How to Miss The Promised Land
INTRODUCTION:
· The Christian walk, is a faith walk, we walk by faith and not by sight - a confidence in God’s Word
· Heb 11:1 - without faith it is impossible to please Him
· We must believe God’s Word, even when it seems ridiculous
· Even when it seems risky, when It looks hard
· Even when people laugh at us & criticize us
· Isa 55:10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
· When God says it… you can count on it
· 1 Cor 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
· There are 5 "all’s" listed here
· They all experienced God’s miraculous but God ended up not pleased with many
· This is not just about Israel, it is an example for us
· The accounts of Israel are enormously relevant to us
· 2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
· Right before every great move of God and right after a great move of God - attack comes
· The Enemy wants you far away your promised land
· What is the "Promised Land?"
o God’s destination for your life
o His place of fulfillment for you
o His place of overabundance
o His place of establishment for you
o His place of prosperity for you
o His place of peace for you
· Stop, Look & Listen - this message is full of warnings
MAIN TEXT:
Numbers 13:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them."
· The Lord tells them to spy out the land, not to see if they could conquer it
· to get strategies on how they would conquer it.
3 So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
Vs. 4 -15 (gives the names and tribes of the 12 spies)
16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua. 17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, 18 and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; 19 whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; 20 whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land." Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. 21 So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. 22 And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. 24 The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. 26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 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.
4 KEYS FOR NOT ENTERING INTO THE PROMISED LAND
28 Nevertheless… the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan."
1.) When you fix your attention on the obstacles rather than the objective, fear will eclipse your faith
· The objective was to get a strategy how to do it, not determine if they could do it
· Everything was exactly how God told them it would be, but there were things He didn’t mention
· Obstacles are the frightening things you see when you take your eyes of the objective
· When you stop using your spiritual sight which is fixed on God’s Word
· And began using natural sight which only sees what is in front of it
· If you focused on the difficulties and the dangers, you will never take the risks
· You will never reach the top levels of your faith walk
· Higher levels, bigger devils
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." 31 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." 32 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 that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Numbers 14:1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2.) When you compare what you lack to what others possess, intimidation will replace confidence.
· Things will appear giants to grasshoppers, when you compare
· They were not grasshoppers in God’s sight
· They were not grasshoppers in the Palestinian’s sight
· They were grasshoppers in their own sight!
· When you began comparing yourself to what you think your obstacle have over you, your imagination will go crazy
· All the people cried all night - they were in fear
· They left the limitless realm of the supernatural and returned to the limited realm of the natural
· God loves uneven battles - because He gets all the glory
14:2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" 4 So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt." 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
3.) When you allow fear to take control of your situation, your desire for relief will weaken your courage.
· Fear stirred them into a tizzy
· They got themselves talked into going back to Egypt - back into bondage
· Christians today are the same, a little discomfort, a few trials, and they are ready to retreat
· And of course, they wanted to blame the leadership for not hearing God right
· There is always a leader who will take you back to where you were
6 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ’a land which flows with milk and honey.’ 9 "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."
· You have to give Joshua & Caleb credit, they were gutsy
· If you have something to say that’s right, say it
10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
4.) When you to determine to disobey, you will seek instant gratification and justification, rather than endure the cultivation of character.
· There is no limit that you won’t go
· You will hurt people, sometime permanently
· You want relief, now
· Get out while the getting is good
· There is no growth, no increase, no blessing
· God has had it with them, He is ready to strike them down and disinherit them
· But Moses pleads the nation’s case
· He calls on God’s mercy, He reasons with them
· Egypt will hear about this and tell the inhabitants of this land, their God could not bring them in, so he killed them
· The Lord graciously holds back, but He say, okay Moses there will be a trial that the whole nation will never forget - no one except Joshua & Caleb will enter in
CONCLUSION:
· This walk is a faith walk
· If we walk by faith, then we cannot walk by sight
· If you do not want to succeed these are good lessons
· If you don’t want to enter into your promised land, then do likewise
· Take your eyes of the objective and look at the obstacles
· Compare what you lack to what others possess
· Allow fear to take control of your situation
· When you decide to disobey, seek justification rather than character cultivation
· But I believe that God wants us to come up higher
· I believe He wants us to trust Him - totally
· I believe when He promises us something, nothing can stand in our way
· I believe we can overcome ridiculous odds through Christ
· The accounts of Israel are examples, to help us avoid the same pitfalls
