Intro: COVID at the Hans
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Monday, August 23. I felt weak. Came down with the
cold; body chills, headache, fever.
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Tuesday. Tested positive -> more family members
too.
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The lowly, the sick, the weak
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Mandatory isolation. We were at the mercy of others.
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Felt weak, vulnerable, frustrated, impatient… humiliated.
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Experiences of weakness and dependence and humiliation
were the road to humility.
At the School of
Wilderness
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Purpose 40 Years of Discipline in the Wilderness:
Deut 8:2-3
“Remember the long way
that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in
order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether
or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you
hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your
ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
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"Learning to depend on God”
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Moses’ Life = an abridged version of Israel's
experience
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Somebody: Prince of Egypt
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Nobody: murderer, run away, forgotten shepherd
o
God's body: leader, shepherd of Israel
Somebody: “I Can Do It”
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Default mode: “self-reliant”
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“So if you think you are standing, watch out
that you do not fall.” (v. 12)
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With love,
God drives us out into the school of wilderness –> God humbles us, God tests us
-> We feel we are “nobody”; feel “humiliated” in the wilderness.
Nobody: “I Can't Do It”
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God is faithful!
“No testing has
overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not
let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also
provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (v. 13)
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What testing? What temptation?
(1) Sexual sin (vv.
7-8) - Numbers 25
- God is my joy? Or Baal is my joy?
- Baal: god of wealth, health, happiness in life (sex)
- Israel chose both – God and Baal
- Don’t do that!
“Do not become
idolators as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat
and drink, and they rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality
as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day.” (vv. 7-8)
(2) Sin of Complaining (vv. 9-10) – Numbers 21
- lack of provision (water, food)
“Why have you brought
us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water,
and we detest this miserable food”
- Examples of testing: Lack of wealth and health, Lack of provision, danger from enemies, adversity, hardships -> cancer, illness, loss of job, financial crisis, relational breakdown.
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All temptations
are tests of faith – Don’t give in. Don’t worship both. Don’t grumble. – God is
faithful. God is sovereign.
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Purpose of
testing: humbles us to learn to depend on God, that we can be a God’s body.
“God-reliant”
God's Body: “I Can Do It Through Him”
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Paul’s confession; learned this at the school of
wilderness
“I know how to be humble, and I know how to prosper. In each
and every situation I have learned the secret of being full and of going
hungry, of having too much and of having too little. I can do all things through him
who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:11-13)
“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary
power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” (2 Cor 4:7-10)
At the School of Wilderness
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Like it or not, we are all in the school of
wilderness.
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What/ How are you learning today?
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Ex. My daily reminder – Michael Ramsey,
Archbishop of Canterbury, at ordination service. Humility and Humiliation
1. Thank God, often and always...Thank God,
carefully and wonderingly for your continuing privileges...Thankfulness is a
soil in which pride does not easily grow.
2. Take care about the confession of your sins.
Be sure to criticise yourself in God’s presence: that is your self-examination.
Put yourself under the divine criticism: that is your confession...
3. Be ready to accept humiliations. They
can hurt terribly, but they help you to be humble. There can be the trivial
humiliations. Accept them. There can be the bigger humiliations...All these can
be so many chances to be a little nearer to our humble and crucified Lord...
4. Do not worry about status...There is
only one status that our Lord bids us to be concerned with, and that is the
status of proximity to himself...
5. Use your sense of humour. Laugh about things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh about yourself, and about your own absurdity.
Q. What challenges,
what testing are you facing today?
- Unique challenges and hardships
- universal ones – “ageing” process – becoming a child again
- Ageing can be a
humiliating experience. But it can be an excellent opportunity to learn to be
humble, learn to depend on God.
- Ex. 10 years ago. When Lydia was an infant, I travelled
with my parents. We went to Grand Cannon and Niagara Falls together. (1) My father
carried Lydia on his shoulders. (2) My mother carried Lydia on her back and ran
here and there fast and easily. athletic. Good at every sports. (3) We travelled
all day long, not tired.
- They said something like this. "Now I feel old and
humiliated.” So easily tired. Now Lydia is taller, smarter, faster, stronger, healthier,
better. (translator, helper) I am proud of her. I feel sad and strange.
- My prayer is that in the school of wilderness, when testing
comes, we will not give in, we will not complain. Instead, may we thank God always. May we be ready to accept humiliations. May we learn to depend on God more and more, and
become more like his Son Jesus Christ in every way. Amen.
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