Sunday Worship Service August 6, 2017 Rev. YoungMin Kim What Makes Us Fear? Numbers 13:25-33 (1) Good morning! May the love, grace, and peace of God be with all of you who gather here today to worship God and also be with our church members who are willing to join but cannot due to sickness or being out of town. And with all my heart, I welcome you and thank you for attending today s worship service. Here is a water bottle that is half filled with water. When seeing this bottle, some may say, The glass is half full, and others may say, The glass is half empty. What type of person do you think you are? Today s passage shows people having these two different attitudes toward objective facts. In this sermon, we will go back to Moses and the Exodus story, and share what had happened at Kadesh after the twelve spies returned from the exploration of the land of Canaan. Finally, we will find out what we can learn from the spies. (2) In order to understand today s passage, we need to go back to the Book of Exodus. Wanderer Moses spent his life taking care of livestock of his father-in-law. One day, Moses encountered God in a burning bush (Exodus 3:4), and God said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a land flowing with 1
milk and honey the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (Exodus 3:7-8). After that, Moses came to Pharaoh, performed ten plagues by the power of God, and finally brought all Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians. The Israelites may have believed that their suffering was finally over and that happiness in the land flowing with milk and honey would begin shortly. However, their expectation was not on target. They had to worry about food, clothing, and shelter every single day for forty years. Even worse, they had to face life-threatening situations by enemies and went into wars in order to step forward to the promise land. They made it through rough situations and finally arrived at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran (Numbers 12:16) where it appears in today s passage. For further understanding, I will show you maps. This map [picture 1] shows that Europe is on the left top, Africa is on the left bottom, and the Middle East is on the right side. Let us focus on the red box. Let me magnify the red square, and let us jump back to Moses era. This map [picture 2] shows part of Egypt, Sinai, and Canaan. After exodus from Egypt, Moses and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness and finally arrived at Kadesh, a gateway to enter into the land of Canaan, the promise land. (3) 2
However, the promise land was not given to the Israelites for free. In the land of Canaan, many different people already settled down: the Amalekites in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites in the hill country; and the Canaanites near the sea and along the Jordan. God told Moses to send some men to explore the land of Canaan; so twelve men, including Hoshea (Joshua) and Caleb, were selected from each ancestral tribe and sent to explore the land. Moses ordered the twelve spies to check whether the people were strong or weak, few or many, whether the land was good or bad, whether the town was without a wall or fortified, whether the soil was fertile or poor, whether there were trees or not, and so on. Forty days later, the twelve spies came back to Kadesh where Moses and all of the Israelites stayed, and reported to them. All twelve spies agreed that the land surely flows with milk and honey and fruit (Numbers 13:27). However, they were divided into two different opinions. On the one hand, Caleb (and Joshua) reported, We should go up and take possessions of the land, for we can certainly do it. (v. 30, NIV). On the other hand, the rest of the ten spies reported, The people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified We can t attack those people; they are stronger than we are we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them (vv. 28, 31, 33). What made the ten spies fear? What was the difference between Joshua and Caleb and the other ten spies? Was it simply a matter of faith? (4) It can be assumed that all twelve spies must have been very agile and smart because they were sent to explore the land as spies representing each tribe e.g. Joseph representing the tribe of Issachar, and Caleb representing the tribe of Judah. Although 3
there is a difference in degree, all spies believed God s promise, which is to give the land of Canaan to the Israelites. However, the attitude toward the objective facts made the ten spies bring a negative exploration report. To some degree, the ten spies reports are understandable and reasonable. Their analysis of the land seems pretty accurate: the people in the land were powerful and stronger than the Israelites. Even worse, the cities were fortified, so it seemed impossible to attack and conquer. These are objective facts. Based on their analysis, they drew a final conclusion: We will die if we attack the people in Canaan. If they stood strong in faith and trusted God s promise, they would have drawn a different conclusion: even though our situation says impossible, we should trust God and let us find effective resolutions to conquer the land. This is the difference between the glass being half full versus half empty. Unfortunately, however, the ten spies were the type to see it half empty. As a result, their decision made all Israelites fall into despair and lose hope. And their complaints made God severely upset; God did not allow the first exodus generation to enter into the promise land except for Caleb. (5) During the past five weeks in July, I shared Jesus Great Commission, which is our vision that becoming disciples of Jesus happens by forming, deepening, and maturing our Christian faith, and transforming our community and the world into the Kingdom of God by practicing Jesus teaching. Jesus taught His disciples and followers to feed people who are hungry, help people who need help, and befriend people who are marginalized and neglected. The early Church and early Christians followed what Jesus 4
taught. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, and helping/taking care of each other. I have pray that the Holy Spirit has motivated us to do something for our church, church members, our community, and neighbors. And thankfully, last week, a member came to me and suggested cleaning up our playground for kids, which has been neglected for months. I really appreciate him doing something for our church and our church kids. In addition, two members came to me and suggested starting a community dinner regularly, and they wanted to volunteer for fellowship ministry. I really appreciate them. We have a lot of things to do around us. At this point, let us think about, What makes you fear doing something with your new pastor? Does the church financial status make you hesitate? Do you hesitate because we have very limited people to work? Do you have less passion for church ministries? What else do you have? These analyses might be true. These might be the objective facts. So, what do you draw as your final conclusion? What about this? Nokesville UMC has a full-time pastor who is willing to work with his congregation members. Nokesville UMC has a beautiful church building with a wellorganized sanctuary, kitchen, library, nursery and youth room, and separate rooms for multiple purposes. Nokesville UMC has a spacious parking lot. Nokesville UMC is the closest church to Nokesville School and Brentsville District High School. Nokesville UMC is next to a community park, which will be filled with softball players and their families during the fall and spring seasons. What else do we have? We have a lot advantages to perform outreach. So, what do you draw as your final conclusion? 5
(6) Before I conclude today s sermon, I d like to show you one more picture. If you see this picture, you will find that the circles spin around and around. Why don t you pick one black dot in a circle and keep focusing on it for five or ten seconds, and then the spinning will stop. Please try it! I believe it is the same as our situation. If we lose our focus about our church vision, we will spin around and around, and we will lose our way immediately. However, if we fix our focus on what Jesus taught and what the early Church and early Christians followed, we won t be swayed by situations. Let us keep focus on the way to proceed. Our church council meeting will be held next Thursday. Please pray for our church leaders to discern God will and to lead our church in the right direction. Amen. 6