Kurt grew up in a Christian home since an early call to missionary work, and unlike most of the people who experienced that call, became a missionary pilot and then served as a mechanic in Kenya. Kurt came to mind in a discussion I had with one of my cousins. One of my cousins and I are ex-army, and we frequently I'd say maybe war game, we answer questions like if we had to invade, say, South Dakota, how would that go? And he and I are also rather keen on missionary work, don't sense a call ourselves, but are very concerned about missionaries. And so one evening, just speculating on some of the places in the world missionaries have to go, we got to thinking that there might be a need for what he and I eventually came to call Missionary Dream Teams. And I'll spare you the lengthy story. One of the critical members of this Missionary Dream Team is someone appropriately titled The Mechanic. This is the guy who can fix anything. boat, plane, helicopter. And if he can't fix it, he can build it. Hopefully out of bamboo. And so we were talking about that guy, because most of the other things that we thought we needed would be relatively easy. And then that mechanic is just all these people, you just shove them through a year-long intensive seminary course. So you take this mechanic, you put him through a crash theology course, and then you've got your man. And my cousin and I were talking about, man, people like that are really far and few between. And I was happy to say, actually, I know a guy. Kurt and I met at seminary. We met in the lobby. And I'll be honest, at first when I met him, I wasn't too sure exactly if he and I were going to hit it off. Because we're introduced, he goes to shake my hand. And apparently, in some places in Africa, that handshake can last for ever. I'm looking over at Michelle going, does this guy realize he's still holding my hand? So he was in Kenya in the 1990s, came back here in 1997 to get married. It's my understanding that that was quite an interesting courtship involving, as I learned last night, a transatlantic proposal over the phone. See, only women say that. I think it's very eminently practical. You know, when you want to be a wise steward of God's resources, it costs a lot of money to fly back to the United States, hoping that the answer to the very important question you're flying all this way to ask is not going to be, no thanks. And so it was in 1997 that he and I had met. He was going to be there for a year. And as so happens to people, when they meet me, their plans just fall completely apart. And he was there for five, got his MDiv. And then it seemed to drag on forever after that before he and his wife could finally get to Uganda, which was the first thing I learned about him while he and I were standing there holding hands. I hope very soon to be able to call him Dr. Gert Schimke, but Gert would come please and present the word to us as well. One switch on, one switch off. Good morning. It's an honor and a privilege to be with you to approach God's holy and inspired and infallible word. As you're turning in your Bibles with me to Numbers chapter 20, I'm going to ask you a question. Why is it there were such good rebels? James might be willing to shake my hand. Very good introduction, thank you. But what he should tell you is that I'm a sinner in desperate need of a savior, and I'm a very good rebel. We all are. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, but it's the craft at which we are very good witching at. It's just a very good thing that we do badly. And a very bad thing we do goodly? No, it's just bad. It's just bad. We are corrupted fundamentally within our nature. That's why I love the Reformed confessions. They don't dilly-dally about that ugly topic. This is who we are. Rising up to any challenge is as natural as breathing, right? God created us as wonderful, rational creatures who are supposed to look at a problem, look at a situation, and say, yes, my adrenaline's gonna start flowing, different neurons are gonna start firing, my heart's gonna start beating faster, I'm gonna be bringing in more oxygen, and I'm gonna look at a nasty situation and deal with it. And you say, yes, well, of course, that's supposed to happen, right? Well, why is it that we use that same adrenal system to rebel against the session, or the preacher, or my teacher, or my parents, or the government, and what have you? especially as Americans, we consider it an honor. It's part of our heritage in our history. We're supposed to rebel, right? But we use that in such a destructive way. We often consider rebellion a moral right, but often we use it so sinfully. Leadership is needed. It is the means by which God uses to guide his church, guide our lives. We always need parents. I don't care how old you are, you always need a spiritual father and a mother. Why is it that we take such a wonderful resource that God puts in front of us and we say, no, I don't want to hear it. You got to be kidding me. I don't want to take that. But God uses this. We struggle with the concept that God can use weak, sinful vessels such as we are to shape us and mold us, because we are so blind to our own sin. We're so stuck in our own ways. We think that I can see things in a perfectly neutral fashion. Oh, man, how ugly it is. Yet we need The sinner next to us is a little bit more experienced, maybe a little bit better trained, a little bit better discipled. We need him or her to speak to our lives and say, hey you, I gotta talk to you. I was in Florida last week and it was fun. The pastor was from New Jersey. I said, hey you, I need to talk to you. And a person from New York and New Jersey, they like that language and they understand it fully. Confrontation is not easy, nor is it well liked, but we need our leaders, we need our confrontators. Well, before us in Numbers chapter 20 is a confrontation, both to the follower, both to the leader, all from a sovereign God. So let us hear from God's holy and inspired word. Begin at verse one, I'll end at verse 13. Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron, and the people contended, fought with Moses and spoke saying, if only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. Why have you brought us up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It's not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there any water to drink. So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, take the rod. You and your brother Aaron, gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water. Thus it shall bring water for them out of the rock. and give drink to the congregation and to their animals. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And he said to them, here now, you rebels, must we bring water for you out of this rock? Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod and water came out abundantly and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe me, to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and he was hallowed among them. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord our God shall abide forever. Wow, talk about rebellion against leadership, huh? This is a tough one. Let me give us some background to this rebellious quarreling. Numbers chapter 20 is the 38th year in the wilderness, 38 long years. And it's coming to a close of what God has said they would do, suffer in the wilderness and then go into the promised land, into Canaan. And so they sense that the long wandering is close to an end, but it's back to the beginning in one sense. They started this rebellion in the wilderness in Kadesh and they're back suffering. Did the 38 years change anything? That's the suffering. That's the difficult part of this passage. They've been trained in the wilderness. We're going to explore that this morning. Okay, wait a minute. They've been in this area. They know why they're here. They know the rebellion. They know the consequences. And yet, and yet again, another crisis. How do they respond? Rebellion. I love the name of this place. The Wilderness of Zin. Yes, I'm a Hebrew student. Yes, I know it means something totally else. But as an English speaker, you gotta love this. Yes, it's the Wilderness of Zin, along with Zin. Once again, they reveal their dark side. There's wickedness. inbred sinful nature. It's who we are to the root and core. So this lack of faith in this vision, all of this experience, we should have given some insight to say, the Lord led us to a difficult spot, but he will see us through. Nope, nope, nope, nope. All they see is the crisis in front of them. I had this very bad habit of complaining to Moses and Aaron again and again and again for 40 years. And all of this mess, which makes me chuckle and makes me weep, all of this mess, and it's just really about three or four days' walk to go to the north, to get into Canaan. It doesn't take very long. And on top of that, the fact of the geographical awareness that they should have had about where they're at, Yahweh is constantly present with them. The cloud during the day, the pillar of fire by night, manna every morning. Gee whiz, I would like free breakfast every morning to know it's coming all the time no matter what. Why not get a perspective of God's incredible power to take care of his people to fulfill his covenant promises? Well, didn't sink in. Kadesh is the place of their first huge failure. They had many along the way before they got to the wilderness of Zin. But in Kadesh, 38 years prior, we have a record that Numbers has in chapter 13, verse 25. The chapter 14, verse 35. For the sake of time, I'm not going to read it this morning. But it's the famous story of the 12 spies who go into the Canaan They all come back, 10 of them say, no way, there's no way we're going into there. And of course, Joshua and Caleb say, we can do this, God is with us. They get the perspective of Yahweh's constant, continual presence. But of course, majority rules, and they say, we were like grasshoppers to the giants. in the land and they get overwhelmed. They lose perspective and we know the story and we know the reality of the history of this where God says, okay, because you don't trust me, you people are going to die and rot in the wilderness. Very ugly language that used back then. Your carcasses will be eaten away in the desert. God's not very happy without it. So there's consequences for faithlessness. And so Numbers 20 is all the more poignant because here we have it again 38 years later. And so no wonder Moses and Aaron fall flat on their faces in the tent of meeting in the tabernacle in verse six. I'm going to read it again. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Think of the perspective here. You're doing discipleship, leadership training for 38 years, knowing this is the covenant people of God. We are going to share his message to the nations. We are going to inherit. We are going to move into the promised land, and we're going to be so ready for it. And Moses and Aaron, they know their job. They say, all right, here we go. 40 years in the wilderness. Here goes the school of Hard knocks, but we're going to do this. Take a deep breath and here we go. We're going to dive in. After 38 years of this so-called good school, what do you think of yourself as a leader? How often as a parent or as a teacher? You kind of look, lower your head, you see. How am I going to get through to these students? How am I going to get through to these kids? How do I get through to my church? How do I get through to my Bible study group? The people I am supposed to lead in spiritual development and maturity. How do we get through? They're speechless before the Lord. Lord, it's their way of communicating. Lord, I'm at a complete loss. I thought I was good at this. I thought I had 38 years to figure this out. And you know what? I'm failing miserably. No wonder the Shekinah glory of the Lord is needed here. When there's nowhere to go, when you feel as a failure as a leader, when the only response seems to be rebellion, you look to the Lord in faith. There's a cycle here I want you to observe that Moses is the author of Numbers. I'm a traditionalist here. I believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch. What he wants to communicate here is a particular cycle. First in Numbers 13 and 14, Moses intervened, Yahweh responds with grace and consequences. In the intervening period, the cycle that he wants us to teach us is that Israel is responding. This is a new generation. This is the generation. These are the covenant people of God who are going to bring us the Messiah, the one who is going to redeem Israel and the world. They were supposed to get their perspective. This is the culture where God will deliver the gospel to. That's what they were supposed to grab in the 38 years in the wilderness. This generation is to learn obedience. Deuteronomy 6. Remember that? My mother made me memorize that. She had to spank me to get me to do it, but she did it. Thank God for German mothers who know how to get through thick-skulled German sons. You've memorized this and you like it. And I'm not joking. She said it like that. Praise God, she didn't beat me enough as far as I'm concerned. I have a daughter who tells me all the time, do you love me? Yep, enough to beat you. I love Africa, you can beat your children left and right and nobody's gonna look at you that way. Don't tell CPS, maybe I shouldn't put that on the sermon. Anyway, here's the third part of the cycle in Numbers chapter 20. Moses and Aaron now, they're both actively working doing the discipleship during the hard work. Moses has listened to his father-in-law Jethro. He's divided it up into groups according to 100, 1000, what have you. He's got a leadership development program going. This is supposed to work, and then this? Over what? Something so simple and basic as water? People, we've been finding water in the desert now for 40 years, and you're gonna freak out and have a conniption fit now? No wonder they're speechless. No wonder they're speechless. Lord, you need to teach me what to do here. I have no clue. And the Lord speaks. The Lord guides His leaders, and He intervenes in a wonderful way. And in verse 8 and 9, and here in chapter 20, he tells Moses, speak to the rock. Speak to the rock. I thought you want me to speak to the people. I'm supposed to teach them something, right? No, I want you to speak to the rock. Why speak? Moses is a unique prophet of God. If you go to Deuteronomy chapter 18, you've got this long laundry list of all the qualifications for a prophet. I have a lot of Pentecostal students and I would love for them to read this chapter. I said, you like having prophets? Then read down this list and tell me if you've got a real prophet in your church. One of the key ingredients, one of the key statements that the Lord delivers to Moses is says, this is the type of relationship that you and I have. It's from my mouth to your mouth. It's mouth to mouth relationship. What it means, it's authoritative, intimate communication. Meaning Moses, I'm gonna give you the absolute words and concepts you must communicate to the people. Literal communication, that's intimacy. So Moses stands in a unique, no wonder he comes off Mount Sinai, with Shekinah glory emanating from him. I don't know how to describe that theologically, but it was visible, it was there. Moses is in a unique close relationship to deliver the very exact words of God to his people. And they knew this about him. So it's not shocking or amazing that the Lord would say, as you, as my authoritative representative, speak to the rock. Now secondly, he tells him, now take the staff from the tent of meeting. Well, what's this stick all about? Well, you know the staff from the great stories and the great history in Exodus. This staff represented the very power and presence of God. So once again, besides the pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night, man in the morning, of course, and the tabernacle sitting in the middle of the whole assembly of the two million. Israelites in the wilderness all of that physical presence in this particular crisis take an extra special symbol of my authority With you that was there in the plagues and all of the miracles in Egypt now mind you That staff was before the Lord in the tent of meeting. It was his it represented his authority his power his covenant relationship So Yahweh is speaking to the rock. Yahweh's power and authority is going to bring water out of this rock. But Moses strikes. He's fed up. He's had it here. OK, yes, I'll do this. I'll do this. I'll do this. But in his heart, he has had it up to here. He's lost his emotional patience with the whole process. Hear now, you rebels. I know I'm overdramatizing it, but I really think he's angry. He's enraged. And the words here are critical. Shall we bring forth water for you from this rock? He has heard the constant whining and complaining in the politics for 40 years. Moses forgets who he represents and in anger becomes a rebel himself. This is why it has its name, Meribah. Everybody is singing here at this moment. Everybody is a disastrous mess, despite the fact of what this whole wilderness experience is supposed to teach them. So he hits the rock. Now, mind you, it demonstrates also amazing grace, as we just sung about. Thank you, by the way, for the opportunity to sing Amazing Grace. It means an enormous, enormous amount to African Christians, believe me. Very meaningful hymn. But here we have it. Here we have it. Where Moses, despite his sin and despite the sin of everyone around him, God still brings water. He will keep his covenant promises. He is the covenant keeper. It's not you or me. Here he is bringing forth what's going on. So rebellion is costly though. Rebellion is costly. Verse 12, any failure of leadership or followers is a result of a lack of faith. He gets right to the point because you did not believe in me. Did you think you really had to hit the rock? Is my authority so weak that you got to give me a little push? No. At that moment, your anger and rage, Moses, overwhelmed your knowledge of what you knew to be true about my power and my authority. What do you mean? Who is this we? You got a frog in your pocket? Who is this we? Shall we bring forth water of this frog? No, it's not you, Moses. It is I, Yahweh, your covenant Lord, who's going to do this. In anger and in frustration, they forget that Yahweh was not doing miracles only for survival, but for the development of His special people. This was the culture that was going to change the world. They needed to know that their uniqueness and their authority to speak the truth to the other cultures on planet Earth came from their Creator and their Covenant Lord Himself. Weak faith combined with anger are deadly to our spiritual life, are they not? We lose sight of what God is doing and we fail to see beyond our pain and our crisis. And as a result, there's consequences for this. You lose faith, you lose perspective, I don't care who you are, there will be consequences. Moses and Aaron, true, never do see the land that they had prepared an entire generation for. So, here we have it. When you read this story, you can see yourself in it, right? You and I have rebelled. We often rebel. How does the Lord Jesus reform us into leaders? How do rebels into leaders? Well, turn with me to John chapter seven, where the Lord Jesus himself refers to this event, or the wilderness experience, and he turns it into he uses it of course for his glory and he uses it as an instructive tool in the lives of the disciples. This is not just a Numbers chapter 20 isn't just an experience in failure where we can wag our fingers at those nasty little Israelites. No, you and I are in the same boat. The Lord Jesus uses the Feast of Tabernacles in John chapter 7 as the lesson plan to teach that there are things for the disciples to learn in their wilderness experience. Let me read. John chapter 7 beginning at verse 37. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit, whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus is also confronting an angry and rebellious generation. He did it in the lives of his disciples. He certainly did it, especially in the language he used before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is more than a feast, the Feast of Tabernacles. It's the one week of the year where they were all supposed to move out of their homes, build little tents, and live kind of roughing it, kind of camping. in the street next to their homes to remind them of their history, how the Lord had brought them through. But I find it interesting that they've given the title Feast. So yeah, they're roughing it, but they're not really roughing it. They're making sure they got plenty to eat. It's another opportunity to party and to relax. But the Feast of Tabernacles was supposed to remind them of what the Lord was teaching them in that. But why speak also of drinking and becoming a source of water? Well, because of the work of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus was planting in the knowledge and the desire of the apostles an idea to say, okay, there is spiritual authority and power that's supposed to come from the ministry that we're supposed to have with people. Where does that come from? Where is it supposed to come from? Well, the Lord Jesus used a very critical term, to the disciples in the reference to the Feast of Tapernacles and Kadesh. That is thirst. Thirst. We're thirsty for something. Well, before you answer the question, what am I thirsty for? Answer this. Why do we rebel? See, the rebellion, the anger, the frustration reveal what we're thirsty for. Why the anger? Why get all frustrated with leadership? Why rebel? Why start gossip? Why make it hard on those who want to lovingly lead you into greater faithfulness, into greater perspective and understanding of the painful circumstances that we often experience? to reveal our thirst, to reveal my anger and my frustration and my fears, point to my need for a Savior, point to the I am in great desperate need of a God who is in control because I would rather be there. So the response for us is to say if the Lord has led you into Kadesh, into the wilderness, there's a reason for it. The wilderness develops faith. We drink from, that is, we trust in Jesus when it's hard to do so. And suffering is gonna reveal that. Where do I need it? Where precisely do I need to grow it? We ask ourselves in suffering, when we get angry and frustrated with a process, we ask ourselves, Lord, I'm thirsty because I really wanna know if all this mess, all this difficulty that I'm going through is worth it. Remember the children of Israel, both in chapter 13 of Numbers, also here in chapter 20, saying, what, did you bring us to die here in the wilderness? Meaning, why have we been here for 40 years? What is the purpose of all of this? And I guarantee you, for you and I and every living creature, we ask ourselves, is there a reason why I'm suffering? Is there a reason why it's so hard to deal with this, boss? So hard to raise these children, so hard to guide and direct this church. Jesus is pointing us to himself. And out of this, it says, rivers of living water will flow from us, meaning the Holy Spirit's going to do such an incredible work in and through us, we will be able to share perspective in the anger and pain. We can say, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, but Jesus taught me this. The Holy Spirit strengthened my soul to endure this, to gain perspective, and I was able to forgive. I was able to set all of that frustration aside. And now you and I, we can have this conversation, and we can learn, and we can grow together. What are we thirsty for? Meaning in suffering. And when you do this, Jesus is developing you into a spiritual leader and water flows from you. I love the word of God because it's very honest and realistic and understands us who we are. Moses and Aaron did not get to ride off into the sunset. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the wilderness. There's consequences, and suffering doesn't always produce the benefits you would like it to. You're familiar with the famous phrase, well, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Well, unfortunately for many of us, it makes us bitter. It makes us angry. It makes us tired. It makes us lazy. I shouldn't say that. We choose to be angry. We choose to get lazy because we're tired of the fight. Paul, in reference to this very scenario, the wilderness of Kadesh, the wilderness of Zin, wrote to the Corinthian church in chapter 10 of the first letter. I'm gonna read it here. You can turn with me if you want to but let me read the first six verses of 1st Corinthians 10 Paul is drawing from the two previous sections. I've read before he says this to the Corinthian Church moreover brethren I don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. That's a hard thing to write to somebody. I know you're following Jesus, I know you're doing this, but if you're not careful, these are the sufferings and the consequences that can happen if you don't understand the lesson that needed to be learned in the wilderness. Christ was with them. The same Christ that was empowering obedience and faith in the covenant people of God in the wilderness happens in the New Testament. It happens to you, it happens to me. Rivers of spiritual living water should be flowing from us and out of that we can grow. We can have repentance and faith. It is shocking the word that he uses here, baptized into Moses. Now, wait, wait, wait a minute. I thought we're supposed to be baptized into Christ. But baptized in this case means they had a shared experience. That shared experience taught them that they needed a Savior. They needed redemption. God needed to do an amazing work in their lives so that they could function together as a covenant community. Welcoming the Savior, preparing the world for a Savior. Amazing that also in that shared experience what was growing them. It was the power of Christ Christ was working in and through their suffering. He was developing faith and believers It was an incredible privilege that all of the symbolism all of the education all of the tools were there for them to piece it together and A lot of times they didn't get it. And so Paul uses that illustration to say, listen, you and I don't wake up every morning to a free breakfast we just got to go pick out of the field. You and I don't have a flaming fire sitting out of our house at night to say God's taking care of us at night. And we don't have a pillar of cloud that sits right there and never moves to say Yahweh is taking care of us during the day. But it's still true and it's still going on. And if those peoples had all that wonderful direct education of that reality and it didn't change their hearts, I need to warn you about what happened to you and me when we lose perspective on God's presence in our suffering and the ability to teach us. The Lord is faithful. That should be so critically obvious in this text. He's purposed by the presence of His Spirit in you to make you and I a life-giving influence in the community as we reach to it and present the gospel. So what do you do? You trust Him. You seek Him. You say, Lord Jesus, I don't have the right perspective right now. I need to see the value in the suffering, but please help me to be patient while you're teaching me that. Don't let me be overwhelmed by anger and pain and fear. And that's why I believe we have this wonderful verse that Paul follows through in 1 Corinthians 10, that of verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you such that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. The scars need to produce something. There will be days when you and I react like Moses. And in the midst of that, we must seek his grace as we humbly endure the consequences. We know this to be true, right? One step forward, two steps back. How often do we confess our faults to our spouses, to our own children, to our own people who look up to us in leadership? Don't be surprised if you and I carry water for the rebellion. But learn and grow from it. Trust that Christ is in and operating with us. His Holy Spirit will reveal Christ in you, the hope of glory. He's going to do his work. And the suffering has great meaning. And the suffering will produce holiness, which we so much desire in all of us. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we confess before you that you desire to develop all of us into leaders of one type or another, but we kick, we struggle, we strain, we become rebels in the process often. Lord, we humbly ask that you would teach us, that we would learn not just as mere examples from the scriptures, but your Holy Spirit would deeply affect and impact this truth into our souls. As leaders, help us to be quick to confess sin and help us to be willing to endure the consequences. As we suffer, Lord, protect our souls and our hearts from bitterness and from overwhelming apathy, and we don't want to do the work that you've required us to do. Allow us to be faithful. Allow us to see the perspective of how to further apply faith as you graft it into us by the power of your Holy Spirit and produce a greater faith within us. These things we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ the righteous. Amen.