Ron DeGarde: I don’t know when the last time you heard a message out of the book of Numbers But you’re going to hear one tonight Numbers chapter 11

We’re going to take a look at a few verses And then we’ll pray And then we’ll ask God to help us during our time together

And we’ll take a look at that Numbers chapter 11 And we’ll begin our reading in verse number 1

When the people complained, it displeased the Lord The Lord heard it This anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them

It consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp The people cried unto Moses And when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched

And he called the name of the place Tibera because the fire of the Lord burnt among them And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting And the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat

We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely

the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes the manna was as a coriander seed and the color thereof as the cover of bdellium and the people went about gathered it and grounded it in mills and beat it in mortar baked it in pans and made cakes of it the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil

and when the dew fell upon the camp in the night the manna fell upon it and Moses heard the people weep throughout their families every man at the door of his tent and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly Moses also was displeased Moses said unto the Lord wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant and wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight that thou laest the burden of all this people upon me Have I not conceived all this people

Have I conceived all this people Have I begotten them that thou should say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father, Beareth the sucking child unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers When should I have flesh to give unto all this people

For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat I am not able to bear all this people alone Because it is too heavy for me

I don’t know if there’s ever been a time in your life where you just came before the Lord and said, Lord, I can’t walk this road You’ve asked me to walk Where some of these circumstances are so difficult

God, I can’t do it It’s too heavy for me And really in 2016, even tonight, you may have walked through these doors and you may identify with these words of Moses

I want you to take comfort and encouragement and some truth that we’re going to find in Numbers chapter 11 Father, thank you for the time that we have tonight Lord, I pray that you would add your blessing to the reading of your word

And as I preach tonight, God, would you allow Bible truth to be evident Would you allow it to be a help And Father, I pray that you would work tremendously in the lives of my friends that are here tonight

God, I pray that you would take those that are struggling, they’re discouraged Lord, would you encourage their heart and strengthen them I pray for my friends here tonight that maybe they have failed over and over and over and maybe become discouraged about the frequency of sin in their life or just some strongholds that, or they just can’t get victory over

God, I pray that you would strengthen them and encourage their hand tonight in the work of the Lord God, Lord, we need you I pray that you would show yourself strong and mighty, Lord, during our time together

Thank you in advance for what you’ll do We pray this in Christ’s name Amen

From the cradle to the grave, really man has seen disease that has marked our country Disease is nothing new And you can look at through every time period, every civilization, you can see how diseases really impacted every culture and really every civilization

You realize that malaria kills over a million Africans every year you realize that a young person under the age of five dies in Africa every 30 minutes The world is no stranger to disease

Tonight we can talk about the Black Death or the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe And we can talk about millions or thousands that lost their lives during those diseases You know what really

We are not without our own diseases Tonight we can talk about AIDS with no known cure for AIDS tonight It has claimed the life of millions since the beginning of the epidemic

We could talk about Ebola and some of the other diseases You realize that there are literally hundreds of diseases that are identified and on record in the CDC Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia tonight And really, the world is no stranger to disease

John Brain, his 500-page book, he chronicles for us the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic And it chronicles for us how 40 million of the healthiest people on the face of the planet died horrifically, bleeding from their noses and their ears, turning blue and green from lack of oxygen And you know what the fact is, the world is no stranger to disease

But I want you to consider tonight that there is a greater disease that is on the loose tonight, a greater disease that is doing more damage than AIDS, than the bubonic plague, than the Black Death and malaria, and really than the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, all of those diseases wrapped up and combined, there is a disease doing more damage tonight, and it’s on the loose, and it’s this disease called discouragement

And that disease may have made its way into your heart tonight, and you may be infected, and you didn’t even realize it In Numbers chapter 11, God’s people are infected Moses is infected

And I want you to take a look at some truth tonight about this matter of the disease of discouragement It was several years ago, my wife’s sister, her name was Tara, she was married to a fellow named Joel Mosier, and they were, he was the assistant pastor at a church outside of Philadelphia And she was 29 years old, 28 years old, and she just had a child, and she couldn’t even get out of bed

There was just something strange that just took over her body, and she wasn’t even able to care for her newborn baby Some of the moms in here imagined that And she couldn’t even touch the baby or pick the baby up hardly, just with excruciating pain

And she went to doctor after doctor Nobody knew what was wrong with her They prescribed powerful medications, and those didn’t work, and they had to take her off those

And they said, well, the only other medications we have, one is going to affect your eyesight, the other is going to affect your liver, and really neither of those are a good option It wasn’t until she saw a specialist in Philadelphia that they got some answers She walked into the office of this specialist

The specialist took one look at Tara and not even in the room for 10 seconds, she goes, I know exactly what you have And in fact, I’ve never seen it this bad in a 29-year-old young lady You have acute rheumatoid arthritis

And it wasn’t until they prescribed or really diagnosed what they were dealing with,

they really couldn’t have any proper course of treatment well then now they knew what they were dealing with they were able to attack it from several different uh really angles and you know what in a matter of weeks she was up out of bed she was doing regular uh regular duties or regular things that average people do and and really the matter have subsided but it didn’t change until they got a diagnosis and really it’s the same in numbers and really

in numbers chapter 11 throughout the Old Testament, I want us to take a look at number one tonight I want you to take a look at the diagnosis of this disease called discouragement When we talk about discouragement, what are we dealing with

Could I give you a guard working definition of what I feel like discouragement is And really, it’s simply this It’s a failure of your faith

It’s a failure of our faith And what’s amazing is when you look at the Bible, you find the word discouraged appears times in your English Bible Five of them in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament

And it talks about fathers not provoking their children to wrath And it talks about the relationship between a father and a child And unless they be discouraged, and the idea has literally to take the wind out of their sails

And I tell you, I preach to thousands of teenagers all over the country, and many of them make godly decisions And you know why many of them fail is because mom and dads are part of the problem in their life

And they’re discouraged But at the six times in your Bible, you find the English word discouraged Five of them appears in the Old Testament

Four out of the five appear within the context of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness You think God has a lesson for us about discouragement, about the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness And what’s amazing is, is when you look at the English word discouraged, well, I want you to realize tonight that there is a different Hebrew word that’s used for discourage in every one of those verses

And really that kind of helps us to understand what we’re dealing with You know, for example, I want you to see that there are certain times or certain places or certain scenarios that come up that we have to be aware of, that we have to be sober, we have to be watching for them Because if you find yourself in these situations, it is easy for us to give way to this failure of our faith

Well, if you look at Numbers chapter 21 in verse 4, You see it on the screen there And the Bible says, And they journeyed from Adhor by the way of the Red Sea to come past the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged And you can kind of see that right there

It’s highlighted because of the way So you see the word discouraged there, but that word literally means to be short or to shorten And so it’s used 49 times in the Bible, and really 22 of those times it is really translated to reap

So in other words, when you go to like a stalk of corn or you go to a stalk of hay or wheat, you know what you’re going to do You’re going to cut that stalk down in order to harvest it You’re physically shortening it in order to reap the harvest

That’s why 22 times it was translated to reap One of the times it was used of a bed that was too short for somebody So the basic idea there is to be short or to cut short

So now knowing that Hebrew word, you read the text and it says, And when they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, they could pass the lane of Edom, the soul of the people was much cut short or shortened because of the way Here we see really the first area or really the first thing that tempts us to have this failure of our faith and it’s brought on by impatience Lord, how long do you want me to walk this road

The way is hard It’s difficult God, how long do you want me to deal with these circumstances that you have placed in my life

And sometimes we get impatient with God’s timing or with God’s program or the road that he has asked us to walk or some of the difficulties that are in our life And we look at all the circumstances and our soul is much cut short And we become impatient with God’s plan, with his program

And you know what We have impatience in our life and we give way to discouragement this failure of our faith

Many times it’s brought on by impatience Well, notice another verse in Deuteronomy 121 Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee

Go and possess it as the Lord thy God of thy fathers has set on thee Fear not, neither be discouraged Same English word, different Hebrew word

And this word means to be shattered, or to be seared, or to be broken, To break or to crush or to grievously oppress And so now when you read the text, it says, go up and possess the land as the Lord, the God of thy fathers, the son of them, they fear not And don’t let your faith be shattered or seared or broken or don’t let yourself be crushed or maybe grievously oppressed

You know what A lot of times we give way to this discouragement when we are injured by other people Has somebody very close to you ever hurt you deeply

Well, I tell you, that’s a wound that’s hard to describe to somebody else if they’ve never been through that That’s how you find yourself in the idle moments of the day, just replaying the situation over and over

Maybe it’s a strained relationship in your life, and you’re just kind of going over and over and over, and maybe there was nothing you did wrong, but maybe you’ve been wronged by other people, And man, this injury is so easy to give way to this failure of our faith when we are injured by other people Have you ever been injured by somebody that was very close to you It’s so easy to get discouraged

Hey, there’s another one in Deuteronomy 1.28 The Bible says, with a shall you go up, our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying the people is greater and taller than we The cities are great

Walled up to heaven Remember Jericho Moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakims there

Those were the sons of Anak They were giants Goliath was a descendant

He was one of the sons of Anak And he was a descendant of Anak And so what happened is they go into the city

Or they go into the promised land And you know what And they see all these things

They see the huge grape clusters They see a land flowing with milk and honey And the spies go in and they say, you know what

It’s just like God said it was Go figure Do they expect anything different

But you know what They said there are walled cities There’s fortified cities

There’s strange giants living in the land They had superior weaponry And they began to look at all of these circumstances

They began to consider the 31 Canaanite kings that were just waiting to fight them And they weren’t going to give this land up freely

And they started to look at all the circumstances and you know what 10 of those spies said no way we could take this thing unless we die but praise god there were two who said brothers don’t believe what you heard and listen the same god at the red sea is the same god that can deliver us here and there was joshua and caleb and they believed despite what the circumstances were but for 10 of those spies you know what happened uh

really they tried to discourage everybody else from going up there This word discouraged means to melt away, to waste away, to vanish, to incinerate, to drop off or to dissolve So in other words, when these 10 spies got into that promised land, they saw the superior weaponry

They saw the strength in fortified cities They saw the giants, these strange giants living in the land You know what

Every hope of taking the promised land did what It melted away It wasted away

It vanished Every hope of taking the land that God promised them incinerated or dissolved in their thinking To them, this was the situation that was impossible

And you know what It discouraged We are many times had this failure of our faith that’s brought on when we’re injured by other people and there’s difficulties in relationships in our life or maybe we become impatient with God’s timing or his plan or his program for your life or we give way to this favor of our faith when we face things that are impossible or so we think

Stage four cancer A prodigal daughter, a prodigal son, prodigal spouse Bills and financial waves that seem like it’s going to crush us

And we look at all of these circumstances and we say, God, there’s no way I’m going to be able to come out of this There’s no way I’m going to survive And we give way to this failure of our faith

And how many times in the Bible did we see people come against incredible odds and they doubted and our Lord would say, oh, he of little faith Peter’s walking on the water He looks at the waves, takes his eyes off the Lord, which is always a bad idea

And that’s when he began to sing And remember, he reached out, he saved Peter, he says, O ye of little faith, in other words, Peter, you just saw me feed the 5,000 Don’t you think I can surely take care of this

I don’t know, tonight, if you’re facing things that the world would deem impossible That you look at and you really don’t see any human, physical way of deliverance You know what, and it’s so easy when we’re in that situation to have this failure of our faith

But there’s another one, and we don’t see the word discouraged in the text, but you can see the effects of it all in the text In Psalm 32, 1 through 4, the Bible says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven That means happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered

Happy or blessed is the man into whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile But notice what happens when we keep silent and we don’t deal with our sin When I keep silent, my bones waxed old through my roaring,

all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer you know what really you’re reading some confessions of a man named david and when you study the life of david that he met all the characteristics of classical clinical depression and in this text of scripture when he kept silent and he didn’t deal with this sin it was heavy upon and its moisture was almost sucked out of them

The very life was almost sucked out of them And you know what We become discouraged through our own iniquity

God, I’ve done this sin a thousand times in a row I can’t come to you again for this Maybe there’s, most men have life-dominating, destroying habits in their life, and you know what

They don’t want them there They don’t know how to get rid of them Most guys think they’re the only ones that struggle with pornography or they’re the only ones that struggle with their thought life

And instead of being open about it and getting accountability and help, you know what they do They just put their head down and they just try to go through life and they just try to press on through it And people rarely get victory over pornography by themselves

It’s so discouraged You feel like you’ve been beaten up by sin And you’re like, God, what’s the use

Why get back up I’m going to fall back down again But you know what the Bible says

A just man falls seven times, but ariseth again How does he do that Through the power of a resurrected Christ

And knowing the power of that resurrection, of being changed, to be like Jesus Christ through the power of the scripture Man, has it at some point in your life you’ve been discouraged by your sin We have this failure of our faith that’s brought on when we get into situations when we’re injured by other people

Or maybe we become impatient with God’s plan for our life and what’s going on

or really be looking at possibilities all around us lord how are you going to work this out and by your own iniquity he realized that all of these things i like to call them spiritual carcinogens to this disease called discouragement and these are carcinogen is something that brings about that disease or or or that cancer and you know we got to be careful when you find yourself in these situations man don’t have a failure of your faith and we’re going to

take a look at what answer is in just a moment but you know it’s amazing in numbers chapter 11 all four of these things are present in numbers chapter 11 and no wonder why the people were discouraged or no wonder why moses was discouraged but you know now we know the diagnosis now we know what we’re dealing with it’s a failure of our faith that’s brought on by an injury or impatience or impossibilities or our own iniquity but really it’s not

just enough to diagnose the disease if you know anybody that had a very serious disease, you know that one of the key components of defeating any disease, whatever it is, is really to detect it early Boy, it’s a lot better to find cancer in stage zero than it is in stage four, isn’t it And so you know what God does in Numbers 11 through this narrative

He gives us six telltale symptoms of discouragement, how you know you’ve been infected with this disease And as we look at this text, you know what God’s going to do He’s going to hold up the mirror of his word and he wants you to look in it because if you see any of these symptoms, you may have been infected with this disease called discouragement

Would you look back at our text in Numbers chapter 11 I want you to see the very first one Would you look at verse one

And when the people complain We’re not even five words into the text and here we find our first symptom of when you know you’ve been infected with this disease and when the people complained it displeased the Lord and you know what

It still does And we talked about complaining last night I’m not going to belabor the point

And the Lord heard it and the anger of the Lord was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp How many times have God provided for them over and over and over yet they still complain and don’t we do the very same

god has always been faithful to you and he’s never failed you but yet we complain don’t we when we come against the latest trial in our life verse two and the people cried into moses and when moses prayed to the lord the fire was quenched and he called the name of the place to bear up because the fire of the lord burnt among them and listen we talked about complaining last night complaining about what we have about what we don’t have

and and really this is the first a symptom that you know that you’ve been infected when you begin to complain about your situation and you begin to complain about how you were wronged how your rights were violated how you deserve better and how life was not fair and there’s things that you should have or God’s withholding things from you that really you think that really ought to be in your life and we give way to this complaining but you know what

would to God this story would have been over in verse 3 so they complain the fire the Lord burns among them kills many of them they called it even the place to bear because that’s where they died the fire of the Lord burned among them and would to God it would be over but now would you look at verse four and the mixed multitude you know what the mixed multitude those were Egyptians they came out with the Israelites out of the

Exodus and so there was a mixed multitude with them and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting you see the word for lusting there it is right there and a lot of times you connect that word with something that is sinful or something that is wrong and really the word is neutral it really has the idea to have an intense desire for or or a longing for something or could i put this way an unhealthy preoccupation with something

and that’s when it’s used in the negative sense and these people you know what the issue was for them they didn’t like the manna they didn’t like the food they didn’t like the provision that God gave for them and you know what the fire of the Lord burned among them and what did God the story be over but they just wouldn’t let it go they were longing for the food that they had and you know what’s interesting is that the lusting

and this longing for the food, it started with a mixed multitude In other words, those who knew God the least were the ones that complained the first And I usually find that as a standard rule

People who really don’t know who God is, they start to complain But you know what Here we see a second symptom

They began to concentrate or focus on the wrong thing Man, they just couldn’t let it go And they wanted this food and they wanted, and we’re going to see it really in just a few minutes and in the next few verses, and they just wouldn’t let this issue go

They had an unhealthy preoccupation of what they were having to eat Several years ago when someone very close to me hurt me very deeply, it wasn’t my wife, Kristen, or anybody in my immediate family I tell you, I found myself complaining about that, complaining how all these situations weren’t fair

as a young evangelist when I was just getting started in meetings I sort of complained about the about you know the the lack of meetings we had and all these guys well we get to go preach at other places you know what and you know I started to concentrate on the wrong things you know when that person heard me very deeply and in the morning you wake up and you had some relief when you slept but as soon as you woke

up boy there it was again that black cloud that was just hanging over you i don’t know if you can identify with that this black cloud just hanging over you it’s during the idle moments of the day my mind would run to that situation and you know and i began to think about it begin and begin to concentrate on it by the way hebrews 12 15 says looking diligently lest any man feel the grace of god god’s grace never fails us

we feel the grace of god looking diligently lest any man feel the grace of god lest any root of bitterness bringing up trouble and thereby many be defiled and listen folks if there is a root of bitterness you got to have a seed right I mean it stands to logic you never have a have a root without having a seed first my mind ran to that situation you know man I cannot believe that that guy would do that to me and

he would treat me unfair I didn’t do anything to deserve that you know what I was doing I was dropping the seed of bitterness in my own heart as long as I was meditating how I was wronged and how I deserve better And then that person pretends like nothing happened You know what I’m doing

I’m starting to kick over some soil on top of the seed And then he asked me to do them a favor Like, yeah, right

And you know what I was doing I began to water the seed And the more I meditated how I was wrong, how I deserve better, and how I deserve to be treated differently, I was focusing on the wrong things

I was cultivating through my wrong meditation on the wrong thing i was struggling with bitterness the very first time in my life as a 30 year old by my own hand and you begin to focus and listen your focus will determine your future listen stop focusing on your circumstances and focus on christ stop focusing on your suffering and focus on the savior but you know what their focus was it was on something temporal that didn’t even last for eternity listen you

know you’ve been infected when you just have an unhealthy preoccupation with the things that should not be your focus but you’re dominated by them and that’s where your mind is and that’s where your thoughts go and really you’re giving way to this discouragement when we begin to complain when we begin to concentrate on the wrong things but notice another one again here’s hebrews 12 16 there and we’re gonna we’re gonna move on to our next one again And here’s a great verse in Philippians 4

Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true, are honest, just, pure, lovely, whatsoever things are good, reported, there will be any praise, there will be any virtue Think on these things Are these the things that dominate your thinking and your mind and your meditation

Well, you know what they started to do In verse 5, they started to compare Verse 5

We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely The cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic Boy, that must have been a great meal back then

But it doesn’t sound so hot now, does it They compared their past with their present in verse 6 But now our soul is dried away

And there is nothing besides this manna before our eyes You know what They should have said, praise God, we even have anything out in this desert

but they complain about the provisions of god verse six you see their contempt for this manna or verse six you see the contempt for the man in verse 70 see the characteristics of it and the man it was as a coriander seed and the color thereof as bdellium and and notice the cooking of the manna in verse eight and the people went about and gathered and grounded in mills or beat it in a mortar and baked it in pans and made

cakes of it at the end of verse 8 you see really the consistency of the manna and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil man they absolutely detested this and you know what you know that you’ve been infected with this disease of discouragement when you start to come when you start uh really to complain you start to concentrate on the wrong things but you start to compare yourselves with them hey i’m not telling you this is right

but i tell you when i first got started in evangelism 15 20 years ago you know you think man why does that guy get to go preach there and i don’t you start to compare yourself with other evangelists you know pastors it’s a temptation for them here’s this guy that they’re at they’re at a preacher’s conference i just preached one and you know what preachers talk about when they go to preachers conferences and preacher fellowships they talk about three things they

talk about buildings they talk about offerings and they talk about attendance And you know what It’s easy to do

Hey, brother, how are things going at your place Oh, praise God, man We’re in a $2.4 million building program

Man, we’re having $90,000, $100,000 offerings coming in every week And man, you know, and our attendance, and we’re up to about 2,500, 3,000 people Man, everything is going fantastic

And here’s this pastor from a rural area within the earshot, and he’s going $2.4 million building program

man I can’t imagine what that building looks like man when I get up to preach I can see the stars and that’s not because of the quality of the message man there’s holes in the roof $100,000 a week I don’t make that in five years man 3,000 people I’d like to have 300 and you know what he starts to think well what’s wrong with me and you know what the point is nothing because we live in a day and

age where people put a premium on numbers and money and decisions but if you were to do that to isaiah remember what god told isaiah and isaiah 6 he goes you’re going to go preach to people they’re going to hear you but they won’t hear the truth they’re going to see you but they won’t see the truth you’re going to make the heart of the people fat and not one of them is going to is going to turn their heart to

me and isaiah said in Isaiah 6, Lord, how long do you want me to do that And you know what the answer was Till the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the land be utterly desolate

You know what he’s saying You preach to these people until there’s nobody left to preach to and they’re all taken away in captivity in Babylon and that’s exactly what happened In fact, if church history is true, they put Isaiah in a log and they sawed him in half because they hated that guy so bad

And that’s why when you read Hebrews 11, You know what you read Some being sawn asunder That was Isaiah

And you read the book of Isaiah Every chapter he preaches the message that judgment is coming Turn your heart to the Lord

Almost in every chapter that you read it, he’s trying to point them back to God You get to the very last verse of Isaiah And it’s Isaiah 66, 24

And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched It says there’ll be an abhorring unto all flesh where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched

To the very last breath he had, he warned them about a place called hell And today they would have looked at Isaiah and said, dude, you’re a failure You didn’t grow a church

Nobody believed the message Nobody turned their heart to God You must have been doing something not right

But you hear me, friend He’s the most quoted prophet in the New Testament, more times quoted by Jesus than anybody else An incredible ministry

He had a rock picking ministry And you know what God was using Isaiah to do Till up the soil

And when you’re going to have a harvest, you know what the first thing you got to do You got to prepare the ground to receive the seed You got to get all the rocks out of the field

That’s the job nobody wants I don’t know if you’ve ever planted a garden, but you know what You got to get all the rocks out

That’s the job nobody wants That’s the job that doesn’t have any appeal to it that no one’s going to sign up for that

And it almost takes a more faithful man to have a ministry like that We do this all the time And I’ve read the same parenting books

I’m using the same biblical principles to train my children Why don’t my kids turn out like that family Why did that guy get the promotion

And why did I get passed over I’ve been at the company longer I’m more knowledgeable in the field

why did i get passed over and why did he get the promotion we get our eyes off other people we start to compare complain and concentrate on the wrong things but i tell you know what it turned into boy it turned in to this we read in verse 10 would you look at it he says this then moses heard the people weep throughout their families every man in the door of his tent and the anger of the lord was kindled greatly Moses also was displeased

So what happened Why were these people weeping in verse nine And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it

So here’s God’s faithful provision for his people So the manna comes, the sun comes up in the morning and the people look out in verse 10 Oh no, not this manna again

And the people wept throughout their families every man in the door of his tent the anger of the Lord was kindled and here’s Moses here we go again didn’t you people learn anything seven verses ago God just killed thousands of you and you’re going right back to your sin now Moses is starting to get a little bit frustrated oh and now look at the conversation that he has with God in the verses following because you know what he starts doing he

starts to criticize God by the way isn’t that just what what Adam did after the fall remember I mentioned that last night God it’s this woman he gave me as if it was God’s fault huh well now look at verse 11 and Moses said in the Lord wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant and wherefore have not found favor in thy sight that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me God where where have I really messed up so bad

that you have given me the burden of all this people you know what he continues along that but he gets a little bit edgier verse 12 have i conceived all this people surely i you know i didn’t have a wife that gave birth to all these people why am i in charge have i begotten them that thou should sayest unto me carry them in my bosom as a nursing father because that’s exactly how they’re acting they’re acting like a bunch of

kids under the land which thou swearest unto their fathers verse 13 when should i have flesh to give unto all these people for they weep unto me saying give us flesh that we may eat that was the issue right and you know god this is ridiculous how am i supposed to take care of all these people and look at verse 19 notice what god says you shall not eat one day nor two days nor five days nor 10 days nor 20

days but even a whole month on you know giving me to eat until it come out of your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you because that you have despised the lord which is among you that means to treat lightly or to give little value to and have webbed before him saying why came we forth out of Egypt and so when they’re saying why do we ever live leave Egypt and why do we have this food you know what they were

doing God put it this way you are despising me and now I’m going to give you so much flesh it’s going to come out of your nose boy you would have thought that Moses immediately would have come to the ground He doubles down Moses said, the people among whom I am are 600,000 footmen

All right So there’s 600,000 soldiers that are in the military By the time you add in the women and the kids and the elderly, that’s where scholars come up with the number two to three million that were wandering in the wilderness

Oh, oh God, you’re going to give us flesh to eat for a month God, there’s three million of us out here and thou has said that I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole month Verse 22, hey God, shall all the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them

Or hey, how about this God Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them I’m going to see that other one in just a moment

But you see, it begins to criticize God God, this plan that you have, this is ridiculous God, this road that you’ve asked me to walk, this is foolish

God, you don’t know what you’re doing He started to complain He concentrated on the wrong things

He started really to compare himself with others Now he’s criticizing God Man, I tell you, you know that you’ve been affected when you begin to criticize other people

Again, I’m not telling you this right, but as a young evangelist, I began to look and think, why does that guy get to go preach there He’s not even nice to his wife He’s kind of a jerk, you know

And you know what happens You begin to shoot holes in other people You know what envy is

Or jealousy I want what that person has You know what envy is

Well, if I can’t have it, I want to take it away from them because if I can’t have it, I don’t want them to have it Man, who could stand before envy And you know you’ve been affected

You begin to criticize and shoot holes at other people But I tell you, you really know you’ve been effective when you start doing that to the creator You can’t criticize him

Then notice what happens in verse 14 Again, you’ve already seen it He just conceived

He said, God, I’m not able to bear all this people alone for me because it’s too heavy for me You know what, God If this is what you want me to do, I just can’t do this

Have you ever said that you get up at night or you get up in the morning and you say, God, I just can’t do this You know, God, I can’t make it

we just can see notice what happened next in verse 15 and if thou deal thus will they kill me I pray thee out of hand if I have found favor on thy side and let me not see my wretchedness you know what God if you really love me just go ahead and kill me and just put me out of my misery and he just quit he runs the white flag of surrender up and he says God if this is the road

you’ve asked me to walk then forget it you might as well take me right now and he’s absolutely come where was the man of god that walked into egypt that threw down his rod that turned into a serpent where was the man of god that saw the nile turned into blood and god do all those 10 signs plagues and wonders where was the man of god now at the red sea who watched god with his divine hand open up a way

of deliverance where was the man of god now he was sitting on the outside of the city and he was absolutely conquered hoping that god would just kill him listen that’s where discouragement took moses and that’s where it’s going to take you and you may not be that far yet some of you may but some of you are on the same road you’re just a couple ethics back maybe you’re complaining and you’re comparing yourselves with others and you’re concentrating on the

wrong things and you’re meditating on all your problems and your pain and and maybe you’re criticizing others and you just concede you know what god i just can’t do this and you feel absolutely conquered i was in my office in charlotte north carolina several years ago when i read this text in my devotions And I just slipped to my knees right by my desk I said, oh Lord, I’m doing every one of these

Oh God, I’ve been infected I tell you, when I read the passage the first time,

I saw myself in the passage because I was focused on myself and my own present happiness and my own agenda and my own temporal blessings but I tell you when God broke me and I saw my sin how really it was a despising the Lord and treating him lightly and attack on the character of God when I reread the passage a second time after being broken I realized that the cure for this disease was in the text the whole time and

I didn’t realize I want you to see number three as I close the dispelling of this disease Unlike AIDS, unlike cancer, there is a cure for disease of discouragement You just don’t have to conceive and just be conquered

Listen, you can be delivered And just as my sister-in-law walked into that specialist office, they knew exactly what they were dealing with There was a proper course of treatment

And I want you to see the answer for the dispelling of this disease was in the text the whole time And you know what It’s God himself

There are five characteristics about himself, about God, that he revealed to Moses in a very powerful way And let me tell you, when you focus on who God is and who Christ is and what he’s done and what he’s capable of and who his person is, I tell you, it dispels discouragement every time

Preacher friend of mine was on a ride along in a police car and they pulled down a dark alleyway and 20 to 30 gang members are at the end of the alley or this through street Well, he started to get a little bit uncomfortable You know, man, he thought, man, we’re rolling right towards these guys

There’s 20 or 30 of them They’re probably armed And, man, there’s only two of us

He started getting a little bit, you know, uneasy But then he took a mental tour of the squad car He realized that the car had bulletproof glass all the way around

It was lined with heavy gauge gun metal that the bullets couldn’t go through that metal He realized that there was an array of communication devices that were inside that police car, and he could call for backup, and in two minutes, 20 unmarked cars would be there, just in a matter of minutes He saw the sawed-up pump shotgun that was visibly strapped to the dashboard

He saw the.40 caliber Glock on the officer’s belt, and as he took a mental tour of the squad car where he was seated, all those feelings of uneasiness, you know what They just dispel In the next few moments as I close, would you take a tour of God’s squad car

And you may be rolling down the alley of life and you see the physical disease that is invading your body and you see the strained relationships and you see the sinful choices that have been made and you see the injury and all these things that are taking place in your life and you don’t have an answer for it

But let me tell you, when you take a tour of who Christ is, and you, when you realize where you are seated in Christ, the discouragement dispels every time Do you notice the first characteristic about God in verse 9 And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it

Just as assuredly as the sun was going to come up, there was the manna You know what we learn here God’s provisions are short

God’s provision, he’s going to take care of you He’s going to give you exactly what you need, no more or no less And you know what, if you said, Ron, I have a need, and you know what, God hasn’t provided it, guess what, you didn’t need it yet

David said, I was young and now I’m old and I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or a seed begging bread Listen, God will take care of you And here we see, really, that God is good

All the time Man, they should have got up in the morning and they should have said, praise God, we even have anything out in this desert They should have been thankful for what God gave them

But you know what the problem was They took God’s provisions for granted And isn’t that easy to do

Most of us here tonight, you know what You had physical bodies that were able to carry you into this building There’s a lot of people tonight that don’t have that luxury

There’s only one reason why your bodies aren’t exploding across this room tonight That’s because God holds it all together And he puts the very life in your lungs that you breathe

We have so much to be thankful for Look at the country that you live in All the blessings that you have

The psalmist said he daily loads me with benefits and we are all of the recipients of God’s wonderful blessing in life He’s done so much for us

But we take it for granted, don’t we Take a tour of the squad car You know what

God’s provisions are sure He’s going to provide for you But notice what he says in verse number 17

You know what With all this criticizing, does God just say, all right, Moses, that’s it And just zaps him with a laser bolt

and God would have been just to do that, would he not have been Look at how Moses talks back to God God would have been just to zap him with a lightning bolt or just to annihilate him and choose another leader

And God takes all of these insults and all the criticism and I tell you some sweet words in verse 17 And you know how God responds And I will come down and talk with you

Moses, I know it’s tough man don’t worry I’m here not only are God’s provisions are short in your life but when you’re seated in Christ guess what God’s presence is short God is omnipresent when it’s two o’clock in the morning and you’re in that hospital room and you see that EKG monitoring your heart and you don’t know what the future holds for you and you think man you’re not for sure if you’re even going to make it and nobody is in that room you hear me

God is God is not a distant stranger he can be your closest friend and he walks the road right next to you even listen God’s silence never means that you’re alone Hebrews 13 5 it says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee listen God is always with you God’s provisions are short he’s going to give you exactly what you need no more no less and you can trust in that if God didn’t give it to you well you didn’t need

it yet but God’s Presence is sure Praise God for that Now you notice another one

Verse 21, and Moses said, the people among whom I am are 600,000 footmen Now I said, I will give them flesh to eat that they may eat a whole month You know what

This plan really to Moses, that was ridiculous Come on, God, your plan of giving a million, three million people food to eat, that’s ridiculous Come on, God, how are you gonna do with that

I want you to see God’s plans are sure that God is wisdom Boy, verse 22, shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them, or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for to suffice them God, how are you going to physically accomplish giving meat unto all this people

By the way, just a side note before I show you something in the text, Exodus 13, 17, and it came to pass when Pharaoh had led the people and let the people go that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near

Do you realize if they would have just had a green light and gone right into the land of the Philistines would have taken him 14 days to get there you know what you know what God saw you know but God said let’s uh God said let’s peradventure that people repent when they see war and they return into Egypt you know what God knew if you go right into the Philistine land you’re going to see the giants you’re going to see the

cities you’re going to see the weaponry and you’re going to go right back into Egypt now I need to enroll you in a class for about 40 years and they weren’t ready there was some work in their heart God needed to do You know what I find That when God enrolls you in a class, don’t cut school because God’s going to re-enroll you all over again

Instead of saying, God, how can I get out of this You know what you should say God, what can I get out of this

Lord, help me to learn the lesson the first time because I don’t want to have to go through this again He said, but God led the people about through the way of the land of the wilderness of the Red Sea And the children of Israel went out, harnessed out of the land of Egypt

So they needed me to eat Look at verse 23 And the Lord said unto Moses, as the Lord’s hand whacked short, thou shalt see whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not

But I want you to look at the text and look what happens in Numbers chapter 11 And would you look towards the end of the passage and look at verse 31 and there went forth a wind from the Lord and brought quails from the sea

He didn’t need fish out of the sea He was bringing meat that had its own wings and its own way of a form of delivery

And he brought quails from the sea and let them fall by the camp as it were a day’s journey on this side as it were a day’s journey on the other side round about the camp as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth and the people stood up all that day, verse 32 and all that night and all the next day and they gathered the quails

he that gathered leased gathered ten homers, and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp And the wind began to pick up, and the wind rushed through Moses’ hair as they looked up Maybe even the sky was blackened out

So many birds were falling to the ground that were not indigenous to that area In a matter of a moment, they had enough flesh for three million people to eat Oh yeah, this thing you think is impossible

God conquered it in a matter of minutes That impossibility in your life, do you really believe that you have a God that is big enough to conquer it in a matter of moments if he chooses And God’s plans are sure

You may not know how God’s going to bring it about, but he sees it through a different perspective, doesn’t he You would see that God’s power is sure The Lord said unto Moses, as the Lord’s hand whacks short, It’s the same Hebrew word that’s translated discouraged, to shorten

In other words, Moses, since when did I lose my power You know, linguistically, he’s beating Moses with his own stick He’s using the same language there

And he says, since when did I lose my power You saw me at the Red Sea You saw me in Egypt

Since when have I become effective and lose my power And you know what, ladies and gentlemen, God’s power is sure And God is omnipotent

God can do anything And we saw those verses in verse 31 to 32, but notice another one, God’s precepts are short And the Lord said unto Moses, as the Lord’s hand whacks short, thou shalt see whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not

You know what Moses should have said, God, you told me that this was gonna happen and you promised that, Lord, I just should have trusted You can depend on this book, right

This book has every answer for every one of your problems Ladies and gentlemen, there’s one God in heaven, and you’re not him Aren’t you glad for that

And you’re not him That God spoke And what he says matters

His precepts are short God is true He’s always going to direct you

he’s always going to show you the right path to take he didn’t leave you on this planet without a map and a navigational tool to navigate through some of the moral dilemmas that we have in our day and the challenges of parenting and the challenges of of our own marriages and family living god hasn’t left you alone he has given you a bible the word of god and the spirit of god and i tell you when you take a look back

and you begin to look at where you’re seated in christ that god’s presence is sure god’s provisions are sure god’s plans are sure joe 9 verse 4 he is wise and heart and mighty and strength you know what that means god knows exactly what to do and he has the power to do it and he’s doing it and god’s power is sure and god’s precepts are sure and when you take a look at where you’re seated in christ and how all

those things are sure i’ll tell you it dispels discouragement every time when you look at him The answer for this and the cure for this disease of discouragement is God himself The diagnosis, the detection, is it in your life

Have you began to do one of these things But the dispelling of the disease, there is victory, and the answer is God himself I’m going to close with this

there was a world-renowned actor that was asked to perform for the Queen of England He gave an incredible performance, and after his performance, the crowd stood to their feet in a standing ovation, and this man slipped off the stage, and he went back into a green room, and when he walked into the green room, there were 90 of England’s elite handpicked by the Queen for a special encore performance

He walked into the green room, and 90 of England’s elite immediately stood to their feet, paying homage to this incredible actor, And they gave a standing ovation When the crowd subsided and they took their seat, these 90 of England’s elite, he says, by orders of the queen tonight, I have been commanded to give you a special encore performance There were parliamentary members there, great statesmen, millionaires, the high class of society, 90 of England’s elite was there

And he says, I’ll perform any piece of literature you give me tonight A voice came from the back and said, would you please quote Psalm 23

so intrigued by such a strange request this world-renowned actor maneuvered himself to a part of the room where he could see who made such a strange request he said sir i’m not familiar with who you are would you introduce yourself to us tonight the man stood up he says well i’m a pastor here in london i don’t know why the queen has invited me to be here but i’m thrilled that she did it’s my favorite passage of this scripture i would

have loved to hear you quote or perform the world-renowned actor said i didn’t realize we had a man of god with us tonight pastor i will perform that piece of literature on one condition you quoted to us as well well the pastor didn’t feel like he had a social standing really to address 90 of england’s elite but the world-renowned actor wouldn’t back down and so the pastor reluctantly agreed that world-renowned actor stood in front of 90 of england’s elite that night

and with a golden tongue and sober lips and a commanding stage presence He made his way through Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd

I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green pastures He restores my soul

He made his way through that passage Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me

He made his way to the end of the text Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever Ninety of England’s elites stood to their feet again and gave this man a standing ovation due to the powerful performance of Psalm 23

The crowd sat down and the actress says, Pastor, I’ve upheld my end of the bargain Would you please come now and quote Psalm 23 The pastor stood up and nobody can see him because he couldn’t stand fully erect and upright

He pastored a very small church in London and he had to work years of physical labor and construction and those 30 years of construction took its toll on his body and he was all hunched over and he began to walk with a hitch and a limp and he was like a hunchback making his way to the front and he made his way to the front and you know what He didn’t have a commanding stage presence He didn’t have a booming voice that filled the room

And with a quivering lip and a stammering tongue, he made his way through Psalm 23 Lord, it’s my shepherd I shall not want

Oh, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures He restores my soul Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil

For thou art with me Thy rod, my staff, they comfort me surely goodness and mercy would follow me all the days of my life that I would dwell in the house of the Lord forever

There was no applause There was no standing ovation In fact, quite the opposite

The room of 90 of England’s elite were crushed and broken and a weeping under incredible conviction due to the powerful message and the shepherd of Psalm 23 That world-renowned actor made his way to the frontiers pouring down his cheeks He put his arm around the pastor

He said, ladies and gentlemen, tonight I know Psalm 23 But this man knows the shepherd and I’m asking you tonight do you know the shepherd not just do you know about him do you know him did you talk with him today did you walk with him today are you letting the realities that you have being adopted into the family of God being joint heirs with Jesus the shepherd do you let it come to bear on your life in 2016 thing

Because I tell you, when you know the shepherd, all the discouragement is despite And it is true what the songwriter said Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim And the light of his glory and his grace

Do you know the shepherd, the only cure for the disease of discouragement?