The sermon title at church for today was ‘Stop moaning'
I once again saw parallels to life in South Africa. This is the basic sermon outline, points and summary of the sermon with the comments about South Africa being my own reflections as I sat listening, taking notes and seeing the parallels. To hear the original sermon please visit the Lighthouse Family Church You Tube Channel.
So how do we look after our inheritance as Christians?
God had established a covenant with Israel. He had told them what he was going to do and promised this to them. But the people lost sight of this very quickly and they moaned and complained. All they knew was 400 years of slavery and oppression and much trauma in Egypt. Their mindsets were set on lack and oppression. They needed to create a new picture in their heads with what God was displaying in front of them with daily manna from heaven. The picture of what they had previously was still too big in their minds. They didn’t understand what God was doing and they didn’t trust his words and covenant to them. In Egypt they had water and now they had a situation where they had no water. They thought Moses had brought them out to the desert to starve.
Was the past really good that they would have preferred to go back? We know the answer to that is no because in this story we have the opportunity to look in from the outside. But it is what they knew, it was their normal for 400 years and so it was easier to think of going back to what they knew than navigate and trust God through what they did not know. It was risky and uncertain and unknown. But if you keep looking back you may miss what is happening now and then you may also not see what’s up ahead.
For South Africa we have some people longing for the ‘good old days’ when they had electricity and law and order. But that was only a certain sector of the population that had those amenities. Other people under Apartheid rule would not look back and call those days the good old days as electricity, water, sanitation, freedom of movement, education and medical care was not made easily accessible to them and law and order was kept for some at the expense of others. The aim always being to keep them oppressed and under control.
Sometimes going back to what you know as normal can seem easier even if it wasn’t good. Change is never easy even if it’s good and better change, or if it’s change away from comfort to less comfort. It’s hard work to create change and then sustain it. And it’s hard to believe the promises that have been made to you. Trust in God might not be easy, but it’s always for our good. When we take time to know God and his character and dig deep into his word, we can see that he is someone we can trust. We have to be intentional to move towards the new and realise that it might take time for our brains and heart to catch up.
In this story, an entire generation died in the desert because of all their grumbling and moaning. They did not trust God at his word. There was rebellion, disobedience, and unbelief. God said he will start with a new generation who will listen and believe.
I wonder what God has promised us for South Africa? Where are our mindsets? There sure is a lot of moaning and grumbling and rebellion, disobedience and unbelief.
Do we want to be a part of what God is doing in our land? Or will we die out as the current generation without seeing ‘the land of milk and honey?’ Will it be the next generation who get to see it? Do we want to see the change or is it easier to carry on with what we have because it’s normal and what we know and maybe it feels too risky to make the changes that are necessary? What do we need to do to turn things around?
Sometimes delays cause us to be cynical. We trust and then we are disappointed. Our hearts become critical. We say ‘so far and no further!’ Judas made a comment about the perfume used on Jesus’s feet that sounded spiritual but was so far from it - ‘that money could have been used for the poor!’
We have similar comments in South Africa around a number of things, one of them being the cost of street and town/City name changes. A timely conversation as there’s a new road name right now in Johannesburg. The poor are often brought into this conversation. Although it must be said that the same people were not advocating for the poor before a new name change was on the table. Sometimes we need to look at the bigger picture and ask a few questions. Have we asked God about the name changes? Do we think to pray about such things? Do we realize that maybe it’s a part of the process of creating the new even if to some it may seem unnecessary, wasteful or uncomfortable?
Maybe Jesus hasn’t acted in ways that we hoped for. Maybe we are fixated on the wrong things? We need to be careful with our hearts, to guard them. Stuff will go wrong and this can put us off. Our faith can get knocked when we pray and pray and pray and the ‘mountain’ doesn’t move! We see obstacles and think ‘I can’t do this!’ or ‘I can’t carry on!’
These comments can come from so many angles in South Africa. There are those who have been asking for centuries, ‘How long, Lord?’ How long will the oppression last? When will things change to make lives more equal? There are others who focus on corruption and economic woes and they wonder how long they can continue. Some choose to leave South Africa for other shores.
Joshua and Caleb saw something different from everyone else! They didn’t focus on the giants and what could go wrong, they saw the land that had been promised to them and they chose to believe God and that he was with them and they were not alone in this battle.
What can we see differently? Especially if we look through God’s eyes. What does he want for South Africa? What are his promises for everyone to benefit? What wrongs need to be put right? What changes need to happen for the future to function well for every South African?
Our unbelief won’t get us very far. It will just get us into further trouble. When we don’t believe God will do what he said we are treading on dangerous ground. Is it a case of giving up and getting out?
God tells us something very different. He says keep trusting, keep praying, stay the course, every prayer takes a stone down in the walls that need to come down. Don’t stop way short of seeing what God will do because he has so much more. We need to stay in the fight and see it through to the end. We are more than conquerors through Jesus.
Doing things in our own strength will tire us out, get us into trouble and leave us ineffective. The Israelites couldn’t wait for Moses to come down the mountain and speak out what God had said to him. They became distrustful and impatient with him and chose to create a golden calf to worship. We cannot create God into what we want him to be. We cannot do what we want. We would be basically following ourselves and God says we are to have no other gods beside him. We follow Jesus, not ourselves or others. If we get impatient and choose to step into God’s decision making space, he won’t go with us and we will lose. Disobedience won’t bring his blessing. There are always consequences for our actions. Let’s not miss his purposes or his best for our lives. We need to trust and keep on trusting. Hold onto him and let him have the final say.
Imagine Jesus coming back and asking us, ‘did you love me with your heart, mind, soul and strength and did you love your neighbor as yourself?’ and our answer is, ‘no Jesus, we are still stuck on who is my neighbor and how do we love our neighbors as ourselves!’ I am sure he might ask, ‘did you read my word at all? Did you do what I did? I showed you how when I was here on earth.’
So what do we do? We trust him and we keep on trusting him. Let his praise always be on our lips. Create new patterns of ‘trust and obey.’
His Kingdom comes through us. That’s a heritage worth celebrating.
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