Who Told You That (Part 3)

Though I usually flow in the anointing and gifting of teacher, today I must be pastoral and prophetic. In a few minutes I’ll share with you what the Lord has spoken to me concerning this ministry, even before we even knew we would be moving back to TN. It’s up to you to believe it or not, but he’s going to do it.

Some of you have a picture in your mind of what you believe this ministry should look like now and maybe even five years from now. I don’t know what you see but whatever it is, I am inclined to ask, especially in light of our current series, “Who told you that?”

Num 13:1-3 “1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” 3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.”

Num 13:23-29 “23 When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. 26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

Num 13:30-33 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.””

I’d like to look at verse 33 again which reads, “We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Lean over and ask the person next to you, “Who told you that?”

(PRAY)

When I was a kid I spent a lot of summers in the Rock Island/Moline, Illinois area with my cousins. We would do everything adolescent and early teenage boys did in the late 80’s and early 90’s during the summer to include riding bikes, chasing girls, watching lots of tv and of course, wrestling.

My cousin, Gino loved wrestling so much that he would literally fight you if you told him WWF was not real wrestling. Now, although I was never sold on the drama that Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and Junkyard Dog brought to the ring, something about our fake wrestling sessions in my grandmother’s living room made me want to wrestle for real. So, my freshman year of high school I joined the wrestling team. As it turned out, I was good!

Not only did I join the team but as a freshman, I won the starting position over a senior and several other upperclassmen before our first tournament of the year. I was only 119 lbs but I was strong. Didn’t know a single move but I refused to lose. My first match was against a senior and I beat him in the first round by doing push-ups on his shoulders. I hadn’t been wrestling long enough to learn a proper pin so I did whatever it took to get his shoulders down once I got him on his back.

It was ugly and raw, but I won! After the first round of the tournament my coach gathered us around in a huddle to talk about the victories of the day so far. When he got to me he said, “And Corey won a match no one expected him to win!” I was so shocked that I didn’t hear the rest of what he said. I didn’t know I was supposed to lose. In fact, the thought of losing never crossed my mind. I didn’t lose against my cousins. I didn’t lose wrestling my friends in the back yard. So I never expected to lose on the mat in front of what seemed like a few hundred people. But clearly, I was supposed to lose this match and no one told me that freshmen don’t beat seniors! Normally.

Have you ever succeeded in something you were supposed to fail at?

Maybe you didn’t study for an exam but somehow you aced it. Perhaps a school bully met his or her match the day they tried you. Fellas, ever get a girl nobody thought you had enough game to get? Ladies, ever found yourself getting a job you thought you weren’t qualified for?

Now, I know that God was speaking specifically to Jeremiah when he told him in Jer 29:11 “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” but I tend to believe God has good plans for my life too.

There’s something about my life that when I look back over all he’s brought me through, every battle fought, every sickness I’ve overcome, every trial and heartache, and every mountain that he has carried me over, there is something about the consistency of God’s hand over my life that makes me think no weapon formed against me shall prosper and my soul knows that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength because his grace is sufficient for me.

Even in my weakness, his grace is sufficient. Even though I may not be qualified his grace is sufficient. Thought they talk about my failures and gossip about my mistakes, God’s grace is sufficient for the task and because of his grace I know I’ll finish this race and at the end of my life, my name will be on heaven’s roll!

Do I have anybody in here who knows that Heaven knows your name? Is there anybody here who knows that you have an advocate at the gates saying, let him in. That’s my son. Let her in. That’s my daughter. She’s not perfect but she’s mine. He’s got issues but he’s mine. Is there anybody who knows that you’ve been bought with a price and you’re not ashamed to say “Thank you Jesus, for saving me from myself!” Over and over, you’ve protected me. On repeat, you’ve kept me. Consistently you delivered me and I can’t forget that you made a way when there was no way.

God’s grace is sufficient!

Our text begins with God’s Program for Israel by way of Moses. He tells the man of God to send some men to explore the land. And God’s selection is not haphazard but it is specific. He tells him to send leaders from each tribe, or dare I call them a huddle.

How interesting is it that God would tell Moses to send some men to a place they’ve never seen before armed with nothing but a promise from God.

If you don’t know, let me tell you that God’s Promise is always attached to God’s Program. Listen to me leaders. If you work God’s program, God’s promise is automatic. You don’t need the best technology when you have God’s promise. You don’t need the most advanced weapons when you have God’s promise. You don’t even have to have the most skilled people when you have God’s promise.

God’s promise will open doors for you that no man can shut. His promise will give you victory when defeat seems imminent. God’s promise is connected to his program so if you want His promise, work his program!

Too many of us want what God has but we want to get it our way instead of His. We sign up for the promise but we don’t like the program because God’s program requires God’s Process and let’s just be real. Many of us don’t like the process because the process requires discipline!

I was cut from the football team my sophomore year because I didn’t want to wait my turn. Sophomores often sit the bench while the upperclassmen get all the game time. I wasn’t used to that. I started in little league. I started my freshman year. I didn’t have to wait in wrestling and so I didn’t understand the process of the making.

So I quit going to practice and eventually I was cut from the team all because I was not willing to submit to the process. Not understanding that the process was necessary. And at the time I didn’t understand that the process requires patience. The process requires humility. The process requires us to watch other people do what we sometimes know we could do better.

But in the process, if we are wise, we should be learning from the mistakes of the men and women who go before us. We should be gleaning from what worked and what didn’t work. The process teaches us how to avoid pain and error but the process takes time. And that’s where we lose our minds because even though the process is good for us, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

And so we reject God’s program because we don’t like the fact that God’s process takes time. And while we are rejecting God’s process, we forgot that God’s promise is connected to God’s program.

Again, in Num 13:1-2 “1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.””

Immediately, we see God’s Program, God’s Promise, and the “ING” at the end of “giving” suggests an ongoing activity that we call God’s Process.

But when we get to verse 31-33 we find those who were sent rejecting all of it. Let’s read again what they said.

Num 13:31-33 “31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.””

But I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that God is looking for a few champions in this very hour who will do what Caleb did in verse 30.

Num 13:30 “30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.””

Dear leader, listen to me. There will always be more doubters than doers. There will always be people to tell you what we cannot do and those people will usually be louder, and often even more popular than those who trust God for the impossible.

About a year ago God spoke to my spirit and told me that he was about to restore the lost years. He told us two things before that in 2019. First, he told us to get ready to move. Then he told us to get ready to be uncomfortable. At the time I thought he was just talking about the church in Denver, especially when the pandemic hit. But in retrospect, and in tandem with God’s promise to restore the lost years, I realize that God was preparing my family to move back to TN.

In 2009 we moved here with the expectation of continuing the ministry upon my mother’s retirement. In 2014 we moved to Denver and planted Champions Christian Community Church in 2016. And just this year, as you know, we followed God’s program as we made the uncomfortable move from Denver back to Clarksville where we are experiencing phenomenal growth just as God promised.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will make Jesus famous! And we’ll do it through God’s program. Now, I understand if this is not for you and if it’s not, I beg you to find a man or woman of God with a vision you are willing to submit to or, if God has called you to do so, plant a ministry with the vision God has given you. Whatever you do, do it quickly but don’t do like these other men who spread a bad report. Here’s why. And we’ll close with this.

Num 14:1- 5 “1 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.”

Num 14:26-31 “26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.”

Hear me. God’s hand is upon this ministry and the Lord will do what he has promised. I know that what you’ve seen over the last few weeks is not what you’re used to but I also know that God has a way of doing new things amongst his people just like he did for Israel thousands of years ago.

As for those who we just read about in chapter 14, Don’t let this be your story. Don’t let doubt be your end. Don’t let grumbling dig your grave. Be like Caleb. Shut it down. Silence the people and commit to

God’s Program

God’s Promise

God’s Process

This is the word of the Lord!