Well, today we come to the end of our series on the life of that great man of God, Moses. It's been 62 messages, which for me is a mini-series, if you've been around here any length of time. But it's been a wonderful series for me. I have really enjoyed getting to know this wonderful man of God, learning to feel his heart, learning to appreciate his example, learning to be challenged by his passion for God and his faithfulness to God and his service to God.
And I hope that this series has been really spiritually valuable for all of you as well. Now today in the very last message in the series, what I want us to do is I want us to look back over this man's life and I want us to analyze what was it that made him the great man of God that he was. I mean, was it extraordinary human talent or was it unusual intellect or was it superhuman strength or was it out of the ordinary leadership skill?
Well the answer is it was none of the above and it was really something quite different and that's what we want to talk about today. Because if we can figure out what it was that made Moses the great man of God that he was, we can then emulate it, copy it in our own lives and aspire to it in our own lives and that's the purpose of today. So let's go back and re-ask our question which is what was it that made Moses the great man of God that he was? Well friends, the answer was it was his heart. You see with God, it's all about the heart.
Above all else, God is interested in the heart. You remember 1 Samuel 16, the story I hope, where the Lord sent Samuel, the great prophet, to Bethlehem to meet with Jesse and to pick one of Jesse's eight sons to be the next king of Israel after King Saul. The only problem is God didn't tell Samuel before he went which one of the sons he had chosen.
And so when he got there, Samuel lined up all eight of the boys and his first inclination was to pick the son that was the biggest and the strongest and the most handsome and the most macho, you know the one that was most like Arnold, you know what I'm saying. But listen to what the Lord said, 1 Samuel 16, 7, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his height because I have not chosen him for the Lord does not look at things the way man looks at things. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
And even though by outward appearance sake, David was a runt, the truth is in his heart, David was a giant for God and that's why God chose him. Folks, we live in a world that is obsessed as you know with outward appearance, but God doesn't care about that. God cares about what lives in here. God cares about what we look like on the inside. If you and I really want to please God, we will worry a lot less what we look like on the outside, the people and a whole lot more what we look like on the inside to God. And the reason that Moses was such a giant on the outside is because first, my friends, he was a giant on the inside.
Now that leads to a second question. And that is what was it about Moses on the inside in his heart precisely that made him the giant for God that he was? Well, there were a lot of wonderful godly things that lived in Moses's heart. In Moses's heart, there lived a 100% dedication to God. In Moses's heart, there lived a total surrender to the lordship of Christ over his life. In Moses's heart, there lived a commitment to biblical obedience in Moses's heart, there lived a willingness to trust God and to walk by faith.
But you know, there was one other thing that lived in Moses's heart that I believe it was huge in the sight of God and was in large measure responsible for why God honored this man and exalted this man the way he did. And that thing that I'm referring to is on display for us in Numbers chapter 27. And so we're going to look at Numbers chapter 27. Let me give you a little bit of background before we do here in Numbers 27, the Israelites are camped right across the Jordan River from the Promised Land. There are only three people, three people left alive, who were more than 20 years old when the Israelites refused to go in the land 40 years before they were Joshua and Caleb, whom the Lord had promised they were going into the land, and Moses, whose time had come to die.
Here's where we pick up the story Numbers 27, verse 12. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go up this mountain and see the land that I have given to the Israelites. We know from Deuteronomy 34, that the mountain God was talking about here was Mount Nebo, Mount Nebo, we see it every year when we go to Israel on our tour. It's a majestic mountain over 3000 feet high. It sits right across the Jordan River from the city of Jericho, right across the Jordan River from the Holy Land. On a clear day from the top of Mount Nebo, you can see Jerusalem to the west. On a clear day, you can see to the Sea of Galilee all the way to the north, you can get an enormous vista over the land of Israel. And this is where God told Moses to go. And after you have seen the Promised Land, verse 13, God told him, you will be gathered to your people, you will die here on earth, just like your brother, Aaron.
Now, I don't know, maybe I'm weird, I admit that. But I many times sit around and think, you know, what if I knew for certain that I only had a few days to live? I mean, what if God told me today, Sunday, that Lon, Friday is your day, you are leaving here Friday, there's not a doubt in the world about it. I often wonder, what would I do? What would be my all consuming issues if I only knew I had a few days to live? Do you ever wonder about that?
I hope you do. I mean, if you all if you knew you were leaving Friday, I mean, what would be the compelling issues in your life that you would be concerned about the things that you would do? Well, for us men, I mean, maybe guys, we would take our wife out to dinner every single night and, and sit there and tell her how we feel about everything, you know, maybe we would go take our children out every day and sit and talk to them in the backyard and tell them about our lives and our dreams and our fears and our failures and our successes, and let these kids know who we were.
So they had us to hold on to when we were gone. Maybe we go gentlemen rent a red Ferrari for the week and just go speeding around Washington, huh? The good news is doesn't matter how many tickets you get. You're not gonna be here when the summons comes around the court date. Get as many tickets as you want.
Who cares? Ladies, as a woman, maybe you'd go out if you knew you only had a few days to live. Maybe you'd go out to lunch with all of your friends and make sure that you spend at least one afternoon with every friend. Maybe you'd catch up on your housework.
So everybody coming over after the funeral didn't come into a dirty house. Young Sam, I thought that was funny. Y'all didn't think that was funny.
I thought that's pretty funny. Hey, all of us, what would we do? Every one of us, we'd go off our diets, yes? Yes, we would. We'd eat a box of donuts every day for breakfast. Maybe two boxes of donuts every day. I would. I would. A couple of boxes. I'd call my boys up and say, boys, get to the gym.
The coffin's gonna be heavier when you get to it. I'm off the wagon. Off the wagon. All right, seriously now, what would you really do? I mean, what would really be the number one compelling issue in your life, huh? If you knew for certain, like Moses did here on the top of Mount Nebo, that you were leaving. Well, I suspect for many of us, whatever it would be, it would be rather self-centered.
I suspect for many of us, we'd sit around and we'd think about all the things we were gonna miss seeing here on earth, and we'd think about all the people we were gonna miss being with here on earth, and we'd think about all the things we wished we would have done while we were here on earth differently that we didn't, and it would be me, me, me, and I, I, I, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it's very interesting what Moses's compelling issue was knowing that his life was about to end, and it's very revealing because it shows us his heart. Watch. Here we go. Verse 15. Here's what the Bible says. Then Moses said to the Lord, may the Lord appoint a man over this congregation, the Israelites, who will lead them out and bring them in so that the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.
Wow, look at this. Here's a man who knows he's gonna die, and the number one issue at that moment in his life has nothing to do with self. Rather, his number one concern at that moment was for the welfare of God's people, the welfare of God's sheep for whom he's been a shepherd for the last 40 years, people that he loved, people that he cared for, people that he protected, people that he nurtured. His number one concern is that God would provide another godly man who could be a shepherd and have a shepherd's heart for the people of God.
Verse 18. So the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom the spirit dwells, and lay your hands on him and commission him in the sight of the Israelites. I mean, God answered Moses's prayer. He appoints another shepherd, another leader for the people. But friends, the really cogent point here is all about the heart of Moses. Even to the very end of his life, Moses had a shepherd's heart.
I mean, think about it now. This is the guy who opened the Red Sea, right? This is the guy who brought the 10 plagues down on Yul Brynner, right?
This is the guy who struck a rock out in the middle of the desert and supernatural water came out of it. This is the man to whom God gave the 10 commandments personally up on the top of Mount Sinai. This is a man who spoke to God face to face and who actually saw the back parts of Almighty God himself up on Mount Sinai.
Hey, if there was ever a guy who could have easily gotten caught up in self, it was this fellow. And yet to the very end, Moses remained a humble, godly man whose number one concern was not his own welfare. But it was the welfare of God's work and it was the welfare of God's sheep. You want to know why God blessed this man the way he did? You want to know why God used this man the way he did? You want to know why God honored and exalted this man the way he did? Friends, you just saw it right here in Numbers 27.
It was because of his heart, his shepherd's heart for the work of God and for the people of God. Now, that's as far as we want to go in the passage today because we want to stop and ask our most important question and this is the very last one in the series. So you guys need to make this worth it. Yeah? Come on now. Here we go. One, two, three. Oh, yes.
Wasn't that good? You say, Lon, so what? Say, all right, Moses has been an okay study and yeah, 62 and whatever.
And I mean, I'm not feeling, you know, he's about, I'm sorry, he's going to die and God bless him. But what difference does any of this make to me? Huh?
Well, I'm going to help you with that right now. You know, in Matthew chapter nine, here's what the Bible says. It says in Jesus was going through all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and sickness.
Watch. And when Jesus saw the crowds that had collected, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and helpless. Look like sheep without a shepherd.
Interesting. You see, just like Moses friends, the Lord Jesus did not see the crowds that followed him in terms of what they could do for him. He didn't see the crowds in terms of how they could benefit him. Instead, just like Moses, the Lord Jesus saw the crowds that followed him in terms of what he could do, what he could give to them. This is a shepherd's heart defined as simply as I know how to define it. And Jesus had one, and Moses had one. But listen, the passage doesn't stop here. It goes on.
It's intriguing. Look, then Jesus said to the disciples, the harvest is plentiful. He turned to Peter and James and John and said, Hey, fellas, look out there. Do you see how many sheep are out there? The harvest is plentiful. Watch.
But the workers are few. Hey, Peter. Hey, James.
Hey, John. Where are all the Moses's for these people? Where are all the shepherds for these people, fellas? Verse 38. Therefore, Jesus said, beseech the Lord of the harvest.
Pray and ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers, more shepherds into his harvest field full of sheep. Friends, this is how God sees people. He sees us as distressed and helpless. And above all else, God is looking for folks who are willing to be shepherds for these people. He's looking for people like Moses, people with a shepherd's heart. Now, it's not surprising that God looks in vain for these kind of shepherds among the unregenerate masses of the human race. We don't expect him to find folks like that there. But the really tragic thing is that when God looks at the church today, when God looks at the people today who are supposed to know him and love him, people who are supposed to be learning his heart and then going out and spending their lives trying to model and live out his heart. The tragic thing is that when he looks at the church today, Jesus still has to confess the workers are few. Now, why is that? I mean, why are there so few shepherds like Moses for the flock?
Well, I got two reasons to suggest to you. The first one is ignorance. Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard others as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. You see, I'm convinced that there are a lot of followers of Christ who don't have any idea this is really the way God calls us to live. The reason they don't is that number one, they don't hear it preached from their pulpits.
And number two, they don't see it modeled by the leadership teams in their churches. But we have to remember, we must never forget that as followers of Christ, the Lord Jesus has called us to spend our lives serving people. The Lord has called us to spend our lives caring for God's sheep. We must never forget that when you sign up to be a follower of Christ, when I sign up to be a follower of Christ, we are signing up for a life of self-sacrifice, intense self-sacrifice for Jesus' sake. That's why Jesus said, Mark 8 35, that we are called to lose our lives for his sake and for the gospel's sake. Now I'm convinced a lot of Christians don't even know that because they never hear anybody tell them that.
Well, I'm telling you. But it's more than just ignorance. I believe there's a second reason. And the second reason why we don't have more shepherds in the church is I believe selfishness.
Now it may bother you to hear what I'm about to say, but I'm going to say it anyway because it's true. I believe, friends, that many of us as Christians today are simply too selfish. We are too self-centered and we are too consumed with self-interest to be willing to pay the price it takes to be a shepherd for God's sheep.
Just pure and simple. I mean, being a shepherd is a lot like being a parent. You know, from the outside, being a parent looks so romantic.
You know, we go coochie coochie coochie coo, cute little thing. But that is not reality. That is not reality.
Reality is that being a parent is a lot of hard work. It's a lot of self-sacrifice. It's a lot of naked commitment and it's a lot of death to self-interest. And being a shepherd for God's sheep, my friends, carries the very same price. Just look what it costs Moses to be a shepherd to the sheep of Israel for 40 years in the desert. Look at what it costs the Apostle Paul to be a shepherd to the early church. Look at what it costs Hudson Taylor to be a shepherd to the people of China. Look at what it costs Adoniram Judson to be a shepherd to the people of Burma. Look at what it costs Jim Elliott to be a shepherd to the Auca Indians or what it costs Mother Teresa to be a shepherd to the poor children of the world.
For goodness sake, just look at what it costs the Lord Jesus to be the good shepherd. And so the reason this is true, the reason it costs so much to be a shepherd is because of the nature of sheep. It's because of what sheep are. Let me tell you a little bit about sheep. Sheep, my friends, are animals unlike most animals who do not take care of themselves. Sheep cannot take care of themselves. For example, sheep cannot scavenge for their own food like lions and tigers. Sheep have no natural defenses like teeth or claws or venom. Sheep can't climb.
They can't dig tunnels. They can't swim across rivers to get away from predators. And sheep have a notoriously horrible sense of direction. If a sheep gets lost, it'll just lie down and wait to die. It can't find its way back home. It won't even try to find its way back home. Listen, when it comes to having a sense of direction, lassie, they're not.
You understand? And unless a shepherd finds a lost sheep, folks, a lost sheep is a dead sheep. These are the most helpless animals on the face of the earth. And because they are so helpless, that's why being a shepherd to these animals demands total dedication on our part to the sheep and zero dedication to ourselves. That's what shepherds do. Friends, why aren't there many shepherds for God in the world today? Here's the answer.
Because it's tough to find volunteers who will agree to die to themselves. It's tough. You say, well, Lon, I understand what you're saying. And I appreciate that.
God bless you up there, man. You're on a roll. And that's good, you know. But listen, my question is, in light of everything you've said about being a shepherd and what the cost is and what it's going to demand from me, my question is, why should I do this? I mean, I don't have to do this to go to heaven, right? I don't have to be a shepherd to go to heaven.
No, you know. I don't have to go out and take care of God's sheep and make those kind of sacrifices like Hudson Taylor and Adoniram Judson and Moses and Paul. I don't have to do that to have eternal life, do I?
Nope. You say, well, then why in the world would I go out there and do something like this? Why would I live like this? Why would I put myself into that position and make those sacrifices?
That's a good question. Two-fold answer. Number one, because living like this delights the heart of God. It pleases God. Friends, as followers of Christ, our number one mission in life is to please the heart of God. We're His children. He's our Father.
Our job is to please Him. And God takes special delight in people who are willing to live like Moses, people who are willing to live their lives, devote their lives to serving others and taking care of the sheep and putting the needs of others ahead of their own. When God thinks about these people in heaven, a big smile breaks out on His face.
That ought to be our goal that when God thinks of you and me, He gets a smile on His face instead of a wrinkled brow and a frown on His face. But there's a second reason why, and that is because God rewards every follower of Christ who's willing to go out and live like Moses. Listen to what Jesus said. Mark chapter 10, verse 29. Jesus said, Everyone who has forsaken houses or relatives or lands, and may I add, or personal comforts or leisure time or leisure pursuits or whatever, for my sake and for the gospel sake, watch, that person shall receive back a hundredfold as much now in this present age and in the age to come eternal life.
Wow, what a trade. You know, I've been following the Lord Jesus for 38 years now, and I look around at my life today. You know, when I first came to Christ, the man who led me to Christ, Bob Eckhart, challenged me to spend the rest of my life serving Christ, to trade in everything I had, which, oh, by the way, at that time was not much, believe me, and instead to give it to God and spend my life serving Christ. You know, I took to heart what Bob said. I've tried to do that, and I look around at my life now, and I got to tell you, friends, God has given me so much. He's given me a wonderful wife, 34 years.
Next week, we'll be married. Three wonderful. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Three wonderful sons, two grandchildren, my beautiful daughter, Jill. He's given me a wonderful church family to minister to, people who love me in spite of myself.
Thanks for doing that, by the way. He's given me a wonderful home to live in, material possessions beyond anything I ever dreamed. I was with one of my sons the other day, and I said, you know what? I said, if God were to say to me, Lon, what else is it in terms of material possession that you really want that you don't have?
I said to my son, you know what? I really don't think there are any. I can't think of one. I mean, I've got more than I ever dreamed about having. You say, well, how'd you get all that? I don't know. I don't know how I got it.
I just got it. The reason I got it is Mark chapter 10, verse 29. God says that He gives back a hundred fold for everybody who'll devote their lives to serving God's work and serving God's sheep.
And you don't have to do it full time like I do it, but do it just with even your volunteer time. Friends, listen, I didn't give God much, but you take it and multiply it by a hundred fold and it turns into something. And I know there are a lot of us here today who are deeply invested in the work of God in this church. There are a lot of us here today who are deeply invested here at McLean Bible Church in using our time and using our skill to serve the work of God and to serve the people of God. And I want to say a special thank you to you people on God wants to say a special thank you to you people, because this church could not operate if it wasn't for you.
We could not be making the impact on lives in Washington we're making if it wasn't for you. And I know sometimes it gets discouraging. Trust me. And I know sometimes you feel like throwing in the towel.
Trust me. But I'm here to say today, we need to let the word of God, friends, be a source of comfort to us and encouragement to us and a motivator to us to keep on going and keep on serving and keep on dying to self and keep on putting the needs of God's work and God's people ahead of our own, because we have the promise of Jesus, as the old hymn says, that it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. And so if you're here and you're one of those people, don't you dare give up.
Don't you dare give up. Because friends, all those other folks around you're piling up all the junk they're piling up here on earth. Let me tell you something. When they leave, guess what? You know this, the junks all staying. But if you pile up service for Christ here, you pile up change lives that you poured into for Jesus here, you pile up sacrifices you made to advance the work of God.
I'm telling you what, those are going to heaven with you today, folks. So don't live your life for something that you can't take with you. Don't waste your life, friends.
Live your life in such a way that when you get to the end of it, you look back and you say, oh, my gosh, it was worth doing it. What I did, I didn't throw my life away. You say, all right, Lon. So let's say you talk me into this. All right.
Let's say the Holy Spirit's convinced me this is the way I should live, that I should be go out and start being a shepherd for God. Lon, I have one final question. Well, and that's good, friends, because I only have time to answer one more question.
And you say, well, here's my last question. Where do I get a heart like this, Lon? I mean, you said that what motivated Moses was he had a shepherd's heart, and that was what motivated Hudson Taylor and Adoniram Judson and Jim Elliott and Mother Teresa. Where do I get a heart like that from? I mean, you can't take a pill to get a heart like that. You can't go to class to get a heart like that.
Can't read a book to get. Where do I get a heart like that? Oh, what a great question to end with.
You get it from two places. First, my friends, we get a shepherd's heart from being with the great shepherd himself. You see, the closer you and I walk with Jesus, the more we will pick up his heart for the sheep.
Friends, the more time we spend in the word of God, studying the word of God, seeing the heart of God revealed in this book, the more we spend communing with God time on our knees and prayer, the more we will begin to see people the way he sees them as helpless and distressed and like sheep without a shepherd. And the more we see people like that, the more the Holy Spirit will use it to produce a supernatural inward spirit driven transformation in our heart where we start caring about those sheep. Second, the other place you get a shepherd's heart from friends, you get a shepherd's heart from being with the sheep. Nobody ever learned to be a shepherd from in a classroom over in Israel, the better when don't teach their children how to be good shepherds by sitting them in the tent and going through a book with them. They put them out with the sheep.
They make them go out and do life with the sheep. And as you get out there with the sheep and you love the sheep and you go through the joys and the sorrows, the successes and the failures of the sheep, you learn to love the sheep. Hey, you want to be a shepherd, folks, then get some sheep.
If you're new at this, then start small. Ask a few people at work if they'd like to get together once a week for lunch and have prayer and read the Bible and you be their shepherd. Ask a few friends at school if they'd like to get together and have a Bible study one evening or one day after school and you be their shepherd. Ask a few couples in your neighborhood if they want to start a small group reading the Bible and praying and you be their shepherd or come here and volunteer and kids quest and take care of little sheep or come and work in the rock and take care of teenage sheep or come and work in the gathering and take care of college age sheep or come and work in the food pantry and help sheep that don't have enough food to eat or help work in the clothing ministry and take care of sheep that don't have enough clothes to wear or come work at the house down in Anacostia or Daybreak down in Lincoln Heights and help inner city sheep who have horrible needs for us to tend to or come work in Access Ministry, friends, with children with disabilities and help some of the weakest, most vulnerable sheep on the face of this earth. And you work with the sheep and I'm telling you, you'll learn to love them. I don't care if you start small, I don't care if you start big, but you want a shepherd's heart.
Friends, you got to start somewhere caring for sheep. So let me close and say this, that as a follower of Christ, if you want to pray something really important for this church, if you want to pray something really vital for this church, something that will catch the ear of God and have the interest of God, let me tell you what to pray. You pray, Lord, raise up more workers for the field. Hey, that's what Jesus told us to pray, isn't it?
If you pray it, you've got his ear. Lord, raise up here at McLean Bible Church more people like Moses. Raise up here at McLean Bible Church more people who are willing to put the interests of the work of God and the interests of the people of God ahead of their own self-centered interests. Raise up people with shepherd's hearts here, God. And friends, may I suggest that while you're praying that, you at the same time pray and Lord Jesus, please make me one of those people.
Let's pray together. Dear Father, you know that so often when we look at the great men and women of God in the Bible, we are tempted to think that they're made out of different protoplasm than we are, different genetic material and that's why they were the great giants for God they were. But Lord, you know that's not true. These people didn't have different genetic material than a lot of people around today. They lived by a different value system than most people today live by. And we've seen that demonstrated right here today in the life of Moses. We've seen that his value system was based around serving others, serving the people of God, serving the work of God above himself. And that's why you honored him and that's why you exalted him and that's why you blessed him.
And Lord Jesus, we can copy that different protoplasm we can't deal with but we can deal with value systems. And so my prayer today is that you would challenge every one of us here who knows Christ to throw off the stupid philosophy of this world which is about living for self, self, self, self, self and that we would rise above that shallow philosophy and adopt a biblical value system where we live for Christ and we live for the work of God and we live to serve the people of God and we live to honor God in our life. And Lord, thank you that we have your promise that not only will we be rewarded for that here on earth beyond our wildest but when we see Jesus, we will be so glad for every moment we spent in the service of Christ. Lord, change our lives because we were here today. Change the very way we approach everyday living. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. What do God's people say? Amen.
