[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected]. it's my turn again. Sorry, my name is Ian, if I have not met you already.
[00:00:16] And I'm just going to be preaching through some of the word of God in Numbers 22 through to 24.
[00:00:23] We've been going through a series since last October on this, the greatest story.
[00:00:29] The aim was to go through the narrative, the big narrative of the whole Bible to help us to try and see the forest for the trees, if you know that expression. Yeah, see the big picture, to help us when we go through individual stories, to put them into the thing of what's going on. And we've reached a point now where we've gone through all of the beginnings, all of Genesis, all of the first five books, which is called the Torah.
[00:00:58] We've reached a point where this kingdom of God, this Israelites are about to go into the promised land.
[00:01:04] And I'm going to do a last story from what's called the Torah or the Pentateuch, it's also called the Law, referenced in the New Testament. The first five books. Our last story here and then we're going to put this series on pause. I hope you've enjoyed going through this series, that you've got something out of it. Over the last year we've been doing it here in Dartford in Gravesend. We're a multi site church. Two sites together as one church in Gravesend. They've been going through something else. But in this next year we felt really much that we want to be aligned and be preaching the same thing in both locations.
[00:01:39] So if you do get the opportunity to go to both churches in one day, you get to hear the same preach. No, not always. Different people sometimes preaching the same thing. But we will be going through the same series, not always exactly the same time, but we wanted to be aligned across the whole church. So that's why we're going to put this series on pause.
[00:01:59] Hopefully we get back to it sometime in the future, but who knows what God will do?
[00:02:05] So a question for you as I start. Who do you listen to?
[00:02:11] Who do you listen to?
[00:02:13] Do you know, as we're growing up, don't know about you. I got told to listen to a lot of people, you know, listen to me. Your mum and dad would probably say to you quite a lot.
[00:02:24] You know, you get into school and you're told to listen to teachers, right? And you get older and then you're told to listen to the boss, your manager, whoever. And you're definitely told to listen to policemen and customs officers. They get you in real trouble if you don't listen to them. But, like, if I. If I interpreted that question, who do you listen to in that sense? It's like, it's an instruction, isn't it? It's a do this thing now kind of thing. Listen to me, don't run across the road, you know, kind of things like that. But. But there's also a different type of listening.
[00:02:57] There's kind of a deeper, a reflective kind of listening where you listen to something and you think, actually, I've got to think about how that applies to my life. How do I apply it?
[00:03:10] Do you have people that you listen to?
[00:03:13] Maybe it's someone who gives you wise counsel, advice into your life, who helps you talk through things like relationships and family, Someone who speaks into your life. Do you have someone that you listen to?
[00:03:30] Hopefully you do.
[00:03:32] But also, there's just a million voices around us, isn't there?
[00:03:38] There's loads of voices that are competing for our attention, that want to tell us things.
[00:03:44] We actually just listen to a load of voices that give us unhelpful things in all of our lives to listen to.
[00:03:51] They give us unhelpful thought patterns or unhelpful behaviors, whether that's from music or TV or film or TikTok or whatever that's going on. Right? There's loads of voices all the time. And so we have to try and filter out what's a good voice and what's a bad voice.
[00:04:07] We have to try and make that decision, try and reconcile that in our life. What's a good voice to listen to? What's a bad voice?
[00:04:15] Now we know there's one voice that we should listen to above all, right?
[00:04:20] There's one voice, the voice of God. That's the voice that is good and beautiful and true all of the time.
[00:04:29] But still we have that whole competing thing. How do I listen to God's voice amongst all of this? How do I know it's God speaking?
[00:04:38] I want to talk through a weird story today.
[00:04:43] It's a really weird, strange story that I'm questioning. Why is it in the Bible at all?
[00:04:50] And you will. Hopefully you'll get to see that as well. But it's a story of someone who struggles to hear God's voice.
[00:04:58] And I hope today that through going through this story that we can pick out a theme, something that can help us hear God's voice to sort of filter out other things and help us to hold onto kind of the main things of what he's saying and which hopefully will help us to hear God's voice more clearly. You with me?
[00:05:24] Good. Let me just pray.
[00:05:27] Lord, I just thank you that you speak to us.
[00:05:31] I thank you that you are not a God who is just in the clouds and forever sitting in the throne in heaven and never interacting with life, Lord, that's how much so many people in this world think.
[00:05:43] But you are a God who speaks, and you speak to us through your Word, and you speak to us through your son, and you speak to us through your Holy Spirit. And now, Lord, I ask as we listen, as we go through your word, I pray that you, Holy Spirit, will be speaking to us, reminding us of all that Jesus did, who he is, what you are, God, and speak to us your wise counsel to help us in all of our life.
[00:06:12] Amen. Amen. Right, we're going to be in numbers 23 to 24. You'll be pleased to know I'm not going to read all of three chapters, but I'm going to pick out a few verses as we go and then talk through the story.
[00:06:27] And we start it starts with, then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along the Jordan across from Jericho.
[00:06:37] And now Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.
[00:06:53] Now, where are we in the story, in the big story? We are at the point of Israel have been wandering around the wilderness for these 40 years, and they're now camped on the eastern side of the Jordan, ready to cross into the promised land.
[00:07:10] And we get this strange thing of where was introduced to character Balak Zon of son of Zippor. And then it mentions Moab, and we're like, who, What, Where? How?
[00:07:23] In the Old Testament, they tended to do this thing quite often. You see it in the prophets that they equate the man who is king over a nation with the name, the capital name of the city of that nation and of the people.
[00:07:38] So Balak here is king of the Moabites. And so the writer might say Balak, or they say Moab. And I don't even know what the capital of Moab is. I think Moab is the city and Moabites are the people. I don't think it's that big a nation. So it's like, you know, it's equating the same thing. And so we've got Israelites, they've gone around everywhere, they're now camped, ready to cross.
[00:08:02] And we've got this other bloke introduced Balak, who's seen these Israelites, they're a plentiful people, and they're. And he's afraid. He's afraid that they're going to. That Israelites are going to conquer them. And so what does Balak do? And so we go through this story and what happens is Balak says he's going to send a people, send a delegation to go and get some help.
[00:08:29] And he's afraid. And he's not just afraid himself, the Moabites, he also gets some help from the Midianites, which is another group of people, and he's going to send a delegation, right, to this guy called Balaam.
[00:08:44] Now, Balaam lives in a place called Pethor, which is in northern Syria.
[00:08:51] And you're going, where on earth is that?
[00:08:53] It's a trip up from Israel. I should have got a map, really, shouldn't I? Everyone loves maps. Why didn't I get a map? Anyway, Israel, all the way through Jordan on the right, all the way through Syria, all the way to the border of Syria with Turkey, all the way up the top there. That's a distance of some 350, 400 miles.
[00:09:14] Now, they didn't have cars. It wasn't a small plane that they got in. They walked it with horses and donkeys.
[00:09:23] That took about 20 to 25 days, estimated.
[00:09:27] And you think. And in the text it sort of goes. And then they sent a delegation and it arrived and you're just like, hold on a minute, that's a long way they've traveled. And so you just go, hold on, how did Balak know about this bloke called Balaam?
[00:09:43] Because it's like many sort of kingdoms away, a really long way to travel.
[00:09:49] So Balaam, this guy Balaam is famous, like, he's a proper celebrity in this time for him, for Balak to send his delegation up there.
[00:10:00] And he's sending up a delegation because he wants Balaam to curse the Israelites, right? Balaam is famous because he's a diviner or seer or, you know, he's someone that interacts with pagan rituals, pagan gods, and has some fame in doing this thing.
[00:10:22] Now, I think we can sometimes create a false impression that God's people are the only people that interact with the spiritual world, and God and the angels are the only things there.
[00:10:34] But we find that's not the case.
[00:10:36] We find there are people who interact with demonic powers and manage to somehow there's some influence there, some connection there. They request some things and sometimes the demons do some things on behalf of them. And it's a kind of like, you know, it goes through the whole of the book of the Bible. We even get to the New testament. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas cast out a spirit, a demon, demonic spirit from a slave girl who's telling the future, you know, and we think, well, if she was just telling garbage, no one would listen to her. But she's actually telling stuff that will happen.
[00:11:21] She's actually got some connection with the spirit world. And this guy Balaam is up there and he's famous for having some connection with the spirit world. Now, that kind of scares us, but it's something that we just got to recognize, but we kind of, we will recognize it and see what this passage says about it later on.
[00:11:41] So it says that he sends a delegation, trade delegation. They've arrived with their entourage, red carpets rolled out. They come in with the gold and silver. You can imagine it, you know, trade delegation arrives and they ask Balaam, will you come and curse the Israelites. He does it for money. You know, that's the normal thing. You pay the money. And it says that Balaam consults Yahweh.
[00:12:11] Hold on a minute.
[00:12:13] Balaam's this, you know, pagan God kind of thing. He's consult not God or the Lord, he consults Yahweh. It says in the text.
[00:12:24] That's interesting for us.
[00:12:26] And it says in numbers 2212, it says, but God, Yahweh said to Balaam, do not go with them. You, you must not put a curse on these people because they are blessed. And so Balaam listens to this voice, refuses the delegation and they go home.
[00:12:43] So another 20 days, they're marching off all the way with the donkeys with their gold, all the way back to Balak.
[00:12:52] Now Balak arrives, you know, delegation comes back. Balak goes, what's going on? Come on. Okay, we've got to up the ante. So we're going to send a bigger trade delegation.
[00:13:03] We're going to offer more money, more silver, more gold. We're going to offer more, send more important people. Perhaps they'd send some sort of lower ranked civil servants. But now it's time for the cabinet ministers to go. Do you know what I mean? And so they've gone off and they go back to Balak, to Balaam.
[00:13:26] And Balaam again consults Yahweh, it says, and says, that night God came to Balaam and said, I've got slide. Yeah. And Balaam has said, since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.
[00:13:42] And it says, so Balaam saddles up his donkey and he goes off.
[00:13:47] Great, okay, it's going. He's accepted the money. And then the very next verse, we have a real problem because it says, but God was very angry that he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.
[00:14:03] Now, hold on a minute. Didn't Balaam just listen to God? And God said, you can go. And now he's going, and God's angry with him. What is that all about?
[00:14:13] What's going on in the text?
[00:14:16] Well, there's something else going on and we find it by reading through the story.
[00:14:23] It says, so Balaam gets on his donkey. Now, this is a famous story we all know about Balaam's donkey. And he's riding his donkey and his donkey is going forward, and then his donkey veers off. So what's going on? What's going on? And so Balaam just gives the donkey a stern word and a smack on the rump, says, come on, go forward.
[00:14:48] And then it says, he's going through a walled vineyard and the donkey pushes against the wall or something, like crushes his foot. And Balaam again is really angry with the donkey, says, what are you doing? Gives it a smack on the rump and goes forward. And then a final time, it gets to a point and it's a narrow canyon, it says, and the donkey gets to it and just goes. And refuses to go any further.
[00:15:13] And the donkey lays down on the floor and Balaam again whacks the donkey. And at what point the donkey turns around and says, what have I done to make you beat me these three times?
[00:15:29] Now, I've just got Shrek in my mind at this point and I've got Eddie Murphy's voice in my head. Right.
[00:15:38] I'm sure that wasn't the case.
[00:15:41] Now, if you're reading through the story, it tells you what's going on.
[00:15:45] And what's going on is the angel of Lord is standing in front of this donkey with a big sword and the donkey is going, I'm not going forward. And he's trying to turn away.
[00:15:56] We see that, but Balaam can't see it.
[00:16:00] And then finally, God reveals Balaam's the blind seer. He's the seer that can't see.
[00:16:08] And at that point, it Says Balaam confesses that he sins. He's rebelled against God and bows down before God. And the angel of the Lord says to Balaam, it says this in verse 35, go with the men, but speak only what I tell you.
[00:16:25] So Balaam went with Balak's officials, lots of bees. And I think this reveals what's in Balaam's heart.
[00:16:33] He's going, but he's actually going, oh, maybe I say what God says, maybe not.
[00:16:41] Actually in his heart, he's accepted the money and he's going to do this thing. He's got permission to go, but he wants the money. So he's going to, he's going to say whatever gets the money. And right here God says, speak only what I tell you.
[00:16:58] You are my voice.
[00:17:00] Speak only what I tell you.
[00:17:04] And so Balaam arrives back with Balak.
[00:17:09] And there are three prophecies.
[00:17:13] Balak takes Balaam to a place where he can see some of the Israelite camp. There's a big people, many thousands, hundreds of thousands of them. And he takes him and Balak says, consult God, consult Yahweh, and.
[00:17:28] And then speaks out, and he says, the voice, he says, how can I curse who God has not cursed? These are great people, and we become more numerous.
[00:17:39] Now put yourself in Balak's position. He's paid for a service, what's coming back, the complete opposite of what he's paying for. And so he's furious and he thinks, what can I do? Okay, let's try it again.
[00:17:54] Take Balaam to another hill. And he sees again over another sort of part of the Israelite people. And Balaam goes, I'm only going to speak what God says. So I'm going to, you know, they build a little altar, sacrifice a few things. And he consults Yahweh and he comes back and says, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot change it. The Lord, their God is with them. They will rouse like a lion and devour their prey.
[00:18:24] I mean, he's. Balak's going, I want you to curse these because I want to devour them and you're uttering a blessing upon them instead.
[00:18:33] What's going on?
[00:18:35] But foolishly, Balak goes, well, let's try a third time. Third time lucky, eh?
[00:18:42] So we go up on a big high mountain and see over the camp, over the whole Israelite camp. And it says in here, it says, not that Balaam, there's too many bees, isn't it? Balaam talks to God, but it says, the spirit of God comes on Balaam and he prophesies that the people of Israel are great, they are a blessed people, by the Lord. They will have a king, right?
[00:19:13] This is before Joshua, this is before going into the Promised Land. This is before Judges, they weren't talking about a king, but it prophesies they will have a king greater than any known.
[00:19:24] They will have a kingdom highly praised.
[00:19:27] And he says they will defeat all of their enemies.
[00:19:32] And Balak, he is just furious and he goes, you ain't getting nothing from me. Go home, get out of there.
[00:19:41] So Balaam goes home and that's the end of the story.
[00:19:48] Where's the Israelites in the whole of this isn't, you know, isn't this whole book isn't what's going on, the story of the Israelites, but they're not in these three stories, this story, these three chapters here. And to be honest, the whole book of Numbers is just a bit strange.
[00:20:10] Like, you go through the book of Numbers and Numbers takes the Israelites from the wilderness near the Sinai mountain where they just received the law, and it takes them from there. And there's loads of these disconnected stories that sort of just sort of happen. This happens and that happens. And then there's whole bits of like, law in the midst of it. And it follows the stories of the Israelites going through the wilderness and all the way to this point at which they're ready to cross into the promised land.
[00:20:43] And it's the narratives of the Israelites and teachings of the Israelites, and then these stories are nothing to do with the Israelites.
[00:20:52] So why are they in the book at all?
[00:20:55] Well, let me offer some possible reasons because, you know, it's not, it's not clear. So we've got to take possible reasons. What might be, what might God be saying through these chapters that God has written into this book for the Israelites to read, for us to read.
[00:21:15] The first thing is we see that God is sovereign.
[00:21:22] We see that God is sovereign not just over the Israelites, but God is sovereign over all of the other peoples around.
[00:21:31] Do you know God is sovereign over Balak and Balaam.
[00:21:36] He's sovereign over other people that are kings and nations around.
[00:21:42] Balaam is famous for this divination, for this seeking other things, things from prophecies, from other spirits.
[00:21:50] And, you know, we can put into this thing. Actually, many of them will be.
[00:21:55] Would be fine to consult another God, the God of the Egyptians or a God of the Persians or the God of the Moabites or the Canaanites. They'd be fine with doing that. God amongst is just one God.
[00:22:07] But actually, we see through this story there's not lots of gods, there's only one true God.
[00:22:13] Maybe that's the thing that we should take from this story.
[00:22:17] Maybe it's about people's stupidity.
[00:22:21] Because this whole story is a bit of a pantomime, right? It's a back and forward. People are doing stupid stuff and we go, oh, no, it isn't some point, right? So you can imagine that. Or maybe it'll be made into like a black comedy on Netflix. Do you know, you could sort of imagine that sort of thing going on. And this whole story is about, look how foolish these people are. And we get to laugh at them, at how foolishness they are. You know, we've got Balak, who's the baddie. He's the real one that's against the Israelites. We know we've got to boo him at all times, right? He's the one we boo. He's the one that's trying to buy things from, buy power over the Israelites with his money.
[00:23:04] Do you know we have the expression money can't buy you friends, but to be honest, it can.
[00:23:12] If you want followers on Instagram, you can definitely buy them, okay?
[00:23:18] And Banak here is thinking, oh, I can do that.
[00:23:21] I can buy friends, I can buy influence.
[00:23:24] But we're here going, actually, he's fool. He's a fool in this story.
[00:23:30] He's not being able to do anything. And then we get Balaam.
[00:23:35] Is he the good guy or the bad guy?
[00:23:38] It's complicated, isn't it?
[00:23:40] Like, he's listening to Yahweh and he's speaking God's truth. So is he good or is he bad?
[00:23:49] But the thing is here he's actually shown to be foolish because he's trying to control things. He seems to listen, but he's got false motives that show up with the donkey. And although he prophesies correctly, in the end, he does speak God's voice.
[00:24:08] Balaam, really, really weirdly. Balaam, as this one character in these three chapters is mentioned five other times in the Bible.
[00:24:18] Not Balak, Balaam is mentioned.
[00:24:22] Let me read to you two. Peter 2 says, Forsake in the right way. They have gone astray. So Peter is writing to a church and he's talking about people that have gone out of the church, and he says they have followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing.
[00:24:43] Every other time that Balaam is mentioned, he's mentioned as a baddie. He's mentioned as someone who loved gain, who loved money, rather than following God.
[00:24:56] And shortly after this story, Balaam is actually.
[00:25:01] He's blamed for teaching Israelites to follow other religions.
[00:25:07] And there's a battle with Midianites and Balaam is killed.
[00:25:11] He's mentions him by name.
[00:25:14] And so maybe this story is about people's stupidity.
[00:25:18] Maybe that's the thing we can take.
[00:25:20] Maybe it's about people's refusal to listen to God.
[00:25:27] You notice when you read stories like this that the biblical authors has this way of telling a story and a way of underlying what they want to say.
[00:25:38] So, you know, in the Hebrew text, you didn't have headings, they didn't put it in a different font and underline it and use their highlighters to say, this is what this section is all about. They used many different techniques. One of them is repetition, right? We know it from stories, from fables, so stories like the boy who Cried wolf.
[00:26:00] Do you know how many times did he cry wolf before there was a wolf? Is it two? Three times he cried wolf?
[00:26:06] You know, there's an underlying of a thing. And so we see also in this story a repetition of the number three.
[00:26:15] God speaks to Balaam three times, twice in the camp and then once through the donkey, the donkey veers off the road three times.
[00:26:23] Balak tries to get Balaam to curse three times.
[00:26:29] And there's an underlying thing, but an underlying thing of people are really slow to listen to God.
[00:26:38] It's like I've told you once, I've told you twice, I've told you three times. I mean, when your parents says that to you when you were growing up, you know, third time was going to get going to get a serious telling off, wasn't it?
[00:26:50] Three times.
[00:26:52] And maybe this story is just telling us how obstinate we are as people to actually listen to God.
[00:27:04] Or maybe do you know, all these things are good, all these things are things that we can take away, but maybe there's something else, maybe there's a bigger picture story.
[00:27:14] Like if we zoom out, look back at all that we've been going through, how we think, how does this story fit into the big story?
[00:27:25] For into all that we've been going through the greatest story, I think it says that God is faithful to his promises and his covenant and will bring them to power. No matter what he's saying, nothing can stop it from happening.
[00:27:49] Not money, not power, not divination, not horses, not chariots, not armies, not the Egyptians or the Moabites or the Amorites or the Canaanites or the Midianites. No one can stop his promises coming to pass.
[00:28:09] And I think there's one thing really that sort of comes through this whole series, this whole, like, narrative of the story going through.
[00:28:22] And it comes really clearly in the prophecies.
[00:28:26] And it says there's God saying to his people, I am with you.
[00:28:34] We hear it if we listen to the repetition, to the promises, to the covenants made to Abraham, to Jacob and to Isaac. And now through Moses and Aaron, it's, I am with you.
[00:28:50] I am with you.
[00:28:53] I am for you.
[00:28:56] I am going to display my glory through you.
[00:29:01] And he is going to make that come to pass.
[00:29:09] And so we get to us as a new covenant people.
[00:29:15] And how should we read this story if that's. What do you know, as Israelites, if they were reading a story, if that's what they would see, what about us?
[00:29:25] Because, yes, we can see and look at it and think, yes, it's a challenge to remember God's sovereignty when things are going bad, when enemies are against us, when it feels like the whole world is against us, we remember. It's a challenge to remember that God is sovereign over everything, over all peoples.
[00:29:45] And yes, it's a challenge that, hey, we can be foolish people.
[00:29:50] We can try and get our future through money and power and education and whatever.
[00:29:58] We can try and do it.
[00:30:01] And yes, it's a challenge not to be obstinate.
[00:30:05] I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you think, actually God's been saying this thing to me for many times and I've still not listened.
[00:30:13] It's a challenge not to be obstinate, but I think it's more for us as new covenant people that it's God's infinite faithfulness to his covenant.
[00:30:25] Through Adam, through Noah, through Abraham, through Isaac, Jacob, the Israelites, through David, through Hezekiah, Ezra, through Jesus, through to us as the New Testament, his body, his church.
[00:30:40] It's a promise that God is with us.
[00:30:47] Let me read to you just from Romans 8 says, what then shall we say in response to these things?
[00:30:57] Paul's been just explaining some of the Gospel says, as God is for us, who can be against us?
[00:31:06] He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
[00:31:17] Who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen? It is God who justifies, who is the one that condemns no one, Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
[00:31:42] Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or swords, as it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[00:32:06] For I am convinced, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Our Lord God is with us.
[00:32:37] We know it because he sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us. And so we are in Him.
[00:32:44] You know that phrase that comes up again and again? We are in Christ, so we say. Can train cancellations or electricity bill hikes or childcare problems separate us from the love of Christ?
[00:33:03] Can redundancy or business failure or rent or finance mortgage difficulties? Can they separate us from the love of Christ?
[00:33:16] What about cancer?
[00:33:19] What about anxiety, depression? What about bereavement?
[00:33:23] Can they separate us from the love of Christ?
[00:33:27] Absolutely not.
[00:33:29] No. In all these things we are more than conquerors.
[00:33:35] We can face them because we know that God is with us.
[00:33:40] It doesn't pretend that they're not there.
[00:33:43] We don't put our fingers in our ears and shout la la la.
[00:33:47] Nor do we pretend that it doesn't affect us, nor that we don't pretend that we aren't hurt, we aren't ill.
[00:33:58] We don't pretend that, you know, we don't go into periods of doubt. We don't go, you know, we don't pretend that life will just be all fine.
[00:34:09] No, we conquer them by holding onto the truth that we are in Christ and Christ is in us.
[00:34:20] We conquer them by knowing, by grasping on with every fibre that we can onto Jesus.
[00:34:29] We hold onto him no matter what happens.
[00:34:34] We hold on to him because he will never let us go. If the band would like to come back up, and I think this is the voice of God that we should be listening to more than anything else, right?
[00:34:54] Whenever you are struggling to hear God's voice, meditate on the fact that God is with you.
[00:35:04] The Creator of the universe who formed you before.
[00:35:11] Before you were a twinkle in your parents eye, who knew you.
[00:35:15] He is with you and there is nothing that can separate you from his love.
[00:35:23] But as you meditate on that every time, every time God speaks. Do you know what?
[00:35:32] It requires a response for us, doesn't it?
[00:35:36] And I think when God says, I am with you, the question for us is, are we with God?
[00:35:48] Are we holding on to him?
[00:35:51] Are we chasing after him, forsaking everything else? Are we chasing after him with our whole life?
[00:36:01] Do you know? With everything that's going on, is he first and foremost in everything that we do?
[00:36:11] That is the proper response, isn't it?
[00:36:14] As Paul writes in Romans 11, the true worship is the sacrifice of the whole life that we bow down before him.
[00:36:23] Because you know what?
[00:36:26] What else is there to live for?
[00:36:29] What else is there to live for but the king of kings?
[00:36:33] The king of kings who lavishes on us everything that we ever wanted.
[00:36:40] Let's stand, let's stand if you can, if you're able.
[00:36:46] Let's dance.
[00:36:47] And we're going to want us to use this song as a response to say, yes, Lord, I know you're with me. And yes, Lord, I am holding on to you.
[00:37:01] I am following you where you lead, Lord, I am following because I know that you will take me to the promised land.
[00:37:13] When all of this life is done and dusted, when we have gone back to the ground, or Jesus comes again, that we know we will be with God in paradise.
[00:37:27] We will go to the promised land and heaven will come down to earth and it will be made new.
[00:37:35] And we will live with him forever.
[00:37:39] And so, God, I just pray, Lord, help us.
[00:37:44] Help us as weak, foolish, obstinate people.
[00:37:50] Help us when we can't see you, Lord, help us when we get obsessed when a new shiny thing comes along and we put all our efforts into that, or when the clouds are above us.
[00:38:06] When the clouds are above us and the rain is coming down.
[00:38:10] Lord, help us to see you clearly through those circumstances.
[00:38:14] Help us to devote our lives to you and follow you because I know you are with us.
[00:38:21] Amen.
[00:38:22] Amen.
[00:38:23] Let's just worship God.
