[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the River Church podcast.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: We're all about bringing the life, hope
[00:00:05] Speaker A: and love of Jesus to everyone around us.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: For more information, check out our
[email protected].
[00:00:12] Speaker A: yeah, welcome again to church to Dartford. Oh, man, that was a long time ago.
There we go. River Church.
Everyone knows my mistake. Yeah, if you're not, if you're new, you don't know me. My name's Ian, I'm one of the pastors elders here and you are really welcome. I was actually in a group, I had a few friends around me in a group and someone said in the group they were actually really passionate about welcoming other people. It's something that they valued as themselves. And then two other people said, yes, you were really welcoming to me, you welcome me. And I just thought, come on, that is just so great to see that in the church and segue.
We have a picnic just after church. We are down in Dartford Central park and it's a great way to welcome one another, to reach out and to be friends with one another, just to hang out, let your kids hang out, cause the chaos in the swings and whatever's there and go running after them. But yeah, come down, we're all going to be there after church, 12:30, 1 o', clock, just, you know, come down round the bandstand if you know it. Bring your food, your blankets, your games, your chairs, whatever else you enjoy. Come down and let's be family together now. Talking about a church that is together and together on a mission we're part of and we support Dartford Lada in the center of Dartford, reaching out to those people who are struggling in food poverty. We've got our monthly collection next Sunday, so if you remember, during the week there's an app for it as well. We put it on a on email, but please bring your contributions and we will take them down there now.
I said, I wrote something down here, I've got no idea what it means, but anyway, there we go. Too many words, right? Anyway, it's great to be together. I want to just announce an update to our staff, which is really, I think, really great.
So we've been on a journey as a growing church over the past few years and we have been just growing our staff as a support of that and since we went multi sites. Deb, who's over there. Hello. Deb has been leading our worship team up until the start of this year, but recently she handed over to Rasma and the worship team. A fantastic team. I know, I'm going to say that because I'm part of them.
But I know they put in loads of effort behind the scenes, rehearsing themselves, learning songs, getting together to practice as well. But we just want to honor Deb by the effort she's put into Leeds.
So as a church, why don't we just thank her?
But we wanted to reposition Deb, so she's leading treasure hunters, as you know, we.
What's the word? Multiplied.
Multiplied. Children, let's not go there, okay? But Deb is leading the treasure hunters and so she handed over to Rasma and Rasma has agreed to come on staff one day a week to support the team. Why don't we just welcome Rasma up?
And this is us as a growing church. We need to keep, you know, keep growing our staff to support and serve us as a whole church. And what I just want to say before I talk to Rasma is I am so glad that you all are with us. We're in this together.
And through your giving and your support and your prayers and everything, we can continue to grow as a church. And so, Rasma, for those that don't know you, why don't you just introduce yourself? Who are you? What do you do?
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Good morning, church.
A bit nervous, I must say.
My name is Rasma. Some people call me Rashma, but it's understandable, it's not your usual name. Think of Rasma Taz, just to get it right.
So my family and I have been part of River Church for two and a half years and we are a family of seven and we've got a dog, so there's always plenty going on at home.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: But yeah, that's great. And Alex, Alex, give us a wave.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: My husband Alex
[00:05:17] Speaker A: won't let him get away with not, not, not saying something.
So you've just come on staff as one day a week, but what do you do with the rest of your time? Because I know you're a busy person.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: So after having my last born, they were twin boys, I thought, I will not return back to work.
But I work in education and yeah, life had other plans. And from September I'm returning to head of music position in the secondary school. I also teach one to one singing actually here, upstairs once a week and. And I also work as an examiner for graded music exams.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: How do you feel?
I managed to hold down one job. I think I've only ever managed to hold down one job. So we're just really privileged that you've been able to make the time for this. And I know that music is such A big part of your life, but also your faith.
So how, you know, why are you so passionate about it? What's. How do you see it in the church?
[00:06:22] Speaker B: I think I'm passionate about music because it's something I've pursued professionally for quite some time. And naturally I care quite deeply about it. And beyond the technicalities of it, I really believe that music is a powerful way of expressing worship. Obviously, there's different forms of worship, but singing worship is very dear to me and I really care about creating an environment which is not distracting and music is in the center of it.
And, yeah, the aim is to refocus all attention to Jesus.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: I'm going to ask you a question I didn't prep you with.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Go on.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Was there a time when a particular song or something was just really important to you in expressing your faith in a sort of. In a journey on. On your journey of faith?
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yes. Particular song.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Any song, or, you know, where. Where, you know, worship would just.
[00:07:30] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: What's the title of the song that goes 99.
I couldn't earn it and I don't deserve it. I mean, there's so many blessings that God has blessed me with which in many reckless love. In many times of my life, I felt like I'm not deserving of this. God, I'm not deserving of this. And what Julie spoke today really touched me because it's not about me trying.
Sometimes I felt like in my life's journey, I made myself so busy just to prove that I can and always have this high expectation of myself, not just in the job setting, but as a mother, as a wife.
And, yeah, this song really speaks to me that, yeah, I'm not. There's nothing I can do to deserve it. He loves me before even I was here.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: That's great. And I know everyone's got a song, haven't they, that have taken them through or they've been singing for endless days.
So you are now leading the worship team. Have been. How can the church help?
Are you still looking for people? Do you need any help?
How can they get behind you in prayers as well as sort of, you know, getting on team or anything like that?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we'd love more people to get involved in different shapes and forms in terms of what you see here on the Sunday morning. That is one side of it. A big part of people that serve on team effortlessly here every Sunday is actually the family support, ability to attend those rehearsals, ability to be here 8 o' clock in the morning.
And there is a whole scheme of how to make it work.
My husband really has been supportive throughout the years and many people that serve on this team, there's a lot of planning in place. So if you're willing to reach out in any capacity, if you're willing to maybe offer a child care here or there, you're very welcome.
But yes, for us, yes, what I mentioned, to be able to serve in this way, it involves our families. So the prayer, what I'd like to kind of ask for is for unity within the team, for spiritual strength and protection that we would build strong relationships within the team, that we would genuinely need, know and support one another and be able to stand with one another when there is a need.
And please pray that everything we do would point people towards Jesus rather than towards ourselves.
And yes, if you do play an instrument or sing or you can, you're happy to help in any other form, please reach out.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: That's great. Thank you so much, Resma.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you.
As I do, I know I've met some people who've gone, oh, I used to play, but I don't play anymore.
There is an opportunity to get back into it. So do talk to Rasma.
Great. And it's. Yeah. Great that we're all together on this now. I'm going to hand over and invite Jane to come up. She is going to continue our series.
You don't see Jane so much.
So much. Yeah.
She's been supporting down at Gravesend site. But we are very grateful that she's come and to preach to us. So, yes.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Jane.
[00:11:14] Speaker C: Oh, thank you, Ian. And thank you for your lovely warm welcome.
It's great to be here.
I love having and feel very privileged really, to have the opportunity to.
To just speak and share what God's put on my heart and what he's doing in our midst.
We're in the Greatest Story series again today.
It's our history really, isn't it, this Greatest Story.
And I love history.
Now you may be thinking, what, it's the most boring subject I ever did at school.
No, History to me is kind of all about stories really, isn't it?
And many people are kind of quite into the history of their family, aren't they, and want to research it a bit. Quite a lot of people like watching things like the program who do youo Think youk Are? And many of those sort of programs are popular.
One of my aunts researched our family history on my father's side and they were farmers in the Cotswolds farm for many generations.
And she actually co wrote this book which is called Yeoman of the Cotswolds. And there's a family tree in here that traces right back to the 14th century.
And I'm kind of right at the bottom of that. So. Fascinating. I find it fascinating to hear and read how people lived in previous generations.
And I love too, going to any kind of historical place and hearing about how people lived then. History is fascinating.
But most of all, I love this history.
The greatest story in the world. We've got a picture of the Bible there somewhere. We have, yeah. This history, this story.
And that's the one that really thrills my heart. Yes. It's kind of interesting to know that you can trace your family back to the 14th century, but this is so much more valuable than that. And this is what we're going to look at today. So let's just do a quick reminder of where we've got to in this because we've had quite a few preachers on it and there's other ones that come in between.
So let's remind ourselves where we've got to.
First of all, we saw how sin came in and ruined God's beautiful world, didn't we? We saw how Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. And as time went on, sin increased and mankind was alienated from God.
And God didn't give up on us.
Thank you, Lord. He didn't give up on us.
He chose a man called Abraham to work out his promises, to begin to work out his promises. And he promised Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to the whole world.
And he also promised that he would have a land of their own to settle in. Because at that time, Abraham was a nomad and he was traveling around in tents.
But he said that through Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Time went on and various things happened and Joseph ended up in Egypt. And then as a result of famine, Joseph's brothers joined him in Egypt. They were a family of about 70 by that time.
But instead of getting a land of their own, they actually ended up as slaves in, in Egypt.
And then 400 years later, a man called Moses was chosen and called by God to lead the people out of Egypt, to lead them out of Egypt and to lead them into the promised land. So we've heard kind of up to there now. The last few weeks have been more about things from Leviticus and so it's a bit different from the actual chronological bit. But we're back on the on the chronological bit now, and we pick up the story once they're safely out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, ready to go into the land that God had promised them?
What was ahead of them now?
How is it all going to work out?
What were they going to have to face?
Who here is facing an uncertain future?
Maybe redundancy looms.
Maybe you've had a diagnosis you didn't expect, maybe you're not sure if you're going to pass the exams or get through that interview to get the job you wanted.
But actually, let's turn that question round.
Who isn't facing an uncertain future?
Is there going to be recession?
Is there going to be a global financial crash? Is there going to be conflagration in the Middle east if Mr. Trump doesn't watch what he's doing and things go even worse there, what's going to happen with Russia and Ukraine? What's going to happen to my children?
Will AI take over my job? There's all these uncertainties going on, aren't there? None of us can really be certain what the future holds.
And so today we're going to look at a passage that I believe is going to help us to have future faith for the future, for whatever that holds for us. So that's what I've called the talk, faith for the future. So we're going to look at the passage which is in Numbers, chapter 13.
I'm going to start with verse one and then I'm going to pick it out a bit, but they'll come up on the screen and I think you'll be able to follow.
The Lord now said to Moses, send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I'm giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the 12 ancestral tribes.
So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He sent out 12 men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran. These were the tribes and the names of their leaders. And then we just get a list of the names and Moses tells them to see what the land is like, is it fertile?
Are the towns well defended, that kind of thing. So pick it up in verse 22.
Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where the descendants of Anak lived.
When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, so large it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them. Can you imagine what those grapes must have looked like? You know, you think of the average sized grapes, we've been grape picking and, you know, they're kind of about that size.
And it took two of them to carry it on a pole.
Seriously big grapes. They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs.
After exploring the land for 40 days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel. At Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran, they reported to the whole community what they had seen seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.
This was their report to Moses. We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country, a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.
But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there. The descendants of Anakin. The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.
But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. Let's go at once to take the land, he said. We can certainly conquer it. But the other men who had explored the land disagreed with him. We can't go up against them. They are stronger than we are.
So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites. The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there. The descendants of Anak.
Next to them, we felt like grasshoppers. And that's what they thought too.
So how do we face an uncertain future?
The Israelites, as we're going to see a bit more of blew it.
How can we make sure that we stand with Caleb and Joshua and not with the rest of the people?
So let's dig a bit deeper into this chapter.
And so the first point that I want to kind of draw out of this is called God's Promise and God's Word.
Okay, some visual aids for you this morning as well as what's up there? God's promise and God's Word. Word.
And look back at verse one of chapter 13.
What's the big hint in this verse?
God said, the land I'm giving you.
It wasn't just their idea. God said, go and spy out the land that I'm giving you. It's God's word. God's promise. Right at the beginning, God's instruction to Moses, go and explore the land.
But how did they know they could trust God.
Just look at their history. For a little while, God had promised childless Abraham a multitude of descendants.
Here they were. By now, they reckon There was about 2 million of them. It says in the Bible, 600,000 men, all from a couple who'd been childless until they were 90 and 100. And they only had one son.
God had already fulfilled that promise to Abraham that he would have a multitude of descendants.
Then the scouts go out and check the land, and they go to a place called Hebron.
And do you know, it was at Hebron that actually God spoke to Abraham and promised him that. That he would have a land of his own. You can read it. In Genesis 17:8, it says, God says, I will give the entire land of Canaan where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.
These scouts walked where God had shown his faithfulness.
Already it had come true. They were here in the land that God had promised them.
And it was incredibly fertile bunches of grapes that took two of them to carry. And the scouts describe it as a land flowing with milk and honey, which kind of means, like, not just literally, obviously, flowing with milk and honey, but it talks about richness and plenty and honey. Actually, honey's great because it was their only form of sweetness in those days. Days. And so honey was a wonderful thing to have.
And interestingly, those scouts used the exact words that God had used when he spoke to Moses and promised that he would lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and into a promised land.
Listen to what Exodus 3, verse 8 says.
So I've come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey.
And this was the time, you'll remember it, when God appeared to Moses out of the burning bush, and he told Moses that he'd seen and taken account of the suffering that the children of Israel, God's people, were going through in Egypt. They were being driven hard by the slave drivers. Life was really difficult for them. And God tells Moses, I've seen their trouble and I've taken account of it. And I'm going to lead them into a land of their own, a land flowing with milk and honey. What an amazing, faithful God.
And what a miraculous thing that an enslaved people should be able to walk away from their slave owners, to walk through a sea that God opened for them, a sea that then closed back and drowned their enemies. How Many times in history have an enslaved people just walked away from their slave owners and it happened because God powerfully worked for them.
So how could they doubt a God like that?
We say, but then what happens? What happens to us when we face something that we're not expecting? What happens to us when we are going through something that isn't what we imagined would happen?
What do we do? Don't we sometimes doubt? Don't we sometimes fear? Don't we sometimes wonder where God is in it all? And don't we look at and imagine the worst?
What happens when we're maybe asked to do something? We think, oh no, I can't do that, that's too big for me. And we think, oh no, I can't do that. And we get anxious about it.
So how can we learn from Caleb and Joshua?
We need to remind ourselves of this, of God's Word and God's history with us.
We're all facing different challenges, but we need to search this out and we need to devour it. We need to write it on post it notes. You need to find those verses that relate to your situation. You need to search this out. God, what are you saying to me in this situation? How can your Word, how can your faithfulness in your word help me in this situation? And maybe you need to write it on post it notes, you need to engrave them on your heart.
We've got pages of stories here of God's faithfulness and his character and what's it given for to strengthen, equip and help us face the future and to stand firm.
There are some classic ones, some of the ones that you'll know well, this one, Philippians 4:19, it says, and this same God who takes care of me will supply all, all your needs according to his riches in glory.
And you know, that's not just something that Paul just kind of, you know, rolled off his lips. And a nice truth, he says. This same God that takes care of me, he knew God's care and he knew he could trust him again. It's about God's Word and it's about our history with him.
Look back over your life and see how God has helped you put your trust in his Word.
And then there are the things that God speaks to you very personally.
Maybe as you're reading the Bible, something jumps out to you and you think, oh yeah, that's God speaking to me. Keep a notebook, write it down. I've done that for years and I look back in it and I can see ways that God spoke to me and encouraged me. And then I can see the way it's worked out.
And then often there's prophecies that maybe somebody's given you.
That happened to us a couple of years ago.
We were at the conference in Cyprus, the global conference, and it was a time where Al had begun to stand right back from the work here. He knew that the work at that he was doing in New Frontiers was drawing to an end. And that had been like an amazing opportunity. You're right in the center of everything that's happening all around the world. What privilege to serve it was, but, you know, it gave you such a big view of what God was doing. You sat under the ministry of these amazing people, and it was fantastic. We knew it would come to an end, and it was right that it should, because other people need to take things on, you know, getting older and stuff like that. But then you begin to think, oh, Lord, you know, and it's back to Julie's word and what we're saying. Where's my identity? You know, is it in being in the center of things? Is it being able to serve?
And it can be a time, I think, especially for a man, it can be a time of uncertainty, a time of what's God got for me? And we had an opportunity to pray with another couple who we didn't know at all, never even met them before.
And as we were praying, he had a prophecy for us. And he said he saw us on a train, big train on a main line, you know, going down the main line where it was all happening, but the train branched off and went off on a sideline.
And we're thinking, oh, this is interesting. And then he said, but it's a sideline. It's much quieter sideline. But actually, I see it filling with people.
And we found that so encouraging because to us, that meant, actually, yes, maybe we're not doing the same mainline things that we were always doing, but actually, there's going to be fruit, there's going to be people, there's going to be discipleship. And interestingly enough, too, it was also the time that we began to think that Gravesend was where we were going to be involved in. And words like that. And I could keep you here all morning telling you ones from way back that have sustained us and helped us.
So, you know, listen to those things that God is speaking to you. Pray with people, put yourself in those sort of opportunities, and then hold on to God's word.
So often we magnify the problem and we minimise the resources, don't we? What else can we learn from this story?
Point number.
How do we see ourselves?
Julie, your word was spot on from what I'm going to be talking about now.
Oh, I really don't like that side. That's the three times magnified side. It shows all my wrinkles up. I'm going to put that down quickly.
But the spies, the scouts who went into the land, 10 of them saw themselves as grasshoppers and that's what they thought. Other people saw them in the same way as well.
Numbers 13 says, not only was that the way they saw themselves, but that is how they considered other people thought of them.
How often we're like this. I think I've got a picture of a grasshopper. Some here, should be there soon.
Ah, clicker jam. There it is. Grasshoppers, they're like, you know, put your foot on it, don't even notice you've trodden on it, do you? A tiny little insignificant thing. But how often are we like this? How often do we fail and mess up and we think, oh, gosh, I'm rubbish, I can't do this.
It happens, doesn't it? We beat ourselves up. Think, oh, I'm a rubbish Christian. I'm used to useless Christian and you give up. I'll never make the grade.
What are the words that you beat yourself up with?
What do you say to yourself when you mess up?
Think about it for a minute. How do you put yourself down?
But what does the Bible say about who you are? Julie's word. How does God see you? Because that's who we really are, the way the Bible talks about us.
And honestly, there's loads of verses. I'm just going to rattle off a few of them. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new creation.
The old has gone, the new has come. I think I've got a slide for this as well.
This is brilliant, this verse. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. This isn't about you doing it right. This isn't about you praying more. This isn't about you knowing your Bible well. This is about what Jesus has done.
When we become Christians, we become new creations. The old has gone. This verse transformed my life when I was in my early 20s and beginning to grow as a Christian. And you know when you keep falling in that thing that you wish you didn't do and then you beat yourself up, think, oh, I'm no good, I'm rubbish, I began to meditate on this verse. The old has gone. I'm a new creation. I have the power to live differently.
Things like 1 Peter 2, 9, you're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.
And then like the whole of Ephesians 1 and into chapter 2 where it talks about us being God's workmanship. You're not a grasshopper, you're not rubbish. You're God's workmanship, who he created to do the works that he prepared in advance for you. Did these things thrill your heart? Does it make you think, yes, that's what God's done for me. And it's all by his grace.
And it's not that we have strength in ourselves. It isn't about bolstering our own self confidence.
It's about seeing who we are in Christ Jesus.
And then last but not least, how do we speak?
What comes out of our mouths? How do we speak?
Because do you see what happens here in this story?
A little bit dry, just going to take a mouthful of water.
That's better.
Do you see what happens here in this story?
The scouts start to give their report and first of all, they talk about the land you, that's Moses, not God sent us to look at. It's all your fault, Moses.
They outline how wonderful it is, then comes the but. And it's downhill all the way. People are powerful. We even saw giants.
Caleb straight away recognized what was happening. He saw that faith was being killed.
So what does he say? He said, let's go at once. We can certainly conquer the land, but the others disagree. And it goes from bad to worse. It says they spread about a bad report.
You know, the words we speak are really important.
Important for our own faith, but important for our faith as a church community.
Do our words build faith?
It's a challenge, isn't it? Not just our words to ourselves, but our words. Not just our words to other people, but even our words to ourselves. The things that we say to ourselves. And you know, let it challenge us because you know, when something new perhaps happens in the church, you know, when it was like gravesend starting or you know, some new group starting, you can say, you know, people say, oh, I can't see that working, or, oh, I'm not sure, you know, I've done that, tried that before, we didn't like it last.
These things kill faith, actually.
I know they're trivial things, but let's watch. Let's watch how we talk and let's make sure that the words we speak Actually build our faith and don't damage the faith of our community.
So what happened?
What happened from here on? What happened to the children of Israel? Did they listen to Caleb and Joshua or did they listen to the 10 spies?
I'm going to summarise chapter 14 for you. The whole community were influenced by what the 10 had said and by their bad report. And they began to weep and wail and they began to imagine the most terrible consequences, that their wives would get taken prisoners and their children, children and little ones would be killed. And they even said, let's get rid of Moses.
Let's go back to Egypt. Can you believe that when God has so miraculously brought them through?
Moses and Aaron at this stage actually fell on their faces. They thought God was going to come there and then and actually wipe them out.
Caleb and Joshua tore their garments and pleaded with the people, do not rebel against the Lord and don't be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us.
The Lord is with us. What a difference that makes.
What a difference that makes. The Lord is with us. And they see the whole situation in a different light.
Then the people even start talking about stoning Joshua and Caleb. And then the glorious presence of the Lord does come and God speaks to Moses. And God is angry with the people for their lack of faith and he actually wants to finish it with them. But Moses pleads with them and he reminds God that he is a God who is faithful, a God who is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love. What a wonderful. What a wonderful God. And the outcome is that the Lord forgives them.
But the consequence is that none of that generation get to see the promised land except for Joshua and Caleb.
God led them for 40 years through the wilderness and he was with them and he took care of them and provided for them. But none of that generation, other than Caleb and Joshua got to see the promised land.
Now, maybe we shouldn't be too hard on these Israelites, because again, we've got the whole of God's plan here, haven't we? And we can see that God provided the ultimate provision of a savior.
And he will bring us to what God originally promised Abraham. You see, God promised Abraham a land, but he also promised.
That wasn't the most important thing. He promised a heavenly city.
He promised a heavenly city. We read that in Hebrews. It talks about that. In Hebrews 11 it says that he promised Abraham a heavenly city.
And that's what all this is about. It starts off. You know, it starts off with the land. It starts off with God's people, who he chose and began to work through. But then through all the promise to Abraham that through all nations, all nations would be blessed through Abraham.
And that was Jesus who came. And that's how we can receive the blessing. That's how we can get to the promised land, you know, heaven. That's how we can have a relationship with Jesus because of what he did for us when he died on the cross. It was ultimately through Jesus, the provision of a Savior that all nations were blessed. And we can come into that blessing. And it's through faith, you know, Caleb and Joshua got to the promised land by faith, didn't they? They didn't get there through their hard efforts. Yes, they had to do something and they had to fight battles, but it was through faith.
They knew they couldn't do it in their own strength. They knew what the giants were like. They saw how difficult the land was to be able to take. They understood that. They understood that it wasn't in their strength, but it was only through the faith that they had in God.
And it's the same for us. Jesus has done it. All the people got punished, as I said.
In fact, the 10 spies who didn't have faith, they were actually struck by plague and they died. Now we know we can receive forgiveness from Jesus. We know that if we lack faith, we know that when we've gone wrong, we can receive Jesus forgiveness and he forgives us and he cleanses us and purifies us, and we can walk with Him.
So they didn't have that same assurance. They didn't have that same understanding, perhaps. But we've got that because we've got the whole purpose of God. And that's really what this greatest story that we're going through is all about. And this particular story is to help us to realize how important faith is. That's what this chapter, this section is all about. It's all about faith.
[00:40:38] Speaker B: So
[00:40:40] Speaker C: let's determine to face the future as Joshua and Caleb did.
Let's determine to face it with faith.
So what does that mean for you individually? Are there situations that you're facing? Are the things that you know are up ahead there that are difficult and you tend to give way to anxiety and fear? I know what that's like. I can give way to anxiety about situations, and I have to go back to this and put my faith in God's word.
Or maybe there are ways that God's prompting you to move out, maybe serving in the church, maybe giving with some of the things that we're going to be involved in in Gravesend, we're hoping for another harbour to start.
It's going to be a financial thing for the church to, you know, to be involved in and it will mean that we'll need to give. There'll be things in Dartford that you'll be doing that means that we'll need to step up and get involved. Are you thinking, oh, no, I can't do that, I'm just a grasshopper, I can't do it.
Or are you going to believe? Actually, with faith in God, I can do all things through God who gives me strength.
So let's remind ourselves of the things that can help us move forward. What was the first one?
God's word.
What was the second one?
How we see ourselves.
And what was the third one?
How we speak. Yeah, so I'm going to pray in a minute, but after that we're just going to have opportunity to pray with one another. Because I think maybe things that here that we can pray for one another in, maybe just situations you're facing, maybe wanting to step out at work and actually be able to share the gospel with people that you work with, maybe opportunities for serving in the church, or maybe you feel that there's something perhaps quite big in your life and you may feel you want to share that, you may not. But let's just have that opportunity to pray for one another. And let's hold on and think about Julie's word, because I think it links in very much with how we see ourselves. And how we see ourselves is often the thing that drains our faith.
So, yeah, let's just ask God to come and seal his word in us. Yeah. Lord, I just want to thank you that you speak to us through these great and precious promises.
You speak to us through your word. You've given it to us. What a resource you've given us, Lord, and you've given us the Holy Spirit and you've given us, Jesus, that when we put our faith in you, Lord, we know that we're secure. We know that we're safe, that our eternity is secure with you, Lord, we want to thank you for that. We want to pray that you will help us to grasp these things and to let them change and affect our lives.
Thank you, Lord.
