Rev. David Holwick Z Make It Count, #7
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 14, 2011
Numbers 11:4-9,18-23,31-34
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I. Is anybody ever satisfied?
A. What it was probably like for Jesus.
In the movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian," Brian is a local
Jew living at the same time as Jesus.
Brian and his mother are walking through town and get hit up by
a beggar.
"Alms for an ex-leper. Alms for an ex-leper, please."
And Brian says, "What do you mean, an ex-leper?"
And the leper says, "Well, I was cured."
"Who cured you?" Brian asks.
And the leper says, "That Jesus fellow."
The ex-leper continued: "Now I have a hard time making a living
- all I've ever known how to do is beg."
And Brian says, "Well, why don't you go back and ask him to
make you a leper again?"
And the leper says, "Well, I might not like that.
Maybe he could just make me a leper during working hours or
something."
So Brian just sighs, drops a coin into his cup and walks away.
And the ex-leper looks into his cup and says, "A half a
denarius!
Look at this - he only gives me a half a denarius!"
And Brian says, "Some people are never satisfied."
To which the leper replies, "That's just what Jesus said!"
#25792
B. We live in an age of discontent.
1) In California's Silicon Valley, 51-year-old Hal Steiger
has a $1.3 million dollar house on a bluff overlooking
the Pacific Ocean.
There is no mortgage - he paid it off.
He and his wife have $2 million in the bank.
They are in the top two percent of all Americans.
But he isn't satisfied.
Most mornings, he can be found at his desk by 7.
He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours
over the weekend.
He says, "A few million doesn't go as far as it used to."
#34768
2) You are probably thinking, I'll trade places with Hal.
But do you realize how good YOU have it?
The average Westerner lives better than 99.4 percent of all
the human beings who have ever lived.
Life expectancy has nearly doubled in the past century and
continues to increase.
Real per-capita income has doubled since 1960.
But even that understates the rise in income, since the
price of food and many durable goods keeps falling.
In the period following World War II, the average new
American home was 1,100 square feet; today it's 2,300.
For most of our history, the average home had one room for
every two people.
Today there are two rooms for every one person.
By any measure of affluence - health care, leisure,
technology - the average American enjoys a quality of life
beyond anyone's wildest dreams even a few decades ago.
We have more of everything except, of course, happiness.
The percentage of Americans who characterize themselves as
"happy" hasn't changed since the 1950s.
The percentage of those describing themselves as "very happy"
is actually declining.
And one out of four Americans and Europeans suffer from
bouts of depression.
#27000
C. We are all like the leper.
1) God has given us many good things.
2) But all our minds can focus on is what we don't have.
3) Is it possible to be positive and contented?
II. The Israelites couldn't give up complaining.
A. Even fire couldn't cure them.
1) In the first three verses of this chapter, the people
are griping about how hard their lives are.
2) Fire breaks out and kills some of them.
a) It is from God himself.
b) The people react by asking God for help, and the fire
dies down.
B. They complain all over again.
1) It starts with "the rabble."
a) This could have been Egyptians who had tagged along
at the Exodus.
b) Or, they could have been discontented Israelites.
c) Whatever their origin, they soon infected the whole
nation.
1> Discontentment does that pretty easily.
2) They complain about the food.
a) Notice that they are not complaining about a lack of
food.
b) They are in a vast wilderness and yet God is providing
them with manna every morning.
c) They are complaining about how boring it is.
3) Egypt is looking better and better.
a) There, they had meat (at least fish) and a variety of
vegetables.
b) What they conveniently forget is how they were abused
in Egypt.
C. Memory is a selective thing.
1) Back in the 1930's, government researchers did interviews
with former slaves. [1]
It is interesting that for many of them, they thought their
current situation was worse than being a slave.
Of course, it was the decade of the Depression and a hard
time to be poor.
But wouldn't it be worse to be poor and getting beaten
every day?
2) One way to deal with discontentment is train your memory.
a) Don't forget the hardships of the past.
1> It is important to keep a balanced perspective.
b) Temper your troubles with the joys of the present.
1> This is why you should give thanks for each meal.
III. Acknowledge the basics.
A. Manna may have been boring, but it sustained them.
1) It was amazing stuff, arriving with the dew.
2) We can only speculate on what it was.
3) The important thing is that it kept them alive.
B. Focus on your daily bread.
1) Jesus promises us the basics in this life.
2) He doesn't promise that you will win the lottery or have
an easy, carefree life.
3) It is natural to want more, but learn to be content with
what is sufficient.
IV. Acknowledge the Lord.
A. God promises the Israelites meat. 11:18
1) Not a little, but a lot.
2) They would get so much meat for a month that they would
be sicker of it than they were of manna.
a) I like the expression "until it comes out of your
nostrils." Yuck!
b) It would be an object lesson on why they shouldn't
question God's grace.
B. Even Moses didn't quite get it. 11:21
1) His only thought is, where is all this meat going to come
from?
a) He was probably thinking God would promise it, but
Moses would have to produce it.
b) The disciples of Jesus had the same response when they
faced a hungry multitude in a desolate place.
2) God can do it.
a) He doesn't have a "short arm." 11:23
1> Jesus answered his disciples with the miracle of the
multiplied loaves.
2> Here, God answers with quail.
b) Like many Bible miracles, this one tweaks nature.
1> Bird migrations are still plentiful in Africa and
the Middle East, with the destination in Europe.
2> Notice that a wind blows them off course. 11:31
A> They thickly cover the land.
B> The Roman historian Pliny saw low-flying quail
fill a boat and sink it.
V. Watch the greed.
A. The people got what they wanted, and more. 11:32
1) They each gathered up to 10 homers - 100 bushels.
2) Think of how many peaches we had at our festival yesterday.
a) Five bushels?
b) Imagine this number of quail!
3) Their eyes were definitely bigger than their stomachs.
a) Disaster resulted, with lots of casualties.
b) The language suggests food poisoning.
B. Are you satisfied with what you have, now?
1) Don't become enslaved by the "if onlys".
2) It is appropriate to "bring your requests to your heavenly
Father" but perhaps you should refine your requests.
3) A spirit of contentment is better than more stuff, or
better stuff.
C. Do you have what you really need?
1) The Israelites took their most valuable possession for
granted.
2) They were personally led by God and provided for by him.
3) Yet they spit in his face. Are you doing the same thing?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology,
<”http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html>
#25792 “Some People Are Never Satisfied,” Brett Blair, Rev. Brett Blair's
Illustrations by Email, <www.sermonillustrations.com>, October
2003, adapted from The Catholic Apologetics Network.
#27000 “Miserable In the Midst of Plenty: The Progress Paradox,” by
Charles Colson, BreakPoint Commentary, August 24, 2004.
#34768 “How Much Is Enough?” by Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., President of
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, August 7, 2007,
<http://www.albertmohler.com>
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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