Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction...

Well my friends, we are here on the first Sunday in August.. we have only 5 months left this year.

I find it amazing to think about the year is slipping away and soon we will face 2020.

And through the course of these next few months and the possibility of next year, where will faith lead us.

where will your faith lead you?

Now think about this, you need faith to live and move.... you need it in everything of life, but especially as they Lord draws you out of your comfort zones into service for Him...

Think about your comfort zones… what is a comfort zone?

A comfort zone is a place or situation were we are at ease or feel safe.

Let me ask you.... Do you find it hard to move out of your comfort zone?

Let me ask you.... do you find it hard to move out of your comfort zone?

Of course we do....

But as a child of God, faith calls you to stretch, to go beyond what we feel is safe and comfortable… there is where our faith has to take over..

We will either trust God or not...

So to illustrate the point, lets return to the book of Numbers again and lets find chapters 13-14.

And we will look at verse 1-3 and 17-20, in to begin with....

So here we are with the children of Israel, they are at the entrance into the promised land, Canaan.

This is the land God has prepared for His people for eternity, He promised it to Abraham and his descendants, and now they have returned.

Egypt is in the rear view mirror, they have come a long way and time and time again, God has revealed to them His power, His presence and His will for His people...

And now God is getting ready to send them over....

So lets look at and we will look at verse 1-3 and 17-20

and

Wow, they entered, 12 people, one from every tribe, heads from the 12 tribes and we know that two in particular who went along is Caleb and Joshua.

So lets being right here with the Spies...

1. Spy Out the Land...

Let me stop you right here and let me ask you a question, ....

Have you ever wondered why God didn’t just send them, the spies across the river and into the land immediately?

Why were spies needed?

Why did they need to see for themselves.

Why did God command Moses and the people to send spies out in the land of Canaan before the people would cross over?

Lets go back to our text

so the Lord spoke to Moses saying… but honestly its not God’s plan but he allows it… How do I know this...

So the men of Israel came to Moses with the proposal to spy out the land first… Why, why not just trust God and go?

I think it is all about faith and trust my friends....

Remember what faith is my friends....

It’s a faith/trust issue… In truth it wasn’t God who sent the spies into the land, it was the people who petitioned God to do it.

How do we know this, well if you jump over to , we find Moses recounting the story of that day.

It’s a faith/trust issue…

My friends faith does say go and see for yourself, faith says trust God and go, and enjoy the blessing of his land for yourself.

So the people, the children of Israel asked for spies to be assembled and for those spies to go ahead of the people to spy upon the land, and why do I think this is happening, I think two things were possible...

In truth it wasn’t God who sent the spies into the land, it was the people who petitioned God to do it.

How do we know this, well if you jump over to , we find Moses recounting the story of that day.

So the people asked for spies to go ahead of the people to spy upon the land, and why do I think this is happening, I think two things were possible...

Remember we are identifying this as a faith and trust issue...

A. Was the land just as the Lord had said....

In all their journey from the time they left Egypt until this day, they have traveled in places where food, water and other things were scarce… And now God promises them a place were food is plentiful, there was a harvest waiting for them, a land that was just as the Lord had said.

The children of Israel have not been in this land for over 400 years, there is no one who truly remembers what Abraham, Issac and Jacob found while living there...

Even with all the children of Israel has witnessed thus far, they still had trouble trusting God.

They don’t know how to trust God....

They don’t know how to trust God....

And then this leads us to a second thought my friends..

B. Could they truly Possess such a Land...

The sending of the spies into the land would allow the people to see the land that was promised to them.

Was it possible for this people to go in a possess it.

Remember these are slaves and they are still living in a slave mentality… We cannot have anything, own anything or be anything...

Could they possess it in their own power and might....No

They were not able in their own strength to do anything.

Remember no one can do anything in their own strength.

They were not able in their own strength to do anything.

Remember no one can do anything in their own strength.

Oh people have some skills to accomplish a few things, but they couldnt possess the land as fully as God has promised.

Only with God’s help could they take back the land God had given to their fathers, Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

The call to spy out the land was man’s call in their failure to trust God...

We have a tendency to act the same way… no wait a minute preacher, what do you mean...

God calls us and we tend to evaluate it, can we do it, can we afford it, can we achieve it,

We are all the time looking at us and not looking at God...

Spies are never the answer...

Now this brings me to my second thought for today..

2. Their Lies Mislead the People....

So the spies went into the land and one of the saddest things we see in the Scriptures today is the report they brought back to the people.

Fear brought a untruthful report back the people, it brought back a lie.

And it is their lies that will lead to sin of the people.

Lets look at...., verses 25-33

The Spies were made up of men from each of the 12 tribes....

So the spies, they went and traveled in the land secretly, privately for 40 days seeing what was there and who was there in the land.

They traveled from one end of the land to the other.. Surveying the land completely...

The Spies were made up of men from each of the tribes.... and when they

And at the end of 40 days they returned and brought a report to the people of Israel.

The land they said was indeed flowing with milk and honey, That phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is one that means it was a rich and fertile land.

A land so good and wonderful, it would be a bountiful land.

It was the best land that God had promised to his people.

And they also brought back evidence to support their testimony, look at the fruit we found there.... Verse 23 tell us that they carried a pole holding a grape vine

full of grapes on it between two of the men and with it a mixture of pomegranates and figs..

Wow, they brought back the proof that the land was just as God had said to them, it was a land that would be a blessing to them and their families

But then there is a discouraging word.. lies that will mis lead the people.

Look back at the Scriptures, verses

Verse 28-29

Verse 23 tell us that they carried a pole holding a grape vine between two of the men and with it a mixture of pomegranates and figs..

and verses 31-33

Now I shared both to these passages because of the reference to the Sons of Anak… We will get to that in a minute..

The Spies, most of them bring back a discouraging word... say they cannot possess the land for the inhabitants are two powerful, to strong and you know something, they are exactly right.

They cannot do anything, in their own strength or might… and here is a word my friends, neither can we.

It is the Lord who would fight for them, it is the Lord who would overcome.. they only needed to have the faith to be obedient and step forward trusting God.

But lies held them back..

The father of lies will always talk to you trying to hold you back.... he will always lie to you, mislead you and deceive you my friends…

That is why you hold fast to the truth....

Now Caleb and Joshua bring back a faithful word, verse 30 tells us that Caleb says lets go up and take it..

Caleb and Joshua are the only spies who will have a favorable and faithful word… in the midst of this adventure.. Everyone else is against the move to take and enter the land.

Now lets move on for a minute

Now everyone is always asking about the sons of Anak… the Nephilim … just who are they...

There is a great question are these the people of Genesis chapter 6.