Leading Friends in Faith (Draft #2)

Outline:

Intorduction

Welcome

YTH Night every Wednesday

Sermon Series Unbreakable: A Series on Community

Recap: 1. Find Friends of Faith 2. Be a Freind of Faith

Message Title: Leading Friends in Faith

“tonight I want to talk to you about leading your friends in faith”

Leadership has a role in all of our lives

weather we are being led

weather we are doing the leading

Illistration

The Highschool Party I took Tori too

We had a choice

HARD QUESTIONS: But are we all leading our friends in faith? Or are we being led by friends who have no faith?

Main Passage Intro:

We are going to talk about two leaders who lead in Faith (Caleb & Joshua)

We are going to talk about a group of people who follwed people with no faith

Context to Numbers 13 & 14:

Exodus 3:8 NLT

So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.

The Lord has Moses send out Leaders of each tribe as spies into the land “Which I am giving to the Isralites”

They were to inspect the land and it’s inhabitants

God was possibly testing there faith

They explore the land and report back **Where we pick up**

Numbers 13:27–33 (NLT)

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. 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, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “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. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Numbers 14:1–5 (NLT)

Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

Then Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the whole community of Israel.

Summarize:

Called by God to inspect the land He was to give them

They confirm what the Lord said “A land flowing with milk and honey”

Problem #1: YOU LACK FAITH

Although God’s Word was true they where to focused on what was seen

When you are focused on the seen rather than the unseen you are not in a posture of faith

Impact:

You can’t lead your friends in faith if you don’t have it

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, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

Funny how this is the same land and inhabitants that God said He was going to give to them

You won’t go all in with God because you are still attached to living a sinful life - Later mentality

Problem #2: LEADING FROM FEAR

If you are not leading from faith then you are leading from something else

one of those things could be fear - For the isrealites it was fear

Fear of uncertainty

Fear of the unknown

Fear of Man

**PREACH THIS** Many of you are living a life following the standards of culture because your scared to go against the grain

Impact

You rob your self from the inhertance God wants to give you

“Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

They received that wish they died before inheriting the land the Lord promised.

Numbers 14:6–9 (NLT)

Two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, 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 of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!”

POINT 1:WHEN YOUR FAITH IS PUT TO THE TEST TRUST GOD

POINT 2: FACE POPULAR CULTURE WITH BOLDNESS