Rev. David Holwick ZC Make It Count, #10
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 11, 2011
Numbers 13:16-33
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I. Terror at our backdoor.
A. The attack everyone will remember.
1) I was at home and Sarah had the TV on upstairs.
2) She yelled for me to come when the second plane hit.
3) All day long we watched the depressing scenes as they
were endlessly repeated.
B. Who were these people?
1) The enemy seemed to be omnipotent, striking us at will.
2) We were powerless with no fighters anywhere nearby.
a) We seemed to be reduced to pinning flags all over our
cars, period.
b) When asked about whether we should rebuild the towers,
I remember one woman saying we should never put up
tall buildings again because it would only entice
another attack.
C. Enemies can paralyze you.
II. A critical point for the Israelites.
A. They have come through the wilderness and are close to Israel.
1) Only a few months have gone by since the Exodus.
2) The people are irritated with God and Moses and ready to
settle down to a real life.
B. Moses sends out reconnaissance.
1) They are really not spies, but getting the lay of the land.
a) That is why modern versions say they are exploring.
b) Each tribe had one representative so they probably
were intended to be promoters when they got back.
2) They began by moving through the Negev desert which is a
forsaken wasteland of sand and rock. 13:17
a) It is like my first impression of New Jersey, which
was the oil refinery at Linden at night.
b) The spies were probably getting a bad feeling about it.
C. They found a rich land, just as God had promised.
1) The desert gave way to a prosperous land. 13:23
a) It took two guys to carry a single cluster of grapes.
b) (I got my first grape cluster this month. It had
six grapes on it; I didn't need any help carrying it.)
2) They brought samples of fruit back as evidence of what
they had found.
III. They also found some negatives.
A. Powerful people inhabited the land. 13:28
1) The cities are walled and have lots of people.
2) The people in those cities are huge.
B. The downward spiral in their reasoning.
1) Their negativity led to exaggeration.
a) Even the land eats people. 13:32
b) It is not just some of them, but all of them.
c) The enemies weren't just tall, but supernatural.
1> Nephilim from Genesis 6.
A> Unusual passage that can be interpreted several
ways.
B> It seems to indicate a rare breed of superhumans
who lived before the Flood.
C> The scouts are suggesting - "They're baaaaack!!"
2) The negativity also led to understatement. 13:33
a) The enemy are huge, but we are only grasshoppers.
b) They will squish us.
3) The scouts came to the wrong conclusion.
a) Our enemies are huge -->
b) We can't handle them -->
c) We should go back to Egypt where we had a comfortable
slavery.
C. Ten spies forgot God's promises.
1) They forgot his works, his faithfulness, his provision.
a) They forgot the plagues against Pharaoh.
b) They forgot the parting of the Red Sea.
c) They forgot the manna from heaven.
d) They forgot the quail that came out of their noses.
2) All they could see was the problems.
a) Their fixation on the problems led to paralysis.
1> We can't do it. We can't possess Israel.
b) Their paralysis did become action.
1> They decided to kill Moses. 14:10
IV. It is easy to fixate on problems.
A. Some of our enemies really are big.
1) Authoritarian states are increasing.
a) Russia, China seem to be getting less democratic.
b) America is democratic, but it doesn't seem to be
working very well.
2) Religious extremism isn't going away.
a) Not just radical Islam.
b) Recall the "christian" terrorist in Norway.
B. Our personal giants get more of our attention.
1) Woman called me, distraught that her only daughter had
died in August of a heart attack; she was only 19.
2) One person I know is in jail because he can't come up
with $25 for bail.
3) 28% of homeowners have mortgages under water.
a) It seems like in Ledgewood, 28% of HOMES are under water.
[the bottom of Main Street had three feet of water]
4) All around us, families are falling apart, kids are
drifting from the faith, finances are evaporating.
a) If you fixate on these things, you will go nuts.
V. Keep your eye on the solution.
A. All twelve spies agreed on the facts.
1) Everyone agreed it was a rich land.
2) Everyone agreed there were enemies there.
3) Where they differed was in their response.
a) Ten of them wanted to give up.
b) Only two - Caleb and Jacob - had the faith to go for it.
B. We can do it, if God is with us!
1) Caleb had confidence they could win. 13:30
2) With Joshua, he says they have to follow God's lead. 14:8
a) God will protect them.
b) The only ones who should fear being swallowed up
are the giants. 14:9
3) You have to be on God's side. 14:8
C. Most people leave God out of the equation.
1) God is too nebulous for them.
2) We want concrete answers, in our hands, right now.
3) The idea of trusting in a good God to take care of our
situation just seems too simplistic to us.
4) So we have what the Israelites had - a "faith failure."
VI. Doing it God's way, not our way.
A. The Israelites tried the concrete approach.
1) On their own power, they invaded the land of Canaan. 14:40
a) They got soundly whupped.
b) It would be 40 years before God would let them try
again.
c) In the meantime, that generation of adults died out.
d) God's promises must be fulfilled God's way.
2) Standard reactions are not always the best.
a) American response to Al-Qaeda - invade.
1> We succeeded, at great cost.
2> But compare number of Muslim countries having their
own reform movements right now.
A> Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya.
b) Our values seem to be more powerful than our bullets.
B. Have you faced your greatest enemy?
1) Bid Laden is a piker compared to the devil.
We are all aware of our struggles in life but we usually
ignore the greatest danger.
Jesus himself said you shouldn't be afraid of someone
who can just kill you.
Be afraid of the one who holds the destiny of your soul.
Have you made your peace with God?
Do you believe he sent Jesus to die for your sins?
Even more important - do you follow God with faith, every
day?
2) A comedian's discovery.
Martin Short is well-known as an actor who started his
career on Saturday Night Live.
Later he starred in the movies "The Three Amigos" and the
"Father of the Bride."
You wouldn't think a comedian like him would have seen so
much pain in his life.
His oldest brother was killed in a car accident in 1962,
when Martin was 12.
His mother died of cancer when he was 17.
In his second year at college, Martin Short lived at home,
helping to care for his sick father, who had had a stroke.
Martin recalled, "When my dad died at the end of my
sophomore year, I stopped and took stock of my life.
"There was this real sense that my childhood was officially
over.
When my mother got sick, and I'd see her fight to survive,
it gave me an early view of bravery and what life was about.
I was able to prepare for it.
"Your mother dies, and you're 18, and you face a choice.
Are you going to take drugs?
Become a drunk?
Or are you going to try to become more spiritual?
Why not go with the thing that seems more positive?"
He thought a moment.
"Why do I tend to be optimistic?" he asked.
"Because the alternative is just crushing to my soul."
Last year, Martin Short's wife died of cancer after 30
years of marriage.
He still trusts God.
#18726
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#18726 “Martin Short's Optimism,” Rev. Brett Blair's Illustrations by
Email, <www.sermonillustrations.com>, quoting Dotson Rader,
"When you're funny, you're blessed," Parade, January 23, 2000,
p. 5.
This and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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