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Overcoming Your Insecurities - Immersed Series
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In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about overcoming insecurities through faith in God's promises. He recounts the biblical story of the Israelites at the edge of the Promised Land, highlighting how fear led them to doubt God's assurances and choose the barren wilderness over His promise. Barron emphasizes the importance of moving beyond fear to embrace faith, asserting that a true practice of faith goes beyond mere words. By recalling Caleb's unwavering trust and calling listeners to confront their own fears, Barron encourages a wholehearted commitment to God's call, promising that a life filled with faith leads to fulfilling His divine purposes. He challenges the congregation to step beyond comfort zones, embrace God's promises, and use their influence to impact their communities and generations positively.
Timestamps:
00:00 Origins of the Abrahamic Covenant
03:57 Spies' Report on Canaan's Inhabitants
09:20 Faith vs. Fear in Action
11:04 "Faith vs. Fear: A Reflection"
15:21 Church’s Urgent Call to Action
18:25 Spies' Doubt Despite Promise
20:07 "Milk and Honey: Necessity and Luxury"
25:31 Run to the Battle
28:13 "Twisting Truth for Selfish Desires"
32:03 Faith Over Fear Decision
32:59 Embrace Faith and Overcome Fear
36:12 "Embrace Promise or Hesitate"
41:18 "Faithless Generation's Lost Opportunity"
46:01 "Commitment to Jesus: Surrender Everything"
46:54 Surrender to God's Calling
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Transcript
Introduction and Contextual Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
Alright, so Numbers chapter 13, we're going to jump back in there. We are in the story of God. We call it the Bible, but let me kind of catch you up in case you're new today where we are in the story. Book of Genesis, God creates the heavens and the earth.
00:00:13
Speaker
He establishes humanity here on the earth. He has a plan that He wants a relationship with them, and we messed that up, specifically Adam and Eve, but we all are part of sin.
God's Covenant and Israel's Journey
00:00:22
Speaker
God redid the earth by starting things over with Noah and the flood.
00:00:27
Speaker
He said, things have gotten so evil, I'm going to take one really good family, one righteous family, we're going to start over with them. And after that, he established a covenant with a guy by the name of Abraham. We call it the Abramic covenant.
00:00:39
Speaker
okay And so that covenant was established so that God would pull out a group of people who would be his people. He would multiply them on the face of the earth. He would give them their own land to live in.
00:00:49
Speaker
And through them, the world was going to be blessed specifically specifically through the line of David all the way down to Jesus Christ himself, who, of course, is the hope of the world, the one we're here to worship this morning.
00:01:02
Speaker
They were taken from where they were, just living as nomads in the land of Canaan, down to Egypt where they lived for 430 years, most of that under slavery. And then God in the book of Exodus brings forth a redeemer, a leader, someone to help rescue them, a guy by the name of Moses. Most of you will recognize that name.
00:01:22
Speaker
Moses takes them through the ten plagues that set them free from the greatest empire on the face of the earth at that time, the Egyptian empire. They are led out into the wilderness where they have an encounter with the one true God who is called Yahweh by them.
00:01:36
Speaker
There they are given the ten commandments which most of us are familiar with. After receiving the ten commitments commandments i can't talk this morning after receiving the Ten Commandments, they made their way through the wilderness to the edge of the promised land.
Wilderness Guidance and Promised Land
00:01:50
Speaker
Now this is after he's given them laws, he's given them instructions, he's given them an introduction to his character. He's established a plan of how religious practices would take place. All of those things have been set in place.
00:02:02
Speaker
Man, he has shown himself left and right. He's performed miracles. He's guided them with his presence day and night. They called it the Shekinah glory of God. It was a cloud by day. It was a fire by night.
00:02:15
Speaker
Man, he's done everything in the world that a good God should do. And so they get to the edge of the promised land, and that's where we're going to pick up the story today. Numbers chapter 13. I'm going to begin reading in verse 26 this morning. It says, the men, excuse me, it jumped on me.
00:02:36
Speaker
The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. You're going, okay, wait a minute. You're in the middle of a story here. What men are you talking about?
00:02:47
Speaker
Well, they got to the edge of the promised land, and God says to Moses, Moses, take 12 guys, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, and send them into the promised land so that they spy out the land, okay?
00:02:58
Speaker
Now, Human nature says, well, that's a pretty good idea. You've got to figure out what you're up against, right? But if you go on over, which you probably haven't yet, but you go on over to Deuteronomy and what we discover is this wasn't God's idea.
00:03:10
Speaker
It wasn't even Moses' idea. It was the people's idea. They're the ones who came to Moses and said, we need to spy out this land. Why is this a bad move? I mean, it makes good sense, common sense for humans to go do something like this because we want to know what we're facing.
00:03:25
Speaker
The reason it's a bad idea is because what had God said? I've already given you the land. You don't need to spy it out. I have already given you this land. You just need to go and possess So it says that they they pull these guys up, they go into the land, they spend 40 days there,
Spies' Report and Faith vs. Fear
00:03:43
Speaker
and they come back. It says they brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.
00:03:49
Speaker
They reported to Moses, we went into the land where you sent us. Indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey, and here is some of its fruit. However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.
00:04:02
Speaker
We also saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites are living in the land of the Negev. The Hethites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. And the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.
00:04:15
Speaker
Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, Let's go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it. But the men who had gone up with him responded, We can't attack the people because they are stronger than we are.
00:04:31
Speaker
So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted. The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are the men of great size.
00:04:43
Speaker
We even saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. To our ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, And we must have seen the same to them.
00:04:56
Speaker
want to take just a second. i want to show you something. This is what is commonly believed by most archaeologists, most scholars, to be Mount Sinai. It may not be the actual mount. I think it is. But it may not be the actual mount. But what you get is a picture of the wilderness. Look at the area around it.
00:05:13
Speaker
Not exactly where you want to spend your vacation, right? This is the place that they had wandered in for up to two years, had camped out for a year at the base of Mount Sinai. This is the wilderness. Now, let me show you something else.
00:05:25
Speaker
This is a picture that Lisa and I took about a decade ago of the Jezreel Valley. This is right in the middle of the promised land up at the north end actually. You just heard me read this where the spies went in. They went all the way up to the north end of the Jezreel Valley.
00:05:40
Speaker
Let me ask you a question. Why would you give up that for this? Why would you choose this over this? And here's your answer. Fear. Fear.
00:05:53
Speaker
Fear is the only reason with anybody who has good common sense would stand and compare these two places of land and go, I choose the desert over a land flowing with milk and honey.
00:06:04
Speaker
And this morning, this story to me offers all kinds of incentive for us to get over our fears, to move beyond our anxieties and embrace a God who has said, i am promising you some things and I have never broken my promises.
00:06:20
Speaker
I am asking you to take hold of some things in your life. Now, we're we're going to use the phrase promised land today, okay? Because promised land is where they're headed. But you've got your own promised lands that God has promised you in his word that if you will follow me, you will trust me. If you will leave behind your doubts and insecurities and fears, if you will take those things on, I promise you, I will get you to your promised land. And oh, by the way, it has already been given to you. You've just got to take hold of it.
00:06:47
Speaker
But you cannot hold on to fear and hold on to God. That would be a great place for an amen. You cannot hold on to fear and hold on to God. It is an impossibility.
00:06:58
Speaker
In fact, Hebrews 11.6 says this. It is impossible for you to please God without faith. Did you hear what I said? Because I said ah it is impossible to please God. Not it's hard.
00:07:14
Speaker
Not that it's difficult. Not that you're going to have some challenges along the way. It is impossible for you to have a pleasing relationship with the God you are worshiping this morning unless you turn away from your fear and you embrace the faith that he gives you.
00:07:29
Speaker
And so this morning I want to take a look at this story a little bit, go a little bit deeper and examine some things. Fear is a powerful emotion. It is a powerful force and it distorts our ability to see life clearly.
00:07:42
Speaker
Fear causes you to look at this and decide that this is a better option. And some of you this morning, you are living in this kind of reality. This is what your relationship with God looks like. I sat with somebody yesterday who said to me, man, I am dying on the vine.
00:08:00
Speaker
I know I have a relationship with God, but right now my relationship is like a desert. And I went ding, ding, ding, ding. Are you going to be at worship tomorrow? Because this is you and this is what God desires for you.
00:08:12
Speaker
Nowhere in the scripture to God say, come follow me and I'm going to take you to this dry, barren wasteland and leave you. And some of you have chosen to accept that in your life because you're allowing fear to speak to your mind and to your heart instead allowing faith to take over.
00:08:29
Speaker
So let's dig into this a little bit.
Faith in Action
00:08:31
Speaker
First of all, I want you to see that a profession of faith is far different than a practice of faith. Words are cheap. You ever heard that phrase? Words are cheap. You can look at your wife all day long and say, baby, I love you.
00:08:44
Speaker
You are my one true desire. Everything in my life is better because of you. But if you don't ever spend time with her, if you don't ever set your desires aside to seek her desires, if you don't ever practice that love, what do you think she thinks about your words?
00:09:01
Speaker
Not much. Not much. So let's look at what happened in the story. In Exodus chapter 24 verse 3, this is a long time before the story we're reading today.
00:09:13
Speaker
It says, Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, we will do everything that the Lord has commanded.
00:09:25
Speaker
That's a statement of faith. But what happens in levida um excuse me Numbers chapter 13 today is an act of fear. You see and hear the difference?
00:09:36
Speaker
You can profess your devotion and your faith and your trust in God all you want to, but if you sit here Sunday after Sunday and the Holy Spirit comes and speaks to your heart and you never move, you don't have faith.
00:09:47
Speaker
You are living and are bound up by fear that keeps you from following Jesus Christ. Can I just tell you that if your relationship with God is described in the ways of like going to visit the public library, that it's that kind of emotion
00:10:07
Speaker
And we're going to have quiet, peaceful moment. And we're going to enjoy the day. That's not my Jesus. My Jesus calls you to live out on the edge. My Jesus calls you to throw all kind of caution to the wind and pursue him with everything you've got.
00:10:21
Speaker
My Jesus says, what you hold in your hand isn't worth what I can put in your heart. And you've got to let go of one in order to receive the other. And some of you this morning are still sitting there holding on to the world going, man, this is what's going to get me through. And God's going, no.
00:10:37
Speaker
No, you have fear and you're holding on to material things thinking that somehow that's going to take you where faith can get you. And faith alone can get you.
00:10:49
Speaker
And now this frankly, this morning, my prayer has been for weeks looking towards this sermon that I am going to scare the bejesus out of you. That you are... the that Some you are already looking a little stale to me. yeah y'all That wasn't towards you, Michael. Sorry, I just looked at you when I said
00:11:08
Speaker
Some of you look like you are already clenching up a little bit because you're man, he might call me out. I might. But more importantly, the Holy Spirit will. The question is, are you going to listen to him this morning?
00:11:20
Speaker
are you just going to keep holding on to those fears? You see, ah profession of faith is something entirely different. Israel had already proed professed their faith in God. But clearly their actions did not line up. And they second-guessed God's promises all the way through this story.
00:11:37
Speaker
Are you reading along with me? Are you hearing it and seeing it? How many times God will do something and it seems like in the next paragraph they're going, well, where's God? Why isn't he taking care of us?
00:11:49
Speaker
And I mean, it is a miracle of the love of God that those people weren't squished in the desert. And God almost came close a couple of times. If it hadn't been for Moses interceding, they probably would have been.
The Spies Decision and Consequences
00:12:02
Speaker
Second thing I want you to see is this. Sometimes our acts of faith can reveal how little we really trust God. Sometimes our acts of faith can can really reveal how little we trust God.
00:12:14
Speaker
Look at Numbers chapter 13, going back a little bit in the story to verse 17. It says, it says when moses sent them to scout out the land of canaan he told them go up this way to the naga then go into the hill country See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
00:12:34
Speaker
Is the land they live in good or bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications? Is the land fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous. Bring back some fruit from the land.
00:12:47
Speaker
It was the season for the first ripe grapes. The reason I read that to you is because I just said to you, this was not God's idea. When God said Moses, send some people in the land, he was giving in a little bit to the people.
00:13:01
Speaker
He was giving them an opportunity to be reassured that his promises were going to be real. This act of sending spies into the land, Moses was giving in to the pressure of the fear of the people.
00:13:13
Speaker
He was giving in to something that God had never intended. This had never been part of God's plan. What I hear when I hear this story is something that happened to me years ago. i was Gosh, it's been 30 years ago when I was in student ministry. Took a bunch of kids up to Baltimore, Maryland to do inner city ministry.
00:13:29
Speaker
And every single day in a public park, we were doing kids camps. First day of kids camp, this cute little kid, he was probably about eight or nine years old, chunky little kid, come up with this big smile, ear to ear.
00:13:42
Speaker
He comes strutting up there and we're registering the kids. And one of my ladies says, hey, buddy, how are you? He says, great, ma'am. And he she said, well, he didn't say it that way because he wasn't Southern. But anyway,
00:13:55
Speaker
he said, I'm great. And she said, what's your name? He said, it's Otis. And she said, do you spell that with a D or T? He goes, you can spell it with a D or T. It don't matter. It don't matter.
00:14:08
Speaker
The rest of the week, every time we would ask that boy something, you want Kool-Aid or you don't want water? Oh, it don't matter. You want crackers, you want cookies. It don't matter. You want to play dodgeball or kickball.
00:14:19
Speaker
It don't matter. By the end of the week, it was a joke among our group. Don't ask Otis anything. He's just going to say, it don't matter. In this moment, as Moses is telling the spies, here's your instructions.
00:14:29
Speaker
I want you to go find out if it's this or this, this or this. I can hear God sitting in heaven going, it don't matter. It just don't matter. i don't care how big they are, how big their cities are, how many there are.
00:14:42
Speaker
I have given you the land. It's yours. It's got your name on it. I've already told you where the boundaries are going to be. You're not listening to me. And this morning, God is calling out to you and he is saying to you, I have a call on your life. How many of you are followers of Jesus Christ this morning?
00:15:00
Speaker
You've got a call. You've got a call. And it's not just to follow him. it's to follow him to something specifically. To something that you were created for. In case you're questioning me, go over to Ephesians chapter 2.
00:15:12
Speaker
Look at verse 10. It says that God prepared in advance for us things that he wanted us to do. You were born with a purpose. You were born with a call. And if you're not fulfilling that call, you are delaying God's purpose in your life out of fear.
00:15:27
Speaker
And can I just tell you the world needs you right now? The world needs you. God doesn't need you. God can do it all by himself. But he invited you into this journey with him. But he needs you to start acting because as my friend Matt just said up here this morning, there are people dying without Jesus every single day because the church isn't fulfilling its call.
00:15:46
Speaker
Because the church isn't doing what the church was created to do. We're too busy holding hobby hit lobby events. We're too busy having teas and showers. We're too busy doing women's events and men's events.
00:15:58
Speaker
We're not calling the lost to find Jesus. And if we don't do that, we're nothing more than a social club. We're nothing more than a bunch of people getting to heaven and have a good old time patting each other on the back going, oh, you're good, I'm good, we're all good, it don't matter.
00:16:14
Speaker
And God is going, come on, people. Come on, I called you to an adventure. I called you to something exciting. I called you to live on the edge where only I can carry you and nothing that you do can be given credit to yourself.
00:16:29
Speaker
That only I can receive credit for what's about to happen. little sneak peek, little spoiler alert. God showed off in the city of Jericho what kind of adventure he wanted to have with you.
00:16:41
Speaker
I don't want you winning this thing in your effort. I want you winning it by my effort. Some of you right now are sitting here this morning going, I know who you're talking to. I know who you're talking to. It's me.
00:16:55
Speaker
And I know who you're worried about, God. It's my neighbor. It's my coworker. It's my aunt. It's my son. It's my wife. It's that guy that I run into at the coffee house every time I go in and get my coffee every week.
00:17:08
Speaker
And God's going, I gave you that craving for coffee for a reason. Every time you walk in there, your mission field's standing right in front of you. The calling is there and you're just not listening. Why? Because you're letting fear distort what your faith is trying to tell you.
00:17:28
Speaker
Here's what's so interesting. Y'all remember Hebron? Along the way, we've talked about Hebron several times. The first time it comes up, Abraham buys Hebron so that he can bury his wife there.
00:17:40
Speaker
It's actually a who's who of some of the greatest patriarchs of of of Israel. It's ah Abraham, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Isaac, Jacob. All of them are buried at Hebron. Okay?
00:17:51
Speaker
Now, here's what's interesting about Hebron. Two things. Number one, God, talking to Abraham early on, said while he was standing at Hebron, your people are going to be taken into Egypt for 400 years to be slaves.
00:18:04
Speaker
And when they are brought out, they will come back here to be my people. For 400 years, that story had been passed along from parent to parent to kid to grandkids, all the way down the line, that we will go back and we will possess the land where our ancestors are, including Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob at Hebron.
00:18:25
Speaker
I don't know if you were paying attention, but in the journey of those spies, they walked right into the town of Hebron. They stood and looked at Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, every single one of them.
00:18:37
Speaker
And in that moment, you know that they had to hear in their ears the stories they had heard for 20 generations. You will come back and you will possess this land.
00:18:49
Speaker
You follow me so far? And then they had the audacity to walk away from the place where God had given that promise and go back to Moses and the people and go, we don't think we can do this. God had delivered his promise right there in front of them.
00:19:03
Speaker
He had given them all the evidence they needed to trust him. And yet still they came back with a bad report. All right, I got to keep moving. Next. One word can change your future and undo what God has put in place.
00:19:18
Speaker
One word.
00:19:22
Speaker
I got to breathe for a second. I'm just too excited this morning. um One word. What's the word this morning? However. However, do you hear it in the story? Man, this is a land flowing milk and honey, just like God promised.
00:19:37
Speaker
However, however. And what turned out to be this incredible promise being attained, being achieved, being carried out, turns from that to what the Bible calls a bad report.
00:19:52
Speaker
A bad report. When the Hebrew word flowing with milk and honey, when that word pops up and it's used numerous times by both God and by the people, the word there in Hebrew literally means raining down milk and honey.
00:20:05
Speaker
Raining down milk and honey. I always ask the question, why milk and honey? Why those two particular things? Most scholars agree that the reason God referenced it that way is because milk was a necessity. I mean, your children lived off of it. You drank it a lot in addition to water, of course. But milk was used for a lot of things in their culture.
00:20:22
Speaker
Honey was a luxury. So God was saying, I'm giving you a land that's going to provide everything you need and everything beyond what you imagined. You can picture a land you want to, but I'm going to exceed your expectations. I'm going to give you things you don't deserve.
00:20:38
Speaker
But in order to get there, you've got to trust me. You've got to trust me. The spies admitted it flowed with milk and honey. And then they said, however.
00:20:52
Speaker
However. Guys, the however in your life is Satan's way of opening the door to doubt. It's Satan's way of saying, gosh, my God has done so many things but for me, but maybe this is the one time he messes up.
00:21:07
Speaker
Maybe this is it one time that he lets me down. Maybe this is the one time he doesn't follow through. Maybe I'm the one person on the earth he doesn't notice. And Satan convinces us that that's what we have to live with.
Overcoming Fear with Faith
00:21:22
Speaker
In this particular case, listen to what they say. The people are big and strong. The cities are large and fortified. By the way, estimates are that Jericho was only seven acres.
00:21:36
Speaker
case you don't know what that is, if you've ever been over to my house for one of our baptisms, my entire piece of property there is seven acres. That's how big the large city of Jericho was.
00:21:49
Speaker
when when When I was a kid and they used to talk about marching around the city of Jericho, I was picturing like walking around Franklin or something, you know, some pretty good size. They marched around my farm.
00:22:00
Speaker
This was not a huge sacrifice for them. The only thing they were sacrificing, their pride. Because this wasn't a great military strategy and they couldn't take any credit for what was about to happen.
00:22:15
Speaker
Okay, I got sidetracked. So the cities are large and fortified. We even saw giants, descendants of Nephilim. by the way By the way, go back to Genesis 6, the story of Noah and the flood.
00:22:27
Speaker
The Bible clearly says the Nephilim were wiped out by the flood. who Who came off the ark? Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three daughters. There were no Nephilim left.
00:22:40
Speaker
What's my point? Fear caused them to distort reality. Fear caused them to see things that weren't even there. Fear caused them to take some tiny little people and turn them into giants.
00:22:52
Speaker
Fear caused them to doubt. And guys, fear can do the same for you. God had already taken care of the big problem they were most worried about.
00:23:04
Speaker
And then they went on. We must deal with the Amalekites and the Hethites and the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Dishites and the Termites and whatever else i is there. And they just kept going on and on and on. In other words, they're going, woe is us. We might have to fight a battle or two.
00:23:23
Speaker
But even that wasn't true. Because God said, I've already defeated these people. You've just got to go in and go through the motions with me. You have to take possession of what is already yours.
00:23:42
Speaker
One word can change your future and do what God has put in place, but one man's faith can change a generation. One man's faith can change a generation. And before I dive into this, I just got to ask the question, who in here wants to be that man?
00:23:59
Speaker
Who in here wants to be that teenager or that woman? One person inside of this room for the next three services could change Middle Tennessee forever by your faith.
00:24:11
Speaker
One person with no fear, full of faith, can turn the world upside down. Today, there are millions of people who walk this planet who know the name of Jesus Christ because a man by the name of Billy Graham lived out his faith.
00:24:26
Speaker
Let's go even further back. Most of us would have to say that if we're here today out of faith, it's because of a guy by the name of Saul who became Paul and who lived out his faith. One man can change a generation. One man can leave a legacy. My question this morning, Grove Hill Church, body of Christ, who wants to be that person for Jesus Christ today?
00:24:49
Speaker
Thank you, Robin. You're hired.
00:24:54
Speaker
Listen. Listen.
00:25:01
Speaker
There is no doubt from the word of God what he wants done. The doubt is who's going to do it. Who's going to say i take hold of the cross of Jesus Christ.
00:25:13
Speaker
I lean into the person of who he is. I take on the Holy Spirit and I don't care what's going on out there. I'm ready to go. Last night, no, Friday night, Friday night, Rock Collins, who led our men's retreat, did a fantastic job. He retold the story of David.
00:25:31
Speaker
And here's the really cool story, part of the story that just stuck in my heart from Friday night. He was talking about when David faced Goliath. And there's this passage in the scripture where it says, in that moment where Goliath called out the army of Israel again, it says that the men turned and ran in fear.
00:25:48
Speaker
David ran to the battle. I need men and women who want to run to the battle, not run from the enemy, because the enemy is a loudmouth, cheap imitator of God.
00:25:59
Speaker
He is a deceiver, a liar, an accuser, a cheater, a murderer, a killer. Yeah, he's a little scary, but why would you run to him when you've got God on your side?
00:26:11
Speaker
Why would you run from something like that when God, full of all kinds of power, all kinds of wisdom, all kinds of strength, and always faithful, says, if you'll run to the battle, I'll go before you.
00:26:26
Speaker
And that's what he says to the people of Israel all the way through this thing. You're going fight battles? Yeah, you'll have to face the Hethites, Jebusites, Termites, all those people. And you will fight those battles. But I will go before you.
00:26:38
Speaker
And I have already given you all of this.
00:26:45
Speaker
Chapter 13, verse 30. Caleb's faith changes changes things for Israel. says, Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, let's go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it.
00:27:01
Speaker
Caleb says, us plus God can do whatever God asks. Us plus God can take on any challenge. Us plus God means...
00:27:12
Speaker
It doesn't matter what the enemy is going to do. doesn't matter what the math is. doesn't matter what odds are against us. In the words of my friend Otis, it don't matter. It just don't matter.
00:27:26
Speaker
Ten of them say we can't. Two of them say we can't turn around. The Bible calls this a negative report, but some translations call it an evil report.
00:27:38
Speaker
Why? Because it is an evil thing to distort the promises of God. And that's what those ten guys did. they They knew the same thing that Joshua and Caleb did.
00:27:49
Speaker
They had all heard the same teaching from moes Moses, the same encouragement from Moses, the same vision cast by God for these people. They all heard the same thing. Ten of them decided to distort it. Two of them decided to to trust it.
00:28:04
Speaker
It is an evil thing to say that what God intended for good can actually cause harm.
00:28:13
Speaker
You should be familiar with this. It happens in our culture all the time. The twisting of truth. We call the precious gift of life reproductive freedom.
00:28:25
Speaker
We call marital intimacy sexual freedom.
00:28:31
Speaker
We call the truth of the gospel sexual prosperity gospel we take god's truth and we turn it for our benefit for our selfishness for our desires we take goods god's good promises and we twist them in isaiah 5 20 the prophet says this woe to those who call evil good and good evil Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness. Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. If Isaiah had been alive at this time, he would have said to those spies, Woe to those who say a promise fulfilled by God can be taken away by the enemy.
00:29:10
Speaker
Because it can't be done. One man's faith can change a generation. Caleb's faith didn't change his generation. You know what the result is, right?
00:29:22
Speaker
They're sent back into the wilderness to wander around for 38 years. I'm to take a little bit of liberty here. What I picture in that moment is Moses sitting down on the nearest rock and going, oh my gosh.
00:29:36
Speaker
I have been at this for 82 years now trying to rescue these people. And because you two and the guys brought back a bad report and used the word however, I've got to take my crew back into the wilderness for 38 years.
00:29:56
Speaker
Now, here's a little side note. This is how your pastor thinks.
00:30:04
Speaker
God says this entire generation is going to be wiped out before you can see the promised land. Right? All of them have to be gone. Can you imagine being that last guy? You're walking around, looking around, going, who's got a knife? Who's got a sword? Because they're probably ready to kill me and get this over with so they can get back to the promised land.
00:30:20
Speaker
Every time you walk near a cliff, you're making sure nobody's standing nearby. You're getting somebody to taste your food for you because you're thinking, I'm the last one left.
00:30:30
Speaker
But God fulfilled that promise to them. God said to them, Hey, if you're not going to trust me, then you'll pay the consequences. And by the way, your decisions have consequences for the generations that follow you.
00:30:49
Speaker
You see, your unwillingness to follow God's call on your life today because of your fear might mean your children have to pay a price before they're able to take hold of it.
00:31:03
Speaker
Don't underestimate the power of those decisions you're making right now.
00:31:08
Speaker
Lastly, even the smallest problems have become giants when we refuse to see from God's perspective.
Active Faith and Mission Opportunities
00:31:14
Speaker
It says in verse 33, the men who've gone up with him responded, we can't attack the people because they are stronger than we are.
00:31:23
Speaker
So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted. The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants. What does that even mean? Like the ground swallows you up?
00:31:34
Speaker
What does that mean? And all the people we saw in it are men of great size. We even saw the Nephilim there. To ourselves, we seemed like grasshoppers.
00:31:47
Speaker
And if truth were told, those people weren't any different than the people who came in out of the Hebrew nation.
00:31:54
Speaker
20 years in the desert, 38 years in the deference de desert, wouldn't change that. They were no more than human beings just like anyone else. But you can hear the fear growing in their report. It gets a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and the obstacles look a little bit more intense and they buy into the lie that they can't do this themselves.
00:32:16
Speaker
So here's what I want to ask you this morning. This is what this whole sermon boils down to this. Will you move forward by faith in the call that God has for you this morning or will you shrink back in fear?
00:32:28
Speaker
Will you step forward in faith or will you shrink back in fear? Some of you this morning, God is calling you to repent of a sin that constantly plagues your life. And you have bought into the lie that you just can't do anything about that sin.
00:32:42
Speaker
And the truth is you can't, but God can and already has. He has already provided at the cross the forgiveness for that sin. He has already provided the propitiation, the fancy word for paying the price of God's wrath for your sin. He has done that for you.
00:32:59
Speaker
And if you are living in a sinful lifestyle today, the only appropriate next move is to repent of that sin and accept what Christ has done for you. Some of you this morning know that the next right step of obedience is to come forward in baptism. You made that decision to follow Jesus Christ, and you've been told over and over again, this is the next step, the right step for obedience, and you're scared.
00:33:22
Speaker
I don't know if it's because you're scared of the water or if you're scared of the cow trough or you're scared that cow's going to drop you and not pull you back out. I don't know what the fear is, but I promise you those fears are from Satan, not from God.
00:33:34
Speaker
Some of you this morning, most of you this morning, i would say a large percentage of you this morning are running from a call that God has put on your life.
00:33:45
Speaker
Now, when we hear the word call, instantly everybody thinks Nairobi, Africa. You know, I've got to pack up, I've got to go overseas. That is not, that is not what we're talking about.
00:33:56
Speaker
We're talking about taking the gospel to the ends of the earth and the ends of the earth start right outside those doors. That's where they start. And then they go to Africa. They go to Asia. They go to Malaysia. They go to Russia. They go to all those places.
00:34:11
Speaker
And I pray with all my heart that somebody in this congregation someday will feel that call to go to those places like Matt and Rachel have. Like Christina Kirtner has. But for some of you, the call is to pick up and go somewhere like Cliff and Renee Vines did by starting our church in Lewisburg, Tennessee.
00:34:29
Speaker
Some of you think that's the ends of the earth.
00:34:34
Speaker
Close, but not quite.
00:34:38
Speaker
For some of you, for some of you, the call is you have a gift for leading children, for working with teenagers. You have a gift for technology. And this group of people back here who serve so well, they need some help.
00:34:54
Speaker
For some of you... It is that you've just started a job and as you look around you, you realize that a great percentage of those people do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And God goes, you thought I gave you this job for a pay raise?
00:35:06
Speaker
No. I gave you this job because now you've got a mission field. You've got a place to serve. Some of you are in prominent places in our community where you have tremendous influence and you can set the tone for this community by saying, I am going to be this kind of person. I'm going to lead in this way.
00:35:23
Speaker
Some of you are in classrooms where kids look up to you. They see you. They recognize you. Some of you are on a ball field coaching them. Some of you are bosses and managers at places where you have the authority and the power to start a Bible study and say, anybody who wants to attend can come.
00:35:38
Speaker
All of you live in a place where you have neighbors. Some of them, they're 50 feet away from you in the next driveway. Some of them may be an acre away and you have to walk a little bit. Oh, woe is you.
00:35:53
Speaker
Make a bunch of cookies and take them to somebody and invite them to come and hear what God has to say to them. Invite them to come and taste and see that God is really, truly good.
00:36:05
Speaker
All of us have a call, but to this point, some of you are saying, I'm just too afraid.
00:36:12
Speaker
Today could be your Numbers 13 moment.
00:36:19
Speaker
Today could be that point, that point in the road where you do one of two things. You come back and say, God has given me a promise and I choose to embrace it.
00:36:34
Speaker
Or you could start your response with the word, However. However. I've never done that before. I'm not trained to do that.
00:36:48
Speaker
This isn't one sweat on my agenda. What about my kids? What about my husband? What about my career? What about my finances? What about this? Can I just promise you this?
00:36:59
Speaker
There is no calling that God has called you to that will ever be less exciting than the pursuit of something you desire for yourself.
00:37:13
Speaker
You may think making a million dollars is going to make you happy. It's not going make you nearly as happy as pursuing Jesus Christ with all your heart.
00:37:24
Speaker
You may think if I can just get my family into a bigger house, into a better school, into a better job situation, we'll be all right. And I'm telling you, you'll never be all right until you are all in on Jesus Christ.
00:37:43
Speaker
Chapter 14, verse 1, it says, The whole community broke out into loud cries, wept all night, complained about Moses and Aaron. Happens on a weekly basis in our church offices.
00:37:56
Speaker
Get a phone call or an email. But you don't understand. you you you don't You're not going through what I'm going through. You haven't felt what I've felt. And in many of those cases, our answer is, no, we haven't, but God has.
00:38:12
Speaker
God was not surprised when you went through what you went through.
00:38:18
Speaker
One of the most shattering realizations for my life was that the day after my wife and son died, was God was not surprised by that moment. That He was not at all taken aback by that situation.
Facing Reality with God
00:38:33
Speaker
And at that moment, I had the choice. Do I use the word however? Or do I keep embracing the God who had gotten me that far?
00:38:46
Speaker
Things got so bad for these people, they even started saying again, if only we had died in Egypt. If only we were back with the cucumbers and leeks and melons and onions. By the way, what about the chains and the whips?
00:39:00
Speaker
Fear causes us to distort our reality. That's what happens when our faith fails.
00:39:10
Speaker
And here's one of those moments where God says, okay, fine. I'll just crush you and I'll start over with Moses. I will destroy you and we'll we'll just move on with the one guy who's got the faith that needs to be here.
00:39:23
Speaker
And Moses, out of his kindness and compassion, falls on his face before God and reminds God of his promises.
00:39:31
Speaker
So here's a cute little lesson, just a little side lesson for you. You get in this season where you're pursuing God and it doesn't appear to be going exactly like you think it should, don't go call the church office or don't get on Facebook and ask for advice. Don't call your family in and say, can we talk about this? Get on your knees and talk to God.
00:39:49
Speaker
He's the one that made the promise. He's the one that's going to fulfill it. Embrace what God wants to do. in you and through you, and then lean on him when the going gets tough. And it will get tough.
00:40:03
Speaker
You pursue God, it's not going to be easy. The more this church continues to extend its ministries, the more we continue to extend our influence, the more things come against it. The more things try to get in the way, the more things become a hassle.
00:40:18
Speaker
There are times, I promise you, times I've looked at my wife and said, can I just go work at Walmart?
00:40:24
Speaker
I'd rather hear somebody complain about what's not on aisle 14 than to have to listen to some of the stuff we have to listen to on a weekly basis. And I'm not just talking about people in our church. I'm just talking about people in the community.
00:40:35
Speaker
Your church has too many cars coming out on Sunday. Can you do something about that? Sure. If you'll come park in our parking lot, you can leave it the same time they do. You'll be right in the flow of traffic.
00:40:47
Speaker
There you go.
00:40:51
Speaker
Can I just tell you something really beautiful? Our sins and are many. God's mercy is more.
00:40:59
Speaker
The story's not over. God's still handing out promised land to people who will believe and trust him. And if you're living a life of disobedience, if you have a lack of faith here today, he will forgive you and he will receive what you want to offer to him and he will use it.
00:41:18
Speaker
This generation wandered for 40 years in the wilderness because of a lack of faith. God said to them, because I am just, I will keep my word and you will get that promised land.
00:41:30
Speaker
But you're going to get your way because you will never see it. Your children will get Let
00:41:38
Speaker
me close by reading this. Hebrews chapter 3.
00:41:44
Speaker
Verses 7-12.
00:41:46
Speaker
therefore as the holy spirit says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your ancestors tested me chide me and saw my works for forty years therefore i was provoked to anger with that generation and said they will always go astray in their hearts and they have not known my way so i swore in my anger that they will not enter my rest And here's the words from the preacher as an encouragement.
00:42:16
Speaker
Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won't be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
Encouragement and Warnings
00:42:26
Speaker
Don't let fear or unbelief keep you from knowing God first, following God second.
00:42:35
Speaker
This is a Numbers 13 moment for you today.
00:42:39
Speaker
Whatever that call is on your life, The time to obey is right now. Will you pray with me?
00:43:04
Speaker
First of all, God, and there's much to thank you for.
00:43:09
Speaker
You are a God who gives out.
00:43:12
Speaker
great and precious promises but even more so you are the one who fulfills those promises not just to Hebrew people thousands of years ago
00:43:27
Speaker
but you would promise you would send ah deliverer a Messiah and your son came He lived a perfect life. He died a horrible death.
00:43:39
Speaker
He arose a victorious Savior. And today he's the one that we trust in.
00:43:46
Speaker
But for many of us in this room today, faith has taken a back seat to our fears.
00:43:56
Speaker
Fear enters our lives when we trust in man more than we trust in you.
00:44:02
Speaker
We trust more in our ability than we trust in your abilities.
00:44:08
Speaker
When we listen more to the words of people around us more than we listen to the words of Scripture and the words of your Spirit as he teaches and trains us and leads us.
00:44:21
Speaker
This morning in this church, you have blessed this church tremendously. You have given to us in ways that we do not deserve.
00:44:34
Speaker
And in exchange, you call us. You say to us, will you give me all of your talent? Will you give me all of your time? Will you be all in with me? Because in doing so, i can use you to change a generation.
00:44:53
Speaker
ah So this morning, Father, would you help us by giving us the strength to take all of those fears and lay them at your feet and trust you in faith.
00:45:06
Speaker
Middle Tennessee would never be the same. Never be the same if three or four people in this room were to say this morning, I'm going all in. I'm not holding anything back from my God.
00:45:18
Speaker
If he wants my house, he can have it. He wants my health, he can have it. He wants my bank account, it's his. If he wants my children, I will give them for his service.
00:45:33
Speaker
And if it's me he wants, it's me he will have. All of me. Inside out.
00:45:43
Speaker
You told Moses. And then later you told Joshua. Be strong and very courageous. And do not be afraid.
00:45:53
Speaker
For I am with you. Help us to trust that this morning.
00:46:01
Speaker
Now before you look up. Before you start looking around and meandering and in your mind to different things, your thoughts, just different places, before you start collecting all your things to get to wherever you got to go to next, you've got business with Jesus this morning.
00:46:16
Speaker
Because I was loud enough this morning, I know everybody heard what I had to say. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you've got a call on your life
00:46:27
Speaker
And what I would like to see this morning, what I know God would love to see, is some of you just getting up from where you are, coming to this altar and laying on your face before him and saying, hey, I'm giving you everything I got.
00:46:40
Speaker
I'm sitting here this morning and I recognize that I have not done that. I've been holding on to some things thinking if I could just keep this in my pocket, if I could just keep this in mind my bank account, if I could just keep this within my family, du then we'll be okay. And God's saying, no, I want you, all of you given to me so that I can use you.
00:47:02
Speaker
So this morning as we start to sing, if God is speaking to your heart in that area, There's only one right way to respond, and that is to get up and to move and not let fear keep you from experiencing all that God has for you.