2020-11-30 Engage Students - Walls, Jerichos of our own design

Do you ever feel like there's just some sort of wall that's preventing you from getting to your full potential, but you can't quite describe what it is. It's some sort of nameless wall that just seems to always hold you back, and you feel like, why even bother? I just can't be the best that I could be because this wall is in the way. Guys for the next few weeks I want to talk about walls in our life, and this particular week I want to talk about what I call Jericho's of our own design. You may remember the story in the Old Testament about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, this huge walled city that stopped them from being able to get into the promised land. Sometimes God has promises for us, maybe things that we feel that God wants us to do, or maybe just things that we feel like, maybe we wouldn't call it a promise of God because we think that sounds weird, but we feel like there's something we're supposed to be doing, but we can't quite get there. Well, today I want to talk about it because I think sometimes, sometimes those Jericho's, those walls are things that we think are circumstances around us, but we've actually created those things. And I'm not saying that to guilt trip us and make us feel terrible and be like, oh, not only can I not get where I want to be, it's my fault. That's not what it's about, guys. What I want you to be able to take away from this is a liberating feeling of how God can take you forward, and you don't have to be insecure about it. We're reading in the book of Numbers, chapter 13, starting in verse 1, we're picking up on this whole story about Joshua. So, and the Lord said 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 should send a man, everyone, a leader among them. Okay, here's the huge thing, and we need to remember this as we go through this entire chapter, is that right off the bat, God said he was going to give them the land of Canaan. They're going to get freaked out, they're going to see things that make them feel, there's going to be circumstances that make them feel like they have a legitimate reason to be afraid and not step forward into what God asked them to do, but he already told them he's going to give it to them. If God says he's going to do something, he's going to do something. We might not always feel that what God does is what we wish he did, and unfortunately, God doesn't always do what we want him to do, because he's God, not us. But fortunately, God doesn't always do what we want him to do, because we don't know what we're doing. Come on, guys, let's be honest. Do we all think we know what we're doing? Do we all think we have it right? I would not want the world to go the way that I think it should go. There are things from many years ago that I wish would have happened. Maybe there was somebody I met, and I'm like, oh, I wish they would notice me and fall in love with me, but if that had happened, I never would have met Hannah, and I never would have married her, and if I didn't do that, I never would have come to BC, and if I never came to BC, I wouldn't be able to share these things with you guys. God does what he does for a reason, and what we see as bad, because we don't see the whole picture, is not the whole picture. He knows. He knows. And so we need to trust when he says it. Not when we think this is what it should be, but when he says it. Even when it looks crazy, ridiculous, and scary, we have to step forward. So guys, let's jump up to 17, verse 17 now. Now, Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and he basically tells them, check it out. See if they have strongholds, see if it's a weak city, what kind of fortification they have, what is that like? Because he wants them to be able to see what God is going to overcome. Sometimes God lets us see the things that we're afraid of, because he wants to show us how big he is, because he is bigger than our problems. And he shows us the problem, not so we get freaked out about it, but so that we can recognize how big our God is, and glorify him. Verse 20 says, find out whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are forests there or not. Be of courage, and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. The season was now for them to bring back evidence of God's promise for them. For some of us, that season is now to bring back evidence of what God is going to do later. But he had to tell them, be of courage, because he knew they were going to get freaked out by what they saw. God gives us opportunities to see a glimpse, to see some evidence of what he's going to do in the future, because all of us are asking, what are you going to do one day, God? When are you going to make this happen? So he gives us an opportunity to see some of that evidence, but it's going to require courage on our part to keep our eyes focused on the evidence in the season that is designed to show us that evidence, instead of getting our eyes sidetracked from the evidence, the actual evidence. We want the proof, here's the proof, but sometimes we get sidetracked and we get afraid and we look at the things that make us afraid, but those are not the things God asks us to look at. He asks us to look at what he was going to over, look at those things and say, I'm going to overcome that. God is going to overcome that for me. And here's the evidence of what he's growing in season for me. So in verse 23 it says, they came to the valley of Ashol, and there they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes. They carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. This evidence was so clear, they needed one guy with one pole here, one guy holding the other end of the pole, to carry a bunch of grapes. That's how fertile, that's how amazing this blessing God had for them was. And they're literally carrying on their backs, that's burdened upon them. What can feel like a burden sometimes is not always a burden, it can be a burden of evidence that we need to see that God is doing something. They had such clear evidence, and yet they come back to the camp, so they came and they're telling all the people of Israel, it says children of Israel, that just means everybody of Israel, that nation. So it says, then they told him, that is Moses, and said, we went to the land where you sent us. Not the promised land, they're not calling it that, the land you sent us. They're already distancing themselves from the promise. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large, moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there, the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites dwell in the mountains, the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. Then Caleb, I love Caleb, quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once, right now, and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. Why did Caleb notice? God said to them, verse two, I am giving this land of Canaan to the children of Israel. He already told them, you're going to get this land, I've promised it to you. Caleb knew this, and he said, I don't care how big the people are in the land, I don't care how big the wall looks, I know what my God has told me, and I'm not going to be motivated by fear, I'm not going to let my fear and my insecurity tell me how I'm going to live, I'm going to go by faith from Father God. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. Wow. So here's the thing guys, basically God had already said, I'm giving you this promised land. Caleb recognized that, Joshua recognized that, but these people, they basically heard God say, you've got to figure it out, but God didn't say that, God said, I've got to figure it out for you, I am going to give this to you, not you are going to go get it. Just obey me, just take the land, and I'm giving it to you. Imagine for a minute, you're quite short, your dad says, I'm going to put you on my shoulders, and then I'm going to lift you up to the top shelf so you can grab the ships. And you say, but dad, I can't reach the top shelf, I'm too short. Now how much sense would that make? He just said, he's going to put you on his shoulders. He is going to make up for where you fall short, but you're choosing only to see your shortcoming instead of the help that he's already promised that he is going to give you. Okay? So this is what they've done there, God had already promised he was going to give it to them, but all they could see was the circumstances around them, the strength of the people around them, their own weakness, their own insecurity, their own fears, instead of believing in faith what the Father, Father God, had already told them he was going to do. 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. In other words, they're like NBA stars out here and we feel like little tiny people. But does that matter? You see how they distance themselves? The land we were sent to spy through, not the land God was giving us, not the promised land, the land that you sent us to spy through. They didn't care about the blessings they saw, they didn't care about all that. All they cared about was what they felt they had to come against. Days there we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so were we in their sight. Now how did they know, okay? How did they know what they looked like in the sight of these people? They're imagining it and they're projecting it on them. How often do you do that? You think, I'm nothing, and they look at me and they think I'm nothing too. I think I'm nothing, and so do they. Maybe they do, maybe they don't, but how is that for you to know? Why does it matter? That's a Jericho of your own design. You have created a wall in your mind saying, I'm not good enough, and they know I'm not good enough. I'm just an imposter. Some call it imposter syndrome, where you think you're not good enough, and you think therefore that everybody else is going to think you're just a faker and not good enough. Just a poser. Guys, I've felt that. I'll be transparent with you. I don't have a ton of education background when it comes to how to preach this to you. I've learned what I've learned because through experience, through what the Holy Spirit has taught me, and through some education, a little bit that I've gotten since I've started this job. But before that, I thought, I laughed. I laughed. When I was asked about considering this job, I laughed because I thought I didn't measure up. I was being insecure. I was letting my fears talk instead of letting my faith talk that the Father was showing me. Guys, I can keep using the word Father, and I know that for some of you that might rub you the wrong way because maybe you're an earthly father in that grave. But it doesn't matter. Your Heavenly Father is the true representation of what a father is supposed to be. And if you're a father in that grave, your Heavenly Father is. And eventually, your father is better than you give him credit for because we're all fallen humans and we all mess up. And that's the thing. When we look at ourselves, we're going to see our shortcomings. We're going to see imperfect people who can't get the job done because the Bible says, Romans 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we also read in James that if anybody has kept everything in the law, they've done everything right, they've kept all the rules, and they mess up one thing, they've blown it all. They're guilty of it all. One little white lie. One moment of talking about somebody bad behind their back. Making fun of them. So in ourselves, of course we're going to feel like we don't measure up because we don't. But God gave you something. He built something into you that He wants to call out, that He wants to grow out of you, and that He is going to work through because He's enough. Not because we've got it all together, but because God, who is perfect, and not in our fallen humanity. And that's the beauty of the Gospel. We don't have to be enough because God is enough. He's done it for us. We can stand on His shoulders. They saw giants. The sentence of Anak came from the giants. We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. They're assuming and they're projecting their own insecurity on other people. How many times have you done that, where you assume people don't like you? You assume people think this, that, and the other thing about you because that's what you think about yourself, and that's the barrier to entry. It's not what they think about you, because even if they do think that about you, it doesn't matter. What do you think about you? What does God think about you? Because that's how you should be thinking about you. And what God told them is, you are going to get this land because I am giving it to you. What is God trying to give you? It may not be what you want. You might think, you know, God's not giving me any promises lately. In fact, my life kind of sucks. It really does. And maybe it does, man. Like, I don't know. I'm not walking in your shoes. But I know that there's been lots of times where I thought things seemed pretty bad. There's things I wish would happen that didn't. But I know that those experiences have made me who I am today. Because I chose to see God in those situations instead of let those situations tell me what I should think about God. Instead of saying, God's not good because my situation's not good. My situation isn't God. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. God is. 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