Whose Glory Are You After? - Life of Moses Part 54

Hey, as you know, we're studying the life of that great man of God, Moses, and we're approaching this study from the same vantage point that we approach every study here at McLean Bible Church. And that vantage point is that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God, accurate and reliable in all of its parts, and utterly trustworthy in everything that it says. Now, I could give you many, many lines of proof, areas of evidence to prove this. I don't have the time to do that this morning, but if you have any issues or questions about the reliability of the Bible, I urge you to go to the bookstore and pick up a copy, a CD of the first two messages that I did in a series called Spiritual Boot Camp, and their title is simply, The Reliability of the Bible.

In fact, I urge you to pick up the whole series, but if this is your issue, you go out there and get those CDs and I'll walk you through all those proofs. However, let me just say today that one of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the true Word of God is the fact that it records with equal honesty not only the successes of its heroes, but also their failures and their weaknesses. And this is something that no historical document from the ancient Near East does. You know, when we look at the official records of Egypt and Assyria and Sumeria and Babylonia and Persia and the Hittite Empire, we find that they're all sanitized.

And by that we mean that we know from history that many of the leaders of these great nations had great defeats, they had great weaknesses, they had great failures, and yet if you read the official records from each of these cultures, you will never find one of those defeats ever recorded in the official record book. The Bible stands in stark contrast to all these other historical records of the ancient Near East because the reason is the Bible is not a propaganda book written by politically correct scribes to deify its heroes like all of these other documents. The Bible is an honest history of the Jewish people written by the living God himself to prepare the human race, to prepare mankind, to receive, to recognize and receive Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Savior of the world. Now the reason I bring all of this up is because in our passage for today, Numbers chapter 11, we are going to see a failure, we are going to see a character weakness in the life of one of the greatest heroes in the Bible, a fellow named Joshua. But in his character weakness there's a great lesson for us as followers of Christ today and so first we're gonna look and see well what happened with Joshua historically and then we'll bring all of that forward into the 21st century and we'll say okay so what difference does that make to us.

So that's the plan for today. Let's begin Numbers chapter 11. A little bit of background, remember here in Numbers 11 the Israelites are complaining about the fact that all they've got to eat is manna. They're sick of manna and they're complaining on top of all the other stress of leading this people that Moses is carrying. Finally all of this becomes too much for Moses and so look what happens verse 10. Now Moses said to the Lord what have I done to displease you that you have laid the burden of all these people on me.

I cannot carry the burden of these people alone it's too heavy for me so if this is how it's gonna be Lord then please just kill me now. Well the Lord said to Moses bring out to the tent of meeting 70 of the elders of Israel whom you know to be true elders of the people. You know in all the different tribes in Israel there must have been thousands of men who had the title of elder. God said I want you to pick 70 of them who are elders indeed that is they are godly proven men and bring them out here verse 17 and I'll come down and I'll take the spirit that's on you and I will put him on them too and they will help you carry the burden of the people so you will not have to carry it alone. Then the Lord came down verse 25 and put his spirit on these 70 elders and they began to prophesy a sign that the Holy Spirit had come upon them. Alright now so far so good right but back in the camp remember they had gone out to the tent of meeting back in the camp something very interesting happens verse 26 however two men whose names were Eldad and Medad had remained in the camp they were listed among the elders of the people but Moses had not chosen them to go out to the temple of meeting and yet the spirit also rested on them and they began to prophesy just like the 70 guys that had gone out with Moses verse 27 so a young man ran and told Moses Eldad and Medad are prophesying back in the camp now here we're about to see this character weakness this flaw come out in Joshua watch now verse 28 but Joshua who had been Moses's aid from his youth spoke up and said Moses my lord stop them don't let them do that restrain them they say Lon I don't I don't get it I mean I mean how do you know for sure just from his simple comment like this that this reflects a failure or character weakness in Joshua how do you know that well friends the reason I know that is because Moses turned and rebuked him that's how I know that watch and Moses said to Joshua Joshua are you jealous of them for my sake now we say what does that mean well it's interesting you'd ask that question especially since I ask it for you but it is interesting you'd ask that question because the Hebrew word that's translated here jealous really is an interesting word it can mean two things on the positive side it can mean being positively zealous for something that's good and on the negative side it can mean being jealous or envious of something in a bad way therefore because of this there are really two possibilities what Moses is saying here possibility number one is that Joshua was being a loyal friend to Moses and was simply concerned who was simply being zealous in the positive sense about protecting Moses's status and Moses's authority in this case what Moses would have been saying to Joshua are you jealous of them for my sake he would have been saying Joshua are you worried that I might lose some prestige or honor because of what's happening with El dad and me dad back in the camp are you worried that if too many people get this anointing of the Holy Spirit especially some people that I didn't even choose and bring out to the tent of meeting are you worried that my authority or my status is gonna suffer that's possibility number one the other possibility is that Joshua was being jealous in a negative sense of these two men back in the camp in this case Moses was saying are you jealous of them for my sake Moses was saying hey Joshua let's be honest here you're not really worried about my glory my status my reputation you're worried about your reputation Joshua they said I don't get it long how how does what mail dad and me dad doing back in the camp affect Joshua his state is his position at all well think about it now up to this point Moses had had held a unilateral authority in the nation of Israel up to this point he had held Moses had unshared power over the nation of Israel and as his personal aid his personal assistant Joshua had basked in that glory and in that authority he was the closest person to Moses but now Moses was decentralizing his authority to these 70 elders and by the way Joshua was not one of the 70 elders who got the spirit and so all of a sudden Joshua's authority and powers getting decentralized and reduced to now maybe Joshua had gotten himself reconciled to this with the 70 elders but all of a sudden when it looked like that the moving of the spirit was going to go beyond those guys Joshua's true feelings climbed up his throat and out of his mouth and he blurted out what was really going on in his heart which is he was envious and he was jealous that he was losing some status through this whole thing you say all right Lon so which one of these two motivations is what was really behind what Joshua said well I don't know because you can't tell for sure just from the Hebrew and this verse but friends it doesn't really matter because either way Joshua was dead wrong whether it was his glory he was worried about or whether it was Moses's glory he was worried about either way this was a spiritually immature attitude for him to hold and because of that Moses turns and rebukes him sharply look verse 29 but Moses said to Joshua Joshua I wish all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on all of them Joshua and then Moses turned and walked back to the camp with the 70 elders Moses says hey Joshua you got it all wrong pal I'd love to see every Israelite filled with the Holy Spirit I'd like to see every one of them being used for the glory of God so no Joshua I will not tell El dad and me dad to be quiet and you know what you shouldn't try to stop them or quiet them either son your attitude is not right now that's as far as we want to go in the passage hello y'all still awake hello hello okay good okay because we want to stop now we want to ask our most important question so are you ready for this all right now let's give this a 9 o'clock worthy effort here you ready all of a sudden one two three yeah you say Lon so what say I mean what difference does zealous or jealous make to me I mean I okay great but but I don't see how this affects my life at all well let's see if we can help with that okay you know the Bible says that when a person comes to Jesus Christ they must repent to repent simply means to change our mind it means to change our mind about ourselves it means to change our mind about our sin it means to change our mind about our life and the way we are currently living our life and one other thing it means to repent also means to change our mind about whose glory we're living for you see friends before we repent we are at the center of our universe and our glory is the paramount issue in our life but after we repent God must become the center of our universe and his glory must become the paramount issue in life and it is this truth that Moses is trying to drive home to Joshua in his rebuke that he delivered to him what Moses was trying to say is hey Joshua if God decides to exalt someone else ahead of us if God decides to use someone else above us if God decides to give the credit to someone else besides us you know what Joshua we dare not resist this in any way because son as long as God gets the glory it doesn't matter who gets the credit Joshua and so Joshua you have to stop thinking in these terms about your life you've got to stop thinking in terms of your prestige and your position and your power and your reputation among the Saints or mine you can't worry about my reputation among the Saints either this kind of self-promotion Joshua has got to die inside of you if you ever hope to be a mighty servant of God now in my opinion today in the Church of Jesus Christ here in America we have not just a problem folks I believe we have an epidemic when it comes to this issue of self-promotion and self-glory I mean all you have to do is watch the antics of all the Christian TV personalities that you can see on the screen all you have to do is listen to the self-promotion ism of so many Christian speakers and pastors and radio personalities and you know this is not just a problem that televangelists have and big church pastors have and radio preachers have I mean this is a problem that every single one of us as followers of Christ need to be sensitive to in our own lives you say all right Lon and well it then then then my question is how can I tell if I got a problem with this I mean how can I tell if self-glory is an issue in my life well that's a great question and the answer is that self-glory is a spiritual disease and like every disease that has symptoms therefore the way to tell whether this disease lives in your life folks is to check and see whether you got the symptoms and I'm gonna share with you now for three symptoms of living for self-glory and what I want you to do is as we do this I want you to kind of look at your life and I want you to take a little test I want you to grade yourself on these three things we're not gonna collect the papers at the end and you know or anything but I mean I want you to as I go through this say well is this me or isn't it you know do I get an A a B a C a D or an F on this and grade yourself all right let's do it three symptoms of living for self-glory number one a Christian who's living for self-glory always wants the credit they they crave the glory for everything they do they want to make sure you know and everybody else what part they played in every successful venture and you know if you can't figure out the part they played by yourself they are very happy to take you aside and tell you what part they played so that they're sure you didn't miss it the bottom line is the person who's living for self-glory no friends no matter where the spotlight is they want to be in it now on the outside they may act very humble and nonchalant oh please it was nothing it's nothing but secretly down on the inside friends the real truth is that they thrive on the praise and the credit and the notoriety and everything they do is secretly for the for the purpose of positioning themselves so that they get it they're like the atrophies third John 9 whom the Apostle John described as a person who loves the preeminence in every situation now I would offer you by way of contrast the attitude of John the Baptist who said in John 3 30 he the Lord Jesus must increase but I must what decrease all right so grade yourself how you do on that one number two symptom number two a Christian who's living for self-glory second of all is a person who is highly concerned about issues of rank pecking orders really are important to these kind of people position status authority they're hypersensitive to these things things like titles and honors and credentials just like Joshua was Joshua was hypersensitive to pecking orders and where he was in the pecking order well that's that's a sure sign that you're a person who is living for self-glory you know a few years ago one of our pastoral staff members was at a pastor ex conference I won't tell you who he is and he told me this story he said somebody came walking up to him another pastor and they got into a conversation and this other pastor turned to him and said so tell me he said at McLean Bible Church are you an assistant pastor or are you an associate pastor and our guy said I don't know he said we don't even talk in terms like that around McLean Bible Church this guy said to him he said you know what he said it really burns me up when somebody calls me an assistant pastor when I'm really an associate pastor now you see when you say something like that for a person to say something like that friends this is a dead giveaway that this person is more concerned about self-glory than he is about being a slave for the Lord Jesus Christ I mean think about it what difference does it make if you're an assistant slave or an associate slave or a senior slave for that purpose what difference does it make this was Joshua's problem he wasn't worried about being a slave for Christ and serving God's people with humility from the heart he was worried about where he stood in the order of things no no that's a problem all right grade yourself how you do on that one number three and finally symptom number three a Christian who's living for self-glory is a person who resents anybody whose success surpasses their own they are jealous of anybody who ever gets ahead of them in anything in life and they've always got a bad word to say about that person whatever that person's name comes up or even if they don't say it out loud man they feel it on the inside you mentioned that person's name and on the inside they're like gotcha Roger Roger Roger gotcha and you know what Christians like this even resent fellow believers whom God is blessing and using ahead of them their highest concern is not that God's being glorified through the life of this other believer their highest concern is not that lost people are being reached through the life of this other believer the only thing they care about is that this other believer is ahead of them overshadowing them you know a great example of this was a young David in King Saul you remember young David killed Goliath you remember the story he delivered and saved the people of Israel and after he did that the women of Israel began singing a song for Samuel 18 says the song says Saul has slain his thousands and David has slain his tens of thousands I don't know the tune but that was the song let's look what happened first Samuel first Samuel 18 8 then Saul became very angry now why would you become very angry about this kid delivering the nation of Israel and saving you he became very angry and he said they have credited David with tens of thousands but to me they've only ascribed thousands and from that day on Saul kept a jealous eye on David friends had Saul been a man who was really concerned first and foremost about the glory of God he wouldn't have cared who one bit who was getting the credit in this song all he would have care about cared about was that God was being glorified and that the people of Israel had been benefited by what David did it's all had the problem and when we find ourselves resenting other people whose success eclipses ours it is a sure sign that self glory rules in our lives so grade yourself how you do how'd you do on the third one now total it all up how'd you do on the little test you say I don't know Lon had you do on it well I didn't do as well as I wanted to do when I took it this week and maybe you didn't do as well as you wish you would have done having just taken it today so all right if we didn't do as well on this test as we wish we would have done what do we do about it I mean how do we fix this problem how do we what's the cure what's the remedy for self glory in our life how do we root this thing out of our life well I have three suggestions for you and me a three-step process if you will that we can use to improve in this area and with this we're done so here we go step number one if we want to fix this self glory problem inside of us step number one is we must honestly admit we have the problem I mean this is an ugly thing friends this is a disgusting thing for us to have to go before the Lord and admit that we've got living inside of us but if it's true if it's really there then we need without blame shifting without excuses without justification we need to go before God and admit it and call it what it is it's sin and we need to ask the Lord to show us how deeply this goes inside of us I love what David prayed Psalm 139 he said search me Oh God and know my heart and show me if there's any wicked way in me this is where we got to say Lord how bad is this how deep does it go maybe it's I only see the tip of the iceberg how bad do I have this thing and Lord however bad I've got it I'll admit it to you see friends we can't fix a problem that we're not first willing to admit we have number two step number two is we must trust God to change our heart in this area supernaturally let me say something to you a Christian who lives for God's glory is a supernatural creature may I repeat that a Christian who lives for God's glory is a supernatural creature a person whose heart has been naturally changed by the direct working of the Holy Spirit in that person's heart folks there is no pill you and I can take that will expunge the disease of self-glory out of our life there is no book you can read there is no seminar you can go to that will expunge this disease out of your heart and there is nothing you and I are going to do in our own human effort that will do it either oh we can cover it up you know so so we walk around and nobody sees it because we're so careful what we say just like Joshua was careful what he said until he got surprised and suddenly it blew out of his mouth before he could stop it but that's not real victory covering it ups not real victory getting to the place we don't even want glory anymore it's the victory you can't get yourself there friend I'm sorry not by the energy of the flesh you can't neither can I the only way to cure this is for us to get on our knees and beseech God to spiritually recondition our hearts from the inside out this is what David prayed Lord he said Psalm 51 10 created me a pure heart Oh God and I love what God says in Ezekiel chapter 36 he says a new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put inside of you I will remove the heart of stone from within you and I will give you a heart of flesh and this is what we have to ask the Lord for we got to get on our face and turn our heart over to God a hundred percent with all the self glory that's there and say Lord you need to change me from the inside out you need to recondition my heart in this area finally number three if we want to beat this in our life then third we must be willing to submit to the process God uses to root this out of people's hearts you say what process is that well friends Moses and King David and the Apostle Paul I mean how did all of these people learn to humbly live for the glory of God and not to live for the glory of self how did they all learn to do it well the answer is God taught them this lesson through suffering he taught them this lesson through affliction and through humiliation taking them low he took Moses out to 40 years on the back side of the desert after being a prince of Egypt he took the Apostle Paul out to three years in the Arabian desert after being the brightest young star in Israel he sent David out to live in caves for seven years and run away from King Saul after he'd had the great victory over Goliath friends nobody ever learns to be humble from success you understand what I'm saying you can't do it nobody ever learns to get self glory out of their life by having more and more success you can't do it that way that only makes the problem worse I love what Dwight L Moody said he said and I quote Moses spent 40 years in Pharaoh's court thinking he was a somebody 40 years in the desert learning he was a nobody and 40 years showing what God can do with a somebody who realizes he's a nobody I love that you followed that right and this is why Jim Elliott the great missionary to the Auca Indians working off of Moody's statement once said and he said I quote he said we're just a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt the great somebody now don't get me wrong here folks in calling ourselves nobodies this doesn't mean that we self deprecate ourselves in some incredibly unhealthy way it doesn't mean we walk around going oh I'm no good I'm just a worm somebody step on me and smush me friends that's not biblical humility that is mental illness you understand what I'm saying that's not what the Bible calls us to in saying that we see ourselves as nobodies it doesn't mean we don't have value and worth in the sight of God what it means is that compared to the awesome God of the universe we see ourselves as nobodies and that's a healthy thing and listen to help you and me realize that we're nobodies sometimes God has to force us to accept a nobody role in a nobody place where nobody even knows about us in order to help us really believe that we really are nobody in comparison to God I'll tell you what that's why I started cleaning toilets I remember being on my knees that the good news mission scrubbing toilets with rubber gloves on and raking leaves and emptying trash and mopping floors when I first came to Christ and complaining about it and saying Lord this is ridiculous I mean you know I really believe I'm supposed to be the next Apostle Paul I don't think he cleaned toilets of course they didn't have toilets when the Apostle Paul was alive but that's beside the point and I'll never forget the Lord saying to me Lon if you can't humble yourself enough to clean toilets for me then you can't trust you with anything else son we're gonna stay right here till we solve this problem and I stayed there for a while too and you know over the years God has used some of the suffering that he sent into my life in very healthy ways in this regard you know many of you know about my daughter Jill and her there she's 16 now and heard her incredible and serious disabilities you know when people ask me about that I'm quick to say God has used that suffering in a great way in my life because it helps me remember I'm a nobody you know you go home and you change the diaper of a 16 year old the dirty diaper boy it really deflates you quickly from thinking you somebody be your big shot you understand what I'm trying to say to you and so I see that that kind of blow to our my life was a blessing not a curse was a blessing because we all have to be careful we don't all start any we don't start thinking we're really somebody we're not somebody there's only one great somebody and that's not us it's him the Lord Jesus well God may want to do that to you God may want to take you somewhere where you're a nobody and he puts you in the role like that you know I've found that people who really want to cure this disease in their life guess what they're okay with that they're okay with that they may not start okay but they end up okay with that so let's just let's summarize what have we learned well we've learned that self-glory is a real problem in the church today it's a real problem in our lives today I can't imagine very many of us doing well on that test we just took but friends let me tell you what's really encouraging 39 years after Numbers chapter 11 they were studying today 39 years from this chapter later this very same man Joshua that we see here with this glaring character fault in his life this very same man was the man that God finally hands the mantle of leadership to over the whole nation of Israel when Moses dies and you know 39 years from now this man Joshua is a different man gone is the self-promotion gone is the self-glory that we see in this chapter and in its place is the same godly mature spirit that Moses has in this chapter that's a great encouragement to me friends because that means if Joshua by God's grace could overcome this and improve on this in his life then you and I can improve on it in our lives too we can grow out of this too just like Joshua did if we want to and if we're willing to pay the price so what does it take to see improvement in the self glorying that all of us struggle with well three things number one we've got to go to God and honestly admit we've got the problem that probably is the toughest step number two we've got to trust God to change our hearts supernaturally you say Lon how does he do that friend I don't have the slightest idea what difference does it make to you how he does it you don't care how he does it as long as he does it and finally number three we've got to be willing to submit to God's process which is always down in this regard never up until we first gone down because friends God's got to get us to the place where he knows he can trust us with success and that we won't steal his glory before he'll give it to us this is a really important thing my friends if we want to be used in the service of God if we want God to bless us in the service of God we must be serious about dealing with this disease of self glory in our life and let me tell you why Isaiah 42 verse 8 God says I am the Lord that is my name watch now and my glory I will not share with another Wow folks you know what the people God uses and the people God blesses are people who are fine with this in fact they're not just fine with it they want it that way God has worked in their heart to get them to the place they don't want any glory they don't want the spotlight they're not looking for the credit and if somebody tries to give it to them they won't take it that's where God wants to get you and me let's work with him and try to let him get us there let's pray together Lord Jesus thanks for talking to us today about a problem that every one of us has to varying degrees perhaps but we've all got it it's a problem that as I said earlier has become so commonplace in the church in America today that sadly I'm not even sure most of us even notice it anymore in the Christian leaders we see but Lord Jesus it is an evil and destructive thing that stands in the way of the work of God that stands in the way of the blessing of God and so Lord give us a heart to deal with this disease in our lives give us the courage to face it for what it is and the courage Lord to allow you to go to work inside of us and fix it Lord produce in us a genuine desire to live for the glory of Christ alone and never ever to lay hands on his glory even if someone's trying to give it to us Lord change our hearts and change our lives because we were here today and we sat under the teaching of the eternal Word of God and we pray these things in Jesus name and God's people said amen you