Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to a sermon audio from New City, orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.
Evan Pederson: Please pray with me.
Evan Pederson: Please pray with me, holy Spirit.
Evan Pederson: Make us hungry for your word that it may satisfy us, lead us and bring us life Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Evan Pederson: Amen, numbers 11.
Evan Pederson: Please remain standing if you are able.
Evan Pederson: And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
Evan Pederson: Then the people cried out to Moses and Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire died down.
Evan Pederson: So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned among them.
Evan Pederson: Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving and the people of Israel also wept and said oh that we had meat to eat.
Evan Pederson: We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.
Evan Pederson: But now our strength is dried up and there's nothing at all but this manna to look at.
Evan Pederson: Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly and Moses was displeased.
Evan Pederson: Moses said to the Lord why have you dealt ill with your servant and why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Evan Pederson: Did I conceive all this people?
Evan Pederson: Did I give them birth that you should say to me carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to their father to give their fathers.
Evan Pederson: Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?
Evan Pederson: For they weep before me and say give us meat that we may eat.
Evan Pederson: I am not able to carry all this people alone.
Evan Pederson: The burden is too heavy for me.
Evan Pederson: If you'll treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight that I may not see my wretchedness.
Evan Pederson: Then the Lord said to Moses gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting and let them take their stand there with you and I will come down and talk with you there and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone and say to the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord saying who will give us meat to eat, for it was better for us in Egypt.
Evan Pederson: Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat.
Evan Pederson: And the Lord said to Moses Is the Lord's hand shortened?
Evan Pederson: Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.
Evan Pederson: So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent.
Evan Pederson: Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders.
Evan Pederson: And as soon as the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue doing it.
Evan Pederson: Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them.
Evan Pederson: They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.
Evan Pederson: And a young man ran and told Moses Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.
Evan Pederson: And Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said my Lord, moses, stop them.
Evan Pederson: But Moses said to him are you jealous for my sake?
Evan Pederson: Would that all the Lord's people were prophets that the Lord would put his spirit on them?
Evan Pederson: And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp While the meat was yet between their teeth before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague.
Evan Pederson: Therefore the name of that place was called Kibrath-Hatava, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
Evan Pederson: From Kibrath-Hatava, the people journeyed to Hazaroth and they remained at Hazaroth.
Evan Pederson: This is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I work out at a calisthenics park near my house that my kids affectionately call the bars, which is funny.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When they say, mommy, are we going to the bars with dad this afternoon, the answer is almost always yes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And about three years ago I met a young man named Dylan there who told me that he was thinking about joining the Navy because he wanted to learn leadership, to which at the time we were preaching through the book of Exodus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I said I know of a great book on leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's called Exodus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Have you ever read it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said no.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But that began a friendship that lasted until today, and so Dylan actually joined us for the book of Exodus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He came to Christ in the book of Leviticus and he's here now today for the book of Numbers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But let me ask you this Was I just being sly when I said that the book of Exodus was about leadership?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like isn't the Bible really just about?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like spiritual things, nebulous, heavenly, whatever but like the real life, practical, tactical realities of leadership in the book of Exodus, or the book of Numbers for that matter?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, last week Pastor Kenny showed us in Numbers 9 and 10 that the Lord is leading his people in the wilderness, and I have a conviction that if the Lord can do it through people, he will do it through people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Augustine of Hippo says it like this without God we cannot.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Without us, god will not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, god's delight is to work through people, and so when God leads in the wilderness, he leads through people, and so our text today really is about leading leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But don't take my word for it, my favorite commentator, michael Morales.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says it like this leadership of the covenant community is the soul of numbers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One rabbi said nearly every failure in the book of numbers revolves around a failure of leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One commentator, I think trying to boost the PR of the book of numbers, said we should retitle it the book of leadership, because that's actually what it is in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The PR of the book of Numbers said we should retitle it the book of leadership because that's actually what it is in the Bible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The book of Numbers is about leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what it's about, and our text today is zeroing in on that reality because for the first time in the book of Numbers they're actually starting to do something, they're moving, they're not just counting and taking the census, and they're beginning to get out and follow the Lord, and so leadership begins here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, when I say leadership, you know, one of the simplest definitions is that leadership is influence, and if that's true, every single one in this room, every person, has the capacity to lead.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Even if it's just leading yourself, like when we talk about calling, sending disciple makers, we're talking about leaders.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Mothers and fathers, you are leaders of your children.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Many of you lead communities and circles here within new city.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Husbands, you lead your wives and your family.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Many of you at work, you lead by example, even if not by role.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So leadership core, it's something that we all do and we all get to share in, and so let's look at this text this morning and see what does leadership look like in the wilderness?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I have one point, just one sentence, and it's this Lead in the wilderness, honest to God, as a team by the Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lead in the wilderness honest to God as a team by the Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you have a Bible or a device, it's too long to be on the back of your worship guide today, so go ahead and get a Bible or device open to Numbers 11.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're going to look at verse 1 together With that one main point.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm just going to walk through this passage as we go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 1 says this and the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'll pause for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, moses knew before Heifetz and Linsky that leadership is just the art of disappointing people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At a rate, they can handle.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're out in the wilderness, they get going and they start complaining.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's just kind of how it goes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And disappointment grows in the gap between our expectations and our experience.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That gap is where disappointment grows.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what do we do with disappointment?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What do we do with those unmet expectations?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, god's people may groan, but they may never grumble.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Somebody put it like this complaining is to the devil what praise is to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Somebody put it like this complaining is to the devil, what praise is to God?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, we may mourn, but we may never murmur.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not an option, it's not in our dialect.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a story about a woman named Nina who made up her mind.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: She was reading the book of Numbers and she realized that if complaining is the reason that the people of God didn't make it into the promised land, then maybe she should stop.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so she made a pact.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: She said for 14 days I will not complain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it was a revelation to her of two things One, how habituated she had become in complaining, and two, how different the world looks when you refuse to complain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, as we look at this text, if one outcome of this sermon is that you have a little bit more of the fear of the Lord over your words, that would be a good outcome.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a big deal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus in Matthew 12, 36 says that on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You will one day stand before Jesus and every careless word you will have to account for.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Every careless word they speak.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You will one day stand before Jesus and every careless word you will have to account for.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think that includes online, and so I want the fear of the Lord over us when we use our tongues.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's the big deal?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why does it seem like God takes your words more seriously than you do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because God knows that your words are like a dashboard light for your soul.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, a complaining mouth reveals a craving heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In our cravings, we change jobs and churches and neighborhoods and countries and wives, and even our religion to suit our cravings.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Malcolm Smith said it like this every detail of life that does not fit into the framework of self is the subject of complaint.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what we see in the text here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse four.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says now the rabble, that's this group that's causing problems.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, the rabble that was among them had a strong craving, and the people of Israel also wept again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Notice that there's this group that upsets the rest of the people of Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It goes on.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In verse four it says the people of Israel said oh that we had meat to eat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, cost nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you remember the death of your firstborn children?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you forget the countless hours of manual labor?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you forget that it costs you your freedom?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is going on?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, many of us in this room know that our strong appetites can cause a selective amnesia.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, what happens is that those of us who know what it's like to experience the craziness of craving, reality gets distorted until you get what you want, and then it all comes crashing back down on you again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so in verse six it says this but now our strength has dried up and there's nothing at all but this manna to look at.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, the reality is is that they were well supplied and manna wasn't so bad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verses seven through nine are in the Bible to show them that actually, manna was pretty delicious.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It quote tasted of cakes baked with oil.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our call to worship, psalm 78, said this man ate of the bread of angels.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what manna is, the bread of angels, and he sent them food in abundance.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, those verses seven through nine are in there to show you that the issue is never with our situation, it's always with our heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were well supplied with a delicious food that satisfied angels, but it wasn't enough for them and it's often not enough for us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, this is the human condition.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Since Eve, who wanted, craved, desired the forbidden fruit that she was not allowed to eat, the text says she was given every other tree in the garden as food Didn't matter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God's one no, his 1,000 yeses didn't matter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The one no, is the one that she wanted.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, we're similar.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We crave what God withholds and we are not content with what God gives because we struggle with this strong craving.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now listen, because of this, if you're a leader, you better be well acquainted with human nature because you're leading humans.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This will be an important part because often for humans, for many of us, what God gives is never enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at the text a little further in verse 22.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Moses lamenting before the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them and be enough for them, or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them and be enough for them?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses bows in awe before the depth of human appetite.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He knows this is something he cannot do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now I'm not denying the pain of the present.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's really important.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, disappointed desires are deeply distressing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I know this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Elizabeth Eliot has my favorite definition of suffering.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: She says suffering is having what you do not want and wanting what you do not have.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's suffering.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when Jesus comes back and makes all things new, suffering will be eradicated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not the way it was meant to be, and so, in this meantime, what do we do with our wants?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do we handle our strong cravings?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, my main point is that we lead in the wilderness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Honest to God, honest to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 10.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly and Moses was displeased.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses said to the Lord pause there for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Go back up to verse one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this and the people complained in the hearing of the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But in verse 11, it says Moses said to the Lord you see, this is the difference between complaint and lament, between grumbling and groaning, between moaning and murmuring.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To whom do you direct your disappointed desires?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 11.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses said to the Lord why have you dealt ill with your servant and why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Did I conceive all this people?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Did I give them birth?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That you should say to me carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now here's a key phrase to the land that you swore to give their fathers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, it's not only that we speak to the Lord, but we also plead his promises back to him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's lament.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But we also plead his promises back to him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's lament.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You know, this promise that God gives us is why we experience the gap between expectations and experience.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God has promised things that set our expectations quite high, and so we tell him that we remind him of that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Don't you remember, lord?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You said this is honoring to him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Marcus Buckingham says leadership is rallying others to a better future.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As Christians, our better future comes from the promises of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We rally people towards that future.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses continues where am I to get meat to give to all this people?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For they weep before me and say give us meat that we may eat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to slow down.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you're a leader in this room, I want you to slow down over verse 14.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Linger here, I am not able to carry all this people alone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The burden is too heavy for me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, I think the notion that it's lonely at the top is a bug, not a feature of our modern models of leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses felt it here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He felt it because the burden of leadership is always too heavy for one person.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is why I love the international justice mission slogan we do the work, god carries the weight.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the weight that crushes a leader.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what Moses is saying here, and so one of the reasons why many people are timid to step into their callings is because they don't know what to do with the weight of that calling and the leadership that comes with it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that's happening to Moses here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's coming to the end himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 15.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says this if you will treat me like this, kill me at once If I find favor in your sight that I may not see my wretchedness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's happening here for Moses is that he sees a cycle that is going from bad to worse.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's already been two judgments in our story One in verses one through three, another one that happens in verse four.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so Moses is just seeing I've been given this calling to carry this people from Egypt to the promised land and it's only going from bad to worse.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So far, it's too much.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I can't do this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I cannot lead a group of people whose hearts are hell-bent on rejecting God Verse 20.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so leaders, listen, you cannot work harder on people's sanctification than they're willing to work themselves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You'll exhaust yourself, and that counts whether it's your kids or your company.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You'll be exhausted as that, because you are not the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's whose job it is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so Moses says either ease my burden or erase me from your plan, because I can't do this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, leading alone can get dark if you're not careful.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He goes on to say if you love me, end me that I may not see my wretchedness, but slow down over that phrase.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There are deep wells of self-awareness and self-knowledge that are only available to people who take the risk in stepping out to lead others.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He knows he's going to see his own wretchedness if he continues on in this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A friend of mine named Stuart says leadership is God's prescription to heal the leader's heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: However you're leading, wherever you're leading right now, I wonder if you experienced that, that this is God's prescription to heal your heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what it was for Moses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses is teetering on the brink of despair in this moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He feels the leadership temptation to shut down his heart and to go numb.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Heifetz and Linsky say it like this the most difficult work of leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I wonder how you'd fill in that blank there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The most difficult work of leadership involves learning to experience distress without numbing yourself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, when we lead in the wilderness, we need to be honest to God in lament.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the only way through.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lament is a dialect of prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not grumbling, it's groaning, because this is not the way it's supposed to be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Many of us have been groaning over the events of the past few weeks here the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the stabbing of a young woman on a train, another school shooting, all headlines that seem more and more frequent.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do we not numb ourselves before this parade of evil?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Last week, pastor Jason led us into lament over the violence in our world, because leaders are often lamenters in chief.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's one of the things we do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We give people permission, we define reality.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not supposed to be like this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Your fear and confusion and anger are legitimate, and so we grieve that gap between what ought to be and what is right now, because, if not these deeply painful realities, they have the power to weigh down our soul to the point of numbness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus said this In Matthew 24, 12,.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you believe that we're in that era?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're in that age, we're in the moment when lawlessness is increasing and the love of many is growing cold.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what that means is that it's our love for God, it's our love for one another, and it's our love even for our enemies that keeps the wickedness of this hour out of our hearts.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so there's one primary antidote to the evil of our times it's to keep your love alive, it's to keep it awake, to keep it burning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How Well you can go online or you can align your hearts with the heart of God in lament.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When we lament the brokenness of our world, we're sharing in the grief that God has over the brokenness of our world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're drawing on our union with Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're sharing in communion with him, and so I created a document that I give to people all the time in my counseling practice and pastoral ministry, and I just called a lament template from Psalm 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It should be on the screen behind me here, and this is the lament template Very simple.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You start with protest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You protest the way that things are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Actually, one and two should be flipped in the boxes there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You start with protest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You say God, this is the way the world is and I'm not content with it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not okay with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you move from protest into prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You say, god, this is the way the world is and I'm not content with it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not okay with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you move from protest into prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You say this is what I want, god, this is what I'm asking for from you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And eventually you end in praise.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You say God, regardless of my situation and circumstances, this is who you are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is who you are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We'll put a link to this in the show notes for anybody who wants it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But this is what I want to invite us to Ask God what do I do when I'm in pain?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Holy Spirit, teach me to lament and not complain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So when we lead in the wilderness, we need to be honest to God as a team.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As a team.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the next thing, because I want to go back to the text here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses cannot bear up under this unbearable burden.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what's the answer to Moses's plight?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To become a Presbyterian?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I kid you not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Don't shoot the messenger.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here we go, verse 16.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then the Lord said to Moses gather for me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them to.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm like very serious right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The beauty of Presbyterianism is that there's a team at the top.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's that we lead through the wilderness, honest to God, but with a team.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As a team, there's nobody that flies solo.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the design that God has here, because leadership is a constant renegotiation of your own incompetencies.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you depend on one person to do it all, you're going to experience a lot of incompetencies.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Therefore, when Moses says, in verse 14, I'm not able to carry all this people alone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The burden's too heavy for me, the Lord responds with well, suck it up, buttercup.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, he doesn't.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Lord responds with this Of course.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Of course you can't.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I know your frame.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I remember that you were dust.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You need qualified leaders to bear the load.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the only way to do it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, in verse 16, I love this language let them take their stand with you, moses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what elders do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They take their stand together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because when you lead together, you get to divide the burdens but multiply the joys.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the joy of leading in community as a team.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, listen, wherever you're leading, you're only as lonely as you allow.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can invite people in, maybe not always to share the actual burden with you, but to share your burden with you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so I want to be clear, though it's not enough for Moses to become a Presbyterian, he has to become a Presbycostal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 17 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this and I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, because we lead in the wilderness, honest to God, as a team, by the spirit, by the spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is the issue here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, listen, the problem isn't primarily strategy or tactics.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The heart of the problem is always the problem of the heart, and that's what it is here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There is no substance stronger in all of creation than a hard human heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Adam and Adam ain't got nothing on a heart that's closed in on itself, I'm telling you right now, and so leadership alone won't get the job done.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What they need because of verse 20 says this you have rejected the Lord who is among you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When people prefer Egypt over Yahweh, you can't strategize them out of that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or verse 78, psalm 78, our call to worship, said it like this that the heart of the issue is because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That the heart of the issue is because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You cannot structure or strategize out of unbelief in the human heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What do we need?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We need spirit-led leaders who speak the words of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what we need.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The spirit of God alone can exchange a heart of stone for a tender heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the Lord is giving as the antidote to the problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Moses still isn't convinced.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, in verse 23, it says this and the Lord said to Moses is the Lord's hand shortened?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My translation is do I have T-Rex arms?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do I not have the ability to reach out and do something here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You, because Christian leadership is not primarily about looking at principles of a God who used to do things in the past.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Christian leadership takes its stand on what I like to call insistent realism, that God is a living, active, present reality in our moment, right here, right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or, to quote the Lord, or not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's it Dividing line.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Is he in our midst, is he among us here today or not?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the Lord is challenging Moses with, and the Lord's putting himself on the chopping block if he doesn't show up and come through.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, because this is true, because insistent realism is the core of Christian leadership, it's about to get weird in our passage.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 25.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And as soon as the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue doing it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now watch what happens next.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue doing it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now watch what happens next.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now two men verse 26, remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad, and the spirit rested on them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And a young man ran and told Moses, eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We'll pause there for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Commentators don't really know what's going on here, which doesn't help a preacher, and so I believe God is winking right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, eldad means beloved of God, medad means the beloved.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I believe God is showing his hand that the spirit rests not on the impressive but on the beloved.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I believe that what God is doing here is he's painting a picture of the future, of a community of the beloved in the beloved, full of the spirit and I think Moses, whose eyes are always on the face of God, catches the wink.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why, in verse 28, when Joshua, moses' disciple, joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said my Lord, moses, stop them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Moses said to him are you jealous for my sake, would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit on them?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, what is the cure for a people with a strong craving for flesh?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5.16, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The spirit was given in the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We don't have time to look at this closely.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you look at verse 24, the spirit was given near the tent, the place where God dwells at the center, but the quail fell outside the camp, far from God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 31,.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the spirit draws people to God for life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The flesh draws people away from God to death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the movement of our passage here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is why every church leader shares Moses' ache in verse 29.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Oh, if only all the Lord's people were prophets and the Lord would place his spirit on them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What would it be like if the spirit of God was in all of you to walk humbly, to lead wisely, to speak the words of God with power.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why the Lord's working on me on this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't like the metaphor sheep very much.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I prefer the metaphor saints.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the primary metaphor for the people of God that shapes your imagination for who you are really matters, and there's a dozen of them in scripture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We've privileged sheep for a long time and I think that the effect of that has been to domesticate the people of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But what if you were saints, holy ones, because you're indwelt with the spirit of the holy and living God?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What if that was the primary metaphor we talked about?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What if that shaped the way that we viewed ourselves?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What if New City lived by the belief that the Spirit of God has been poured out on all of us who belong to Jesus?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the cure for our cravings is a whole church.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Who knows what Westminster calls the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When that happens, when New City gets to lean in a step into all that it means to be a post-Pentecost church, we will see amazing things happen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why, what's the big deal?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, I believe in my reading of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation that all that Jesus came to do reaches its full bloom in our time by the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, moses' longing that all the Lord's people would receive his spirit was fulfilled through Christ on the day of Pentecost.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Acts 2.17, peter picks up on Joel, who picked up on Moses, and says this and in the last days that shall be, god declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh that all your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, jesus Christ came down like the manna from heaven to feed our faith with his very life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Jesus gave himself to the fire of judgment to satisfy our strong cravings with himself, so that we might have our fill in him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But that's not it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He does so much more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: After his obedience unto death, jesus went back up to heaven to fulfill verse 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, being raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God, jesus received the promise from the father and poured out the Holy Spirit upon his people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus received the promise from the Father and poured out the Holy Spirit upon his people, and there is no way that you can overestimate the preciousness of the gift of the Holy Spirit, because this is how we lead in the wilderness honest to God, as a team, by the Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray, father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We come before you now, and Luke 11, 13 says that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we ask you now, lord, give us your Spirit in greater measure than we experience now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want to walk by the spirit so that we do not, we don't satisfy the cravings, the strong cravings of our flesh.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lord Jesus, your flesh was crucified and risen so that we could walk in newness of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We pray this in your name, amen.