(Numbers 20:7-12) The Lord spoke to Moses, 8 “Take the staff and assemble the community. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will yield its water. You will bring out water for them from the rock and provide drink for the community and their livestock.” 9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as he had commanded him. 10 Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?” 11 Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that abundant water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. 12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me to demonstrate my holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”
1. Our identity is
when our trust is
.
2. When our lives
we can
in despair or allow God to pick up the pieces.
(Numbers 20:12) But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me to demonstrate my holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”
(Numbers 21:7b) And Moses interceded for the people.
(Romans 5:3-4) And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
3. Our identity is refined when
we follow takes precedence over what we
.
(Deuteronomy 6:5) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
(1 Peter 5:10) The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,[a] will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.
4.
in our failing allows God to forge our
.
(Deuteronomy 34:5-6) So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the Lord’s word. 6 He buried him[b] in the valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day knows where his grave is.
(Luke 9:23) And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.