Numbers | The Wanderer

Owen Huard continues a series called Heart of God. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Um but hey, good morning guys. How are we doing this morning? Enjoying the beautiful Texas sun. I hope. Like Drake said, my name is Owen. I'm our salt company director here. I lead our college ministry. The salt company, baby, let's go. Oh, we we love having our students uh and we miss them. We miss them. It's the summer. Uh this is a boring time in my job because all of my friends have uh gone away uh back home. So I'm looking forward to this August. We've got uh 30 student leaders that are coming on um to our team this year. That is uh one goal uh pastor class and then reach this campus for Jesus, which we're so excited for. Um but hey, this morning I get the privilege of opening God's word with you guys uh this morning. Um but hey, before we do that, I've got a quick question. Anybody in here, uh, do we have any like travelers, frequent flyers in the room? Anybody that that likes to travel? Okay, very few. Okay, Roger travels. That's great, Roger. Um, I knew that, Roger. Come on. Anyway, okay, uh, guys, quick, quick story to start. Hey, my wife and I, I don't know if we're frequent flyers, but we do travel a little bit. Uh and we have got some family back up in the Midwest in Michigan. And just last week, we we went back uh back there. We had a wedding to go to, we were seeing some some family hanging out on the lake, which is just beautiful uh this time of year. And uh we go back, spend a couple days there, and it's great. We fly up there together, but on the some there's just some some circumstances. I went on a work trip, she stayed, so we flew back separate to Texas, okay? Here's where things get interesting. Okay, I fly back and I'm waiting for for my wife uh to uh to get back. She's coming home late uh on one night, like 10 o'clock, okay? And uh she gets it's a small airport she's flying out of, she's got a connection in Detroit, and then she's coming straight home um to Dallas, which is great. She gets through security, she gets to the gate, and um she gets on the plane, everything's great. I get the text, hey, I'm on the plane, I'll see you in a couple hours. I'm stoked, I'm ready, the house is all clean, uh, our dog is just waiting for us, and it was gonna be uh a great time to see her home. Like 15 minutes later, I get a text. Say, hey, flight's delayed. AC isn't working in the plane for some reason. It's like, okay, bummer. Didn't know we needed AC to fly in Michigan. All right, in Texas, I understand. Um, but in Michigan, it's like, I think we could get away with that, you know? Um, but it's like, hey, it's gonna be an hour and a half before maintenance gets there. And then they gotta fix it, and then we gotta fly. She's gonna miss her connection. No biggie, right? No biggie. So her mom comes, picks her up, she's gonna spend one more night in Michigan, okay? This was gonna be completely fine, except there's one thing that that I haven't told you that. If you know my wife, um there's like two things that you need to know about her. One, she does not get social anxiety at all. So I have permission that I'm telling this story, but also she doesn't care what you think about her. And then two is that the best day of her life and the most important day every year is her birthday. Okay, she loves her birthday, it's a national holiday, uh, and it's and it's deserved, okay? She deserves every single minute uh of praise that she gets. But this this day, her flight gets canceled the day before her birthday. Okay, so her flight, she's flying home. We're gonna celebrate her birthday the next day, and her flight gets canceled, so she's flying home the morning of her birthday. Okay, it's fine. You know, we're flying Delta, they're reliable, and she gets it rescheduled next morning. Same deal, Kalamazoo to Detroit, to Michigan. We got it. And then it's rinse and repeat. Okay, we I get she gets there, security on the plane, I get the text. Hey, I'm gonna be home in a couple hours. Very excited. I was like, okay, great. Then I get another text. Hey, flight's delayed. 45 minutes, okay. Antenna's broken. Don't know what the antenna's for, but it's broken and we can't fly without it, okay? So it's 45 minutes. Right now we're pushing time, okay? She gets up in the air, she gets to Detroit. Guys, she lands and she's got five minutes to get to her gate, okay? Again, she doesn't care about social anxiety, so she's the first one up out of her seat and she runs to the front of the plane. Not me, but that's her. Runs to the front, she's like, I got a plane to catch. So she she gets out, she's only seven gates away, guys. It's like three minutes now. Okay, so she she gets off the plane and she's running. By the time that she gets down there, it's like, uh oh. It's happening. Gates closed, doors closed, nothing, not you're not getting on that plane, Maggie. And I, guys, what's next? I get a call. Man, she's in tears. She's like, Oh, and I'm not coming home for my birthday. I said, babe, you're gonna come home. Uh, just maybe not right now, okay? It's like she's just in, she's having, you know, anxiety. She's like, oh my gosh, I'm never gonna come home. Uh it's like I I I cannot, I can't fly anymore. You know, it's like I'm not getting on this next flight. Um, she's just traumatized from this. Guys, she told me this, okay? You can imagine just like a movie scene is happening. She's running. I'm she literally said she went up to the door and started pounding on the door. She said, Let me in, please, let me in. She's just like begging to get on this plane. But she stayed in Detroit for another four hours. We she visited probably every restroom. Uh, she got a banana there, she had a good time, but she was wandering uh around the airport, and it was just uh an adventure that she went on that maybe was potentially the worst day of her life, okay? Um, but anyway, here's why I tell you the story. I tell you the story because this morning we're gonna open up God's word and we're gonna look in the book of Numbers. Okay, we're gonna see just like Maggie was wandering around that airport, going on an adventure that maybe she didn't love, the Israelites are doing the same exact thing. Okay, in Numbers this morning, the Israelites are going to be wandering around the desert, not really sure what to do, with only one desire to go home, to go to the promised land. It's in the book of Numbers that we see Israel encountering suffering that can only compare to the travel day that my wife had. Okay. So, guys, if you joined us last week, I want to catch you guys up to where we're at. Drake last week uh taught through the book of Exodus, and we saw that the nation of Israel is spared, okay? We get the Passover lamb happening in Exodus. So they're in Egypt in slavery. God spares them from their judgment, spares them from the Pharaoh, and he passes over um the house of all the Israelites, and they eventually are freed from slavery. Okay, they cross um, you know, the Red Sea and we're into the uh on our way to the promised land, okay? That's where we're at uh so far. Guys, what happens after this? If you continue reading into Exodus and into Numbers, you see that Israel, they're brought up and out of slavery in Israel, or in Egypt, and led by the Spirit of God into the desert where they're waiting for one thing to go home, to go to the promised land. Okay, it's in the wilderness that God makes this covenant with his people. Okay, he makes a covenant on Mount Sinai. Moses has got it. He's coming down, and guess what? There's disobedience. We enter this cycle with the Israelites where a covenant is made with God. Israel acknowledges that covenant, and then they disobey, which leads to God's judgment on the people. And then Moses has to intercede for them, and then God makes another covenant. It's just this cycle that goes throughout the Old Testament. Right? And all of this leads to one moment in Numbers chapter 13 that is pivotal for us today to understand it. Right, as they approach the promised land, they send 12 spies. 12 people, one spy for each tribe of Israel into the promised land to scout it out. Say, hey, go see what we're dealing with. Uh how's the land doing? Like, what can we expect when we enter in? Because we're gonna have to fight them. They send 12 spies in. Guys, if you've read the story, you know that 10 of them come back. Say, guys, I'm not sure this is it. The people who, the spies who go in there, they come back, report, hey, these people are strong, they got a good army. I don't know if we should go in. And there's two that say opposite. Only two spies, we know them as Joshua and Caleb, see that the Lord, they don't forget the promises of God. They know that God has promised this land to them. They say, hey, we should go in. Even though they are strong, they might have a good army. They remember the promise of God. They say we should go in. Well, that's not what Israel ends up going with. And they end up turning around. They say, We can't go in. Because of this rebellion, God promises that the whole generation that was standing so close, just feet away from the promised land, that they would never enter into it, that they would die before they entered into the promised land. So this kicks off 40 years of wandering around the deserts, right? Endless camping. Okay, do you have any camping fans? I used to camp, but it's like endless for 40 years of camping that would probably get tiring after a little bit. Okay, it's gonna be it's gonna lead us to where we are this morning. You can go to chapter 21 of Numbers, and we're gonna see God's heart in a very specific way this morning. We've been kind of describing each book with one word, God's heart for uh whatever it is. And this morning, we're gonna see that in Numbers 21, we have a unique view into God's heart for the wanderer, God's heart for the person who is wandering, right? Certainly the Israelites in the desert, but also today in our life. The person who has no clear direction in life, only wanting to go home. God has a specific heart for that person. And let's look at it. We're gonna start in verse 4 of Numbers 21. Here's what it says Then they set out from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Edom. The Israelites have been, all right, so at this point, the Israelites they've been wandering around the wilderness for years, going from camp to camp, country to country, whatever it is, and they see we start to see the consequence of this, right? They've been uh traveling everywhere. This is what this is what it says next. By but the people became impatient because of the journey. Verse 5 The people spoke against God and Moses. Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food. Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them, so that many Israelites died. They've been traveling so long, and here's what they start to do. In their heart and in their mind, they start to question not only Moses and his leadership, like, hey Moses, are you sure you know where we're going? Like, did you hear God correctly when he said we're going this way? But they don't only question him, they start to question God Himself. Like, why have you done this to us? They've become impatient, they've become ungrateful. And because of it, they've seen that they are going to suffer because of it. God's gonna send snakes to them. But look how, like, how do we even get to this point? What had to happen in the hearts of everyone to get us to this point that is often in our own wandering, in the own average, everyday life, life that we feel is in the desert of this world, far from the presence of God, that we start to wander away from the presence of God. We start to lose sight of what God has given us and what he has promised us. That the book of Numbers might be written to the people of Israel, but the message that we see in it is certainly still for us today. Okay, so for the rest of our time this morning, I've got three heart postures that often lead us to wanting to wander from the presence of God. Three warnings that we see in numbers 21 that can act as a warning to watch out for. Okay, look back at verse 4. Here's what it says when they set out from Mount Horror by way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Eden. Okay, like we said, Israel's wandering. And just before 21, just before numbers 21, we see, okay, they turn away. They turn away from the promised land, they were so close to it. And they longed to be there, and you can see what's happening. The people became impatient because of the journey that they were on. It's too much for them.

unknown 11:32

Right?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

I don't necessarily blame them though, right? Like a long travel day is one thing, but how about years of it? Okay, endless, just wandering around. That's gonna cause some impatience, I'm imagining. That's the first heart posture that we need to be weary of is a heart that is impatient. Impatient with what God is doing in our lives, where he is sending us in our lives, right? This is the case for Maggie. She just wanted to be home. This is the case for the Israelites.

unknown 11:59

Right?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

This is why the book of Numbers is so applicable for us today, right? It's often overlooked, uh, you know, if it's in the reading plan or honestly just in general, but the Israelites, they're going through something very, very similar to what we are going through today. Okay, just think of the overarching premise of the book of Numbers. Okay? Here it is. Right? The Israelites who were once enslaved in Egypt are now set free. Given a promise by God to bring them to a land where they're gonna thrive. And all they gotta do is just wait for God to move. And then on our end, we have something very similar, right? Where we have been set free, not from slavery in Egypt, but slavery to sin. We've been given a promise by God to enter into eternity with Him one day, and all we have to do is just wait for God to move, for Jesus to come back. This is a similarity that we have with the Israelites and specifically in the book of Numbers. Where they're wandering in the desert, we might be wandering, waiting for a king to return. Here's where the Israelites get it wrong, guys. There's an opportunity for them to trust in the God in the plan of God. Unfortunately, for them, that opportunity was not taken. It's in these moments of waiting that we're given an opportunity to take a step back, recognize that, yeah, the situation might not be great. The plane might be delayed a little bit. But at the end of the day, trusting in the word of God as the only foundation for which our life can be built on. That it's not gonna crack. James, he gives us an encouragement on waiting for the Lord. He says this in verse 7 of chapter 5. He says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord's coming. And then he gives us an image for what this looks like. What does it look like to be patient? He says, See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts because the Lord's coming is near. Or in other words, it's saying, Hey, I know it seems like God might be far away. The end might be anything but near, but we need to have endurance. We need to be strengthened. Strengthen our hearts, just like the fields are strengthened by rain. King's church, the spiritual rain that we are in so desperate need of, is the word of God. It's the word of God. Psalm 1 says that the man who is happy is a man who delights in the law of the Lord. He's like a tree that's planted by streams of water that feeds, it digs deep roots next to the river. It feeds off of the nutrients of the river. Because our patience through the journey, our patience in the wandering can be found by reading, meditating, and believing the already foretold promises of God. Knowing that one day these promises will come true. That we will enter into the presence of God and we will step into his glory one day. That is our hope that we have in impatience. Okay, a heart that is impatient is a heart that is prone to wander away from God. But that's not all though. We'll see the next one in verse 5. Look back in Numbers 21. It says the people spoke against God and Moses, saying, Why have you led us from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food. The next heart posture a warning is a warning against an ungrateful heart. A warning against an ungrateful heart. You know, I ask Maggie. It's like, okay, Maggie, I gotta be, you know, relatable here. How have I been ungrateful in the past, you know, little bit? She's probably the best person to say that. And here's what she said, which is pretty uh crazy. He said, Well, you're ungrateful when I make a salad for dinner. I was like, okay, amen to that. Uh, you know, no more salads, we want meat. Um, but seriously though, I think this actually says a lot, like the response that she gives, man, I'm grateful for salad. Just like the Israelites, man, they're ungrateful for the food that God has been giving them. We live in it in this day and age where there are so many different ways to just constantly go back to something to be fulfilled. Okay, I mean I'm thinking uh social media, that's like the biggest one. Man, we can scroll endlessly. It's just real after real, whatever it is, post after post. Just thinking that, hey, maybe the next one is gonna fulfill me. Okay, one more episode. Right? Maybe it's uh the nicer car, that's what you need in life. Or maybe, fellas, it's a new set of clubs for the golf course. It's like that's what's gonna make me a better golfer, and it's what's gonna fulfill me. Trust me, it will make you better, and you're not you're not defined by your golf score, okay? But this is the mindset that we have. We fall victim to this, continually going back to those things. When we have our minds set on what we don't have, we often forget what we already have. When we have our minds set on something that we don't have, we forget what God has already blessed us with. In the case of the Israelites, this is especially true. Because here they're complaining about how bad their bread is and that they don't have enough water. Okay? Now, I haven't been camping in the desert for years, like they have, but I'm pretty sure that bread raining from heaven is not something that happens very often. Okay? It's like this is the story that they are living. They've been wandering a pretty long time, and guess what? For 40 years, day after day, God has opened up the heavens and made bread rain from heaven. Like what a miracle that is. Not only bread from heaven, but he's making water come out of rocks. To what? To sustain the Israelites. Every single day for those 40 years that God has provided. Yeah, where's the heart of the Israelites gone? It's gone to what? That they don't have, or maybe that this bread isn't good enough for us. This is the bread that has sustained them in the wilderness for so long. But they've got the wrong heart posture. The gift that God has given them starts to look less like a gift and more like something that they deserve. Something that they ought to have, something that they've earned. But guys, we can't forget. The whole reason that they're in this situation is because of their own sin. The only thing that they have earned is judgment from God. They're even lucky to be alive in the first place. And yet God, being gracious and merciful, has supplied them with everything they need. His presence with them, bread and water to sustain them. A commentator on this on this chapter, he says this. It says, When a person's heart is intent on rebellion and beset by discontent, even the best gifts from the Lord can lose their savor. Nothing will fully satisfy until the heart is made right. Guys, this this is this is so true because it takes me back to when we were moving now to Texas. Okay, we Maggie and I, we got married last April, and then uh the next May, so a month later, uh we literally went on a honeymoon and then we packed up and we moved to Texas. And guys, the the story of uh you know our apartment was kind of crazy. We lived, we just moved apartments uh just this past year, and we kind of found ourselves like at the end of our lease, like we didn't really love this place. It wasn't great. We were kind of complaining about it, okay? It's like we we could do we could do better, you know. But man, we forgot the story of how God even brought us there, okay? Because back last May, when we are driving down to Texas, we packed up our car in the U-Haul. We had all of well, not much of our stuff, but we had all of our stuff packed up in a U-Haul without an apartment. Okay, it's like we were applying for this place, uh, and then it like fell through last minute, and we literally started driving with no with no apartment in mind. We're like, God, we know you're gonna provide, okay? Miraculously on the way down, applied, approved, we are living that thing in two days. It was crazy. Just a hand of God over our lives story right there. It's like, wow, how good is God to give us an apartment? And yet we find ourselves 10 months later complaining, being like, ah, don't know if this is good enough for us. Man, how our hearts have wandered away from the blessings of God. Wandered away from how he has been working in our lives to give us something so graciously, like an apartment, and we're here complaining about it. Here's our encouragement to remember the gifts of God, remember the blessings that he's given us. Because we know that all blessings are from the Lord. David reminds us this in Psalm 103. He gives us a practical way to practice this as well. He says this in verse 2. He says, My soul, bless the Lord and do not forget all his benefit benefits. Right? He says, Remember them. Remember them in your soul. And then he lists each one of them. He says, He forgives all your iniquity, he heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pain, he crowns you with faithful love and compassion, he satisfies you with good things. Your youth is renewed like the eagle. Guys, whether it's through prayer, a journal, or writing it down in your phone so you can see it every single day. If you want to have a heart that's steered towards God, towards a gratefulness towards God, we gotta remember the things that He has already given us. This is the practice of David in Psalm 103, and this should be the practice for us to speak those blessings back to God and say, Lord, how faithful you have been. Thank you for being grateful for what we've been given. Okay, let's keep going. Last one both an impatient and an ungrateful heart will lead us to wander away from God, but even more than that might be the heart that's currently suffering. A heart that is suffering. The trials and temptations that make our hearts wander. Guys, this is certainly true of the Israelites. Okay, here's what verse six says we see God sending his judgment towards the people. He says, Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them, so that many Israelites died. Okay, it took the legit biting of a snake, snakes coming from this earth, for the Israelites to realize oh crap, we messed up. Right? That's what it took. It took their suffering for them to realize that, hey, we actually just paid the ultimate price for our disobedience. Some of them died. Guys, when I think of suffering, I immediately I for some reason, this is the first thing I thought of. When I thought of suffering, um, in like um not super serious way, I thought yard work with your dad, okay? There's like, there's nothing worse than waking up in the fall uh and it's like, okay, I cannot wait. It's sunny, I'm gonna go play football with my friends, and I'm gonna watch college football all day, you know, and you wake up uh and it's early, and you look out the window, and there's a giant pile of mulch in your driveway, and your dad is standing out there with a shovel, like, hey, you, you're coming, okay? Unpaid labor right now, right? We're sun up to sundown. You're getting one break for lunch, uh, and then we're gonna be back in the bed. Okay, it's like that suffering right there. It's like that's where character is made. Okay, maybe your dad is in inside God. It's like uh another form of suffering is hey, hold the flashlight while I'm looking under the under the sink. Okay, there's like no, there's the weight of that is just immense on your shoulders, okay? It's like if you screw up, the bad things are coming, okay? By the end, you're like holding your arm to like hold the flashlight. Like it's the the suffering in in the shoulder is crazy. Right? I say that uh in in an unserious way, but seriously, though the suffering that we have. I mean, there there are people that that are in this room, I can guarantee, that are going through some suffering that most of us can't even imagine.

unknown 23:26

Right?

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Not silly yard worker holding a flashlight, but serious suffering in their life. Like a ch like a child who will not come home. Right? Dealing with the diagnosis of a disease, right? Infertility, persecution in the workplace because of their faith, actual suffering in this room. And I'm sure those people here would 100% rather be bitten by a snake than continue on in the suffering that they're in. The suffering heart is often one that makes us want to wander away from God. Right? You can talk to many people.

unknown 23:59

Right?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Many people who used to be believers, and you say, hey, like why? Why move away? Can't reconcile pain. Can't reconcile the suffering of this world with the good God. I understand that, but there's there's one thing that we all need to know. Whether you're suffering in this room this morning or you will suffer one day, you need to remind yourself that there is a greater purpose in our pain. Now I'm gonna say that again, there is purpose in our pain. And it sounds cliche, right? 100%. Here's what James 1 says it says, consider a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Right, James says that not only will we go through suffering one day, but we can count on it. And we can count them. And we can consider them a joy. Man, how long have we been dealing with this? I'm gonna count the amount of times that this has happened, and I'm gonna count a joy because I know at the end of end I'm gonna be lacking nothing. The testing of our faith produces endurance, and endurance in its full effect, allows us to be mature and complete. The reason that God allows us to suffer in this life is often because he can see a problem in our heart that we are oblivious to. Oh my gosh, this is so true of them. Right? Their heart has uh been rewired, it's turned away from God. And he knows that they are not ready to enter into the promised land. They still have disbelief in their hearts. So what does he do? He takes them through the trials. There is purpose in our pain, there is purpose in the pain of the Israelites. And it's all for one reason. Look in verse 7, we're gonna finish this thing out. It says, The people then came to Moses and said, We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede, intercede with the Lord so that he will take the snakes away from us. And Moses, he does this. This is how God responds. Verse 9. So Moses made a bronze snake, mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, he looked at their bronze snake, he recovered. Guys, you can see the gospel is painted all over this story. Okay, thousands of years before Jesus even walked on this earth. He's being promised to the Israelites here. Right? It's interesting. You can see, like, okay, a bronze snake, a snake on a pole, that doesn't like depict Jesus. Like in a one-to-one, that doesn't really depict. Right? Because often, when we think of it, it's like the snake is often just uh put in the same category as like evil. Right? I think of Genesis 3, okay? The fall of man when Eve gives tempting. Man, it's the snake that goes in there, right? Revelation depicts this as uh a snake as evil. But what God does here to the nation of Israel, the message that he's sending is much deeper. Much deeper. Because when you look at what snake it is, it's not just any old snake, but it's a bronze one. Okay, I had to look this up. But when you make bronze, okay, there's a specific process, it's pretty meticulous. But you have to take the copper, you gotta take tin and uh some other metals, and you build a fire that is so hot that it melts it all down, it purifies the metal into this molten. And you take a mold that you have, and whatever you want, whether it's a snake, I don't know, uh, or you know, statue, whatever it is, and you pour the molten in there, it'll harden and you'll have a bronze, you know, little trinket or statue, whatever it is. But it's the fire. It's the fire that melts it down so that it can be molded. And we combine these two thoughts, right? The the snake as evil and the bronze as purification. Well, in the Bible, I mean these things brought together, we get a message in Numbers 21. That is beautiful. We see that when the bronze snake is lifted on the pole for the Israelites, we're getting the message that, hey, evil is being dealt with. Evil is being dealt with, is being purified, lifted on a pole saying, hey, there is no more payment for it. There is no more reason for it. The evil in this world is being dealt with. When you combine these two, we see a picture in God's heart for the wanderer. So if that's you this morning and your heart is wandering, we look not towards a bronze snake that's on a pole, but rather we look towards a son of man who's on a cross. We see that he who was no sin became sin, so that he might be the payment for it. That it wasn't a snake covered in bronze, but rather it was the God Himself covered in humanity, put on a cross for us, that he might deal with the evil of this world. So that's you this morning wandering, feeling like you're lost in life. There's only one thing to do. It's not uh crawl to the cross, it's not uh, you know, turn around to the cross, but it's simply one thing. Moses he he says it here, it's it's so interesting. He says, all they have to do is look to the cross. There is no work in the gospel. If you're wandering, all you must do is look to Jesus. Look to the Son of Man who's been crucified, and you will be saved. Jesus himself, he knew this. Here's what John 3 says. This is Jesus talking. Just as Moses lifted up this snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. This is the story of the gospel, this is the message of the gospel, that we might be saved, not from a snake bite, but from our sin, from the penalty of sin by the Son of Man put on the cross. Jesus, the one who was patient with the Lord, patient with the Father's plan, the one who was grateful to go to the cross for us, who willingly gave himself for us, and the one who ultimately suffered more than we can ever imagine, that we might never suffer again, to enter into the promise of eternity with him in heaven. As that's the heart of God in Numbers 21. I pray that that would encourage us this morning. Let's pray. Grateful for Numbers 21. God, I pray that uh this story would reign true in our hearts, that we would not forget the message of the gospel day in and day out. Lord, I pray for the hearts that are wandering this morning. Lord, this life can feel heavy at times. The pains of life. Lord, are our hearts prone to wander? Lord, I can feel it. Lord, steer our hearts back towards you. Lord, give us patience. Strengthen us with your word like a field is strengthened by rain. Produce fruit in us because of it. Lord, I pray that you would continue to remind us of the blessings that you've given us. That we would write them down, that we would speak them back to you, and that you would remind us of everything that you've brought us through, everything that you've given us. Lord, I pray that in the suffering, Lord, the true suffering in this room, that it would have a greater purpose, that you would be producing endurance, a character in us, a different heart posture in our bones to turn back to you. That we would not crawl to the cross, but Lord, that we would just look at it, that we would gaze upon it and be saved. Lord, I pray that this morning we would worship with that in mind, that our worship would come from a joy that is in our heart, knowing that there is no more penalty for sin, no more suffering without purpose in this world. God, I pray that would be true of our own hearts. Your name I pray. Amen. You guys can stand.