Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Living Worry Community Church. How are you doing tonight? That's awesome that you're awesome. It's great to have you here. We are excited to be here because God is good, right? You know, I like thinking about this because I would say probably most of us would not even know each other if it weren't for Christ. You ever sit and think about that for a minute? It's really true, right? And what a great fellowship he has created by saving us one at a time. Precious Lord, let's bow our heads in our hearts and thank you for that. Father, we are grateful, Lord, that you are so merciful to us and gracious, Lord God. Father, we just thank you for another opportunity to get together here, to gather here, Lord, and to be able to just celebrate you, to spend time singing songs of praise to you as we prepare our hearts and allow an expression of worship of you in song, Lord. We know that you created music. It is amazing to us, as so many other things are to in this world and your creation, Lord, that points us to you, Father. And we wanna fix our eyes upon you this night and set our hearts towards you, Lord, and incline ourselves and listen to you. We just pray for an anointing upon Pastor Frank, Lord, as he teaches your holy word tonight, Lord, and those teaching our little ones, Father God. We just pray that your word would go forth with boldness, authority, and that truth would transform our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And we're for cleansing a a a a a a a a a a Oh I am so ♪ Glory to His name ♪ Thank You, my heart, for the day of my life ♪ Glory to His name ♪ Up to the skies, to the hills, all is calm ♪ As I pour salt at the Savior's feet He comes into play and we make our plea. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Oh we invite you holy spirit Oh Oh Oh Lift our voices in a chorus of honor You the angel of grace We cannot keep silent Or else you'll drown out in our praise We exalt You, O Lord We exalt You, O Lord. We exalt You, O Lord. Let the heavens be filled with the sound of our praises. Let the heavens be filled with the sound of our praises. Let the heavens be filled. We exalt You, O Lord. We exalt You. Oh, we exalt You, O Lord. We exalt You, O Lord. We exalt You, O Lord. We are gathered in your presence, Lord, to give you praise. We exalt you, O Lord. Thank you, Father. A thousand stories of what they think you're like. But I heard the tender whispers of life in the dead of night. You tell me. That you're pleasing, that I'm never alone. You're a good, good friend. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I'm loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. Well, I've seen many searching for answers far and wide. But I know we're all searching for answers. Do you provide the choice? Do you know just what we need before we say a word of goodbye? Still you are loved by me. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. Still I am. You are perfect in all manner of ways. He's so undeniable, I can hardly speak. He's so unexplainable, I can hardly think. As you call me, deeper still as you love me. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who I am. It's who I am. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You're a good, good God. Two in one. Two in one. Two in one. I'm loved by You. Two I am. Two I am. Two I am. I want to worship You, Lord, in You alone. Guys, sing with me. Ladies, echo. I will worship You, Lord, in You alone. With all of my strength I will seek you On a mighty day Time will follow I'll love you always I'm My eyes to your throne I will trust you Lord, I will trust you alone Trust you alone, I will give you all I have ♪ I long to war, I long to war ♪ ♪ I would be of that brave, I would ♪ ♪ Do all my worst, do all my worst ♪ ♪ Do all my best, do all my best ♪ ♪ I long to war, I long to war ♪ I'll give you all my worship. I'll give you all my praise. You alone I long to worship. You alone are worthy of my praise. You are my worship I give all my praise You alone I long to worship You alone are worthy of my praise Hey, welcome. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you, Lord God. Just come into your presence tonight, Lord God, to praise you, to sing about, Lord God, your love for us, your grace, Lord God, your mercy, and your care for us. And Lord God, we just pray, Lord God, just as we come to the word, usher us into your presence in a deeper way. And Lord God, let us just look upon, Lord God, your revealed word to us. You have a message for us tonight. And Father God, let us receive it. Let us, Lord God, allow it to be planted into our heart of hearts and let it produce an abundance, Lord God, of fruit in our lives. For in Jesus' name we pray this, amen. Kids, you can go. God bless you, you can be seated. I wanna just see if I'm hooked up here. I'm okay? I'm not gonna fall out? OK. All right, if we can, can we get our screen up here? How are you all doing? Good? What's happening, Mike? Take problems? Should I do some ad-lib? Tell some jokes? Did you ever hear about the ambitious cannibal? He was always trying to get ahead. Tito, where are you? I need the drums. There was some cannibals and they were talking and they were talking about They would capture the missionaries and eat them. And the one cannibal said, I don't like them, they're real tough. And he said, how are you cooking them? He says, I boil them. And the other cannibal said, no, no, what do those guys look like? He said, well, they're short, they're fat, they have a little ball spot in the middle and they wear brown robes. He goes, no, no, no, you don't boil them, they're fryers. How about the one that ate a clown? The other cannibal said, Would you like to steal the show here tonight? Wanna come up here and preach? All right, so we're gonna talk, we're gonna talk about when fear conquers faith. Obviously, we wanna talk about when faith conquers fear, but we're gonna be looking from Numbers chapter 13 tonight, and this is gonna be part one, when fear conquers faith, and next week we're gonna look at part two, and that's gonna be from the 14th chapter of Numbers. So if you're studying with us, I'd encourage you to read chapter 14. So stand with me for the reading of the word. We're gonna read just simply here, Numbers 13, verses one and two to start. We're gonna go through the entire chapter tonight. And it says, and then 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, every one, a leader among them. Heavenly Father, I pray, Lord God, this night that you'd open up again our hearts to your word. Speak to our hearts, Lord God. You know, you want us, Lord God, to have not a spirit of fear, but a spirit, Lord God, of courage, a spirit, Lord God, of boldness, a spirit of love, a spirit of self-control. I pray, Lord God, that again, as we study your word, for your word is alive, it's living, it's more active than a double-edged sword, that, Lord, you would be impressing it upon our hearts tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. So what you have here, we come to the 13th chapter of Numbers, God promised the promised land, okay, to Israel. And in this text, what you're gonna see is, so God calls Moses to select 12 leaders, one from each of the 12 tribes, and they are to go in and spy out the land, come back and give a report, and then Israel is to go in and conquer the promised land. What happens is 10 of the spies are, essentially they're cowards and they bring back a word and essentially it discourages the entire, you know, essentially nation of Israel and like just a contagion. And that is what, you know, fear is contagious. Remember COVID? Whole lot of people not getting COVID around here. They're getting it in other parts of the country. We haven't been getting it around here. But you remember how contagious COVID was? Well, fear, I think is more contagious than COVID. It literally poisoned the entire generation. And instead of entering the promised land, all but two died in the desert. And that's the effect that fear can have on us as believers. It can keep us from entering into the promises of God. So we're gonna look at, again, fear tonight, and you're gonna look at it in this context, we're gonna look again at how destructive it can be. And I wanna mention this to you, fear has two sisters, okay? You know who they are? Anxiety and worry. They all kinda go together. So we're gonna look at, again, fear and her two sisters. So here's something, this is a good definition. that we talk about. Now, let me just, let me qualify this for a second. There are good fears. The fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But the fear of the Lord is to have an awe, is reverence of God, okay? It's not a fear that freezes you and keeps you from being able to do what God has called you to do. There also is a good, healthy fear of true danger. If you're walking out of the church tonight and you step out on the street on Madison Avenue and a bus is racing up at 70 miles an hour, it's good that you become afraid and you step back and not get hit by the bus. So there is good fear. The fear I want to talk to you about, again, is fear, again with this definition, false evidence appearing real. It's negative fear, it's destructive fear, it's harmful fear. So when it comes to, again, this abnormal fear, the researchers tell us that 90 to 97 percent, you want to learn this, 90 to 97 percent of the things we fear, worry, or have anxiety about never happen to us. So I'm using a wide, 90 to 97%, because depending on what study you look at, I had a great study that I used a couple of months ago on a Sunday morning from Ohio State, and it was 90%. 90% of the things that people were afraid of never happened to them. So it's just, again, it's just destructive fear, worry, and let me just say this, there are so many things that you could be afraid of. I mean, there are so many things in the world. I mean, right now, we're living on a hot planet, if you haven't noticed that. And there are thousands of things that you can focus on that will create fear, that will create anxiety, that will create worry. And, I mean, all you need to do is turn on the news. Just this morning, when I wanted to check, woke up this morning, first thing, I'm laying in bed. I flipped on, I just wanted to take a quick look at what was going on, and you know what's going on in the banking industry right now. I just want to take a real quick look at the markets and Fox Business. And the first thing that the reporter said was enough, right, just to, man, I just got hit with this wave that could create fear. So here are the things, this is 2020, the top 10 fears. Corrupt government officials. I like that. People I love becoming seriously ill. Russia using nuclear weapons. People I love dying. You know, more people are afraid, they're more afraid of their loved ones dying than themselves dying. The U.S. becoming involved in another world war. Pollution of drinking water. Not having enough money for the future. economic and financial collapse, pollution of oceans, rivers, and lakes, and then the 10th, biological warfare. These were the top 10 from 2022. Now, I'll tell you, I mean, you focus on those, you start thinking about those, you can go through the whole day being obsessed with those, you're going to have a lot of fear, you're going to have a lot of anxiety, you're going to have a lot of worry. And, you know, there is a point... I get a... It's an intelligence report that I get in the morning. I pay for it. And it's put together by people who like CIA, ex-CIA intelligence, people on the Mossad and Israel intelligence, again, people from all over the world, Russian, they're ex-Russian intelligence people that contribute to this. And it just gives me a real quick and a quick read in about five minutes, I can know what's going on in the world. I can know geopolitical, then I can look at economics, some religious things. It's a good report. But you go through the day, you have on the radio, you have on the television, looking at the internet, you're just looking at these things over and over and over again. It's just robbing you. It's robbing you of your life. So fear, and truly negative fear, has really bad effects on our lives. The first is the effects on our body. Okay. Fear weakens the immune system. And with all these, I mean, with, you know, with COVID and now, you know, the flu virus and colds and all these other things, the last thing you want to do is be weakening your immune system in this current time. Fear causes cardiovascular damage, gastrointestinal problems, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, decreased fertility. And it leads to accelerated aging and even premature death. So there's some good reasons why, you know, we really shouldn't be living in this, you know, again, imaginary artificial fear. And also on a psychological level, fear, essentially, I'm going to get technical with you, the amygdala, right part of the brain, the amygdala part of the brain, and what it does is essentially fear. It causes parts of the brain to become active and other parts of the brain to shut down. And so when you're in a state of fear, you'll notice you become very foggy. That is something we teach in the martial arts. When somebody is being attacked and we try to assimilate, I mean, you can't assimilate attack fully, but some, you know, psychopath, sociopath attacks you, you're going to find that you're going to have this very effect where your brain immediately becomes foggy. And a lot of people don't know how to respond. You see a lot of these attacks that you see on the news, people being attacked. What do they do? They curl up in a fetal position while the person beats the heck out of them or stabs them. And that's because of the brain shutting down. So when we're in a state of fear, this thing occurs where, again, we become impaired. We can't think clearly. We go into a fog. So you're making decisions. Listen, I make a lot of important decisions every day. There are decisions that are affecting the church. There are decisions that are affecting my family. There are decisions that are affecting our future. There are decisions that are affecting people's lives. And if you're in a state of fear, you're in a state of war and anxiety, you cannot make good sound decisions. So, again, it creates brain fog, and really, again, it inhibits and limits our ability to think right. And then on a spiritual level, so you have the body, you have the mind, The spirit, you know, and in our spiritual relationship with God, like Jesus, you know, and you see this repeated over and over again, Matthew 8, 26, he said to them, why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was great calm. In the spiritual life, essentially, fear hinders us from becoming the people that God has called us to be. The negative emotions that manifest from fear, we can't achieve, living that way, the goals that God has given us. Fear, essentially, it plays havoc with our belief system. And suddenly we come to a place where we're not believing that God can do, you know, in us and through us what God has said he can do. Fear essentially, you know, it just creates all sorts of doubts, pessimism, negativity, and it creates destructive habits. And the people who live, people who live in, you know, fear and have anxiety, a lot of anxiety and worry, They will turn to destructive things to alleviate and medicate themselves. So turn to drugs, turn to alcohol, turn to pornography. They will try to medicate themselves to basically deal with the pain or the discomfort that they're experiencing from the fear. Fear steals away our contentment. When we're always afraid, again, we're living in this level of negativity. So fear really interferes with the abundant life that God has called us to. He said, I've come that you would have life and have it more abundantly. Fear, anxiety, worry, it just really disrupts that abundant life. So it has a negative effect on us physically, on us psychologically, as well as on us spiritually. Again, you can see why, again, the Bible really speaks out against this abnormal, destructive fear. So, when we get into our text, first thing, first point tonight. A gift to be taken. God said, go and take the promised land. It is a gift that God has given to the Israelites. The issue is that the land is inhabited by the Canaanites, those three ugly dudes. You got the Canaanites, you got the Amorites, you got the Perizzites, you got the Ites in there. God says, it's yours. Go and take it, right? I mean, you see it right here. I am giving to the children of Israel, right, the land. And again, this is just the renewal and the moment of entry that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'll take you back to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 verse 18 to 21, on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants, I give this land. And you have the description of the essentially boundaries, which is I think, if you look at it, it's far more massive than what Israel inhabits today. But again, notice it's inhabited by all of these different tribes. The Rephaites, the Perizzites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites. But God says here, he says, I give it to you but you gotta go take it. You gotta go and uproot the enemy. You're gonna need to defeat them. You're gonna need to drive them out. You're gonna need to fight the good fight, and you're gonna need to defend the land. So the promised land is a typology of what? I think I'll use this, it's a typology of our relationship with Jesus. Jesus is our promised land, ultimately in heaven. But it is essentially a picture, again, there's a lot of typologies. The Ark of Noah is a typology of Jesus. The tabernacle is a typology of Jesus. The promised land is a typology of Jesus. Jesus is the promised land. He is the gift of peace, of eternal life, of joy, of salvation that God has given to us. John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life. So Jesus is a gift for us. Now you need to take it. Now you need to take it, you need to enter into it, And you know what? You need to fight for it and you need to defend it. It's a gift, but you need to receive it. You need to wrap your life and your heart around it. You need to follow him, right? You need to take up your cross. You need to deny yourself. You need to defend the gift. There's a lot about fighting the good fight. Well, salvation is free. It is free. It's a free gift. The promised land was a gift. But you have to go in and take it. You need to defend it. Ephesians chapter six, the armor of God. Why do we need to put on the helmet of salvation? Why didn't we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness? Why do we need to put on the belt of truth? the shoes of the gospel of peace. Why do we need to take up the shield of faith? Why do we need to take up the sword of the spirit? Because you need to fight and you need to defend the promise that God has given you. Because the enemy's gonna come and he's gonna attack you. He's gonna come and he's gonna attack you. He's a thief, he's a murderer, and he wants to take away what God has given you. And he is tenacious. So, yes, it's a gift for us, but we need to enter into the gift by faith, we need to receive the gift, and we need to fight for the gift, we need to defend the gift. And the passive Christianity, it doesn't work. And it's not what is really proclaimed in the New Testament. It is an aggressive form of Christianity. Here is the gift, but now, again, you need to take the gift. And this is what God is saying to the Israelites. Here's the gift. It's the promised land. It's the milk and honey land, right? The landfill with milk and honey. You gotta go and take it. Second, 10 cowards and two heroes. Every battle has heroes and every battle has cowards. You have two heroes, you have 10 cowards. Don't look at your Bible, look up at me. I know I should never tell you that, but I'm telling you right now. Is there anyone here who could tell me one name of one of the 10 cowards? Mike, you're almost gonna blow me away there. He raised his hand and he said, oh no. Could you name one? Can you name the two heroes? Right? Caleb and Joshua. You can't name the 10 cowards, right? So you go through verse three through 16, you come down to verse six, there's Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and verse eight, you have Hosea, the son of Nun, and then Hosea is Joshua. You don't, nobody remembers the other 10. 12 spies, 10 cowards, you can't name them, two heroes. And I mean, anybody who reads the Bible knows of Caleb and Joshua. I'm gonna say this to you. I don't wanna say this to me. Some people are easy to forget. You know, have you come across, there are people who have, coming in and out of this church, many years, some of them are unforgettable. I mean, I don't know, Sue, I think you'd be the only one in here, you never forget Florence Copeland. Florence Copeland was a single mom, you remember, Len, single mom, she had a daughter with Down syndrome, she had another daughter, fixed income, she was our first Sunday school teacher, She was here from the early days. She was one of the original people who founded the church. She's on a fixed income. I think she was living on $600 a month. And they were coming after her because she had some physical illness and they were coming after her for her bills. And I sit with her and say, Florence, I can't do anything to you. Pay them what you can. She'd always try to pay a little bit. We do a food drive. There's Florence. She tithes. And there she'd be here, putting food in the food drive. She's unforgettable. Sometimes I'm doing a funeral, or I'm shopping in a store, and somebody comes up to me and says, Pastor Frank! And I won't play the game. And they're like, Pastor Frank, do you remember me? They see the look on my face. I don't. I don't remember them. I don't remember when they came here. I don't think they ever did anything. They just came for a while and they left. And I know that sounds mean. I have a really good memory. I think you see that in my teaching. I have a really good memory. But there are people that, again, they're unforgettable. And then there are people who make an impression on your life. They touch your life deeply. They make a difference in the kingdom of God. And they, like Florence Copeland, are unforgettable. And, you know, I sat there and I started thinking of the earliest days in living word. And so many people, there were many people who were truly unforgettable. But there are a whole lot of people that are, I just forgot about. And it's the people who really, again, left their mark. They're the ones you remember. And Joshua and Caleb were unforgettables. The other 10, right, were, you know, were forgettable. So it's sad. It's sad. Because these 12 were the cream of the crop. It wasn't like, oh, you know what, go to the tribe of Reuben, and you know that guy who sits out in the sun every day and never does anything? Select him to be one of the leaders and one of the people who are gonna go and spy things out. That's not what it was. These 12 were, these were 12 with potential. They were the best of the best, and they're chosen, they're standouts, they're all-stars. I'll show you something, again, people of production. People of, let me say, people of potential. Potential doesn't equal production. I've seen a lot of people come into Living Word who have great potential. I mean, I think people come in and out of Living Word, some of them, the potential to plant churches and build churches. So there are people that you see with great potential, but potential does not equal production. What breaches the gap, and I want you to see this, potential plus performance equals production. And when I'm talking about performance, I'm not talking about performing in Broadway. The idea of performing is doing what God has called you to do, being who God has called you to be. It's about doing the work that God has called you to do. And this is true, I'll tell you, this is true. When you see a person who has the potential and they're putting that potential to use with performance, they produce, they become extremely productive in the kingdom of God. their consistency, their commitment, their statuitousness. By the way, you can use that as a word that I just invented. But you see that. And you can see this, you can see this, it's true in Christianity. It's true in the business world. It's true in sports. It's true in everything. That a person could have, I mean, how many times you see athletes with magnificent potential There's no consistency. They're a head case, right? They're just, they lack commitment. They're causing problems on the team. And they can go through an entire career and never become productive. But I think, again, that's true of the kingdom. I wanna just add one more thing here. When, and at times you're in situations where you are gonna be with people who, again, they are not performing, and the 10, They are not, I'll tell you, they are not men of faith. And I think there's a point in situations like that where you need to pull yourself away. You pull yourself away from the mediocre, pull yourself away from the average, pull yourself away from the status quo. You embrace the challenges. These are people, they basically are running away from the challenges. You embrace the change. Have you noticed that this world is changing very rapidly? You need to embrace the change. And if they can't embrace the change, I think there's a point you need to move away from them. You embrace the discomfort. They cannot embrace the discomfort. And if you don't, you'll become like them. Iron sharpens iron. Mold creates mold. You can quote that too. That's a bolelism. So again, 10 cowards, two heroes. All right, number three, faith's vision. Proverbs tells us 29, 18, where there is no vision, people perish. I have a bolelism, I'm giving you a lot of bolelisms tonight. You can fill up the book of bolelisms. Where there is vision, the people flourish. Show me a church without vision, I'll tell you a church that's dying. Show me a church with vision, I'll show you a church that's growing. You can see it in a marriage, you can see it in a family, you can see it in a business, you can see it in a nation, you can see it in a community, in a city. Where there's vision, people flourish. So in verses 17 through 20, 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 into 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, whether there are forests there or not, be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season for the first ripe grapes. Before you can seize it, you must see it. Whatever God has for you, you need to see it before you can seize it. You need to be able to truly see the opportunity and grasp onto it. I say this, the world belongs to visionaries. The kingdom of God belongs to visionaries. And when I came into this building, and I was the first one here, and I say this, Lenny, you know, Len was here, Sue was here, some others that are still from those days, Gloria. Do you remember what this place looked like? So we're renting upstairs. We have that area that the kids have Sunday school in. So we have this room that seats maybe, I don't know, 75 people and a couple of little rooms in the back that we could do Sunday school with. And that's church, that was the church. And I'm looking out the window every Sunday, and I'm looking at this roof here, and it's the cathedral roof. And all of a sudden I'm starting to think, wait, I wonder what it looks like inside, because it looks like a church from the outside. And then I got in here one day, and this was a machine shop. There was no wood on the walls. The ceiling was wide open. See these beams, though? These beams caught my eye. A cathedral ceiling. Kind of looks like a church. There was grease all over the floor. Big, huge machines that were hanging from these beams. I have to say this, and I think Len grasped onto this. I think Tommy Centrello grasped onto it. Chris Marr grasped onto it. Gloria grasped onto it. I saw what I see now. But again, that's vision. And again, where there's vision, we flourish. It would have been easy to see. And there were some people who came in, and they basically gave us all the objections why this couldn't be done. Those two beams there, that was a wall that had to be knocked down. And there had to be, and thank goodness Lenny, the engineer, was with us because he showed us that we could put a big steel beam across. And there was one point where the building was, right at the front, was expanding. And the fear that actually the whole building could fall down. And Lenny came up with this great idea. And we basically put a vise on the building and squeezed it all together. But it takes vision. Because it's so easy to see the problems, so easy to see the obstacles, so easy to see all the things that couldn't be. But visionaries, they see the potential. And I believe when you're in tune with God, God gives you eyes to see. Caleb and Joshua had eyes to see, the other 10 did not. In your life, what you're gonna find, there are gonna be times where you're gonna come to closed doors. And we have a tendency when we come to a closed door, we stand in front of it staring at the closed door. Take a step back and open your eyes because where there usually is a door that's closed, there's usually a door that God has opened. So there were some things here that were closed, but there were some things that were wide open that God was inviting them to come into. Okay, number four, faith's fruit. So in verse 21 through 25, it says, so they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. And they went up through the south and came to Hebron, Ahaman, Shishai, Talmai. The descendants of Anak were there. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zohan in Egypt. Then they came to the valley of Eshkol and there cut down a branch with clusters of grapes and they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. The place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days. So have you had grapes this week? There's a lot of good grapes. Red grapes, green grapes, purple grapes. Some of the grapes are really delicious. I love grapes. I love fruit. I eat fruit. I eat lots of fruit. I'm a little fruity. Your pastor is fruity, and I love fruit. I love vegetables, too. But, you know, when you have a cluster of grapes, just, I mean, you can hold it in one hand, right? Right, there's a cluster. That's a big cluster of grapes. Those are some nice Concord grapes. Have a little bitterness to them, but they're delicious. So, you know, you can hold it. I ate grapes today. I had a cluster of grapes and I'm picking it off. Do you understand how big the cluster of grape was? That they had to carry it with a pole with two men? This was a land that was flowing with milk and honey. I won't get into some of the theories on why these grapes were so big. But I think those grapes were more like grapefruits than little tiny grapes. And again, it was a land flowing with milk and honey. They came back, they experienced that, wow. That's the promised land that God offers us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Okay, number five, fears obstacles. So in verse 26 through 29, now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, And they brought back the word to them and all 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. Now watch. They focus on three obstacles here. The first, nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong. They're strong. I mean, they're buffed. They got muscles. They got veins in their arms, right? They got necks that look like legs. They're buffed. And then the cities are fortified and very large. Like Jericho, right? Great walls. Great walls that a chariot could ride on it. And moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Anakites. They're big people. Okay, how big? They're called Nephilim. the descendants of Nephilim. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. There are your obstacles. Want to enter the promised land? You've got to overcome the obstacles. You wanna go deeper and deeper in your life with Jesus, wanna enter into a deeper peace, that peace that transcends all understanding, wanna enter into that joy, right, that joy in Jesus that could really make your life bulletproof and undisturbable, wanna enter into that life, but you gotta overcome the obstacles. I don't know what obstacles you have in your life. I know the obstacles I'm dealing with in my life. To achieve success in anything in life, you must overcome the obstacles. That is, again, a simple truth. With whatever you're doing, you have to overcome the obstacles. You have to solve the problems. Life is filled with obstacles. Do you find this? Every day, I am confronted with obstacles. It never gets easy. There are always obstacles in the church, obstacles in our relationships, financial obstacles, obstacles in our careers. They come every day. If you're gonna win, if you're gonna succeed, you have to overcome them. You have to learn to jump over them, to go under them, to go around them, or to go through them. But if you're going to, again, to enter in to the promises of the Lord, you have to overcome obstacles. And what you're seeing now, the 10, they're like stirring and focusing. They're focused not on God. They're not focused on overcoming. They're focused on the obstacles. The people are really big. The cities are fortified. There are some big people there. So in the midst of this, you have faith's confidence, and that's in verse 30. And notice again, and Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and take possession, for we are able to overcome it. We are able. You gotta underline that in your Bible. For we are well able. That's faith's confidence. What's a New Testament verse that reminds you of that? Yeah, Philippians 4.13, right? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I want you to notice this, all things. Can I do all things through Christ who strengthens me? If I flap my arms really hard, can I get off the ground? I've come to a realization at 64 years old of my life. I train, you know, I train every day. I box, I do jiu-jitsu. I've come now to the conclusion that at this time in my life, I'm not gonna be the heavyweight champion of the world. Maybe the welterweight champion of the world. But I don't think I shavish out at the heavyweight championship. I've come to the conclusion at this time of my life I'm never going to be able to bench press 1,000 pounds. Do you know what the world record is for bench pressing right now? 1,480 pounds. When I was training and competing years ago, it was 600 pounds. It's 1,480 pounds. The guy's going for 1,500 pounds right now. That's going to be the new world record soon. I don't think I'm going to be able to do that. I think if the Lord gives me all this strength, I don't think it's going to happen. So I just want you to understand, I think that when it says all things, it's the things God has called you to personally. It's the things that he's called you to. So the things that God has placed before you, I can do all things through Christ through strength. I mean, if you look at the context of Philippians chapter four, rejoice in the Lord always. Don't worry about things, but pray in the peace of God that transcends all understanding. Guard your hearts. Whatever's positive, whatever's true, whatever's noble, think about such things, be content. I think that's really the context. But it's what God has called us to. And that he will give us the power. And he would have given Israel all the power they need to conquer the promised land. But they rejected it. All right, last point, number seven, fear's imagination. 31 through 33 of Numbers 13. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able. Isn't it, there's Caleb saying we are able? 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 the giants, the descendants of Enoch, came from the giants, and we are like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. I just want you to look, and I'd come back to this. They weren't that big. Don't you think this is kind of a gross exaggeration? And it's their imagination running wild. And by the way, that's what fear does. When people are in fear, their minds, their imaginations go on steroids. And again, they are conjuring up things that are just untrue and will never happen. You ever hear that they turn a molehill into a mountain? And that's what happens. They make it much bigger and they catastrophize it. And basically, again, it's completely and totally destructive. So they're just obsessing. And that's, again, fear. Abnormal fear is taking a magnifying glass and just focusing. Hey, do you have a white piece of paper? Who has a white piece of paper? Anybody? Does anybody even carry paper anymore? If you just have a white piece of paper, I want you to do something. I want you to take the white piece of paper and put a little dot, put a little dot at the center. Just a little dot. And all you people with your technology, your iPhones, your iPads, and your, I don't know what, you're gonna miss out on this. You're gonna miss out on this big example as you go home and do it. Joanne, go home and do it. So, right, you have that, you see that little dot? That's the problem. That's the problem. Now I want you to take the piece of paper, close one eye, and just slowly move that dot closer and closer and closer until you've got it right up against your eye. Have you noticed that it's gotten bigger? Right? It's gotten bigger. It's enlarged. I've been doing pastoral counseling for 40 years. I want to tell you something. I see people come in, and they've got a problem. They've got a challenge. There's an obstacle. But they are so focused and obsessed on it that their brain, they can't think clearly, right? They're just totally in a fog. And all they can think about is that problem. That is totally solvable. But because they are just obsessed on it, and again, they're just magnifying it, It's just taken away their joy, it's taken away their life. So I wanna wrap up this first part next week and I'll tell you this, just take a look at chapter 14 because what you see is fear is contagious. And you're gonna see it spread through the entire nation of Israel. And they all end up dying in the desert except for two. I mean a lot of people in the church were not entering in to the, I think, the greatness and the promise of God because of things like this. Okay, just faith and fear. I wanna give you a couple of simple tips, and I wanna take you through this. I think this is important. I'm gonna rob you of a little bit of prayer tonight. Isaiah chapter 41, 10. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. How do you overcome fear? You overcome fear through the strength of God. You have to allow God to impart and infuse you with his strength. The more you allow God to infuse you with your strength, you're gonna find that you're gonna be in a place where you're not gonna be living in fear. So how do we allow God to infuse us, right, with faith? The word of God, faith comes by hearing the word of God. Well, how else do we allow God to infuse us with faith? Don't you find when you worship God, we're worshiping God, doesn't your faith enlarge? God inhabits the praise of his people. I just get into a time of worship and you immediately are going to find that God is going to enlarge your faith. Another one, prayer. Fellowship. You get around people of faith, and you get around people of real faith, you're going to find that they're going to enlarge your faith. Just, you know, again, iron sharpening iron when you're with people like that. So when again, God will infuse you with faith and he will strengthen you when you're putting yourself in a place for him to be able to do that. Here's a second, 2 Timothy 1, verse 7. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and control. The word there, notice, it's a spirit. And we look at this, commentators and scholars, We don't look at this as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would be called the Spirit, you'd have the definite article, the word the in front of it, or he's called the Holy Spirit or the advocate. And here, it's just he gave us a spirit, and I think that what that's talking about, a spirit of power, a spirit of love, a spirit of self-control, I think it's talking about, it's the inner attitude. It's your inner disposition. And God has given us the spirit. But what happens is we need to cultivate the spirit. How do we cultivate our inner spirits so that we have greater faith? Become more identified in who you are in Christ. Remember, I was talking about that on Sunday. Become more identified with who you are in Jesus. The more you become solidified in your identity in Jesus, I think what you're gonna find is the stronger your inner spirit is going to become. That's a key thing. I find a lot of Christians, they don't know who they are. So they therefore act like their identity in the world instead of acting like who they are in Christ. So I think that's key. Here's another one. The Lord is my light, my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Notice light. The more we live in the light, the more faith we're gonna have, and the less fear we're gonna have. The more you live in the dark, the more fear you're going to have. So we need to walk in the light, and that is walking in the truth. Psalm 23, verse four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, you're right in your staff, they comfort me. The more you cultivate and develop the presence of God in your life, you practice the presence of God in your life, the greater faith you're gonna have. So God wants us, again, God wants us walking in faith, not in fear. Fear is incredibly destructive. Be careful what you're allowing into your life. Be careful what you're allowing into your minds. Be careful what you're exposing yourself to. I see, I do see to a point, people look, again, I believe we're coming, we're coming to the coming of the Lord. We're getting closer every day. So when you're looking, you're looking at what's going on in Washington and you're looking at what's going on in China and you're looking at what's going on in Russia and the UK, you become obsessed in these things. I guarantee that's going to create more fear. Know what's going on, but look at things through the eyes of the Lord and through his word. And that's going to enlarge your faith. People who are totally fixated on fear, I really believe they become, useless to God. People who are living by faith, they become extremely useful to God. Amen? Let's pray together. Father, we just pray, Lord God, tonight, Lord, again, you have called us and given us a spirit, Lord God, not of fear, but of faith. A spirit of courage, Lord, a spirit of boldness, a spirit of love, a spirit of self-control. Pray, Lord God, this night, grow, develop, cultivate that spirit within us. Lord God, let us be truly a people of faith, a people, Lord God, who enter into the promised land, who, Lord, take what you've given us, who conquer, Lord God, what you have set before us, and, Lord God, who defend it with the greatest amount of courage. Pray, Lord God, a blessing, Lord God, upon all here tonight, and I pray this in the name of Jesus, amen. Stand with me, and you know what I wanna do with the worship team? You're only prepared for one song? Can we do a few more? We'll do a couple of songs tonight, just make our worship, our prayer, but as you worship the Lord, focus on Him. You know what, you can stand there and do this, and you could be thinking about what you have, your appointments tomorrow. You could be looking so spiritual doing this, and again, your mind could be on something else. Focus, just fix your eyes on Jesus as we worship here. Really come into worship with Him and exalt Him. Let him just lift you up. You're gonna find that he's going to he's going to enlarge your faith Okay, even if you want you can even come you can come to the altar you could stand sometimes We'd come up and just stand at the altar and worship up here. You can you can do that Don't be afraid You're free to move as you desire to move in this church. I'm gonna sit you can sit you want to stand you can stand you can kneel if you want to kneel and if you want to dance just You can't go all over the place and dance, but you can dance. You don't want to distract others. My 11-month-old grandson was dancing during worship tonight. His feet were moving up here, too. I was watching that. It was pretty funny. Thank you, Lord, for the Word. Thank you for your service. Child of Christ. Child of Christ. So that I might touch you. So that I might touch you. Lord, I wanna touch you. Touch my heart. ♪ So that I might see you ♪ So that I might see you ♪ Lord, I wanna see you ♪ Your glory and your love ♪ Your glory and your love ♪ And your majesty ♪ Drop it closer. ♪ Drop it closer, dear Lord ♪ Drop it closer, dear Lord ♪ So that I might touch you So that I might touch you Lord, I want to touch you You're holy I am your ruler and your majesty And your majesty And your majesty They are alive, God is here. Let's worship. They are like We lift our hearts in praise. You fill me with love. You fill me with joy. Cause it's you we worship Cause it's you we love Cause it's you we love Cause it's you we worship Cause it's you we love Till we were