{"id":4266,"date":"2018-02-19T21:37:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T21:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeyonleadership.brentwoodbaptistonline.com\/?p=4266"},"modified":"2018-02-19T21:37:42","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T21:37:42","slug":"god-count-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/god-count-us\/","title":{"rendered":"How does God Count Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"<address>By Julie Gilbreath, Brentwood Campus LIFE Group F Leader<\/address>\n<p>Last week, I taught two seemingly unconnected lessons. One was from Acts 11, where Barnabas goes to Antioch, and the other was from Numbers, which included the census of the Israelites from chapter one. Since it\u2019s not obvious on the surface, I probably never would have made the connection, had I not met with Paul Wilkinson for our Spring LIFE Group Leader Meeting. He gave me the outline of our church\u2019s new 5-year vision for discipleship and explained that we are moving from <em>quantitative<\/em> counting (number-centered), to <em>qualitative<\/em> counting (people-centered). It was the word \u201ccounting\u201d that popped into my head two days later and gave me a new insight into <strong>how God numbers us, and what really counts<\/strong>.<br \/>\nThe book of Numbers opens with a census of the Israelites while they are still at Sinai. It\u2019s been more than a year since the Exodus and they are getting ready to pack up and head toward the Promised Land. The main reason for the census was to form a military roster \u2013 there would be battles ahead. But what is surprising is the Hebrew phrase used in this passage to describe the act of counting: <em>se\u2019u et rosh<\/em>. Literally, \u201clift the head.\u201d<br \/>\nIn most societies,\u00a0<strong>size is power and strength lies in numbers<\/strong>. But God, who never relies on human strength or ability to accomplish His purposes, numbers us for a different reason. In his <em>Covenant and Conversation<\/em> series on Numbers, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explains that this unusual Hebrew phrase indicates that<span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong> when God counts us, He \u201clifts up our heads\u201d so that He can <em>look<\/em> at us<\/strong>.<\/span> The reason: because He loves us individually and calls us by name, not a number. So it\u2019s no coincidence that just a few chapters later in Numbers 6, we read one of the most famous blessings in Scripture: The Priestly Blessing (or the Aaronic Blessing):<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">\u201cThe Lord bless you and keep (protect) you;<br \/>\nThe Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;<br \/>\nThe Lord <em>turn his face<\/em> <em>toward you<\/em> and give you peace.\u201d (emphasis added)<\/p>\n<p>God counts us by lifting our heads. Why? So he can turn His face toward us &#8212; <em>look<\/em> at us &#8212; to bless us, protect us, be gracious to us, and give us peace. Regardless of the total number, <strong>every<em><u>one<\/u><\/em> is important<\/strong>.<br \/>\nMany centuries later in Acts 11, the Messianic community in Jerusalem heard about the spread of the gospel in Antioch among the Greeks, and how large numbers of people were turning to the Lord. They sent Barnabas, who witnessed the \u201cevidence and grace of God\u201d in Antioch, and he encouraged them to continue and remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Scripture describes <strong>Barnabas as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and an encourager \u2013 a head-lifter<\/strong>. And once again, we read that a great number of people were brought to the Lord.<br \/>\nSo what\u2019s the connection? Well, Barnabas, which means \u201cSon of Encouragement,\u201d was a nickname given by the other disciples because of his character and notable qualities. But his Hebrew name was Joseph, which means \u201cMay Jehovah add\/give increase\u201d or \u201cGod will increase.\u201d <em>Quantitative and qualitative<\/em> . . . with God, we can have both.<br \/>\nWhat I learned from these two lessons is this: <strong>when we \u201clift the heads\u201d of the people in our LIFE Groups, in the worship center, in an off-campus Bible study, our neighborhoods, offices, and in our own homes, we begin to see the difference between the way we count people and what really counts <em>about <\/em>people<\/strong>. Every person is created in the image of God, and when we see the way God sees, we will also count the way God counts \u2013\u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">by looking at them, calling them by name, blessing them, and encouraging them to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>When we count the way God counts, then God Himself will increase the numbers.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Julie Gilbreath, Brentwood Campus LIFE Group F Leader Last week, I taught two seemingly unconnected lessons. One was from Acts 11, where Barnabas goes to Antioch, and the other was from Numbers, which included the census of the Israelites from chapter one. Since it\u2019s not obvious on the surface, I probably never would have&#8230;","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How does God Count Us? - Adults<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/god-count-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How does God Count Us? - Adults\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Julie Gilbreath, Brentwood Campus LIFE Group F Leader Last week, I taught two seemingly unconnected lessons. 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