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January 18, 2026 Gerald Griffin - Making God Small

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January 18, 2026 Gerald Griffin - Making God Small

00:00 Introduction and Scatter Shooting
01:02 Personal Stories and Reflections
02:56 Ministry Updates and Personal Connections
04:53 The Love of God and Scriptural Insights
08:05 Lessons from Moses and the Israelites
16:14 Tests of Faith and Trust in God
19:31 Grandchildren and Family Moments
21:24 Complaining and Hardship
22:33 The Habit of Complaining
25:10 Moses and the Rock
29:41 Misrepresenting God
31:52 God's Provision and Mercy
41:49 Final Reflections and Prayer

[00:00:00] Introduction and Scatter Shooting

Any of you guys ever take or used to listen or read? Excuse me, the Dallas Times Herald? Anybody? Blackie Cheryl was a sports writer. And he had, he had a column, he called it scatter shooting. And it was probably my favorite column to read because what it, what he wrote was basically anything he thought of.

And so I'm scatter shooting just a little bit today. I wanna tell you a couple of things. Number one, I had two goals. I always have two goals when I'm ready to preach. The first is I really want the Lord to use what I'm preaching. I want it to touch someone's heart. I never quite know why the Lord gives me a certain message.

I don't follow lectionary. I kind of. Pray about things, look at what's going on. I'll give you a little explanation about where we are today. But that being said, I always want it to be a blessing. Number two, and this may be my primary, I don't want Tammy to get as upset at me as Sheila got as upset at Mike before I'm through today.

You don't want that, you don't want to carry that with you. I hope the microphone stays on, uh, all those good things. 

[00:01:02] Personal Stories and Reflections

I want to tell you something, and this is the scatter shooting. I want to tell you something about that song. We just, uh, Sheila. Brought up for us a moment ago called Untitled Hymn. Y'all familiar with that song, some of you?

So anyway, my brother passed away two years ago. He was also a pastor. He was pa he, he was a Bible church pastor for years and he developed Parkinson's early on and he worked real hard at keeping Parkinson's at bay, which meant basically he worked out every day. He ate really nasty tastes and healthy food.

He did, he did all the things you're supposed to do. And, uh, one thing that he did is he stopped playing the trombone that was too hard to play and he went to the harmonica and he had all, he had a whole kit of all these different, uh, harmonica that he would use and his son can play, uh, piano. He also can play the guitar.

And one of the ways that they used to enjoy being together is that John would bring to my brother Don a new song for him to play. And so after COVID, uh, if my brother's health started, uh, getting worse and worse, the Parkinson's finally, uh, was getting to him. Uh, he would be, John brought him a song, and at this point my brother was in a coma.

And so John is here and he said to him, dad, I have a song for us. I wanted us to sing. And he said, I know you can hear me, so I'm gonna go ahead and sing it. I wish you were playing the harmonica with me. And he sang Untitled Hymn. And as he's singing Untitled Hymn, the last part says, fly to Jesus. Fly to Jesus and Live.

And my brother took his last breath. 

Mm. 

So. You wanna argue? Is there a God? Uh oh Yeah. We see him all the time. We see what God does. So anytime that song is played, yeah. Kinda grabs me just a little bit. 

[00:02:56] Ministry Updates and Personal Connections

Hey, I want to give you a few things that tell you what's been going on. We've been gone forever. It seems like I, we have really missed seeing you guys.

Uh, one of the things that I do, and you guys know the ministry I have, is to help other pastors and. To do that, uh, for no charge. And so I go different places, do different things. So, um, November was busy. December's pretty busy. Uh, we got into January and this is kind of a cool story, but when I came to Christ, I was 13 years old and the church who had a, a youth minister who led me to Christ.

That church is the church that I visited the first Sunday after I trusted Christ had came to Christ at a, uh, youth gathering on a Friday night. Uh, they said, you need to come to church. I went to church and there was the pastor who happened to be Tammy's dad. This is how it's all tied together. And then there was, uh, an assistant pastor there and he was of course, younger, uh, than than her dad.

And he was, uh, he, he was a great guy. I just love Steve. Steve was an amazing, so I knew him for many years till I went off to college. We kept up and then years later I'd date Tammy and we get married. And when we get married for the first time, I realize he's actually kin because Tammy is the niece to his wife.

So it's a big family and, uh, and so they're, they're Ken, he's my uncle, but I never considered him uncle. He's, he's pastor. You know, that's the way I knew him. So anyway, um, Marcy passed in in December, December the 25th. She went home to be with Jesus on his birthday. And so Steve called me from Oregon and said, I can't do this.

Uh, I just can't, I can't, I can't do her funeral. And so that is where I was just a week or so ago, and that was a, an amazingly wonderful time. 'cause she is, she's marvelous. She's an amazing, amazing woman. But they sang a song and this, I'm getting to why I'm preaching this today. 

[00:04:53] The Love of God and Scriptural Insights

They sang a song that I knew from a long time ago.

You guys remember the song, the Love of God. It has a line in it that I just wanna read you, and then I'm gonna take that and move you to a scripture. And the scripture will bring us to our passage today, the love of God. One. One part of it says, could we with ink, the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made in every stalk on earth, Aquill and every man ascribed by trade to write the love of God would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole.

Those stretched from sky to sky. I always looked at that imagery and thought, you know, if you, if you took, if, if the oceans were ink and you took pens and you wrote across the sky, you could not write in depth about the love of God. But there's a, there's a scripture actually that is a lot stronger than that, and it is in Isaiah 40, verse 12, and I want to read it, give you a little bit of explanation, and then jump into my text and tell you why we are, why I have the story I have today.

In Isaiah 40 12, it says, and it's, it's, it's a question Isaiah's putting out who's measured, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with the span and enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.

What's going on when Isaiah writes this, is that the people of Israel are in a really bad place. They're, they're. In a somber mood. They're depressed, they're sad, they've been beat down, nothing's working right. There's no good end in sight. And they begin to have a different idea of God. And that's something that can happen to us.

We can be in tough situations and we start thinking not only is God gonna help, but could God help. So let me just describe what this passage mean means when it says, measure the waters in the hollow of his hand. It's saying that God can pour all the oceans in the palm of his hand and hold them easily.

That's the immensity of God. And then with it talks about the heavens. It talks about the heavens being as a span. And the span was an old measurement between your tho tip of your tongue and the tip of your little finger. And it says that is the way God measures the heavens. All the heavens can fit right there.

And then when it says that he's enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, dust is standing for everything created. And God can take everything created and hold that and measure that and be precise. And then he says, weigh the mountains and scales and hills and balance. When you think about a mountain, you think about something that is permanent.

And God says, I can easily pick those up, put 'em on a scale and measure them, and know absolutely everything about them. That is the picture that we have of God. And sometimes we do not see, and that's what Isaiah was trying to say. Sometimes we do not see the immensity, the, the largeness, the strength of God, who he is and what he has done.

[00:08:05] Lessons from Moses and the Israelites

And so I just wanted to start with that and I'm gonna read you a text today. I don't, Sheila, I didn't give you this to put in the notes. But I just wanna read it. It is numbers 20. We're gonna take different passages from there, but let me just start by reading part of it. It says, in the first month the whole, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zen and State in Kadesh.

There Miriam died and was buried and there was no water for the community. Now, doesn't that sound familiar? Haven't we heard that over and over again? The They are, they are at the end of 40 years being in the wilderness. There's always the struggle for water, and God's always provided it always. There's not a time he hasn't provided it, but here we are 40 years later and there's no water and it says that Miriam has died.

There's no water. And of course the community, the people gather in opposition to Moses and Aaron and they quarreled with Moses and they said such absolutely ridiculous things as if only we had died when our brothers fell dead with the Lord. Oh, we'd be so much better off dead. There are some passages that we read and they, it's not just that they teach us, they bother us a little bit.

It. Some of the scripture bothers us. It's not that bad people get away with something, but what really bothers us is when good people fail and the children of Israel have quite literally been failing for 40 years. They just keep making the same mistakes. And number 20 is one of those passages, and this is not Moses as a young guy.

This is Moses as a really old guy. I mean, he started all this work around the age of 80, and now he's been traveling with these people for 40 years and for 40 years. Let me just tell you what has happened with Moses more than I think anybody else. I can't say that maybe somebody else has been through more than Moses, but he has had a lifetime with Pharaoh, with plagues, with mutiny, with a red seat, with funerals.

40 years worth of funerals with absolutely decades of complaints. I pastored for 30 years. I know about three decades of complaints. He's had 40 decades of complaints, a lot more people, and a lot more complaining. He's carried on and carried these people on his shoulders for decades, and here it is. It's late in the journey.

It's about time to go into the promised land, and God is gonna say these words to him in our text, although we're not gonna go to it right now. God's gonna say to Moses after all this quote, you're not gonna lead them into the land. I tell you what, I've read this passage so many times and thought, I don't know, he did that bad a job, really.

And so I've thought a lot about this because I think when I read this passage, I excuse him because anybody can get mad. Anybody can get fed up. Any, anybody can be tired. Anybody can get to the point and say, I just don't want this anymore. I don't wanna deal with this anymore, and y'all feel me, you understand this when you get to the point where you're just so frustrated.

But it's more than that. It's not just pressure, but under pressure sometimes we have the tendency, and Moses does it at this point. He makes God seem small and God's anything but small. I wanted to look at this passage and kind of pull out a few lessons for you and for me because we have that danger too.

We have the danger of being able to make God small in our minds and even worse small in other people's minds. Lemme just start this way. We can make God small when we see in his our needs, our needs as a, as an abandonment. Here's the thing, if you need something that is not God abandoning you. When I need something, it's not God saying, yeah, I'm just not taking care of you.

Instead, it's a call to grow. It's a challenge to grow beyond this, and so we read in the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived. Miriam dies and was buried and there was no water. Now, every word there matters every word in that text because the first month places us at the end of the wilderness journey.

And this is not spiritual immaturity on display. I remember that. I remember being a young Christian and making some really not very smart decisions. I can remember being angry when I shouldn't have been angry. Little things would set me off. I'm a little bit better at that. I'm older, definitely older.

I'm a little bit better at that. But this isn't spiritual immaturity. This is not people who don't know any better. These are the people who came out of Israel, at least their parents did, and they have watched for 40 years as an unbelieving generation is dropping dead on the wilderness. That's why I'm talking about a lot of funerals.

And they are the children and they are, they should be learning from this over and over again. They are becoming the new generation to bring into Israel. And this is not Moses being a young guy. This is not people who don't know any better. And so when we read something like this and we read that what happened here makes Moses not able to go into the promised land.

We should pay attention. So they arrive, there's sadness. Miriam is one of the last of the old crew, so there's sadness about this. Grief is in the camp and they're at Kade, and that's not something. That's new to them. This is the exact place where they failed the first time and did not enter the promised land.

This is where they could have gone in. And they listened to you. Remember they listened to the reports of Caleb. The spies came back and said, there they're like giants over there, but man, there's milk, there's honey, there's grapes. This is wonderful land, but it's gonna be some opposition. And they said, we can't do it.

And God said, okay, let's, let's walk in a circle for a few decades. And they did. If you ever look up the wilderness wanderings, I, I tried to find a decent map to send you, but they were too, too detailed. But basically they do walk around in a circle for 40 years. They come back to this place. So this is a place where they have failed before.

This is a place they've heard about all their lives. This is a place where truly they have seen not only a chance to go into the holy land, but a chance also to fail. So when God brings them back to this place and water is not readily available. Question for you. Could water have already been there the moment they got there?

You think God could have had a pond, could have had a spring ready to go? Sure. Then why didn't he? Because needs are, the needs that come into our lives are a chance for God to teach us something and needs also reveal what we believe. Now you say, okay, I this water thing, there's water at the tap back there.

We've got bottled water, we've got coffee. I haven't had a problem. I haven't been that thirsty today. I don't understand this. Okay. We have different needs now. We still have a need for water, but we have so much of it, we don't think about it. So we have financial needs. We have relational needs. We have emotional needs.

We have spiritual needs. We have all kinds of things that come into our life that bring us back to our needs, saying, God, I need God. I need this. I need this changed. I need this work done. I need help with this. I need wisdom for this. I need to stop doing this. I need strength to stop doing this. There are tests, and we have this up here.

Let me look at it real quickly with you. 

[00:16:14] Tests of Faith and Trust in God

We have tests that God brings into our lives. Test. God repeats. These are own repeat in your life. Number one, trust instead of control. Anybody have an issue with control? Don't nod your head. I don't wanna see it. The answer is everybody has a problem with control.

Everybody wants to control. We want control. And here's even worse. We think we do. And so when it seems like we're not in control, that is an aberration. We don't like that. That can't be happening. I can't be losing control. Heads up, you've never really had it. So God keeps bringing into your life. The challenge, will you trust me?

In stride of trying, instead of trying to control everything, God teaches a trust. Number two needs that expose, fear, lack reveals what we truly believe. I am absolutely fine as long as financially I am set. But the moment something happens, well, what happened? What happened when the stock market fell? I, I only read about it, 

the big crash.

People are jumping outta buildings. That reveals something right. Number three, waiting without grumbling. I'm just gonna let this sit for a minute.

How about when you go to restaurant? You like waiting. You like that? How about when you're in traffic? We are in Frisco. There is never a time I could just drive quickly down the road. There's always traffic and for some reason. As wonderful as Frisco is, we have found that every restaurant that we want to go to takes 45 minutes and there's always a problem waiting.

I'm not real good at waiting. I'm not real good at waiting at the DMV. I'm not real good at waiting for my doctor's appointment. I mean, I'm here on time. Why can't I get in? I'm not good on waiting. Will you wait without grumbling delays test whether we believe God is absent or even wise. Why is he letting this happen?

Number five, four, familiar weaknesses. God keeps letting things come into our lives. These are the tests. The same thing keeps knocking me down The thing, same thing keeps making me throw my hands up or make me angry. So God is trying to change our response, not our circumstances. Circumstances keep happening.

God wants to respond to change. Number five, simple obedience. Faith is proved through quiet obedience. We make God small when we can't follow him in these tough times. Number two, we make God small when we complain instead of praying, it says they assemble themselves against Moses and against Aaron.

People quarreled with Moses and said, would that we'd perish when our brothers perished before the Lord? Now. It is been a long time since I had two little girls in the back of our van, but now Tammy and I get to get in my daughter's Tesla and we have two little boys in the back of that thing. And here's what I hear her saying.

We're almost there. We're almost there. It's gonna be okay. Calm down. 

[00:19:31] Grandchildren and Family Moments

By the way, Sheila, I didn't show the pictures, did I? Can I just jump into that? Can we do that? You need to know who I'm talking about here. Okay. These are our grandchildren. I'm tired of Mark showing his, and I don't ever get to show mine.

This is Birdie, and Birdie was born January the first. She's the first girl. Birdie. Dawn Tammy's middle name is Dawn. Our daughter's name is Brittany Dawn. So there, there is that beautiful little child. Let's look at the rest of them. This is Birdie in the hospital with our daughter Brittany, and on the right is Griffin or Finn.

And on the left is Jude. And there, this is a good picture because it's right before Jude crawls over and about Smothers her. So it's a, it's a really good one. Let's, uh, see this one. Yeah. In fact, that's where Finn's laughing at him. Okay. One more and we'll end with this. This is on the, on this side is Griffin or Finn, and this is Jude.

So that's where we spent our Christmas. Okay. We're back to that. So those sweet little things that we just showed you. Yeah. They're the ones in the car saying, are we there yet? Or crying because I just don't wanna sit in this car seat anymore and I don't blame 'em. You know what my car seat was when I was a little boy.

The front seat with my mother standing. Do you know I am old enough that I remember my dad telling my mother to go to the service station. It wasn't called a gas station to the service station where the guy pumped the gas, check the oil, check the tire pressure, vacuumed out the inside of your car if you would give him time to do it.

And he said, go to the service station. They're going, they've got these new things called seatbelt. And if you go down there, he'll drill a hole and he'll attach them. And I, I, that was, I didn't, I didn't wear a seatbelt, still here, didn't wear a seatbelt. So I get these little ones when they're buckled in.

[00:21:24] Complaining and Hardship

I want them safe too, but it makes them frustrated. But when we begin to just fuss with the Lord. This is what these people do. They have just gotten here and they don't just say, what are we gonna do about water? They're blaming Moses. In fact, the Bible says, uh, they also quarrel with the Lord. They knew where their true complaint was.

If you listen to their words, they rewrite Egypt, where they were delivered from as a paradise. It was wonderful. Wish we could have stayed there. They interpret hardship as hostility. We have to go through anything tough is hostility. This is, I'm gonna use kids again. This is the same thing as when you look at your child and their room is a wreck and you say you must clean your room, and they just throw up their hands and they're weeping and wailing.

How can you be so mean to me? No, it's just something you have to do. It's, it's a hardship. You and I have hardships in our life that we want to complain about and throw up our hands. How could God do this to me? He's not doing it to you. It's just hardship. 

[00:22:33] The Habit of Complaining

When we interpret the problems that we have as being a hostility towards us, complaining will train your heart.

Some of you may know someone. Some of you may be that someone that is known for complaining. I said one time when I was pastoring in Frisco, I made a mistake and actually said what I thought. Um, I got up there and I was, I was talking about belief in God and complaining and all the rest, and I said, I've told the staff don't bring negative people to me.

Don't bring the handle it. I can't handle negativity. I can't handle constant complaining because some people complain all the time and I can't do that. I just can't. It's not the way I'm wired. I cannot be around that all the time. Well, I had a couple of people who were complainers come up to me after church and say, who are you talking about?

I couldn't imagine. I don't know who I was talking about. It's, I was, I was out of my head for a few moments. I don't know what I was saying. It. If you start complaining, sometimes it becomes a habit. And you know what? Why? It's a habit. It's retraining your mind. I used to tell my daughters, if you've had daughters, you may have run into this.

No matter how much you tell them, they're beautiful. They say they're not. I don't know what the world's wrong with that, but they do. And so both my daughter, both of our daughters are very pretty and they would say, I'm not this enough. I'm not that enough. My hair's not this way. Like I wanted it. I don't, my, my complexion's not this.

I on and on and I, I used to say to him, I say, Ashley, Brittany, don't say it out loud. If you say it out loud, not only have you thought it, but now you've heard it and hearing it makes a big difference. If you're putting it back in your brain, everything you're believing is changing. You don't let it change you.

And complaining changes us. It trains our heart. Every complaint shapes the way we also think about God. We have so much to be grateful for. These folks have been provided for in our texts for 40 years, and all they can do is complain because it's the way they're wired. Now, when complaining replaces prayer, God shrinks.

He becomes less, in our minds, less holy, less trustworthy, less good. And further away. 

[00:25:10] Moses and the Rock

Number three, we make God small when we step into the space that belongs only to him. Now we're getting into the problem. You know when Moses hears the quarrels from the people that we don't have water, and they begin getting a complaint against him and Aaron and against God, he and Aaron do the right thing.

They do what a good mature person should do, what a leader should do, what the head of a home should do, what, what, uh, maybe a grandfather should do when he knows something's going on. A grandmother should do. They went to God. They fell before the Lord and they prayed. And when they fell before the Lord and they prayed, the Lord showed up and he answered them.

And the glory of the Lord came. I mean, just think about that. We have gone from these folks complaining about everything and there are thousands of them accusing and and screaming out, wish we would've died years ago. This is horrible. This is horrible. We don't have water. They go to get away from the noise.

See, they did like me, get away from the complainers. They go to get away from the noise. They fall before their knees. Glory of God comes down. You know how many times I have prayed in my office or in my house that the glory of the Lord appeared. I'm talking physically. Never have I felt like the Lord is there.

Yes. Have I felt the answer of God? Yes. Have I felt the peace of God? Yes. This is the glory of the Lord who appears, and the Lord speaks to them and he says this, take the staff, which was his sign of leadership. It and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes, before their eyes.

Big point to yield its water. God says, speak to the rock. God says, gather everyone up. I want it to be seen. This is gonna be a pageant as such. It's going to be a model for what I can do. Gather everyone up, go before that rock, and I want you holding your staff to speak to that rock and say, give us water.

Prayer. The glory comes, God answers. Moses takes his staff, he walks out in front of the people. Next to the Rock and he says these words, look at what the Lord has done for us. No, he says, this is a really bad pastor right here. Here. Now you rebels. Shall we bring water from you out of this rock? This is a moment where pronouns do matter.

We. You know, if Moses had done what God had said, speaking to the rock, would've shown that provision flows from God's word provision Is God giving his mercy to us even when we complain, God gives to us. I want you to also remember that Moses is the leader. He is the window that the people have to God.

He's it, and he's been that way for 40 years. He is the one who represents God. He is the one who speaks for God. Now, a pastor or a teacher is not quite all of that, but there are some similarities. There are pastors, there are teachers. There are Bible study leaders. There are people who are leaders in a church.

There are people who are leaders in their home. That everybody in that home, everybody in that church, everybody in that relationship looks to them and says, I'll tell you what, if you don't wanna know something about God, it's that person. And that's the way the people look at Moses. And at that moment, Moses has changed the message.

Why did God say to Moses, you're not gonna enter the land. You're beginning to get it right here. He said the right thing, water is coming. He said it in the wrong way. I'm bringing it. Moses strikes a rock. Instead of speaking, he moves from representing God to standing in God's place. 

[00:29:41] Misrepresenting God

I'm just telling you, I know this is a pet peeve of mine.

I was a pastor long enough to have seen a lot of pastors that stood in the place of God. They didn't say the, they didn't say the word of God. They stood taking the power of God, and I don't mean that in a good way. I mean, they took the authority of God. Moses does this and, and God names this sin very clearly be.

He says this because you did not believe in me to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel. That's what you did wrong, Moses. How in the world do you do this? After 40 years, how can you see God answer again and again and again and we're about to step foot into the promised land? And this is where I excuse Moses after pastoring for so long.

I just say, oh gosh, he was just fed up. It's enough already. He was tired, but that's not an excuse, that's not an excuse to every dad who has driven his kids, uh, from here to Florida to go to an am amuse amusement park and about the last 30 minutes, you just say it is gotta be quiet in this. And all the, you were just hoping to goodness to do something special for your kids, and they're all crying now as they're about to go see a mouse.

Are you kidding me? You almost made it to every mom who at some point has had just this wonderful day with the kids, but it's getting near the end of the day and you finally just say everybody in their rooms, I don't wanna see you the rest of the night. And it is been such a good day. How do we blow it at the last minute if back to those tests again?

The same things happen over and over again. For God to show us we can change and for God to say, call upon me for that need. And Moses does one worse. He doesn't just get frustrated. He steps in and says, I'm doing this. I'm in control. Here's a big one. I don't want you to miss this one 'cause I'm gonna explain something to you about churches.

[00:31:52] God's Provision and Mercy

We make God small when we confuse results with God's approval. Hey, have you ever, have you ever seen on the news, maybe you read it on whatever news source you have, that there is this big church. It doesn't have to be a big church, but some church. You know it, and you just found out this pastor, this staff member, has been in a terrible, sinful situation for years.

I'm thinking of one just happened this last week. I, I sent it to Mark. I was reading it and I wrote him, I said, I guess you've heard about so and so already. He said, no, what? I love knowing it before he knows it, whatever it may be. So I wrote him in and I said, dude. This guy that you and I did a podcast interviewing just admitted to an eight year affair, and he wrote back what I'd already felt.

He said, oh gosh, no, no.

And we asked this question, how was the church growing? How was that still being? How in the world were people getting saved at that church? How were, how was it having such good worship, how, how were lives being changed? Because you cannot confuse results with God's approval. The people got water, but they got everything else wrong.

Moses. Was used by God to bring forth water, but he got everything else wrong. Just because results happen. It's not that God is saying that's akay. It is God saying, I am mercifully providing for my people. And when a church has a horrible situation that is revealed, God has still been giving water to his people.

It doesn't mean he likes what's happening here. And guess what's gonna happen? Same thing happens here. The leader always gets found out

and they don't quote, enter into the promised land. What is that promised land? Maybe it's a wonderful retirement with your character, UNIM Unimpeach. Maybe it's for the rest of your life, having your family still together. Maybe it's having your grandkids that actually love you, instead of saying how to, how to papa mess that all up.

Maybe that helps you answer how God continues to. We see good things in churches where we're clearly blowing it, by the way. Uh, my first, first job after my freshman year, I, I came home for the summer and I had a job and I went to work for a guy who had a shoe store. It was a family run shoe store. He was second generation.

It was in the, in the Preston Hollow area in Dallas. And I went to work for him. And he was the most low-key, easy, easy to get along guy, and we're selling shoes. I didn't know how. I had to learn how to sell shoes. These were lady shoes. They are different. Different. I learned from him when, when the lady asked for a six to bring a seven, I learned all these things from him and um, I learned how to actually manipulate the shoes.

I go out and I'd make 'em larger in an area where the bunion was so they'd fit. I learned all these things, but I also learned something else from him. He looked at me one day and he said, this store runs in spite of us, this store is a success in spite of us. I said, what? He says, we make money and we're lousy at this.

We make mistakes all the time. We let cells go. We're not paying attention, and that's. The way things happen, God still can make good stuff happen in churches and businesses, even when you have a climate that is unhealthy. That's just what God does. He has mercy number five in this last one. We make God small when frustration causes us to misrepresent him, and this is the end of the story about what Moses did wrong.

This is why the consequence to Moses is so severe, and I hope this hasn't been too. Too hard to follow here, but this is really the key to this whole text. Moses has publicly misrepresented the character of God. That's what he's done. And when leaders get God wrong, the people learn the wrong God. And Paul explains this in one Corinthians 10, one Corinthians 10, Paul is talking about numbers 20.

I don't know if you've ever put those two together, but he's talking about numbers 20. This is what he says. For, I don't want you to be unaware. In other words, he's telling a good church, the Corinthian church full of a lot of really mature people and a lot of immature people. It was a mixed bag, a lot of talent in that church.

He said, I want you to know something, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud. They all were, uh, uh, protected and guided By God. They all passed through the sea. They all were baptized into Moses. In other, other words, this is Moses' group. They were connected with him. They all had the same spiritual food.

Remember the manna? They all had the same spiritual drink for they drank from here. It is the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. If the rock in numbers 20 is not just a neutral object, then you have to say, where else did we see water from the rock? It has happened before and Moses was told to strike the rock.

And then he's told in numbers 22, speak to the rock. What is God trying to teach through what Moses is doing? The rock is Jesus. That is Jesus crucified when he is, when he is struck, but he never has to be crucified again. Jesus went to the cross one time. This is what Paul is telling us. The reason this is such a big deal is that the rock representing Jesus.

Jesus is crucified. And then we come 40 years later, we need again, and we strike him again and, and Paul says, that can't happen. That's not what happened. That's not what the gospel is about. I don't have to beg God anymore. Jesus doesn't have to suffer for me again, for me to have forgiveness, for me to have my needs met.

That's why it's such a big deal. That's why God says, speak to the rock. Don't strike the rock. And you and I, if we think about it for a minute and say, but Moses didn't know that and he didn't. So again, we're back to the same thing. Why was this such a big deal? Well, God said, you did not uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people.

He made God look harsh. He made God look reactive, reluctant, and small. Most of us don't stop trusting because we don't know what to do. We stop trusting because we're tired. We stop trusting because we're worn out. And when God's people misrepresent God, people learn that God is someone who he's not. Now let's look real quickly, just for a second.

We finish, why did Paul use this with the Corinthian church? He wasn't teaching history. He was doing theology that warns against, here's the key word for us today, complacency. I've done enough. One of the first churches I served in,

I go to college, I go to seminary, I get out, I am all ready to go, and I am put as in the church as the education minister. And the pastor brings me in, he says, first thing I want you to do is I want you to realign all the Sunday schools. We call 'em that Sunday schools. And so I want you to use age grouped Sunday schools.

Now, if you don't even know what that means, that means you put people in a group, a Bible study group, based on what their age is. We learned over time to put them in the age group based upon the man, not the woman. That was a problem if you put it in the age of the woman because all of a sudden. The ladies didn't like that.

So we, we decided to do that. Then later we went from that to putting people in group by the age they're living in. Maybe you're 40 years old and you just had kids. That's a different age, you know, so we all that. But he put me doing that and I somehow survived it. Had a lot of people upset at me. Uh, they don't like to talk about age.

And then, um, he said, now we need some more people from the nursery. He said, I've made a list of all these, uh, ladies again, just ladies. Crazy thinking. Now. I mean, I, I have kept nursery. I, I've, I've taught little children. I, I don't know why we used to think this way, but he says, here's the ladies for you to go to talk to.

And so I went to the first lady, I said, could you help with this? And she said, yeah, I guess I can. Good. And then I went to the second lady and I'm on a roll. And I said to her, we'll call her Evelyn, just because, and I said, Hey, Evelyn, we need some more people from the nursery. Could you do that? And she looked at me and she was the sweetest thing in the world, but she snapped.

And a different face I'd never seen on Evelyn before. Looked straight at me and said, I've done my time. I said, alright. And the little thing in my voice says, seminary did not teach me this. Seminary did not teach me this. What do you do now? You see, here's the thing guys. We just get tired and it changes who we are.

And Paul is warning the Corinthian church don't do like. The church and the wilderness. Don't do like a Israel, don't let it get you because you can go so far and still fail. That's the story of Moses. 

[00:41:49] Final Reflections and Prayer

Here's the final. God will not allow his son to be misrepresented as someone who needs to be coerced. I don't have to make Jesus love me, provide for me.

That's not who God is because that's a small God. Our God measures the oceans in the palm of his hand. He measures the heavens with the span. Our God looks at all the dust of the earth, which is everything on the earth, and he has measured it and he knows everything about it and he is accurate, and our God is able to move the mountains and put 'em on a scale and be exactly accurate on that.

That's the God we serve. Not a God that we have to come back to and and beg and scream and plead, and no, he's a gracious father. We decide when we represent him, whether or not we represent him truthfully or we make him small. God will provide what his people need, but he is not going to allow his character to be rewritten by us.

I conclude with this. God loved Moses, but he loved his holiness more. God provided water, but he drew a line. We don't get to redefine God under pressure. We have to represent him faithfully. Let's pray together. Lord, we are grateful that you give us so many chances because we actually need them. We, uh, are very prone to getting upset, frustrated.

And sometimes when we get frustrated we don't talk to you and we kind of like turn our shoulder to you and I'm so glad that you don't get frustrated with us and refuse to talk to us and turn your shoulder away from us. I'm grateful that you are the expansive, great majestic, holy God that you are. And every time we try to make you a little bit smaller, maybe we'll be able to handle you.

Maybe we'll be able, be able to, to ask you to push this way, make you do something you don't stand for that. What needs to change. Who needs to change is us. Lord, thank you for being who you are. Thank you for giving us forgiveness and loving us and providing, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.