I think if I were to say the name Woody Hayes, a lot of you here would know who I'm talking about. But just in case you don't, Woody Hayes was the football coach at Ohio State University for 28 years, from 1950 until 1978. All right, any Buckeye fans? Go ahead, get out of your system. Anybody here? All right, all right, there you go.
Okay, now let's go on. During those years, Woody Hayes compiled a record of 278 wins, 72 losses and 10 ties. He won two national championships, and his program produced some of the greatest players ever to play the game of football.
In fact, I really believe Woody Hayes would have probably gone down as one of the greatest college coaches of all time, except for what happened in 1978, because at the Gator Bowl in 1978, Woody Hayes charged out onto the field late in the fourth quarter, after Clemson nose guard Charlie Bauman had intercepted a pass and began pounding on Charlie Bauman. And as a result of that, he never coached another football game in his life. All of a sudden, in a moment, a life of great achievement ended in tragic disgrace. Now the reason I bring all of this up is because, sadly, we're going to see this very same thing happen to our friend Moses in Numbers chapter 20 today. We're going to watch in Numbers chapter 20 as this wonderful, godly man suffers his own Gator Bowl, so to speak, and loses the privilege of going into the promised land after working for it for 120 years. And we want to analyze what happened to Moses. Why did this Gator Bowl happen to him? And then we want to bring all that forward, and we want to talk about you and me, and how we can keep from having a Gator Bowl experience in our walk with Christ today.
And so that's the plan. Just before we dig into Numbers chapter 20, a little bit of background. Remember, the Israelites in Numbers 14 had gotten right to the edge of the promised land, and there they had hesitated in unbelief. They had refused to obey God and go into the land, and so God punished them by telling them they were going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until every Israelite above the age of 20, who had been alive above the age of 20 when they refused to go in, died except, of course, for Caleb and Joshua. Here in Numbers chapter 20, 39 of those 40 years are over. The Israelites are on their way back to try to enter into the promised land, and I'm sure Moses was looking forward like nobody's business to finally crossing the Jordan River and going in the land.
So that's where we pick up the story. Verse 2, Numbers chapter 20. Now there was no water for the Israelites, so the people gathered together in opposition to Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and said, If only we had died when our brothers perished before the Lord. They're talking about in Numbers 16. You remember the ground opened up, swallowed them up, closed back over them?
That's what they're talking about. Why have you brought us into this desert, they say to Moses, that we in our livestock should die here? And by the way, why did you bring us up out of Egypt in the first place to this wretched place?
It has no grain, no figs, no grapevines, no pomegranates, and besides, there's no water to drink. Now, you know, it's interesting if we go back a few years, that this very same thing had happened way back in Exodus chapter 17 at a place called Rephidim. Here, three days out of Egypt, three days after walking through the Red Sea, the Israelites ran out of water and had begun grumbling at Moses. And so Moses in Exodus 17 went and asked God, What do I do?
And here's what God said, Exodus 17, 5. He said, Take the staff with which you struck the Nile. You remember the staff, you know, that turned into the snake, you know, the whole thing, right? Take that stick and strike the rock and water will come out for the people to drink.
And it did. And now, almost 40 years later, Moses once again has the same issue with the people grumbling about no water. So he goes to God again and says, God, what do you want me to do? Numbers 20, verse 7. Then the Lord said to Moses, Take the staff, you know, the very same one, right? That he hit the rock with before and gather the Israelites together in front of the rock.
Watch now and speak to the rock and it will pour out its water. God gave Moses here in Numbers 20 almost the very same instruction he gave him in Exodus 17 with one exception. The exception is that in Exodus 17, God told Moses to hit the rock, to strike the rock. Here in Numbers 20, God tells Moses to speak to the rock. This is a major distinction that we dare not miss because what this means is that back in Exodus 17, God decided he was going to use human action, namely Moses hitting the rock with the stick. He was going to use that to provide water for his people. But here in Numbers 20, God decided that he was going to only use his spoken word plus nothing to supply his people with water. The point is that God had designed this moment in Numbers 20 to be a mighty moment of glory for himself alone.
A moment of glory that he had no intention of sharing with any human being, not even Moses. Now it's crucial we see this. Does everybody see this? Yes? All right, good. Here we go. Watch verse 9. So Moses took the staff just the way the Lord had commanded.
Okay, so far so good. But here comes the gator bowl for Moses. Watch verse 10. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the Israelites together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, Listen now, you rebels, must we and who does he mean by we?
He means Aaron and himself. Must Aaron and I bring forth water for you out of this rock? And then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Now, would you notice that instead of speaking to the rock like God told him to, Moses instead spoke to the Israelites. God never said say anything to them. Second of all, would you notice that instead of speaking in God's name the way God told him to, Moses spoke instead in his own name. Aaron and I, do we have to do this for you? And finally, instead of promoting God's glory the way God told him to, Moses promotes instead his own glory.
Well, so what happened? Verse 11. Then water gushed out of the rock and the Israelites and their livestock drank their fill. You see, in his justice and in his equity, God decided he wasn't going to punish the Israelites for the sin of Moses.
He gave them water. But then he said to Moses the saddest words that I believe Moses had ever heard. Verse 12. But the Lord said to Moses, Because you did not believe me enough, Moses, to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites.
Therefore, you shall not bring this people into the land that I have given them. Think about it now. Forty years of earthly training in the palace of Egypt, followed by 40 years of spiritual preparation on the backside of the desert, followed by 40 years of putting up with these people and leading these people around out in the wilderness. All of that gone.
All of that lost in one day, in one moment, in one rash act. And you know, in the days to come, Moses would beg God to change his mind about this. Deuteronomy 3, verse 23. Moses said, I also pleaded with the Lord, saying, Oh, Lord, please let me go over and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan. But the Lord would not listen to me, Moses said, and he said to me, Enough. That's not a good thing for God to say to you. Enough, Moses. Do not speak to me anymore about this matter, for you shall not cross over the Jordan.
You say, Lon, time out here. Honestly, Lon, don't you think this was just a little unfair? I mean, don't you think that God was just a little bit harsh with Moses here? I mean, Moses had faced Pharaoh and done the 10 plagues and walked through the Red Sea and led these people around and been faithful to God. And now he makes one mistake and God takes the promised land away from him. I mean, don't you think this was maybe just being a little bit harsh with Moses? Well, friends, if we say that, it's because we don't understand something very important about the ways of God.
Jesus talked about it in Luke Chapter 12, verse 48. He said this for unto whom much has been given, much shall be required. You see, the point is God expects less from lambs than he does from sheep. And God expects less from sheep than he does from shepherds. But Moses wasn't a lamb and Moses wasn't a sheep and Moses wasn't even just a shepherd. He was the chief shepherd of Israel. He was God's ambassador and representative to the entire nation of Israel. And therefore, his accountability was far greater than any of those other Israelites. And therefore, his sin was far more serious than any of those other Israelites. And therefore, God's response to his sin was far more severe than it would have been to any of those other Israelites. Would another Israelite have done what Moses did and God perhaps not have responded with such severity?
I believe so. But this was not another Israelite. This was Moses. And you know, knowing this is really important because God doesn't change the way he treats people.
I don't care who you are. He didn't change it for Moses and he's not going to change it for you and me. So often, we look at things and we go, God, we would like you to adapt the way you do things to our behavior. And God says, no, no, no.
No, I'm sorry. That's not the way this works. Your job is to figure out how I do things and then adapt your behavior and your actions to the way I do things, folks. And this is very important for us to know as followers of Christ today because what this means is as we go up the ladder in terms of authority and position that God gives us in the service of Christ, friends, it means that the rules change as we go up the ladder. This is why James, the brother of the Lord himself said, James 3, 1, Let not many of you aspire to become teachers of the word.
Why? For we shall be judged with greater strictness. Friends, what God will tolerate from a new believer is vastly different than what God will tolerate from a seasoned follower of Christ and a teacher of the word of God. What God will tolerate from a young Christian is vastly different from what God will tolerate from a pastor or an elder or a seasoned leader in His church. And God doesn't change this for anybody.
Tragically, sadly, Moses learned this the hard way in spades. Now, that's as far as we want to go in the passage today because we want to ask our most important question. And you all know what this is. I'm ready if you're ready. You ready? Alright, here we go. Make it worth getting up for today.
One, two, three. So what? Oh, yes. You say, Lon, so what?
Say, you know, I really feel bad for poor Moses and I'm sorry he didn't get to go across the Jordan. But when I go out to drive the carpool tomorrow or to go to work or to ride on the metro, I mean, what difference does that make to me? Well, let's talk about that, shall we? You know, folks, starting a race well is a piece of cake. It's finishing a race well that really matters. This is why they give out the medals at the end of the race and not at the beginning. If they gave them out at the beginning, everybody would get a medal.
Everybody looks great at the beginning. And you know, this is what the apostle Paul was talking about when he said in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7, he said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
Look what he says. I finished the race. I have kept the faith.
I finished the race without a gator bowl in my life. And friends, this is what God earnestly wants for every one of us. God wants us to finish the race well.
So how do we do this? How do we run the race of the Christian life without having a gator bowl happen to us the way it happened to Moses? Well, what we need to do today is take a look and figure out why it happened to Moses. What did he do wrong that led to this tragic mistake that he made?
And then if we can figure that out, that means we can orient our life in such a way that we don't repeat his mistakes. So here we go. There were three failures that led up to this mistake Moses made. Three things Moses did wrong that caused his gator bowl.
You ready? Here we go. Number one, the first thing is that Moses, first of all, failed to keep believing God. Listen to what God said, Numbers 20 verse 12, the Lord said to Moses, Because you did not, look at this, believe me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the people. You're not going in the Holy Land. You say, Yalom, what does that mean? What do you mean Moses didn't believe God enough?
Well, think about it. God had made Moses a promise. The promise he made is, Moses, you go speak to that rock in my name and I will supernaturally split that rock open and I'll cause water to come out of that rock. And what God was asking Moses to do was believe that God's spoken word all by itself, plus nothing, with no human assistance of any kind, that God's spoken word was powerful enough to split that rock open and bring water gushing out. But friends, this is where Moses fumbled the ball. Moses instead went back and instead of stepping out in faith, instead of taking risks for God, instead of believing God in front of the people, what Moses did is the very same thing the people had done 39 years before. He shrunk back in unbelief and he resorted to an old method that he had seen God use years before, that it worked, taking the stick and hitting the rock. But friends, God had changed methods. God wasn't using the same method he'd used back then and he was asking Moses to trust him and believe him for a new method, a different method, and Moses couldn't do it. He'd lost his edge. You say, Lon, wait a minute. Moses lost his edge?
What, are you kidding? I mean, this is the guy who believed God to bring all the plagues on Egypt. This is the guy who believed God to open the Red Sea, for goodness sake.
This is the guy who went up on Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments and saw the back parts of God from the cleft and the rock. I mean, how in the world could this happen to Moses? How could he lose his edge?
Well, I don't know, but he did. And you know, folks, if it could happen to Moses, it could happen to you and me, and I've seen it happen over my years in the ministry. I've seen it happen to many individual followers of Christ, people who have believed God and who have trusted God for great things and who have stepped out in faith and who have walked powerfully with God and God has blessed their life and God has anointed their life and God has used their life, and then suddenly they just lose their edge. Suddenly they stop walking by faith and they start believing that all of their victories in the past is all they need. They stop trusting God for new victories in the present.
They start thinking that all the victories they had in the past will suffice for the rest of their life, and that is not true. God was calling Moses to trust him afresh standing at that rock. The fact he had split open the Red Sea didn't matter. The fact he had brought down the plagues didn't matter.
That was years ago. God was asking him to trust him right now. And Moses couldn't do it. Folks, when this happens, the anointing of God, God takes it off a person's life and he gives it to somebody else. Hey, I've seen this happen to great Christian leaders with great vision. I mean, at the beginning of their ministry, it's like they got shot out of a cannon, you know, and they go out and they conquer ground for God and they make a difference in the world and they have big gains for God and then all of a sudden they lose their nerve. And they begin to worry, listen now, they begin to worry more about consolidating the gains they've already made instead of worrying about conquering new territory for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what God does? When that happens, God removes his mantle off of this man or woman and he gives it to somebody else. And finally, I've seen this happen to churches, churches who at one point in their life were willing to step out in faith and trust God for great things and take risks for God and preach the Word of God the way it is and not worry about what people thought, preach the truth and let the chips fall where they may, but then the church grows and they get a couple thousand people coming and they get a big building and they get a lot of people on the staff and they get a reputation among the saints and all of a sudden institutionalization sets in and they decide that they're not willing to bet the pot anymore when God asks. They're not willing to put it all on the line.
There's too much to lose, there's too much to risk. And so they stop preaching the Word of God the way it ought to be preached and they stop taking risks for God. You know what God does to churches like that? He removes their candlestick and he gives it to another church.
Friends, the point is that the first step to avoid spiritual disaster in our lives is to keep believing God, to get into the Word of God afresh every single day, to get on our knees and seek God afresh every single day, to trust God every single day to help us overcome our unbelief and to allow God to lead us into situations where we have to step out in faith and we have to take risks for God and that we're still willing to do it. It doesn't matter how many times we've done it in the past or how much we have to lose. We're still willing to do it. You know, my son John, my youngest son plays intercollegiate baseball for Johns Hopkins University.
It's a great program. And this year they're already in the post season and they've got a really good chance of going to the World Series so you can pray about that. You can also pray that he gets drafted, gets a million dollar signing bonus and can pay me back for all the money I spent on his baseball. You can pray for that too.
And I will take it back too, by the way. But anyway, if you've ever played baseball, you know that as a baseball player, the hits you got yesterday don't make any difference today. When you walk up to the plate, the fact that you got hits yesterday, nobody cares about that when you walk up to the plate. You better get a hit today.
You got to get new hits every single day. And friends, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same is true. What we did in the past doesn't matter when we walk to the plate today. God is asking us to trust him for new victories and to step out and believe him for new things every day. Moses didn't do it.
Disaster. Second thing that Moses failed to do is Moses failed to keep his hands off of God's glory. Remember what God said to him, Numbers 20, 12. He said, Moses, you did not honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites.
That was the issue. The issue is had Moses simply spoken to the rock in God's name, as God told him to, and then if water had come gushing out of the rock, God would have gotten all the honor, all the glory, all the credit, all the majesty. But that isn't what Moses did.
By saying what he said, that is, do Aaron and I have to do this for you? And by doing what he did, that is taking the staff and hitting the rock, what Moses did is take a little bit of that glory, a little bit of credit for himself. And God said, no, no, no, Moses, that is not acceptable. Friends, listen to me. Putting our hands on the glory of God is a deadly, serious sin.
And we better understand and realize that. God said, Isaiah 42, he said, I am the Lord, that is my name, watch, and my glory, I will not give to another. And God makes no exceptions, not even for Moses, folks. You say, well, Lon, today in our modern world, what would it mean today for me as a follower of Christ to rob God of his glory?
How would I exactly do that? Well, friends, you do it the exact same way Moses did it. We do it when we claim for ourselves the credit that honestly belongs to God and not us.
This is what God said to the Israelites, Deuteronomy 8 verse 10. He said, when you have eaten and you're satisfied in the good land the Lord has given you, watch, beware, lest you forget the Lord your God, and lest you become proud and begin to say in your heart, here it is, my power and the might of my hand has gotten me all this wealth. Folks, when your business prospers or your career advances and people try to give you the credit for that, don't you take it. You make sure God gets the credit if it hadn't been for his sovereign hand on your business or his sovereign hand on your career, your career and business would have gone nowhere. You make sure the credit goes where it belongs. Friends, when we do well in school or win some award or succeed on the athletic field, don't let people give you the credit.
You make sure it goes where it belongs. When we, our children, grow up and they're doing well or when God prospers us to the point that we can afford a new house or a new car or new clothes or whatever, don't you let people give you the credit for that. And more importantly, my friend, don't you take it for yourself in your own mind. You and I need to be so sure that we deflect every bit of those attempts to give the credit to us and we deflect them right onto the real source of the credit, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Moses didn't do that and he learned that the glory of God is nothing to trifle with and when we do, we pay for it. Number three and finally, Moses failed third of all to obey God fully.
Now the key word there is the word fully. In fact, in Numbers 27 verse 14, God says to Moses, for you rebelled against my command there at that rock. The bottom line is that Moses just flat didn't do what God told him to do.
Now listen, Moses did some of what God told him to do. He took the staff. God said take the staff. Didn't he take the staff?
Yeah. And God said gather the people. Didn't he gather the people? Yeah, he did that too. But then God said speak to the rock. Uh oh, he didn't do that. You say, well Lon, he gave him two out of three.
I mean he batted 667. Listen friends, God's not interested in a batting average short of a thousand when it comes to obeying God. As far as God is concerned, partial obedience is the same as disobedience. When I think of this, I think of another guy in the Old Testament. I think of a guy named King Saul.
You remember him? In 1 Samuel chapter 15, God sent King Saul to completely wipe out the Amalekites. You say, wow, how unbelievably cruel could God be? No, don't you accuse God of that.
You wait a minute. In Exodus chapter 17 when the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites, go back and read about it, attacked the rear of the column killing old people and sick people and disabled people, despicable what they did. And as a result, God pronounced a curse on them that he was going to wipe them off the face of the earth. And all he was doing is asking King Saul to go enforce that curse that he had made before that they had brought on themselves. Well, you know what Saul did?
He went and almost did it. He took the city. He destroyed most of the city, but he saved the king alive, King Agag, so he could march him around and show him off.
And then he saved some of the best animals alive, didn't kill them. And he meets Samuel, the great prophet, on the way back from this campaign. And he says to Samuel, he says, Samuel, I have obeyed the word of the Lord. Remember that? And Samuel says to him, Really?
Really? He goes, What are all these animals here if you obeyed the word of the Lord? Oh, that he said. Oh, Samuel. He said, The animals, we spared them so that we could sacrifice them to God.
Yeah. You want to hear what Samuel said to him? Samuel, 15, 22, Samuel says, Hey, Saul, does the Lord take as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as he does in obeying the voice of the Lord? Listen here, son, Samuel said, Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice. And, you know, God removed him as king. He said, I'm sorry I made him king and he removed him.
Friends, I have seen so many people over my years in the ministry who come into my office and they've just been through the Gator Bowl in their life. And every single time, the reason is exactly the same. It's incomplete obedience to God. God either said something in the word of God or God said something heart to heart to them.
And they just didn't do it the way God told them to do it. Friends, when God tells us to do something as the Lord and ruler of our life, he is not interested in us negotiating with him. He doesn't want us to readjust what he tells us or to reinterpret what he tells us or to recalculate what he tells us. He just wants us to do it.
And if we do, he will protect us from having these kind of disasters in our life. And so, when God asks you to go seek somebody's forgiveness, my advice to you is go seek their forgiveness exactly the way God tells you. When God asks us, my friends, to serve him in some way or to speak to somebody about their need for Christ or to make restitution for something we've done to injure somebody, what God wants is he doesn't want to negotiate with us. He wants us to go do what he tells us. When God asks us to stop sleeping with our boyfriend or our girlfriend or to get out of that adulterous relationship or to knock it off with pornography on the Internet, he's not interested in having a discussion about these things.
He's interested in obedience. And when it comes to not cheating at school or having full disclosure at work or resigning our job and going into the ministry if God's calling us to do it, friends, he just wants us to do it. Or if we're parents and our children come to us and they say, I really believe that God is calling me to serve him within my life and not be the doctor or the lawyer that you wanted me to be, that's a moment for us to say it doesn't matter what I wanted you to be. If the Lord Jesus calls you to serve him, then you go do what he wants you to do. You obey God, son. You obey God, daughter. And, men, when God calls us to spend more time with our family and to serve our wives and our children more sacrificially, and ladies, when God calls us to respect and honor our husbands more, he is not interested in a dialogue. He's interested in obedience. I love what the Lord Jesus said, Luke chapter 6, listen. He said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and yet you don't do what I say? I don't know.
I think that's a pretty good question, don't you? For all of us. The point I'm trying to make here is that as followers of Christ, the greatest way for us to avoid spiritual disaster, the kind that hit Moses, is for us to do exactly what God says, exactly the way God says it to the fullest we know how, every day of our lives. This is not rocket science. This is obedience. All right, let's summarize. What have we learned today? Well, we learned that God wants us to finish the race well. In fact, the apostle Paul said, 1 Corinthians 9, 25, Run the race in such a way that you might win. God just doesn't want us coming out of the starting gate. He doesn't want us just going around the first turn or going into the back stretch, running the race to win.
He wants us to go all the way around and come across the finish line. And friends, God will help us if we will commit ourselves to certain things in the Christian life. Number one, we have to commit ourselves to keep believing God and actively living by faith anew every day.
Number two, we have to commit ourselves to keeping our hands off the glory of God. It's not ours. It doesn't belong to us. We got no business touching it.
It needs to go to Him. And number three, we need to give God complete obedience in everything in our life. You say, but Lon, nobody can get that right all the time. Nobody can do that perfectly. I mean, we all fall short. You're right.
We do. But let me tell you this. This is what I've learned. I've learned that when this is the intention of our heart, when this is the desire of our heart to obey God in everything, to keep our hands off God's glory, to keep living by faith, when we commit ourselves to these things as the pillars around which we build our life, you know what I've learned when we do fall short? That the Lord, I've learned, honors, listen, the intention of our heart, even if our performance can't always carry it out.
And He shows us mercy and He dusts our trail and He keeps disaster from happening to us when it is the intention of our heart to live this way. And so that's my challenge to you. Shoot, my friends, that's my challenge to me. I'm preaching this message to me. I'm not preaching it to you. I'm just letting you listen.
This is my message to me because I've got to tell you something. I'll be sixty years old this year and I realize that as I look at my life, friends, there's a lot less of my ministry in front of me than there is behind me. I realize I'm coming around the final turn and coming into the stretch run and I don't know how long that stretch run will be. I hope it will be a long time. But however long it is, how tragic would it be to trip in the stretch?
How tragic would it be to get all the way around the track and just before the finish line go down? I don't want that to happen to me and I don't want it to happen to you. And God doesn't want it to happen to any of us. And He's trying to tell us in the Bible how to keep us from having a gator bowl in our life. And so my challenge to you and me and to all of us, friends, is let's take these three pillars, believing God, giving God the glory, obeying God fully, and let's make them the three pillars around which we build our life.
And we're serious about it. Friends, you cannot have a gator bowl if this is the way you're living. You can't. God won't let you. And I hope you, God knows I hope I, will really live this way so one day we can say, I have finished the race. I kept the faith. I didn't embarrass myself. I didn't disgrace my family. I didn't disgrace the work of God. I didn't disgrace the name of Christ. Lord, by your mercy and your grace, I did it.
Boy, what a great way to finish. That's what God wants. I hope you'll take to heart what we've talked about today. I hope I will too.
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, to cross the finish line in victory would be such a thrilling experience. And to see your face in heaven and hear you say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
You didn't get it all right, but you did pretty good. And I'm proud of you. Lord, what a great moment that would be. And so, Father, I pray that you would give every one of us here a driving, passionate ambition to finish our life like that. That nothing else would be acceptable to us. And, Lord, for some of us here, that means we've got to go out and make some changes this week. There are some areas of obedience that we need to bring into 100% obedience to you. There are some areas of our life where we've been putting our hands on your glory and letting people give us the credit that we need to stop.
There are places in our life where we have not been believing you. And, Lord Jesus, my prayer is that you would give us the courage. My prayer is that you would give us the intensity that we need spiritually to go out and make those radical changes if they are radical. God, give us such a passion for finishing well that we are willing to pay any earthly price to cross that finish line with no gator bowl in our history. And, Lord, for those of us who have a gator bowl, thank you for the blood of Christ that covers those things.
Lord Jesus, may we get up now and live in such a way that we don't have another one. For the glory of Christ. Change our lives because we were here today, Lord, and we sat under the teaching of your eternal Word. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.
