River Night 1

Main Passage:

The Present Enemy

John 17:14–16 ESV

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

The promise of Jesus is that you will be hated by the world and will be attacked by the evil one

To have the world hate you as a Christian in that time, was social suicide. And often got you killed.

It was rebellious to be a Christian. They were put under the same punishment as those who tried to over throw government. Same punishment as those who were murderers.

No one was putting a Bible verse in their bio because not only would that get you killed but would probably lead to your family and friends to be killed

We don’t say this to guilt trip you and you should not feel bad because that is not what you are going through

God put you on earth in this time in History to bring about glory to His name, but can I be honest with you, we face a greater threat. We face a greater tactic of the enemy. We live in a time and place in History where the title is watered down.

Numbers 13:1 ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses

This is where we need to start. It says that the Lord spoke. Shadow Youth, this phrase brings about two responses from people, and to be honest how you respond to these three words, and lean into these next two days should be able to tell you all about where you are at with God. Do these words draw you in and make your heart say Lord what do you have to say? Or do you hear these words and think to yourself what option is God giving me? How do I make this fit into my life?

Numbers 13:2–3 ESV

“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

The Lord tells Moses I am giving you the Land

God wants the leaders of the different tribes

Possibly correlate their system to American Government

Verses 4 - 16 tell us who these men were

Numbers 13:17–20 ESV

Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

Moses tells them to go tell and bring a report of everything we need to know about this land

Numbers 13:23–29 ESV

And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there. At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

If you know anything about the story of God and His chosen people, then you know all that the people of Israel wanted was a place to live. They had been in captivity for hundreds of years in Egypt and when they finally break free they are led into the wilderness where there is no food, water, vegetation or materiels to build a city. After the exodus of the Egypt they had been in this wilderness for two years. They have traveled over 300 miles with over 2 million people. And they finally get word that God is sending us into the place he had promised years ago.

They come back and give the initial report that the land flows with milk and honey and it is abundant

If I am Moses I see that vine of grapes come in and the only response can be worship right?

That God had delivered on His promise. That our God always fulfills His promise

Shadow Youth what we learn from the spies Initial Report is that God fulfills His promises and then some

So that’s the end of the story right? No the report continues

Numbers 13:28–33 ESV

However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

These men reported that there the place was on lockdown by Giants

There was no way that they could go into this land

And this is where we stop the story for tonight.

Catch Verse 31 - We cannot because they are stronger than we are.

You see these men are the perfect example of the same disease that has intruded our way of lives. That its our lives and then God.

A life that treats God’s Word as an option will likely choose the option that benefits themselves

Tell story of Chinese Pastor who killed two girls he discipled.

In 1977, two Chinese Christian young ladies, Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu, and their pastor, were caught by the Chinese government, for engaging in Christian activities. The girls waited in the open courtyard for their execution. Watching from his prison cell, another inmate described their faces as pale, “but beautiful beyond belief; infinitely sad but sweet.” 

They had weighed the binary choice: renounce your faith or die. They chose the latter. As their executioner approached, pistol in his hand, the girls were shocked the. It was their pastor!  He had also been sentenced to die with the girls. But his inquisitioners offered him freedom in exchange for shooting the girls. Not only did he accept their offer, but listen to his rationalization to the girls: “Why should all three of us die? If I kill you, they will let me live, then I can continue to work among the churches.” [There are several tellings of what happened next, so beware that some accounts place the following comments in a different order.] As their pastor approached, the girls bowed respectfully. One of them said: “Before you shoot us, we want to thank you heartily for what you have meant to us. You led us to Christ, and you gave us holy communion with the same hand in which you now hold the gun. You taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are about to do to us, do not despair like Judas, but repent like Peter. God bless you, and remember that our last thought was not one of indignation against your failure. Everyone passes through hours of darkness. May God reward you for all the good you have done to us. We die with gratitude.” The words were not enough, however, to dissuade their pastor’s course. His heart, like Pharaoh’s, was already hardened. They bowed again. He squeezed the trigger twice. And now he waited for his reward. But no sooner had he done this, than the Communists grabbed him, thrust him up against the execution wall and shot him.

We read that story and we can think about what we do in that circumstance, Yet that is not our reality for me to get up here and preach are you ready to give your life to the Lord. that would be deceptive

But what I can tell you is that pastor made up his mind if he was going to give his life to the Lord long ago.

You know how? because of the life he lived everyday

The question that we have to ask ourselves is who is on the throne of our lives. Because as much as it looks cool to put a bible verse in your Instagram bio, and post a story with a Christian song in it, and show up to Church or maybe even dare to read your Bible all of it is done in Vain unless you can step back and say it was to bring Him glory.

The people of God who have been brought out of captivity, who have seen the power of God through the plagues. Who have been on the edge of being mowed down by an Egyptian army and there is no other way then the Sea and because of God’s promise he opens the Sea, and saves them, and is taking them to the land in which was promised and He is there protection in the day and their guiding light at night, they get all the way there and it’s true the land is amazing, the land is perfect, The Lord has brought us to the land and just as the report is being given and I am sure that Moses’ eyes are wide open and eating this up and then they drop this word:

However: This word is a conjunctive adverb that introduces a contrasting idea.