Examine the Anchor

Experiment

Alright, before we begin today, I want to get us thinking with something simple.

Take a look at this number: 540.

Here’s the question—and don’t overthink it: Do you think the average American spends more or less than 540 minutes a day on their phone?

Just shout it out—more or less? Great.

Now, second question: How many minutes do you think the average person actually spends on their phone each day?

Think of a number.

Say it out loud.

(Pause. Let people respond.)

Perfect. For those who were not accounted for Hold your guess in your mind.

Spies of Canaan

In Numbers 13-14, we find the story of the spies of Canaan. A lot had happened up to this point. The Israelites had left Egypt (Exodus 12), passed through the Red Sea (Exodus 14), been fed with manna (Exodus 16), and now camped at Kadesh-Barnea, at the edge of the Promised Land. (Deuteronomy 1:19–21).

God told Moses to send spies to Canaan to report to Israel what he had prepared for them (Numbers 13:1–2). So, they chose twelve men, one from each tribe (Num. 13:3–24), and for forty days, they walked the hills and valleys of Canaan (Num. 13:25).

When they returned, they brought with them giant figs, pomegranates, and clusters of grapes. The entire camp gathered to hear the report (Num. 13:26–27).

27 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. 28 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.”

30 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.”

31 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.” 32 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. 33 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.”

And then the people were filled with fear and wept all night, wishing they had just stayed in Egypt and died as slaves, and began a plot to depose Moses. Caleb god smacked at what the people were saying, tore his clothes, and said

“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”—Nu 14:7–9.

Then the people grabbed stones to kill Caleb and Joshua. And well.. You know the rest of the story. The people are judged, and as punishment, they spend 40 years wandering in the desert.

Last time we were together, we learned about framing.

How you frame something determines how you solve it.

Take the example of the elevator.

Notice how the spies are framing the problem. The spies and Caleb see the same land, the same people, the same cities—but interpret them through two very different frames.

The ten spies view the situation as a military problem: their focus is on danger, military strength, and personal safety. They frame the land as hostile, its people as unbeatable, and themselves as powerless grasshoppers (v.33). Because their starting point—their frame—is fear, the only logical solution to them is retreat.

Caleb, on the other hand, frames the situation in a completely different way. He doesn’t deny the giants or the walls, but he sees the real issue as a trust problem—whether Israel will believe God’s promise or not.

His frame is not “Can we defeat them?” but “Has God already given this land to us?” For Caleb, the real danger is not giants—it is disbelief. The solution? Move forward!

And the frame had cascading consequences.  

Ten Spies

Primary Focus - Enemy strength

Self Perception - We are grasshoppers

Emotions - Fear, despair, and paralysis

Assumptions- We are on our own

Resulting Action - Rebellion

Outcome - 40 years wandering

J&C

Primary Focus - God’s Promise

Self Perception - We are able

Emotions - Confidence and faith

Assumptions - God is with us

Resulting Action - N/A

Outcome - N/A

Anchoring Heuristic

Now the question is this: Why did they accept the first frame over the second?

Sometimes we’re only given one frame—but in this case, Israel was given two. And the second frame—faith in God’s promise—should have been more convincing based on everything they had already witnessed.

So why accept the cynical one?

Most of us would immediately say fear. However, this story is not just about courage versus fear. It’s about how each group defines reality.

This is where another psychological dynamic comes in—our second survival skill for the end times: recognizing the anchoring heuristic.

A heuristic is a mental shortcut. It’s your brain’s way of making quick decisions without slowing down to think everything through. Heuristics aren’t always bad — they save time and energy — but they can also lead us to the wrong conclusions.

The anchoring heuristic is when your brain grabs onto the first piece of information it hears — a number, idea, headline, rumor — and uses it as the reference point for everything else.

That first idea becomes the anchor.

Even if it’s wrong or incomplete, your mind keeps comparing everything back to it.

That’s why it’s hard to change your mind once something has already “set the frame.”

In Numbers 13–14, the anchor—the first idea that framed everyone’s thinking—was:

“The land is dangerous, the people are stronger than we are, and we cannot win.” (Numbers 13:28, 31–33)

That report became the nation's mental starting point. Even though:

God had already promised the land (Num. 13:1–2)

The fruit confirmed His promise (Num. 13:27),

Joshua and Caleb offered a different frame rooted in faith (Num. 13:30; 14:6–9)

And the positive report matched Israel’s lived experience of God’s power

The people could not hear them, because their minds had already anchored to the first story.

Anchoring Elsewhere in Scripture

We see this psychological phenomenon throughout the Bible. In the Story of David and Goliath, Israel was anchored to Goliath’s size and threats. David breaks the anchor with a new one:

“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he defies the armies of the living God?” —1 Sam 17:26

In the New Testament, the disciples were anchored in the belief that the Messiah would be a military king who would overthrow Rome. In Matthew 16:21–23, Peter even rebukes Jesus for predicting His own death. And after the resurrection, they still ask,

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

Their first expectation anchored their thinking so deeply that they struggled to recognize a suffering and crucified Messiah.

Examples of Anchoring

I will give you a few examples of how this works in the real world.

Sales and Marketing: Anchoring is one of the oldest tricks in sales and marketing. A store might hang a sign over a jacket that says, “Was $1,000 — now $500.” Nothing about the jacket has changed. But the moment you see $500, your brain locks onto it as the standard.

Now $500 doesn’t feel expensive, it feels like a deal! You’re not asking, “Is this jacket worth $500?” You’re asking, “Am I really going to pass up a $1000 jacket for half the price?” The first number you see becomes the reference point for everything that follows.

I take this example from the store. Each soda was 1.60 but the first number they gave you was three to anchor you on three.

Media: You might remember the Starbucks red cup controversy I mentioned in our last sermon. A social media creator accused Starbucks of removing Christmas, when in reality, the company had never printed “Merry Christmas” or religious imagery on its cups. The framing led people to harass employees and cause meaningless outrage.

And even after the truth came out, suspicion remained. That’s anchoring—once the first idea is planted, truth has to work twice as hard to be believed.

Politics: Politicians do it all the time.

Donald Trump often sets the frame with strong, absolute language. Calling immigration an “invasion,” the media “the enemy of the people,” and at different moments describing the economy as either “the greatest in history” or “a disaster like we’ve never seen.”

Joe Biden did the same thing. He has said, “We have the strongest economy in the world” and has repeatedly framed his administration as having created “more jobs than any president in history.”

 Whether true or not, or whether you agree or disagree, is not the point. The point is that statements like these become the anchor. After that, people interpret numbers, events, and policies through the first frame they were given.

Relationships Anchoring happens in personal relationships and church communities too. In the Adventist world, a rumor began circulating that our universities are teaching evolution as truth or introducing mysticism.

In reality, they still teach creation, uphold Scripture, and do not teach mysticism. But once the rumor became the anchor, everything was interpreted through suspicion.

A professor mentions another worldview? Proof.

A science class explains evolution as a theory? Proof.

A worship service includes silence or reflection? Proof of mysticism.

Nothing has actually changed—but the first frame controls the narrative. And this is how trust erodes, division grows, and communities fracture.

Experiment Reveal

In fact… I did it to you today.

Remember that little question I asked you at the beginning? How many minutes the average person spends on their phone?

Your average guess was:

Here’s the real number: somewhere around 240–300 minutes a day.

So why did so many of us guess way higher?

Because I anchored you.

I put the number 540 in front of youn and your mind grabbed onto it. Even though it was ridiculous

Your brain doesn’t start at zero. It starts at whatever shows up first.

We think we’re being objective… but most of the time, we’re reacting to the first number, narrative, or frame that shows up.

Anchoring Bias

Anchoring itself isn’t evil—it’s human. Our minds are designed to grab onto the first piece of information we hear so we can make sense of the world quickly. It happens in every home, every classroom, every pulpit.

In fact, churches anchor and frame their people every week: through sermons and worship.

My hope is that my sermon will give you a frame that centralizes Jesus and the character of God and anchors you in the word of God.

So anchoring isn’t the problem.

Anchoring bias is: The Distortion or error that comes from relying too heavily on the anchor.  

Anchoring becomes dangerous when the first frame we receive is built on fear, suspicion, misinformation, or misplaced trust—and we never question it. That’s what we have to guard our hearts and minds against.

And sometimes all it takes is to pause and ask:

This thought I’m having… these feelings I’m carrying… the way I’m viewing this person or interpreting this sermon—am I looking through an anchor someone placed in me a long time ago? And if I released that anchor, would I see differently?

Framing and anchoring are powerful because they don’t require someone to change the truth—just how we see it and where we get stuck.

Conclusion

That’s exactly what happened in Numbers 13–14. The spies didn’t lie—there really were giants and fortified cities—but they framed the situation around danger and defeat instead of God’s promise. They anchored the nation to fear before Caleb and Joshua could anchor them to faith.

Once the military frame settled in, the trust frame had to fight uphill to be believed. And despite all the evidence they had… the trust frame still lost.

Knowing Jesus is important, but we can still be manipulated by the news, politicians, social media creators, and self-supporting ministries. Because the truth does not need to be changed, we just need to be anchored in the wrong frame, and the work will take care of itself.

My challenge for you today is to examine and challenge your anchors.

The issue isn’t anchoring—it’s anchoring bias. That’s when we never stop to ask whether our way of thinking is actually the result of a wrong anchor that we’ve never questioned.

In the last days, Scripture tells us that many will run to and fro and knowledge will increase (Daniel 12:4). We can see that now with AI and the speed by which we can access information and ideas can spread.

And more than ever, it is high time to ask ourselves what frames I am anchored in that define my reality? Are they true? Are they helpful? Are they hurting my faith? Are they hurting my relationships? Are they making me happy? Are they making me more free? Do they fill me with hope or suspicion?

Examine and challenge your anchors.

Examen

What headlines are anchoring my view of the future

Am I more formed by news cycles, conspiracies, and culture wars than by Scripture?

Is there an anchor by which I am viewing someone/something that needs to be reassessed?

Did someone’s rumor, mistake, or label become the frame through which I now see them?

Have I allowed mistrust, gossip, or politics to anchor my heart against a brother or sister?

As I move forward, how will I regularly examine what I’m anchored to?

What rhythms or habits will help me notice when an anchor is shaping my thinking?

What would it look like to anchor my mind daily to the Word of God, rather than the world around me?