All right, let's turn to the book of Numbers, chapter number 16. As we continue our work, look very quickly at the Bible, taking a run through the Bible in a year. Last week, when we looked at the words of God concerning those who had seen His glory, and those that had seen what God was doing, and they rejected it, and they rebelled, and we saw what God said about them. Tonight I want us to remember what God told the children of Israel. You can hold your place in number 16, turn back to numbers 14. I begin reading in verse number 11. It says, and the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with pestilence and disinherit them and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. And Moses said unto the Lord, then the Egyptians shall hear it, for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of the land, for they have heard that thou art among this people that thou Lord art seen face to face and that thy cloud standeth over them and that thou goest before them by day time in a pillar of cloud in a pillar of fire by night now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man then the nations which have heard the fame of thee and will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. What we see before we get to number 16 is that the people of Israel never understood the heart of Moses. They never recognized how that Moses went before the Lord continually interceding for them on their behalf. God's going to wipe them out. He says he's going to wipe them out anyway. And he goes and Moses falls on his face before the Lord and says, Lord, don't do it. If you do it, then people will begin to say that you weren't able to bring this people up like you promised them. So Moses intercedes for them. Israel never understood the love and the passion that Moses had for them. Throughout the first five books, the Pentateuch, you see Moses interceding on behalf of the children of Israel, and they don't understand the heart of the leader that is in Moses, how much Moses loved his people, the people that God had given him. They didn't understand it. In our text today, we're going to see that that Korah rebels against Moses. They tell him, Moses, you take too much upon yourself. They are angry at Moses because they think that Moses is trying to make himself of some high position above them. But they don't know the heart of Moses. They should know the heart of Moses if they were willing to look for the heart of Moses. But they didn't. Let's read Numbers 16 verses 1 through 5. Now Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan, and Abiram the son of Eliab, and on the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. And he spake unto Korah and all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him. Even him who he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him." Here we have the uprising of Korah and others. Dathan and Abiram, they're rebelling against Moses' leadership. Now this is no small uprising as it says that there were 250 princes of the assembly. Later on, if you read this entire chapter, all of the congregation sides with Korah and Abiram and Dathan standing against Moses and Aaron. You see the pride in their heart. This was, like I said, no small uprising and they made the accusation that you take too much upon yourself. You are separating yourself and acting like you're some great person. Listen, all the people of God are holy. All of these people. Remember, He's chosen the entire nation. What makes you think that you're standing up before the people as some leader when we're all holy. Notice what Moses does though. They come and stand against Moses. It says they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And what does Moses do? Moses does what he always does. Moses fell on his face before the Lord. Moses falls on his face. Don't miss verse number 4. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. Notice the humility in the heart of Moses. Numbers 12, 3 tells us that Moses was the meekest man upon the earth. They're accusing Moses of pride. They're accusing Moses of trying to gain an authority that God hadn't given him. But God's word about Moses is that he is the meekest man upon the earth. He is a very humble man. And you see that here. Listen, many times people don't understand the heart of their leaders. And they can't see it because they have pride in their own hearts. They could not see the humility that was in the heart of Moses. They didn't see when God called Moses to lead the children of Israel, Moses said, I don't want to do this, God. You got the wrong guy. Get somebody else to do it. And besides that, I can't be a leader because I can't speak. That's when God called Aaron to come alongside. They don't see what's really in the heart of Moses. But Moses had a heart for the people. They didn't see him interceding before God on their behalf. They didn't recognize all the time that Moses had given himself for their benefit. The whole reason is because Moses didn't make an issue of it. So we want to understand here how that Moses is interceding for the people. the humility of Moses. Now notice what he says in verses five through seven. He fell on his face, he humbled himself before them and he says, okay, you think I'm taking too much upon myself? You think that I'm trying to acquire this position on my own? All right. Verse five, and he's speaking to Korah and all his company saying, even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy and will cause him to come near unto him, even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near. This do take you censors, Korah and all his company, and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to-morrow, and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. You take too much upon you, you sons of Levi." And so God's going to prove to them who is the leader and who is the one in rebellion. But I want you to understand something else about this, the misunderstanding of Korah. Look at verse number 8. And Moses said unto Korah, Here I pray you, you sons of Levi. That's very important. Korah was a Levite. Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that God, that the God of Israel, hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them. And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee, and seek you the priesthood also, for which cause both thou and all the company are gathered together against the Lord. And what is there in that you murmur against him? Here's the misunderstanding of Korah. God had called Korah's family to a very great work. God had made them Levites. God had made them the ones who did the ministry in the tabernacle. God had assigned them a duty. It was not to be the priest. It was to serve in the tabernacle. God had chose them to do this work. This was God's calling for them. Listen, the majority of the children of Israel didn't have a calling of God upon their life. But the Levites, of which Korah was a Levite, they were called out specially by God. They were God's tribe. If you remember when he begins to separate and make up the inheritance, the Levites didn't have an inheritance. The Lord was their inheritance. Others had to work for their living. The Levites lived off of the offerings that the people brought into the tabernacle. They were God's people doing God's work. They were God's chosen tribe. And they misunderstood that. You know, I never really understood this rebellion of Korah. I'd heard it many times. I heard Brother Lybrook preach a message from this one time, who's on the Lord's side? And it was the time that he said, if you're standing with the Lord, you stand up and get up here and stand by me. And if you're not, you stay back there in your pew. I'd heard that preached from this passage of scripture before. I'd never recognized that Moses is asking Korah, listen, Korah, why are you doing this? Why are you trying to take the priesthood? God has already given you a great position. You are God's servants. You've been called upon of God to do his work. Why are you trying to do this? Notice, seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel? Is it just a small thing for you to think that what God has chosen you to? As a church, that's so important for us to remember. God has assigned His authorities. He's assigned the way that He does things and the way that He wants His church organized. And listen, your duty, your responsibility, the thing that God has called you to, is it a small thing that God has called you to that? And the answer to that is no. You may not have the position that someone else has. You may not have the opportunity to minister that someone else has. You may never have the position of authority. being the under-shepherd of the Lord's church. You may never be a pastor, but does that make your duty any less important? The answer is no. When you recognize that you've been called of God and made a member of this church and a member in particular, And you provide that which is yours to provide. You're doing exactly what God asked you to do. It's not a small thing. It's not something that we should take lightly. And your calling is not any different than my calling. It's just different. Your calling is not any greater. Your calling is not any less. Because it's a calling that God has put upon you. So don't think that your calling is a small thing. Don't think that your calling is unnecessary, it is unimportant. Recognize that what God has called you to is a great thing. Now, remember this, if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires the good thing. There's nothing wrong with desiring to be the pastor or to be called into the ministry. That's a great thing and we need more young people to be called into that. But what Moses is reminding Corey here is that their calling is important. And they shouldn't be in rebellion against Moses and try to take which was not theirs. They're really rebelling against Aaron because God had made him the priest. Listen, God had a holy calling upon Korah and upon the Levites, and they needed to accept that. And the whole point of this is for us to see, is it a small thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel? To bring you near unto himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? It's not a small thing what God has called you to. It's a great thing. When you think about this, think about the gifts that God has given you. And the gifts that God has given you are the gifts that God has given you. And God has made you who you are. so that you can utilize what He has given you for your honor and your glory. I mean, think about this. Is it a small thing that we have a piano player? How would you like for me to sit over there and play the piano and for you all to try to sing along with me? You wouldn't want that, would you? Would you want me to take over that position and to say, today I'm playing the piano? You wouldn't want me to do that. Why? Because, Brother Mark, we've never heard you play the piano, but I don't think you could play the piano. It'd be wrong for me to try to do that, wouldn't it? Because it wouldn't be beneficial. So you don't want me to take that position. Would you want me? I'm not gifted to play the guitar, but would you want me to try to play the guitar in a service? You wouldn't want me to do that, would you? Because I'd sound like one of these kids up here. I want to get me an electric guitar, and then we'd really... No, you don't want me to do that. You think about the other things, like maybe taking care of the nursery. Kimberly put that baby in my hands today. She said, here, I've got to go to the bathroom. Listen, I'm thankful for you that can go into the nursery and take care of the babies, and for those that can do the children's church. Listen, even go to the nursing home. Listen. I can't do it. It's just not me. I cannot. We went up to eat a couple of Sundays to go, and I think I might have made mention of this one time before, but somebody from the community that I don't really know, I just kind of know them from other things, they sat down at the table next to us and they started talking to me. Man, I talked back. But I told Kimberly, I said, Do you know how hard it was for me to talk to that man? I was petrified to sit there in Subway and talk to that man. I mean, I was scared to death. That's not me. I can stand up here and talk to a whole group of people and it not bother me. But I can't talk to somebody one-on-one. It's just not me. Here's my point. We're all gifted. We're all gifted in different ways. God has given us things that he hasn't given to others. He's given us abilities. And what we need to understand is those gifts are gifts that God has given to us. And we need to utilize those gifts for his glory, for his honor. And to not view it as a light thing, but to view it as that's what God has given me to do. And it's how that I'm going to serve Him through the gifts that He has given me. Korah's problem was he didn't recognize the great calling that was upon his life. And because of that, he rebelled against Moses. And if you want to read the entire thing, You can read how Cora influenced the entire congregation. I made mention of that already. Let's go over very quickly. Verse number 20, we'll go to 20. And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces. Here they are again. They're all gathered together in rebellion against Moses. And what does Moses do again? Moses falls on his face. And said, O God, the God of spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch not theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins. All the congregation is gathered against Moses and against Aaron. God says he's going to destroy them. Moses gets on his face, as he always does, and intercedes on behalf of the people, doesn't want God to destroy the congregation. Moses goes back and tells the congregation, says, separate yourselves from these people. God's going to judge. And we know what happens, right? God brings judgment. Moses says, if these guys die a natural death, then He's not with me. But if God makes up a new thing so that they die, then recognize that God is with me. So what happened? God opened up the earth, and the earth swallowed Korah and his family and all of those that stood with them, and the earth closed back up amongst them. God brought judgment because they, in their pride, rebelled against Moses. That's a difficult story and it's one that I hesitate to teach on very often. But when I saw this point, the key was that verse 9, seemeth it but a small thing. I wanted to share it with you because it opens our eyes to see that what God has called us to is not a small thing. There's a lot of teaching out there now about small church pastors. And the encouragement is, listen, just because you're a pastor of a small church, don't be upset and think that your calling is any less than the calling of someone who has a megachurch. Because you be faithful to minister where God has chosen you to minister. That's all you can do, just be faithful to minister where God has chosen you to minister. And so the same thing is true no matter what. It's not a small calling that God has placed upon you. What you need to do is find out the calling that God has placed upon you and then you use it for His glory and to be thankful that God has gifted you to do the work that He's called you to do and be faithful to do it and you will be rewarded greatly because you're faithful to do what God has called you to do. It is not a small thing that God has called you to do. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to get together and to learn from your word. I pray that you bless these people, Lord, and we do thank you for the callings and the gifts that you give each of us. I pray, Lord, that we will utilize the gifts that you have given us for your honor and your glory so that your work can continue. God, help us to identify pride in our hearts. If we see pride rising up where we want more than you have called us to, I pray God that you will help us to keep pride at bay because we know that pride cometh before fall. I pray that we'll learn from the lesson of Korah and Dathan and Abiram that we will not fall prey to pride. Thank you for the gift of eternal life. Thank you for the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and our minds to see your truth. Just thank you for your word. It is in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.