Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to 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 Newcity Orlando.com.
Gina Fickett: Please join me in praying the prayer of illumination.
Gina Fickett: Holy Spirit, open our hearts to hear your word, and through your word, create in our hearts a home for your presence that we might live for the glory of the Father and the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Gina Fickett: Through Jesus Christ we pray.
Gina Fickett: Amen.
Gina Fickett: Today's scripture reading is from Numbers 27, beginning in verse 12.
Gina Fickett: The Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Abiram and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel.
Gina Fickett: When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was.
Gina Fickett: Because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zinn, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.
Gina Fickett: These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zinn.
Gina Fickett: Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.
Gina Fickett: So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.
Gina Fickett: Make him stand before Eliezer the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight.
Gina Fickett: You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey, and he shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord.
Gina Fickett: At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.
Gina Fickett: And Moses did as the Lord commanded him.
Gina Fickett: He took Joshua and made him stand before Eliezer the priest and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.
Gina Fickett: This is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And let's go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Numbers 27, verse 12 says this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This word Abarim means in Hebrew, regions beyond.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I think it is a it's a literal mountain, it also has some metaphorical meaning to it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: See, in this moment, the Lord is telling Moses to go up on this mountain and to look out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's he looking out at?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The culmination of his life's work.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Everything Moses has done, his entire life up to this moment, is this climbing up of the Mount of Abarim to look out at the promised land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what does he see?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He sees glory.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He sees the thing he was made for, every sacrifice, every sleepless night, every step in the weary wilderness was for this moment, and he's just now beginning to see it with his own two eyes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what does the Lord say?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at Numbers 27, 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a Hebrew idiom for death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You will die, as your brother Aaron was.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zen, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the Lord's saying, Moses, your journey is done.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It ends here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses at this threshold.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He can view the land, but he will not enter the land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Is this cruelty?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, it's reality.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, we have eternity in our hearts, but mortality in our bones.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that causes us to ache.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the Bible puts a word to that feeling, that ache.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's called groaning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We have mortality in our bones because, like a branch cut off from a tree, anyone who turns away from the Lord, death is the consequence, the natural result.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But we have eternity in our hearts because we know that we are unending spiritual beings who have an endless life or endless death unfolding before us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so as Moses is glimpsing this, he's taught by the Lord how to handle this groaning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you are in here like, what if I don't really buy into this whole eternity thing?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's okay.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You still want your life to last and to matter beyond your death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You still have a concern to leave the world better for the next generation than how you found it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's almost everybody has that desire.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so there's this ache in us for our lives to matter beyond our lives.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's where we find ourselves in the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God's giving Moses a vision of a life that lasts.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, because Miriam, his sister, has died, Aaron has died, Moses will die.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's next?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, Israel needs a new generation of leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so as we're grappling with our mortality in light of eternity, what do we do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The psychologist Eric Erickson says that we have a choice between what he calls generativity or stagnation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, generativity is when you find a sense of purpose in your life by living in such a way that you're guiding the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is through parenting or mentoring or creativity or building institutions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The alternative to generativity is what he calls stagnation, which is when we become self-absorbed and live for our trips and our toys.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, every adult is gonna, if you live long enough, you're gonna face the question: will my life serve the next generation or only myself?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a question Moses has faced here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so here's my point.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you live for what lasts, you will disciple the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I want to talk about this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to talk about generational discipleship using one of my favorite frameworks for the stages of life, because it's simple, and I'm a simple man.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is from Ronald Rollheiser.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, your life is really three stages.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first stage is the struggle to get your life together, then the struggle to give your life away, and then the struggle to give your death away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we see all three of those things in our text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, with that, the struggle to get your life together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 15 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This actually is in your worship God as well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As Moses is looking over his life and he's facing his death, what does he do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He prays.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's not surprising to us at this point because Moses, if he's anything, he's a man of prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We've seen that throughout the whole book of Numbers thus far.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But he does something in particular here that I want to point out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses uses a name for God, Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No one else in Scripture calls God that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses only uses it one other time in Numbers chapter 16.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We actually saw that text together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why does that matter?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, we nickname our friends, our spouses, our kids.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We name things that we have intimacy with, people that we have intimacy with, that we have a close connection with.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Moses does that with the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you do that with the Lord?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you have ways that you term and name God in the secret place?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you have a history in God where you have ways of speaking to and with God that are unique to you?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses did.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he names God in light of Moses' own need.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see this phrase, the God of the spirits of all flesh, is really heightening this fact that God is over the spirits of people, that inner realm where your thoughts and your desires and your will and your choices, where all of that exists.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so when Moses needs God to appoint a man that can lead the congregation, he needs God, the searcher of hearts, the one who knows the spirits of all flesh, to designate who that man might be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus also had a name for God in prayer, Abba Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Nobody else before Jesus had ever called God Abba Father in the scriptures.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, when you're in a moment of need, you need to name God properly in prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what Moses and Jesus both teach us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what does Moses actually pray for?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 16.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says this Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses is asking God to raise up the next generation of leadership.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he's asking for.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because Moses knows that there are things that he will never do because they're not his to do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Things that Moses desires to do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He wants to lead them across the Jordan into the promised land, and the Lord said, No, that's not your job to do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, because God has planned obsolescence built into his strategy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He intends for his leaders to, as Nicholas von Dinsendorf once said, preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that's okay with him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's doing that with Moses here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we actually, in Numbers 8, there's this really obscure little law in there that I particularly like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Numbers 8, the Levites begin serving in the tabernacle at age 25.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then it says that they are done at age 50.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're to retire at age 50.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And really it says, if you read the margins, it says that they're supposed to move to Florida and spend their golden years collecting seashells on the beach.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, it's not what it says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, the text in Numbers 8, 26 explicitly says the 50-year-olds are supposed to retire from serving in the tabernacle in order to serve their brothers and guard them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What a beautiful picture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God hardwired, designed into his ministry that you start ministry at 25, you labor until you're 50.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When you're 50, you're not done.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're not sidelined.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You use your best years to pour into the 25-year-olds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're supposed to serve them and to guard them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, there's young people in this room right now who need nothing more than somebody who's older than them to look at them and say, I see you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You matter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm here for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to guard you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to care for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm concerned about your well-being and your flourishing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that interaction might set them on a trajectory that they wouldn't have had otherwise.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God is brilliant in his design to plan obsolescence into the way that he leads in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He doesn't need anybody.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses, if there was anybody, God would exalt as the highest leader among his people, it's Moses, and Moses is dying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And his time is over, and he better have raised up the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so I'm convinced that since one of the primary, maybe the primary strategies of the devil is that the devil is always trying to destroy God's design, I think this is one of the reasons for the distrust between generations.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me make that plain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The cynicism in okay, boomer might just be demonic.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what I'm saying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because where else is the younger generation going to learn how to go out and to come in, except for from the generation before them?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that's what we see in Numbers 27, 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the kind of man Moses is praying for.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The man who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here is what where we get to the heart of what it means to get your life together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now you might have passed by this, but I'm inviting you from now on, whenever you see that pairing of going out and coming in in your Bible to underline it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a theme in Scripture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's one of those subtleties that Scripture has that if once you know, you know.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what's happening here is not something incidental, it's not just a mere saying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is actually integral to life with God, this rhythm of going out and coming in back and forth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it's so important, permit me, I'm going to show you a bunch of scripture to prove my point.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is like 30% of the texts that I have on this topic of going out and coming in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at Deuteronomy 31.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Should be on the screen behind me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses said, I'm 120 years old today.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I am no longer able to go out and come in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Joshua 14, I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My strength now is as my strength was then for war and for going out and coming.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse Samuel 18, but all Israel and Judah loved David.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why do they love David?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For he went out and came in before them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Second Chronicles 1, Solomon, the son of David, is trying to figure out how am I going to be king over Israel?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he asks the Lord, give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and to come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: His going out is sure as the dawn.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now we get to the New Testament, and Jesus Himself says, I am the door.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Acts 1 21, this is how you know who an apostle is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's so so one of the men who accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Last one, Acts 9 28.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So Paul went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Wow, that was a lot.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm done.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's the big deal?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This pattern of going out and coming in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's the significance of it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, in the Garden of Eden, it was to walk with God and to work the garden.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For Old Testament kings, it was worship and warfare.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For older saints, they used to call it the contemplative life and the active life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For the Benedictine months, they used to call it aura et labora, prayer and work.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In theology proper, it's the imminent trinity and the economic trinity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That was for my nerds in here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For us here at New City, we call it communion with God and commission for the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's this rhythmic nature, breathing in, breathing out, that sustains our very life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of y'all are like, come on, preacher, make it plain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What are you actually saying here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, this is what I'm saying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you have daily and weekly habits that fill you up so that you can pour your life out?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Does the rhythm of your life sustain your life?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what I'm talking about here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why we make such a big deal about the common rhythm.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because we really believe from scripture and from history and from personal experience that scripture, prayer, worship, and rest enable you to feast, fast, listen, and bless.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, there's rhythms of life that aren't a checklist.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a way to abide in Jesus so that you can show up with love, joy, and peace in the rest of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And to properly lead Israel, you needed to be the kind of person who knew how to come in and meet with the true and living God so that you could go out and face the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's life with God for the life of the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's abiding in Jesus so that you are fully alive for your nine to five.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what this rhythm is of coming in and going out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's so integral to what it means to walk before God in the world that it gets repeated so many times in Scripture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the struggle to get your life together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But then we see the struggle to give your life away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 18 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why Joshua?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because Moses discipled Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you've been paying attention from Exodus basically up until now, Joshua's a shoe-in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're like, oh, we know who this guy needs to be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love Moses' humility.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like he's been developing Joshua for 40 years, and he's like, Lord, you do the work here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Appoint a man over the congregation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the Lord has to go, dude, we both know who it's going to be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's Joshua, the son of nun.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because Moses knew how to live for what lasts.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He knew how to make disciples of the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so he's been doing that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He took Joshua as a young buck under his wing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Apologize for the mixed metaphor.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Bible does it too, so I feel permission to do that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Joshua comes under the wing of Moses and he teaches him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He disciples him from the moment they pass through the Red Sea, as far as we know, all the way up until Moses dies.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a 40-year discipleship journey for him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to look at a few moments in those 40 years.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Right after Israel comes through the Red Sea, they're faced with their first real external threat, the Amalekites.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what does Moses do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, Joshua takes some men and go down there in war against the Amalekites.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what does Moses do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He stands up on a vantage point where he can see the battlefield and he lifts his hand in prayer for Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he's got Aaron and Ben Hur, a couple other old dudes on his sides, and they're holding his arms up because he can't do an arm press for very long.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he's praying for the young gun down on the battlefield.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I hope you see where I'm going.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We need this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The younger generation needs the older generation to lift their hands in prayer for them as they go out into the world to extend the kingdom of light into the domain of darkness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what Joshua had.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He had the comfort and the confidence of knowing Moses had his back.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He could go out and face what was in front of him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a beautiful picture of generational discipleship.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And there's even this moment when the Lord says to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, younger men and women need to be reminded of victory, especially in the moments of their defeat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Lord knew that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He knew Moses needed to do that for Joshua, and you need it as well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The second story I want to point out is when Moses invites Joshua into his communion with God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's two points in the Exodus story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Exodus 24, there's this powerful moment when the people stay at the foot of the mountain, the elders go partway up, Joshua alone accompanies Moses a little further, but only Moses entered into the glory cloud, into the very presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But notice who got to go with him?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Moses showed Joshua what it looked like to commune with the living God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses would go into the tent of meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Guess who would stand at the door?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses, when he was interceding for the people of Israel who failed in their idolatry in Exodus 32 with the golden calf, Moses goes in to plead with the Lord on their behalf.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Guess who's watching and listening?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the younger generation needs to learn from the older generation what does it mean to draw on life in God through communion with God?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses taught Joshua how to come in and to go out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Third moment I want to draw your attention to is when they needed to raise up spies in Numbers 13 to send into the promised land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Guess who goes?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a powerful moment because the reality of this is that Moses must have known that Joshua got to do something he would never get to do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses sent Joshua into the promised land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Only Joshua and Caleb come back and give the proper report.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Lord's on our side.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We can do this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where did Joshua learn that face?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: From Moses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because Moses discipled Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because Moses got his life together so he could give his life away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But not only that, Moses also got his life together to give his life away in such a way that the Lord could say in verse 18, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Make him stand before Eliezer, the priest, and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's such a gift when the younger generation receives public acknowledgement and recognition from the older generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Few things more strengthening than that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You want a good return on investment?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You want some ROI?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pour into the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because you're going to die.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the point of the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're going the way of Moses and me and everybody else in planet Earth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Invest in the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You get some good ROI.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the scriptures are pointing are pointing out to us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 21.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And ye shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall inquire for him but by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You notice this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now he speaks.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because spiritual leadership is about integrity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Joshua has the integrity, he comes in and goes out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so therefore he can tell the congregation when to come in and go out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, by the time we read, reach Numbers 27, Joshua is a man in whom is the Spirit, because Moses had spent decades of his life giving his life away to him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And now Moses has to give his death away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 22.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Moses did as the Lord commanded him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He took Joshua and made him stand before Eliezer, the priest, and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Joshua is the next generation leader, and he has a big task.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's got to lead the people of God into the promised land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so in Deuteronomy 3.28, it says this but charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He needs to be charged, he needs to be encouraged, he needs to be strengthened in order to do these things from Moses, from the previous generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is crazy because this is Moses' calling being fulfilled through another man.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the great desire of Moses' heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe it's number one to for God to show me your glory.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's probably number one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Number two was I want to go to the promised land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 120 years of Moses' existence is to get into the promised land and he doesn't get to go, but the young buck gets to go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we get no hint of jealousy or bitterness or resentment from Moses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Only strength and encouragement.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because discipling the next generation is like spiritual parenting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It takes the maturity of a father or a mother, a spiritual father or a mother, in order to do this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of the, I believe he was a Stoic philosopher named Cicero said it like this only to a son does a man say to another man, I hope you surpass me in every way in all things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses believed that about Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The next generation needs you to believe that about them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I hope you surpass me in every way and in all things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This generational mindset is the only way to live for what lasts.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Often looks like helping the next generation go where you couldn't possibly go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why in Joshua 4 it says this on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Mission accomplished.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Moses is teaching us what to do when we face the limits of our own lives.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's to raise up those who will stand where we cannot.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so if you live for what lasts, you will make disciples of the next generation by struggling to get your life together, giving your life away, and even giving your death away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And let me close by pointing out how the gospel addresses some of the top objections I hear whenever I preach on this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you are like, dude, this is your heart song.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I really believe in this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Objection number one, I don't feel qualified to disciple anyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe that's true, actually.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Someone once said, When you're born, you look like your parents, when you die, you look like your decisions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I like that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But some of us have made some bad decisions and we live with regret and we think, How could I possibly show anybody else what it looks like to walk with Jesus?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, in verses 18 and 23, there's this language of speaking of this laying on of hands.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in the story of Scripture, there's only two times you do that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You lay on hands for blessing or for curse.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the patriarchs, when they were blessing their sons in Genesis, they would lay their hands.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in the Levitical law, when any worshiper brings an animal for sacrifice, they would lay their hands on its head and confess their sins over that animal, conferring their sins and the due curse that those sins deserve to that animal to die in its place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The heart of the gospel is that Jesus Christ had your sins, your mistakes, your failures, your regrets, those things that keep you up at night, those things that make you disqualified to pour into the next generation, those were transferred to Christ on the cross, and he died in your place for those sins if you belong to Him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That good news means that it's all of grace or it's not at all.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means no one is qualified.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That might be the primary qualification.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe actually the number one thing the next generation needs to learn from you is a lifestyle of repentance.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like the older generation looking at the younger generation and saying, hey, listen, I've gone down that path.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It doesn't end well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You still have time to kind of turn back.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is how I did it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what it could look like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why in our premarital counseling, we always tell the mentor couples, share some of your failures with the newlyweds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because they probably won't remember any of the cool things that they learn in the books and whatnot.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They will learn that from your failures.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, I can't believe you did that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then they do it and they go, wow, I can't believe they did that too.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm so glad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Feel refreshed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, because one of the primary things people need is not your righteousness, but your repentance.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The world doesn't know how to repent.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can't learn that from a podcast or a blog.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You gotta learn repentance incarnate from another human being.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so the number two thing I hear is I don't know who to disciple.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This one's easy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do what Moses did.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ask the Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just say, Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he did in verses 15 through 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Three of the verses of our text is Moses just prayed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just ask the Lord, would you give me somebody?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what Jesus prays for in John 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, I'm praying not only for them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The disciples that Jesus made, but also through all of those who would believe in them, believe in me through their word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus cares more about this than you do, than I do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ask him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't know who to disciple, ask him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The third thing I hear the most is no one discipled me, so how am I supposed to know how?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I get it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a real thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our joy as pastors is to equip you to disciple the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's our joy, truly.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So that's one way I would respond to that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The other thing I'd say is notice the simple framework of coming in and going out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does your life with God for the life of the world look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, what I'm not saying is they only need to learn how to study the Bible and pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They absolutely need that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They also need to know how do you balance a budget and how do you show up to work on time?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because it's coming in and it's going out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not just this weird secular sacred divide where some of life matters to God and the rest is just, you know, whatever.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Discipleship is for all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, what does it look like for you to come in and to go out?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what you offer to the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The fourth, and maybe the most difficult one I hear is my schedule is insane.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where am I going to find time for this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've said before that the number one discipleship difficulty here for New City, it's not addiction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not bitterness and gossip.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not, I mean, fill in the blanks, but political divisiveness, it's busyness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's busyness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so as I come to this, I'm thinking, man, we need a sermon series on this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've got three bullet points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I get it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But here's what I'd say Ronnie Ware was an Australian palliative care worker who spent the last, she spent eight years working with patients in the last three to twelve weeks of their life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And during this time, she witnessed consistent patterns in the regrets that they expressed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And these were diverse patients from various backgrounds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the number two most common regret that was expressed was I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So listen, if one of the reasons for your busyness is that you prioritize productivity over people, maybe just consider what that might look like to change.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe just take a 10%, a 1% movement towards discipling the next generation, putting that as a big rock in your jar as you consider your schedule for the next year.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I know that doesn't address all that there is to say about it, but the last one I want to point out is people will say, Well, I'm discipling my own kids.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 100%, you absolutely should do that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's permission to play.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's one of the most important things you can do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Discipling the next generation starts with your kids.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But here's the only issue with that is that research has shown that 12 to 20 year olds need parents, I'm sorry, adults, their parents' age, in order to corroborate what you've been doing in your house for the first 12 years of their life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me make that plain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So now we do have cool, fun 20-something year olds that are serving in our with our young adults, with our students, middle and high school students.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're amazing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We also have aged 40s and 50-year-olds who we love deeply and are so valued, uh, who serve in student community as well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the thing that sixth through 12th graders need, they need their parents to live an authentic lifestyle before Jesus, and they need that corroborated by other crazy people who think Jesus is the purpose of their life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if you only disciple your nuclear family, who's gonna be there for all of those other kids?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Who's gonna be there for the fatherless and the motherless?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so disciple your kids, it matters.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's just not the extent of what passing on the faith to the next generation looks like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, listen, in all of this, Jesus has come in and gone out before us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The name Jesus is the same name as Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Hebrew, they both mean Yahweh saves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so Jesus is the true Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He is the one that goes into the promised land before us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He is the one that goes before us, taking our mortality, resurrecting it, and placing it in eternity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So we actually have hope beyond death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus comes down in order to be among us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He came down from the heavenly sanctuary in the presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He came out to meet with us in order to bring us back in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a significant movement.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But before he went back up to heaven, he used language very similar to verses 19 and 20 in our text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He commissioned us by investing some of his authority in us so that we would go to make disciples of all nations so that they might obey Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's all the same language that we see here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so if the gospel does not just have a geographical expansion, but a generational expansion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Say that differently.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If the gospel is to go to the ends of the earth, it must go to the end of time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the only way that that happens is to live for what lasts by making disciples of the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Spirit of God, you alone can empower us to do this work.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Wherever we feel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe some of us are comforted and encouraged, others of us are confronted.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I pray, Spirit of God, that you would lead us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That you would lead us from here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So that we might live for what lasts beyond our life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pray this in Jesus' name.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As we always do, we