Breaking Barriers: Identify the barrier

Intro

We are starting a brand new series called Breaking Barriers. This series is actually inspired by one of the banners located at both campuses. In Carlyle, the banner is located on the left of the sanctuary. In Redvers, it is located on the _________

The banner says this, for everyone who is not joining us in person:

We as a congregation agree to remove any barriers, walls, or hindrances that prevent people from knowing Christ.

Essentially, we are committed to being barrier breakers. So we are going to take the next month and talk about the barriers that are in our own lives, and as we become trained in our removing the barriers in our life, then we will be equipped to help others overcome their own barriers.

Now for the rest of the series, we are going to understand a barrier as anything that stands between us and where God wants us to be.

To help us with this idea of barriers, we are going to be looking at the story of Jericho. It may seem obvious, but there are a few behind the scenes details that I hope will be enlightening for us.

Question #1: What are the different barriers you’ve encountered in life?

A barrier could be anything. It could be finances, time, people’s perspective. We are going to look at a couple different barriers that pop up in Israel’s story. Some barriers are more apparent, and some can be hard to talk about. Sometimes, we may not even know what the true barrier is, only the symptom of the barrier in our life.

Scripture:

to kick off our series, we are going to look at a story that happens years before the people of Israel encounter the walls of Jericho. We will be in Numbers 13 this morning, so if you have your bible you can turn there. Otherwise it will appear on the screen for you. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please let us know and we would happily send one your way, no cost. Our gift to you.

here is a little set up for Numbers 13. The people of Israel have left Egypt, they have met with God at mount Sinai and he has laid out the commandments and statutes they are to follow as his holy people. He has also told them about this land that they are going to possess. A land flowing with milk and honey. A land that is lush with everything they could ever want, and as long as they serve the Lord, they will lack nothing in life.

So now they are on the cusp of entering the land, and you could probably feel the excitement. This was everything they could ever want. They were only seeing upside.

If you’ve ever had a dream or an ambition to do something, you know this feeling. You know the excitement and being swept up in all the upside. Your dream coming true and life is fulfilling and purposeful.

As prep for the invasion that is about to happen, God tells Moses to send 12 men, one from each tribe, to spy out the land. So Moses takes the 12 men, and gives them these instructions.

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.

It is research time. It is time to find out the hard facts about the land that the people are going to take over. What are the upsides, is it really as good as they’ve been dreaming it to be? What are the costs and risks involved in taking the land?

This is where dreams become reality. They stop simply being thoughts in our heads and the rubber hits the road. The same is true for things that we aren’t looking forward to. If we are dreading something, a little research can either confirm our fears, or make them go away.

So the men go in, and they are gone for forty days. When they come back, they have a cluster of grapes with them that is so large, it takes two men to carry it. You could probably feel the excitement of the nation. Look at those grapes! This is looking good!!

what do the spies say?

Numbers 13:25–29 ESV

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. 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.”

The spies point out all the upside. Yes it is flowing with milk and honey. Look at the fruit! However, we have a really big problem, and it is the people that are there. The people are strong, the cities are walled and strong, and we even saw giants walking around.

At this point in the report, they haven’t said whether it is impossible or if they should go for it. The spies have simply come back and reported exactly what Moses asked them to report. Are the people few or many? They are many. Are they weak or strong? They are strong. Are they in camps or are they in strongholds? Strongholds.

So basically, the people of Israel aren’t going to walk into the land, “Hello, hi. We’re God’s chosen people, and God promised us this land, so you have to leave now. Ok thanks bye!” This is going to be a fight.

Question #2: Have you ever wanted something, only to discover a barrier that seemed too big?

This is where life gets real. Where you want to be is in sight, you can almost taste, and standing between you and your destination is this massive obstacle. It is now decision time. Are you going to attempt to take on this obstacle, knowing the reward on the otherside is going to be worth it? Or do you step back, let go of the dream, and pick a new course of action?

Israel is faced with a tough decision. Do they invade, knowing they are going to face an incredibly strong opponent, or turn and run.

The decision is only made harder by what is said following the initial report.

Numbers 13:30–33 ESV

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.”

Caleb, and Joshua in chapter 14, both say, we need to go. God is with us, God will conquer these people, lets go!

The other 10 spies turn the people against Moses and Aaron, exaggerating the report and making it seem worse.

So the people need to make a decision, and the decision they make isn’t a favorable one. They decide that God has brought them to this place so that their wives and children will become slaves, and all is for not.

As a result, the people of Israel are forced to wander around for 40 years, waiting for the day when they can return to this spot and take over the land that was promised them.

Bridge the Gap:

This is the problem with barriers. No matter what the barrier may be, it presents itself as something that is impossible to conquer, and so we are faced with the decision. If God is calling me here, to accomplish this or do that, then He has to make a way for it to happen

Or, we take matters into our own hands and give up to try something else. The result of giving up is our own wandering. We end up wandering through life, wondering what would have happened if we had trusted God with the outcome instead of our own abilities.

Maybe this morning is your opportunity to stop wandering, and come back to the place you left days, months, years ago, and trust God to do what only he can do, so you can live the life you were born to live.

Question #3: Is there something you want to come back to, or something you keep putting off?

This week, lets do it!

Let’s Pray!