Numbers Study - 2025-08-27

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

Cool, so I have been gone for like two weeks, pretty rough two weeks. Maria and

the kids were all sick at the same time and so, well it was even worse, it was kind

of overlapping, so it's just constant sickness in the house. So we had Bo and

Van both had a hand, foot, and mouth two weeks ago, and a little over two weeks now,

and then they got better and like, while they're getting better right near the end,

Maria gets the stomach bug out of nowhere and she's down for a week and I'm like,

you know, like just trying to get things done at the around the house and work

and all that, so, and to put the icing on top of that is a week before all that

happened, my phone broke, and so like I didn't have insurance, so I'm figuring that

out. Anyway, I've been a month without a phone and two weeks without going out, so

if I'm a little awkward tonight, it's just I haven't seen humans, so don't hold

it against me, but everyone's doing better and my new phone comes in tomorrow,

so I'll be back in civilization, but honestly a month off of a phone, it's

pretty nice, it feels great, but yeah, so we are gonna be going over reading

through Numbers 13, which we can turn to, and I know we're, there's some fruit of

the land that the spies bring and I have bananas here, this actually wasn't a

prop for tonight until I just, you know, realized right now, but Gail said who,

Amelia brought some bananas, so if you guys love bananas like my kids do, grab

a few bushels over there, really random but delicious and free, so. Alright, let's

start in prayer and then we'll read Numbers 13. Alright, Lord, we thank You so

much, God, that You're here, Lord, that You want to speak, and I pray, God, that

yeah, just through all my preparation and despite it, God, I pray that You would

speak through Your Word, which I know You will, You promise to, Lord, and I

pray that Your presence would be here, speaking to our hearts, God, and just

making Your Word real to us, Lord, so we could walk in it, walk in faith, and I

pray that this true story, Lord, of the spies and the faith and the fear and all

of this, Lord, we could truly picture and see You in it, Lord, and see the beauty

of who You are, God, and we love You and worship You, in Jesus' name, amen. Alright,

so, before we read Numbers 13, the title is Faith over Fear. Really simple, faith

over fear. They have that on bumper stickers and t-shirts and things, it's not

unique, I didn't come up with it, but faith over fear, and that is such a theme

of life, right? On a daily basis, we're confronted with faith or fear, and it's

so easy to let fear in and slowly win in the battle of the mind, and everybody

deals with it, but we need to choose to have faith in defiance of this fear, and

Hebrews 11.1 tells us what faith is, it says, now faith is the substance of

things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith is not just a

vague hope or like, I wish this would happen, faith is truly something real, and

it's faith looking forward to something real as well, it's faith and

hope in Jesus, and from that we actually get something, and the terminology for

substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen that Paul

talks about is actually like a title deed, like you have the deed to your

house, it is proof and evidence that you own your house, same thing with a car, proof

and evidence that you own your car, so is the same for us with faith, it's proof

and evidence that we actually have salvation and we have the promises of

God, so fear is the exact opposite of that, and it's like, it's giving you

like random facts about reality and things that are scary and make you

slowly start to doubt your faith, doubt God, and next thing you know you're giving

over the title deed, you're handing it over to Satan, and you miss out on what

God has for you, and we see that here in Numbers 13 that Israelites literally

were this close to going into the Promised Land, they had it, it was

theirs, it was their inheritance, their right, and that generation, because of

fear, gave that title over, and they didn't get to walk in it, but the next

generation did, so to frame all of that, I want to give the hopeful verse of Isaiah

26.3, which is really the way that we keep our faith, the way we have faith

over our fear, and Isaiah 26.3 says, you will keep him in perfect peace, this is

mine is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. If the Israelites did that one

little thing, kept their mind focused on the Lord, and fixed on him, they would have

had peace, and they would have trusted him, and that generation wouldn't have

wandered for the 40 years, they would have been in the Promised Land. So let's

jump in to Numbers 13, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy

out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel from each

tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them. So the

spies, it seems like it's God's idea, right? Like, oh yes, send some spies out,

but we actually find out that this is not God's idea, he didn't originate it,

he said it was okay, sure, you can do it, because we see in Deuteronomy 121,

which I'll read for you, is, this is Moses saying, every one of you, speaking to the

Israelites, came to me and said, let us send men before us, and let them search

out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go,

and of the cities into which we shall come. And that plan pleased me well,

so I took 12 of your men, one from each tribe. So here's what happened, the

Israelites were already fearful to go into the Promised Land, already were

doubting, and they said to Moses, can we spy it out first? Can we see if it's

actually good? Can we see if there's big cities there with armies, just to

like, feel it out and see? And Moses thought, that seems like a reasonable

idea, let me go to the Lord. And then we see in the verse we just read, the

So right off the bat, before anything even happens, I want to point out that

this was not actually God's idea originally, he blessed it, but he already

knew what was going to happen because of the report of the spies. He already knew

that faith and doubt was taking root in the people's hearts, and he said, if you

want to do this, sure, you can do it. So because they were already doubting, they

sent these spies. And we see Moses says in verse 3, Moses sent them from the

wilderness of Peron according to the command of the Lord, all of the men who

were heads of the children of Israel. And here are their names, it's, yeah, I'm

gonna try this. I'm just gonna hit the names, not the tribes. Shammuah, Shafat,

Caleb, Yigal, Hosea, Palti, Gadiel, Gadi, Amiel, Cethir, Nabiguel. These are the

names of the men who Moses sent to spout the land. And Moses called Hosea, the son

of Nun, Joshua. So he sends out the people, and it says that Moses sent them

to see whether, which we'll read here in a bit, but to see if the land was

good. Didn't they already know the land was good, though? They kept hearing it

over and over again, the land flowing of milk and honey, right? And they kept

hearing this was their land, that the Lord was going to give them. So why are

they already doubting? Why are they already afraid? And it just, it blows my

mind, they saw God lead them every single day by a cloud, a pillar of

cloud, who knows how tall, probably higher than they could see, and by night a

pillar of fire guarding them. They saw all of Egypt fall in the Red Sea, and like

God was doing miraculous, miraculous things constantly, and then as soon as

they come to the Promised Land, again, they doubt. And in this, this quote, it

says, unbelief often presents itself as being factual or practical or down to

earth. Yet the most factual, practical, and down-to-earth thing we can do is trust

the Word of the Living God. Their unbelief was not according to the facts,

but despite the facts. Despite the fact that God did all these things, they still

found a way to be afraid. And Jesus says, like, he doesn't want us to be

super factual-based and super logical and try to figure everything out before

we go and do something, right? When God says, do it, we should just go ahead and

do it. We need to have that faith. And he says, to inherit the kingdom of God, we

must be like a little one, like a child. We need childlike faith. Like, if he says,

do it, I'm not gonna start spying out the land and figuring out the best way,

and if it's too hard for me, this or that. Like, literally, if he says, do it,

just go for it. Like, our faith needs to be like that. If he says, do it, I

believe it. If he's called me to it, I'll go and do it. If he's leading me there,

I'm gonna move. And if he tells me to go and stand up for something, I'm gonna

stand up for it. And, you know, it's funny. I was thinking about this message and,

you know, with acts of faith, going and doing something when he hears, when you

hear the Lord say it. And I was walking in, and there's two kids walking down

on the other side. They're probably like 13. And I saw them, and immediately I felt

like, I feel like I'm supposed to pray for them. Like, this is gonna be really awkward.

I'm like, yeah, but I got to get in there, you know, where it's like 10 minutes

till I should probably get ready and pray. So, I come into the church, and I

immediately feel the conviction. I'm like, I'm about to talk about if God says

something, do it. And I just walked away from these people, these kids that I was

supposed to pray for. So, I'm like, alright, Lord. I didn't even say a word to

anybody. I just walked back out right over there in front of the house. And was it an

awkward conversation? Yeah. I was like, hey guys, wait up. And I don't remember what I

said. I asked them if they knew Jesus. I asked if they need a prayer. But, look,

like, I don't, you don't know what God is going to do through a simple act of

faith. A simple act of obedience. Those kids probably thought I was crazy, but

maybe when they're 30 years old, they're gonna be thinking back to that

little breadcrumb of the crazy guy standing outside of the church that

chased him down the block to pray with him. You never know, but really, like, God

has called all of us to sometimes awkward things, but sometimes very normal

things on a daily basis in our work, in our families, whatever we're doing. And

if he's called us to it, we should never look at the facts of if I'm

qualified, if I have the words, if I'm gifted in that area, if he's called

you to do it, just step up and do it. Amen. And in verse 17, which we just read, or

16, these are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses

called Hosea, the son of Nun, Joshua. Very interesting. Changed his name. Now, it's

interesting if you know the meanings of the names, which I do, so I read it, I

looked it up. So Hosea means salvation. It's a great name, but Joshua means Yahweh

is salvation. That's much better, right? It's attributing a truth and a hope.

It's attributing faith to the place it's supposed to go, which is in God

himself. Now, Joshua, when he was Hosea, he was born in Egypt as a slave. His family

were slaves and they were hoping for one day to be saved, but they didn't

even know God personally. They didn't know Moses. He was just born in

slavery hoping one day they would be saved in some way. But now, Moses,

before he sends him into the Promised Land, changes his name to what it's

truly supposed to be. He's saying, you were saved by Yahweh and you will be

saved by Yahweh. Like, you are going to go into the Promised Land and before you

do, you have to have faith in him. We can't have a vague faith. We can't have

just hope. We need to have true faith in Jesus. We need to put our faith in

him. And, you know, we can trust Jesus. We can trust God, right? We have seen all the

amazing things he's done, just like he did for the Israelites. We have

stories in our own lives, I hope. Right? Does anybody have stories of how God's

provided, healed, taken care of us, led us through, done miracles? Like, we, when

we trust in him, we see he brings salvation. True salvation. And our God is

all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing. So let's read verse 17 on,

Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this

way into the south, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like,

whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the

land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like

camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are

forests there or not. Be of good courage in bringing back some of the fruit of

the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. Again, didn't

he know it was good? Didn't he know that it doesn't matter if there's enemy armies

there? God's gonna take care of them. He's already wiped out an enemy army in

Egypt. And here, already, there's an element of doubt. And now we don't know

if Moses saying this, that he was doubting himself, or if he was posing the

question to give them an opportunity for faith. I believe it's the second. I

don't think Moses was doubting. But I think when he was saying this, he's

like, you wanted to go spy it out. Why don't you see if it's good? Why don't you

see if God can handle this? Because faith needs to be personal. Like, we can't rely

on someone else's faith. And God will give us trials, tribulations,

persecutions, opportunities to have faith over fear. If we fall prey to fear

constantly, don't think that God's gonna just like, be like, okay, you can

live in fear. He's gonna give us another opportunity. He will never leave

you in failure. He's gonna say, hey, it's okay. I forgive you. Here's another

opportunity to have faith. Here's another opportunity to have victory. So Moses

sends them out. Verse 21, they went up and spied out the land from the

wilderness of Zen as far as Rehobo, near the entrance of Hamaf. And they

the descendants of a knock were there and the descendants of a knock were

giants. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. I love all

the details that they give you. It's like, oh, that clears things up. I

didn't know Hebron was seven years. I thought it was six. Then they came

to the valley of Eschol and cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes

and they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some

of the pomegranates and figs. The cluster of grapes was so big they

needed two people to carry it on a pole. That's some good land right

there. That is crazy. One cluster, not even a vine. So they returned

from spying out the land after 40 days and they departed and came back

to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children. At

the time of the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then

they told him and said, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly

flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. Should have stopped

there, right? Should have stopped with, yeah, we went, it's flowing

milk and honey. Here's some of the proof. And then they say, verse 28,

nevertheless. It's never a good sign when you hear nevertheless. It

basically negates everything you just said. So yes, it is good, right? Flows

with milk and honey. There's fruit there. It's amazing. Nevertheless,

the people who dwell in the land are strong. The cities are fortified

and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of a knock there,

the giants. And the Amalekites dwell on the land of the south.

The Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites dwell on the mountains

and the Canaanites dwell by the sea along the banks of the Jordan.

So they're saying, it's filled with people. There's no like empty

spot. We can just pitch a tent and build our own city. There are

huge giants and armies covering this place. And so Caleb quieted

the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and take

possession for we are able to overcome it. But 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. And they gave the

children of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied

out saying, the land through which we have gone as spies is

a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people

whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw

giants, the descendants of a knock, and we were like grass

hoppers in our own sight. And so we were in their sight.

So this nevertheless comes in not because the land is bad. It's

not like, hey, it's empty. It's a desert just like this. And

there's no one there. We don't want to go there. It is a land

filled with blessing, but it's going to be hard. We're going

to have to fight, right? We have to actually exercise faith in

God and fight armies that look like we can't take them. And

the problem was in that last line is they looked at

themselves. They said, we were like grass hoppers in our own

sight and in theirs. Like we know they think we're small and

we think we're small. Like that's not good, right? And

the whole thing is fear crept in because they looked at

themselves. They looked at their own limitations, their

own inabilities. I'm not that strong. I'm not that tall

I don't have the right armor or swords. We've never fought a

major battle. We don't even know what we're doing, right?

They looked at themselves and they realized we can't do

it. The fear crept in because they looked at themselves.

But we know he will keep you in perfect peace, him whose

mind has stayed on you, who trusts in the Lord. Had they

just kept their eyes fixed on God, they would have

realized he was going to do it all. Like he is the one

who fights our battles. You see David in Goliath, he

never should have been able to take him. But you

realize he was promised he was going to be king. So

he knew he wasn't going to die. That's why he knew he

could take Goliath, right? He was promised you will

be king one day. And he looked at himself and said,

I'm not king yet. And this guy is defying God. So

I'm going to win this battle. I trust in him. He

threw that little stone, killed him, one blow. And

so the Israelites could have thought the same thing.

They said, God did all this. God promised to fight

our battles. God is making the way here. We just

need to go, just like he did in Egypt. But instead

they looked at themselves. And you know, fear,

though it uses facts, is a liar, right? Have you

ever had someone like bring up things about you

that are like, certain things are true, but it's

framed in a way that you make me someone I'm not,

right? Like these act, sometimes people can accuse

you and be like, you're late, you were late this

week, you forgot to do that. You are a horrible

person. Like you, you know what I mean? Like

people can just like make up things. And

that's what the enemy does. It's like, you

failed in this area. You did this. You did that

in the past. You should never be able to live

for God. You should never be able to serve in

this area. You don't deserve that position.

You're not capable. And sure, some of those

things are true. David was not capable in his

own strength to take out Goliath. But he knew God

said he was going to become king and God was

going to fight his battles. So we need to

remember that faith in ourselves will, we will

fail. We will see ourselves as grasshoppers,

just like everyone else does, right? But if we

have faith in God, something switches. Suddenly

we realize it's not about us. It's about him.

And when I was thinking about this, I was

picturing like being in a room, right? If it's

dark, like it's, you know, you're fearful,

like of the darkness, whatever. Fear is like

drawing the curtains closed, like, and you're

making it darker and you're just sitting in

it. You're sitting there. There's nothing you

can do to make this darkness go away. Like

you can't suddenly create light yourself.

You're in the darkness. But the only thing

you can do is open the curtains and let the

light in. That's what faith is. You can't

fight your own battle and muster up the

strength to win, but you can throw open

the curtains and let the light of Christ

shine in, right? That's what faith is. It

is turning to him, realizing he's the way,

he's the truth, he's the life, he has our

victory. And when we throw open the

curtains, darkness and fear must leave. And

we see here too with Caleb. I love Caleb.

He is the man. He, in the midst of

everybody being afraid, saying, let's

just, like, you'll see next chapter,

they're so afraid, they say, let's get a

new leader and go back to Egypt. Like,

they just went through the wilderness and

all this stuff, they, you know, that God

wiped out the Egyptian army and now they

want to go back there and be like, can

we be slaves again under you? Like, what

are they thinking? That fear makes you

think crazy things. If you're living in

fear, you will do crazy things that you

never thought you would. But Caleb

didn't care. He didn't care about the

giants. He didn't care about, like,

getting together a strategic plan. He

just jumps right in and says, let us

go up at once and take possession, for

we were, are well able to overcome. He

was not well able to overcome in his

own strength, but in the strength of

the Lord he was. He didn't even have a

plan yet, but he says, let's go right now.

That is childlike faith right there. And

the amazing thing is that after the 40

years of wandering are over, he's about

80 years old and he leads the charge to

fight the giants in the mountains and

he wins. Isn't that incredible? Like, he

made it through and almost 40 years

later he was finally able to take the

fight to the giants and he was finally

able to walk in that faith that he

desperately desired to 40 years earlier.

And it makes me think, in Matthew 11,

have you heard that verse where Jesus

says, the kingdom of heaven suffers

violence and the violent take it by

force? It is the coolest, most

interesting verse that I've heard in

the Gospels and it's mysterious. I

love it and a lot of theologians have

very mixed reviews of what they think he

meant, but when I look at Caleb, I think

about that verse, that the kingdom of

heaven suffers violence and the violent

take it by force. What I believe it's

saying, and a lot of people believe this

isn't just my idea, but there's

opposition, right? There are opposing

forces to people entering the kingdom of

heaven, but there is an equal and

opposite reaction that must happen. If

you want to enter the kingdom of

heaven, there's a violent and extreme

reaction that someone goes through when

they become Gods, when they throw off

sin in the world and they die to

themselves and they enter the kingdom of

heaven. So it says, even though you're

facing opposition, right, even though

there are forces against you, you can

walk right into the kingdom of God. And

it takes that type of person to truly

lay hold of that for which Christ

Jesus has laid hold of them. To truly

walk in the kingdom of God, it takes an

extreme reaction where you die to

yourself and you live for him. And think

about all of it, right? All of the verses,

like I just said, I am laying hold of

that for which Christ Jesus has laid

hold of me. God is grabbing you. You

need to grab onto him. Also about

running the race with endurance,

throwing off every single weight and

sin that wants to entangle you, pick

up your cross and follow him. Being

crucified is no longer I who live but

Christ who lives in me. That is a visceral

response to the gospel. That is extreme

and that's what it means that the

violent take it by force. Don't you want

to take the kingdom of God like that

with that level of enthusiasm? And

that's what Caleb is doing here. He has

an immediate boldness and faith that

says, let's just go right now. And

but Joshua, he is commended as being

faithful because he was. But he's not

mentioned in these verses here, if you

notice. He didn't say anything

immediately. He did not give a bad

report. But he kind of let Caleb, you

know, speak up first and he kind of

like waited until verse six, it says

in chapter 14, Joshua, the son of

Nun and Caleb, the son of

Jeff, you know, were among those who

had spied out the land and they tore

their clothes. And they spoke to all

the congregation of Israel saying, the

land we pass through to spy out is an

exceedingly good land. So he did speak

up in the end. And that's what faith

does. When someone has faith near you,

you slowly start to grow into faith as

well. And we need to be surrounded by

people that have faith. Because if

we're surrounded by people who doubt,

we're going to be just like the rest

of the Israelites who said, let's get

a new leader. Let's go back to slavery

in Egypt. It's less scary there, but

we want to be people who overcome. And

that's what Caleb says. We are well

able to overcome it. And Joshua was

filled with the same faith in the

end and was with him. Now, after 40

years, just like Caleb goes in and

fights the Giants, well, Joshua, once

Moses dies, becomes the leader to

bring them in. And God says to him

directly in Joshua one nine, it says,

have I not commanded you be strong

and of good courage, do not be afraid

nor be dismayed for the Lord your God

is with you wherever you go. He's

reminding him, he said, hey, you

had faith back then continue to have

faith now. Do not be afraid. Do not

be disturbed, discouraged, but be of

good courage because I'm with you.

And we need to constantly have that

faith like moments of faith in the

past, though they're good and

there's something to look back on.

They can't be the entire experience

of our Christian life. It can't

always be remember 20 years ago.

Remember in the early days, we

need to be having that faith every

single day because we can't it's

like eating it 10 years ago. Is

that going to sustain you

through the rest of your life?

Like we need to eat daily. We

need to exercise daily to stay

healthy. We need to move and do

things. And that's what faith is.

It's like a muscle. You need to

exercise it. You need to move.

You need to stay alive. And

that's why like, like faith

requires action. That's why it

says faith without works is dead.

Works does not, it's not

required for heaven. But if you

don't know works, you don't

believe like you don't. Faith

without works is dead. So here

Joshua is after 40 years, he

had an opportunity again to now

lead the faith filled Israel

lights into the promised land.

Now, if you've heard me speak

before, you know, I always love

to bring everything back to

Jesus because it's all about

him, right? We know in numerous

places in the gospel, it says

that Jesus opened all the law

and the prophets to his people

and showed them where it was

speaking of him. All the law

and the prophets speak of him,

it says. So we know that the

promised land is like the

kingdom of God, right? The

promised land is like our

kingdom of God. It's a picture

of it. But there's opposition to

enter the kingdom of heaven,

the kingdom of God. There are

giants. There is sin, death and

the devil. And these good spies

are actually a picture of

Jesus, a foreshadowing of him

because we couldn't handle the

Israelites. I mean, we

couldn't handle the giants on

our own sin, death and the

devil. But Jesus holds the

victory and we see in Hebrews

12 too, it says Jesus who for

the joy set before him endured

the cross, despising the

shame and has sat down at

the right hand of the throne

of God. He saw the victory and

the joy set before him that

he went through the cross. And

I want everyone, let's all

turn to 1 Corinthians 15.

So we see the sin, the death

and the devil. These are the

things that we can't fight in

our own strength, the giants

that must be taken down so

that we now can walk into the

kingdom of heaven. And verse

54, I'd highly recommend

everyone read all of 1

Corinthians. It's so good.

So when the corruptible has

put on incorruption and the

mortal has put on

immortality, then shall be

brought to pass the saying

as it is written, death is

swallowed up in victory. Oh

death, where is your sting?

And oh Hades, where is your

victory? The sting of death

is sin and the strength of

sin is the law. But thanks

be to God who gives us the

victory through our Lord

Jesus Christ. Sin and death,

hell, the grave, Satan, all of

it has been defeated by

Jesus's death and

resurrection on the cross.

So we don't have to be afraid

of anything. If that's

handled, the rest is pretty

easy for God, right? If our

eternity is secure and all

our failures are handled,

then Jesus's victory is

final and is for every day

for us. And these two spies,

Caleb and Joshua, also have

a lot of things that point

to Jesus as well, which is

very cool. We have Caleb.

Caleb means faithful and

wholehearted. Faithful,

wholehearted. And Joshua

means Yahweh's salvation.

And if you take the Hebrew

name Joshua and make it

Greek, it's actually Jesus.

That Greek, the Greek

version of Joshua is Jesus.

So Jesus is the faithful high

priest who is whole hearted

like Caleb's name means,

wholeheartedly devoted to

God and to the ministry of

saving us. It says that he

is salvation, God is

salvation, and the name of

Joshua literally means

Jesus. It's the same

name. And Judah and

Ephraim are the two tribes.

So, so Caleb is, Joshua is

from the tribe. Oh, maybe

I switched these. Let me

read it. We have Caleb,

the son of Jeff, you know,

is the tribe of Judah. So

yeah, Caleb is from Judah

and Joshua is from Ephraim.

Now these two tribes are

very interesting as well

because we know that

Jesus is from the tribe

of Judah. He's from the

tribe of Judah. And the

it's interesting the way

the tribes go through the

wilderness, we have Judah

leading the East, leading

the whole entire

congregation through the

wilderness. Jesus is our

leader. He is the one

leading us right into

the Promised Land. And

then on the western side

is Ephraim. And so it

shows that like as the

sun rises from the East

to the West, these are

the two spies that were

good, the two tribes that

were good. And we see

like the East and the

West, the sun rising and

setting. Jesus is the

light of the world. He is

the beginning and the

end, the first and the

last. And as like we said

that Ephraim also what had

the blessing of the

firstborn. He had the

blessing of the firstborn.

And we know that Jesus in

first in Colossians it

says he's the firstborn

overall creation and the

firstborn from among the

dead. So here are these

people, their names,

their tribes, what they

were doing in the

wilderness, all are

pointing to Jesus one day

coming, defeating sin

death and hell and Satan

so that we can truly

enter the promised land.

And how do we overcome?

Right. Revelation says

how do we overcome? It's

by the blood of the lamb

and the word of our

testimony. And our

testimony is not just

our own story. Our

testimony is that Jesus

Christ is Lord. That is

the testimony that we

overcome with. So every

trial, every temptation,

every persecution, every

principality or power we

overcome by Jesus, the

blood of the lamb and

the word of our

testimony. So in closing,

I want to ask like who

are we in this story? I

know Jesus is the good

spies and but he calls us

to be like them, to be

like him. Right. But in

normal life, I fall all

across that spectrum. I

fall into the Israelites

who listen to the bad

report and believe it and

don't want to go. I fall

sometimes into the 10

bad spies who see the

world and see the

circumstances and then

choose fear over faith.

And then there are many

times where I'm also

Joshua and Caleb and I

have strong faith and

I'm like, yeah, we can

do this. But God has

better things for us than

living between those

three types of people.

Right. Because it says

if we keep God will keep

us in perfect peace if

we keep our mind fixed

on him because we trust

him. So my faith is 100

percent tied to my focus.

Does anybody else

relate? If you're not

focused on him, you're

going to start believing

a lot more fear. You're

going to be handing over

the title deed of like

yes, you can have this

promise of God because

I'm too scared to take

it. There are so many

things that he has for us

that we need faith to

receive all of it. All

of our Christian life is

received through faith in

Jesus. And so we can't

oscillate back and

forth between the bad

spies and the good spies

on a daily basis. Like

we know that obviously

we have fears and trials

and all, but it says

count it all joy when

you go through various

trials and temptations

because what I have this

first right here. Oh, I

didn't write down. I

love that one. Yeah. So

consider pure joy when

you endure various trials

because it produces

perseverance and test

your faith. So we are

given opportunities to

have faith through trials

and constantly we need to

keep our mind fixed on

him every single day on

a daily basis. If our

mind is fixed on him,

we will be like the good

spies that reject the

facts and the lies of the

enemy and instead choose

faith and go into the

promised land like Caleb.

So I do have some

questions that we can

break off into groups. Um,

I do want to pray before

we do it, but, uh, we

could put up those

questions and I'll close

it out in some prayer.

Lord, thank you so much,

God, um, that you are

so faithful to us.

Lord, thank you that

you are so powerful, God.

Um, no matter what you

called us to, no matter

what we will be going

into God, you already had

the victory, Lord. You

already won the battle,

Lord. So we just need to

believe and step in and

I pray God that we

wouldn't be like the

Israelites believing the

bad report or the spies

that got wrapped up in

fear and realized how

weak we are, God, like,

yes, we are weak, of

course, but we serve in

all powerful God. And I

pray that we would step

out in faith, Lord, um,

this week, that when you

tell us to do something,

God, that we would just

wholeheartedly like a kid,

just believe it, Lord, and

go and do it. And I pray

that we would see

miraculous things happen,

Lord. I pray that we

would see salvation,

Lord. I pray that we

would see your gifts in

our life come to life,

God. I pray that we'd

step into all that you've

planned for us and for

our church and Jesus

name, amen.