God's Nation Formed: Culture

Preached by Jaren Singh on 9/15/24

Transcript

0:50

Hello and welcome to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We're Startup Church. We just planted in September, 2020, and at the Kalamazoo Church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. This morning, we're going to look a little bit about like the culmination of all of these things and how they create a culture of people. You know, you guys know culture, we say it all the time. This is on Google. Google is not good for everything, but it's good for some things. But this culture is like this, this customs, and it's usually a unique language or a way of doing things. And this, this culture, we understand American culture. And if you've been overseas, you'd understand there, they live in a different culture. And even if you had, if you even go to Canada, I was, I don't know who I was talking to about this, that you kind of look the same. We talk a little bit different. The humor is a little bit different. And it's, it's just not exactly the same, right? Certainly we understand this in the Midwest. There's a unique Midwest culture that we are really like, you've heard of Midwest nice. Midwest nice is great at times. Midwest nice also leads to a lot of passive aggression, right? When do I, how do I ask somebody to leave when they've overstayed their welcome in my home? I don't know. Well, it's been, it's been great to have you. You know, man, that's a little bit forward, isn't it? There's a lot of other, there's a lot of great things about Midwest culture. The finding a way to say goodbye without, you know, high fiving everybody and making you, that's a tough thing to do as you, as you grow in your connection to, you know, the church and his people, you'd understand saying goodbye in a, in a function where there's any more than 10 people is almost impossible because you just get caught up and you start talking and, and, and Bianca, Bianca doesn't, I do, I should say. There's also a culture like biologically, correct, and, and, and you think like a Petri dish and you put a culture of cells and those cells grow. You can, you add food and stuff. Yeah. I'm like, I think this is what happens. I don't know. I wasn't good at that class. Petri dish is the right word though, I believe. You can, you can feed the culture like this, this group of cells and they grow. You can give it some food and it'll grow. You can give it a lot of food. It'll grow. You can, after a while you can kind of do nothing and depending on what it is, it kind of just grows. And I think our culture can, can be the same way. Now work with me here. Like our church culture in, in a lot of ways, it's, it's just going to grow. Right. Um, and that's, that's a good thing. That's also a scary thing if you're not focused on what, how am I, how am I growing this culture? How am I, how am I being a part of what we're trying to build? Work with me here. I don't think any church starts off opening the doors and is like, I just, let's be the weirdest church on the block. Like let it, let's just do everything we can to ostracize ourself from the whole community. Let's just make sure they feel bad walking in. Let's not say hi to them. Let's do that. Let's, let's make sure that every joke is an inside joke. Let, you know, let's just do that. No church says that, right? No church is like, I want to be manipulative. I want to turn people off to Jesus. No, no church says, I want to make people feel distanced from us when they show up and I want to make sure they know they're not wholly like us. No church, no church says that. But maybe you've been in a church that that's acted that way. I hope, I hope it's, I hope it's not this church. No one says it, but it happens and it happens. I would put before you that you can look at church culture. You can look at churches in general and if you have been able to identify, maybe you've been in the middle of one and then left and been like, man, that was a weird group of people or that was, the people can be weird. I think the culture probably shouldn't be, it shouldn't be as weird. Um, maybe you've left feeling like, I just, I didn't, I wasn't fed or I didn't feel connected or there was some, there was some weird taste in my mouth. I can't put a finger on it and I'd put before you, it's because there was a lack of focus of Jesus being at the center. You can look at every, and that's what we're going to talk about this morning, but you can look at every church, every culture, uh, is every church culture and every like group of people. And if Jesus is not at the center, it's going to start being a little bit funky. Now Jesus is certainly, Oh, Jesus is a part of church. Great. Yeah, absolutely. But if he's not the center, then we're going to get funky. And I, I want to, uh, I want to share that. That's not only for this church. I want you to know that's for your family as well. Um, that's for your marriage as well. That's for your relationship. I'm not married. I don't have kids. That's for all of your relationships as well. As well. If Jesus isn't at the center, things are going to get funky from time to time. I want to look at three, uh, three points of Jesus showing up in the book of numbers. You're like, Jesus only showed up in the new Testament. I'm like, no, no, no. We'll see. There's three, uh, three moments that Jesus shows up in the old Testament and we're going to make sense of it for our lives. Amen. Here we go. We're in numbers two in verse one. And it says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, the Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banner of their family. Pause here. We're not going to read all of the context behind this, but this tent of meeting is what we talked about last Sunday. Like this, this tabernacle was at the center and, uh, the Israelites were taught in these, the different tribes to camp out and set up shop. And then when this cloud moved, they would do the same, they would move as well to wherever the cloud rested. We don't know exactly what this camp looked like, but if we follow how it directed people in the Bible, like how it directed these people to organize, then it might've looked something like this, um, which is, you know, a cross if you guys are seeing, and these are all, again, all of the tribes in the middle is, is the tent. And, uh, it's possible that it looked like a cross, like the math on either side of like the two ends, there was about equal people, uh, on, I think it's the West if, uh, basically on the bottom, there was significantly more on the top, there was a little bit less. And so perhaps Jesus showed up, uh, on, on the cross right here. Uh, you know, we, and he said, camp under your standards, like camp under with your group of people under your standards. You know, I think that the truth is that we camp, uh, under our standards as well, right? These standards, they're not inherently bad. Like you need standards. If you're going to, uh, have any friends at all, um, most of us needs to, I guess if you can find people with no standards and then coalesce with them, that's fine. But, you know, if you're going to be, if you're going to be a person like you need, you need standards. And if you're going to be a group of people that is, they're trying to follow and love and serve God, then you need standards as well. But our standards need to be Jesus's standards and they can't be more. And they, they shouldn't be less work with me here. You know, you, again, you look at any, uh, any church and you look at when cultures get messed up and probably their standards are either way above what Jesus's standard is or their standard is way below what Jesus's is. Um, I think it can look like, you know, what, what, what is Jesus's standard? What do we want to do? Well, what I see in the Bible is I look at Jesus and I see somebody who everybody wanted to, everybody who had a soft heart, uh, wanted to be around him. I see somebody who, when, uh, like the worst of the worst were looked down upon, he was like, come on in. And I see somebody who wasn't really scared to talk to the top of the top. You think about the rich young ruler and how, man, this spiritual guy, and he says, you, you lack one thing. And then you think of the poor of the poor and they flocked to him as well, and he was able to talk to all of them. And I see that, but then I see the people who consider themselves to be spiritual, considered themselves to be close to God, consider themselves to be worthy and looked down on these two groups of people. I see Jesus going head to head with those guys too. Right? And so what we are trying to build and we're not perfect and we're never going to be perfect. We're trying to build a group that everybody feels like I should be able to like everybody on the street. It doesn't matter your nationality, your, your gender, your, uh, your socioeconomic, none of that, your age, you should be able to come in and feel like, okay, these, these people are different, but I'm cool with it. Like they, they really, they really like me. Um, but anybody who says, I want to be a Christian, like I want to be a follower of Christ, uh, then we need to hold them to the standard that Jesus holds people to in that case too. Can't be more. And we can get weird, man. If we're like, you know what? Everybody can come on in, just do your thing. We don't want to be that. Uh, that, that's not what I see in the Bible. It is what I see in some churches and we don't want to be somebody that says you've got to be perfect before you come on in to the faith because that's, that's messed up as well. Amen. The second thing that I want to look at is the rock of Christ. Uh, this is the second sighting. If you're, you're with me here, it's in numbers 20 now. I'm going to read a little bit more, but right up here is kind of six through 12. I'll read a little bit of context on either on either end of it. It says, now there was no water for the community and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, if only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why'd you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness that we and our livestock should die here? Why'd you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs or grapevines or pomegranates and there's no water to drink. Moses and Aaron went to the assembly, went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell face down and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, take your staff and you and your brother Aaron, gather the assembly together, speak to the, to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink. So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock? Then Moses raised his arm and struck the ground twice with his staff, struck the rock twice with his staff, water gushed out in the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them. These were the waters of Meribah where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them. Pause here. Their culture that they're building, it's not going great right now. They were captive, they were in slavery and they're like, it would have been better if we would have just died with the other unspiritual people, like we would have, it would have been much better. Like we don't even got pomegranates here. Uh, you, you, you see the lack of gratitude and Moses maybe understandably is frustrated and it's like, we got to talk to God. Like I bring in my, my brother, he's like my spokesperson, we're going to go and we're going to talk to God and he's going to solve this. And what does God, what does God tell him to go do then? He says, speak to the rock and water's going to come out. That's that's amazing. I mean, that's amazing. Moses goes and he speaks to the people and he says, he calls them rebels and you see the frustration perhaps in his voice. He calls them rebels. Uh, and he says, how much longer, uh, you know, we are going to do this. And he's like, he's frustrated. And then he strikes the rock twice. And this is not what, what, what God told him to do. You know, it sounds again, we read it and we're like, Oh, he, he did pretty good. He did almost good. He, he kind of followed, uh, but kind of following is not following. Oh, right. Yeah. You know, if you, if you have kids, you'd understand that, uh, kind of listening is not listening for us though. Kind of listening. Isn't listening either. I remember when I was, uh, I was a sophomore in college. I was, I was opening the Bible, studying the Bible with one of my, one of my friends that I had met. And, uh, well, I wasn't really studying with him. I just brought him out and my campus minister was studying with him. And, and I remember him asking me, my campus minister, he gave me this direction. He was like, Hey, go ahead and ask Steve if he, uh, would want to come out to this one event or something like that. He said, Hey, we asked him if he wants to come out. And so I had every intention to ask Steve if he wants to come to this event. Cause I knew it was a good event. It was an event that like, you know, it was a spiritual, spiritual focus, but there was a little bit of sacrifice involved. So I, I went up to Steve and I was like, Steve, dude, uh, how's your week going? And he was an engineer and he just, or an engineering student. And he just talked, talked to me about all this stuff that he had going on throughout the week. And he said, man, I'm, I got this test on Wednesday and the event was on Tuesday. I got this test on Wednesday that I'm studying for and I got this and I got this and he went down the list and I was like, you know, that's a lot of stuff. Um, he's got a lot going on. And so I decided I was like, I'm not going to ask Steve if he wants to show up on Tuesday because he's a test on Wednesday. Like it's a lot for him. I don't want to be over, I don't want to overwhelm him. And I remember then I met with my campus minister and he said, Hey dude, um, did, did you ask Steve? What did Steve say? And I said, you know, Steve was pretty busy. And he said, okay, but did he tell you that he was busy or, and he said, no, he said he was busy. Um, I, then, then he asked, like he kind of prodded and I was like, this is going downhill because now I'm like talking around. And then he said, did you ask Steve to come to Tuesday's event? And I said, you know, uh, I didn't ask Steve to come to Tuesday's event. And I, I listened a little bit, but I didn't listen all the way. And he, and I remember Dwayne sharing with me, uh, he was, he just shared like, Hey, you just, you missed, basically you didn't give Steve the opportunity to show his faith. Like if Steve shows up, it's because he loves God. Not because he cares about you. Trust me. Like he doesn't, it's more because he loves God. Like, but you gave him that opportunity. There was an opportunity there that you didn't afford him a chance to grow and show his faith to, uh, to God. And I remember just feeling like at the time it was like, this is transformative because I don't got to feel bad about asking for people, uh, to do stuff. As long as I frame it, like I'm not trying to manipulate you, but this is for God. Um, but listening a little bit of the way, isn't listening all the way. And, and it's, it's really sad because the reason why Moses isn't able to go in the promised land is because he didn't listen all of the way. Um, there's something else here, uh, that I don't know what we're going to do with, but it's, it's in first Corinthians 10 and a, you can just, you can just reference it. It's this is now Paul talking about, uh, talking about what, what happened here. It says, for I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact that brothers and sisters that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. And that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Yo, Moses just hit Jesus. Yeah. That was disrespectful. He like, like, I don't, I mean, I don't, again, I don't know what we're doing with it, but, but he said the rock is Christ, you know, Jesus is described as a rock and he describes himself as a rock. Uh, and he describes, um, other people describe him as a rock all over. Peter talks about Jesus as being, uh, this, this rock and, uh, and Paul talks about Jesus as being a rock as well. Um, he's, he's called in multiple places, but he identifies himself. And then later Paul calls them like the chief cornerstone, like this is the rock that has to be in place. If everything else is going to work and if this rock is not in place, nothing else is going to work. And it might look good for a time, but it will never last. And this is what, who Jesus identifies as being and who Paul says, this is who you are. You are this rock. You know, the, the truth of the matters, either Jesus is the rock that we build our life on, or he's just going to be this stumbling block and he's going to be a rock, but it'd be a rock that we stub our toe on all of the time. Uh, you've, you perhaps you're in the spot now, but if you're not, then perhaps you've been in the spot of feeling, I appreciate Jerry sharing your, there's one foot in and there's one foot out and I know the right thing, but I can't make myself do it. And it's so tough and this is, it's so stressful to try to live for God, but it's stressful when I don't live for God because I know what I should be doing and you're, you're battling between two, uh, competing, uh, competing values. And this is perhaps what stubbing your foot looks like. I remember living so much of my life, uh, especially early part of my Christianity, just stubbing my foot. Like nothing seemed to go well. It just, it kind of hurt and I'd feel good at times like I missed the rock, but because Jesus wasn't, uh, I wasn't building my life on Jesus. I was building my life on some of his truths or some of what people said, or perhaps the culture of the church that I grew up in. It just didn't last. This is the last thing that we'll, we'll look at the healing of Christ says in, in numbers 21, it says they traveled from Mount, uh, along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom, but the people grew impatient on the way they spoke against God and against Moses and said, why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Man, I say that a lot. There is no bread, there is no water and we detest this miserable food. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. They bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, we have sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it on a pole. Anyone who was bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived again. Think about these people. They are given water from a rock, there is food that comes up. They have what they need, perhaps they don't have what they want and it involves trusting God every step of the way and they are complaining. You get one person complaining, we can manage it, but then you get a couple of people and hundreds of thousands of people and everybody is complaining, they are going to Moses and then God is holy and he sends these poisonous snakes. Why? I am not positive, but I think it points to them needing to trust him. He brings these poisonous snakes, then they get bit and then the people have some kind of repentance. Like, just, we should not have said what we said, please take this away. And instead of taking the snakes away, he gives them a way out of being bitten by snakes. It would make sense if our God should take the snakes away. They try to repent, they want to follow him. Take the snakes away. But God does not take the snakes away. He says, the snakes are going to stay, but when you get bitten, there is going to be a way out of dying. And what is really amazing is this passage is connected to Jesus in probably the most popular scripture, or little bit of scripture, at least in America. And what would you guys say is the most popular scripture in America? John 3.16. John 3.16, exactly. Do you know what happens right before John 3.16 or what it's talked about? And we're going to learn right here. It says, this is John 3.16, or John 3 starting in verse 13. No one has ever gone into heaven except the son who came from heaven, the son of man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. So this connection is made, that there's, the snakes are not going to be removed, just like they weren't removed in the wilderness. But Jesus being lifted up, perhaps in that moment they didn't understand, what we'd understand now is being lifted up on a cross. And so they were able to look at the snake on a pole and be healed. We're able to tap in and lock into Jesus on a cross and to be healed as well. So it begs the question, like, what is biting you right now? What sin is nipping at your heels that's right there? When you get bitten, we've all been bitten, we all will get bitten. When you get bitten and you get discouraged or you mess up, maybe it's, maybe you decide that I'm going to walk amongst the snakes, maybe some snakes just come up and bite you. Where do you go to for healing? Jesus is saying, I'm the one that's going to heal you, come to me for healing. Don't go to the world, don't go to addiction, don't go anywhere there, come to me and I will heal you. That's a promise of his. We want to be people who can lead people to Jesus when they're in the middle of being bitten or when they're on the way to get bitten. We want to, this is, how are we building our cult? Well, we want to, that's exactly why. People should be able to come in and feel like, man, these are the people that are going to help me to get right with God. If we're doing that, then we're doing our jobs, amen? We're closing out then and ending our series and we're going to look in the coming weeks at this promised land then and what comes of it. But I want to read in Deuteronomy 30, that right now these people, they're on the brink of the promised land and they're seeing, and Moses knows that he's going to die before he gets there. He's not going to be able to see this promised land, or he's going to see it, but he's not going to be able to live inside of it. It says in Deuteronomy 30, now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in the heaven so that you have to ask who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey, nor is it beyond the sea so that you have to ask who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey. No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction, for I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws. Then you will live and increase and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing to Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Family, it's always our choice. What are we building as a church, but what are you building in your family, what are you building in your marriage, what are you building in your friendships, what are you building as a parent, what are you building as a grandparent, or as a cousin, or as a relative? It's always a choice and there's great blessings if we choose to follow, but there is also a consequence if we choose not to follow. Let's be those who decide to allow ourselves, find we're going to be bitten, let's look to God. Let's allow ourselves when we want to complain and we want to grumble, let's look to God and make sure that he is the chief cornerstone, amen? Let's pray right now and then you guys will be dismissed. Dear God, Lord, we come to you and we are in awe of all of the grace that you've shown us, Lord. Even reading just a little bit in the wilderness and seeing how holy you are and seeing how perfect you are, and then seeing how gracious you are to allow us to be healed, Lord, to give us that opportunity. Lord, I am so grateful that you don't treat us like our sins deserve, Lord. I'm grateful that you treat us according to our followership of your son, Jesus. I'm so grateful that you died on a cross for us, that you decided that we were worth it and that we were worthy. Lord, I realize that there's no way that we can repay you and all you're asking is for us to give you everything, Father. I pray that we will do that today, this week, and then for the rest of our lives. Lord, we love you so much. Jesus, this is in your name that we pray, amen. Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.