Daring Faith Launch. Adapted from message by Rick Warren.

Transcription

1 Daring Faith Launch. Adapted from message by Rick Warren. DARING FAITH I m glad you re here today - You survived the wind last Sunday! Argus cancelled and all that. What a day it was. And it seems like the wind is back! So good thing they never postponed to today! I want to welcome you to Daring Faith, our new series. This is going to be a five-week series which carries us through to Easter weekend. It s going to be great! Maybe it is wise for me to begin with a disclaimer just like the cyclists last week had to sign a disclosure form with the race planners. I want to be in full disclosure! This series is called Daring Faith for a reason! I believe God is going to stretch your faith. So I want you to prepare yourselves! Over the next few Sundays you re not going to feel very comfortable. Because we don t grow in comfort. Growth is often uncomfortable. But the result of growth is maturity and blessing! So let s begin Look with me at Hebrews 11:6 here we go it says; And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 1

2 Friends, I don t know about you, but I do not want to be a man who lives without faith... and I can tell you this, with all my heart I do not want us to be a church that is without faith We want to be a people of faith! Amen? Halleluljah! Father, we want to pray that you would give us the gift of faith. Help us to be men and woman of great faith! In Jesus name Amen! Now if the bible says without faith it is impossible to please God would you agree with me that faith is pretty important?!!!! I mean, we want to please God! Right? We want to be right with God! We want to please Him. And if that s the case, I would put it to you, that is is very important to understand what faith is WHAT IS FAITH? Take a look at Hebrews 11:1; Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. The rest of this Hebrews chapter 11 goes on to list the hall of fame so to speak of great men and woman of faith. It s a great read - But there is a lot in this one verse Faith is having confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. You see. Faith has to do with your vision. It has to do with what you see. The bible says that faith is a way of seeing. How many of you know that there is always more than one way to look at something? Right? Faith is about seeing things from God s perspective. It s about seeing things from God s point of view. I remember when Shelley and I were struggling to have children It was a tough time, but in our struggle, in our weakness and vulnerability, I felt like God gave us faith, the confidence to see that he had a plan and today, eight years later, I look back and say; Wow! Thank you Father for all that you have done! Faith is about seeing things from God s point of view. Faith. It s important. But it can also be so easily misunderstood. There are so many dodgy ideas in the world today about faith - even in the church! Especially in the church. So it is important to clarify what we re not talking about when we speak about faith. So for example Faith is not faith-in-faith I just want to remind you today church, that we believe in Jesus! Our faith, is not faithin-faith. It s faith-in-jesus. Closely linked to this Faith is not positive thinking Now don t get me wrong here. It s a real good thing to have a good positive attitude and outlook to life. I know a few people who could do with a good big dose of positivility! But faith is not about being all positive and pepped up all the time. Positive thinking did not give David victory over Goliath. Positive thinking did not split the red sea. 2

3 Positive thinking did not bring down the walls of Jericho, and positive thinking never saved a human soul. Faith is not positive thinking. But also Faith is not desire You can wish for something, you can hope for something, you can pray for something, you can sincerely desire and crave something. That doesn't mean it's faith. Faith is not desire. Desire may lead you to faith, but desire isn't faith. For instance, I remember, as a teenager, my desire was to get a car. That was a great big desire, it was a huge desire to get a car. But it wasn't faith. Another thing faith isn't Faith is not pretending that something is true that isn t true I could have some butter sitting right here, and I could say, "I believe that that's chocolate," and I have faith that it's chocolate. No! It doesn't matter how much faith I say I've got. It's not chocolate. It's butter. It's not going to be chocolate no matter how much I say it's chocolate. Faith is not psyching yourself up and pretending something is true when it isn't true. You're not conning yourself into believing something. This next one is a biggy Faith is not a feeling. Now, this is really important. In fact, you need to understand that feelings often get in the way of faith because when you feel a certain way, then you want to go that way, whether you have the faith or not, and feelings are what we tend to rely on, instead of our faith. A lot of times, faith says, "I'm going to move ahead in spite of my feelings. I'm going to do the right thing in spite of my feelings." That's faith. Here s the last thing faith is not Faith is not bargaining with God. Faith is not about twisting God s arm, as if that were possible. "Lord, if you'll do this, then I'll do this! That's not faith. That s trying to manipulate God, which does not usually end very well! So in this series We're going to look at what faith is. This weekend, we're looking at the fact that faith is a way of seeing. Faith is a way of looking at the world from God's point of view. It's about having God's perspective. And the way we are going to look at this is to through a story in the Old Testament. A FAITH STORY It is in the book of Numbers, Chapter 13 and 14, and here is the background; Moses has just led the nation of Israel to freedom. God freed them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians; they've crossed the Red Sea. They've been traveling for about two years, from Egypt, taking it very slow pace, because they ve got a lot of people - and they're they're coming up to a place called Kadesh. At Kadesh, they're getting ready to cross the Jordan and go into the Promised Land. This is the land that has been promised to them for 400 years that they would have their own country, they would have freedom, they would be free from slavery. 3

4 So when they get up to the edge of the water, before they go in, Moses says, "Okay, before we go in, I want to send in a spy team. I'm going to pick 12 guys to go in and spy out the land and they're going to do recce, they're going to check out what's going on and do a little fact finding. So, twelve spies are chosen by Moses and they are sent in to go visit the land. And when they come back, they give a mixed report. Two of the spies say, "It's incredible. Let's go get it! It's ready for our taking! God has given us truly the Promised Land!" Those two spies were named Joshua and Caleb. The other 10 spies come back and said, "Yeah, it's a great place, but " and they have a whole list of problems of why they can't go in. But this but that. They're not seeing with eyes of faith, they're seeing with eyes of fear. Let s look at the story together: Numbers 13:1; 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. Right stick with me here now Verse 4; 4 These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. 16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.) So this was the best of the best leaders from the various tribes in Israel. And this was the mission Moses gave them 17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land. (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.) So. They got their mission orders, and they did what they were told they went into this new land and did a complete recce mission. Verse 22 says 21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the 4

5 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. So, it was a successful mission, they went in, they came out. They made it through alive! Now they had to give their report back to Moses. It s time for the post-mission debrief report back Verse 26; 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. So they say; Wow, great land, but Wo! There are some serioulsy big and tough scary people who live there! What I want to do is make some observations about this, and look at what I believe God wants us to learn from this Here s the first thing I see WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE FOCUS ON THE DIFFICULTIES I don t know about you but I am very very quick to look at the problems. I am very quick to focus on the difficulties. Now here s is the crazy thing. God has just delivered them from Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world and yet, now, they're worried now about some local tribes. They've just defeated Pharaoh and the mighty Egyptian army, and yet, now, they're worried about somebody else - how quickly we forget. The spies saw that the land was good but they could not get past the but. But the people who live there are so powerful! They started sharing all their buts Verse 28; But the people who live there are powerful Verse 31; But the men who had gone up with him said, We can t attack those people; they are stronger than we are. Verse 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. Talk about low self-esteem. They're saying, we're insects. We're just a bunch of bugs compared to these guys. They're going to eat us for lunch. We can't do this! Notice, they say, "We saw ourselves like grasshoppers in our own eyes," that's their own poor 5

6 self-image. They have been slaves for 400 years, they have been freed for 40, but they're still mentally and spiritually enslaved, and so they still see themselves as helpless and they still see themselves enslaved. They're enslaved not by a Pharaoh now, but by something else. Now, let's just stop here for a minute. Because perhaps youre in a similar place today. Perhaps you ve been through a tough space, and you ve taken some hard knocks, you ve had some people say things to you, you ve been in spiritual Egypt, and yet today, even though you re no longer in that place, you're still believing their lies. You're still enslaved. Friend, if that s you. I am here to remind you that Jesus loves to set the prisoners free. And Jesus is saying to you you re more than just a grasshopper! You re my child! Sadly, a bunch of the spies were filled with self-doubt, and fear, and this came through in their negative report: It's a magnificent land, said the negative spies but the people living there are powerful, and their cities are fortified and large! What's more, we saw Anakim giants there! Now, the Anakim were of the tribe of Skywalker and the force was strong with them. No, wait, that's another story. Sorry, I got confused there. But you get the idea! So the majority report of the spies was negative. I want to point out something here. The majority report is almost can often be negative. Anybody who s going to get something done in this world is going to have to go against the majority report because the majority of people are going to be looking with eyes of fear and not eyes of faith. Friends, I know we all face giants of different kinds in our lives But with God, everything is possible. WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE FOCUS ON THE DIFFICULTIES BUT WITH DARING FAITH WE SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE There were two spies who did not see the problems as being impossible. Joshua and Caleb. Take a look at their account Numbers ; Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them. What a way to change the vibe! I really like these guys! Joshua and Caleb did not get fixated with the problems, but rather focused on God and His will. Two out of ten of the spies have faith, Joshua and Caleb! And they make a plea to the people of God to have faith. To trust in God. And church, I would make the same plea 6

7 to you today. Don t worry - I m not going to tear my clothes! But I want to make a equally passionate plea. Do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because God is bigger than them. The LORD is with us. Do not be afraid. It was the plea of Joshua and Caleb, and I make it my own today. Don t go with what the majority are saying out there. The majority are not always right. Don t rebel against the Lord and what he has called us to do. Trust him, and obey him. Don t be afraid of the people of the land God is bigger than the people. The Lord is with us. Amen!? Here s another thing we can learn from this passage WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE UNDERESTIMATE OUR OWN ABILITIES They ten negative spies said, "We see these people and they'd crush us! That word there, actually, in Hebrew is akal which means, to eat up. It means to devour. They said, "They'd eat us alive." They're like cannibals. They're bullies, they're tyrants. Although the land was good they could not see past the problems. They measured themselves and felt that they would not win, so it was not worth the risk. They were not strong enough, tall enough, fit enough. Now, here's what's ironic, they said, "This place is filled with giants and we can't take them on and they're too big for us and too powerful." Ironically, 38 years later, when the next generation did get to go into the Promised Land, you know what the enemy said to them? They said, "We have lived in panic for 40 years because we heard about the 10 plagues of Egypt! We heard about what your God had done against the most powerful leader in the world, Pharaoh and we were scared to death and we were ready to surrender. You needlessly walked around in the wilderness for 40 years because we were scared to death of you! How many times in your life have you not done something that God has asked you to do because you are not dot dot dot enough? We just finished a series on sharing our faith maybe you have been shy of sharing your faith because you think you are not a good enough talker? (The EE course is coming up soon so no excuses!) Yet when Caleb and Joshua looked at the inhabitants of the land they measured them against God, not against themselves. I could get side tracked on the whole debate over the Nephilim (were they a mix between humans and angels, where they really giants?) But what I know for true is when the spies looked at them they were fearful and felt themselves to be weak, but when Caleb and Joshua looked at them they saw that God was bigger. WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE UNDERESTIMATE OUR OWN ABILITIES BUT WITH DARING FAITH IN GOD WE SEE GODS POWER AND ABILITY 7

8 I find it interesting having read through the interesting list of spies names that they are not known to us. Let me read you some of the names of these guys again. Raise your hand if you've heard of any of these guys. Shaphat? nobody, Igal? Nobody Palti?... Gaddiel, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, Geuel, Shammua, and then Caleb and Joshua. Here's the point, nobody remembers the negative guys. Nobody remembers the critics who say it can't be done. The only people who get remembered are the guys who said, "Let's go do it in God's name." They saw with eyes of faith; the others saw with eyes of fear. Now, because they failed to see with eyes of faith, here s the devastating part, that entire generation missed God's purpose for their life in God's will. God said, "Okay, you failed the test. You can wander around the wilderness for the next 40 years until you all die." Wow. Church, I don't want that to happen to us. I don't want us to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and then die, simply because we didn't learn to see with eyes of faith. Caleb and Joshua said we can do this! God is with us. Their faith was not in their ability, but in God s ability, character and plan. They did not have faith in faith a kind of rosy outlook on life where you have to positively think all your problems away. I believe that the inhabitants of the land were scary I don t think that Joshua and Caleb did not see that. But what they did see what that their God was bigger. But here s the next thing I want you to see WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD YOU GET DISCOURAGED It is funny how a negative opinion spreads faster than a positive one! The spies shared their news and it was the negative message of doom that took hold fast. The people got discouraged and lost hope! Numbers 14: 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. They felt it was better to go back to slavery than to face the giants, even though God had broken them free from Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land. Instead they said, let s go back this is too tough! You know what they're saying there? We know better than God. Notice, they're blaming God for not letting them go in the Promised Land. God isn't holding them back. It's their fear that's holding them back. They're second guessing. Now, all of a sudden they're remembering the good old days of Egypt. Good old days? What's the good old days? Four hundred years of slavery, why would anybody want to go back to Egypt? It was slavery but it was safety. It was safe slavery. 8

9 A lot of people get stuck in safe slavery and they're enslaved by a relationship or they're enslaved by a fear, or they're enslaved by a habit, or they're enslaved by a compulsion, or they're enslaved by a thought that I have to do a certain thing, and to let go of that, they really don't like it but at least it's predictable, it's comfortable. I know what's in Egypt. Some of you are doing that. Some of you are confusing slavery and safety. They're not the same thing. I know it's a bad situation but at least it's predictable. I know this habit is self-defeating but it's comfortable. It's just who I am. It's what I do. It's who I am. Friend. God made you to live by faith. Don't die in the dessert. WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD YOU GET DISCOURAGED BUT WITH DARING FAITH IN GOD WE HAVE HOPE Joshua and Caleb had hope in God to solve the problem. Hope that God, who had brought them so far would carry on leading them. What about you do you easily get discouraged from following God s plan for you life by the crowd? It is tempting to take the easy option, but God has something wonderful planned for each of us, we have to have hope that He can bring it about if it is what He has promised. WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE CAN LET FEAR MAKE US BITTER AND NEGATIVE Similar to the last point it is easy to get discouraged when you don t look to God for a solution. After the all night pity party, it says in Numbers 14:2 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! The cry went up I would rather be dead than to deal with this! They could not see a solution. Standing on the edge of this wonderful place that God has promised them all they saw was darkness. Yet when you focus on God that darkness lifts. WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE CAN LET FEAR MAKE US BITTER AND NEGATIVE BUT WITH EYES OF FAITH IN GOD WE CAN CONQUER FEAR AND DARKNESS I think it is same for many of us when something major pops up in your life, something you did not expect, like a bad health diagnosis, retrenchment, another major hurdle in life that you did not anticipate it is easy to get fixated on the problem - it is easy to get stuck and fearful but when we focus on God and have faith in His plan and character we can see a way through. I want you to see that Joshua and Caleb did not come along and say Hey, what are you talking about, these are not giants, they are not scary people! They knew what 9

10 they were dealing with was big. Daring Faith does not minimize problems, but by seeing God in control and who He is, Caleb and Joshua saw that although the giants were big, their God is bigger! WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE EVENTUALLY GIVE UP AND BLAME GOD Israel s response to Caleb and Joshua s daring faith in God was shocking! Numbers 14:10 But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. They wanted to quit they were angry, they were mad and it was God s fault as He was the one who brought the out of Egypt a family cry. Exodus 16: 3 The Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the LORD s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. You know what they're saying there? We know better than God. Notice, they're blaming God for not letting them go in the Promised Land. God isn't holding them back. It's their fear that's holding them back. They're second guessing. Now, all of a sudden they're remembering the good old days of Egypt. Good old days? What's the good old days? Four hundred years of slavery, why would anybody want to go back to Egypt? It was slavery but it was safety. It was safe slavery. That s the thing in following and trusting God He never promised that it would be easy and pain free. But at the first sign of trouble or discomfort we want to go back to where we were. WITHOUT LOOKING TO GOD WE EVENTUALLY GIVE UP AND BLAME GOD BUT WITH DARING FAITH IN GOD WE CAN STAND FIRM AND MOVE FORWARD There is no real freedom without taking risks. Safety and freedom are on opposite ends of the continuum. You're either moving more towards safety and slavery or you are moving more toward taking risks and freedom. God made you to be a risk taker. God made you to live by faith in Him. Don't die in the dessert. For Israel there was huge consequences for not having a daring faith in God to face the giants: God prevented them from entering the Promised Land (apart from Joshua and Caleb) 10

11 Numbers 14: 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. 32 But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. They stood on the edge of the land that God had Promised them and they said we can t do it, it s too hard, it s too uncomfortable, it s too scary. Two men stood with them and said it s great, our God is great, our God is able, our God is bigger. What kind of a person will you be? A person who sees with the eyes of faith? Or a person who sees with the eyes of fear? Who of you remember the space race? It was a while before my time, but for many years there was a space race between different countries, especially between the USA and Russia everyone wanted to see who could conquer space first! In that time there were two incidents that are very interesting to compare. Yuri Gagarin, was a very famous Russian cosmonaut, he was an atheist, and he was the first man to go up and circle the earth this was 12 April And when he came down, he said this, "I was an eagle." He said, "I searched the heavens and I found no God. I looked for God in the heavens when I was up there and I did not see him there is no God." All of the atheists applauded and said, "Yeah, Yuri, you just proved there is no God! Go Yuri!!!! Compare that to another incident On 20 February 1962 just a few months later, John Glenn from the USA, went up and circled the earth not just once, but three times. When John Glenn came down, his first words in his interview were, "I saw God everywhere!" He said, "I felt his glory in the heavens. I saw his presence in the stars, I felt his power in the sun. I saw God everywhere!" So let me ask you Which one was telling the truth? The answer is, they both were. Because Jesus said in John 3, Unless you're born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. You can't see what God is doing behind the scenes. You can't see the miracles. You can't see the mighty things he's doing. You just can't see it because you're not tuned in. You can't see the promises. Let s pray together I've got two prayers that I want you to pray. First, if you already know Jesus Christ and he's a part of your life and you're serving him as best you know how, I want you to just say this simple prayer, "Dear Jesus, help me to see with eyes of faith, not fear. Help me to see with eyes of faith, not fear." You might even say, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you." Say, "Lord, use this series to challenge and to stretch my faith so that I might be more the person that you want me to be. I want to bring pleasure to your life." If you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ then your simple step is to say, "Jesus, yes, as much as I know how, I open my life, my heart to you. I want to learn to love you and trust you and follow you. I want to put my faith in you. Strengthen my faith in your name I pray, Amen." Open the eyes of my heart Lord. 11