rod overnight has budded and has blossomed
and has bloomed and is even yielding almonds.
That would have been an amazing sight, I think, to see.
Verse 9, And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord.
It's always good when you don't have to defend yourself.
It's always good when God defends you.
Because in this case, Moses didn't have to say, God chose Aaron.
He was a parent to everyone.
He just brings out the twelve rods, and he says, okay, everybody, grab your rod.
It has your name on it.
And Moses brought out, verse 9, all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel,
and they looked and took every man his rod.
And the Lord said unto Moses, bring Aaron's rod again.
Obviously, it was obvious all the rods looked exactly the same, felt exactly the same,
they were exactly the same as they were before.
But now, Aaron's rod has budded, has blossomed, has fruit, has flowers, is yielding almonds.
And the Bible says that the Lord said, verse 10, unto Moses,
bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels.
And again, notice that God is wanting to end this rebellion.
God hates rebellion.
The Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
And God is trying to end it.
He said, bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels,
and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not.
God says, I'm so irritated with these people, and I can't stand their complaint.
He said, I'm going to kill them all.
And he says, take away their murmurings from me.
And again, let us be very careful about complaining.
Verse 11, and Moses did so.
As the Lord commanded him, so did he.
And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.
Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die.
Shall we be consumed with dying?
Now again, this is a very short chapter, a very concise and pretty straightforward story.
Twelve rods are put into the tabernacle overnight.
The names of the leaders are given to each rod, and the next day, Aaron's rod budded.
It's a very simple story, but there are a couple of applications that I'd like to give you.
There's actually four applications I'd like to give you, but in two different sections.
There's two lessons that we can learn from this chapter, and I'll try to give it to you as quickly as I can tonight.
There's two lessons regarding learning, and there's two lessons regarding leadership.
There's two lessons regarding learning, and two lessons regarding leadership.
If you're taking notes, maybe you can jot that down.
Let's begin with the lessons regarding learning, the lessons regarding learning.
And the first thing that I'd like you to notice regarding this story is this,
that things can be communicated and can be taught in different ways.
Things can be communicated, and they can be taught in different ways.
Up to this point, God has been communicating to the children of Israel in a very negative way.
God has been communicating things to them negatively, and you're familiar with it?
If you've been with us the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at it, but let's just look at it again real quickly.
Go back to number 16, just one chapter over. You're there in number 17. Go to number 16.
Look at verse number 32. Let's see how it is that God has been trying to teach these people, right?
Because what is chapter 16 of Numbers and chapter 17 of Numbers? What is it all about?
It's all about who did God choose to be the priest and to be the family of the priest.
And of course, he chose the tribe of Levi to be the Levitical priesthood,
and all of the tribe of Levi were to be assistants to the priest, but it was Aaron and the sons of Aaron.
Now, Aaron was a Levite. He was from the tribe of Levi.
But it was Aaron and his sons, his descendants, who were to be the priests.
The other Levites were to assist Aaron and his sons in their priestly duties.
But of course, Korah, who was a Levite, said, I don't want to be a helper. I want to be the boss.
I don't want to be an assistant. I want to be the priest.
And he tried to take Aaron's position, and we see that God has been showing and negatively communicating over and over.
I didn't choose Korah. I chose Aaron. I didn't choose Datham. I chose Aaron.
I didn't choose Abihu. I chose Aaron. I didn't choose the 250 princes. I've chosen Aaron.
How has God communicated that? He's communicated it in a very negative way.
Look at number 16 and verse 32. You know it, but let's look at it.
Number 16, 32. And the earth opened up her mouth and swallowed them up.
That's pretty negative.
I mean, think about two guys show up to an interview, and God says,
You got the job, and then the other guy just goes straight into hell.
That's what happened.
And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods,
they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them,
and they perished from among the congregation.
And last week we saw that the pit there is a reference to hell, and this is pretty negative.
Don't you say? I mean, God literally opened up the earth, created a chasm, and they fell straight alive into hell.
That's not it, though. Look at verse 35. The negativity continues. Look at verse 35.
And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the 250 men that offered incense.
Isn't this kind of telling you, I'm with Moses. I'm with Aaron. I've chosen Moses. I've chosen Aaron.
The earth opens up, swallows them up. Fire comes out from the Lord, consumes 250 men.
I mean, think about that sight. These men fall alive into the pit, and then the 250 men that were with them,
fire comes down from heaven, and they're consumed. They're burned alive.
Imagine that sight. Imagine watching 250 men be burned alive.
God is trying to tell them. He's trying to communicate to them in a negative way.
Notice verse 46, Numbers 16, 46.
And Moses said unto Aaron, we saw this this morning, take a censer and put fire there, and from off the altar,
and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them.
For there is wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague is begun.
Not only does the earth open up, not only does fire come down from heaven, from the Lord, and consumes them,
but also God sends a plague.
Verse 47, Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation,
and behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people.
God has been communicating to these people in a very negative way, in a very wrathful way,
in a very judgmental way, that he has chosen Aaron.
But then it's interesting to me, because then in chapter 17, God says, okay, let's try something different.
Obviously, opening up the earth, opening up hell, and having people fall alive into hell, you're not getting it.
Sending fire from the Lord, and consuming 250 men, burning them alive, you're not getting it.
Sending a plague that kills 14,700 of you, you're not getting it.
So God says, let me try a different approach, and then I would say that God tries a more positive approach.
He says, let's take the rocks.
I mean, to me, this sounds like a very nice story.
Twelve men show up, they hand the rock to Moses.
Moses said, don't forget to write your name, here, here's a Sharpie, don't forget to write your name on it.
They put it in the tabernacle, and they go to bed.
They wake up the next day, 11 rods are exactly the same, but one rod has flowers, one rod has budded, one rod has blossoms,
one rod has almonds, and they look at this rod, and God again communicates to the people, I've chosen Aaron.
But he does it in a different way.
He does it in maybe what we might say a positive way.
Keep your place there in number 17, that's our text for tonight.
Go with me, if you would, to the book of 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy chapter 4, you find the two books, they're all clustered together.
1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy Titus, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy Titus, 2 Timothy chapter 4.
Here's the first lesson on learning.
Things can be communicated in different ways.
You know, as preachers, look, we are, as Bible-believing Christians, we are against the positive-only preaching of today.
The preaching that only says nice things, never says negative things, never says anything controversial,
steers away from the passages of Scripture that are no longer popular or accepted.
The kind of preaching you're going to find on the television and on the radio, we're against positive-only preaching.
But please understand this, being against positive-only preaching is not the same as being against positive preaching altogether.
Do you understand what I just said?
We're against positive-only preaching, but we're also against negative-only preaching.
Do you understand what I just said?
Because God understands that sometimes you've got to express things in a nice way, in a positive way.
Now God is, you know, He'll open up the earth and swallow you alive.
So don't mess with God.
But God is showing us, I believe here, that there are different ways to communicate things.
This is what Paul told Timothy when he told him how to preach the Bible, 2 Timothy chapter 4.
Look at verse 2, preach the word, be innocent in season, out of season, reprove, that's a negative.
The word reprove means to admonish, means to correct.
It means to tell you, hey you're wrong, that's wrong, stop doing that.
Reprove?
But then there's a rebuke.
A rebuke is still negative, but even more negative, it is to express sharp disapproval and to reprimand.
He says reprove, he says rebuke, and then he says this, exhort.
The word exhort means to encourage, to encourage someone to do right, to give someone counsel to do right.
We see that there's reprove and there's rebuke.
There's negative, more negative, and then positive.
And this is what Paul told Timothy, he said look, when you preach, sometimes you've got to change things up.
Sometimes you reprove, sometimes you rebuke, sometimes you exhort with all long suffering.
Go to Jeremiah if you would, Jeremiah chapter 1.
If you open up your Bible just right in the center, you'll more than likely fall in the book of Psalms,
right after Psalms you have Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 1.
And look, to the best of my ability, I have tried here at Verity Baptist Church to preach different types and different styles of sermons.
And sometimes we are in books of the Bible that, like the book of Hebrews, that are going to feel very much like a Bible study.
They're going to be very studious type sermons where we're just kind of breaking down doctrine and getting doctrine.
But I've tried to have sermons that sometimes feel like you're in a classroom and you're learning doctrine.
I think that's good. But I also try to have sermons that we might consider hard sermons.
And I've also tried to have what you might consider an emotional.
I think this morning's sermon was an emotional type sermon.
And I think it's good to have different types of sermons because we learn in different ways, negative and positive.
And I want you to notice that God seems to indicate that we often as human beings, because we're sinners, we often need more negative than positive.
Because notice God, He opens up the earth, He sends fire from the Lord, He sends a plague, and then He gives them almonds. You know what I mean?
It's not like He's giving them treats, giving them fruit, and then, you know, cast them alive into hell.
He starts with negative and He gives more negative than positive.
And by the way, this is what we see in the Bible. In 2 Timothy 4, 2, what do we see?
Reprove, rebuke, exhort. Two-thirds negative, one-third positive.
Notice Jeremiah chapter 1. Look at verse 10.
God told the prophet Jeremiah, when God called him into the ministry, Jeremiah 1.10,
See, I have this day set over the nations and over the kingdoms. Notice what he says.
Here he gives him six things to do. Number one, to root out. That's negative.
That's like taking a plant out of the ground, taking the roots out of the ground. To root out.
Then he said, to pull down. That's negative.
The idea is that something was already built up and you're pulling it down, you're bringing it down.
These are all the things we're doing over at the building, by the way.
We're rooting out plants, at least Brother David is, and we're pulling down, you know, drywall.
And to destroy, there's lots of this being destroyed, not even on purpose, but it's just happening.
And to destroy and to throw down, right? Something's up, standing upright and it's being thrown down.
Something is built and it's being destroyed. Something is up and it's being pulled down.
Something is planted and it's being rooted up.
He says to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down. Those are all negative.
But then he says this, to build and to plant. Positive.
And again, you see the same thing. Two-thirds negative, one-third positive.
You have four things that are negative. Root out, pull down, destroy, throw down.
Two things positive, to build, to plant.
Now you say, well, why is it that we need different types of sermons and different types of teaching?
And why is it that God sometimes himself has to communicate to us in different ways?
Well, part of it has to do with the fact that we're hard-heading and we're stiff-necked and we're rebellious.
And sometimes God has to get a hold of us by just coming down on us.
He knows the almonds aren't going to work.
But sometimes God says, look, we can do this different ways.
And even with preaching, when I was at the missions conference this week,
obviously every time I travel, people are kind and they say nice things about the sermons they hear and different sermon series.
But a lady walked up to me and she said, man, there was this sermon you preached.
I just listened to it and you were just really...
And she was referring to the fact that I was very upset and angry.
And I was just really rebuking some very bad things in the sermon.
And she was like, that was powerful.
Honestly, I don't even remember what she was talking about.
She walked away and I said to my wife, I'm like, I don't even know what she's talking about.
She's like, no, she's right.
But here's the thing.
Why is it that sometimes you just have to get that mean?
Because sometimes you're trying to tell people things in a nice way and it's just like not getting it, not getting it, not getting it.
I'm handing you an all man, you're just not getting it.
So then we just have to send fire from the Lord.
And this is how teaching is. This is how God is.
Sometimes somebody needs to shake us up, get in our face.
Sometimes we need to be reproved and sometimes we need to be rebuked.
And oftentimes we need to be exhorted.
And look, in your Christian life, the only way that you're going to grow as a Christian, oftentimes before we can begin to build and to plant, we have to root out and pull down.
We have to destroy and throw down some things in your life, some habits in your life, some things that you've brought into your life.
They have to be removed before we can begin to build you up in the Lord.
So we see that there are different ways.
We're looking at lessons on learning and things can be communicated in different ways.
Go to Exodus chapter 28.
Exodus 28, you kept your place in Numbers, right before Numbers you have Leviticus and the book of Exodus.
And of course I'm applying this to preaching, but let me just say this.
In life, this is true as well.
You know, parents, don't be a positive only parent.
You understand what I just said?
We understand what's wrong with the positive only preacher, but if you can understand what's wrong with the positive only preacher, then maybe you should understand what's wrong with the positive only parent.
Some of you are the Joel Osteen of parenting.
And you're like, Joel Osteen is wicked. Well then yeah.
Your kids do not need positive only.
But you know, let me say this.
Don't be the negative only parent either.
See, it's always interesting to me.
We as human beings, we like to live on these extremes.
And I think the reason for it is because we're lazy.
And instead of putting the effort in to raising our children, pastoring a church, developing relationships.
Instead of putting the effort in into looking at situations and asking God to direct us and to give us wisdom.
You know the Bible says if any of you lack wisdom?
The Bible says that you can ask of God and He will give you wisdom.
But often times instead of trying to have wisdom, instead of praying, instead of trying to figure out the mind of God and what it is that God would have you to do.
Parents would just rather, well I'm positive only.
This is what I do.
It doesn't matter what my children do. They're perfect. They're great. They never do wrong.
Well that's because you're lazy.
But you know, the negative only parent is lazy too.
Because it's like it doesn't matter how hard my children are trying, they're always wrong.
I'm a boot camp instructor.
That's wrong too. Look, sometimes your kids need you to be positive and sometimes they need you to be negative.
And if you're just positive only dad and negative only mom, hey that's a problem.
That's a problem and you need to realize that sometimes your kids need you to offer them some almonds.
And sometimes your kids need you to take that rod and beat them with it.
That's what the Bible says.
So we ought not just be positive only or negative only preachers.
We ought not be positive only or negative only parents.
How about your personality?
You know there are some people that their personality is everything's negative, everything's bad, nothing is ever good enough.
And you know being around people like that can be extremely draining.
But then there's other people and they're like Mr. Rogers neighborhood all the time.
And look that's not reality either.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Sometimes things are good, sometimes they're not good.
Now I often tell people, I say this all the time, if I've said this one time I've said it a million times.
Things are never as bad as you think they are.
And they're never as good as you think they are.
That's just life.
So you ought to have a balanced approach to life and realize that sometimes life requires negativity.
And sometimes life requires positivity.
And don't be this person that's just positive only, that's just negative.
God's not like that.
One day he's opening up the earth and sending people to hell directly.
And just a couple days later he's offering them almonds.
And giving them flowers.
It's blossoming, it's budding flowers.
So we see that things can be communicated in different ways.
But I want you to notice a second thing regarding learning.
Not only do we see that things can be communicated in different ways.
But we also see that things need to be communicated multiple times.
You know in order to learn things need to often be repeated and repeated and repeated.
They had been told multiple times.
God had already told them that he chose Aaron.
Are you there in Exodus 28? Look at verse 1.
Exodus 28 1.
In Exodus 28 1 the Bible says this.
And take thou unto thee, this is God speaking to Moses.
Take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel.
That he may minister unto me in the priest's office.
Even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar, Aaron's son.
I want you to notice that God already clearly told Moses and the children of Israel, I chose Aaron.
I want you to take Aaron thy brother and his sons with him.
And they are to minister unto me in the priest's office.
So God already told them that.
Not only that, we've been talking about it, but God already showed them that.
Go back to number 16.
God already showed them he chose Aaron.
I'm not going to read the verses again.
But the earth opened up her mouth and swallowed them up. Verse 32.
They went down alive into the pit. Verse 33.
There came out a fire from the Lord and consumed them. Verse 35.
There was wrath gone out of the Lord. Verse 46.
And the plague began among the people. Verse 47.
God told them that he had chosen Aaron.
God showed them that he had chosen Aaron.
Even in the passage, number 1610, the Bible says,
And he hath brought thee near to him.
This is Moses speaking to Korah.
And he's telling him, is it a little thing to you that God has already chosen you to do something else?
Moses telling Korah, He, God, hath brought thee, Korah, near to him,
and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee, and seek ye the priesthood also.
It says God already gave the priesthood to Aaron.
But you're wanting to seek the priesthood when God already gave you the role of being a Levite?
Look at verse 11.
For which cause both thou and thy company are gathered together against the Lord.
Notice what he says.
And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him?
Because their beef really wasn't with Aaron, it was with God.
Because God chose Aaron.
And you know, when you're rebelling against your God-given authority,
when you're a teenager and you're rebelling against your parents,
you're not rebelling against your parents, you're rebelling against God.
God is the one that gave you those parents.
If you're rebelling, if a wife is rebelling against her husband, she's really rebelling against God.
Because God is the one that gave you that husband.
And you know, if you're a man who goes to work and you just complain and murmur about your boss,
you are rebelling against God because God gave you that job.
And look, that doesn't mean that God can't give you another job.
But I promise you this, God's probably not going to give you another job or a better job
while you're just murmuring and complaining against the job that he gave you.
So God already told them that he chose Aaron.
God already showed them that he chose Aaron.
But they have to be told again.
When God hasn't put the rods in the tabernacle and Aaron's rod butted, what is God doing?
He's just telling them again.
Go to Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3 in the New Testament.
You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians.
Philippians chapter 3.
Not only did they have to be told multiple times, but let me say this.
We have to be told multiple times.
Notice what Paul said in Philippians 3.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
To write.
Now he's writing to them scripture.
We might say to teach or to preach.
He says to write the same things to you.
To me indeed is not grievous.
He said for me it's not hard is what Paul's saying.
But for you it is safe.
You know the application is this.
I would say to you to preach the same things to you.
To me indeed is not grievous.
But for you it is safe.
Because you know the truth is this.
We have to be reminded over and over.
We have to be told over and over.
Go to Hebrews chapter 2.
You're there in Philippians.
You go past Colossians, past all the T-books.
1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, Titus, then Philemon, then Hebrews.
Go past the T-books, then you have Philemon and Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 2.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you.
To me indeed is not grievous.
But for you it is safe.
Listen to me.
You say, you know, this morning what did I preach about?
I preached about soul winning.
You can sit there and say, ah, another sermon on soul winning.
Again.
We need to hear sermons about Bible reading.
Again.
We need to hear sermons about prayer.
Again.
We need to be reminded over and over and over again.
Because we have the tendency to backslide.
If we could just tell you one time,
hey, be a soul winner and you're just a lifelong soul winner,
then we wouldn't have to repeat it.
And you know, it's funny to me because
people often complain, like,
when are you going to preach something different?
Well, I'm preaching through every verse of the Bible.
I don't know what else different you want.
It's the word of God.
But you know, I often think to myself,
you just repeat the same things over and over.
And I think to myself, well, you know,
it's the same 20 things over and over.
Bible reading, prayer, soul winning, church attendance.
Be nice to my wife.
You know.
This and that.
And I think to myself, well, you know what?
When you have perfected those few things,
then we'll move on.
But your church attendance tells me
your soul winning attendance tells me you're not there yet.
Your Bible reading and your Bible knowledge tells me
we need more sermons on Bible reading.
We need more sermons on prayer.
We need more sermons on these things.
We need to be told over and over
because things can be communicated in different ways
but things need to be communicated multiple times.
And look, I'm going to do my best as a pastor
to try to present it in a different way.
I mean, I preached a sermon on soul winning this morning
but I feel like I've never preached a sermon
on soul winning from that passage
using that illustration.
You know, so obviously as a pastor
sometimes it's difficult.
I have to tell people this.
You know, especially the holidays.
You know, Easter, Christmas.
It can get difficult because it's the same story every year.
You know, every year Jesus is born
and every time you read Luke 2, Jesus is born.
Every time we read the Easter passages,
He resurrects from the dead.
David always kills Goliath.
Moses always parts the Red Sea.
Joshua always calls down the walls of Jericho.
It's the same story every time.
You know, my job, and I think what makes
the different levels of preaching and preaching ability
is whether you can take the same old story
and the same old truth
and just spruce it up in a different way
because you need to hear it again.
We need to be told again.
We need to hear it again.
It can be communicated in different ways.
And it needs to be communicated multiple times.
We need to hear it again.
So, you know, we need another sermon on marriage.
We need another sermon on child rearing.
We need another sermon on finances.
We need another sermon on giving.
We need another sermon on working.
We need another sermon on serving.
We need another sermon on all of it
because we need to be told again and again.
Look at Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 1.
Therefore, we ought to give the most earnest heed.
Look at it.
To the things which we have heard.
I want to go on YouTube and hear something new.
Well, why don't you first give the most earnest heed
to the things you've already heard?
I want to learn new things
from all these deep passages of the Bible.
Hey, I'm not against that.
But how about giving heed to the things you already know?
The things you already know you're supposed to be doing.
How about do that,
lest at any time we should let them slip?
That's the tendency.
We let them slip.
We let them slide.
We slide.
We backslide away.
So we have these lessons on learning.
Things can be communicated in different ways.
I'll do my best to do that.
I'll preach nice sermons.
I'll preach not so nice sermons.
I'll do my best to have teaching sermons
and emotional sermons and tear-jerking sermons
and angry sermons.
I'll do my best.
Look, I'll do my best.
I promise.
But I'm going to teach the same things
maybe from different passages and different ways,
but we're going to learn the same things
because things need to be communicated multiple times.
Let me give you a couple of thoughts
regarding leadership.
Go back to number 17.
We see the lessons on learning.
Things can be communicated in different ways.
We see that things can be communicated multiple times.
Then we see a couple lessons on leadership,
and I'll go through these as quickly as I can.
Notice verse 7, number 17, verse 7.
And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord
and the tabernacle of witness.
And it came to pass that on the morrow
Moses went into the tabernacle of witness,
and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi
was budded.
Again, the word budded means beginning to blossom,
to produce flowers or fruit.
And brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms
and yielded almonds.
Here's the first lesson that we can learn
from this regarding leadership.
I want you to get this idea.
They took 12 rods of wood,
12 sticks.
These were wood.
They were probably branches,
probably thick, long branches that were cut down,
and they were whittled down into these rods.
They were sanded down into these rods.
These were branches that were dead.
You understand that?
They had been cut off of a tree.
It was wood that at one time could have produced fruit,
could have produced something,
but now these branches have been cut down
and turned into rods.
But the Bible says that Moses laid up the rods
before the Lord, and on the morrow,
verse 8, last part of verse 8,
the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded
and brought forth buds,
brought forth flowers,
brought forth fruit and blossoms
and yielded almonds.
Here's the first lesson on leadership.
Leaders will bring life to things that were dead.
If you want to know who is a leader
and what is that a leader does,
a leader brings to life
that which is dead.
Go to Revelation chapter 3, if you would.
Last book in the Bible, Revelation 3.
This is what a leader does.
Revelation 3, notice what the Bible says.
This is Jesus speaking to the seven angels of the churches
here in the book of Revelation.
And the word angel is not an angelic being.
The word angel simply means messenger,
and here specifically the angel is the messenger
of the church in Sardis, Revelation 3.
It is the pastor of the church of Sardis.
Notice what God tells the leader.
Revelation 3, 1.
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write,
These things saith he that have the seven spirits of God
and the seven stars.
I know thy works, that thou has a name,
that thou liveth and art dead, be watchful.
Notice what God tells the leader.
And strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die.
For I have not found thy works perfect before God.
You know what a leader does?
A leader will bring life to things that were dead.
Here you had, how does God show
that he chose Aaron to be the leader?
He takes a rod that is dead and he brings it to life.
He takes a rod that is dead and he gives it life
and it produces fruit and it produces almonds.
And what does that tell us?
It tells us that a leader will breathe life
into that which is dead.
Look, I'm just telling you that's what a leader does.
If you want to figure out, what is a leader?
It's not a title.
It's not a position.
Now, oftentimes it comes with a title
and it comes with a position.
We understand that.
But a leader brings life to something that was dead.
You know, honestly, I have seen people that have positions
and they just kill things.
They might have the position, but they're not a leader.
Revelation chapter, go to Matthew chapter 7.
Matthew chapter 7, the first book in the New Testament.
Lessons on leadership.
Not only do we see that leaders will bring life
to things that were dead,
but I want you to notice that leaders will
produce fruit where there was no fruit.
Aaron's rod could not produce almonds on its own.
But when God chose him and when God put him as a leader,
it now produces fruit.
And look, I want you to understand this.
I'm going to do my best to explain it to you.
Leaders will produce fruit.
What makes a leader a leader is that they produce fruit.
And I want you to understand,
because I'm going to take you to a passage
about bad leaders.
And please understand what I'm saying.
What makes somebody a leader
is that they breathe life into that which was dead
and they produce fruit.
Even a bad leader will breathe life into that which was dead
and produce fruit.
Let me show it to you.
Matthew 7, look at verse 15.
Beware of false prophets.
That's a bad leader.
Which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Now, people often take this passage out of context
and try to apply it to all of Christianity.
And they'll say, well, if you're a Christian,
we'll know by your fruits.
That's not the context of this passage.
The context of this passage is how do you know a prophet?
How do you know a prophet and specifically a false prophet?
Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
Even so, every, notice, good tree,
this is a good prophet.
Tree is being used in illustration of a leader
who produces fruit.
Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Wherefore, by their fruit ye shall know them.
Please understand what I'm about to say to you.
You could have a good position and not be a good leader.
You could have a position and be a bad leader.
And I hope you understand what I'm saying to you.
Simply having a position, that may make you the leader on paper,
but not until you produce fruit are you actually a leader.
You say, what do you mean?
You know, let me say it this way.
Before I became a pastor,
after I'd already been sent out to start this church,
but we had not yet started it,
I had a conversation with my dad,
and here's what my dad said to me.
And I've always thought,
this has always been something that's been in my mind.
He said, you're not actually a shepherd
until you have some sheep.
And here's the thing, like, you, you know,
you men that want to go into the ministry one day,
you need to meet the qualifications
of being a minister, obviously.
You need to meet the qualifications that we've laid out
for men to be ordained and sent out.
But do you understand that we could ordain you,
we could lay hands on you,
we can give you a certificate that says you're ordained,
you're a leader, you're whatever,
but if you go out there and you have no sheep,
you're not really a shepherd.
Now, as a pastor, you need to have the right qualifications
to be able to lead those sheep.
But false prophets, the Joel Oastings, the TD Jakes,
those guys, they might be wicked as hell,
they might be false prophets damning people,
but nobody can deny that they're leaders
because they have fruit.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Not every, look, not every liberal is running 10,000.
I mean, there's a church just right over here
where they're all charismatic out,
and there's like five of them,
and they're like, there's just five of them.
I mean, they've had a revival since we moved here
because more people go to their church by accident
looking for our church.
So a leader, even good or bad, has to produce fruit.
So if you want to go in the ministry,
hey, the first step is getting qualified.
The first step is meeting the qualification.
The first step is getting all the work in
and getting ordained.
But just because you get ordained,
you're a pastor now, you're a missionary now,
you're an evangelist now.
Okay, well now, go do the work of an evangelist.
Because until you actually have some fruit,
you're not actually a leader.
Here's how John Maxwell said it,
who's a leadership, a guy that writes a lot on leadership.
He said this kind of joking, this is his parable on leadership.
He that thinketh he leadeth when no one is following
is merely taking a walk.
And it's true!
Leaders will produce fruit when there was no fruit.
My wife and I came to the Natomas area of Sacramento
13 years ago, and there was no independent
formal Baptist church in this area.
There was no soul winning going on in this area.
There was nothing going on in this area.
Even the old IFP churches that we have around us now,
they came after.
Nothing was happening in this area.
Today, we had 247 people in church.
We have 180 people in church tonight.
We have 120 soul winners out every week.
A leader will show up somewhere and breathe life into something
and produce fruit, and I'm not patting myself on the back.
I'm just saying, that's what a leader does.
I've seen guys take churches.
They're given churches with numbers already there,
and then they dwindle them down.
Well, they might have been ordained, but they're not a leader.
And look, in life, you just realize this.
If you are at work, and there's some team,
and they produce a certain amount,
and then you become in charge,
you become a supervisor, and it just dies,
that's your leadership.
You understand that?
Your job is to, in whatever area and capacity
God has given you a leadership role,
you need to breathe life.
You need to strengthen those things which remain that are ready to die.
And you need to produce fruit.
Obviously, a false prophet produces false fruit, bad fruit.
But a good tree bringeth forth good fruit.
So we see that a leader will bring life to things that were dead.
And a leader will produce fruit where there was no fruit.
Go back to Hebrews chapter 9.
Hebrews chapter 9.
So look, we have to be careful.
You've got to ask yourself, what am I producing?
Maybe you have a position.
Look, please understand this.
Maybe you have a position called husband.
And you got the position because you walked down an aisle and made some vows.
That doesn't make you a good leader.
Do you understand that?
If you take a young lady who was faithful to church,
and godly, and a soul winner, and she loved the Lord,
and then as a result of marrying you, she's now backslidden,
that reflects on your leadership.
Do you understand that?
Look, I'm not beating up on her.
I'm just saying, if I were to take a church somewhere
and it was a soul winning, thriving church,
it was reaching people, and then I became a pastor,
and then everyone leaves, nobody's soul winning, everybody's worldly,
that's a reflection on me.
That's why I always think it's funny.
People are always like, oh, well, you know, it works in Sacramento,
or it works in Arizona.
You know what I believe?
I believe that Pastor Anderson could go start a church anywhere in this country
and have the same success because he's a leader.
I believe my wife and I could leave here and move anywhere in this country
and produce, and look, that's not arrogant.
I'm just telling you, with the grace of God, with the help of God,
we could produce the same thing we're producing here.
Why? Because leaders bring life.
They produce.
And look, sometimes you need to just realize maybe I'm not a leader.
Maybe I need to be under a leader because I'm not producing.
So we see this lesson.
How did God show I chose Aaron and not these other 11 guys?
Were the other 11 guys bad?
Were they bad guys?
I don't think they were bad guys.
I mean, they didn't get swallowed by the earth.
They didn't get consumed in a fire.
They didn't die in the plague.
I mean, I'm not saying they were the greatest guys,
but I don't think they were the worst of the worst.
But how did God show that he chose Aaron?
Aaron's rod came to life and produced fruit.
So not only did he have the position and the title,
but he had the fruit to prove it.
Go to Hebrews chapter 9.
Let's finish this up.
Look at verse 1.
So we saw lessons on learning.
What are they?
Things can be communicated in different ways.
Things need to be communicated multiple times.
We saw lessons on leadership.
What are they?
Leaders will bring life to things that are dead,
and leaders will produce fruit where there was no fruit.
And look, just in life, let's just talk in church.
If you're put in some sort of ministry
or some position or whatever,
is it getting better as a result of you being there,
or is it getting worse?
That tells us a lot about your ability to lead.
Because if we put you in a ministry
and it's just getting worse,
or if we put you in a ministry
and as a result of you being there,
I'm not even saying that you're in charge.
Just your presence there is producing something positive.
That shows you're a leader.
Do you understand that?
You don't have to have a position to be a leader.
You just have to produce fruit.
Whether that's at work, whether that's at church,
whether that's in the home, wherever it is,
breathe life into things, not negativity.
Produce something.
Produce fruit.
Be a leader.
Now, in Hebrews 9,
I just want to show you this real quickly
and we'll finish up.
We're going to cover this in Hebrews 9
when we get to it in our study in Hebrews,
but I just want you to see it
because it just fits the passage we're in.
The Bible says,
Then verily the first covenant
had also ordinances of divine service,
Hebrews 9, verse 1,
and a worldly sanctuary.
I like Hebrews 9
because God is describing for us
in the New Testament
what the tabernacle was like in the Old Testament.
When it says there a worldly sanctuary,
it is referring to the tabernacle
that the children of Israel had in the wilderness.
The reason that he calls it a worldly sanctuary
is because there's a heavenly sanctuary in heaven.
So he says,
let me tell you about the worldly sanctuary,
the one that was on earth
in the world, verse 2.
He says,
For there was a tabernacle,
this is the tabernacle that Moses built,
made,
he says,
the first wherein,
and when he says the first,
he's talking about the,
because the tabernacle is divided into two sections.
He says the first section,
the first wherein was,
he says here are the things
that were in the first section.
If you've read Leviticus or Exodus,
this might sound familiar.
The candlesticks,
and the table,
and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary.
So in that first section of the tabernacle,
the bigger section,
you had these different things there.
The candlesticks,
table of showbread,
and this is known as the sanctuary,
the table and the showbread.
And then notice in verse 3,
he says,
and after the second veil,
because remember,
there was the outer part of the sanctuary,
and then there was a veil.
And the veil divided the outer part
and the inner part.
The inner part,
notice what it says in verse 3,
and after the second veil,
the tabernacle,
which is called holiest of all.
So this second section of the tabernacle,
the small room behind the veil,
is called holiest of all.
In the Bible elsewhere,
it's called the holy of holies.
And in there,
verse 4,
which had the golden censer,
the censers that they've been arguing about
in Numbers 16 and 17,
it's there.
And the Ark of the Covenant.
If you remember the Ark of the Covenant,
I don't have time to get into it,
but it's a box,
it's a wooden box that is overlaid with gold,
and it represents the presence of God.
It has,
it's where God would meet with Moses,
and it represents the fact that God is with them.
But notice,
the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold,
Hebrews 9, verse 4,
wherein,
the word wherein means in which,
wherein was,
he's saying,
he's going to tell us what was inside the Ark of the Covenant.
What does the Ark of the Covenant represent?
The presence of God.
And he says,
wherein was,
notice the things that were inside the Ark of the Covenant.
The golden pot that had manna,
so there's a golden pot that had manna inside the covenant,
the Ark of the Covenant,
and Aaron's rod that budded,
so I'm bringing it up,
Aaron's rod that budded goes inside the Ark of the Covenant,
and the tables of the Covenant.
And the tables of the Covenant is a reference to the Ten Commandments,
the actual stone commandments.
Here's what's interesting about what's in the Ark of the Covenant.
These are all negative things.
The golden pot that had manna,
was placed there,
because the children of Israel complained about the manna in Numbers 11.
Remember, they complained about the manna,
and God had to judge them,
and God had to deal with them,
so then God tells Moses,
I want you to take a golden pot,
and I want you to put manna in it,
and put it in the Ark of the Covenant.
And it's going to be a remembrance of their complaining about the manna.
Then, we have Aaron's rod that budded.
Again, this is a picture of the rebellion of the children of Israel in Numbers 16, Numbers 17.
Why was there a rod that budded that belonged to Aaron?
It was there because the children of Israel were trying to remove Aaron from the priesthood,
and God had to show them that, no, I chose Aaron.
And he did it by having the earth swallow them,
he did it by fire,
he did it by plague,
and he did it by having Aaron's rod that budded,
so it's there in the Ark of the Covenant.
And then you have the tables of the Covenant that are there.
But the tables of the Covenant are not the originals.
Right?
Because remember, Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the originals that were written with the finger of God,
and he broke them.
Why did he break them?
Because when he came down after meeting with God in Mount Sinai,
the children of Israel are worshiping a golden calf.
So he breaks the tables,
and then a couple of chapters later,
God says, you've got to make a new one, but this time you're going to do it, Moses.
So Moses had to remake them before they were written with the finger of God,
now he had to chisel them out and remake them because he broke them,
and they go in the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant, the stuff that's inside the Ark of the Covenant,
all illustrates and pictures the rebellion of the children of Israel.
Their stiff neck, heart, that slides and slips away from God.
It represents that they complained about the manna.
It represents that they complained about Aaron.
It represents that they worshiped the golden calf.
But isn't it interesting that in that Ark, in that box that held these things,
that represented the rebellion of the children of Israel,
sat the mercy seat where the high priest would come in once a year on the Day of Atonement
and take the blood of the lamb and sprinkle it seven times.
The same thing that Jesus did, not in the worldly sanctuary,
but in the heavenly sanctuary in heaven to atone for our salvation
because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
It's interesting to me that the Ark that represents the presence of God,
the Ark that represents, they call it the tabernacle of meeting,
where they meet with God.
The tabernacle where God meets with Moses and Moses meets with God
and God meets with the children of Israel,
it represented there at the meeting place with God
are all these things that illustrate their rebellion.
And here's all I can say is I'm thankful that God still meets with me
even after all my rebellion, even after all my mistakes,
even after all my sin, even after all my murmuring, even after all my complaining.
We could all fill the Ark of Covenants with our little trinkets
and things that represent the rebellion in our lives,
but God says take all those things and put them in the Ark of the Covenant
and I'll cover it with my blood.
Praise God for that.
God meets us there in the same place where he covers our sin,
where he covers our lack of faith,
where he covers our murmuring and complaining and failures.
He says put it in the Ark and we'll cover it with the blood of the Lamb.
Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you.
We thank you for your word.
We thank you for these great stories in the Bible that we can learn from
and be encouraged in.
And Lord, I pray that you would help us to be people
that would realize that we need to learn in different ways
and to not be upset with the messenger,
not be upset with the pastor when sometimes we have to be rebuked
and sometimes we have to be reproved
and other times we need to be exhorted.
And Lord, I pray that you would help us to realize
that we as leaders have to produce.
We shouldn't complain.
We should breathe life into that which is dead.
And Lord, thank you that even though we mess up all the time,
you forgive us.
Cover it with the blood of the Lamb.
We love you.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, well let's take our song books
and we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed.
We're going to go to page number 160 if that's okay.
And we're going to prepare for baptism.
We have a baptism tonight.
So we're going to go ahead and prepare for baptism
as we sing this last song.
Page number 160.
Crown Him with many crowns, 160.
Let's sing it out on the first.
Crown Him with many crowns,
Lamb upon His throne,
Ark how the heavily anthemed drowned,
All music but its own.
Awake my soul and sing,
Of Him who died for thee,
And nail Him as thy matchless King,
Through all eternity.
160. Alright, we're going to sing it on the second.
Now you've had a break.
I've been preaching this whole time while you've been sitting there.
So you can sing out.
We're going to prepare for baptism.
Sing it out on the second.
Crown Him the Lord of love,
Behold His hands and side,
Roach holy, miserable above,
In beauty glorified,
No angel in the sky,
Can fully bear the pride,
The downward bend is wandering high,
And His bill is so bright.
160 on the third.
Crown Him the Lord of life,
Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Rose victorious to the sky,
For those who came to say,
His glory's now insane,
Who died and rose on high,
To thine eternal life,
To great and lives that death may die.
160. Let's sing it out on the fourth as we get her in for baptism.
Sing it out on the fourth.
Crown Him the Lord of health,
One with the Father known,
One with the Spirit through Him given,
And give from yonder glorious throng,
To thee some praise,
For thou for us has thine,
Be thou, O Lord, though endless days,
Adored and magnified.
All right, let's get a picture here.
You want to look this way?
Is it good?
Do it again. All right.
Today we have Madeline Robles coming for baptism,
and Madeline's been coming for several weeks,
and we're excited, of course, to have her with us.
And Madeline, have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior?
All right, Madeline, by your profession of faith,
I baptize you, my sister,
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
buried in the likeness of His death,
raised to walk in newness of life.
God bless you.
All right, well, thank you very much for being here tonight,
and let me just give you some real quick closing announcements.
First of all, don't forget that we've got some clipboards
in the back there in the main foyer for the workdays.
Please go by there and see where you could serve
and where you could fit.
We really appreciate your help this weekend, of course.
And then we want to, of course,
encourage you to be back on Wednesday night
for the Wednesday night Bible study.
We're going to be in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter number 4.
We're going to be studying the Sabbath day,
so we encourage you to be here for that.
If you would not mind looking around,
just making sure everything's kind of cleaned up
and put the hymn books back,
or whatever mess your kids made,
it would really help with the cleaning tomorrow.
And if there's anything we can do for you, please let us know.
We hope you know that my wife and I,
we care about all of you, we pray for you, we love you,
and we appreciate you being part of this church.
I'm going to go ahead and pray, and we'll be dismissed tonight.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
We thank you that we can gather together as a church,
sing, pray, preach,
and, Lord, we pray that you would just continue to help us,
help us to draw closer to you,
and, Lord, we pray that you'd continue to bless our church,
help us on that other property,
so that everything is done quickly,
and to be able to move in soon.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
God bless you. You are dismissed.
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