Part one continues the theme of food and eating: The land eats its inhabitants. KJ21. Turn away from every other false hope because it brings nothing. We live the life of faith as we feed our souls on Gods Word, paying attention to the promises Hes made, and as we see from His dealings with us in the past, our own past, our collective past as a congregation, that He is faithful and true. Lesson number three comes from the great Hassidic master, Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Indeed, Moab was filled with dreadbecause of the Israelites. 5They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. Its about time to go. Has it not been toldyou from the beginning? We seemed like grasshoppersin our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.. And then, perhaps the most devastating part of all, the ten spies say that when they scouted out the land they came across the Nephilim, the fallen ones, the sons of Anak, the giant. With God at our side, life as a grasshopper in His care is good. Faithlife Sermons is now Logos Sermons. Evangelical/Non-Denominational. In this weeks parsha, Shelach Lecha (Numbers 13:1-15:41), Moses sends twelve spies, one from each tribe, to scout out the Promised Land. However, the very next word in the NIV says, but. Isnt there always a big but? It does flow with milk and honey and my goodness look at this fruit, BUT the people that live there are powerful. A naysayer will allow what is big to become irrationally bigger. The doubt-caster will be one that says their way is the right way, there is no other way and whoever doesnt see their way will never be right. Pentecostal. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. read more, Scripture: Spies Like Us from Stephen Wise Temple on Vimeo. Thats the first matter of faith that we have to occupy yourselves with here this morning. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. Isaiah 43 listen to what the prophet Isaiah, speaking on Gods behalf at Gods inspiration, says to the people of God. Accomplish all that You intend with Your Word this day as we make our prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus, our Shepherd, our Elder Brother, our Savior. Its a new beginning. Strong as it could be. In verse 30, Caleb says: He shows some heart. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them., Todays message is called, Overcoming Grasshopper Mentality.. Note how the ten spies with their bad report turn the heart of the whole nation The land devours its inhabitants! Heres the lesson we mustnt allow our fears to paralyze us. . God had already promised them the promised land. He turns the Midrash on its head. The Bibles in the bookstore are all gone, those one-year chronological Bibles, but were ordering more tomorrow if you want to participate just call the church office. Instead of a bolstered trust in Gods willingness to help them and to keep His promise to place them in the land, they were begging to go back into bitter slavery in Egypt. A couple of years ago around this time of year I was sitting right up there in that portion of the balcony up there and Ralph Kelley was preaching and challenged us at the beginning of 2018 to be a people of the Word. them saying, "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them" (13:33). Lets be self-conscious, intentional, bold, adventurous about trusting God, choosing to trust God for what He has promised to do, for what He has promised to give, for how He has promised to help. As people appear to God looking down from the heavens, so the Israelites looked to the existing inhabitants of the promised land. TEXT: Numbers 13: 25-33; 14: 6-10; Josh. Perhaps they acted like Caleb gives us a great example to follow. Do you hear your own heartbeat? asks the master. I have called you by name; you are mine. We scorn Him. I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. God is with us and not with them. The people are at the edge of an unknown place, a place into which God will lead them. ); and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Now, that's natural. Its come from reflecting on the fact that God has brought them this far not to forsake them. As he understood the soldiers of Israels army around him, the visible army of the living God impressive not in themselves but in their connection to their commander in chief, the Lord of hosts, mighty in battle. Therefore honor God with your body. The report they bring back has two main themes, the existing inhabitants of the land and, our focus here, food. We need a new language. WHY DO WE DO THAT? Please add your name to the petition/email campaign to protect the Sumarin family here. i heard this week the true story of a man that got a brand new metal detector. As surely as the Israelites eventually will be led into the land, we will be led into another year. John 3:16 If you would open your Bibles to Numbers chapter 13. He cares for you. There is a figure of speech that is called hyperbole where an idea is exaggerated to the extreme to emphasize a point. There we saw the giants . Rather it was their preoccupation with how others saw them that was their sin.. that the Anakites were strong and tall. 6Now come and put a curseon these people, because they are too powerful for me. He said, Stop looking in the rear view mirror, keep your eyes on the road ahead, and put the pedal to the metal and go!. Where does that kind of confidence come from? Introduction - Listening Well Leads to Success Grasshoppers can eat half their body weight in a day. And so, when we are afraid, let it be Calebs voice we hear when we close our eyes, telling us: We can do it. Be of good courage, he tells them, and bring some of the fruit of the land. The spies, as we know, after they spend forty days in the land bring back a mixed report. Matthew 10:18-19. And now they hear through Moses what God has said. The spies are certain that the Canaanites see them as but grasshoppers. Numbers 13:1-33. These naysayers doubted the Word of God. We can love more. We know how to be unbelievers. Just as surely as there are grasshoppers in the earth there are giants. Later in the scene, the master instructs the boy: I hear the water. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. Please add your name to the petition/email campaign to protect the Sumarins here. (Its the term used in Leviticus 11 above.). 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). Numbers 13 1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I have given to the Israelites. HE WANTS US TO LAY HANDS ON THE SICK AND DYING AND SEE THEM HEALED. THEME: How to live on the mountain while living in the valley. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. Edmond Dantes is jailed at the Chateau dIf and his cruel jailor begins his imprisonment with the cycle of beatings and torture. We dont come to that realization on our own. We scorn Him. And King Balak is afraid that the Israelites will cover the face (literally eye) of the land: Numbers 22: A people has come out of Egypt;they cover the eye of the land and have settled next to me. Such is the case of the Israelites. We shape our understanding of the world around us and the relationships that give texture to it by trusting what God has said to us about Himself, about us, and about everything around us, as well as the future ahead of us. Numbers 13:26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadeshin the Desert of Paran. But before that, a request: please add your name to a petition/email campaign here to protect a Palestinian family, the Sumarins, who are facing unjust eviction from their East Jerusalem home. Unbelief isnt about making us atheists. I serve on the Boards of Jerusalem Culture Unlimited (JCU) and Hassadna Jerusalem Music Conservatory. I remember recently watching the most recent movie version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Numbers 13:33-14:9, Denomination: More significantly, parshat Balak, which is coming up soon, opens with statements by the Moabites and their king that mirror exactly the sentiment I think the spies have in mind when they describe themselves as grasshoppers. I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. Is it? But there is an even bigger list, a list so big that it makes this first list look puny and small like a little tiny grasshopper its a list of the things in this world which give us hope and strength. Its interesting to see Gods response to the unbelief of His people. If you think you're an insect, don't be surprised when everybody around you treats you like an insect - looks upon you like a worm, or a beetle, or a bug! The naysayers focused on what was seen instead of the One who was allowing them to see. The oft-repeated description of the land as flowing with milk and honey occurs twice in this episode, once in the spies initial report (above), and again in a speech by Joshua (Numbers 14:8). INTRODUCTION: Many times circumstances seem overwhelming like grasshoppers, while at the same time we feel as helpless as a muffin (barley cake). But take heart! Asaph is decrying the prosperity of the wicked while the righteous, it seemed, know only suffering. I hear the birds. says the boy. It happened with the Israelites. They saw deliverance at the Red Sea through which they crossed on dry ground. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. I talk to many people that have this mentality. Grasshoppers have the ability to jump away from any kind of predator. I cant serve you God more because I dont have time. Really? "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:33). They were perceived as giants. . We despise Him. Bearing in mind all this food, lets turn to the end of the spies report. The other groups would have never been as united and their efforts would have failed. 20Present a loaf from the first of your ground mealand present it as an offering from the threshing floor. For they are stronger than we - , .. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? As he understood Goliath, an imposing man, a terrifying man, but a man! : . Lesson number three, young grasshoppers: Worry less about how others see you and more about who you are and about who you are capable of becoming. He promised to give His people the land of Canaan. Have you not understoodsince the earth was founded? 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command grasshoppers to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Are we kind? The nourishing of faith is all of our individual responsibility. He dug and could not find anything. In demonstrating the grasshopper mentality, there are the naysayers, the doubt-casters, and that which is self inflicted. Numbers 13:17-33. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them., See the self-infliction? These spies were defeated before they started. Notice how the grasshopper mentality is demonstrated. Numbers 13:30Then Calebsilenced the people before Moses and said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. 31But the men who had gone up with him said, We cant attack those people; they are stronger than we are.32And they spread among the Israelites a bad reportabout the land they had explored. As we do so, I bring you seasons greetings. The doubt-caster begins with we cant and moves to exaggerated truth. Its a new birth we find in Christ. Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?. That is, next to the existing inhabitants of the land, we felt and looked small and inconsequential. are huge and the walls are high. Let him have a spear like a weaver's beam. Too often we see ourselves as nothing DO NOT LIMIT THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL (PART 6): DO NOT LIMIT GOD IN THE POWER OF YOUR IMAGINATION I AM NOT A GRASSHOPPER GOD, GRASSHOPPERS AND A BARLEY CAKE The mother of a nine-year-old boy named Mark received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. But lets go forward confident in the God who equips the available, who enables the unable, who empowers the powerless, who gives unforeseen and unknown wisdom to the unprepared for the doing of His will, all for His glory and our good. He brings dead sinners to life. Their eyes. Here we see the naysayer seeing the obstacles instead of the Omnipotent. The fear of the Israelites caused them to have to wander the wilderness for 38 more years. They saw the provision of water from the rock, daily manna, quail when they longed for meat, the visual display of Gods ongoing presence in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire over them, and following those signs through the wilderness as God led them on their way.
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