Fear is a powerful force.  It can grow inside of us and cause us to turn away from what is right.  It can spread from us to others.  It can wear us down and lead us astray.  This sermon looks at Numbers chapters 13 and 14 where God's people face a difficult choice.  They must choose whether to respond out of fear or out of faith.  Most of them respond in fear and ultimately rebel against God.  We face choices daily and must decide if we will respond out of fear or out of faith.  This sermon is called "Fear and Faith" and part of the " Are We There Yet? Glory, Grace and Grumbling in the Book of Numbers" sermon series.  Take some time to read Numbers chapters 13 and 14 and ask God to challenge you in ways that you are living in fear instead of faith.

We are all prone to complaining at times.  Maybe something didn't go the way we thought it should.  Maybe someone lets us down.  The book of Numbers is full of times that God's people complained.  In a sermon called "Grumbling and Complaining," we be look at Numbers chapters 11 and 12.  These chapters are the beginning of the 2nd main section in the book of Numbers.  The Israelites begin to walk through the wilderness again to the promised land.  At the end of chapter 10 it looks like things are going great, but right away in chapter 11 they start complaining.  We see why they complain and we are challenged to look at our own bad attitudes.  At the heart of all complaining is dissatisfaction with God and his goodness.  But the greatest way to fight an attitude of grumbling and complaining is to realize the incredible goodness that we have in Jesus Christ.  I encourage you to read Numbers chapters 11 and 12 in preparation for this sermon.

Sometimes, along the journey of our lives we grow weary.  Sorrows might pile up. Situations can become difficult.  Disappointment seems all too constant.  What do we do when we lack motivation to get out of bed and face the day?  As we continue our "Are We There Yet" sermon series on the book of Numbers, we look at Numbers chapters 9 and 10.  In these two chapters we finish the first section of this book where we see God preparing His people for the rest of their journey to the Promised Land.  In these last two chapters of this first section of the book, God gives them guidance on how to continue their journey.  In a sermon called "Help for Weary Travelers," we look at four important ways where we see God helping His weary people keep going on their long journey.  I encourage you to read Numbers chapters 9 and 10.  

We all have preferences.  For many things this is no problem as it is good for different people to like different things.  We can learn from each other and be stretched in our own preferences.  But what happens when we bring our preferences to worship?  Is one style of worship better than another?  Are there aspects of worship we can have preferences about and others that should be present no matter how people feel about it?  In a sermon called "God's Way of Worship", we look at Numbers chapters 7 and 8.  Here we see that God gave meticulous instructions to the Israelites about how they were to worship Him.  We look at some key themes that help us weigh our preferences against God's instructions for worship. 

This sermon looks at two very difficult chapters in the book of Numbers, chapters 5 and 6, which contain some very difficult to understand laws.  Chapter 6 ends with an amazing blessing God commanded the priests to proclaim over His people.  In a sermon called "The Way of Blessing," we see that God was explaining to His people that their personal choices impacted those around them and were a reflection of their relationship with Him.  Living in God's blessing means living according to God's glory and God's holiness.  I encourage you to read Numbers chapters 5 and 6.  You will probably have a lot of questions and that's OK. Take those to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help you understand how this relates to our relationship with Him today.  Lord willing, we will see how this fits in the big picture of what God is doing in the book of Numbers and what God is still doing today.

The Old Testament is full of rich examples that teach us about ourselves and about God. The Levites are a group of God's people with a unique role and by looking at them we can understand what it means that we belong to God.  We also see that the Levites served an important role in guarding the things of God. This sermon called "Guarding and Belonging" looks at Numbers chapters 3 and 4, as we continue our sermon series, "Are We There Yet? Glory, Grace and Grumbling in the book of Numbers." Take some time to read these chapters.

In our "Are We There Yet?" sermon series on the book of Numbers we are looking at chapter 2.  It is another very simple chapter with a very profound meaning.  In chapter 2 God gives the Israelites instructions on how to arrange their camp in the wilderness so that each tribe knows exactly where to set up their tents.  What is most important about this chapter is that the entire camp is arranged around a center point and at that center is the Tabernacle - the dwelling place of God among His people at that time.  God was teaching His people a profound truth in these simple instructions about how to arrange their camp - He was to be at the very center of everything they did.  This  sermon is called "God at the Center" and looks at why this was so important for the Israelites in the Old Testament and why this is still so important for us today.

I remember sitting in Sunday School as a child and watching the teacher move flannel graph characters on a flannel board to tell the stories of people like Abraham, Moses, or David.  These cartoon-like figures seemed to be part of cartoon-like stories that we were supposed to learn as good Christian children.  As I grew older I learned that these stories had great importance and deep theological meaning.  But they still seemed like stories - or at least they seemed to be about people who were larger than life... people who were not like me at all.  The more I've studied Scripture, though, the more I've realized an important truth - the people in Scripture are just people.  They faced daily fears and doubts.  They made mistakes and lived through the consequences.  The first chapter of the book of Numbers is mostly a list of names and numbers, but, in a sermon called "Living a Life that Counts" we look at what some of these people went through and how they were involved in God's amazing plans and what we can learn about living lives of faith in God's amazing plans.

“Are we there yet?” – This question usually comes about half way through a long road trip in the family car.  Often it comes from the kids in the backseat, but everyone in the car is thinking it.  Long journeys are difficult.  It is hard in the middle of the journey to keep sight of the destination, especially when mile after mile just keeps on looking the same. It is easy to grumble and complain.

The book of Numbers is about a long and very difficult journey as God’s people walk through the wilderness for many years hoping to get to the land God promised them. Along the way they struggle, grumble and complain.  They doubt God’s goodness and often want to go back to where they were before, no matter how awful it was.  Through their times of grumbling, God shows them grace.  He continues to lead them and to provide for them.  Their grumbling has consequences, but God remains faithful to them. And through it all, God’s glorious presence is with them as he fulfills his promise to lead them to the land he will provide for them.

In our new sermon series “Are We There Yet? Glory, Grace and Grumbling in the Book of Numbers" we walk through this great Old Testament book and see ourselves in this story.  We are also on a journey from our old life, to being with God forever.  We have also been saved by God and have His presence with us.  But we are also prone to grumbling and need God’s constant grace.  I pray we will learn about the greatness of God’s glory, as well as his grace toward grumbling people like us.

What's the point?  Have you ever asked that question about anything?  What's the point of our lives?  What's the point of our families?  What's the point of going to work?  What's the point of being involved in church?  Sometimes thinking about these questions leads to despair.  It seems like for all our efforts there is little return.  But what if the point of all these things was bigger?  What if the point of everything was so great that our standards of evaluating our lives, families, jobs, churches, etc., are just too small?  We are taking a look at the powerful truth from Scripture that we have a mission in this world.  We are looking at the mission statement of Orchard Community Church and how this mission applies to each of us.  The mission statement of Orchard is that we exist "to make and become fully devoted followers of Christ through the renewing and transforming power of the gospel for the glory of God."  In a sermon called "Get to the Point" we are looking at this powerful idea that we exist for God's glory and that we accomplish this through the gospel of Jesus Christ.