Good morning church. Good to see your beautiful, wonderful faces. I really, really enjoyed the tables we had last Sunday. I don’t know about you. It felt like weeks ago though. I think sometimes on Christmas, you lose track of the days. It seems like a thousand things happened and all of a sudden I realized only six days ago that we sat here and we shared a beautiful meal and wonderful time together as a community. I was sharing with some people even here that I’m trying every single year to make December enjoyable and joyful because I have two kids out of my three that have birthdays in December. Each week there’s something. I’m trying not to get caught up in the business but still creating space for joy and quality time and then things like what we just did together, sitting down, enjoying each other’s presence and company and glorifying God by being his people.
I knew for a while that today I was preaching. I want to say that out in the forefront. There’s a reason why I’m sharing this because as much as I would like to have enough space during Christmas week to say I’m sitting here, I’ve spent so much time, I’ve had an idea for weeks as to what I was going to share today. That’s true. I’m so glad I did what I did, which is usually I like to come on a Friday or Saturday by myself. Yesterday I was here on my own. I used to come here. I like to play and just worship myself and I find that just the quiet and the space with nothing and nobody just opens up my heart. I didn’t realize how busy my heart was until I sat here yesterday and the Lord brought me to a completely different verse and text than I had planned.
And so the reason why I’m sharing is for a multitude of reasons but I think I’m convinced to share with you this is that and I know Pastor Dave, even knowing him in April and being part of this community, I can say for sure that there is such a beautiful desire to worship Jesus. There’s a beautiful desire to follow the presence of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit. And I want to share this with you because I want you to know that I am with you when I say let’s be people who are discerning and people who are following the ways and the movements of the Spirit. I’m doing it with you friends.
So it would have been much easier for me to go with what I originally planned because I had most of it down and I don’t think it would have been bad. It’s still the word of God and hopefully I’ll share it next year on another day where he wants me to share it. But he brought me to a different text and when God does that, I feel a con, I know there’s a confidence in me to share with you because I know it’s not me saying this is my word for you.
It is not something you have not heard before, but there’s something specific he wants for each one of you and for us as a community. And so I want to predicate that and open up with that because I want you to know that my desire and our desire as a church is to be following Jesus and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and to be people who are going to glorify him in the midst of our community and outside of here. And the only way is if we are tuning in to the presence of God because as much as we’d like to say, you know, oh, God might be doing something, he is and he’s already doing something. And a lot of times I find for myself, I want to make things happen. My own way, my own time.
Guys, God is already at work and we get to pay attention and tune in to what he’s already doing. And we do that. We get to live in the space of, wow, I’m not really doing anything. It is so amazing to see God move. And I don’t know about you, but in the last months, is it not evident that God is doing something in our midst?
Is it not real? Something’s happening and it is not Pastor Dave, myself or any one of us that’s making it happen. Let’s be clear. This is God’s church. It is the Holy Spirit moving in each and every one of us, calling us to be the very people he wants us to be at this moment in time, in this town, in our communities, amen.
And so today we are going to go through the wonderful blessing that God gave Moses. To give Aaron to bless the people of Israel. Again, it is not something new for most of you. And for a lot of you, you would have probably prayed this time and time again, saying this time and time again over your life. But God has a new thing for us today. And so I’m going to read this blessing.
This is in Numbers 6 and it is from 22 to 27. And the Lord says to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turns his face towards you and gives you peace. And so they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them.
This is the word of the Lord for us today, friends. This is actually when I feel like every day I lack words to pray over my kids one of those times. Sometimes at 6 o’clock in the morning when we are rushing to put all of our stuff together and there are three kids running around, none of them want to eat what I made them. And all of them can’t find their clothes. I find it hard to have the right words to say to bless them, to send them out the door.
And so I find myself just latching on to Numbers 6. And I find my hands on them at the door and say, the Lord bless you and keep you. And so they know these words and maybe to them they are just familiar words. But I find with my kids, I don’t know about you if you raised your own kids and you see your grandchildren now, brings back some memories maybe, but kids do something very well that they don’t know. They teach us about what it means to be children of God.
Because we might be growing and maturing in our days on earth, but the fact is we are always God’s children. And sometimes it gets harder the older we get to remember what it’s like to be a child. And so I find with my kids especially when my oldest one was young, there was a moment where my second daughter was only maybe a year old and Brooklyn was two and a half under three. She had a bunch of gummies in her hand because that was like her thing.
And as a mom I’m like, hey, give me one, like just share. And it was just a very simple moment like every day you’d ask your kid to share a gummy with you. It was the first time where I saw her go like this. She was like, she just flinched and was like, oh no, about this. And it was like something clicked in her like, oh, I don’t know if I want to do this. And then I looked at her and I said, Brooklyn, you have like 20 in there.
Just give me one. And she’s like, oh no. And I said, you know I have more, right? And she’s like, hmm, like that started kind of turning something in her brain. And then I said, okay, let me show you. So I brought her into her kitchen, opened the pantry door. I had a Costco size of gummies that I put in like a bucket.
And so I was like, look. And she’s like, oh, just like here, mom. Have a couple. And I was just like, thanks, Brooklyn. And while that memory has always been ingrained in my mind about how intrinsic it is as a child to even naturally hold on to things so tightly that we think is ours. Yes, it was a parenting moment for me.
I was trying to get my kid to share. But it actually struck me as something else. It struck me as I had to show my daughter where I put the Costco candy in order for her to believe that I actually had more. And it got me thinking. I wonder how oftentimes we walk with the Lord year after year. And sometimes because life isn’t easy and there are so many things we do have to go
through that while God is always God, circumstance and situations and perseverance it requires us to track through life. Maybe we forget. Maybe we forget what it’s like because we are not God. When God says that he is a God of abundance, that that is actually true. Right? I looked at my daughter and each one did some variation of this along the way.
And they’re still young. They’re 10 and under. But this tendency to say, I don’t know if I can let go. I want to say, oh, prove it to me. Let me see. Oh, you do have what you say you have. And I realized how important it was even just as a parent to say, oh man, this isn’t about just sharing. It’s about her believing and trusting that I am who I say I am. And so how much more does that mean as kids and its children of God to actually know that in our growth and walk with God, that’s always the truth. But I don’t know about you. What God blesses us with and gives us. They’re not even just saying tangible things, the life, the people, the conditions of our hearts, everything he’s given us. It is so easy to hold on and to lose this childlike faith and understanding of who God is.
Just like my two-year-old daughter that time and to say, I don’t know. But the amazing thing is that God is so gracious. And we read this blessing. And we truly believe that the God we worship and the God that created everything and the God that existed before time, but then created us and then made a way and never stopped pursuing his people to this very moment, that this God, that this God wants to bless you, wants to keep blessing you. Is that something we truly believe and want? The amazing thing about numbers is, number one, it has a bad reputation of not being the most riveting book of the Bible for sure, because the moment you have the title called numbers, most people like me who don’t like numbers are not going to open it.
But I got to say, over the years, being able to dive into parts of Leviticus, numbers, Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible is the Jewish Torah. They have that all memorized. And for them, this is part of their history. And just before, in the whole other part of chapter six, so we read the last like five verses, which is a blessing. But the entire chapter, I’m not going to read it because it’s a lot, but I will encourage and recommend, if you have time this week, to kind of revisit it. I’m going to summarize it for the sake of today, by looking at what this blessing is for us. But there’s something so special about what was happening in chapter six. Men and women at the time of the people of Israel, all the different tribes, were invited to be able to take a vow before God. Anybody could do this.
Because at that time, the sacrificial system meant the priests had to represent the people to go through a lot of rituals so that people could be clean before the presence of God, so that they could actually come before God. Because a holy God cannot be before sin and people are just sinful, right? So something had to happen so that there was a reconciled relationship and that had to happen over and over and over again because people are just sinful and God is still holy. And yet there’s this thing called the vow of Nazareth and that’s this chapter.
It talks about how men and women, if they desire to commit themselves or recommit themselves, they’re already believing Jews. But if they want to commit themselves to something deeper in their hearts, they can. So what it requires of them is very similar to everything that you read in these first couple books of scripture that talk about what it requires to come into the temple of God. So it’s like you abstained from certain wines and drinks and that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but really it represented like a self-denial of some sort. Then you have to not groom or cut your hair, just to keep growing for a certain amount of time. Then you have to bring a bunch of different offerings and it lists here that there is a burnt offering, a sin offering, a fellowship offering, a grain offering and a drink offering. And I was always like, wow, there’s so many different types of offerings.
And as I looked into it, it was so interesting to know that everything is purposeful because God is purposeful, right? Nothing is just haphazard. It’s amazing because he asked for a specific animal that’s a specific one year old without blemish, pure and good to represent as a sacrifice. Burnt offering is this aroma. When you burn the animal, it’s a pleasing aroma to God. And then when you burn the sin offering next, it is an atonement for the sin of the people.
So then after the fellowship offering becomes this, hey, now that this has been reconciled, we have a relationship again, fellowship. And then you can bring in the grain and the drink offering. But can you imagine having to do that again and again and again and again? Because that is the requirement of a people that needed to come before holy God. God made a way. This was the way in the Old Testament.
And when people go, okay, what’s so interesting about numbers or this Old Testament when Jesus did it all? If anything, the interesting part is when you go into these texts in the Old Testament, you see Jesus because when you look at how much it takes to be able to come before God, we will realize again and again that we cannot do it, right? We cannot even at the best efforts, the Israelites, have a system going. That was to show them that this is what was required and they did it at their best effort, but God always knew that this was not going to be the sustainable solution, that no human priest, no human person, no animal sacrifice could ever be enough to cover the multitude of sins for generations and generations and generations. So if you ever want to go back to these texts to be like, what is the point? See it through the lens of Jesus because he’s all over.
He is here and when we can see how much it takes to even come before God, we realize how incapable we are as people, but how blessed we are that he gave Jesus his one and only son so that we don’t have to do anything. We just have to come to our knees and say thank you. How amazing is it that the God who loved the world so much gave his one and only son? And so when we think of that and we see this and we see how much it takes and how much he has done through Jesus, how can we not believe that the God who would give his son wouldn’t want to abundantly bless his people? Because this is why God specifically told Moses to tell Aaron, because Aaron was the mouthpiece for the people, to say, I want you, the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons, this is how are you to bless the Israelites? Because they were his people and through Jesus we are his people. Amen.
You know, Philippians 2 says this, therefore God exalted him Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Every knee should bow. I don’t know if you remember this, but a couple months ago, Fashar Day was here telling us what bless means. Do you remember doing this, Dave? He was encouraging each one of us to shake each other’s hand and fellowship and say, God bless you.
And teaching us that this is not just lip service and saying, oh, I hope God blesses you in whatever way that the word bless means to kneel. Every knee shall bow at the name of Jesus. Every knee bows at the name of Jesus. When we bless each other, we are blessing each other, not because we have any power in ourselves, but God bless you. He sacrificed himself, he bowed down to serve us when we did nothing to deserve it.
We serve each other through Jesus. We can receive this blessing we have from the Lord, but we can also give it to one another and bless the Lord back. But the amazing thing about this blessing, it was a reminder to the Israelites and now to us that we are a blessed people. We are a blessed people. And that we don’t have to come to God and say, can you please just give as if he’s withholding, as if it was like me taking a piece of candy from my child because I needed it. And without giving me something back, I couldn’t do it. No. He made the way for us so that we can live within the scope of his entire blessing, friends. Not only when we need it, we go, okay, God, can you please bless me with this? As if it’s a transaction, like a, what are those machines called, vending machines? Prayer or blessing.
If we look at blessings, like, like popping prayers up and saying, oh, I need a blessing now. We have an invitation to live in the scope of his blessing as a blessed people so that he says, Lord, bless you and keep you, sustain you, hold you, have you. I love what Charles Spurgeon says about this text. He says the text doesn’t teach the Trinity explicitly. And if you do know and believe in the Trinity, you see this text in a new way. Lord bless you. The Lord makes his face. The Lord turned his face three times. God the Father, the one who created the one who wants to bless you. He is the one who will keep you. He is the one who is going to sustain you all the days of your life until eternity. The Son, the Lord Jesus, his blood covers us so that every time God looks at us, he doesn’t see sin. He sees his Son. Amen?
We are covered by the blood of Jesus so that when God looks at us, no longer does he see sin and we are able to be in his presence because he sees Jesus. How incredible is that reality? So that his face may shine upon his people because of Jesus.
And we are recipients of perpetual grace and mercy through Jesus. And the gentle presence of the Holy Spirit, the Lord turns his face towards you and gives you peace. Peace in Hebrew is the word shallow. And shallow is not, oh, I got peace and quiet when I came to the piano because I didn’t have kids running around eating me. Oh, that’s a part of it.
Peace to them in this word. The shallow that they’re talking about is a whole, a wholeness, an entirety of completion that can only be found when the creation is with the Creator. When the identity of who we are made to be is being, is in existence. When God and all that he has is all that we need. Father, Son, and Spirit. And there’s no mistake in the repetition of the word you.
If you look, there’s six times where it says, Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord’s turn his face towards you and give you peace. You are what matters. You are who he wants to bless. You are who he is calling. You are his beloved.
And you at every season of your life are still his. And you in every moment of your life have purpose and are called for his glory and his kingdom. We are a blessed people, not because we have done anything to receive the blessing, but because the amazing God of everything has chosen his people and desires to bless us. So the invitation today, I don’t have any fancy points or any fancy title or anything because I just knew that the Lord wanted to invite us because each one of us sitting here is on purpose.
We are this church for his reasons. And while I can encourage you, we can encourage each other, we cannot discern on your behalf what the Lord is inviting you to. And I believe that the Holy Spirit is moving in our midst and calling us back to a place where we’re living in his blessing because he has so much for us in 2025 and beyond. You physically hear, but those who are surrounded in you in your communities, your families, your friends, saved and unsaved.
As we end this year and move into the new, God is calling us to come back to know who we are, to remember our identity as his people. And if we would be bold enough and courageous enough to surrender the things that keep us from living into his blessings. And friends, let’s be clear, I’m not talking about just physical. It can come, he can bless us with physical things, okay, in provisions. But he wants to bless you in these unique ways because he’s formed you and called you and created you for such a time as this. And when we tune in and we realize who we are, we come with a confidence, not a hesitation, it’s not arrogance, it’s a confidence and approaching the throne of God through grace, knowing that he’s just waiting to say, I have something for you. You, every one of you, directly, specifically, and the invitation today, church, would you respond to the convictions of the Holy Spirit today? And as you end your year to be intentional about coming to the Lord and say, Lord, what is it? I want, how do I live into your blessing? I recognize I am already blessed, help me live into the reality of a blessed person and a blessed people. Church, we, something’s happening. That’s all I can say. The Lord is doing something.
And I don’t want us to miss it. I don’t want any of us to operate or live in hesitation, no matter what stage of life, no matter where we’re coming from, no matter the hardships, because there are. The blessing doesn’t mean no difficulty. But the blessing is that the Lord is blessing you and he’s going to keep you. And he’s not going to turn away from you, but his face will shine upon you because he sees Jesus in you.
And he’s not going to leave you and he’s not going to forsake you. And that his spirit will give you peace that transcends all understanding, over all circumstances, over all situations, over all hardships, over all doubt, over all fear. That’s the God that is blessing us. That is the God who wants to lavish upon us his blessing. So I’m going to do what I do, which is I have a specific song that I want to invite us all to.
But I would love for you to just take this time to be with the Lord. If you want to sing this song, it is actually literally called the blessing. We’ve sung it before briefly, but if you just want this time opening up your hearts and hands to receive from God, maybe, maybe for you, it’s been a while.
Maybe for you, what spoke out today was the vow of the Nazarites.
Maybe today, the response to the spirit is, I want to come and make a new vow with you and recommit.
Not that you didn’t believe, not that you didn’t have a relationship, but it’s been a while and it’s been distant.
Here it is, friends, I invite each one of us today to come before God and to have hearts that are open to receiving his presence and his abundant blessing in your life, in our life, in our church, for his purposes, for his kingdom and his glory.
Amen?
