March 9
Num 11:24-13:33 | PS 52:1-9 | Prov 11:1-3 | Mark 14:22-52
Churches must avoid becoming rigid clubs or cliques. They must remain a hospital for the hurting and a reservoir for the Holy Spirit. It must remain different and not be a reserve for the respectable. We must remember that God often calls a remnant. Often the majority get it wrong and the remnant who often go unnoticed are in right relationship with God. We must also never forget what church is for. It is not to see what we can get, but what we can give to God and to others. Many new people come to church with a scorecard in hand: B- for worship, B+ for the message, C for the friendliness of the congregation, A- for youth activities. In so doing, they are not seeking what they can do for God, what this congregation might need from them as a vessel of the Holy Spirit but instead are seeking what they can get. Likewise, those long-term congregants must not mark those newcomers as to how they seem to fit in. This is often the way of the world, but should not be the way of church, but sadly it often is.
Joshua, a beautiful man of God, was concerned that when the Holy Spirit was poured out there were some elders in the camp prophesying. In other words, they were not part of the club assembled around the Tabernacle along with Moses. We read the exchange in Numbers 11:28-29, "So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!” Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”" A similar exchange occurred when John was concerned that there were people driving out demons in Jesus' name who were not part of their group (Mark 9:38). In church there can also be the desire to be noticed, be elevated, to get positions. Though Aaron and Miriam were alongside Moses the entire time they fell victim to this as we read in Numbers 12:1-2, "Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it!" The two were disciplined by the Lord as a result. The majority are often in the wrong while the remnant or the minority are often in the right as we see in the words of the leaders sent out to spy the Promised Land, as two stood with God and ten stood in fear, as we read in 13:30-33, " Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”" The majority opinion swayed the others, and the results were disastrous leading to the 39 more years of wandering in the desert.
We read in Proverbs 11:2, "Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." We must assess ourselves and ask if we are trying to make a name for ourselves or for God. At church and everywhere else for that matter we are to serve God and others, not seek what it is that we can get. We are not to pridefully sit and grade those who are serving in the church. Inside the church we must remain welcoming, realizing that the new person in front of us might be coming with a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and a fresh message. The church must avoid becoming machine like and remain a movement of the Holy Spirit. We must always remember that the majority is often moving in the wrong direction. We must remain fixed on God, sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit, ready to be moved by God and not constrained by the opinions of the majority. We must exert discernment at all times. The point is not to leave one church and go to another, it is to be led by the Holy Spirit to be where He wants you to be and to be doing what He wants you to do at all times. To do this we must remain in the full counsel of His Word and spend time in communion with Him, not weekly, but daily.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: