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The Twelve Spies
{GWFL}
Welcome
Go greet someone real quick and tell them: God is getting ready to fulfill your promise!
LifeGroups are starting this month!
Jan. 25th is the first date!
Every last Wednesday.
See the LifeGroups table in the entryway for more information.
Our congregation will be divided into three groups.
We will have posted there at the table who will be in what group very soon!
In the meantime, don’t miss the next two Wednesdays, as we are looking at a biblical basis for these groups.
Last Wednesday was powerful!
Today, we start a new series.
Let’s pray!
Text
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Lesson Connection
Blake got thrown into the pool as a child.
He held a grudge growing up.
Fear is a crippling thing.
And it has stopped many a man or woman of God from seeing the promises of God fulfilled in their life.
Most of the time we relate fear to our childhood.
I remember as a boy, I used to be scared of being in the church when no one else was here.
It just felt spooky.
But I came over to learn to play those drums.
Many days after school.
If I’d let the fear of the dark and quiet take over, I wouldn’t have learned it.
But it goes beyond childhood.
There are people today who don’t have the peace of God because they have allowed fear to run them.
Israel Selected Twelve Spies
One of my favorite parts of the whole Bible is Exodus.
Have you ever considered the amount of faith it took to walk out of Egypt and through on dry ground at the Red Sea?
A massive divide of water on either side of you?
An army coming quickly behind?
Well, after all of that faith and experiencing God’s power in action, just a few weeks later… Israel was finally coming close to seeing the fulfillment of a promise centuries in the making.
There were twelve men.
They were frantically getting stuff together for an expedition or adventure, if you will.
These twelve represented the twelve tribes.
God had commissioned them:
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God Wanted to Show His People the Blessings that Awaited Them
I’m sure that the energy level was high!
Each tribe was assembling their leaders.
I mean, hundreds of years before this, God had challenged Abraham to trust Him, and get out of the comfort of his homeland and family, and set out for a land that God would show him.
Think of the excitement of his descendants now!
They knew what God had told Abraham! I’m willing to say there were likely tears of joy!
But think about how God felt, also:
He had watched the faith of Abraham grow over time.
Abraham had seen the ups and downs in the life of his son, Isaac.
There was thee painful feud between Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau.
And this placed Jacob to father the twelve sons who would lead the tribes of Israel.
God now was desiring for the twelve spies from these tribes to finally witness and report on the promised blessings from over many years.
It was time for Him to position them to receive the promise.
God Desires to Reveal His Promises to Us
A loving parent hopes that their children will experience the best in life.
Mature relationships, spiritual discipline, healthy independence, and financial security usually top the list of what they hope for their children.
And along the way, a parent will share promises of blessings or benefits to come.
And part of the parent’s job is to prepare children to receive and manage these blessings and benefits.
So they have to teach things like discipline, patience, or lessons in gratitude.
Sometimes… those promised rewards can bring both blessings and curses.
Like a car.
A car can give a lot of independence to a teenager.
But it also presents possible great danger.
Dating, if it’s approached right, can help a teenager or young adult to one day wisely decide on a life partner when the time is right.
But at the same time, it can also provide some large problems if it’s went about unwisely or without safe boundaries.
Life is just full of opportunities and promises.
And that preparation to embrace them is usually as important as receiving them.
And God has many promises for His children.
Because He knows our nature, God is going to do His best to strengthen our character, mature us, and position us to receive His best.
But this will take time, testing, and experience.
We want to be ready and willing to claim His promises when He finally prompts us to go into them.
We don’t want to be hindered when it’s time.
And the problem we’re reading of today is fear.
When it was time, fear paralyzed some people.
Unfaithful Spies
“Burn the Boats!”
In about 1519, Hernan Cortez and his men arrived in Veracruz, Mexico.
And they had one goal: conquest.
They were there to take land.
And when they arrived, Cortez ordered his men to burn all of their ships.
And the reason he did, is because he didn’t want to lead his men into the challenges ahead while they thought they had any option but victory.
And this is where the famous saying of courage comes from: “Burn the boats!”
Cortez understood that human nature has a tendency to lose courage when we go through adversity.
And when retreat no longer becomes an option, courage has to overcome the fear we have of moving into new territory.
Ten Unfaithful Spies Expressed Disbelief
So, for the twelve spies, before they went out on their journey they were told to “be of good courage.”
Let’s talk about this 40-day journey they had.
It was pretty amazing...
The land they were able to see was every single thing that God had promised.
They brought back a testimony of a land that flowed with milk and honey.
They came in carrying grapes, figs, and pomegranates.
But 10 of the 12 spies who were spying out Canaan… returned looking for the boats.
It wasn’t that they didn’t witness how great the land was.
And God had positioned them to take it.
But these men were drowning in a sea of fear and disbelief.
They were looking for a boat - actually a trail - back to Egypt.
Listen to me, because I believe we’re on the verge of walking over into promises… They were blinded by the challenge instead of motivated by the promises!
Fear and disbelief can be contagious.
The negative report that these 10 were bringing started trickling through the people… who at one time were excited and motivated.
We Must See through God’s Eyes
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