Dharius Daniels - King Me

Here’s the subject of today’s lesson: «King Me.» King me. Family, this particular passage here in Numbers 14 allows us to eavesdrop on one of the most interesting and intriguing exchanges between God and a human that we see in all of Scripture. We’ve seen very interesting exchanges between God and humans in Scripture; we see God, who knows where a man is, asking him, «Where are you?» That’s an interesting exchange! Why is God asking a question He already knows the answer to? That is an interesting exchange. We see Jacob and God wrestling metaphorically, anthropomorphically, and Jacob is saying, and God is saying to Jacob, «Let me go,» and Jacob says, «I will not let you go until you bless me.» And God had the nerve to bless him! That is an interesting exchange. We have Jesus, who is God in the flesh, on the cross, enduring Roman capital punishment in the form of execution, who feels abandoned, and He says these words, «My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?» And the Father said nothing, because sometimes the exchanges are interesting because of what God does say, and in other cases, the exchanges are interesting because He doesn’t say anything. Is there anybody honest enough to admit that there are seasons and circumstances where you just wish God would say something? I mean, would you just give me some sort of explanation? Would you just give me some sort of direction? The Scripture is filled with interesting exchanges, but this exchange, if you do not sanitize the Scriptures, is one of the most interesting exchanges we see in all of the biblical narrative. Because you have God telling a man, «I know I promised this. Come on, I know I made a promise, but these people will not possess what I promised.» That’s interesting! That’s the God who is the ultimate expression of consistency—the God that the writer of Hebrews calls immutable. It means He doesn’t change; He’s the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Yeah, He never was; He already is what He will be. Before Abraham was, I am. He exists in what Kenneth Alma calls an eternal is-ness. He’s just God; He is always in the present tense. Now faith is the noun, and now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This God, who doesn’t change, who says, «I’m not a man, so I don’t lie,» the God who says, «I’m not the Son of a man, so I do not repent or change My mind,» this same God who said all of that in the text tells Moses, «I know what I promised, but they’re not getting it.» Yeah, they crossed the Red Sea; I drowned Pharaoh’s army, but they’re not getting it. And when they got to the other side of the Red Sea, Moses’s sister Miriam got her tambourine, and the sisters led an expression of appreciation for God’s contribution and liberation in their lives, but they’re still not getting it! He says, «You sent spies over to inspect the land; you see it flows with milk and honey; you touch grapes I’m not gonna let you eat. I expose you to what you will not experience.» This is an interesting exchange! I’m reading this and saying, «I don’t know what to do with this. I’m trying to make sense of this.» I’m trying to make sense of God literally telling Moses there are promises these people will not possess. There are prophecies that will not be fulfilled in their lives, and there is potential that will not be realized. I don’t know what to do with this. This is interesting to me; this is a little confusing to me; this is actually a little scary to me! He said, «Yeah, it’s not happening!» He not only says that they won’t see it, He gets so specific. It’s like He has an attitude. It’s like the Eternal has an attitude! No, no, He said, «Watch this: no one who has treated Me with contempt will ever see it!» This is a little disorienting, this is a little deflating, this can be a bit discouraging until we get greater understanding that some—watch this—some of God’s proclaimed promises and some proclaimed prophecies are a proclamation of His preference! Did you hear what I just said? He’s saying, «This is what I prefer to do; this is what I’m willing to do; this is what I’m willing to move heaven and earth to make happen.» But My promises have two categories: some are conditional and some are unconditional. And so the conditional promises require your participation, and if you are not willing to participate in doing the things that need to be done to meet the conditions for this promise, you’ll get out of Egypt because I’m gonna do that just because I’m God, but you won’t get into Canaan because that’s dependent on you! Did you hear what I just said? He said, «Now, because I’m God, I’m a feature, but what happens after that is conditional; that’s based on you.» Because I’m God, I’m going to preserve you, but how much you progress is conditional, because that’s dependent upon you! And this is why we can have the same God and not even get similar results, because God lets you live on the level you settle for. And if you are okay just going to heaven, then that’s all you’ll get! But if you want the exceedingly, and abundantly, and above all God can ask or think, it is your participation that possesses the promises! He said, «Moses, all that talk I was talking was about what I wanted to do,» and it says you all just focus on certain parts of My…