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Well, good morning, everybody. Glad to see y’all here today. All right, well, we are in the book of Numbers. And we are continuing and hopefully finishing chapter 13. And we’re starting this morning in verse 30. Let’s start with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you in Jesus name again, Lord, and we lay the scriptures before your feet, Lord, and we ask and pray. In the name of your son, Jesus, Lord, that You would that you would take these scriptures, Lord, and the truths that are written in them father, and the things that we learn today would not just be things that go into our minds and that we go about our way and forget Lord, but we ask and pray that the truths that you want us to hear and learn this morning would be written on our hearts, Lord, and then we would take them with us they would become a part of who we are as human beings, Lord and most importantly as citizens of heaven and as your children and disciples. of your son Jesus Christ. We pray and ask father that you would be continually revealing to your church. Lord, Your marvelous mysteries. Lord, the truth and solid foundation, the rock that is your word, father and how it goes side by side along with being your child and a disciple of Jesus Christ your son. We pray, Father that you would be equipping us, Lord in the last days that we believe we’re living in father, to shine the light that you’ve called us to shine to be that salt to the earth that you’ve called us to be Father and to shine a light amongst the Gentiles. Lord, as your Word says, Lord, that they might see Jesus Christ in us Father, Lord, we confess to you that we’re so far from perfect and we find in ourselves or each one of us individually certain evil truths about ourselves, Lord, and more and more as time goes on. And yet we know that you’ve called us then that you’ve forgiven us and that you were dangerous and sealed us with your spirit to do the work of ministry, Father, and so we need your help to do it. And we trust that your Holy Spirit is here for just That purpose, Lord, to give us an ability beyond ourselves, Lord and to give us a communion with you. So we pray that you would be here this morning among us, Lord, that You would speak to our hearts that you would bless and encourage, and bring healing father, to our minds to our spirits to our hearts, Lord, and for those who are sick, Lord, those who have family members who are sick, Lord, we pray that you’d be with them today, Father, that you would bring healing to their lives that you would bring answers to their questions. And most importantly, above all things, Father, that even through the suffering that they find themselves in, they would find themselves closer to you, Lord, in Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen. So, Numbers chapter 13. Uh, it’s a, it’s what I call a Sunday school chapter. It’s one of the portions of the Bible that everybody who’s ever learned anything about the Bible or in any kind of continuous way, has learned about the story of the 12 spies that were sent into the promised land to spy out the land, and to bring back the report to Moses about the land and in which manner they might go into. possess it because God had told them and God had given them This land is a possession. Now this goes all the way back to Abraham. Remember, he told Abraham, the very first man, the very first Jew, if you will, that God called that God said, Abraham, I want you to leave your family. And I want you to take everything that you own. And I want you to pick it all up. And I want you to go to a place where I’m going to show you and I’m going to be your God, and I’m going to make out of you a great nation. I’m going to make a great nation out of you kings are going to come from your body, and through you all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. Now we remember the story of Abraham. And one of the most important things to remember about Abraham story is that he was an old man, and his wife was an old lady, and they were barren. So she was already beyond the point of having children just due to her age. But even more than that, she had never been able to have children. And yet God appears to Abraham and he says, I’m going to make a nation out of you. Give me a place. Hello, God, don’t you know that’s impossible. And so we study the life of Abraham and we follow Abraham who had enough faith to follow God. That’s why you people were here this morning. You have enough faith to follow God, you believe in what Jesus said, You believe that he died on the cross for your sins. And that yet, as we go through the life of Abraham, and we study and we follow Him, we find out that there was so more faith that he needed to learn. And we see the lapses that he hadn’t face and how even though he believed in God’s overall promise, he laughs in so many specific areas of what God had promised him to the point that when they came out of Egypt, when they stayed there for a while, and Sarah was not getting pregnant, so she said to Abraham, look, take my hand Maiden, Hagar, and have a child with her, and she’ll give birth and this is how they would do it. She would sit on she would sit on Sarah’s lap and give birth so that it was like Sarah having the baby. It’s weird, isn’t it? Like our culture like, well, these people were insane. What’s wrong with these people? That’s just what away it was. Okay.
And so she said in that will be enough, and that’ll be enough. And Abraham know about doubt being discouraged, and of course concerned about the state of mind of his wife, Sarah, whom he loved. He agreed to this plan, he went along with it, and it’s easy for the guy, you know. But he goes along with it, you know, here take my young, beautiful handmade and oil This is suffering for like, you know, he goes along with it. And he has a child by Hagar, who ends up being Ishmael. And problems arise from there without going into great detail. But if he would have just stopped and said, Sarah, baby girl, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. I understand. I feel exactly what you’re feeling. It doesn’t make any kind of sense. I don’t understand why God would make that promise. And it’s still been all of these years, and we’ve been following him faithfully. And these things have not taken place. And I’m discouraged. And I don’t understand why. And I find myself questioning God, did you mean those words or did you Not being those words, why would you call me away from my home and away from my family and taking this place and say all these things and then not do what you’ve said, I feel that way too. And yet, honey, God said it. He said it. So you know we’re going to do, we’re going to stay the course, we’re going to stay the course. And we’re going to follow the Lord, and we’re going to be faithful to what he asked us to do. And we’re going to trust that in some way, in some place in some time, we may not understand any part of how he’s going to do it, but his will is going to be accomplished because we believe in him. And now fast forward all these years and God told Abraham that he was going to give him this Promised Land. And now here we are, all these years later, after Abraham had Isaac and Isaac had Jacob and Jacob had his 1213 sons and of course, they took Joseph the coat of many colors, you know that story and sold him into slavery in Egypt because they hated him because he was their father’s favorite. And God used that Joseph slice and he became a great second only to Pharaoh. land of Egypt and save the people from famine. But then a pharaoh arose after Joseph died who didn’t know where remember Joseph, and the children of Israel had begun to expand and grow into this great nation. And they were scared and concerned, what are we going to do with all these people as they rise up against us? Or take the place of our enemies or take their side against us? What are we going to do? So they enslaved people, and they treated them brutally. And their cry went up to heaven. And at just the right time in history, God spoke to Moses, a man whom he’d been preparing for 40 years in the desert. A man who grew up in the house of Pharaoh, a man who had all the natural gifts that a person could ever want or desire, and seemingly would be the perfect person that God would use to accomplish His will. He was mighty. He was learned he was an orator. He was a leader of the pharaohs armies. And when he stood up to take charge of the children of Israel, God said, This is not the time and you are not demand that I need and he had Moses driven into the desert for 40 years until Moses lost all his skills. He was no longer an operator. This is what he said all day. But he was a shepherd. All day long, stupid cheap. And he must have been thinking from time to time, I can’t believe where I am. I can’t believe where I am. All the gifts, all the knowledge, all the skills that God gave me, and I’m hurting shape. I can’t believe this, but at just the right moment in history at just the right time, when the need of the nation was at its greatest. God spoke to Moses and he said, Moses, Moses, and he takes Moses through this process of breaking him down and helping Moses to understand I don’t need your stills. I don’t need your words. I don’t need your abilities. I don’t need your good looks. I don’t need your great sense of style. I don’t need any of those things. What I need Moses is a heart who’s calling me I’m preaching right now, away with you. I need your belief. I need God says to you this morning, I need your belief. I need your heart. That’s what I need. Don’t tell God what’s impossible. Don’t tell God what can never be or what can never happen. All things are possible. But see, we like those promises. All things are possible. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now let’s go score this touchdown. And we forget the rest of Scripture. We love to take stuff out of context. Don’t wait. We get the tattoo versus you get the tattoo verse, right. I’ll give you all things you strike here and now I’m going to go in this ring and punch this dude in his face. You know what I mean?
And maybe God didn’t call you to be a fighter. Oh, Hey, who doesn’t know knocking that. But what God has called us to do is believe what God has called us to do is have faith when Paul said that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and people quote that I want to say stop. That’s that’s that’s a back up two verses. Do me a favor, backup two verses and read what Paul says, I follow Jesus Christ and he’s taken me in places I never thought I would go, I have learned how to be debased. I have learned how to be in once I’ve learned how to have and I’ve learned how not to have no matter what situation I find myself in no matter what circumstance I find myself in, no matter how good no matter how bad no how no matter how positive the outlook may look may seem to be or how dire I know that God has a plan for me and that I can accomplish it. You know why? Because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Oh, That’s what he was talking about. And he was talking to you. And he was talking to me. And so in Numbers, chapter 13, we find the children of Israel at this place where it’s time, God has said, I want you to go into the land that I promised to Abraham. I want you to go into the land that I promised to your father Abraham, and I want you to take possession of it. And as Pastor, our other pastor told us and taught us this morning, it was the people who had the idea. Well, let’s send spies in there first. Let me check this out. First, Lord. I want you to do this. You ever get an impression you ever get a feeling? I feel like the Lord’s calling me to do something and immediately all the questions that go along with it. And all the doubts that rise up right alongside the calling of God. Whether it’s whether it’s a question about your own abilities, whether it’s a question about where you find yourself or your circumstances, or whatever the case may be. Don’t listen to any of that. That, only listen to what God has said and what God has promised, and the words that God has promised us in his Bible and the Word of God. See, it breaks my heart, that we find ourselves living in a culture, that that that understands that knows even the things that the Bible says. But I know the Bible says that but I know that that’s what the Word of God teaches us. But there’s no but what but I have no but why but when God promises something, or when God commands us something from his scriptures, understand and know this, my friends, my family, understand and know this, it is for your benefit. And I’m not talking about so you can be healthy, wealthy and wise. I’m talking about so you can be closer to Jesus. So you can have a closer walk with God. Well, that doesn’t do me much good when I can Pay the light bills. What did Jesus teach us disciples? Consider the birds of the air. They don’t so they don’t reap. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. How much of more value are you to your heavenly Father than the birds of the air? So don’t worry about those things. And God knows that you have need of them, but you seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things will be added unto you. Faith, belief, trust. And so God says, Moses, I want you to send the people into the promised land, the people says, Well, we better check it out first. What are they saying? What are they saying, We don’t believe God’s promise fully. We don’t believe simply that God said it. And that’s the end of the story. We have got to go in and with our own knowledge and our own understanding, and our own ability and our ability to read the land and to see what’s happening and to read the culture and to read this and to read that and understand the spirit of the times, then you will know what we need to do. Whether or not it’s what God said or not. I simply said go in. But they had to send spies. So they did. And in Numbers chapter 13 Let’s pick up in verse 26. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness at of Parang. At k dash, they brought that word to them to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land early in chapter numbers, it talks about this one cluster of grapes, one cluster, you know, you go to the store and get the cluster of grapes, right. And then you give it to your wife, you say baby, feed those to me lay on the couch. Feed me the great you don’t talk about right. No. Well, anyway, a cluster of grapes, the cluster, the cluster of grapes that they found, was so large that they had to put it on a staff and carry between two men.
So they come back and they brought word them the congregation show them the fruit of the land. Verse 27. Then they told him and said, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit now, when it says milk and honey, okay? It doesn’t mean that like look a river of honey, and all I can think of is Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Remember the river of chocolate and my spirit animal Augustus Gloop. He got down on his knees and he began to drink from the chocolate River. Oh, if there was peanut butter in it, count me in. I would dive in the envelope was can’t stop me. Okay. So that that was there’s no rivers of honey. There’s a look. There’s a river of milk. And there’s a river of honey. What it means is what it means is the land is so ripe. It’s so inhabitable. It is so lush. It is so capable of providing beyond providing for every need for everything that we could ever want as a people. That’s what It means it truly is flowing with milk and honey and milk. Look at the fruit verse 28. Nevertheless, you know nevertheless means and King James, but I’d like to guess what your boss says at work. Hey Boss, I get a raise. Hey, listen, I really like to write, but it’s always a pot. When I talk to people and they say ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, everything that they said before the but is nonsense, is nonsense. I believe and I love God and I really do believe in God. I really want what God do want what God has for my life and I want his perfect will and I want to be walking in his will and I wanted to other by there is no but there is walking according to God’s will and God’s commandments, or there is walking in rebellion to God’s will and God’s commandment. I don’t want to have to call back there. So that’s it. Boy. love my children. You know the problem is, you see that one back here in the red shirt. You look at his face, look at the smile on his face. He is my clone. So just when I’m ready to take lukey and put them into a can and then fire him into the sun, I remember that he is exactly like me in every way. Have fun, have fun, have fun dads. He’s awesome to riffs on a dirt bike is a wicked cool kid. I love it. It’s all good. It’s all good. Okay. But.
But verse 28, the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. the Amalekites dwell in the land of the South, the Hittites, the jebby, sites, the Amorites, the parasites, just making sure you’re reading sorry. dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once. I love this guy, and take possession, for we are able to overcome it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we one of my favorite lines from the movie Braveheart. Spoiler, it ain’t a biblical movie. Okay. It is the story of William Wallace and some of it has been embellished the story of a man whose nation was put under the tyranny of a king and he decided it is better to die on your feet. Right, then disserve on your knees one of these kind of guys, uncompromising guy. The it’s different little bit there. Anyway, the beginning of the movie when William Wallace is a young man, and his father takes a group of men to go out and fight against the English and as they’re talking about going out and fighting against England’s army, the one guy says was such a force arrayed against us. We must come to terms. Wallace and William Wallace, his father says something and I remember when I watched that movie back in the 90s, and I never forgot this line. It’s one of my favorite lines. I’ll still quote it randomly to my wife. We’re going to visit her mother. We do not have to defeat them. Just fight them. Oh, Mom, I love you. Nikki told me before to say and she said it was okay. But William Wallace his father said, we don’t have to defeat them, just fight them. And if you’re dudes, all the dudes in here, if you got an ounce of manhood, Enya that scratches you right? Where you which we do not have to defeat them. Just I love that grit. I love that grit. However, everyone has a plan until they get hit, right? You’ve heard that phrase before, too, I can remember was Bruce Lee or mike tyson who said it either way, everyone has a plan until they get hit. The difference for you and I Christian is not to take that quote from William Wallace his father and put it into an earthly context. And think that you by yourself and by your own power, and by your own strength should go out there and defy a king. That’s not the point I’m trying to make here today. The point I’m making here today is that if God is for us, And what’s the answer to that? Nobody. That’s who, if I know that I’m doing what God has called me to do, if I know I’m where God has called me to be, and if I’m walking to the best of my ability in his will, and I’m conducting my life and the life in the home that I live in to the best of my ability, according to His word, and according to His will, there is nothing there was no man, there was no force, there was no principality, there is no power, there is no kingdom. There is no sin. There is no stronghold, there is nothing that I am afraid to go against. And there’s nothing that I am afraid to stand against because of the one whom I serve. I don’t care how big your problems are. I don’t care what you find yourself up against. I don’t care what situation you find yourself in. If God is for you, who can be against you now Step One of that process, make sure God’s for you. God cannot be with you and for you and fighting for you outside of his will. Let me say that again. God cannot be for you and with you and fighting your battles for you outside of his will. If you’re living in open, willful disobedience to the Lord God and to what His Word says he is not there, he’s with you. He loves you.
He still got a plan for you. He still is calling you home every single day, but he is not going to that place of disobedience and to their have your back. In fact, he wants to see you get beaten up there so that you’ll come back to him. Hello, anybody been to that country? I’ve been through that town several times, physically proverbially, mentally spiritually. I’ve been beaten you know what I mean? I’ve been beaten. And every time when I come running back to the Father and say, God forgive me because once again I ran away from your will once again I ran outside of what I know you’ve called me to do and what your word is called for me and how it’s caused me to live my life. I ran outside of that, and I found myself made mincemeat by the principalities of the air, or the things of this world or whatever the case may be. And I found again, I can’t do this without you. I can’t do this without your leading without your guiding without your Holy Spirit. I need your power in my life every single day. I need it when I preach. I needed when I sit and have breakfast with my family. I need it when I study the Word alone. I need it when I’m at work. I need it when I’m driving in my car. Lord, I need you. That old him every hour. I need every hour The only difference is the person Who doesn’t realize how great their need is? And the person who does? Because Ladies and gentlemen, we are all of us, every single one of us in the exact same boat. There’s no judgment here. There’s no condemnation here. There’s no How good are you being this week versus how good am I being this week? We are every single last one of us sinners, saved by the grace of God. I don’t care what you did yesterday. I don’t care what you did last week. Everything that I’m telling you this morning that hopefully the Holy Spirit is telling you this morning is for now and going forward. And we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. Caleb quieted the people were able to overcome it. But the man who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied out, saying The land through which we have gone as spies is a land here it is guys. Now Now remember, they knew about the blessings. They knew about the milk and honey. They saw it with their own eyes. But they told the people, the Lancer which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak came from the giant from the giants. And we were like grasshoppers in our own site, and so we were in their sight. We’re gonna go into that more next week. But what happens is, you guessed it, the people are dismayed that people are discouraged. How many times have you sang in that choir? It’ll nover were most will give a might as well. throw the towel in Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me I think I’ll eat a worm. I, I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to sing that song to you and also how many times I’ve sung that song in my mind. The discouragement, discouragement, never, ever, ever, ever. I’ll say it 1000 times if I have to, don’t test me, ever, ever, ever comes from God. Never. It comes from your flesh. It comes from your own place of insecurity, or fear, or anger, or whatever the case may be. That’s where that discouragement comes from. God wants you to walk forward from this place as a conqueror. God has a calling on your life. Every single one of you. I’m not talking to the church community. I’m talking to each one of you personally. As an individual here this morning, Jesus Christ has a plan for your life. He has a plan for your children’s lives. He has a plan for your home. He has a plan for your family. He has a plan for you in the workplace. He has a plan for you. You were not called to sit home on the couch, you were called to be soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ. You were solid called to be ambassadors of the gospel of Jesus Christ and heralds of God’s truth. Every single one of you and the ability in which you’re used, the magnitude in which you are which you are used, and, and and the and the potential that you can be used, all is determined by your faith, by your faith. Do you believe in God this morning? Do you believe that he called you? Do you believe that he chose you, the Bible says before the foundation of the earth and that you Jesus Christ God sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish, but would have ever lasting life me. The drug user, the violent man, the fornicator, the sinner, the wicked, wicked man, who has deserved and earned health time and time and time and time again, you think God would send Jesus Christ to become a man to be tortured to death, and spill out all of his blood? For me? If he wasn’t going to fulfill the promises he gave me. Common Sense. Of course, he wants to fulfill these promises in you. You’re worth it. You are this morning, his great treasure, and I’ve said this before, I just don’t know any other way that I can encourage you more than that, than to tell you that you are God’s great treasure. Now watch this. So is the On your left, and so is the person on your right. And you should treat them as such. That’s why these are the two great commandments You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind with all your strength with all your soul. And the second commandment is like the first, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two things, Jesus Christ said, hang all the law and the prophets. So don’t come to me with your religion. And don’t come me telling me that I ought to do this, and I should do this. And if I was a good Christian, I wouldn’t wear those motocross shirts. And if I was a good Christian, I wouldn’t do this. And I wouldn’t speak like a regular old blue collar guy when you’re behind the pulpit. And if you were a good Christian, don’t even come to me with any of that noise unless I know when I see in your life that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and you love your neighbor as yourself and a person like that can rebuke me any day. Any Someone that comes to me like that. And I know that their heart towards me is they love me and they want to see me grow in the faith and they want to see me be the best pastor I can be or the best son of the best husband that I can be. And they come to me faithful. The Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. That’s a great proverb. Faithful are the wounds of friend you come to me say, brother, you’re off man, Brother, you are out of God’s will, brother, I’m testing in your life that you’ve got to prove that the Lord is one Brother, don’t you see? Don’t you see, God wants us all receive that any day of the week? And I’ll humble myself because I know that’s from the Lord. I know that’s what the Lord God can use us in this world. And so he knows how much we care about the people that are in this world. All of them guys, all of them. We’ve all got baggage. We’ve all got political Ben’s, right. We’ve all got this. We’ve all got that.
Every single human being on planet Earth is precious in God’s sight, as Every single one. And if there’s anyone out there that I don’t think that about, guess what? I got a problem with my relationship with God. There was a lacking in my understanding of who he is. And there’s a lacking of his presence in my life. If there’s one person in this world that I say they’re a worthless person, the audit just just to go jump off a bridge. That is not the will of God. That is not God’s heart. And so, the lesson for today, don’t allow any buts in your life. Don’t allow anything to keep you from serving your God who has called you according to His will, and by the power of his might. To be his own special creation, to be his ambassador and to be his Herald. Don’t let anything in your life don’t let any one in your life. keep you from that promise. Amen. All right. Now listen, if you come next week, the first service, we’re going to talk about who these giants were. All right. So if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s interesting.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you in Jesus name, and we’re grateful. And we’re thankful, Father, for your great love, and your great mercy or knowing who you are the king of the universe, or the Creator of all things, and yet, you’ve called each one of us individually, Lord, and poured out on us your great and precious promises, Lord, that we would be your sons and daughters, that we would be joint heirs with Jesus Christ, Lord, to all of your glory. Lord, it is absolutely beyond us to even understand it fully father, and yet we believe, and we love you. And we want to be used by you father, in this world that we live in wherever it is that we go, Lord. And so we pray that you would help us to have the faith of Caleb, and the faith of Joshua that no matter what circumstances no matter what obstacles may stand in our way, Father We would remember we can do all things according to your will the things that you called us to do through Christ who gives us strength, Lord, so thank you for that promise. And thank you for your word. Lord, I pray that you would be with each one of my brothers and sisters here as they go their way and I pray that you would bless them, and that you would keep them Lord, I pray that you would cause your face to shine upon them to be gracious, and merciful to them, Lord, that You would lead them along your path of righteousness, and light and truth, Father, and that your truth and your gospel would radiate in their hearts and out to the world that they live in. Lord, thank you again for all that you’ve done for all that you’re doing. And for all that you’re going to do in Jesus precious name, we pray and all the saints said, Amen. Amen. Love you guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai