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Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Welcome to the Sunday evening service here at Mary Baptist Church finder seats Take our songbooks turn to song 194 Song number one nine four Since Jesus came into my heart 194 on first Since Jesus came into my heart I've been hiding my soul for as long as I have stopped Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart 194 on the second I have ceased from my wondering and going astray Since Jesus came into my heart And my sins which were many are all washed away Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart I'm possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure Since Jesus came into my heart And no dark clouds of doubt Now my pathway of truth Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart On the fourth There's a light in the valley of death Not for me Since Jesus came into my heart And the gates of the city beyond I can see Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart Let's sing it on the last I shall go there to dwell I am happy, so happy, as on where I go Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Floods of joy on my soul like the sea billows roll Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Since Jesus came into my heart Sorrow I are We thank you, O God, His Son, and the Lord our God. And, uh, Miss Lexi, go ahead. Two hundred ten. Two, one, zero. Two hundred ten, all in the first. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue be silent? When shall his voice begin? When shall my heart burn? I'm standing here speaking freely for the wonderful grace of Jesus. Son of God! Wonderful grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Greater than the mountains, but be like a mountain. How shall this place begin? How shall my heart begin? When shall my tongue be silent? How shall my tongue be silent? How shall my tongue be silent? Noah, did you have one too? One hundred and eighty-eight. One eighty-eight, the love of God on the first. The love of God is greater far than total pain can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest hour and wages to the lowest care. The gift of God, the time of prayer, God gave His Son to him. He's in trouble and it's out of my mind. How shall my tongue be silent? When shall my heart begin? How shall my tongue be silent? How shall my heart begin? How shall my tongue be silent? One, three, seven. In times like these, one hundred and thirty-seven on the first. In times like these, you need a Savior. In times like these, you need anger. Be very sure, be very sure. Your anger holds and grips the solid blood. This rock is Jesus. Yes, He's the One. This rock is Jesus. Be very sure, be very sure. Your anger holds and grips the solid blood. And little Noah, twenty-seven. Two, seven. The old rugged cross, twenty-seven. On the first. On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And that long, that old cross, where the dearest had passed, the world of the sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, though my troubles had passed my way down. I will praise the Lord at hand. I will praise the Lord at hand. Let's see. Miss Selena, go ahead. Three hundred sixty-four. This will be the last one this evening. Standing on the promises. Three hundred sixty-four on the first. Standing on the promises of Christ, my King, through eternal ages, let His praises ring. Worry in the highest, let us shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God, Standing on the promises of God, Standing on the promises of God, the Savior standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God. Let's see. Amen. All right. Well, let's take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers will 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, Psalm 1611, for, excuse me, thou wilt show me the path of life and thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you have your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning, service 10 30 a.m. And, of course, we had a wonderful service this morning. We're glad you're back out tonight for the evening service at 6 p.m. And we do invite you to be with us on Wednesday night for the Wednesday evening Bible study. If you look at our soul-winning times, our main soul-winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and then we have additional soul-winning times on Thursdays and Fridays. Usually that's at 2 p.m. this week. It's at 6 p.m. And we'll talk a little bit about that here in a minute. And then, of course, the soul-winning times on Sunday at 2 p.m. 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, 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 this evening. And 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. I tell people it's educational, it's entertaining, 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 these big 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 can bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen. And of course, you're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well. And we'd like to have a record of your attendance. We actually would 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 gonna sing a song. When we're done singing, we're gonna receive the offering. And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate. Or you can hand it to me after the service. I'll be standing at the main door greeting people on the way out. If you notice there in our announcements, we of course are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitor set up so you can watch the service and listen to it. So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service, or if you need some privacy, we would of course encourage you to use those rooms as needed. If you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. And you can let us know on your communication card and we'll follow up with you in regards to that. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course this coming week, the big announcement is our Family and Friend Day is on Sunday, September 10th at 10.30 a.m. And we're celebrating our church's 13-year anniversary. You should have one of these cards there in your bulletin. Of course we want to encourage you to invite somebody to church with you on Sunday for Family and Friend Day. And we're going to have a lot of special things going on. We'll have lunch after the service for everyone in attendance, anniversary mugs for all of the families, candy suckers for all the kids, and then special music of course from the VBC Orchestra and Choir. And then of course on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we're going to have a special soul-winning push for Family and Friend Day. So we want you to be a part of that. Make sure you make a note of that. That's on Thursday at 6 p.m. And when we do the 6 p.m. soul-winning times, we just expect you to be out for one hour. We don't expect you to be out two or three hours or anything like that. Just be out until 7 p.m. But we'll try to get you in here partnered and out of here as quickly as possible. Thursday 6 p.m., Friday 6 p.m., and then Saturday morning at 10 a.m. to get the soul-winning push out before Family and Friend Day. And then on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., we'll have a group that goes out and whatever invitations we have left over, they'll put them out on cars. They'll be meeting at the Starbucks over in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Truxtall. So you can sign up to be a part of that on your communication card. And then of course we have our evangelist, Matthew Stuckey, with his family coming to be with us. And I don't think Ms. Tan and the kids have been back since they went to the Philippines, so we'll be glad to see them of course. And they're going to be here on Family and Friend Day. He'll be preaching for us that evening, Sunday, September 10th at 6 p.m. He'll also be preaching on Wednesday, September 13th at 7 p.m. The next Sunday, Sunday, September 17th, I'll be ordaining him as a pastor, and we'll be making those churches in the Philippines independent churches. And then that evening, Pastor Aaron Thompson from Sure Foundation Baptist Church will be preaching for us. He'll be here for the ordination, and he'll be preaching that evening. We'll have a potluck after the service. So just make plans for all those things, plans to be here for that. Family and Friend Day Choir, they practiced today. Ladies Weight Loss Accountability Group will be meeting on Wednesday at 6 p.m. 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. They're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries, for the month of September this week we have Ms. Irene Reed's birthday. Her birthday is tomorrow, September 4th. Brother Aidan Roldan's birthday on September 5th. Brother Ike and Ms. Jackie Otoo have an anniversary on September 5th. Brother Joan and Ms. Christine Laqueta have an anniversary on September 6th. My son Joshua Jimenez has a birthday on September 6th. Brother Matt Barrello has a birthday on September 7th. Ms. Celine Zuniga has a birthday on September 8th. And Liana Latesco has a birthday on September 9th. Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at. And we do have some discipleship class certificates to hand out tonight. And I'm going to go ahead and read one. And then I'll give you the names of the certificates. And, of course, we have a discipleship class that goes on in the summer. And there's eight lessons they go through. And once they graduate, we like to acknowledge that and give them a certificate. So I'll read one of these. It says discipleship class certificate of accomplishment awarded to. And it will have their name, of course, in recognition of successful completion of the discipleship course presented by Verity Baptist Church awarded this third day of September 2023. And it has my signature there. And, of course, our deacon, Brother Oliver, is the one who taught the class. I'm going to go ahead and read the names of the individuals and we'll get these passed out. And then we'll give them a round of applause. We have Brother John Reed. And we have Ms. Irene Reed. And we have Ms. Jackie De Dios. And we have Ms. Christine Ortiz. So we'll get all those passed out and let's give all of them a round of applause. And praise the Lord for that. All right. Well, let's go ahead and take our songbooks as we prepare to receive the offering tonight. And let's go to page number 41 in our songbooks, page number 41. And we're going to sing in the suite by and by as we prepare to receive the offering, page number 41. Sing it out on the first. There's a land that is fairer than that And by faith we can see it apart For the Father waits over the head To prepare us a dwelling place there In the suite by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the suite by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore Page number 41. Sing it out on the second. We shall sing on that beautiful shore The melodious songs of the blast And our spirit shall sorrow the land Not a sigh for the blessing of grass In the suite by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the suite by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore Sing it out on the last. To our bountiful Father again We will offer our tribute of praise The glorious gift of his love And the blessings that our Lord gave In the suite by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the suite by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads tonight with a prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you and we thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight. Lord, we pray that you bless the offering, the gifts, and the giver. And of course we ask that you meet with us as we open up your words to the Bible together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please open your mouths to Numbers 11. Numbers chapter 11. If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand and I know she'll bring you one. Numbers chapter 11. Just keep your hand up and she'll come by. Numbers 11. We will read the entire chapter as our custom. Numbers 11 beginning in verse number 1. And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard it. And his anger was candled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses. When Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Tibera, because the fire of the Lord burnt among them. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof was the color of bdellium. And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was as a taste of fresh oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight, that thou lays the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them? That thou shouldst say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as their nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers? When should I have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou dealest with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand. If I have found favor in thy sight, let me not see my wretchedness. And the Lord sent unto Moses, And gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there, and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them. And they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and he shall eat flesh. For ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but even a whole month, until I come out at your nostrils, and I be loathsome unto you, because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have looked before him, saying, Why can we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said, The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen, and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders. And it came to pass, that when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the spirit rested upon them, and there were of them that were written, that went not out unto the tabernacle, and they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My Lord Moses forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Envious thou for my sake, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. And Moses gathered them into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. And they went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side. Round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. He that gathered least, gathered ten homers, and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, or it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of the place Kiribot Hatovah, because there they buried the people that lusted. And the people journeyed from Kiribot Hatovah unto Hazeroth, and abode at Hazeroth. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word, and for our church, for whom it's here. As you please meet with us tonight, give us all a tender heart to the message. As you please be with our pastor to strengthen him, and to fill him with your spirit. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, we're there in Numbers chapter number 11. And of course, we were in Numbers chapter 11 this morning, and we dealt with a theme in Numbers chapter 11 this morning. And then we're back in it tonight, and we're going to be dealing with a different theme. And the reason I word it that way is because sometimes when I'm preaching through books of the Bible, we'll take one or two or three weeks in a chapter, and we'll kind of divide it. Maybe the first part of the chapter, the second part of the chapter, something like that. The problem with this chapter is that there's two major themes in Numbers chapter 11. One has to do with complaining and being displeased. The other theme has to do with leaders and followers. And that may not seem like those two things necessarily go together, but they're in this chapter, and you'll see here why it is that they are together in a minute. The problem with this chapter is that they're kind of interwoven. The majority of the chapter deals with complaining and covetousness and comparing, which is what we dealt with this morning. But you'll notice that you'll have the story, the narrative dealing with complaining. Then you'll have this theme of leaderships and followers. Then you'll have going back to the story on complaining, and it kind of goes back and forth. So I dealt with the verses having to do with dissatisfaction this morning. If you weren't here for that sermon or if you missed it, I would encourage you to find it on our website and listen to it. And tonight we're going to finish the chapter, but we're going to look at the theme of leaders and followers. And I want to give you three thoughts regarding leaders and followers and followship from this chapter tonight. And I, of course, encourage you to take notes, and I hope you do take notes. On the back of your course this week, there's a place for you to write down some things. I want you to notice how it is that these two themes are connected, the leaders and the followers, with the complaining. And I'm not going to re-preach this morning's sermon, but I do want you to notice in verse 10, remember we saw that the children of Israel were complaining because of the manna that the Lord had given them to eat, and they were lusting after flesh. And the Bible says in verse 10, And Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. And the Bible says Moses also was displeased. Of course, they hear the complaining of the people. The Lord isn't happy. The Lord was, the Bible says the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. And then the Bible tells us Moses also was displeased. Verse 11, And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore has thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight? And we talked about that this morning, how complaining spreads, and the children of Israel were complaining, but now Moses is complaining to the Lord. Again, look at verse 11, And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore has thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight? That thou layest the burden of all this people unto me, for I have conceived all this people. Have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom? So, of course, Moses is upset here, and he's kind of asking these questions of God. And because of the fact that the responsibility of these people falls upon him, and he's asking the question, have I conceived all these people? Am I their mom? Am I their dad? Have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father, beareth the suckling child unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers? When should I have flesh to give unto all these people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. And, of course, we covered all that. But I want you to notice that as Moses is complaining to God about the children of Israel, this is where this idea of leadership comes up. Because we see that he comes to a point where he begins to say and cry out to the fact that he needs some help. Look at verse 14. He says, I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. He says, I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if you're taking notes tonight, I just want to quickly give you some thoughts regarding this chapter and regarding followers and leaders or leaders and followers. And the first point is this, that followers need to help their leader. Followers need to help their leader. We'll see that here in verses 10 through 17. And what we're seeing is that leaders have limits. And there's only so much that one person can do. There's only so much that one leader can do here. Moses is expressing that to God in verse 14. He says, I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And, of course, the children of Israel were a nation that Moses was leading. In the book of Acts, they are called a congregation. They're called a congregation in the wilderness. And a lot of these things apply to church world and church life. And I'll be applying it to our church, of course. But this applies to any area of leadership. Obviously, in church, you have spiritual leadership. You have ordained leadership. You have a pastor. You have deacons and evangelists and people that have been ordained into the ministry for leadership. But then you have the congregation who are to follow that leadership. So this applies here. But it also applies in the home. It also applies at work. It applies in any situation where you find leaders and followers. And in all of these situations, we have to understand that followers need to help their leaders. Why? Because leaders have limits. That's what Moses is saying, verse 14. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And I want you to notice that he comes to the end of his limit, verse 15. He says, So we see that leaders have limits. There's only so much that one person can do in ministry and in church. There's only so much that one pastor can do. There's only so much that a pastor's wife can do. There's only so much that individuals can do. And there are limits to leadership. And I'd like you to keep your place in our Numbers chapter 11. That's our text for tonight. But go with me if you would to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 18. If you go backwards, you're going to go past the book of Leviticus into the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 18. And do me a favor when you get to Exodus. Put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because we're going to leave it or we're going to come back to it. I'd like you to be able to get to it quickly. Exodus chapter 18. Exodus chapter 18. And when it comes to this idea of leadership and the fact that leaders have limits and the fact that leaders need help, Exodus 18 is probably my favorite passage to go to to illustrate this. It's one of my favorite stories in the Bible just because I really like organization. I think a lot about leadership and organization and delegation. And Exodus 18 is all about that. And this is highlighted throughout the Bible. It's interesting because this is actually about Moses as well. Exodus chapter 18 is about Moses and it's a similar thing that we see in Numbers chapter 11. In Exodus chapter 18 and verse 13, the Bible says this, And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from morning unto evening. And of course, the children of Israel are out there in the wilderness and they need somebody to judge for them. They need to be able to bring their problems to somebody and have somebody say, That's right, that's wrong, you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't do this. And they're coming to Moses and because, of course, we're talking about millions of people coming and bringing their problems to Moses. The Bible says that Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. Look at verse 14. And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people because Moses brought his father-in-law to work that day. And of course, in Exodus 18, Moses' father-in-law Jethro comes to visit. And I think Moses was trying to impress his father-in-law. He brings Jethro with him to work because these people are lining up every day to ask him questions. And I think Moses maybe was trying to impress his father-in-law and show his father-in-law, Look at how many people come to ask questions of me, come to get judgment from me, come to see what the right thing is for me. And at the end of this whole thing, the response that he gets from his father-in-law is not good. Verse 14. And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? He says, Why sittest thou thyself alone? And all the people stand by thee from morning unto even. And what Jethro was telling Moses is this, leaders have limits. There's only so much you can do alone. There's only so much that you can accomplish alone. Why sittest thou thyself alone? Look at verse 17. And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. And the idea is this, that followers need to step up and help their leader because of the fact that leaders have limits. There's only so much that can be accomplished by one person, by one couple, by one staff, by one group of individuals. And if you're going to do more and accomplish more, if you're going to get more done, you're going to have to have people step in and help. Keep your place there in Exodus 18. Go back to Numbers chapter 11. Leaders have limits. There's only so much a leader can do. Say, well, how then can you increase the capacity of a leader? If one person, because look, one person, no matter how intelligent, no matter how talented, no matter how good they may be at whatever it is that they do, there's only so much they can do. There's only 24 hours in a day. There's only so much energy that any one person has. So how can you do more? How can you accomplish more? How can you increase the capacity? And the idea is this, that you need people to help. You need people to step in. Leaders have limits. And because leaders have limits, leaders need help. Look at verse 16. Numbers chapter 11, verse 16. And the Lord said unto Moses... Remember, Moses just got done giving his resignation, right? He said, it's too heavy for me. I can't do it. Just kill me already, God. Just be done with it. That's quite a resignation letter that he puts in. Verse 16, Numbers 11 and 16. And the Lord said unto Moses... Notice, God doesn't say, okay, Moses, I accept your resignation letter. You can quit. The Lord said unto Moses, gather unto me 70 men. And it's interesting to me, if you study... And one of these days I'm going to preach a sermon on this. I've got to figure out an appropriate way to word it. But I'm going to preach a sermon of all the times that preachers ask God to kill them. Because it happens quite a bit of times in the Bible. And that should tell you something about ministry. I often tell people the best part of ministry is dealing with people. And the worst part of ministry is dealing with people. And sometimes it makes you want to ask God to just go ahead and take me away, Lord. But it's interesting because Moses is here saying, Lord, just kill me. And what God says is, I'm not going to kill you, Moses, but you need to go gather unto me 70 men of the elders of Israel. What's interesting about that, and I won't have you turn there, but Elijah got to the place in his life where he said the same thing. He said, God, just kill me. And if you study that story through, you find that God's response is, I'm not going to kill you, but go find Elisha to help you. And he tells them to go find individuals. So oftentimes, when we, in leadership positions, find ourselves in a place where we're so stressed and so just feeling like they're overwhelmed and there's not anything that we can do or any much more that we can do, what we need is help. And what we need is for people to step up. Look at verse 16. And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. He said, you need people to stand. You say, see, Moses says, I am not able to bear all these people because it is too heavy for me. And the response from God is this. You need to find people to help you that they may stand there with thee. Look at verse 17. And I will come down and talk with thee there, and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and I will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. See, the answer to the limit of the leader is that the leader needs help because the leader has limits. The leader needs help. And followers need to be there to help their leaders. And let me say this about Verity Baptist Church. I'm thankful that we have a church full of people that do step up and do help and help us accomplish the things that we've accomplished and that we're continuing to accomplish because next week on Family and Friend Day, we'll be celebrating 13 years of ministry. It'll be 13 years that my wife and I have now been in the ministry serving as a pastor and as a pastor's wife. And, of course, we started in our living room. We started with a handful of people. And I remember back in those days when we were meeting in our house, meeting in our living room, and, you know, 12 people were showing up to church on Sunday morning or whatever. I remember having all these dreams and all these visions of our church growing and, of course, of our soul winners growing and all sorts of things. But, you know, I remember thinking to myself years and years and years and years and years ago, I remember thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice one day to have a little orchestra? I mean, wouldn't it be nice, you know, to have just a few people maybe that could play some instruments and we could add that to the piano and have a little orchestra? But here's the thing. I can't do that. I couldn't do that. I mean, I don't play an instrument, but even if I did, I don't have the time. I don't have the capacity because leaders have limits. Today, Verity Baptist Church is a very beautiful orchestra. Everywhere I go, people are always complimenting the orchestra. I'm not really sure how people in Europe know that we have such a nice, beautiful orchestra, but when I was in Europe, people were complimenting how beautiful the music is at Verity Baptist Church. And you say, how does that happen? How is it that we have such a beautiful orchestra with people that play well and all these things? You know, it happens because of the fact that people stepped up and said, I can help. I can serve. You know, I couldn't. My wife and I could not. I mean, could you imagine me on an accordion, my wife on a harmonica over there? I mean, and I'm not, you know, a musician. My wife actually plays the piano. You know, she played the piano for our church sometimes back in those early days. But the point is this, that there's limits to what any one person can do. I remember years ago thinking, wouldn't it be nice one day for our church to have a homeschool group? I remember people would come to our church back in those early days, and it was always frustrating to me. It was always frustrating because I don't know if my mind is more analytical or maybe I'm just a little more critical, but I mean, we would literally have people come to our church and they would come and they would show up and they would say, we love the church, we love the preaching, we love you, we love your wife, but we're not going to stay. We're going to go to another church because this church doesn't have any kids. And I remember always thinking to myself, if the people with kids don't stay, then we're never going to have kids. Like, we need somebody to stay with kids. You know, we have kids, but we just had, when we started the church, we had a three-year-old and a newborn. You know, I remember one time, a guy said, I really like your church, but there's not enough men. And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, there's not enough men because men keep leaving. You know, and this is kind of how it works. But I remember thinking to myself, like, wouldn't it be nice one day if we could have a homeschool group and have a little group, and in my mind, I'm thinking a little group of homeschoolers and my wife would take them out and do field trips and this and that. And today, we have a homeschool group with, I don't know, 90 kids in it. You know, they do all sorts of field trips. I'm not sure what they do. I just know it costs me a lot of money. And they've got P.E. I think P.E. is starting up here in the next couple weeks or so, and P.E. every other week on Thursdays. And they've got, you know, when we started the homeschool, the P.E. class, there's one little P.E. class. Now we've got a little toddler's class and a girl's class and younger girls and younger boys and older kids. I don't know. I'm not sure what they do. I don't go. You say, why don't you go to the P.E. class? Because leaders have limits. There's only so much I can do. But we can have a homeschool group with about 90 people in it. You say, well, there are not any kids in it. You say, why? Because of the fact that people step up and help. People say, hey, I can help with that. I can be a part of that. I can participate in that. I remember years ago thinking it would be nice to have a little prison ministry. It would be nice to go and be able to maybe go into a prison and preach. And I thought that maybe we could have a ministry where we could physically go into a prison and preach. And I tried to get it into prison. I didn't try to get into prison like some of you got into prison. I tried to get access into the prison to preach. And, you know, but what I found is that those, before they let you into prison, they like to Google your name. And as soon as they find out that I was a cult leader or whatever, they wouldn't give us access. And we do have a group that has gone into prisons and things, but I never was really allowed to. And I thought, well, you know, it would be nice if we could have some sort of an outreach to prisoners. And today this church has, I don't know, transcribed sermons that are being sent out to 200, 300 prisoners all over this country. You say, how does that work? I can tell you it doesn't work because I'm sitting at a desk stuffing envelopes. You say, are you above that? I'm not saying that I'm above that. I'm just telling you that leaders have limits. And there's only so much that one person can do. But when you can gather a group of people together and say, hey, we're going to do this. We're going to get sermons transcribed and we're going to print them and we're going to fold them. We're going to put them in envelopes and we're going to put the different things that we need on them. We're going to ship them out and we're going to minister to people that are in prison. I mean, I remember thinking to myself, I remember when we first started our ushers ministry. Our first ushers ministry was a 12-year-old boy with a burgundy coat. And it was probably the most professional ushers ministry has ever been, if you see our guys now. But I remember thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice to have an ushers ministry? And then it went from a 12-year-old boy that ended up quitting the church to men stepped in and helped. And we had a group of two guys and three guys and four guys and five guys. And I'm not sure how many ushers we have today. I know we've got two groups that rotate. And I don't know, there's about 16 of them or something like that. I remember thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice to have a safety team? I get all these death threats every week. People are telling me they want to kill me or whatever. And I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have a safety team with some men that legally had a concealed carry permit and all this thing. And I thought, that will never happen. Today we've got, I don't know, two different teams of safety teams that attend all our services and are here to protect. I'm just saying that leaders have limits. There's only so much that any one person can do. And the way that you'd increase capacity is by having people step in because followers need to help their leader. Leaders have limits and therefore leaders need help. God told Moses, Numbers 11-17, last part of the verse, And they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. Go back to Exodus 18, if you would, look at verse 21. Exodus chapter 18 and verse 21, Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear of God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands. Because remember, Jethro just got done telling Moses, you can't do this alone, you need some help. Because you need to provide out of all the people able men, place such over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, verse 22, And let them judge the people at all seasons, and it shall be that every great matter that they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. And by the way, delegation is not abdication. Notice, there wasn't this idea where Jethro was telling Moses, just find some people and let them worry about it and don't ever worry about it again. No, verse 22, And let them judge the people at all seasons, and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, talking to Moses, but every small matter they shall judge. So it's not, there's no abdication here. Moses is still involved, it's just, he's not involved in every detail of everything. Every great matter and the big decisions that need to be made, Moses was still there to make it. But every small matter they shall judge, so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. See, the way that you do more, you accomplish more, is that followers come alongside the leader and they help him, they help him bear the burden. Look at verse 23, If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all those people shall also go to their place in peace. And the truth is this, when we're looking at these principles of followers and leaders, the first principle that we have to remember is that followers need to help their leader. Because leaders have limits and leaders therefore need help. And I've given you some illustrations as to some of the things that we do here. Look, I have nothing to do with the safety ministry. I have nothing to do with the usher ministry. As far as, I mean, I provide training and we write things and whatever, but as far as physically Sunday to Sunday, I don't play in the orchestra. I don't sing in the choir. I don't go to the home school PE class. All of these things would be out of my, I don't help with the prison mailers. All of these things would be out of my reach because I've got enough things that I've got to do and responsibilities and whatever. Leaders have limits, but the reason that we can do more and accomplish more is because people step in and say, well, I can help and I can be a part of that and I can participate. And we increase our capacity when people step in. Followers need to help their leaders. And by the way, let me say this. I'm a visionary type leader, so you better believe that I've got about 12 different things that I'm just chomping at the bit to start or to do that I'm thinking to myself, look, I'm ready to go. I've got some ideas and things. I've even started working on some of the documents. You say, what are you waiting for? I'm waiting for help. You know, I'm thinking to myself, well, our church could probably do that, but maybe we'll have to be running about 250 before we can do that. And maybe we'll be having to run 300 before we can do that. Or maybe we need to run 400 before we can do that. Because there's more that we can do, and I won't start giving you all those details because as soon as I start telling people all my plans, then you guys get scared and don't come back. But I'm just telling you, there's more we could do if we could find the followers to help. If we could find the people to help. So we said, number one, followers need to help their leaders. Why? Because leaders have limits. Therefore, leaders need help. And by the way, let me say this. I'm thankful that I can literally run away and leave the country, leave the continent for 11 days and have men step in and men step up and men preach and lead the services and run all these things. And I come back and the whole thing hasn't fallen apart or burnt down. I'm thankful for that. There was a day when that wasn't a reality. There was a time in our ministry, my wife and I were talking about it, we were crazy. There was a time in our ministry when there was no one to preach. If I didn't preach, no one preached. There was no one to preach, there was no one to run the services. I remember Pastor Anderson would ask me to go preach a faithful word, and this was by, of course, 10 years ago, 11 years ago, early on. But I was excited to preach anywhere. But I couldn't leave our church on a Wednesday night because if I didn't preach on a Wednesday night, nobody preached on a Wednesday night. If we weren't there, there'd be no church service. So literally, we were 25, 26, 27 years old with a couple of, a toddler and a baby or two toddlers and a baby, and I'd preach on a Wednesday night at our church and we'd get in our car and drive 13 hours through the night to be in Phoenix and preach there on a Thursday night or on a Friday night or Thursday night and Friday night and Saturday night for some camping trip, and then I'd preach on a Saturday morning at a camping trip, and then we'd load up our little kids and drive 13 hours back home and get home at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night so that I could preach on Sunday because if we were going to go anywhere, it was the only way that it was going to work. And I'm thankful, you know, that I don't have to do that anymore because men have stepped up and men are here, men are ready, men are capable. And they can preach and they can lead the service and they can do those things, and I'm not retiring anytime soon, don't worry. I'm also not resigning. But followers need to help their leaders. That's the first principle we learned from this passage. Then there's a second principle, and I'd like you to notice it there in verse 24, Numbers 11, 24. And Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and gathered the 70 men of the elders of the people and set them round about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him and took of the spirit that was upon him. I want you to notice this. It's very interesting. Because if you remember when God told Moses to do this in verses 16 and 17, he said, Gather unto me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be elders. He said at the last part of verse 16 that they may stand there with thee. And in verse 17 he said, And I will come down and talk with thee there, and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and I will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. That's what God told Moses in Numbers 11 and 17. In Numbers 11, 25, we see God doing what he said in verse 17. Look at verse 25. And the Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him and took of the spirit that was upon him, the spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it unto the 70 elders. And it came to pass that when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease. I want you to notice that Moses needed help. So God tells him, go gather 70 of these people. And then the Bible says that when he gathered them, God came down. And the Bible says, he doesn't say that he came upon them or that he gave them of his spirit to them. The Bible says that he took of the spirit of Moses and gave it unto them. Now, some people debate whether what is being spoken of here when it says spirit, and some people argue that it's referring to the Holy Spirit, and I'm not against that. That it may be the Holy Spirit that has came upon Moses and is now being given to them. Of course, they prophesied and did not cease, and I think that there is an argument that could be made for that. And I don't have a problem with that. I do think that even followers need to be filled with the Spirit of God. It's not just for pastors, but it's for everyone. I hope that you'll be a spirit-filled soul winner. We need spirit-filled pastors, but you know we need spirit-filled church members. We need spirit-filled soul winners. You need to be spirit-filled to do anything. I don't care what you do. If you're part of our cleaning crew and you push a vacuum, hey, be filled with the Spirit of God as you do it. So, I think that it's fine to apply this as to the fact that he took up the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and gave unto them, especially when you notice that they prophesied and did not cease. But I think there's another application here. Because, first of all, the word spirit is not capitalized here. It's a lowercase spirit, and I'm not saying that we should make a big deal about that, but when the Holy Spirit is being spoken of, oftentimes in our King James Bible, it is an uppercase spirit, like referring to a name spirit. Here, we're told that he took of the Spirit, lowercase s, and again, I'm not saying we should make a big deal about that, but I would make a bigger deal about this, that was upon him, upon Moses. And I think that what God did here is he took a little bit of the Spirit of Moses, and if you want to apply it to the Holy Spirit, I don't have a problem with that and I'm sure the Holy Spirit was involved, but it was a little bit of the Spirit of Moses because Moses was the leader. He takes of the Spirit of Moses and he gave it unto the 70 elders. And if you want just kind of another example of something similar, remember when the Bible says that Elisha was giving a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. So it is possible for a follower to receive the Spirit of their leader. Elisha was the follower of Elijah and Elisha received a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. In the New Testament, we're told that John the Baptist also had the Spirit of Elijah. So there is this idea in the Bible that men have spirits and leaders have spirits, the Spirit of the leader, and I believe here that God took of the Spirit of Moses and he gave it unto the 70 elders and the application that I would make is this. Number one, we saw that followers need to help their leaders, but number two, followers need to have the same spirit as their leader. You should have the spirit of your leader. And what would we mean by that or what would I mean by that in a very practical sense? In a practical sense, I would say this that when you decide to make somebody your leader, whether it's a church member choosing a pastor because whether you realize it or not, when you become a member of a church, you've chosen that pastor as your spiritual leader. Whether it's a wife choosing a husband because whether you realize it or not, you had a big party and you put on fancy clothes and you had all sorts of nice things, so when you walk down that aisle and you said, I do, you chose, ladies, a leader. Whether it's a man choosing to accept a job somewhere because when you accept a job somewhere and you become an employee, you say, I accepted a job, but you accepted a leader in that job. So whenever anybody chooses a leader, I believe that the follower needs to strive to have the same spirit as the leader. What does that mean? Here's what I mean by that. You should be on the same page with what the leader wants to do. You should get on the same page with what the leader is doing and you should get on the same page with how he's doing it. See, God took the spirit of Moses and he gave it unto these 70. Why? I think the idea is that these 70 men were not to go off and do their own thing, were not to go off and have their own spirit, were not to go off and try to lead in whatever way they thought was best, but they were to be representations of Moses. They were to take the spirit of Moses with them and they were to lead and be a help to Moses in the sense that they were doing what Moses was doing and they were doing it how Moses was doing it. They had the spirit of Moses. When people looked at Elisha, they said, there is a man that has the spirit of Elijah. They saw Elisha and they could see the influence of Elijah on the life of Elisha. When Jesus looked at John the Baptist, he said, that's Elias the prophet. It wasn't physically Elias, but he says he has the spirit of Elijah and when I see John, I see Elijah and these 70 men, when these 70 men were there, the people should have said, I can see the influence of Moses. I can see the spirit of Moses upon them. I can see that they're not only doing what Moses wants, but they're doing it how Moses wants. See, followers need to have the same spirit as their leader. Keep your place there in Numbers 11. Go to 3 John, if you would, towards the end of the New Testament. If you go backwards from Revelation, you have Revelation, then you have Jude, it's one chapter, and then you have 3 John. Again, one chapter, Revelation, Jude, 3 John. You know, you men at work, instead of criticizing your boss, and talking crap about him, and saying he's stupid and he doesn't know and I have a better idea, you know, you might have a brighter future in the company if you just decided to get the spirit of the boss. I mean, he's the one that started the business. He's the one that took the risk. He's the one that signs your paycheck. So instead of complaining about him, why don't you say, hey, let me get the spirit of the boss. Let me not just do what he wants, but let me do it how he wants it. You wives, you might find that your husband might let you do a little more shopping, might be nicer to you, might want to spend more time with you if you just got the spirit of your boss. Let me do what he wants and let me do it how he wants it. Some wives are like, it's Hamburger Helper whether you like it or not. And he's like, can I just get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? No! Look, if he wants a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, get him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Do how, look, I'm just saying in any position of leadership, you would be smart, you would be wise to get the spirit of the leader to do what he wants, to do it how he wants it. And by the way, same thing in church world. You know what the Bible says? Let me just read this for you. You don't have to turn here. Hebrews 13, 7, talking about pastors, it says, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God. Those are pastors. We've spoken unto you the word of God. We preach the word of God. Then it says this, Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, considering the end of their life, considering how they lead their life. You can do whatever you want and I don't have a problem. You do whatever you want. I'm just telling you, if I were you, if I was a young man in a church with a pastor, I would do everything he told me to do. He'd say, you shouldn't be preaching this. Well, when you're the pastor, you preach whatever you want. I would just, I mean, if the counsel's from the Bible, if the preaching's from the word of God, if everything that's being said is being taught from the Bible, being proven from the Bible, principles from the Bible, I would just do whatever he told me to do. I'd just do it. And I not only would do whatever he told me to do, I would try to do it the way that he did it. You know why I wear white shirts? You ever notice I don't wear white shirts? I don't wear other colored shirts just when I preach? You say, because you're more spiritual than other people. That is part of it. There's really no rhyme or reason other than the fact that the pastors that I grew up with all wore white shirts. So one day when I became a pastor, I said, I'm going to wear white shirts, just like all the pastors that I've known before me. I'm not against other guys that wear other shirts unless they're lavender. I'm not against, I'm just saying that if it were me, if it were me, if I was a new employee at a new job, I would look at the boss and I would say, I want to do what he wants me to do, and I want to do it how he does it. That's what a smart follower would do. Because followers need to help their leaders, and followers need to have the same spirit as their leader, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. And look, let me just give you a little secret to how to go up the ladder at Verity Baptist Church. You say, I'd like to go up this ladder, you know, I'd like to see how, maybe become a trusted individual, and maybe I could lead a ministry someday, or I could do something, or whatever. You may not like what I'm about to say, I'm just going to say it and do whatever you want with it, but I think I'm preaching it to you from the Bible. Stop running your own show and start doing the things that I want. And do them the way I want them. I would just, look, I'm just saying, I would figure out what my pastor values, and I would value that. I would figure out what my boss values, and I would value that. If I was a lady, I would figure out what my husband values, and I would value that. If I was a kid, I'd figure out what my parents value, and I would value that. I don't care what position you find yourself in, if you ever find yourself in a position where there's somebody above you in leadership, I would figure out what they value, and I would begin to value that. And look, I can tell you, I've got some values at Verity Baptist Church. You may not know this, or understand this, or really thought about it. I've got personal values. I won't share those with you tonight. But I've got some professional values. I've got some things that I value professionally here at our church. These might sound familiar to you. I think if you know me, these would sound familiar, but I value integrity. I value excellence. Attention to detail. Excellence in all we do. Again, I don't know how people all the way in Europe know this, but I go to England, and people are saying, we're really impressed with how things run at Verity Baptist Church, everything is so, and they use the word excellence. I like that. I like that because that's something I value. I value excellence. I don't know if you realize this, but I like things to look nice. I like things to be run smoothly. I like things to be organized. I like to start on time. I like to make sure we have a plan. I like things to run well. So I'm just trying to help you out. If you want me to like you, serve with excellence. If you want to know, how can I get the spirit of Pastor Jimenez? Here's the spirit of Pastor Jimenez, excellence. And here's all I'm saying. If I was an usher at Verity Baptist Church, if I wasn't Pastor Jimenez, if I was someone else, I was you, and you were Pastor Jimenez, which that would solve a lot of problems. I'm just saying, if I was a member here, and I came here, and I was an usher, you know, I'd show up to my meetings on time. I'd show up looking sharp. I'd make sure my shirt was tucked in. I'd make sure my coat was on. I'd make sure my tie had a dimple in it. I'm just saying I would try to be excellent. You wouldn't find me sitting down when I'm supposed to be standing. You wouldn't find me standing around when I'm supposed to be sitting. I'd just get this idea. I'd look at the pastor and say, that guy likes to run things sharp. That guy likes to run a sharp ship. That guy has a plan, and if I'm going to be an usher under that ministry, I'm going to be sharp too. You say you're picking on the ushers. No, I'm just saying, if I was an orchestra member of Verity Baptist Church, you know what I'd do? I'd practice at home and be ready for the music. I'd show up to practice. I wouldn't show up ten minutes before the service late to practice expecting to be allowed to play. Now you may do that. I don't know how people do that. I'm not at the practices. I'm just saying that's not what I would do because I'd look at the pastor and say, that guy likes things to be run with excellence. So I'd run things with excellence. I'm just saying, look, you can do whatever you want, but if you like this organization, I can point you to lots of disorganized churches. I'm just saying you're here at Verity Baptist Church. You want the spirit of pastor you manage. Here's the spirit of pastor you manage, excellence, attention to detail. I would not give something to my pastor if my pastor was pastor you manage without first looking at it, without first proofreading it, without first making sure there wasn't any obvious, just blatant mistakes on it because I would realize this guy is going to look at this and realize I misspelled his name. Or I just misspelled, you know, look, I'm not some spelling Nazi, but if you can't spell the word and, we have a problem. And, you know, you can call it being critical. You can go, whatever, I call it my spiritual gift, but I just walk into locations and I walk into things and I see everything, you know, you may have done everything right, but I can see all the things like the light bulbs on and on and this and that, whatever. I'm just saying at this church we value excellence. Have you ever noticed that? I value communication. Look, I'm just trying to help you. All the staff guys should be writing this stuff down, at least that. I value communication. I value people telling me, people talking to me, people keeping me in the loop. I'm just saying, if I were you, and I was a follower under the ministry of Pastor Jimenez, I would realize real quick, that guy likes communication. He likes to be kept in the loop. He likes to know what's going on. He likes to have conversations and he likes people to talk to him, so I'm going to talk to him. Here's what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't do this thing where it's like, tell everybody all my problems except for Pastor and his wife. You know what I would do? Let me go to Pastor and his wife and forget everybody else. I'm just saying, if I was a member here, I would figure out real quick, and maybe you haven't figured it out, so let me just spell it out for you. We value excellence. We value communication. You know something that I value? It's overcoming. It's one of my core values, overcoming. Improvise, adopt, and overcome. I think I preached a sermon on it. You know what I can't stand? I can't stand. I mean, it's just, it's my pet peeve. It's the most irritating thing. I'm trying to not be stressed out, but some of you stress me out. I can't stand it. I can't stand it when people just come to me with a problem, and they're just like, and there. And it's like, okay. I can't even think of an example, and I probably shouldn't even think of one, because as soon as I give it, someone's going to think I'm talking about them, and that's not the point. But I love it when people come to me, and they're like, this is the problem. And it's like, and there's nothing that can be done about it. It's like, okay, well, let's just shut down the church then, okay? Let's just shut it down. I mean, the light switch stopped working, and we can't turn that light. Well, let's just shut the whole thing down. Or, and then to me, I think to myself, you're telling me the problem. I just heard the problem, and I've already brainstormed like 12 ways to fix the problem. So why can't you do that? And you're saying, Pastor, I don't know. I think you're a little, you know, you're taking this far. I'm just trying to explain to you how your boss thinks at work. When you come to him, and you're like, the copy machine is out of ink. It's out of ink. And it's like, okay, well, let's go home. Everybody's fired. Everyone's fired. How about you change the copy ink in the machine? We're out of ink. Do they sell it somewhere? I'm just saying, can you overcome? Can you not just be stopped by every problem and say, well, here's the thing, we're out of ink, but I think they sell it somewhere. I'm not sure, but I'm sure somebody sells it somewhere. Let me figure out a way. Maybe there's some sort of vehicle I can drive to a store. You know what I mean? Overcome. I'm just telling you, it's one of my pet peeves. I can't stand it. I'm like, okay, let's just all die then. We're out of ink. What's the point of living life? You know what I love? I love when people are like, hey, Pastor, here's the problem, which one do you want me to do? Hey, Pastor, here's the problem, but if we could do this and we could do this and we could do this, which one would you like me to do? Then I'm just like, man, there's a sharp person. There's a man after mine own heart because I value overcoming. I value excellence, communication. I'm just trying to tell you because you're the members here. I didn't invite you. I'm just saying if I were you and I was your pastor, I would realize, oh, that guy doesn't like because to him, he sees bringing an excuse and just being like, eh, as laziness. So let me not just bring him a problem. Let me bring him a problem with three viable solutions and ask him which one he'd like me to do instead of just saying, the copy is done with ink. Guess we'll never print a bulletin again. Here's another thing. I value growth. I value growth, spiritual growth, but also physical growth. I value growth. I mean, we have 230 people show up to church every Sunday here, and we've got like 170 people here tonight. We didn't have that 13 years ago. I value growth, and look, please listen to me. This is one of the things, and maybe this is just a little bit of therapy for me tonight. Well, I appreciate all the different ministry we have, and I appreciate all the leaders of those ministries, so I'm not criticizing you guys. I love you. I appreciate you. I couldn't do the safety team without you. I couldn't do the ushers ministry without you. I couldn't do the orchestra ministry without you. I couldn't do the cleaning crews without you. I couldn't do all these things because leaders have limits. But what I've realized is that oftentimes when people lead a ministry or they serve under a ministry, what they think about is their one ministry. And my job is to be like, hey, the safety ministry or the ushers or the orchestra or the prison or the homeschool group, it's all important, but it's not the number one thing. And what I've noticed is sometimes people get so frustrated with how the cleaners are not cleaning and how the orchestra is not orchestrating. Is that the way you say that? The ushers aren't ushering, and the safety team is not being very safe. And people get so upset, and they're like, just fire that person in, just fire that person in, fire that. But here's what you don't realize. I value growth. So because I value growth, I think it's okay to have an orchestra member that maybe is not as good as you think they are or an usher who's not as sharp as you think they should be or a safety person who doesn't shoot as well as you think they should shoot. I don't know. I'm just saying that we get these ideas like, well, they're not this, and they're not that, let's get rid of them. But wait, wait, wait, wait. I value growth, physical growth but also spiritual growth. So I'm okay with letting people grow. I'm okay with them not being as good as we want them to be. Now, I also want them to have excellence, but do you see what I'm saying? I value excellence, but I also value growth. I value communication, but I also value overcoming. So I don't want you to overcome something without keeping me in the loop, but I also just want you to bring me your problems. I want you to communicate with me here's the problem, but I'm not just communicating the problem. I'm also bringing you three viable solutions because I'm going to overcome. Do you understand what I'm saying? Maybe you don't get it, and maybe I'm just dumb. I don't know. I'm just saying if I were you, I'd figure out what my leader wants. I'd figure out what he wants to do, and I'd figure out how he wants to do it, and I would think to myself, I would think to myself, if Pastor Jimenez, you know, I mean, you can also take it this way. You can ask yourself what would Jesus do, or you can ask yourself what Pastor Jimenez would do, and I'm not putting myself on the same level as Jesus. I'm just saying that you might want to ask yourself, if Pastor Jimenez was an usher, well, how would he do it? If Pastor Jimenez was putting the stickers on these envelopes, how would he do it? Because I think he'd put them straight. I think he'd put it centered, and I think he'd make sure it would look nice. He wouldn't make it look like a third grader did it. I'm just saying followers should have the same spirit of the leader. So when you're giving something to the leader, and he's like, this is crap, this is garbage, this looks horrible, you should figure out, oh, this guy likes excellence. Let me be excellent. This guy likes communication, so let me not keep him and his wife out of the loop. This guy likes overcoming, so let me not just barf all my problems without any solutions. Oh, this guy likes growth, so let's give people time to grow. Let's be patient. Let's all grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Go back to Numbers chapter 11. I said, number one, followers need to help their leader. Number two, followers need to have the same spirit as their leader. And look, I'm not saying that I'm perfect, because obviously I'm not perfect. But I hope you can see that I'm trying to produce excellence. I mean, I just spent 11 days in England and Europe. I hate traveling. I hate all sorts of travel. I hate plane travel. I hate cars. I hate driving. I hate it all. I say, why do you do it? For the cause of Christ. But I hope that this morning you sat here, as I preached to you this morning, after spending 11 days in the continent of Europe, and I hope you could tell that I wasn't just phoning it in. I hope you could tell that it wasn't like, oh, the pastor was gone for 11 days. He kind of just got up there and winged it. I mean, I hope you could tell that I studied and thought and prepared. Here's what I'm saying, is that I'm not going to use the excuse that, well, I've been out of town, so you guys excuse me a little bit. I don't really study this morning, but let me just. No, no, no. I'm going to try to give you, to the best of my ability, excellence. So how about you do the same? Excellence in all we do. I said, number one, followers need to help their leader. I said, number two, followers need to have the same spirit as their leader. Number three, look at Numbers 11, 26. But there remain two of the men in the camp. Remember, they just got given the spirit of Moses, and they've been prophesied. And the Bible says in verse 26, but there remain two of the men in the camp. The name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle. And they prophesied in the camp, and there ran a young man and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And I believe what the Bible is saying here, it says that there remain two of them in the camp, because remember, 70 of them were supposed to come out to the tabernacle. But these two stayed in the camp. The name of the one Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. They must have been twins, I don't know. And the spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written. Like they were on the list. They were supposed to come to the tabernacle, but went not out unto the tabernacle. So they didn't go to the tabernacle, but when the men at the tabernacle began to prophesy, they prophesied in the camp. So they're in the camp. And they ran a young man and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. Now why don't you notice verse 28, the Bible says, and Joshua. Of course Joshua, the son of Nun, is going to become the future leader of the nation of Israel. There's a book in the Bible called the book of Joshua. Before Joshua becomes the leader of the children of Israel, and he ends up being one of the greatest leaders of the nation of Israel. He brings the children of Israel into the promised land, and begins to conquer the land to do all the things that really Moses failed to do with the children of Israel in the wilderness. Before Joshua becomes this great leader, he's first a great follower. The Bible says that he was the servant of Moses. Just like Elisha was the servant of Elijah, Joshua is the servant of Moses. So here, I want you to understand the context. Because usually you might think of Joshua like Joshua on the walls of Jericho, or Joshua fighting these battles, and he's the leader. But here, in this instance, Moses is still the leader, and Joshua is his follower, or his servant. Notice what the Bible says, verse 28. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My Lord Moses, forbid them. Because the spirit of Moses had been given to these 70 men. They began to prophesy. They see that. But then there's these two random guys out in the camp, and they begin to prophesy. Now they were written down like they were on the list, but they didn't make it to the tabernacle. So they're out in the camp, they begin to prophesy, and people begin to look at them and say, These guys are prophesying, and somebody comes to Moses and says, Hey, there's these two guys prophesying over there, and Joshua the son of Nun, verse 28, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My Lord Moses, forbid them. Here's point number three. I said number one, followers need to help their leaders. Number two, followers need to have the same spirit as their leader. Here's number three, followers need to protect their leader. And you know, Joshua was wrong here. He was wrong in what he was saying, but his spirit was right. Followers should be jealous over their leaders. Here, Joshua is standing up for Moses and saying, Moses, my Lord, forbid them, don't let them, don't allow them. Go to 2 Samuel, if you would, 2 Samuel chapter 16. From Numbers you have Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 16. See, there's this. I'm going to say it this way, and this is probably the wrong way to say it, and I apologize. But there's this, like, parasitic relationship between followers and leaders. I'm sure that's the wrong illustration, and I'm sorry. But you know, in the wild you have these parasites, and they live off a host. Parasites need the host because they get their nutrients from the host. The host also needs the parasites because they often help with keeping them alive and clean and fending off diseases or whatever. This is definitely the wrong illustration. The relationship between a follower and a leader is similar, in the sense that they both need something from each other. And you know, a leader, whether you realize it or not, is a human being. I know you realize that. And they need the follower to be jealous over them. Almost overly protective. 2 Samuel 16, are you there? Look at verse 5. This is David leaving. He's leaving Jerusalem because his son is trying to kill him. Absalom. And when King David came to Bashurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gira. He came forth and cursed still as he came. And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial. Belial is the devil. David is leaving town because the son Absalom has created a rebellion against him and is trying to kill him, taking the kingdom from him. As David is leaving, he's surrounded by his mighty men. This man Shimei comes out, who's of the family of Saul, who David replaced as king, and he begins to curse David. He says, the Bible says he cast stones at David, and he said, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial. Belial is the devil. He's saying, You're of the devil. This is what Shimei is saying to David. Verse 8. The Lord hath returned upon thee, this is Shimei speaking to David, upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou is reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son, and behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. She's accusing David of being a bloody man, and he's telling David, This is happening. You're getting what you deserve. This is karma, because you're a bad person. Verse 9. Then said Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, this is one of David's mighty men, unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. Now I want you to notice that Shimei was wrong, just like Joshua. Look at verse 10. And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord has said unto him, Curse David, who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? The truth is this, that Shimei was wrong, excuse me, Abishai was wrong, for wanting to go over and take off the head of Shimei. But I'm sure that encouraged David. You understand what I just said? Joshua was wrong to say, Let's go and make these guys stop, Eldad and Medad, let's not let them prophesy. Forbid them, my lord Moses, forbid them. Joshua was wrong. We're going to see that Moses corrects him. But I'm sure it encouraged Moses to know that there were followers who were jealous over him. And look, in the relationship of a follower and a leader, we often consider the fact that the followers need the leader. We need the leader to lead and to make decisions and to provide and to protect. And I believe all that, and I'm all for that. But please understand something. Your leader also needs something from you. He needs to know that you're on his side. He needs to know that you've got his back. And look, he needs to know that you're going to be jealous over him. He doesn't need you to be like, Oh, you're back already? We're hoping you'd be gone longer. You know, he wants to know that he's missed. Look, can I just tell you the truth? You don't have to do this to me, I'm just saying this is just what we are in Numbers 11. But leaders need to know that their followers have their back. And look, I heard Jack Howell say this, and I'm going to say the same thing. I don't need to be your number one pastor or your number one preacher or whatever. Look, some of you, if you like Pastor Anderson more than you like me, or you like Pastor Mejia more than you like me, or you like whoever more than you like me, that's fine. Look, I don't need to be your number one preacher or whatever. But can I just be in the top ten? You know what I mean? Can you just be jealous over your leader? And I'm just telling you, wife, it'll help you in your marriage. I'm just telling you, man, it'll help you at work. You know what the leader doesn't need is when everybody's talking crap about him and you're just like... And then you're like, well, are you loyal? Well, yeah, I didn't say anything. You didn't say anything. But you also didn't say anything. You understand what I just said? Well, they were all criticizing Pastor and saying... They were all criticizing Pastor's wife and saying... And they were all saying that they don't know anything and they're stupid, and Pastor Anderson would do it this way. And I'm loyal, so I didn't say anything. Well, you didn't say anything bad, but you also didn't say anything good. You didn't say anything good for you, but you also didn't say anything. And if you would have stood up and said, hey, I'm for Pastor. Hey, I think Pastor's doing his best. I think Mr. Joanne's doing their best. I hope they come back from England. I'm just saying that you need something from the leaders, but the leaders also need something from you. Followers need to protect their leaders. Followers should be jealous over their leaders. Joshua says to Moses, forbid them, Lord. My Lord Moses, forbid them! Go back to Numbers 11. Keep your place there in 1 Samuel 18. Keep your place there in 1 Samuel or 2 Samuel. We're going to come back to it, but go back to Numbers 11. Notice what Moses says to Joshua, verse 29. And Moses said unto him, this is Moses speaking to Joshua, Envious thou for my sake, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. You know, the truth is this, that followers should be jealous over their leaders, but also leaders should not envy their followers. Joshua says to Moses, forbid them, Lord. Moses, you're the prophet, you're the preacher, you're in charge, and they're over there prophesying, and we're not even sure what they're doing in the camp, and forbid them! And Moses said unto him, envious thou for my sake, he says, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. Ms. Joyce said this to my wife one time, and it was a compliment towards me, and I really appreciate it. She said, you know what I really appreciate about a pastor? Is that he doesn't hog the spotlight. She said, I've never known a church where the pastor lets other men preach. I thought that was interesting. You know, I leave for 11 days, and I let some of these guys preach, and they do a good job. And you know what, if Brother Matt, whichever one, pick one, Matt Barello or Matt Taylor or Brother Oliver or Brother Nate or whoever preaches here, if they become your number one favorite preacher, hey, I'm not upset with that. Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. Will you just let me be in the top ten? See, followers should be jealous over their leaders, and leaders should not envy their followers, and this is this poorly worded illustration of a parasitic relationship. See, oftentimes it is the souls who don't allow the Davids to rise because they're being felt, they feel like, because the women come out and they start singing, Saul is, slate is thousands, but David is ten thousands. And Saul shouldn't have been insecure, but he was. And oftentimes leaders cannot allow, they cannot promote, they cannot promote the people under them because they're insecure. But oftentimes the leader is insecure because the followers are not reassuring them. Right? The followers say, hey, Pastor, I'm going to go visit this other church, my favorite preacher in the other church. I'm going to go, Pastor Przarnsky, and look, God bless Pastor Przarnsky, and Pastor Jones, and Pastor Shally, and Pastor, and my favorite preachers. Hey, praise God for that, but maybe while you're telling us about your favorite preachers, say, and I love you too, Pastor, we'll be back in a week. Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't mean to be your number one, but can I be in the top ten? See, followers need leaders to provide something for them. But oftentimes I don't think leaders realize, followers realize that they need to provide something too for the leader. Moses can say to Joshua, envious thou for my sake. You know why he can say that? Because Joshua just showed him that he loved him and that he was loyal to him. David can say to Abishai, don't leave him alone. You know why David can have that confidence? Because Abishai just showed him that he was loyal and that he was defending David. The reason that Saul could turn against David is because no one was telling Saul, hey Saul, you're cool too. They were saying, well, you've slain a thousand, but David, I mean, look at David. He's slain. It's ten thousand. Look, do whatever you want with the sermon. I'm just preaching. I'm just preaching the book of Numbers. I'm just saying followers need to protect their leaders. And your boss might let you take a bigger role when he doesn't have to be concerned about what you're saying about him at the water cooler. I'm just saying. When followers should be jealous over their leaders. And look, you say, pastor, you're just preaching this. Look, you move somewhere and apply it to that pastor. Apply it to that pastor's wife. Honestly, literally, I'm just preaching through the book of Numbers. And I'm just calling it how I see it. You say, I'm a follower. We're all followers. To some extent, somewhere. You know what followers should do? Followers need to help their leader. Because leaders have limits. And leaders need help. The only way to increase the capacity of any one person, the only way to increase the capacity of any one couple, is for other people to come alongside them and help them carry the burden. Followers need to have the same spirit as the leader. They don't need to have the preeminence. They need to just figure out, what is the leader doing and how is he doing it? And let me help him do it that way. And followers need to protect their leaders. Because when followers are jealous over their leaders and communicate that to them, it helps the insecure leader to say, let me leave for 11 days and let you preach. Let me leave for a time and know that everything will be okay. Followers should be jealous over their leaders so that leaders do not have to envy their followers. Lord, thank you for your word. I don't know if these things have made sense, but I hope they have. The truth is that followers need leaders. They need the leader to provide, to protect, to guide. But I don't know if followers sometimes realize that leaders need something from them. They need their help. They need their protection. They need their assurance. They need their loyalty. We don't have to be their number one. But can we be somewhere on the list? I pray you'd help us learn these lessons, apply them to our lives. From the matchless name of Christ we pray, amen. We're going to have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. I just want to remind you that this week is a big week. There's lots going on. So first of all, just don't forget that we've got our soul-winning push on Thursday, September 7th at 6 p.m., Friday, September 8th at 6 p.m. and Saturday, September 9th at 10 a.m. We'd love for you to make it to all three of those if you're able to do that. I realize some of you are commute and you're not able to make it to everything and I get that. But if you can make it, we would love for you to make it and help us with the soul-winning push. Put the effort in to be there to help us, of course, try to preach the gospel. We want to pass out as many of these flowers as possible. And if you want to help on Saturday afternoon to pass out whatever's left over, then sign up and let us know about that as well. And we'll buy you a Starbucks drink and you can help us with that. If you have any of these on Saturday that are left over, please bring them back and put them in the bin so we can pass them out. And then, of course, Sunday is family and friend day. It's our 13-year anniversary. We're going to have lunch after the service, anniversary mugs, candy suckers, special music. Make sure you're here for that. Don't forget about that. That's not the day you want to miss. And that night, Brother Stuckey is going to be with us. He'll be with us that morning, but he'll be preaching that night, our evangelist, so make sure you're here for that. You're not going to want to miss that, all right? Make sure you're here for Brother Stuckey. He's a great preacher. He's really an amazing preacher, and I don't know when he'll ever be back in the States after this. It's been a long time, so make sure you don't miss that and be here to encourage him on Sunday night. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. If you would not mind looking around your area, kind of cleaning up, putting your hymn books back and make sure everything's tidy, it would help with the cleaning tomorrow. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. We'll have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. Turn to song number 100. One, zero, zero. Day by day, one hundred on the first. Day by day, and with each passing moment, Strength I've gathered to meet my trials here, Trusting with my father's words he's so humble, I've no trust for any one but you. He whose heart is by me alone as you, Is untrue, he's shamed by these veins. Love of me is part of me and my soul, If they take me somewhere else. Every day my world is selfishly me, With a special support each one. All my cares have been bare and cheery, He who's very much close and very proud. The protection of his childhood treasure, Is a charge that I'll never set free, As I raise my star-spangled hand, Is a gift to me. Good, sing it on the last. Help me, baby, in each generation, So to bless our promises away, God and his grace with consolation, Love to be loved here on one day. Help me, Lord, don't toil and trouble me, God and his grace will take us from our father's hand, One by one, thank you, Lord, Come and speak to me, Till our hearts are filled with joy. Amen. Good singing. Before we leave here, if anybody has questions about salvation, church membership, or baptism, the pastor would love to talk to you at the door, or direct you to someone who's trained to talk about that. Brother Graham, would you call the prayer for us? Father God, thank you for this day, thank you for this message, and thank you for Pastor Robert. Please give us a thank to help him carry out your will. Bless us the rest of the week, and bring us back safely on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.