As we look at our Psalm for this morning, I love Psalm 47, what it says is our God is an awesome God.  Think about that. Our God is an awesome God who rules over all the earth. There’s a praise song that goes like that. But He is, He is an awesome God and He rules over all the earth. It says God is King and ruler, our Lord.  What has to be our position in life?  Our position in life has to be humble.

I think the most important thing in beginning our Christian journey is to recognize that we’re not God, we’re not king, to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, to recognize that He is King, that He is Lord, that He is the one that has authority in our life and that we need to listen to Him, we need to be the people that He has called us to be.

In the New Testament lesson for this morning, I really want to emphasize this verse, I’ve shared it before but again, 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”  Paul is clear about his failures and his shortcomings. He shares about that in several places throughout scripture. But note what he says, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” I love the boldness of that statement and I hope each of us here can say that to our children, to our grandchildren, to the children of this church, to the children of our community, to our friends and neighbors, “Look at me and follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” We need to recognize that, we need to be following Godly examples in our life and we need to be Godly examples for others.

I read an article several years ago, I think it was in Christianity today but I don’t remember for certain. But it was talking about how young people don’t have any heroes today. Think about that, who are your heroes?

When I was growing up, at least particularly when I was younger my Dad was certainly a hero. He was just one of these friendly guys, he had lots of friends and lots of people would come to him for advice and he was just one of those people I looked up to. He had some friends that from time to time I would say, “I would like to be more like that person.” Even as older adults, we need our heroes, we need examples to follow. In New Orleans we had a guy, his name was Rudy and Rudy just had the most generous spirit and I said I want to be more generous like Rudy. He taught me a lot, I think I’ve become better, I’m not as generous as Rudy was, he just had this natural, generous spirit, and it was just easy for him. Sometimes I have to think about it and work at it a little bit. Rudy was just incredible and again, an example to me. Hopefully you have examples in this church of people who are Godly examples that you want to follow, that you want to emulate because you know that they are following Christ, that they are examples of what Christ is. They may not be perfect and there may be times when you see their failures and shortcomings but as they follow Christ we need to follow their example.   We need to follow Godly examples.

In Chapter ten  we see some that weren’t Godly examples.  Paul says, “Follow my example, and follow me as I follow Christ,” but prior to that in chapter ten he describes some of these people that weren’t very godly examples. Of course, it comes from the Exoduses, “I don’t want you to be ignorant of the fact our forefathers were under the cloud, they passed through the sea, they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Interesting baptismal symbols, someday I would like to talk about that.

“They all ate the same spiritual food, drank the same spiritual drink where they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, their bodies were scattered in the desert. Now these occurred as examples.”  Think about that, these were negative examples, but these occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelries, we should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.” Twenty three thousand of them died, can you imagine that? Think about that, Rochelle is ten thousand, a little more than two times the number dropped dead. Of course, you had to bury them and all that, it’s incredible. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angels.

If you look at the scripture, particularly Exodus where this is coming from, God doesn’t like grumbling. I have to remind myself of that from time to time and if I don’t Patricia will. Every once in a while it’s easy to go argh, to be gritchin or grumbling or whatever, God doesn’t like that. “Do not grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.” That’s the example, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm be careful that you do not fall,” and this is one of my memory verses. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man and God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. But when you are tempted He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up underneath it.”

As I was thinking about this passage of scripture, and of course, it comes from the Exodus from the people who were in the Exodus. Think for a moment what was the greatest fear of the Israelites as they began the Exodus? It talks about that, of course, in Exodus 14 and they’re out and they are ready to cross the Red Sea and it’s before them and the Egyptians are coming and they are charging hard at them and they are going to kill them. So they turn to Moses and say, “Didn’t we say to you in Egypt to leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians,” remember they’re slaves. “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” That was their fear that they would die in the desert.” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm and you will see the deliverance of the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to stand still.”  Exodus14:12-14. Their fear was they were going to die in the desert, again, you have an army charging after you and they have swords, you are pretty fearful, that’s understandable, but they didn’t trust in God. That’s the whole point, they didn’t trust in what God was going to do.

Then they journeyed to the promised land and again, it’s not a long distance but they had a big crowd of people so it took several days, thirty or forty days,  to travel that distance. The get on the verge of the promised land and they send in one from each tribe, twelve people go into the promised land and two say, “It’s beautiful, it’s a land flowing with milk and honey, it’s got everything we need,” but ten of them come back and say, “But there’s giants in the land and before them we felt like grasshoppers and we can’t do it.” And of course Jacob and Joshua said, “No, we can do it.”

They were the two of the twelve who really trusted God and the people are fearful and know what it says in Numbers 14:1-4. “That night all the people of the community raised their voice and wept aloud and all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly said to them if only we had died in Egypt or in the desert!”  Interesting statement, why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better to go back to Egypt and they said to each other we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt, go back to slavery.

Again, so often in our Christian life we have gotten comfortable with our sins and we want to go back to the slavery of our sins and not to what it is that God would have us do. Of course, God was not pleased, so God says to Moses this, “Tell them, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “I will do to you the very thing I heard you say, in this desert your bodies will fall, every one of you, twenty years old or more, will be counted in the census and who has grumbled against me not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.  Num.14:28-30.

Think about that, think about God’s promise and God’s fulfillment that only Joshua and Caleb went into the promised land. God was willing for a whole generation to die out; God was willing to wait for forty years for that whole generation to die out that grumbled against him. For God that’s not a long time.

I was thinking about this last night, what was I doing forty years ago? I was in seminary at the time and it was a long time, it was my whole ministry basically. But a whole generation dies out and God was willing for that generation to die out who was grumbling and mumbling against Him, who wasn’t trusting Him, for another generation to be raised up that was totally dependant on Him. Think about that, they were totally dependent on Him to follow where He leads, to follow in His timing. The pillar of fire at night and the cloud by day and when it moved, they moved, and when it stayed, they stayed. They had learned total dependence on God for the food they ate, the manna in the wilderness.

I was thinking about that last night a little bit, too, and I think there’s food I could eat several times a week but manna every day, for forty years, we’re talking about a long period of time, morning, noon and night but it was nourishing and they ate it. For water, if you’ve ever lived in the desert environment, I’ve been in those desert environments, you know how precious water is. Again, they were totally dependent on God and they learned that total dependence on God to follow wherever it is that God would lead.

As Christians we have even greater promises than what the Jews had in the Old Testament that we read about but we have to follow Christ. We have to follow as Christ would lead, sometimes when we do that it may feel like we’re in the wilderness. I don’t know if you’ve had any of those wilderness experiences but a lot of times when we follow Christ we will go through some of those wilderness times.

Sometimes we will go through trials or temptations or times of testing and that verse in 10:13, different translations use those three different words and I like all three of those because they speak a little bit different type of message, but I think all of them together, times of trials, times of testing, times of temptation and I like to use all three of those when I think about it and we all go through those times. Sometimes when we’re in those wilderness times we may just feel like giving up; often times its right at the verge of victory. It fascinates me; they had left Egypt for the promised land, even the spies that didn’t believe that God could protect them, they believed it was the promised land, they said it was a land flowing with milk and honey; they would describe some of the incredible things they saw there.

They had seen God protect them from the Egyptian army which was, in that day and age, the most powerful nation in the world. Here they were going into a much smaller nation with certainly much smaller problems. They did have giants in the land, there were still giants left but again, they had seen God’s provision and protection and only Joshua and Caleb had that confidence and said, “As God has protected us, as God has been leading us these days in the wilderness that we’re in.  God will continue to guide us.  It took them a while, God provided manna for them in the wilderness, provided food for them, God provided water for them and they had seen God’s provision, they had seen God’s protection. Just at the time they were about to receive victory, “Let’s go back to Egypt, let’s go back to slavery. Let’s abandon God’s plan and God’s purpose for our lives.”

I didn’t read it all but if you want to read some of that, particularly in Numbers, God gets mad at the people and God turns to Moses and basically says lets just start all over again. He going to start with Moses to be the next generation and Moses really pleads with God, “Don’t kill them all. I know they probably deserve it but don’t kill them all.” And God relents of that punishment and waits until they all die, though.

There are consequences for sin and we need to recognize that, we may not receive what it is that God has promised right away but if we abandon God, if we turn away from God, if we get angry with God, if we grumble, we are not ever going to see the fulfillment of the promises of God.

As I say it I always love to say the phrase, there are no trials and temptation, time of testing it’s over taking, but such is common to everyone. We need to recognize the things we go through are common, they’re not uncommon, but God is faithful and will, with the trial and temptation, time of testing, provide the way of escape for you to be able to endure. I like that enduring part but I always want to change it to victory because ultimately they do have the victory.  They go into the promised land lead by Joshua and Caleb, and they go in and ultimately have victory long after they could have, long after they should have, but they ultimately have victory. Of course, it’s just like Christ on the cross, we have the victory that Christ had on the cross, from human terms it looked like a defeat, Christ was dead and He was buried but, of course, what we celebrated last Sunday He rose from the grave and on the cross He had the victory because it’s on the cross that Satan was defeated. It was on the cross that our sins were forgiven, that they have been cleansed and purified by the blood of Jesus Christ, so what seemed like death itself,  in worldly terms, something that was not a victory was, in fact, a victory. What seemed like a moment of defeat was, in fact, a victory, not just for Christ, but for you and for me.

As we follow Christ we always need to set a Godly example for the hope that is in us, particularly when we go through tough times. We need to have that confidence; I think Norm was an example of that. There would be times when he would go through tough times and he would be honest about the tough times he was going through but he always had that hope that was within him. I’ve seen other people, good Christian people as they come to the end of their life and again, they set a Godly example for me.

Billy Graham has a new book out, Nearing Home, it’s about his old age, and how he’s getting ready to go home. He’s one of those Godly examples that we look at and he said, “People taught me how to live the Christian life, but nobody taught me how to die or grow old.” So partly why he wrote the book is to show us how to grow old and even in our old age how to still serve the Lord. There is no retirement as long as you are here on earth. God has a retirement system but as long as you are alive, God has a plan and a purpose for you. As we go through those times of trials and temptations and times of testing it’s often times, right at the verge of victory, that we are ready to give up that God makes that breakthrough, that God provides that way of escape, that not only will we endure but we will have that victory.

So as we follow Jesus Christ may people look at us and come to know Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, as their Lord and Savior.

Let us pray.

Lord Heavenly Father, this is truly a Godly church, An Amazing Place for Amazing Grace. I see and know many Godly examples here, many people who are following Christ that as we would look at them and emulate them, Lord, that we would be following Christ as well. Lord, we know that in human terms that sometimes we fail and fall short. We ask for people’s mercy and forgiveness when that happens. But Lord truly may people be able to look at us, look at this church and be able to say, “I want what they have. I see the example in the lives of those people there at Rochelle First Presbyterian Church and I want to follow them, I want to be a part of them, I want to model what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ in my life as I see in their lives. I pray that each one of us can say for ourselves as Paul said about himself, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Lord, as we follow Christ we pray that as people grow and mature that they wouldn’t be our disciples but that they would become disciples of Christ, that they would follow Jesus Christ for themselves, O Lord, and when they see us fail or fall short that would not upset them, but they would truly follow the example of Jesus Christ as they are His disciples and examples to others as well.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Rev. Dr. Munn E. Hinds, Jr.

First Presbyterian Church

Rochelle, Illinois