Scripture Reading: Numbers 13:26-31
We Are Well Able to Overcome It
Intro.
1. Ten spies surveyed Canaan and said: “Impossible!” Num. 13:26-31 Caleb and Joshua surveyed the same land and said: “We are well able...”
a. What was the difference? (They saw same land, same people...)
b. The difference was their faith in God.
c. Faith in God gives us access to the power of God in our lives.
2. When you look out over Whatcom Co. and the gospel work here, how do you view the landscape?
a. As ‘too difficult...too much faithlessness...we’re too small...we’re going to stay small...it’s impossible’, cf. Num. 14:1-5.
b. Or, as ‘nothing is too difficult for God...people are lost...we don’t rely on our size...nothing is impossible with God’? Num. 14:6-9
3. Like Israel, we are “well able” to take the land.
Faith in God...
I. TO OVERCOME SIN IN OUR OWN LIVES.
-Faith in God means we know He gives us:
The power to put the old man to death, Rom. 6:1-6
The power to resist temptation to sin, 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Tim. 2:22; Jas. 4:7-8
The power to live holy lives in an unholy world, Jno. 17:15-17; Tit. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 1:15-16
--Will we rebel against God (Israel), or will we be faithful (Joshua and Caleb)?
II. TEACH THE LOST IN THIS COMMUNITY.
-Faith in God means we trust God:
For opportunities, Acts 4:29-31; 5:12-14
For the message we should teach (His word of the gospel), 1 Cor. 1:21-25; 2:1-5; 2 Tim. 4:2
For the salvation of souls (growth) to occur, 1 Cor. 3:6; 2 Cor. 3:5
--Will we rebel against God (Israel) or be faithful (Joshua and Caleb)?
III. GROW TO MATURITY AS GOD’S PEOPLE.
-Faith in God will cause us to use:
His diet (nutrition), Jno. 6:48-51, 55-57, 63, 67; 1 Pet. 2:1-2
His exercise, 1 Tim. 4:7-8; 1 Cor. 9:24-27
His maintenance program, 2 Tim. 2:2; Heb. 5:13-14; 1 Cor. 15:58
--Will we rebel against God (Israel), or will we be faithful (Joshua and Caleb)?
Conclusion
1. The faithless died in the wilderness without the reward. Caleb (and Joshua) had a different spirit...followed God fully...entered the reward, Num. 14:19-24.
2. God is able to give us this land...but unless and until we have the faith of Joshua and Caleb we will not take this land for the gospel of Christ.
3. Have diligent, obedient faith in God and you will enter His rest, Heb. 4:1-3, 9-11.
By: Joe R. Price
Posted: July 18, 2014