F4F | Rich Wilkerson Jr Biffs Numbers 13 & 14

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God.

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Now, you've heard me say it before, and I'll keep saying it, that the Bible is so much better than the way so many people are preaching it today.

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If you would just, you know, read the stories, let the text tell you what a story is about, oh, it will make the biggest difference in the whole world, and people will begin to understand what

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God's Word says. Now let me ask you this. Have you ever heard the story of the twelve spies who spied out

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Canaan? Wasn't there a song about it? Twelve spies went to spy out

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Canaan, ten were bad and two were good. What did they see when they spied out Canaan? Ten were bad and two were good. Some saw giants big and tall.

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Some saw grapes in clusters fall. Some saw God rule over all. Ten were bad and two were good.

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Yeah, for some of you, that's going to be a memory. For those of you, this is going to be a nightmare of a memory because you don't even know what

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I'm talking about. My apologies. The Geneva Convention does limit how often I can sing. Anyway, all of that being said, if you've ever heard sermons, modern -day sermons in today's

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Seeker -driven megachurches as it relates to the twelve spies who went to spy out

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Canaan and take a look at Numbers chapter 13, oftentimes the way it gets preached nowadays is, well, do you have the right attitude in order to seize opportunities, to succeed, and stuff like that.

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Is this really a text about having a good attitude so that you don't miss opportunities?

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The answer is no, and what the Bible says in Numbers 13 is so much better than that, best way

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I can put it. Let's whirl this up and let me get my screen up. There we go. We're going to head down to VU Church, VU, and we're going to listen to Rich Wilkerson, Jr.,

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and the name of the message we're going to be listening to is The Story You Tell Yourself, a different story.

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We're going to note he's going to try to be relational. He's going to try to be relevant, you know, and take this text and apply it to the circumstances we've been living through for the past few months, especially as it relates to lockdowns, the meltdown of the economy,

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COVID -19, and everything else related to that. And in so doing, he's not going to teach us what this text really is about.

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In fact, he's going to miss the point, and by missing the point, oh, man, he's going to lay a heavy burden on people rather than take a burden off of them.

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I'll explain along the way, and so here's Rich Wilkerson, Jr., and The Story You Tell Yourself.

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Here we go. Today, I want to preach part three of this collection, and I want to lean into Numbers chapter 13 and 14, and if you have your

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Bible, go ahead, get your Bible out right now. Come on, moms and dads, you're the pastor of your home. Come on, brand -new newlyweds, come on, maybe you're there with your roommates right now.

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Get everyone around, get a Bible out, turn to Numbers 14, get something to write with, take notes.

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Research shows us that 98 % of people who take notes, well, they automatically go to heaven, so you're going to need...

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Yeah, that was a joke, yeah. Notes, take some notes today. I believe it's going to encourage you. Numbers 14 is where I want to start, and then in the message,

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I want to jump into Numbers 13. So, get your Bible in both of those spots, Numbers 14, starting in verse 20.

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It says this, it says, the Lord replied. Okay, now, note something here. He...

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All right, maybe he's beginning at the end, yeah, and so, we're getting...

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He's going to give us the punchline first, which sometimes is okay when you're preaching through text, but it's just weird that he's going to be in Numbers 14, 20 first.

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By the way, we will be taking a look at this story. Have forgiven them. This is our God. Even in the

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Old Testament, we see a merciful, gracious God who's constantly forgiving the Israelites.

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Indeed. In fact, I'm glad he says that, because here we got at least some allusion to the gospel itself.

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And he's speaking back to Moses right now, and he says, Moses, I've forgiven them as you asked. Forgiven them for what?

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Nevertheless, as surely as I live, and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs

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I performed in Egypt and in the desert, but who disobeyed me and tested me 10 times, not one of them will ever see the land

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I promised on oath to their forefathers. Not one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

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But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit, someone else will. Okay, so note what he's doing here.

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Don't you think it's a big deal that God has forgiven Israel's sins? What did they sin?

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What was the sin? It's kind of important, you know? And so you'll note that he's talking about Caleb and having a different spirit, but that's the emphasis that he's putting on this.

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And I would argue, by doing this, he's putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable, and he's going to twist this text into a text related to having a good attitude, you know, which is not what this text is about.

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The word different right now, come on, just out loud at your house right now, just out loud say different. Come on.

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No, I'm not going to do that. Different. I want to hear you. I can hear you. No, you can't.

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Different. Because Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

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I love this version of the Bible, but I wanted to read verse 24 to you out of the message version.

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This is Eugene. Yeah, that's a problem right there.

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Yeah, you don't want to be preaching from the message. It's a mess, really a mess.

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And it's at best, and this is kind of spreading the butter thin, it's at best a paraphrase, really bad one, misleading paraphrase.

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Don't exegete it and don't preach from it, because it's not going to help us better understand the

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Hebrew behind this passage. Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible, and he says this, verse 24, it fits with our collection just a little bit better.

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So he's going fishing for a translation that fits with his preconceived notions, and they're preaching collection.

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They're not series anymore, they're collections. It fits with his collection better. Do you have enough passion?

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See, already we're going to lay a heavy burden on people. Do you have a different spirit? Well, if not, you better lean into having a different spirit.

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You better be more intentional about having a different spirit. You know, are you passionate enough and things like that?

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You better check your attitude and things of that nature. Now, if we're going to talk about checking your attitude as it relates to potentially being sinful, we could talk then about how different ways in which we have bad attitudes, which then causes us to break some of the different commandments out there, and that Christ is bled and died for those sins.

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I mean, you could do that, but that's not where we're going here. And this stories of numbers 13 and 14, and I want to preach a message to you entitled a different story.

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Come on, say it out loud, a different story. That's who you are. You're a whole different story.

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I am? When God thinks about you, he goes, you're a different story.

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You know what God thinks about me? Yeah, this text doesn't lend itself towards that kind of thing.

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Right now in the chat, just come on, help me out, preach back at the preacher. Just say a different story.

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And notice how they were prompting people. Light up the comments. Would you please, you know, let's stir up the house here.

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You know, I am a firm believer that attitude determines altitude. And there's your thesis sentence right there.

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So what is the sermon about? Having a good attitude that will determine your altitude. How high you go is based upon what kind of attitude you have.

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I think many times we underestimate the power of a positive attitude. And when you study people's attitude, what you'll always see is that attitude determines approach to life.

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My attitude. Is the story of Numbers 13 and 14 a story of good attitudes versus bad attitudes?

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Is that really what this is about? Dude, really comes from my outlook, the way that I see things.

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An outlook, more often than not, determines outcome. I know maybe it sounds a little cliche to say, but just.

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Indeed, it does. And it is. It is very cliche to say. And how are you getting this from this text?

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Because it's cliche. Doesn't stop it from being true. I believe that all of us, we view the world.

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Even if it's true, let's just say the cliches are true. Your attitude determines your altitude and your outlook determines your outcome.

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All right. Let's just say, granted. There you go. Blammo. It's true. How does that make it what this text is about?

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That's what you have to show. This text is all about that. You haven't really done that.

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Through a certain lens. And however you view the world will determine how you see the world.

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I asked the team to bring some different glasses into Casa today. I love a lot of these glasses because. Into Casa.

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Into the house, I guess. All these glasses up on this table. Well, they represent different perspectives. Or they represent different lenses that we can put on.

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All right. Let's check this out. Now, what we're going to hear. He's going to talk about different perspectives via different lenses that we can put on.

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See if any of these lenses sound familiar to you.

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For instance, I got these big ones right here. How cool are these? Holler at your boy. In fact, right now. Right in the chat.

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Come on. Caption this. Is that an

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Instagram moment? He's trying to look goofy so that people will shout it out on their

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Instagram. Is that what that is? That was awkward, but you got the whole point. Okay. I got these big glasses on.

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Let's say for a moment these glasses. They're the filter of pride. What happens is that when

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I view the world through the lens of pride. Ultimately, it robs me of any bit of contentment.

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The scripture says that pride comes before the fall. All right. Is pride sinful?

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Indeed. Pride is the devil's sin. Uh -huh. So many people, the reason why they fall down is because they continue to puff themselves up.

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Because they're looking at the world through the lens of pride. The reason why people fall down is because they're sinners.

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We sin because we're sinners. Pride is part of the spectrum of ick that we produce from within our own hearts.

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Because we're sinners. Maybe it could be this one. Maybe it could be these ones are cool. Look at this. These are money signs.

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Scrooge McDuck. Remember Scrooge McDuck? Ducktales. Ooh, Ducktales. He used to always see those money signs come up.

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I think this is the lens of greed. Many people are looking through the lens of greed. They always want more. Yeah, greed according to scripture is the sin of idolatry.

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That's the breaking of the first commandment. I think this would be more than just a lens or a perspective.

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We're now dealing with sin here and sin of the heart. That's where greed begins.

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Seduced by success. They're winding and grinding, trying to reach a place of contentment.

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What we fail to remember is that contentment doesn't come from a place. Contentment comes from a person. The person's name is

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Jesus. If I'm always looking through the lens of greed, I'm never, ever going to reach the person known as Jesus.

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Greed isn't a lens. It's a sin. Other lenses up here.

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How about this? These are broken lenses. Oh, a lot of people today. A lot of people are viewing the world through a broken lens.

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What happens is that maybe something happened to you and you went through a tough time. You went through a difficult time and you got hurt.

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I feel like I'm getting an eye exam here. Anyway, you know.

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When is it clear when I do the right eye or the left eye? Left eye.

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All right, let's try it again. Right eye, left eye. Left eye. Right eye, left eye. Left eye. Okay.

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All right. Very good. You need a stronger prescription. Bummer. Happens every time I go to the eye doctor, by the way.

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You're looking through this hurt lens and hurt lenses and hurt people ultimately end up hurting other people.

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Hurting other people. Would that be, you know, sinful?

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Yeah, that's adultery of the heart. Everybody who is lusting after somebody who isn't even their spouse, they've committed adultery in their heart.

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That's a sin, not a perspective. Yeah, that's also known as the sin of coveting.

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Reminds me of that song from the old singers, the Rolling Stones, I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

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Many times the reason why you can't get satisfaction is because you're viewing the world through the lens of lust.

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No, it's because you're a sinner and lust and, well, lusting after things and human beings and things like that, coveting, that's a breaking of the commandments.

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What about this one? What about maybe anger? I see the split personality people have. Now, by the way, you can be angry and not sin, and you can also sin in your anger, so you've got to be careful with that one.

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Bursts of anger and anger overflows out of their life and every time you're interrupted, what overflows is anger and wrath and words that you wish you could take back, and it's because you're viewing the world through anger.

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No, it's because you're manifesting sin because you're a sinner. What about this one?

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This is a great one. Remember this as a kid? Yo, disbelief. Oh, my goodness.

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Stuff's happened to me, and I'm getting hit on all sides, and every time I look through the lens of disbelief,

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I'm never going to operate with faith, and many times it's just the way that you're viewing the world.

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I remember this one too as a kid a whole lot. This is like a disguise, right? To me, this reminds me of the lens of insecurity.

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So many of us... Lens of insecurity, okay.

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We're insecure, and because we're insecure, we're hiding, and we're projecting to everyone around us something that we're not.

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We want to win the approval of man. We want people to like us. We want people to affirm us, but ultimately what happens is because we're seeing the world from a lens of insecurity, it...

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Lens of insecurity. Where do the scriptures talk about these lenses? ...ever, ever produces confidence.

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It never produces courage. It just leads us to hide more and more and more.

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I'm using these lenses today because I'm wanting to get this truth into your spirit and into your soul, that many times in life, we don't see the world for how it actually is.

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Now, most of the time, I end up viewing the world, not for how it is, but I... See, no.

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Yeah, on the wall there, it says sin. You know, the wall's even telling you.

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The wall is crying out. Those were sins, dude. You didn't even listen to the wall. The world for how

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I am. I see it not how it is. I see it how I am. I see it from the position

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I take in life. I see it from my bitterness. I see it from my resentment. I see it from my hurt.

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I see it from my heartache. This feels like a self -help pep talk, not a sermon.

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I see it from betrayal. I see it from guilt. I see it from shame. I see it from the abuse.

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I see it from the lies. Over and over again, I'm seeing it from a different vantage point, and what

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I want you to get today because I'm right there with you. This is not just my message. This is our message, and as I'm preaching,

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I'm listening to myself because ultimately, how you see it will determine how you say it.

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Yeah, so notice we've begun with the conclusion without working our way through the story, and as somebody who's worked my way through the story in preparation for today's installment of Fighting for the

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Faith, this conclusion don't fit what the text is about. I wonder what are you saying today because the story you tell yourself will determine the life that you live.

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Wow, those are some powerful words there. This sounds somewhat related to the word of faith heresy, like my words create reality.

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Do they really? You know, I can sit there and look in the mirror every day for the next month and say,

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I have a 30 -inch waist, and I have six -pack abs, and I can say that all

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I want, but in 30 days, I'll still not. You know what I'm saying? And I brought these glasses up here because all of us have different filters.

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Yeah, those glasses were all sins. All of us have different lenses, and we have to learn how to remove our lens and put on God's lens.

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Those were all sins. Don't you think that the thing we need to do is repent of our sins and be forgiven?

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Christ has bled and died for our sins. Scripture's calling us to repent and believe, to have faith in Christ.

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I see the world not from my story. I want to see it from God's story. You know, Numbers 13 and 14, that's what we're studying today.

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It's a fascinating story. This is the story of Moses sending the 12 spies into the Promised Land to go and scout it out and bring back a report.

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Indeed. In fact, let's take a look at it, shall we? So Numbers 13 and 14, and if you want to put a finger on Hebrews chapter 11, that'd be a good idea because we've got to pay attention to some things as it relates to the types and shadows here because this is a story about spying out the what?

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The Promised Land. Yeah, and what is the Promised Land? It's not a postage stamp -sized piece of property out in the

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Middle East. It's not. The Promised Land of the Old Testament points us to the real

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Promised Land. So listen to these words from Hebrews 11. This is going to help us. Now faith.

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Faith. Pistis. This is a trust in God. Faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for.

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The conviction of things that are not seen. All right? So note here in our lifetime,

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Christians, we have hope of eternal life given as a gift, not something that we've earned.

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And so how at the moment do we apprehend what it is that's been promised to us by God because of the forgiveness of our sins and God giving us that faith to trust

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Him? Answer. A new world. Eternal life. Christ is making all things new.

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New heavens. New earth. In a world without end. Face -to -face relationships.

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Seeing God with your own very eyes and not being cast into outer darkness and into hell on the

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Day of Judgment. Instead, hearing, Well done, good and faithful servant. All of that by grace through faith.

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So faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It is the conviction of things not seen, at least not yet, for every

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Christian who is presently on the planet. For by faith the people of old receive their commendation.

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By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

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By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as righteous,

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God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

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By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him.

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Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And watch verse 6, And without faith it is impossible to please

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God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

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By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

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And by this, by his faith, he condemned the world and became the heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

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Now here's the part regarding the promised land. You'll see how this then relates to our text. So by faith

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Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

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And watch the word, receive. Because when we're talking about the children of Israel, having come out of slavery in Egypt, God is the one who delivered them by a mighty hand.

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You think of the 10 plagues, you think of the Passover, the drowning of the army of Egypt in the

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Red Sea. All of this God did for them and he is promised to give them what?

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An inheritance. Where? In the promised land. Who made the promise? God did. Who's fulfilling the promise?

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God is. And that's a type and shadow of what we are to receive. And you'll see this.

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So he went, he hit the, he, so by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

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He went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land.

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Living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is

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God. What city is that? Well read Revelation 21. It's the new Jerusalem come down from heaven after the judgment, after the end of the world.

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So then by faith Sarah herself, she received power to conceive when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised.

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Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many of the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

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All these, these all died in faith, not having received the things promised.

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Yeah, even Abraham, he died in faith. He did not receive the promised land.

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Didn't he dwell in it? No, he dwelled in the types and the shadows, watch. So but having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and they were exiles on the earth and so are you and I.

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For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been seeking, thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

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But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their

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God for he has prepared for them a city. So here's the idea.

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The book of Hebrews lays out so clearly how in the Old Testament we get different types and shadows that are pointing to a reality that does affect us or relate to us.

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And so when we're talking about the promised land, we're talking about our inheritance. Now let me ask you, does anybody make it to eternal life and in the promised inheritance that Jesus has promised us without faith in God, without faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins?

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Answer, no. Nobody has these things or has them without faith.

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Without faith it's impossible to please God. So when we go then to Numbers 13, what is

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Numbers 13 about? It is a story of 12 spies, two have faith, 10 have unbelief.

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And that's the issue. And so if you have unbelief, can you make it into the promised land?

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No, without faith it's impossible to please God. So this isn't a story of attitude.

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This is a story of faith versus unbelief. That's what this story is about.

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So Numbers 13, Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan which

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I am giving to the people of Israel. Notice the verb, natan, giving, giving.

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It's a gift. God is giving them this land. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a chief among them.

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So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the command of Yahweh, all the men who were heads of the people of Israel.

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And so they named the different people who went. So from the tribe of Reuben, Shammuah, the son of Zachor.

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From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori. From the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

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From the tribe of Issachar, Egal, the son of Joseph. From the tribe of Ephraim, Hosea, the son of Nun.

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You'll see he's going to have his name tweaked a little bit. He's going to go from Hosea to Yeshua.

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We'll talk about that for a second. From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raphu. From the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel, the son of Sadi.

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From the tribe of Joseph, that is from the tribe of Manasseh. Gadi, the son of Susi. From the tribe of Dan, Amiel, the son of Gamali.

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From the tribe of Asher, Sether, the son of Mechiel. From the tribe of Naphtali, Nachbi, the son of Vapshi.

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From the tribe of Gad, Guel, the son of Amaki. These were the names of the men whom

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Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hosea, a little bit of a tweak here, called

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Hosea the son of Nun, Yeshua. Note here that all of these are men and God is giving them the land.

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All of these men are leaders among their clans. Now we get a tweaking of a name to the name

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Yeshua. Yahweh saves. The Lord saves.

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Here you got these exegetical markers that are just pointing you to the work of Christ.

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It's already crackling and teeming with type and shadow fulfillments that we understand from the

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New Testament. Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, said to them, go up to the Negev, go up into the hill country, see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor and whether there are trees in it or not.

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Be of good courage. Bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

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So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob near Labo Hamath.

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They went up into the Negev and came to Hebron, Ahimon, Sheshai, and Talmai.

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The descendants of Anak were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt and they came to the valley of Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes and they carried it on a pole between two of them.

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They also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the

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Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there. At the end of 40 days, hmm, okay, yeah, number 40, interesting thing when that shows up.

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Oftentimes, so 40 years of wilderness wandering, it kind of denotes a generation is kind of the idea.

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They returned from spying out the land and they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.

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They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land and they told him, we came to the land to which you sent us.

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It flows with milk and honey and this is its fruits. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong.

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The cities are fortified, very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

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The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites dwell in the hill country and the

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Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan. So the report here is weird because God himself delivered them out of the hand of slavery in the mighty works that he did to destroy the

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Egyptians. I mean, just decimated them. And why on earth would they think that God who said he's going to give, give them the land, why on earth would

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God take them this far and having done all these signs? Part of the Red Sea.

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These are people who walked on the bottom of the Red Sea as on dry ground with the walls of water on either side of them and they're, what's going on here?

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The issue is unbelief and you'll see this. So Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said let us go up at once and occupy it for we are able to overcome it.

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Then the men who had gone up with him said we're not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we are.

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So they brought to the people of Israel bad report of the land and they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw are of great height and there we saw the

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Nephilim and the sons of Anak who come from the Nephilim and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers so we seem to them.

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Oh and I'm sure there's dragons and lions and tigers and bears. Oh my! Yeah, I just added that part but you get the idea.

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So then with this bad report all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

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The whole congregation said to them oh would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness?

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Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? And you'll note that's what we call a loaded question.

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So their assumption and they're speaking their assumption is that the reason why God brought them out of Egypt was to have them killed that they would die by the sword in the so -called land of promise.

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Was that why God brought them out with a mighty hand to kill them? No! So our wives and our little ones will become a prey.

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Oh would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

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So then Moses and Aaron they fell on their faces before the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel and Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh who were among those who had spied out the land tore their clothes and they said to all the congregation of the people of Israel the land which we passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land.

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If Yahweh delights in us and remember Hebrews 11 6 without faith it's impossible to please

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God. If Yahweh delights in us he will bring us into this land and give it to us.

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It is a land that flows with milk and honey. Notice, give, give. Yahweh's giving this to us.

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Only do not rebel against Yahweh. Do not fear the people of the land for they are bred for us.

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Their protection is removed from them and Yahweh is with us. Do not fear them. Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones but the glory of Yahweh appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel and Yahweh said to Moses and here's where the kicker is you can tell the text is telling you what's going wrong here.

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Is it merely that they had a bad attitude that kept them from seeing a good opportunity? No. Alright, so watch what the text says.

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So Yahweh said to Moses How long will these people despise me? How long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs

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I have done among them? What's the problem here? Unbelief.

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Joshua and Caleb have faith. They trust God. The other ten, not so much, right?

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So he says I then will strike them with pestilence and I will disinherit them and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they but Moses said to Yahweh Then the

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Egyptians will hear of it. Yeah, they're going to hear of it. For you brought up this people in your might from among them.

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So note here Moses now is praying in faith also. And they'll tell the inhabitants of this land they have heard that you,

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O Yahweh are in the midst of this people for you, O Yahweh are seen face to face and your cloud stands over them and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

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Now if you kill this people as one man then the nations who have heard your fame will say it is because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land they swore to give them that he has killed them in the wilderness.

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So note God's name his reputation is on the line at this point. Okay, so and now please let the power of Yahweh be great as you have promised.

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So Moses prays and says you promised your name is on the line you got to deliver because you can't back out on a promise,

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God. This is a good prayer. This is a really good prayer. So as you promised you sang

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Yahweh is slow to anger abounding in steadfast love. Look at this he's praying back to God the words he heard when he was hidden in the cleft.

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Abounding in steadfast love forgiving iniquity and transgression but he will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.

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So please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.

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So forgive them again. So Yahweh said I have pardoned according to your word. Whoo!

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Check that out God forgave them according to the words of Moses. So you see what's going on here.

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This is and Moses what did he do? He believed the words that he heard about God. When he said

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Lord I want to see your glory and God said no you can't see me and live so I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock and cause my glory to pass by and what does he hear when the glory of the

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Lord passes by? Yahweh, Yahweh slow to anger abounding in steadfast love parting in iniquity.

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So he prays this back and so God says all right I've forgiven them according to your word. Now do you think that prayer is nothing?

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It's not. Prayer is everything but the thing is you're not going to pray. You're not going to pray back these kinds of words if you don't know what the word of God says and what his real promises are.

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He has not promised you health. He has not promised you wealth. He has not promised you to be the head and not the tail in this lifetime.

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God has not promised you a promotion at work. He has promised you the forgiveness of sins because of Christ and what he has done for you in taking on your sin on the cross bleeding and dying in your place rising from the grave bodily on the third day ascending into heaven so that you can be pardoned forgiven because of God's great love and without faith it's impossible to please

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God and now everyone who's a Christian has a promise of a real promised land. The new heavens the new earth are promised to us.

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Actually we get the earth part but you get the idea and God's dwelling place will be among us in what's coming.

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Without faith it's impossible to please God. And so now you know what this text is about. It's not about a bad attitude.

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It's about not having faith. That's what this is about. So let's go back to Rich Wilkerson Jr.

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See what he's going to do with this. We'll get into the story but ten spies come back and they bring a negative report and then two...

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You're not going to get into the story. You're just going to skip reading the word of God. Are you too busy on a

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Sunday? To actually read out the text. Joshua and Caleb they come and they bring a positive report.

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What I love is that God looks down upon the Israelite camp and we'll see as we get to the end of this message that so many of them because they brought the negative report they never walked into the promised land.

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Yet when God looked upon Caleb and Joshua what he says we read it in Numbers 14 he says but Caleb is a whole different story.

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For Caleb has a different spirit. Yeah Caleb believes.

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Caleb believes God. He trusts him. He has faith. That word different popped out at me as I was reading it because yo

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COVID -19 things are different. Come on chat. This has nothing to do with COVID -19.

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Different. If you're at your house right now people that you're watching it with come on engage just say it's different. We're hanging out and socializing in a different way.

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I'm preaching in a different way. I'm in an empty room preaching. This is different.

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I'm going to my job in a different way. I have different emotions. And what happens so many times is people when things begin to become different many times they cling to the same old lens.

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Yeah at this point you lost me because what you're saying doesn't make any sense at all especially if you like had just read the text.

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Friends what you need to know is that when things look different you gotta see it different. I believe today that God wants a different spirit to rise up inside of you.

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A different spirit in order to tell a different story. And what would that different spirit be?

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Ask you three questions because I think the only way you'll tell yourself a different story is if you answer these three questions correctly.

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Let's look at numbers 13 for a moment. I wanna go to verse 26 it says they came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole

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Israelite community at Kadesh in the desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly so reported they came and told a story the ten spies they came and told the story to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.

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They gave Moses this account we went into the land to which you sent us and it does flow with milk and honey here is its fruit but the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large we even saw descendants of Anak there the

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Amalekites live in Negev the Hittites the Jebusites and the Amorites live in the hill country and the

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Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan then Caleb silenced the people before Moses I'm glad he's reading a larger section of it it's just weird that he's never put the story in its proper context by reading it from beginning to end

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I mean do you tell jokes this way? You start somewhere in the middle of the joke and expect people to understand the punchline?

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No. My guy he has a different spirit he tells a different story he says we should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it but the men who had gone up with him they said we can't attack those people they are stronger than we are and they spread among the

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Israelites a bad report they spread a bad story about the land they had explored question number one if you're going to tell a different story here's the first question write this down how do you see your circumstance?

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So whatever circumstance I find myself in it finds a direct correlation to the spying out of Canaan this is called

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Narcissus by the way and this this is so wrong on so many levels because the promised land of the

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Old Testament is not a type and shadow of the COVID -19 pandemic and the lockdowns and the meltdown of the economy it's a type and shadow of the promised land which is the new earth and that's given to us by God by grace through faith in Christ write that right now in the chat how do

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I see my circumstance? come on write it right now how are you viewing your circumstance? life is full of circumstances good circumstances bad circumstances here's what

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I know yeah like the circumstance I'm in listening to this sermon circumstances you can't control them case in point coronavirus none of us were prepared for the coronavirus we didn't yeah the coronavirus and its impact has nothing to do with this text we think in 2020 that we were gonna be stopped for months at times because there was gonna be a virus that would spread as a pandemic worldwide

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I don't get to control the circumstances all I get to control is how

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I respond to the circumstances do you have a positive attitude? are you responding properly to the negative circumstances of COVID -19?

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you and I we have to predetermine our responses to circumstances especially when they go bad many of us today we're facing a negative circumstance and we're telling ourselves a negative story and the reason why we're telling a negative story is because we're viewing our circumstance not with the lens of faith we're viewing it with the lens of fear and every time

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I view it with the lens of fear rather than the lens of faith glad you think faith has something to do with this but faith is trust whom should we be trusting and trusting him for what what promises has he made to us

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I'm gonna miss out on the opportunities you see every one of God's opportunities okay backing this up so if I'm operating in fear

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I'm gonna miss an opportunity yeah that's what he said listen again because we're viewing our circumstance not with the lens of faith we're viewing it with the lens of fear and every time

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I view it with the lens of fear I'm gonna miss out on the opportunities you see every so my circumstances are providing me with opportunities and if I'm not if I don't if I'm looking through the wrong lens

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I'm gonna miss the opportunity one of God's opportunities they always come surrounded with obstacles and I want you to understand today that the bigger the obstacle it's always the bigger the opportunity here

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I'm gonna lose my mind here I'm not gonna make it much farther just saying circumstances write this down circumstances usually have problems and potential it's like a coin a coin has two sides heads and tails that's how circumstances work they come at you with problems and potential you get to decide what side you're you ever seen like video where they you know have a guy that you know a military guy they're gonna teach him how to sustain

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G -forces and so he's in a room and there's this thing that just spins around and around the faster it goes the higher the

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G -forces you know I feel like I'm like like this just buckled up my face is plastered against the back of the capsule it's like oh man how much how many more we'll call them

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H -forces you know heresy forces I don't know how many more heresy forces I can endure before I black out you know just ahh focus on notice in our story that these twelve spies they go to the promised land they scout it out ten come back and what do the ten do?

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the majority they focus on the problem well yes like God said it is flowing with milk and honey yes the fruit is so large that it took multiple people to carry it back it was heavy it was big but you should also know that the land is fortified they have no faith in God the

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God who delivered them with a mighty hand from slavery in Egypt and they're worried about a few

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Amorites and Hittites and stuff like that giants inside of the land there is no way that we could ever take over this land what are they doing?

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they start focusing on the problem no they don't have faith in the

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God who delivered them and promised to give them that land they don't trust him it happens to so many people in fact the majority of people today are always going to spend all of their energy looking through the lens of fear and when you look through the lens of fear you're going to focus on the problem but this is important that you see this this is so important as you are quarantined and as we are going through this difficult crisis together where your focus goes energy flows about to black out here don't just hear me say it in your seat right now wherever you're watching on your lazy boy take out your iphone take out your notes and write down where your focus goes energy flows this is so bad this is oh man because this is so important I get to decide where my focus goes

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I can either focus on problems or I can focus on potential no it's about faith in God trusting him in the promise he's made to them and the ones that he's made to us majority focuses on the problems and because of it the majority quits before they even begin

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God love Winston Churchill I've been studying Winston Churchill if you don't know who Winston Churchill was he was the prime minister of Great Britain during yeah indeed

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I mean you know Darkest Hour is one of my favorite movies of all time happen to love that movie

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I've read Churchill's biographies and yeah I great guy here not exactly a stellar example of Christian morality and discipleship okay

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World War II and it was a tough time to be the prime minister because London was being bombed by Nazis yet when

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I study him he did some cool stuff there's indeed yeah he's he did

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Winston Churchill that at night they would get bombed and so he would go into the barracks at night but every morning he would come out of the barracks and he would go to the place that was bombed the worst and he would stand on top of the rubble and he'd put a peace sign up in the air it's like he was telling his enemies was that really your best shot you better try again because with all your bombs you still cannot stop the spirit of resiliency we're different do you have a spirit of resiliency see notice the emphasis is on you not the one who's made the promises

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God not like your other opponents we are telling a different story watch what

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Winston Churchill says this is beautiful he says a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity but an optimist what do they see they see the opportunity in every difficulty see what

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I see is what I say and what I say determines the life that I live uncle uncle hi oh alright

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I'll gut out just a little bit more man this is adventures in missing the whole point the text tells you what the problem is

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God himself voiced the problem that they don't believe and trust him despite all the signs that he performed on their behalf don't be a part of the majority just focusing all of your energy on fear and the problem see there's another category of people they don't just focus on the problem what they do is they have this other fear they go you know what

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I'm going to do I'm going to focus on the problem and the potential many of you right now I know this is a word this is a whole word for some of you whole word shout out to Manushka Charles this is a whole word for a lot of you because a lot of you what you're trying to do is you're trying to use both of your eyes and you're trying to get those eyes to focus on two different things but that's not how eyes work yeah

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I've never been able to focus my eyes on two different things I usually have to pick one thing and focus on that and switch and focus on something different yeah

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I think you get the idea here I'm I'm done yeah I'm tapping out here because this is bonkers so listen the

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Bible is so much better than this and the story if you would read the text tells you what the problem is it's not a matter of bad attitudes or missing opportunities because you're speaking negative things and stuff it's because they didn't trust

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God the God who so graciously lovingly delivered them from slavery as he promised to do going all the way back to Israel himself

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God promised that he would deliver them and he made good his promise the promise he made to Jacob to Israel and God in his mercy he delivered them from the hand of slavery with a mighty arm you look at the ten plagues you look at the

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Passover you look at the crossing of the Red Sea and now they're ready to go into the land that God has promised to give them that's why it's called the promised land he's going to give them this land and they don't believe him they don't trust him and that's the problem without faith it's impossible to believe