Deserts | Week 4 | Sermon · Rewind

Deserts | Week 4 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Mar 18, 2024

Big Idea

Quoting the message: The gospel doesn't have to make sense to make a difference, end quote. — it just requires that we look up and believe.

The hope of the gospel is that God has already provided the cure for what's killing us, even when His way of doing it doesn't fit our logic. Like Israel looking at the bronze snake, or Nicodemus needing to be born again, we're invited to trust and act on what God says even before we fully understand it, and find true life on the other side.

Key points

1
1God sometimes asks us to take steps that don't make sense to us
Pastor Daniel opens with a story about assembling IKEA cabinets without understanding the process, drawing the parallel that we don't have to understand every step to trust the designer behind it. He applies this to Numbers 21, where Israel is told to take a long, illogical detour around Edom instead of conquering it like they did the Canaanites.
2
2Israel's complaining reveals a tendency to treat God like a vending machine
When the journey takes longer than expected, the people speak against God and Moses, complaining again about manna. Pastor Daniel says this reflects a temptation to expect God to perform predictably, like pressing a button on a Coke machine, and getting frustrated when He doesn't.
3
3God sends poisonous snakes as a painful but loving course correction
Pastor Daniel wrestles with why a loving God would send fiery snakes to bite the complaining people, explaining that God is also holy and omniscient, orchestrating something Israel couldn't see — the eventual coming of the Messiah through their lineage. Sometimes a good father changes tactics when gentle words stop working.
4
4God doesn't remove the problem but provides a solution that requires action
After the people repent, God doesn't take away the snakes but tells Moses to make a bronze snake on a pole — anyone bitten who looks at it will live. Pastor Daniel notes this seems bizarre but was effective, foreshadowing something bigger.
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5Nicodemus illustrates the danger of putting Jesus into a box our logic can handle
Pastor Daniel walks through John 3, showing how Nicodemus, the most religious and respected man of his day, approaches Jesus with pleasantries and calls Him merely a good teacher sent by God. Jesus tells him he must be born again, and Nicodemus stumbles because the idea doesn't fit his logic and reasoning.
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6Jesus connects Numbers 21 to the cross, showing the bronze snake was a foreshadowing of Him being lifted up
Jesus tells Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. Pastor Daniel shows this sets up John 3:16 and reveals the whole story in Numbers was a cosmic setup pointing to the gospel.
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7True belief is active, not just intellectual agreement
Pastor Daniel explains that the Greek word for believe in John's gospel means trusting your full weight on something, like actually stepping onto a bridge rather than just agreeing it could hold you. He contrasts this with a modern churchgoing crowd that intellectually agrees with Jesus but never actually surrenders as a disciple.

Application

Pastor Daniel's invitation is to stop treating God like a cosmic Coke machine and actually look up and believe.

Trust obedience you don't fully understand
When God asks you to take a step, like Israel's detour around Edom, take it even if it doesn't fit your logic or your ten-year plan.
Stop complaining and course-correct
Instead of grumbling when the journey is longer or harder than expected, bring your frustration to God honestly and let Him redirect you.
Look up at the cure instead of just agreeing with it
Don't just intellectually agree that Jesus is the answer; actually respond to Him the way the Israelites had to physically look at the bronze snake to be healed.
Be born again, not just religious
Whether you're a Nicodemus-type striving to be good enough or someone who feels far from God, the same invitation applies: surrender your life and let the Holy Spirit make you new.
Let belief become action this week
Put your full weight on Jesus like stepping onto a bridge — let your life during the week actually look different, not just your Sunday agreement.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“this is how the story begins in Numbers chapter 21 verse four. It says, Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom”
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From the transcript
“Gangster verse, verse six. So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people and they were bitten and died”
From the transcript
“So I wanna show you kind of the solution, what this whole thing in Numbers 21 is about, what the snakes in the wilderness is really about. But you gotta flip your Bibles over to John chapter three”
From the transcript
“I wanna read a couple verses at the end of chapter two before we read the story in chapter three. Look at how chapter two ends in the gospel of John”
From the transcript
“many people began to trust in him. Verse 24 says, but Jesus didn't trust them because he knew all about people”
From the transcript
“For example, John chapter three verse one. There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee”
From the transcript
“Verse three, Jesus replies to Nicodemus, I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God”
From the transcript
“Verse four, Nicodemus says, what do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again”
From the transcript
“Verse eight, it says, The wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can hear this wind, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going. So you can't explain how people are born of the spirit”
From the transcript
“Verse nine, how are these things possible? How does this fit into my logic, into my reasoning? How do I make sense of this”
From the transcript
“Verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life”
From the transcript
“Verse 16, For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”
From the transcript
“we don't see the first Gentile convert, the first non Jew to give their life to Jesus until the very next chapter, John chapter four. Remember the woman at the well”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1

The Israelites had seen God do extraordinary things — plagues, a parted sea, bread from the sky — and yet here they are, exhausted and frustrated, asking why God brought them out into the wilderness to die. It's a raw, honest moment. And if we're truthful, it's not hard to recognize ourselves in it. When the road gets long and the direction feels unclear, impatience comes naturally. The sermon opened here for a reason: the wilderness is not a sign that God has abandoned you. It may simply be the route. Pastor Daniel noted that their complaining didn't change their circumstances — it prolonged their journey. That's worth sitting with. Not as a guilt trip, but as an honest question about what our response to hard seasons actually costs us. God was present in that desert. He was moving toward something. The Israelites just couldn't see the shape of it yet. That tension — trusting a God whose plan doesn't always fit our timeline or our logic — is exactly where this week's reflection begins. Before we can appreciate the cure, we have to feel the bite. And before we can look up, we have to admit we've been looking everywhere else.

For reflection

Is there a season or circumstance in your life right now where frustration with God's timing might be keeping you from trusting His direction?

Pray

Pray for honest awareness of where impatience or complaint might be replacing trust in your life right now.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message takes us from a strange scene in the wilderness — poisonous snakes and a bronze idol on a pole — all the way to the cross, and asks a simple but weighty question: what does it actually mean to believe?

Discussion questions

1
In Numbers 21:4-9, the Israelites were bitten by snakes after grumbling against God, and the cure God provided was to look at a bronze serpent on a pole. What stands out to you about that cure — and why do you think God might choose a remedy that doesn't follow obvious logic?
2
In John 3:14-16, Jesus draws a direct line between the lifted-up bronze serpent and His own being lifted up on the cross. What does that connection tell us about how God's redemptive plan was unfolding long before the first century?
3
Nicodemus was a religious leader who clearly respected Jesus, yet Jesus tells him in John 3:3 that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again. What do you think Jesus is getting at — why wouldn't religious knowledge and moral effort be enough?
4
Pastor Daniel described the difference between admiring a bridge and actually stepping onto it as a picture of the difference between intellectual agreement and genuine, weight-bearing trust. How does that distinction change the way we might think about what it means to believe in Jesus?
5
Pastor Daniel used the image of a "cosmic Coke machine" — the idea of relating to God mainly by expecting Him to perform on our terms and in ways we understand. What does that posture miss about who God is and how He works, based on what this message covered?
6
The message described two movements: Jesus being physically lifted on the cross, and Jesus being exalted as Lord in a person's heart. How might a community of people look different when both of those realities are taken seriously together?

Pray together

Ask God for the grace to look up — to move from knowing about Jesus to trusting Him fully, and for anyone still in the in-between to take the next step toward Him

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Topics

Born Again Faith vs. Intellect Surrender to Christ The Cross Trust in God's Plan

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