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[0:00] In Numbers chapter 11, starting in verse 1, says, And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard it.

[0:11] And his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them, that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses.

[0:21] And when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Tabera, because the fire of the Lord burnt among them.

[0:33] And the mixed multitude that was among them fell alusting, and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

[0:43] We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away.

[0:54] There is nothing at all beside this man before our eyes. And the manna was as quarry under seed, and the color thereof was the color of peddellium.

[1:04] And the people went about, and gathered it, and grounded in mills, were beaten in mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was as the taste of fresh old.

[1:17] And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families. Every man in the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly.

[1:30] Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted, thy servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy side?

[1:41] That thou laest the burden of all this people upon me. Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father, beareth the sucking child, under the land which thou swearest, under their fathers?

[2:00] Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

[2:14] And if thou dealeth thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy side, and let me not see my wretchedness.

[2:24] And we'll stop reading right there. It's peculiar scripture that we read here in the Old Testament. Now a lot of people look at the book of Numbers and think that that's all it is.

[2:38] It's God numbering his people and things along those lines. Folks, there's a lot of good stuff in the book of Numbers. And this is one of the things that we find in here.

[2:50] We find these Israelites that began complaining about what? Well, if you read here in the scripture, it talks about a mixed multitude.

[3:04] It says there was a mixed multitude that was among them, and the mixed multitude that was among them fell lust in, and the children of Israel also wept again.

[3:15] So we've got two different groups of people here. We have a mixed multitude, and we have the children of Israel. We have the Israelites themselves. Where did this mixed multitude come from?

[3:26] If God had just delivered the Israelites out of Egypt on their way toward the Promised Land, well, if you turn to Exodus chapter 12, you find that there were 600,000 Israelites, Israelite men beside children that God brought up out of Egypt, and the very next verse in Exodus 12 says, and there was a mixed multitude that went out with them.

[3:50] This mixed multitude would have been Egyptians, there would have been foreigners, there wouldn't have been people of the Jewish race that went out with them.

[4:00] Who started complaining first here? It was the mixed multitude. It says the mixed multitude are the ones that went on lusting, and the children of Israel began to cry after they saw what the mixed multitude were doing.

[4:14] They followed suit with the mixed multitude. Folks, if we're not careful, it's the church of God, and we hang out with the wrong people, and the wrong crowds, and the wrong places.

[4:26] We listen to the wrong things, the wrong music, the wrong preachers and teachers. We will fall in line just as these Israelites did here with the mixed multitude.

[4:38] We will fall exactly in line with them. We'll start complaining about the things that God has given us. What did they say here? They said, our souls have become dry.

[4:49] We have nothing except for this manna that has fallen from heaven, this manna that God has given us to sustain us while we're out here in this wilderness, somewhere that we have no food, we have no water, we have no provision.

[5:05] God has provided a way, and we have chosen to complain about that way that God has provided. If we are in careful church, we will fall into the same situation by listening to the wrong people.

[5:21] God help us to not do that. Well, how did it make Moses feel? Did you hear the last couple of verses that we read here?

[5:32] And I'm not able to bear all these people alone because it is too heavy for me. Verse 14 in Numbers chapter 11, he says, I'm not able to bear all these people alone.

[5:43] Folks, it crushed Moses. It crushed his spirit. It crushed everything about him. It crushed him mentally to think that he was going to have to lead this wine and bunch of Jews through the wilderness all the way over to the promised land.

[5:59] And he was going to have to listen to their moaning and listen to their complaining. And it crushed the spirit of this man, Moses, Moses, whom God had called to go into Egypt.

[6:11] Moses, who had stood boldly before Pharaoh and said, I am that I am, has said, let my people go. This is the same Moses that we read here saying, I am unable to bear this mission that you have given to me.

[6:29] And here in the last verse that we read, and if I'll deal this with me, kill me. He says, kill me, I pray thee. Telling God, take my life.

[6:41] Folks, this is how it made Moses feel. It made him, it crushed him so low. It brought him so low. It brought him so low spiritually to listen to these people and to have this burden upon him.

[6:54] It brought him so low he was asking God Almighty to take his own life. To take, he says, just get rid of me, God. Take me out of the picture.

[7:05] If I have been found favoring your side. Hey folks, that's what, that's the way it made Moses feel. He said, he said, word for it, have I not found favor in your side, God?

[7:16] Any time that we get crushed in spirit the same way that Moses has here, how easy is it for us to look at God and say, what have I done wrong?

[7:27] How easy is it for us to look to the heavens and say, God, where did I mess up? Can't you help me correct this thing? I've done it. And chances are you all have too.

[7:39] If you're a born again child of God, every one of us have had that feeling. Now for some reason or another, we haven't found favor in the sight of God. Listen, if we've been saved, we have found favor in the sight of Almighty God.

[7:53] He came to where we was. He saved us out of our sin. He picked us up, set our feet upon the solid rock and established our doings. If that ain't finding favor in the eyes of Almighty God, I don't know what is.

[8:08] Don't let your spirits be crushed to this kind of point. Don't let the world drag you down to where you're thinking like Moses was thinking here. Be careful church.

[8:20] Remember who saved you. Remember who keeps you. And remember the words that the Bible has for us. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

[8:32] And he will never leave us nor forsake us. We don't need to forget these things. We don't need to forget. But how easy it is to forget. How easy it was for Moses to forget what boldness God had given him to go before Pharaoh.

[8:49] How easy it was for not only him, but the rest of these Israelites to forget. It wasn't very long before this occurrence here that they had walked through the Red Sea and the waters were as great walls on either side of it.

[9:05] Folks, how many miracles has God worked in our lives? How many times has God healed? How many people have we seen God save? How many people or how many things have we seen God do?

[9:17] And yet we forget those and we say I must not have favor in the sight of the Lord anymore. Don't let yourself think that way. That's demons whispering in your ear trying to convince you of something that is not so.

[9:32] They're lying to you. But folks, we give them the upper hand. A lot of times we as human beings will give the demons the upper hand.

[9:43] We'll give them the upper hand. We'll tell them what the problem is. We'll let them know through our actions, through our speech, through everything about us. We will let those demons know what gets on our nerves.

[9:55] We'll let them know what discourages us. We'll let them know how to get underneath our skin. What depresses us. What saddens us. And then they go to town on the people of God trying to drag them down to a similar level that Moses was at here.

[10:11] Don't let the world, don't let demons, don't let the devil and don't let yourself get you in that kind of mess. You look at the demons, you tell them to their face, you tell them yourself, you take them back to the place that God saved you.

[10:27] Tell them I'm a child of the most God. Get away from me. And that'll stir them away. Folks don't let yourselves get dragged down what Moses was here.

[10:39] Other people in the scripture, there's all kinds of people in the scripture who were who were crushed spiritually. They were crushed spiritually. Look at Hannah. You look at Hannah.

[10:50] What did Hannah do over in 1 Samuel? Hannah prayed for a child. She prayed for a child. Her womb was closed up. Her womb was closed.

[11:00] She was crushed. But what did she do? She prayed. She prayed to God. And she, before Samuel was ever conceived in her womb, she had already dedicated it to God in that prayer.

[11:16] But she was crushed. But she did not let that stop her from praying to God. How many times have we felt like we were just so down, that we were so out, we were so sad, that we couldn't pray to God?

[11:28] We felt like maybe it wasn't going to do us any good to pray to God because God would have never let us get in the circumstances situation that we were in. Shame on us if we think that way.

[11:40] Hannah wanted a child. Hey, back in a culture where the blessings of God were determined by how many children you had in your family.

[11:50] Hannah wanted a child. She was looked down upon because she was childless. But she prayed to God. Even with the crushed spirit, she prayed to God.

[12:01] And what did God do that came through for her? God came through for Moses here. God came, if you continue reading, you pick up a verse 16 and continue reading. God came up with a plan for Moses.

[12:11] Moses said, I can't bear this people. I can't bear this burden that you have placed upon me. What did God tell? He said, you choose out 70 elders out of the tribes of Israel. You choose you out 70 men out of each tribe to help you.

[12:25] Choose you, these elders to help you along the way. Hey, if they can't carry the entire load for you, maybe they can take one or two bricks off your back, at least make it a little bit easier for you.

[12:38] Moses was a leader of Israel. Moses was a priest towards Israel. Moses was a pastor to Israel. Moses was the one having to take care of all these matters.

[12:49] So God said, choose you out these elders. They can handle the small matters and the Israelite can bring the larger matters. On to you.

[13:00] That was God's plan. What Moses told God, what was on his heart. And I'm sure God knew just how crushed Moses was. So he gives some help to Moses.

[13:11] He said, you choose you out these elders. They can handle the small stuff, the tiny stuff. Folks, that's exactly how the church is made today. That's exactly how the church is today. You read over in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 6.

[13:24] That's where it says, where the disciples, the ones preaching the word. They said, you need to choose seven men, seven men to do what?

[13:36] Wait. Their job was to wait the tables. Their job was to handle the smaller matters. And it was the preacher's job to concentrate on the word and to concentrate on the praise.

[13:47] Folks, it's the pastor's job to do that and to spiritually lead. It's the dicken's job to lead as well. But they handle the smaller matters within the church.

[13:58] God started that way over here in the book of Numbers, when he give Moses the help that he had. When he told Moses to choose those elders and they could help him out.

[14:09] That was God's plan. That was God's answer to Moses's complaint. And folks, if it's God's answer, I can guarantee it will be for our good.

[14:21] But what happened with Hannah? She wound up with a child. She wound up giving birth to Samuel. And when Samuel was weaned, she took him, just like she said, she took him for the service of the Lord.

[14:34] Remember, she had dedicated that baby to God before he was ever conceived in the womb when he was weaned from her. She took him and dedicated him.

[14:45] And she go up once a year to see him after that. Can you imagine that? Did you imagine having a child and only seeing him once a year?

[14:56] Folks, I've seen, I went two months without seeing Isaac. It tore me all to pieces. Ask Missy, she'll verify. Two months I went without seeing that boy.

[15:08] I couldn't hardly sleep. I couldn't rest. I couldn't eat. It was almost like being under conviction from the Lord again before I was saved. But I can't imagine just seeing him once a year.

[15:20] But that's exactly what happened to Hannah. But she felt and but she followed through with her promise to God because God's answer to her prayer was to give her a child.

[15:31] Give her that which she sold after. Give her that was her complaint. That's what was crushing her. I ain't saying that you go to God and you say, God, it's crushing my spirit that I don't have $3 million in my bank account.

[15:44] And you're going to wake up tomorrow morning with $3 million in your check in account. I'm not saying that's how this works. But when we go to God with a broken heart, hey, what does Psalm 34 verse 18 say?

[15:56] It says that God is close to those that are over a broken heart. And he save it those that be of a contract spirit. My God is close to us whenever we have a broken heart.

[16:07] My God is close to us when our heart isn't broken. But God is our comforter. God is the one that'll heal us. God is the one that hears us. God is the one that'll pick us up, love on us, have on us, send us back down and walk with us all the way.

[16:25] That's a promise from the pages of Scripture. Why do we doubt it? Most don't let yourself get in the same shape of Moses was in here. Don't let it happen because there's too many promises and scriptures.

[16:37] And there's too many examples in the scriptures of things that is happening. Why happened to Jonah? Now, I know Jonah ran from what God wanted him to do. I understand that.

[16:47] But when Jonah cried to God from the belly of that fish at the bottom of the sea, what did God do? Hey, he was crushed. He was crushed. His spirit was crushed. He knew he'd messed up.

[16:58] He knew that he had messed up. He knew that he had done wrong. And he crushed his spirit and he cried unto God from the belly of a great fish. God heard that the fish vomited him up on the shores.

[17:12] Jonah went to Nineveh Preach. And there was multitude of people that got saved because of the preaching of one man. God entered his prayer.

[17:24] Well, but when did he pray? He prayed when he was crushed. He prayed when he had that broken heart and God was close to him. Even at the bottom of the sea, God was close to him.

[17:35] I hope he can be close to us. We all know that song, that gospel song. He's the same God on the mountain as he is in the valley and vice versa.

[17:45] And I'm glad that it's that way. I'm glad it ain't just when I'm on top of the world that God's close to me and that God can hear me. I'm glad when I'm down in the valleys, down where it's dark, down where things are hard and things get tough.

[17:59] I'm glad God's there as well. And I'm glad he's the same God there as he is up on the mountain tops. I'm glad that I've got a God that is with me anywhere I go.

[18:10] He can hear me anywhere that I go, whether I'm in a good mood, whether I'm in a bad mood, whether I'm offering him praise, or whether I'm asking him for help.

[18:20] My God can hear my voice. Folks, don't let yourselves get crushed this far in your spirit to where you wonder if you still got favor with God. I can assure you if you've been born again, you have got favor with God.

[18:37] That's what it means to be the elect. That's what it means to be saved. We've been reconciled. We've been reconciled, but to God before salvation, we were not reconciled.

[18:49] We were not, and God would not acknowledge our prayers. God would not hear our prayers. It didn't matter how low we got before we were saved. The only prayer God would hear would be a prayer of repentance and a prayer under the throne room of God for salvation.

[19:05] But outside of that, God would not hear any of our prayers. Folks, we have no reason to get this low, to get this sad, to get this upset over things when we have a God that has promised that he will be with us.

[19:21] And we've felt him so many times. I have, if you're saved, you should have him if we felt his presence, if we know he's been with us, if he's been with us through death, if he's been with us through sickness, if he's been through with us through hard times, through financial problems, through health problems, through family problems, through all these things.

[19:46] And we know God has been with us. I promise you he will be with you every step of the way. If he was with you yesterday, I promise he's with you today and he'll be with you tomorrow and the next day and the next week.

[20:00] Praise God, that's the God that I serve. Don't let ourselves get this low. But remember what caused it. Remember what caused it.

[20:11] These Israelites, they listened to the mixed multitude. Folks, I don't care how long we've been saved, how long you've been saved or I've been saved. I was saved 12 years yesterday.

[20:23] Yesterday, yesterday in the house of God, I was a 12 year old adolescent boy. But it don't matter how long we're saved. If we get in the habits of listening to the wrong voice, listening to the wrong people, listening to the wrong doctrines, and the wrong anything, we get in those habits.

[20:46] Folks, it will wear on us. It'll chip away a little bit and everything that we have in our walk with God. I ain't saying God's going to forsake you.

[20:58] I'm saying that you won't be as close to God. You won't have as close of a relationship with God if we're listening to things that are false, if we're listening to things that are evil, if we're hanging out with the wrong crowds and these other things.

[21:13] I'm not saying God will kick you to the side and leave you there. I'm saying you will not have the relationship with God that He intended for you to have.

[21:24] Just like Adam and Eve, God didn't just forsake them in the garden, did He? No. He came right to where that was at. Said He was right there in the garden in the cool of the day, calling out for Adam.

[21:36] He didn't just say I'm done with him and burn up the world and start all over with a new creation. No. He didn't do that to Adam. Folks, He ain't going to do that to me either.

[21:47] But what did it do? God, Adam cast out of the garden. It caused toll to come on Adam. Adam had to work the rest of the days of his life.

[21:58] Eve, she was told she would bury children and all the women would bury children. Folks, bad things come of that, but God did not completely forsake them.

[22:10] God still made a way for them. God, that's when God made the promise that there would be a seed coming from the woman and that that seed would crush the head of the serpent.

[22:20] Said our translation of the Bible says it would bruise the head of the serpent. Either way, that seed was promised that. That's why Eve, when she had her first young and over there when she had came, she thought that was the promised one.

[22:37] She thought that that was the seed. That's why she named him what she did. She said the Lord has given me a man. She thought he was the promised seed, not knowing that there was a Messiah promised far into the future named Jesus Christ.

[22:52] That would be the one to crush the head of the serpent. But folks, in scripture, don't tell us. We don't have an inscription at all, but I don't read where Adam got real low.

[23:06] I don't read where Eve got real low. I don't have those accounts. I don't know how they felt, but regardless, regardless, I fully intend to see Adam and Eve in heaven.

[23:17] I fully intend to see them there. I fully expect to see them there. God did not forsake them. But once again, folks, I'm encouraging you to not let yourself get dragged down by this world.

[23:34] Don't let yourself get dragged down by this mixed multitude. Churches are full of mixed multitudes. Churches are full of people. And it seems to be this way at every church, you've got to save people and the lost people are right there with them.

[23:50] There's a mixed multitude. The saved people should be the one shining his last for those that which are lost, for those which are not born again, to have not Jesus Christ as their Savior.

[24:02] We are the ones that Jesus called to be salt and light in this world. A salt that Jesus Christ called us to be. It's a preservative, is it not?

[24:14] It's to preserve things. It's always used to preserve meat. It could be used to keep that which was good from decaying. It couldn't do anything for that which was already decaying.

[24:26] That which was already rotten. But that which still had some life in it, still had some use of it. It could do something to preserve that. That's our job, we're to be salt in this world.

[24:38] Not to mention salt used for flavoring. Is it not? Did you imagine a world without salt? You imagine how some food would taste without salt? You know how your taters would taste without salt.

[24:51] I can't imagine how vegetables would taste without it. It'd be horrible. It would. Folks, Jesus called us to be salt. I think that his main intention of that was that we were to be a preservative.

[25:06] We were to preserve that which was left. But it also adds flavor to things. It adds flavor to things. Didn't nobody want to blend stuff?

[25:16] Didn't nobody really care for that? You ever stuck something in your mouth and it tastes like you was chewing on cardboard? I have. It ain't no good, don't matter. But you add some salt to them things, some of the cheaper stuff.

[25:30] And it ain't too awful bad to eat. You can actually stomach it for a little while. When we are called to be salt and we are called to be light, Jesus said, ye are the salt of the earth.

[25:42] Folks, that ain't a mouth, that ain't a maybe, that ain't an if. Jesus said that if we're his disciples and he has saved us, we are the salt of the earth.

[25:53] And he's called us to be the light. Jesus said that while he was here, he was the light. But he said, now ye are the lights of the world. We are the lights of the world.

[26:04] And folks, if we're not shining our light, if we're hiding it under the bushel, hiding it under the bed, shine on us as Christians. That's not our job. We're to illuminate everything that's around us.

[26:19] Back to those valleys I was talking about earlier. The valleys are always darker. Why is that? What is a valley? A valley is something that's wedged between two big mountains. You got shadows coming in from either side.

[26:31] Don't matter if the sun's over here or if the sun's over here, you're going to have a shadow cast across that valley. That's why these places, these hollers that we know of around here, they're all wedged between two big hills.

[26:45] You know, they're places where you ain't got daylight but two hours in the day. But there's got to be light there somehow, some way. And if God's got us down in a valley, he's got us there for a reason.

[26:56] He don't just put us there to see what we'll do. He don't just put us there for his own entertainment. He puts us there as a purpose. And maybe that purpose is that we can bring some light into that valley that he has set us on, regardless of what the valley is, whether it's personal for you, whether it's for a family member or a co-worker, whoever it might be.

[27:20] Folks, God puts us in valleys to be alive under that valley, to shine a light in the darkness. Jesus Christ is that light and we reflect that light.

[27:31] My Bible says that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. We are not to be, we're not to whine when we're down on the valley.

[27:43] And how many of us do that? I do, you do, everyone of us will do. Well, why not these Israelites did? Why is that? Because that's what we've learned.

[27:57] That's what we've learned that we're supposed to do. I'll challenge you. I'll challenge you. Wake up tomorrow morning and go throughout the day without complaining about anything.

[28:10] Without complaining about anything. And when you complain about something, and I didn't say when, you write it down, write down the time and see how long it took you to complain about something. Everyone of us will do it.

[28:22] I'll do it and you'll do it. Everyone of us will complain about something. It'll either be too cold, it'll be too warm, the coffee won't be ready, work's gonna stink.

[28:34] We'll have all kind of, we'll have something to complain about. Something, I've tried it. I've tried it and I have yet to complete it. I have yet to make it to lunchtime without complaining about something.

[28:46] But I've even tried not to do that and just see how far throughout the day, how far throughout the morning I can go without complaining. I don't make it very far and I'll complain about something.

[28:57] Everyone of us will, why is that? Because we've been conditioned to do that. These Israelites were conditioned to do that by this mixed multitude that was hanging out with them.

[29:07] These people that were not God's chosen, that came up out of Egypt with them. These people that were not the elect, these people that just happened to be traveling right along with them.

[29:18] Oh, I don't know, I don't know if they just didn't like Pharaoh. They wanted to get away from him. I don't know if it's, I don't know the exact story behind it. All I know is the Bible causes a mixed multitude that came up out of Egypt with the Israelites.

[29:34] But they were the ones that influenced them. Folks, the world has influenced us as Christians. We as Christians should have no complaints. No complaints, but we do.

[29:45] And I'm guilty. I'm not saying anything to you that I'm not saying to myself. We should have no complaints. Why? Because we have a better home to go to. We got something that the world does not.

[29:57] We got something that the unsaved does not. We have salvation. We've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And folks, if tomorrow I die and that's the worst thing that happens to me, then God bless tomorrow.

[30:10] Let it come. But I'll wake up in the morning and I'll complain just like I always do. Shame on me for doing that. Shame on me for doing it. And shame on me for being conditioned by the world to do that.

[30:25] We as Christians should condition each one another to not do such things. We should condition each other. We should encourage one another to not complain, to not whine, to not moan in the murmur and groan like these Israelites did.

[30:43] Did you read in the scriptures what we were reading there in Numbers 11? They were complaining over the provision that God had given them. What has God given us? He's given us salvation.

[30:54] He's given us a promise of a better home and a better land and a better time. And not only that, He's given that promise to us and that promise is forever.

[31:04] God has promised that to us, yet we walk through this life and we daily complain. We complain about a life that God has allowed us to live.

[31:15] God has allowed me to have a wife. God's allowed me to have boys. God's allowed me to have a grandson. He's allowed me a house. He's allowed me food. He's allowed me all kinds of things.

[31:26] And I complain about the things that God has allowed. He's allowed me a job and the ability and the mentality to perform that job. He's allowed all these things. And I complain about going to work.

[31:38] Shame on me. Shame on me when God has provided that for me. Don't let the world drag you down. Don't let a mixed multitude drag you down.

[31:49] You remember to whom you belong. Remember that you are a child of God. You're a child of the King. Over there in the Bible, Peter says that we're kings and priests, does he not?

[32:02] What does Jesus as Vester say over in Revelation 19? He says, King of kings and Lord of lords. I'm a king, according to Peter, but he's my king.

[32:13] He's king of kings, is he not? And he's Lord of lords. And Peter said that we are kings and priests. And this walk a lot. Those of us which are saved are kings and priests.

[32:25] So if he's king of kings, he is my king. I belong to him. And folks, I should not be complaining about the life that I have. About any aspect of the life that I have.

[32:37] Because God has promised me a better life sometime in the future. All I need to do down here, all I have to do is endure for just a little while. You look at the man Job over in the scriptures.

[32:50] The man had everything that he owned taken away from him. Had his children taken away from him. Had all his livestock taken away from him. Everything.

[33:00] And then sickness, the bulls came on him. Everything had been taken away from Job. But yet he did not lose his faith in God. He did not blame God.

[33:11] He did not murmur. But yet Job cursed the day that he was born. I mean, I must have done that. I mean, I must have said, not good.

[33:22] I wish I had never been born. The Bible says Job cursed the day that he was born. If I had bulls from the top of my head to the sole of my feet.

[33:33] And my entire family was taken away from me. I can't stand here and tell you I wouldn't have the same reaction. I can't stand here and tell you I wouldn't say something similar.

[33:43] Cursed the day that I was born. But what else did Job say? He said, the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

[33:53] He may have cursed the day that he was born. But he also knew who gave him what he had. And he also knew to bless the Lord for that. He knew to bless the name of the Lord for the children that he had had, that he had known.

[34:08] Those same children that were taken away. He knew to bless the Lord for that. There's all kinds of examples that we could use in Scripture. Other than Moses here and other than Job.

[34:19] We could use David. We could use some of the New Testament people. We could use Paul. You think Paul would never crush spiritually? You think that his spirit was never crushed down knowing that he was shipwrecked?

[34:34] Knowing that he was whipped? Knowing that he was imprisoned for doing nothing more than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ? The man suffered all these things.

[34:45] You think that his spirit was never crushed and he was never down? And he was never said? I guarantee you the man was. But he knew who to turn to to fix that.

[34:55] He don't take my word for it. Read the fourth chapter of Philippians sometime. You'll see that Paul said, I've learned whatsoever state I'm in there with to be content.

[35:06] He was content in whatever state that he was in. Whether he was doing good or whether he was doing bad. Whether he was free or whether he was imprisoned. He wrote that letter from a prison cell and yet he said he was content.

[35:21] Folks, I was dead in my trespasses and sin when Christ came to me. I should rejoice over that. Every day and that rejoicing should cause me to never, ever, ever complain about anything.

[35:38] But it won't. It doesn't because we lose sight of it. Just like these Israelite, just like Moses, they lost, they lost sight.

[35:50] They didn't recall the miracles that God had performed. They done forgot about all the plagues that God had brought on Egypt. And it wasn't too far before this that that happened.

[36:01] But they've forgotten about the plagues. They've forgotten about the river turning the blood, the plague of frogs, the plague of lies, the plague of flies, the plague of darkness, all these plagues and the plague of the death of the firstborn that came.

[36:14] They had forgotten these things and they were whining about what God had provided for them. Oh, we got to be careful. Because God, God didn't put up with with the two off alone from the Israelites.

[36:31] You read just a little bit further over in numbers. When they send those 12 spies over into the Promised Land, they get right to the edge of the Promised Land, right to the very edge of it.

[36:44] And they're trying to make their plans to go in and they send over the spies, one one spy from each tribe of Israel. And those 12 spies went over there.

[36:54] They spent 40 days over there in the Promised Land. What's that number 40 in biblical numerology? That's the number of trial. That's the number of trial and temptation.

[37:04] They spent 40 days over there in the Promised Land. They got the grapes, they brought them back. They put grapes on staves that had to be held by two men to carry them back over the river to where the rest of the Israelites were, to where the rest of the Jews were.

[37:23] And they carried them over there and they said, hey, this land's great. It's flowing with milk and honey. Look at these grapes that we brought back. Look at the pomegranates that we brought back. But unfortunately, the sons of Anarcha are over there as well.

[37:35] And we were as grasshoppers in their side, talking about these big giants that lived in the land at the time. Most of those were Canaanites. Those weren't God's people that were over there. God had done promise deliverance.

[37:47] He done promised the Promised Land. He done made, He done made covenant with Abraham to deliver it into the hands of his seed. And 10 of the 12 spies went against entering into God's promise.

[38:02] Why? Because of the world that they'd seen over there. Because it influenced them. Only Joshua and Caleb. Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephuma.

[38:16] Only those two were allowed to go into the Promised Land. What did God say? Do you have tempted me these 10 times? These 10 times these Jews have tempted me, these Israelites have tempted me, and they will not enter into the Promised Land.

[38:31] I will not let them go in other than Joshua and Caleb. Folks, I ain't telling you God's going to keep you out of heaven for being sad or being depressed.

[38:43] Or whatever the case is, hey, it happens to all of us. I'm saying that I'm persuaded I'm going to see Moses in heaven. Moses never entered the Promised Land either. But I can promise you that the man's going to be there.

[38:57] But God has retribution lined up. God will chastise those which are his own. He told those Israelites after they attempted him those 10 times. He said, you will not enter your carcasses.

[39:10] We'll rot out here in this wilderness. And they didn't enter in. Those that were 20 years and younger, they got to go in. And somehow, somehow the modern day churches decide that the age of 20 is the age of accountability.

[39:26] I don't think so. But they get that from that very scripture. God said, those that are 20 years and younger, they'll be fine. But those that are older, those that know better, that's what he was saying.

[39:40] The elders of Israel said, those will not enter in. The cause of what? The cause of their unbelief. The cause of their unbelief and what God had promised. They would not enter into that land.

[39:53] Folks, that was chastisement. That's why they wandered around for 40 years. But yet God provided for them while they were doing it. He didn't just forsake them.

[40:04] The Bible says that their garments didn't wax old. Or in other words, rot. They didn't, their garments didn't decay, fall off of them.

[40:14] And it says that their feet swelled not. God took care of his people. God didn't just forsake them out there in the wilderness. He just told them, you ain't getting into the promised land. God didn't forsake Moses.

[40:25] He let Moses climb up to the top of that mountain. But Moses looked over in there off a mountaineer boat. Moses looked over in the promised land. He saw the areas. He saw who was going to get what when they got over there.

[40:37] God pointed things out to him. And Moses died on that mountain. And God took him and buried him according to the scriptures. God himself buried the man Moses. He did not forsake Moses.

[40:48] But Moses had gone against God. Moses had gone against him in a fit of rage because of the Israelites. He was mad at them. But Moses let that get to him.

[40:59] And he struck a rock instead of speaking to it. And God told him then that he wasn't going to enter in. But God didn't forsake him. No more he forsaked the Israelites, wandered around the wilderness for 40 years.

[41:13] He does not forsake his people. But folks, he will chastise us. He will take care of that which is his own.

[41:23] And disciplinary measures will say he will chastise us. And I thank God that he does that. But folks, again, don't let the mixed multitude get you down.