Deserts | Week 2 | Sermon

What we are we we are gonna see this big idea that we need to don't wander in fear, but walk in faith. Because what's happening is God in in the book of numbers now, he's already rescued his people from slavery.

He's shown his power. He's guided them a pillar of fire, a pillar pillar of cloud, took them through a sea, divided a sea to save them from an army. He's done nothing but save them and love them and get them out of slavery. He they went to Mount Sinai. They got the 10 commandments. They've seen his presence. They're worshiping him. And now he's got them right on the outskirts of the promised land. The place he said, this is the beautiful place I wanna take you.

And they get paralyzed by fear and unbelief. And they end up not going in the land. And one whole generation ends up never getting to go into the land. And they end up wandering for forty years. And they miss the moment.

The thing that God really wanted to take them to. Now this is not about salvation and internal love of God versus going to hell. What that land represents, you can go read Hebrews three and four, talks about it, is that resting in the inheritance that God has for us. So as believers,

God has given us an inheritance, and it's not just going to heaven. There's an inheritance of being able to be a part of his kingdom in the here and now, and we can enjoy that land now by faith. But if we wander and don't trust God, we might wander, which this whole generation ends up wandering for forty years till they die. They spend the rest of their lives wandering even though they're still worshiping God. Even though it'd be like us, still coming to church, still day but missing out on what God really had for us because we're afraid.

And you're never gonna get to see the beautiful land, the inheritance he wants us to have now without faith. So what I wanna do is in thirteen, fourteen, I'm gonna read parts of it, and I'm gonna point out four things. There's four kinda contrasts

in here of this is what fear does versus this is how faith walks. And I wanna start off in in verse 25 of chapter 13.

And what's happening is this part is they're at the land, and God has told them Moses is sending in some scouts. It says spies, but they're really scouts to to do recon, reconnaissance of the land. And he and he sends in one scout from each of the 12 tribes. So 12 guys go in, and and he tells them what to scout out. And it's pretty obvious. He wants them to see something. Bring back some examples of the produce and tell me what the land is like. They're gonna farm it. They go, how good is it? We wanna be excited.

And then also look at some of their fortifications and all that. As a military guy, we have to go have a battle. Matter of fact, that's why this book is called Numbers, by the way, because there's two different censuses in it where they have to count up what's the total population of our fighting men, our army, because we're gonna have to go fight. And God says, I am already securing the victory,

but you still gotta get in the battle. And that is our life as a Christian. We have to be willing to walk forward in battles that are scary, that God's called us to, but he's already said, will bring the victory. You just gotta get in the fight.

And so they're at this moment now that he sends them in, and and and here's what happened. They've went in. They've They've explored they've explored the land for forty days. They come back and they give their report. And it says this, after exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. And that fruit it's described was they got these grapes that were so big that took two guys to carry a bunch of grapes.

And it says, this was their report to Moses. We entered the land you sent us to explore and it is indeed a bountiful country. A land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. Exhibit A. But then verse 28 starts with this wonderful word, but. But.

You've all had those moments. I've had these moments where someone's telling you something good. Maybe it's a a maybe someone's talking about you. Maybe it's your spouse and they come to you. You know what, honey? I have all you know what I've always loved about you?

I've loved that you're this and you're this and you're this. And you're starting to feel good. And then they say, but. And when someone starts telling you a bunch of good stuff then says, but, you know what's coming next. What's coming next after that but is now I wanna kick yours. That's

what always comes after it. So they're saying this good stuff, but then they say, but the people living there are powerful and their towns are large and fortified.

We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. The Amalekites live in the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley. This is not new information. They knew this before they went into the land.

But Caleb, here's the good but, back the other way,

Tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. He was one of the 12. Caleb and Joshua. So 12 went in, 10 came out and had the but that said no. Two wanted to have faith and trust God. And Caleb says this, let's go at once and take the land. He said, we can certainly conquer it.

He's like, no more we went in. We saw. We saw what we needed to see. Now we have a plan. Let's go. He says, but now we're back the other way. But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. We

can't go up against them. They're stronger than we are. So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites. So now they start spreading land amongst the millions of people. Start going and talk. You know, if they had social media, they'd be on that. And and

and here's what they said. The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Whoever Anak is, they really were intimidated by this guy. Next to them, we felt like grasshoppers. And then listen to this last phrase. And that's what they thought too.

So look at how their their report. It started off with, yeah, it's everything God said. It's beautiful. But Then they describe all the problems.

And then when they get challenged, but God said, you said they're they're strong, but we have God. He's stronger. He already told us. Caleb's like, we need to walk in faith and go take the land that he called us to take. You knew we were gonna fight. That's why we got our guys all together and formed an army.

And and and then they double down. They start blabbing to everybody they know. They wanna get the whole crowd to go, and they don't even bring up the good stuff anymore in their report. All they do is talk about the bad stuff, and then they added something that's an assumption. They wrote their own narrative. We're like grasshoppers, and that's what they think. We know from the rest of Bible that's not what they thought. After what happened to Pharaoh and his army and at the Red Sea,

everybody in this land was terrified of Israel coming into their land. But no. No. They were so afraid. They started saying, and they know they're gonna wipe us out. And see, that's the problem. When we when we let fear take over and really, it's the root is unbelief. It's unbelief.

It's like God gets smaller, the problem gets bigger. It's like when I had that first little climbing part holding the chain, I go, this is nice to have. Helps me climb up. It's supportive. I'm good. I'm glad we have this. Then when it got really narrow, all of a sudden that chain looked like nothing and all I saw was was me falling.

And that's what we do with God sometimes. That's what happens. The the first two points I wanna make about fear versus faith come right from this part of the story. And the first one is this. Fear procrastinates,

faith prepares. There's a difference. And the problem is when we're in the middle of it, we think we're preparing when we're really procrastinating. If you look, 12 guys got sent to scouts. 10 of them went in and came back and said, we can't do this. We're not. So we now know they went into the land

still making up their mind. They did not decide because they came back saying there's this, but there's that. Two of the guys went in with the intention that Moses sent them in for, which was we need recon,

bring back some encouraging signs of the land so we can get excited, But then look at the fortifications. Look at this. So we'll have our battle plan. Those two guys, Kidman, went in for preparation.

They didn't even let the problem. They'd never entered their mind they weren't going to the land. They were like, where are we going first? How are we gonna attack is what they were looking at. These guys went in still thinking,

maybe I won't do this. They were still trying to decide. They were dragging their feet until they had a reason to say no. How about you when it comes to what God has called you to? How about you when it comes to what God's called us to be together, called the church?

As disciples of Jesus, what he's asked us to do with our lives, what he's asked us to center our lives around.

He's really called us to go take some land. We're supposed to be pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's not just a sign on the wall to tell everybody this is what this organization does here. We're the organization. We are called to that. Is that what your life is centered around?

Do you serve? Do you give? How about when it comes, I'm gonna love my wife like Christ loved the church. I'm gonna respect my husband. I'm gonna be a good father. We have all these things that we're called to, and we think about it. And then sometimes we think we're preparing when we're really just procrastinating.

We're thinking about it and think, well, I gotta we say stuff like how we programs. I gotta pray about that was a deep thought, pastor. I gotta pray about that. Why do you need to pray about something God's already made very clear that he's called you to do?

To say I gotta pray or I gotta think about it, that's procrastinating. Let me give you an example outside of this so it's not so heavy so you'll know we do this all the time. We do this one of the best examples I've seen is when it comes to I'm gonna get in shape.

I wanna be healthier. I wanna look better or I want all the above. And and and you finally go, I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna start at the first of the year. If you're really serious, start today.

But you know what we do? But I gotta get ready. What we say, we we're saying we're getting prepared. And what you end up doing is, you know what? I should get online. I need some good walking or running shoes. I don't like my shoes. And then you get intrigued by how the shoes look. And and and it guys, we won't admit it, but you do the same thing. You don't call it an outfit, but you're like, I want the best shoes. I'm gonna look cool. I wanna look like Manley. I don't wanna look like a loser in my slubby clothes. So we do it. Then you get, oh, but you know what? Those shorts would look good with that. And I need some shirts, and I need some outfits. Oh, I should get the Fitbit, or I should get this. I you know, I should download this app. I should get this. Or you're like, I'm gonna work out at home. You know, I can't always go to a gym. I like a gym. I'm gonna buy a Peloton bike, and I'm gonna get these dumbbells, and I'm gonna get this bench. And I'm gonna get and half of you I save so much money when I buy fitness equipment because I plan on you guys doing this.

I used to buy and sell it because you you guys will buy it for nothing. It starts becoming a clothes rack or a hanger thing. You don't use it, and I just go buy it from you, and you're just happy. You'll sell it cheap because you just want as long as you're the one that'll lug it out of here, you can have it for, like, nothing. You know why? Because you got all excited about this

that what you thought was preparation when it was really procrastination. If you were really all in that I need to get in shape, what you would do is put on the shoes you had, the slug that goes, yeah, and at least go for a walk and do some push ups and start doing something, then start adding that stuff.

We and what you're doing is you get this momentary burst of enthusiasm. It's an emotional burst that comes from the thought of you don't think about any of the hard stuff. You're only looking at the good only. Like, I know what I wanna look like, and I know that this would be fun to do it this way.

But once you start to go into the land and see the size of the obstacles, like your alarm goes off at 05:30 in the morning, or you had a hard day at work if you're working out afterwards, or you just decided I'd rather eat this pizza.

And there's no follow through. We do that with reading our Bibles.

You know, I'm gonna download. I'm gonna get this. I'm gonna get Jesus Calling, the IRS Calling, whatever it is that you're you're using. You're gonna I'm gonna get the perfect devotional. I gotta get the study bible. I gotta get this. I gotta wait. I gotta get this plan. I gotta do that. And you get so excited. I'm gonna get all the different color highlighters and start highlighting. I'm gonna make notes. I'm gonna write in my journal every day. I'm gonna do that. And you do everything except actually read your bible.

We do it. And it's really we're procrastinating. Guys, there's some things that God's just clearly called us to be.

That he says, when you put yourself in this environment, when you choose to trust me and walk down this road, I will create the victory, but I will grow you and teach you. You will see my grace, and you will experience my peace, and you will start living the inheritance. You will enjoy my rest as it says in Hebrews.

When you keep fighting and procrastinating, you just stay restless. And then you hear a sermon like this and you do what I did with my family trying to get me to climb, you start getting mad at me, which is what happens in this story. Because fear procrastinates, faith prepares. But then the next thing is

fear sees obstacles, faith sees opportunity. This is what takes procrastination into now. This is why I'm really gonna start digging in. If you noticed, they only they said that first time through, said, yeah. There was this, but and then they focused all on the negative.

Caleb gets up and goes, only the positive. God called us to do it. The first thing Caleb talked about is God said. So so when you just see obstacles and not opportunity, it's because you don't see God at all. They weren't looking at God at all. All they saw was the problems.

Caleb saw the Lord. He said, the Lord said, so I believe him. So guess what? All he sees is opportunity. He knows there's obstacles there. We'll see in a minute. He they addressed the obstacle, but in a very different way. So they saw everything in the land except the Lord. How about you? When it comes to being faithful,

listening to God.

I was driving over this morning. Sometimes I just put on I have a little side that's just old hymns. I just want mellow music. I just like to listen to it. And and sometimes it reminds me of of of being younger, but it's just I just put it on in the background and it's fun. And then this really old hymn came out and it was just it goes, you know, trust and obey

For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. That's the only time you're gonna hear me sing, guys. And it's so basic. And sometimes, we don't need all this complicated stuff. You just need a basic quoting scripture. It's trust and obey. If you don't trust, you won't obey.

And sometimes we try to obey without trusting. We'll see that by the end of this passage. But what do you see right now? What is the thing that's called to do?

What is it in your life that you know God's is it I gotta be a better father. I gotta be a better man. I need to our marriage needs to get fixed. And guys, guys, it says, you're the leader, but the Bible and leader doesn't mean boss. Maybe that's the problem. Stop acting like the boss and be a leader. And a leader goes first. So that means, how can I lead my family into this? What do I need to humble myself for and sacrifice even if my wife doesn't act lovable right away? Because that's what God called you to do. You love her like Christ loved the Church. He died for us. Why? We were sinners. We're the ones that put him to death. So hey, but my wife crucifies me all the time. Good. Now you're being Jesus.

But ladies, maybe it's the other way around. Respect your husband. Well, he's not acting respectfully. He's not well, Jesus in the Garden Of Gethsemane said, Lord, I would rather not go this route, but not my will, thy will be done. When you respect your husband, you're being Jesus in the Garden Of Gethsemane.

And you can talk about it, you can think about it, you can procrastinate, but just do it. You're like, but but this isn't gonna work. This is gonna work. You've already pre decided that God's plan isn't gonna work. You will not enter his rest. Maybe it's something else.

One of the things I see here and here that I'm always pushing us towards is how many people come to church every week and you worship the Lord, but you don't serve? You financially have not arranged your finances to give God what he's asked so we could do the kingdom? So we can do we can point people to Jesus?

And every time I say it, you you're stuck only looking at your obstacle. You're not looking at the opportunity of what God's gonna do with your faithfulness.

And part of that faithfulness is the fact that you'd survive through that. So you hold on to what you think you have to make happen, and you're gonna be restless the whole time. If you would let go and trust God, he wants to bless you with peace in that process. And if all you are is but, but, but, but,

Don't be a butthead where your head is just filled with butts all the time. You should write that down, put it on your refrigerator, and then tell your kids not to say that word.

Because what happens as we go through that? So what happens next? Let's look in the chapter 14.

It says, then the whole community began weeping aloud and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great course of protest against Moses and Aaron. So now they are gonna fight. They don't wanna fight the enemy, but who they start fighting? Each other.

And it says, if only we had died in Egypt or even here in the wilderness, they complained. Why is the Lord taking us to this country where we only have to die in battle? Isn't this similar to last week, they started whining about food?

Whenever you stop, you take your eyes off the Lord. You start trusting. You just start getting complaining and whining. Now they're going, why we why did he have to say, why do we have to die here? Why do we die there? He goes, our wives, our little ones will be carried off as plunder. Wouldn't it be better enough for us to return to Egypt? Then they plotted among themselves. Let's choose a new leader and go back to Egypt. So now, like, let's get rid of Moses and let's go back.

Let's go back.

It says, then Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the whole community of Israel. The two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun, Caleb son of Jephunah tore their clothing. They said to all the people of Israel, the land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land. And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord and don't be afraid of the people in the land. They're only helpless pray to us. They have no protection, but the Lord is with us. Don't be afraid of them.

So basically, stop and say, all they talk about is the greatness of the land. They don't mention the problem. And then the only thing they do is they say, the people in like, yeah, you kept saying that. They're not the problem. You've got it wrong. We're not the prey. We're the hunters.

They're the prey. They are not strong. You're comparing us and our might to theirs. You're saying we can't do this. You're right. It's God that's gonna do it through us. You're leaving God out of the process, and you're missing the moment. It's like we need to go in there. Guys, I we're called to be Christians. We're called to go in this community and point people to Jesus. Who cares where culture is going? Who cares how great the problems are? Who cares? And how we do that is committing our time, our talent, our treasure, and our testimony

to go share. But a lot of us like, I can't. I don't have the time. I don't have the money. I don't I don't have a story. I don't have this. And we look at all the obstacles, and then we circle the wagons. A lot of us come to church, and you think what church is is let's circle the wagons up and and and protect ourselves and put up our own gates and stay away from the battle. The problem is Jesus said it this way. When when Peter declared who Jesus was. He goes, you're right, Peter. And upon this rock, meaning Jesus,

the rock, I will build my church. I will build my church, but we're called to go. And he says, and I will build it. And what does he say? The gates of hell will not prevail. I don't about you, but what are gates? Are gates an offensive or a defensive weapon? Have you ever seen a battle scene? Can you imagine Braveheart,

William Wallace? They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom. And he runs out there with a gate.

Gates are defensive. We, as the church, are the gate crashers. We are not the gatekeepers. And that's what we need to be. And we are supposed to get out there with the gospel. And that's why I'm challenging everybody. Serve if you're gifted. And you come here and you have a gift, get involved.

Bring your finance to help us build buildings and do what we need to do. Share your story and tell people about Jesus. Politics is a gate.

Politics is let's circle our culture and let's protect it by the law. And that and then you're afraid if the policy goes away, they're gonna get inside our gates. Who cares? We're supposed to not be behind gates. We're supposed to be crashing gates with the gospel of who Christ is. And that's what Caleb and them are saying. God has called us to go in this land and take it.

And how many of us sitting in this room are wanderers because of your fear? And you're missing it. You're missing it. Because look what happens. The whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Oh, now you'll fight. You're gonna throw rocks at

the one who's calling you out and trying to challenge you to lead, which happens to me all the time. I get this. Some of you in your minds and heart are throwing rocks at me right now because I just called you out.

He goes, then the glorious presence but here's what's gonna happen. Do you wanna listen to me, or do you want this to happen? Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tabernacle.

And the Lord said to Moses, not even though I looked at Moses, how long will these people treat me with contempt?

Will they never believe me? Even after the miraculous signs I've done among them? I will disown them and destroy them with a plague, then I'll make you into a nation greater and greater and mightier than they are. So he comes it's like, this is the ultimate dad moment. Kids aren't listening. Their mom's trying to get blah blah blah. And the dad's, like, sitting there looking at the paper or doing something work and he's like, alright. That's it.

You got me off the couch. And he looks. He goes, you know what? Looks at his wife. You know what? We brought them into the world. I'm gonna take them out. And then you and I are gonna make new kids. Because we can do that. That's what he said.

Now Moses goes on. Now was it what he said wasn't what he's planning on doing. He was to get Moses to chime in. The rest of the passage goes, he's Moses, no. We can't do that, Lord. Please.

Because if these nations that are afraid of you, this you just killed us all out here. They'd go, well, that God didn't have any power. And he goes, good call, Moses. And then he says what he's gonna do. He goes, I'm gonna give them exactly what they're afraid of and what they want. They aren't gonna go into the promised land. They're gonna sit and wander out here till this whole generation dies.

And they're afraid about their kids dying or being plundered. They're gonna be the ones that are gonna go into the land. And you know who's gonna lead them? The only two of this generation that's going into that land is the two guys they do we're trying to kill. Joshua and Caleb. Thus saith the Lord.

So what's going on here? This whole part of the story, what does that mean? The third thing, fear rebels, faith relies.

If you just procrastinate instead of preparing and moving forward, if all you see is obstacles and you won't embrace the opportunity of what's on the other side, What's on the other side of trusting God in these ways?

You will eventually rebel just like I did on that mountain and start fighting, but you'll fight the wrong direction.

Instead of fighting the battle God wants you in, you're gonna fight everybody else. You're gonna fight me. You're gonna fight in your family. You're gonna fight in this thing. You're gonna and, ultimately, what God says when he stands up is, you're really fighting me. You won't believe me. You won't trust me.

And you know why? Because fear is forgetful, and fear goes the wrong way. So fear forgets when you're looking forward and you see an obstacle. Fear forgets all the things God has already done. But what it does remember is all the good things about where they were from without the bad. They said, let's go back to Egypt.

Seriously, what were they in Egypt? Slaves. What was happening to their kids being killed? They're worried about their kids killed. That's what was happening in Egypt. But what did they complain before about wanting to go back to Egypt? At least in Egypt, we had onions.

We had leeks, which is another kind of onion. We had two kinds of onions. We had we had garlic. We had bad breath. They're forgetting the slavery. Fear is forgetful. It's forgetful of the good things God has done when you're facing forward.

And when it wants you to turn back, looking back, it forgets the good. And and all it remembers is the measly little good things. And if you do this long enough, you will literally run back the way you came because you think that's how to win. You will run from God. You will go the wrong way and think it's a good idea.

Matter of fact, I wanna show you a clip from the nineteen twenty nine Rose Bowl. There was a guy named Roy Regals. He was one of the best players on their team. Got their team to the Rose Bowl that year, but he has a play that I'm about to show you that made him famous and gave him a nickname, but not in the way you would want it. So just just watch this.

The most famous case of misdirection in the history of football. Wrong way Roy Regals retrieves a fumble then rockets 60 yards to the end zone. Roy, great play, wrong way. You guys see what just happened? I know it's grainy. There's a fumble

as they're they're moving the ball down the field. He picks up the the ball that was dropped by his teammate and starts going forward to towards their end zone. But what happens is he has guys coming in and says, I don't wanna hit him. I don't wanna hit him. You see him turn? The problem is the other team started to end the defense started to envelop him. So as he turns, he goes, nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. And then he all said he gets all the way turned around. He goes, hey, open space.

And he takes off. He gets so turned around by avoiding the fight that he's going the wrong way. And if you know did you see the guy who tackled him? It was his own teammate.

He tackled him on the one yard line. And you gotta know there was a moment when he tackled him. He looks he's like, Larry, what are you doing? He's like Roy, take your helmet off and look where you're at. You are about to score for the other team. He's like, no. I was in it. No. You are going the wrong way. Wake up.

And that's what happens. That's what we do. And and then you get mad like that. He was probably mad when he first got tackled because he didn't realize. And right now, I am challenging some of you. Some of you have known the Lord forever, and you refuse to just be a disciple.

You refuse to get in the game, to get in the fight that says, is my life, is everything. I am a steward of what God has given me. And am I gonna engage in this fight to take Jesus to people? Am I going to do that or not? And you're like, nope. It's hard. I don't want to. I don't want to. I and you're looking at all the obstacles, and you've turned so much that now you go, well, that way seems easy, and you're running back towards slavery. You're running back the wrong way, and you think you're winning.

Some of you all listen to me go, that's stupid. I'm not gonna do it. You you like where you're at. You think you're scoring. Yeah. You're heading to an end zone. The wrong one.

And you know what happened at point? You got tackled the one yard line. So instead to go the whole 99 yards, they ended up getting a safety against him, two points, and they lost the game eight to seven. And he became known as Roy Wrongway Regals the rest of his life.

Some of us,

I don't wanna be Bill wrong way Christian Bush. How about you? Because there are some consequences that you might spend your entire life wandering, and then you wonder why your life never had the peace and the joy. Because you won't believe God. And believing God and putting faith in God means

do the thing that seems impossible to you because that's the only way you see.

And we go, make it easy, then I'll do it. We run towards open ground. We run the path of least resistance. And we think we're winning and we're not. You're losing. You're losing.

And then you get mad at me for I'm just tackling you. That's what throat punch is. Some of you men, I know you get mad when I challenge you this way. But you know what? I'm your friend. I'm your teammate. And I am trying to stop you from scoring for the other team.

I'm tackling you. I'm rattling your cage, as I like to say. And the reason I'm rattling rattling your cages, you need to see that you're in one. And then what you need to see is Jesus already unlocked it. You just need to unlatch it and walk out.

But you need to see that you're in one. You need to know you're going the other way. I am tackling you right now. I am pleading with you. Don't miss the victory that Jesus died to give you. But you're gonna have to run towards the tackles. You're gonna have to run that way.

And then trust God. Believe God. Because if not, here's what'll happen. I wanna read the last few verses of chapter 14 starting in verse 39. When Moses reported the Lord's words to all there is, like, he said, you're this generation is not going in. Here's what's gonna happen. It says the people were filled with grief.

When they got up then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. Let's go. They said, we realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the Lord has promised us. So now, like, okay. Now we're gonna do it. After God said, nope. That's not happening. Now I want you to go this direction.

And then said, but Moses said, why are you now disobeying the Lord's orders to return to the wilderness? It won't work. Don't go up in the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the Lord is not with you. When you face the Amalekites and the Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The Lord will abandon you because you abandoned the Lord. But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country even though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord's covenant left the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back to as far as Orma. So they went and got slaughtered.

The last point is this. If you continue down this path of fear instead of walking in faith,

fear tries, faith trusts. What I mean by try that sounds like they're trying to do a good thing. They think they are. They really do. That's the problem when you get turned around. Even when you try to do the right thing,

you're convinced that you're doing the right thing. But the problem is you're doing it the wrong way. They're now trying they're they can still get the same problem.

They don't believe God. Because God said, now this is what's gonna happen. I want you to go this direction. God took care of them. The rest of Numbers, he took care of them their whole life. It's just that you're not gonna get this. You you you you you progress it. You just won't do it, so you're not gonna get it.

And they said, no. No. I'll get it now. I'll do it now. But how they try to do it? Without the Lord. Once again, the problem they got into this problem by seeing only problems and not seeing the Lord. They're trying to get out of it by doing something God had originally said, but still doing it without seeing the Lord.

And that's what a lot of us do. Lot of you hear a sermon like this, and you get this moment burst of guilt. You're like, you know what? He's right, And I'm gonna do this. And then you do it your way.

You're like a kid. I'll do it, but I wanna do it myself. And you're like, it doesn't work that way. Now I'm gonna do it anyways. Like, remember my daughter. You know how many times in a VCR I found a waffle? My kids wanted to watch a tape. I know how to do it. You stick something in here and you get to watch movies.

And they stuck a waffle. I go that ain't gonna work. And and and and so they're trying to do it. Some of us say, I'm gonna do this. Okay. I'm gonna be spiritual. I'm gonna trust God. But I'm gonna trust him my way. And one of the biggest ways I see in our culture is the biggest lies where we try to trust God without trusting God is, I'll be spiritual without being a part of organized religion. Or I don't need to be involved in church. I don't have to be there. I just need me, a Bible, I can go on a hike. Yes. You need that alone time. That's part of our faith. God wants us alone, but God called us to come together to do something greater.

And we need to be in the room together. We need to be serving together. We need to be giving together. We need to be moving,

But we act like that's not important. We act like we're some some of the people that they think they're so holy and so spiritual are outside of the church and God called us to be the church. The church means the body. We're called the body of Christ. And people I don't need to be a part of an organized church. Do you want to have an organized body?

Physically, do you like your body organized? Do you want everything in the right place? Would you like your physical body to be, well, the hands over there? My eyeballs are here. No. That's one of the ways that you're trying to do the Christian thing without trusting Christ. You're trying to have this relationship

without actually listening to him. You're like, I'll give the way I give. I'll do what I want. Here's how I serve. I do it. And you're like, you're making up all these ways you're gonna go do what God said without doing what God said. You know why? Because that's still fearful. Even if you go kind of the direction he said,

you're doing it without the power of the Holy Spirit, you're doing without trust, and you're still doing it without surrendering. What you're doing is I'll do what you said in my way at my time in a way that makes sense to me.

And that's not gonna grow you. That's not gonna get you anywhere. That's gonna keep you in the safe place. That's gonna keep you the fear. You will not actually step out against that fear and believe God. You need to do it the way he said to do it when he says to do it. Trust and obey.

Don't just say you trust, but not obey. And don't just obey without actually trusting. Does that make sense?

Because that's what we're called to be. We're not supposed to try. We're supposed to trust. And it says in Hebrews chapter three verse seven and eight, it repeats in this chapter a couple times. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. That's the heart of the matter.

Because a lot of us are trying to follow God with hardened hearts. I wanna come in here and say, love that Jesus died for me, but your heart is hard to his actual will, to the actual purpose. And we need to have our hearts softened. You need to surrender to God. In other words, I'm I'm heading to Zambia tomorrow,

and I like going places. Matter of fact, you're a part of that. If you give to this church, you've helped us start up this movement over there. Malenga, he's been on stage. And and and now he started like six or eight churches and I go. He has this pastor's conference. I get to go and pour in about 400 pastors.

And I love being there. I hate getting places. I I have to fly through Newark. I've been through Newark four times in my life, and I've had to spend the night in Newark three of the four times. I don't like the Newark Airport, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't like me. But you know what?

I know that if I'm gonna go where God wants me to go, when I travel, I don't like the getting there and I have to tell myself surrender to the process. Or I'm gonna get frustrated every time there's a line, every time there's a delay, everything. I am just gonna melt down. But if I go, I know God wants me to get here.

I can relax during this hard part of the process.

That's how you get a soft heart. And to help us understand this right at the end, I wanna introduce you guys to a friend of mine who's done this. He's a Caleb from this story. He was called into a land of giants that he knew nothing about, and he did it. His name is David Elijah.

You know him. We have talked about him. We support him. We've helped him. He's the pastor of New Hope Church in Lehi, Utah.

And he he doesn't from Utah. He was just living there. He was a worship pastor. God called him to start a church, and he knew nothing about it. And he just did it in this land of giants. It's a hard culture to plant a bible believing church in Utah. Most don't make it. You got a hostile environment.

You you got a a a dominated culture by a faith that says the name Jesus, but does not believe in Jesus. They've changed everything about who Jesus is. And and and and and and it is hard. It's like you have a a wall against you in every way. And he knew nothing about it. And God said do it, and he just went.

And I wanna call him out here because I think you're gonna see both his story, but I wanna also thank you. And he does because those of you that have trusted God and gone on and become a part of this church in the way we're called to be where you give and you serve.

Because of your faithfulness, we were able to be a part of the story. And I want you to see the land flowing with milk and egg, the results of your faithfulness, how God has used it. So is David out here? Where is he? Come on out, buddy. There's David.

Here's my friend. You went into the land of giants. Yeah. Are you sure they weren't just average sized people? We're twins, aren't we?

My feet dangle on this chair. Yeah. His feet dangle. Sorry. I'll come up here a little bit. Hey. So as we get into your story, first, just introduce your family. Yeah. I'm David. Thank you guys for having us. On the screen here, you'll see my family.

Katie, my wife, I think. I don't think she's in the room. She might be back there. But Katie, my wife, my oldest son, Noah. In the middle there is Isley, she's 12.

Next to her is Capri, she's three. Next to her is Beckham with a long hair. And then on the far right there is Indy. Five kids. There's something in the water of Utah. It's just the way it is out there. So

big big big family. Yeah. Well, pulled a joke on him in the in the first service that I didn't do last night. But said, hey, you know what? You got this picture of your family, but I think to really know you, I found a picture to help you know David too. And we got this picture.

That's him in the middle in his band days. He was in a pretty successful band back when he was young, And and and and he was six two with his hair back then. But I

just thought you'd see this Panama band and and and get to see that and have him have PTSD from the old Oh, so bad. But no. But hey, as you come here, like I said, you're you're up and you thought you started the church. You had you'd been in music. Like, that's why I showed that and and and you're a worship pastor. And then you just felt God's call in your life.

Walk us through that quickly and then and then how we got involved. How did how did you meet me and how did we become part of this? So we yeah. We just felt like the Lord said, go plant a church and I and I'll be honest with you. I said no so many times, but our biggest prayer through that process was just Lord, if you're in it, you'll provide. And we had no support. We had no resources. We didn't know what we were doing. I was young, 27, 28 at the time and I had no idea what was going on and what to do. But we knew

people need hope here. And so we're willing to take that step of faith. So so we did. The Lord provided, gave us everything we did to launch the church and it's been an amazing journey since then. But then about 2019, I was friends with Bill on Facebook. I don't even know how,

but he posted about this building being built. And so I reached out just with a comment and said, hey, how did you do that? Like, what does that look like? And so Bill responded. I was blown away. This guy would even give me the time of day. It was awesome. And he reached out and we started talking on the phone. It was a couple hour conversation. I got to share my story with him and then we became friends and we just had phone call after phone call for a while then COVID hit and you checked up on me. Just so you know, kind of, you know, he shared a little bit about the land that we're in. Four churches shut down and during the COVID time and they never came back and we were just thankful that we made it through, but it was hard. Super hard during that time. You met outside on baseball field in the winter there for a little while because the schools wouldn't let you back. Yeah. So we were at a school at the time set up, turned on doing those things and then they wouldn't let us in during the time of COVID. So we got creative. Hey, So, can we rent the back of the school as a baseball field? And we were outdoors for a big portion of that year.

And then up until October and around October, it starts to snow. So our last Sunday outside, it was snowing and I'm like, we gotta go indoors here. Like we have to. So we we convinced them to let us back in and they let us back in, but it was it was hard. Well, the first thing in

that process, what I felt at the time, was like, I all those years, even through COVID, I'd never met him in person. We would just talk. And it was weird when I first talked to him. First of all, the first victory for you, if you didn't notice it, was all of you that were faithful that have helped us, you know, given

here and we got into this building. The fact that we were building this building is what made him reach out. Yeah. So the door got open because of those of you that went into the land. That's what it means when you are faithful with God with your It

does things you never even imagined. It does stuff beyond. The victory here is comes from some of you sacrifice and you gave. And it's not just, you know, doing this, paying for that. And what you would have done with that money would pales in comparing. And this is just one example. He saw that and asked.

And then I was thankful that the Lord kinda spoke to me in that moment. At this time, I said, I don't think this is an organizational thing God wants from me. I just felt like at the time he said, Bill, you need to be his friend.

I I think you can help. And so for the first couple years, it was that. But then after COVID, there was an opportunity for we started talking about Yeah. Building. Facility. Yeah. I I reached out to him last minute. It was like, we have an opportunity to jump into this building and and and rent it, but it's the first time we'd ever get a space.

And so I called them And it's hard to do that because you had one time you were about to sign Yeah. Pre that we were about to sign in a building. We paid for plans from the city. We got city approval. We went through everything in the day of signing. This is how hard it is to get a space there. The day of signing, the owner of the building came in and said, actually, I'm not gonna give you this. I don't think your church is gonna make it. And so he just walked out the door and that was it. And I was so discouraged, but the Lord knew he had a game plan. And so this next building came about a year and a half later and we had this opportunity and I reached out to Bill and I said, hey,

we're trying to raise $50,000

like I didn't ask you for any money. I just said, can you help me with just how do you do this? And what does this look like? You've done this with this building and can you help? And of course, you guys are so gracious and kind. I mean, I just wanna say this. We wouldn't be in that building without you guys. So can you give yourselves a hand? It's

fascinating. That's part two. Because at that point, I felt like God was saying, I need to take this to our team. This might be something that our church, we can help.

And the team looked at it. And we because of those of you who faithfully give, we try to take a part of our missions budget and put it in a thing called just opportunities that we don't budget it something. And if something like this comes up that God says go, it's it's being prepared instead of procrastinating.

And and we had $20,000 in it. So I said, here's how you do. I walked him through because he just needed to get it in, like, one week. He had one sermon to get $50,000 out of, like 50 people. Yeah. The church And

I go, here's what you do. And I walked through what to say, and then right at the end and I said, and here's your kicker. You could tell him, hey, I got a friend who's been encouraging me and helping from afar in his church, and I've never still met him face to face. But he believes in what we're doing so much that they've thrown $20,000

into this already. We're already 40% of the way there. And and so what that did is your little group was inspired and you got The rest, we 70. They got 50,000 Yeah. From the church. And then I called and said, well, can I have the 20 back? Amen. Amen. No.

What's weird is God knew, by the time they got in, the expenses, it ended up costing 70,000.

Yeah. It was a lot. Like, God just knew that that the 50,000 would come from then. Yeah. And then we went up there and helped with it. Describe the it was kinda cool some of the stories have happened because what was this building? Yeah. Yeah. So we now rent it's it was the old Lehigh police station. And what's unique about it and really cool is right in the center aisle right here,

there's these little square metal squares that go every like 10 feet. That's where the jail cells used to be. Now it's our auditorium sanctuary. So it's cool that God brings hope out of that. But what's unique about it is there's actually been four people that have come in the New Hope and they've walked in and I've got to meet them that have said, hey, I've been here before but in a different way.

And they've all given their life to Jesus. So what a cool moment Yeah. For that. That's a cool story about that.

And the other cool thing is is the the the LDS population, a lot of them, they they don't find hope. They don't find Christ in in their church, but they feel trapped. Yeah. Because it's a cultural it's a family thing. It's a business thing with that. And so if they decide to leave and go to a a Christian church, they'll get ostracized,

and it's very difficult. So if they show up on a weekend, their family knows they weren't at church. Where were you?

And so you discovered that you were reaching people in a unique way. They were they were coming before they came. Right? Yeah. There's a lot that watch online probably a year or two before they ever walked through our doors. And so it's unique when you meet a family that comes in. One, it's a big step for them to walk through the doors. So what a cool step of faith for them. But many are getting saved online first and then walking through the door eventually as they step out in faith and come through the door. So what a cool thing that we get to have that online.

You guys have helped us just better our online experience over the years. And so thank you again for being a part of that as well. It's seriously because of your guys' faithfulness and we appreciate it. So in the end when he asked how do you do that when you saw a building? The ultimate answer was look around. Yeah.

Every one of you that has chosen to say, I'm gonna trust God. And in this way, I'm gonna give financially and trust that we as a people are going in a direction where we're led by people that are listening to God. And you just trusted God with that money, didn't try to control it yourself. If you've done that,

here's the cool thing. God says, that's your victory. I did it, but I used you. So I said, this is how you do it. You tackle people on the one yard line, and you tell them we gotta go this way.

And he's doing a great job because now you're up to like, what, 300, is it? Yeah. You know, on average? I don't They're building a lot it's a long skinny thing. It's like they have a giant hallway that they meet in. Yeah. And and imagine if you go into our lobby here, imagine a little bit shorter, but how it's that width. Their whole sanctuary is just a long hallway. And

and it's packed. And and so they're gonna need to they need to grow. They need to go more. But but that leads me to, hey, if we're gonna be because you baptized what? 40 last year. 40 last year. You've already had 12 so far this year. Yeah. Amen. Amen.

They were down to 40 people in an area where churches don't make it and were dying left and right. And you did everything backwards like I said. I was like, man, you've done this all incorrectly.

And that shows you that God just wanted me to do punch by the way. But I am thankful that God connected us, that I got to be a part I I'm not like, oh, look what we did. Look what I got to

I did. Because I actually go in that moment, I said, man, this is gonna be work. But I feel like God said, I want you to be in this guy's life. And I thought and I did. I I saw the I'm busy enough. It's hard enough. It's it it you know. And I saw his picture from Panama and I'm like, look at this guy, man. He needs a lot of help. He needs a lot of help. But you know what? Now that I did it,

this was not a burden.

I am thankful that God called me to be your friend. Yeah. Me too, man. And I'm thank you that this church has engaged to Yeah. And been a part of what you're doing. Thank you guys so much. And I'm proud of you for being a Caleb and leading in the way you have done. Thank you. And I'm glad that you're not alone. Yeah. Because that's the first thing I said. I go, if I don't know what else help I can give, but I can make sure you're not alone. Yeah. And and that's the whole point of what the church is supposed to be. Amen. So that leads me to you've gotten to a size that's unbelievable. We plant churches that we try to get them to 300. Yeah. And you have nobody that's full time. Like even yourself, you started a business. You are still doing two full time jobs. Yeah. And you've been doing this all these years. Yeah. So what is your next challenge? Like I said, you know, every finish line that God has for us is actually a new starting line. What it what what are you challenged with right now? Yeah. So this year, we're we're praying that the Lord will allow us to go full time. So we're trying to raise support to go into full time ministry. Like you said, I I own a business, so I have a full time job and full time ministry and five kids and everything else that comes with that. So And we're trying to take a giant step of faith to go full time. I'm learning from them that I should have done this at the very beginning. But we just ran towards what the Lord called us to and it's been amazing to see what he's done. But this is our next step right now. And he's done a good job. He's raised his part time now. He's actually getting paid a little bit. But

when you're doing two jobs and you have the family, he doesn't really have the time to put into it. So I said, let us help you. And and you were here for we had a

event Banquet. Friday banquet for all the churches we've planted that you guys have been a part of. And and you came down, I said, let's get on stage because I think you you'd be a good close to my you you exemplify what I'm preaching about. Appreciate it. But also, I think we can help them.

I really think we can help them. So I wanna put this picture up with that QR code. Take a picture of that QR code. It'll take you. And I'm gonna challenge us to go even beyond. I'm trusting God that we will give and God will bring to us people. We will have the heart to build our buildings, to do what we need to do.

But even on top of that, I think he's called us to help get him full time. Because his church has gotten beyond churches that have four or five full time people.

God has blessed him and is using him. And we have a chance that if he had the time, he has some young leaders that he thinks we can start getting a church planting movement like we've done in where I'm going to Africa. And we go, I think this guy is gonna help us get more churches in Utah. We're gonna be able to take that land. Amen. And we're gonna send the gospel. And we get to do this. But what I'm gonna need some of you to do is especially some of you have resources.

You have more resources than you're willing to admit. Give above and beyond. And I believe with all my heart, it should be easy in a church our size by the end of this weekend. He can start focusing on his family and this ministry, and we can exponentially start seeing people come to Jesus. And

I guarantee if you do it, God will bless us because we'll get to be the tip of the spear. And it's not, oh, look at what we did. Our name's not on it. This is new hope. We wanna bring new hope because that's what we're supposed to do, guys. We get to do it like this with our time, our talents, our treasure.

Are you willing to join us in that?

One of the things I was gonna ask you as we close out, we're about to sing a song, but I was gonna ask you,

what would be one thing you would say is the best way to get past the fear and start walking in the faith? Yeah. It's worship. It's giving it all to Jesus. It's truly I was mentioned this in the last service just, you know, when when fear steps in when giants are around, you know, we we we see those things horizontally.

But it's when we look vertically that we see past the giants and we see a big God. And so that's that's worship. It's just constantly vertical. Lord, you know, what do you have for me? What's the next step? And we're not we're not afraid of the unknown because we know that when we take a step, that's that's trusting in the Lord. That's trusting in his faithfulness. He's trusting in who he is. And we know that he's in control, so take the step. But it starts with worship. And when you when worship happens,

everything changes. Yep. Everything changes. Because it takes our eyes like you said, like, there may be a giant, but if you keep looking up high enough, you see a God that's bigger than the giant. You see some God that's bigger than that. Yeah. Worships our weapon and leads the way. Yeah. So I'm gonna ask you to do, mister Caleb, in this story. Yeah. And and and you are a worship leader. Yeah. Let's close by practicing that.

Let worship be our weapon. Let's let guys, I want you to turn this last song into your battle cry, not just a song we sing. Don't just run out and leave because you're afraid of all the traffic. Don't just go. Take this serious.

Use this work this song as a prayer, as an anthem to fight the fear and put the trust to look past the problems and see God. And I'm gonna ask you, would you lead it? Absolutely. You lead it? Well then, let's stand up and let me pray for you. And then we're gonna have our song be our close. So God, I just thank you for my friend David. I thank you for new hope. I thank you for what you're doing. I thank you for everyone sitting in this room that has been faithful, that has walked in faith.

And I thank you that we get to be a part of this victory and the continued victory. Lord, I pray for those who are wandering in this room, that right now this is when the wandering would stop.

That the fear would be stood against. That they would look to you in this moment. That God, that you will make this song their battle cry. Their anthem that makes us look past the problems and past the obstacles. That we will stop procrastinating and we will get in this fight. So Lord, I pray that you would just give us that in this moment and give us the strength. And and I thank you for new hope. I gave I pray that you will give David what he needs to be able to pour into that community, to be able to pour into future leaders, to be able to pour into his family. And Lord, I just pray, and I thank you for the victory that's gonna come and the celebration we are gonna continue to have. And I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Lead us, my friend.

The

Can we just give it up for David Elijah and for New Hope, all that God is doing in Utah? Amen, man. It just it's such a blessing for me to be able to pop be a part of an organization that partners with churches to expand not just Rock Point's name, but Jesus' name all across the nations. Amen.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.