Will We Step Back in Fear?

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Will We Step Back in Fear?

If you have a Bible, and I hope you or somebody around you does, lemme invite you to find Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. The story that I’m about to tell you is completely true.

You’re not going to believe it’s true, but you need to know from the start that every single detail of the story I’m about to tell you is true.

When I was in eighth grade, I loved playing basketball. The only problem was I was a little four foot nothing runt. So it’s not good when you’re playing basketball if you’re a runt because every time you throw the ball up, the ball comes right back in your face.

So eighth grade at my school was the first year you could try out for the school basketball team and everybody who was cool was on the eighth-grade basketball team. So I thought, I’m David Platt, I need to be cool.

So I need to be on the eighth grade basketball team. The only problem is I’m a runt. I’m thinking how can I impress the coach? So he’ll put me on the team true story, one day I was sitting up in my room at my house and I was reading in the Bible and I came across Luke chapter one, verse 37, which says, for nothing is impossible with God.

And at that moment it was like the words of scripture lept off the page and into my heart. And I knew exactly how I could make the eighth grade basketball team for nothing is impossible with God.

If that is true, then I can dunk the basketball it’s possible, and says it. And if I can dunk in basketball, coaches got to put me on the team, talk about the cool four foot, nothing dunking on the eighth-grade basketball team.

So I left my Bible sitting there on a desk and I went outside where we had a basketball court in our driveway. I grabbed a basketball and I went to the back of the driveway. I got down on my knees. I said, God, I believe with your power I can dunk this basketball.

You said in your words, that nothing is impossible with you. So I stood up and I wanted everything to be perfect. So I counted out how many steps it was going to take for me. I got to the very back of the driveway.

I was going to do a long-running start so I could not how many steps it was going to take me to get to the goal. And then my plan was when I was about two feet away, I was going to close my eyes.

Okay, follow me here. I’m a true story. I’m going to take the last two steps with my eyes closed and I’m going to jump with my eyes closed. That way I can picture angels lifting me up to the goal, and then the next thing I’m going to feel is the rim.

I’m going to throw the ball to the rim and then my plan is I’m going to hang there for a little while. I’ve never been up there before. And so that was my plan. I have every step counted out.

The last two steps, eyes closed. I’m just thinking again jump and there are angels lifting me up. So I went back again, back to the driveway again. God, down on my knees. God, you said in your word nothing is impossible to you.

I believe in your power. I can dunk this basketball. I mean people driving by just a normal day for them. I’m having a revival right there in the driveway. So I get up now before I finish this story.

And again, every detail of the story is true. So lemme just ask, how many of you, just be honest, how many of you think really believe that on that day I dunked the basketball 10-foot goals? I’m not playing tricks like anything.

So how many of you believe I dunked the basketball? Nobody. Nobody. Well like two of you, raise your hand when you feel sorry for me because nobody for nothing is impossible with God. I get up off my knees in prayer, I start running.

Every step counted out, I got two feet away, I closed my eyes, I took the last two steps with my eyes closed and I jumped like I could feel something on my right and my left and the next thing I felt was that basketball pole right in my forehead. I want you to imagine walking by my house on that day.

You see this kid get up off his knees supposedly in prayer and just go running and jump headfirst into the basketball goal, miss the ball. So here’s the deal. I found out later I studied that passage.

It actually is referring to the virgin birth not dunking a basketball I had. So it’s important to study the context in scripture apparently. So I totally missed the point of the passage, but I share that story from the start of this conference because my prayer for this conference plainly put is that God would raise up college students, men and women across this room who will take God at his word.

So he has said in his word, and this is in context, Matthew 24:14 says, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come. This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed as a testimony to all the nations.

And then he said four chapters later, therefore go and make disciples of all these nations, baptizing them, the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you. And he said I am with you always. I’ll be with you.

Go and take all these nations, make disciples among you, all the groups of people, ethnic groups in the world, and I’ll be with you every step of the way. And the Bible says in the end, we know where everything is going. All history is headed to the day when Jesus has returned and he is receiving praise from all the nations.

My prayer for this conference is that God would raise up students all across this room who believe that who will take God at his word and say, you said it. You said this gospel will go, will advance to the nations.

You said you would give the power of your presence to everybody who’s making that happen. So I’m going to take you at your word and I’m going to do that. I’m going to give my life to that. But here’s the deal.

So that’s my prayer for this conference. The reality is although there is an adversary at work in this world who is doing and will do everything he can to keep you from taking God at his word, there is an adversary in this world who will do everything he can to lead you into a nominal cultural, casual cultural Christianity that disregards the nations and doesn’t take God at his word.

The Faithfulness of God in the Old Testament

And I know that because he’s been at work among the people of God for centuries and he’s kept the people of God from taking, making God at his word, the book of numbers. There they stood on the brink of the promised land.

God had he’d promised his people that he would give them fruitful, abundant prosperity in this place that they were seeing with their own eyes. Now that’s not where they had lived for generations.

They’d been in slavery, they’d been oppressed and abused. They’d been overwhelmed and oppressed by the Egyptian dynasty that ruled them, but God had delivered them miraculously. God turned an entire river into blood.

He brought frogs from everywhere. Then gnats then fly. God struck down Egyptian livestock. He sent boils on the skin of their captors, followed by harrowing hail from heaven, then a swarm of locusts followed by three days of total darkness.

In the end, the Egyptians suffered the loss of their firstborn sons and before you knew it, the Egyptians were handing the Israelites goods and gold and sending them on their way. It didn’t take long for the Egyptians to wish they hadn’t done that.

So they started pursuing the Israelites all the way to the edge of their Red Sea where they thought they had them trapped until God split the sea in half. And he tells his people to walk through it and they do and they get to the other side and they look in their rearview mirrors and the waters come crashing down over their enemies in the days to come.

God guided them with a pillar of cloud by day fire By night when they got thirsty, he gave them water from rocks. When they were hungry, he sent bread from the sky. He gave them his word, he showed them his grace.

And every step of the way he promised them the same thing. He promised the forefathers, I’m leading you to a great land and it’s all going to be yours. And finally, one day they get there, they arrive, they can see it.

So they decide to send a group of spies to go in and check it out and the spies come back with a report. This land is glorious. They said, pick up with me in Roman numbers chapter 13 verse 25.

At the end of 40 days they returned from spying out the land and they came to Moses and Aaron to all the congregation of the people of Israel and the wilderness of Perrin. At Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land and they told them, we came to the land which you sent us.

It flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. You can only imagine them eating it and enjoying it. And then everything changes. Verse 28. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large.

And besides we saw the descendants of Enoch there, the Amalekites dwell in the land of the neg A, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amite dwell on the hill country and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and occupy it for we are able to overcome it.

Then 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 are. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone to spied out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.

And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Enoch who come from the Nephilim and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seemed to them. So God had called them to take this land and yet here the majority of the spies report, we can’t take this land. It’s not safe, it’s not secure, we can’t do it, we won’t do it.

And so the people respond in chapter 14 verse one, then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole congregation said to them, would that we have died in the land of Egypt or would that we have died in this wilderness?

Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword our wives and our little ones will become prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? They said one another said to one another.

Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Oh, what just happened? See the anatomy of disbelief here in at least four different ways. So one, they totally disregarded the goodness of God.

They disregarded the goodness of God, their first words, whether we had died in the land of Egypt, and in an instant, they had completely forgotten the glories of God’s grace toward them. He had delivered them miraculously from slavery. He’d split a sea in half.

They knew where to go because God led them with a cloud and a fire. He gave them water from rocks, and bread from the sky every single day without fail. And he brought them to the land, this exceedingly good land and they immediately say, God’s not good to us.

He should have left us to die. They disregarded the goodness of God. Second, they doubted the greatness of God. Verse three, why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword wives and our little ones will become a pre.

Don’t miss it. The line of thought here is the Lord Yahweh has brought us to this land to be killed. That’s why he brought us here. It says if they’ve forgotten God’s power, God’s promises. I said we can’t do this.

Notice what they’re doing here. They’re magnifying potential problems. You look at the spies report in chapter 13, verses 32 and 33, Nephilim, they’re talking about a race of giants, large people.

And the reality is history tells us they were likely small in number. But the way they’re talking here, it sounds like everybody in the promised land is Goliath himself. It’s not true. But they’ve convinced themselves that it was and the more they thought about those people, the bigger they got that ever happened to you.

Do you ever come face to face with an obstacle or some barrier you face in your life? And the more you think about it, the bigger and bigger and bigger it gets to the point where it just drives you to worry and fear and you completely lose perspective.

They magnified potential problems and they minimized powerful promises. Look back at chapter 13 verse one, the very beginning of chapter 13 when God spoke to Moses, listen to what he said. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.

I’m giving you this land. God said it not taking God’s word. They didn’t believe it. Now. Now don’t miss this. You’ve got to see this. Look over at chapter 13 verse 22 when it’s talking about.

So verse 21 says, they went up the spider of the land from the wilderness of zen to reha, near Leath. Then verse 22 says, they went up into the Naga and came to Hebrew, Rahman, shisha, and talai.

The descendants of Enoch were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zan in Egypt. So they went up and came to Hebron where they saw these descendants of Enoch, the people who would intimidate them.

But this is where we got to realize the significance of where they’re standing in Hebron. So hold your place, your numbers chapter 13, and go back to Genesis chapter 13. So the first book in the Bible, Genesis chapter 13, you’ve got to see this in Genesis chapter 13 with Abraham, the father of the people of Israel.

God told Abraham, he said, I’m going to give you a land to settle in. I’m going to make it yours. It’s going to belong to your descendants. So the question is, where was that land that God was promising to Abraham and his descendants?

Look at Genesis chapter 13, verse 14. The Lord said to Abram after lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and western.

For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I’ll make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted, arise, walk through length and breadth of the land for I will give it to you.

Listen to verse 18. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mom Ray, which are where he and there he built an altar to the Lord. Walk around here at Hebron this length, this breath of the land it belongs to you.

You read on in Genesis and you’ll never guess where Abraham and Sarah, his wife are buried, Hebrew, Isaac and Rebecca Jacob slash Israel and Leah buried at Hebron. Then turn over to Genesis chapter 15. Look at Genesis chapter 15, verse 13.

Genesis 15, verse 13. The Lord said to Abraham, know for certain that your offspring will be so Germans in the land that is not theirs will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years exactly what happened in Egypt.

But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Exactly what happened in Egypt. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace.

You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. They’re going to come back. And this is where God said to Abraham, this is your land.

I’m going to bring you and your descendants here. So now it’s here. It’s in the land of promise where the patriarchs to whom that promise was given are buried there in this place. The people of God come back, they see it.

They say we can’t take this. You think you think knowing that they God in the Hebrews, they’d have fallen on their faces in awe and said, God is faithful. He’s brought us back. Instead, they’re so preoccupied with the sandal sizes of a few big guys in eon that they conclude we can’t do this.

Minimizing God’s promises, magnifying their problems, and ultimately doubting the greatness of their God, they disregarded God’s goodness, doubted God’s greatness, and as a result they disobeyed God’s word. The third thing here, they disobeyed the word of God back in Numbers chapter 14, we read, verse four, and they said to one another, let us choose a leader, and let’s go back to Egypt.

They desire, disobedience desire to turn around and totally leave behind what God has promised to them. And as a result of that decision, it’s the fourth thing. They completely disqualified themselves from the blessing of God.

They disregarded the goodness of God. They doubted the greatness of God. They disobeyed the word of God and as a result, they disqualify themselves from the blessing of God. That’s the whole point of the story.

Unbelief always robs the people of God from the blessing of God. Those 10 spies who said, well, can’t take the land, died almost immediately. And every single person among God’s people except for Caleb and Joshua was sentenced to die in the wilderness.

Just look. And these are some of the most humbling words, numbers chapter 14, verse 35, I, the Lord have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me in this wilderness.

They shall come to a full end and there they shall die. Everybody’s dying and yet they still don’t get it. They try to fight the people in the land after God has said this and they’re defeated soundly. Mark this down, ladies and gentlemen.

If God is for you, no one can stand against you. If God is against you, you have no hope. But there were two men who were different. In chapter 14, verse five, Moses and Aaron fell in their faces before the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel and Joshua, the son of none.

And Caleb, the son of Jah, was among those who had spied out of the land, tore their clothes, and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. To see the contrast, these two men believed in the goodness of God. It’s the good land.

They said, and you know why it’s good? Because God’s made it good for us. They knew God had been gracious to them. They knew that’s why God had brought them to this point, to take this good land.

They believed in the goodness of God. They trusted the greatness of God. Verse eight, if the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us a land that flows with milk and honey. God will give it to us.

That’s the point. Yeah, there are some big people, and notice what Kim and Joshua are saying. They’re not saying a piece of guys, we can do this. They’re saying, yes, yes, they’re bigger than us. We can’t do this alone, but God is with us and he is bigger, he’s powerful and he’ll do what he’s chosen to do on behalf of his people throughout all history.

He puts his people in positions in places where they can’t do what he’s calling them to do on their own, but he’s faithful and he displays his glory and his power by providing for them. He trusted the greatness of God.

You see where others saw problems, and obstacles, Caleb Joshua saw opportunity, and possibility. Were there obstacles without question there were. But in Caleb and Joshua’s eyes, those obstacles were simply opportunities for God to show his greatness.

You got to see this turnover real quick. One of the places to turn. So hold your place here in numbers, but go over to Joshua chapter 15. So past Deuteronomy and you’ll come to Joshua, Joshua chapter 15.

So the rest of the story plays out and the generation dies off and the new generation takes the promised land along with Caleb and Joshua. They make it to the promised land. Caleb is allotted his portion.

And check this out, Joshua chapter 15, verse 13, 13, according to the commandment of the Lord, to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jah, a portion among the people of Judah, curious Abo. That is Hebron.

Abo was the father of Anac, those guys they were afraid of. And Caleb drove out from there. The three sons of Aac, sheshe and Ahman, and Talai, the descendants of Anac. Ha, Caleb took them down an obstacle, no opportunity for God to show his greatness over descendants of Anac.

Who were they in view of God, don’t miss it. While others were worried about man’s power, they were confident in God’s presence. Back in numbers, you turn back there in verse nine, they said, only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land.

For they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. The Lord Yahweh is with us. Do not fear them. You can’t stop the people of God with the presence of God, period.

And so Caleb and Joshua obeyed the word of God. They stand up and say this, it almost cost them their lives. All the congregation set to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared to the tent of meaning to all the people of Israel.

They obeyed the word of God and the glory of God rose up on their bath and in their obedience, instead of being disqualified from the blessing of God, they would experience the blessing of God. They would go into this land.

Joshua from the tribe of a frame would become the dominant tribe in the north of Canaan. And Caleb from the tribe of Judah would become the dominant tribe in the South. So why do we have this story?

It’s interesting when you get to One Corinthians, Paul specifically tells us that these stories were given to us for a reason. They were given to us as a warning. This is not just a story about some Israelites centuries ago.

This is a story about students, about men and women in this room right now. Now I’m not saying in any way that our situation today is exactly the same as what happened here in numbers. But I do know this.

You and I have been put in a world right now, just look out over the precipice and see about 11,000 different people groups out there, different ethnicities, not Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Chevy sights, but Berber in Morocco, Baloche in Pakistan, Somalis and the Horn of Africa, 11,000 of them. And Jesus has said this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to every single one of them to all the nations.

And he said to him, that’s the promise it will happen. One day every one of these people groups, Somalis from the horn, Belo in Pakistan, verbiage from Morocco, and 11,000 other people, groups are going to be gathered around his throne singing his praise for his salvation. So that’s happened. That’s going to happen.

Promise from God from the very beginning. We could go back to God’s promise to Abraham and Genesis chapter 12 and see the same thing. So he’s given us promise and he’s given us command.

He’s given you and I in our day command to make disciples of every single one of them, of all the nations, and get the gospel to every single one of these people groups. So that’s where we stand in the picture in front of us.

11,000 people groups and over 6,000 of those people groups still haven’t been reached with the gospel. 6,000 of them praying for the bus this morning, hardly any Christians. I was in the middle of northern Africa just a couple of months ago standing on a mountain just looking all around me, 360 degrees just pictured just mountains with villages everywhere.

And to our knowledge and that entire view, what you look in this particular area, this particular people group, about 3.5 million people, there’s about a hundred followers of Jesus. Most everybody within your sight has not yet been reached with the gospel.

And Jesus has said, go proclaim the gospel to them and I am promising you the fullness of my presence to make that promise a reality. I’m opening up the storehouse of evidence saying, I’ll give you everything you need to make that promise fulfilled.

Turn to God

So as we stand at our kish barnea, I ask us today, are we, are you and I? Are we going to turn from God and trust in ourselves or are we going to turn to God and trust in Christ? Ask that question really multiple levels.

I’m not going to even assume that everyone in this room has turned from God and entrusted in Christ for your salvation. And I pray that if you have never made that decision in your life, that you would hear loud and clear what we sing and what we celebrate this weekend, that God loves you so much that he sent his son to pay the price for all your sin and rebellion against him.

Jesus has died on the cross for your sins. He’s risen from the dead in victory over sin. And he has said to anyone who turns from their sin and trusts in him, you’ll be forgiven of all your sin and reconciled to God forever.

I urge you to turn to God and trust in Christ. And then for all who have, for all who have, who know God in Christ, I challenge you based on God’s word. What we’re seeing here in His word to say to him, I’ll go wherever you want me to go.

Knowing what that whatever means, like go conference, I’ll go wherever. That could mean Somalia and Al-Shabaab could mean West Africa and Boko Haram could mean Middle East Rock, ISIS, Syria. I’ll go wherever you might think.

I don’t know if I’m at a point where I can say that wherever. This is where I want to encourage you. Don’t forget who you’re talking to when you say, I’ll go wherever. This is the God who loves you so much and who knows so much better than you do what is best for your life.

If you can trust him to save you from hell, for eternity, certainly you can trust him to lead you while you’re on this earth. And not just to lead you, but to satisfy you every step of the way. So I ask us, are we going to turn from God and trust in ourselves?

Step Forward in Faith

Say, here are the conditions I have on obedience to you. I’ll go here or there, but not here or there. No, no. Let’s turn to God and trust in Christ. I ask us, are we going to sit back in fear of the world or are we going to step forward with faith in his word?

God never promised. Taking the land of Canaan wouldn’t be costly. It wouldn’t be dangerous. That’s not the point of the story. The promise is I’ll give it to you. I’ll bless you with it. So believe me, I think about where we are today, the picture in front of us, unreached people are unreached for a reason.

They’re hard to reach, they’re difficult to reach. They’re dangerous to reach. They’re unreached for a reason. All the easy ones are taken to realize, to take God at his word means to say, I’ll go wherever knowing there’s cost ahead, but knowing that he’s powerful and he’s good and he’ll use even the cost for the accomplishment of his purpose.

I heard a story this week, from some of our personnel with IMB and a part of Southeast Asia where they have seen just some wonderful gospel fruit among nationals there that they have been sharing the gospel with. And as those people have come to Christ out of Muslim backgrounds in this particular circumstance, they’ve been growing Christ become leaders in the church.

Church has been planted. Well, three of those leaders from the church who had come to Christ to become leaders in the church were traveling. They were attacked by a group of militant Muslims and the one primary leader was stabbed to death they caught the guy who stabbed him and put him in prison and the wife, of that brother who was stabbed to death went to that prison and publicly confronted that man who had killed her husband.

She shared the gospel with him and as a result, several of the prisoners around him have now come to faith in Christ, including and in addition to three of the policemen who were working on the case. Let’s not be so foolish as to think that we are going to reach unreached people without a cost, but let’s also not be so foolish as to realize that living is Christ. To die is gain and cost ultimately leads to reward in the kingdom.

So we’re going to sit back in fear of the world. We’re going to step forward with faith in the word. I guess ultimately, are we going to waste our lives in routine religion or are we going to spend our lives in radical devotion?

That is the question I put before every single follower of Christ in this room. Are we going to take God at his word? Now, I know that some people say, well, wait for a second gospel of the kingdom, of proclaims the testimony to all nations.

Then the end will come. So are you saying that? Well, there are 6,000 plus unreached people groups, and so we have to get to all of them before Jesus comes back. So that means Jesus is not coming back tomorrow.

That’s not all that I’m saying. I hope Jesus comes back tomorrow. I’d prefer tonight. I pray continually we’re going to come back. We don’t know if we got people groups to find right.

We don’t know if we got reach to find right doing the best we can with what we’ve got. But I can’t improve at this point in the words of George Lad, called Matthew 24:14, that promise that the gospel will go to all the nations and the end will come.

He said it’s the single most important verse in the word of God for the people of God today. If we would just take him out his word and he writes, God alone knows the definition of terms. I cannot precisely define who all the nations are, but I do not need to know.

I know only one thing. Christ has not yet returned. Therefore, the task is not yet done. When it is done, Christ will come. Our responsibility is not to insist on defining the terms. Our responsibility is to complete the task so long as Christ does not return, our work is undone.

Let us get busy and complete our mission. Indeed, let’s believe in the goodness of God. Let’s trust in the greatness of our God. Let’s obey the command of God and let’s experience the blessing of God.

Wouldn’t you like to be a part of the generation that sees that people and groups of the world are each with the gospel and Christ, return for the praise he does? Let’s pray. God, pray. Pray oh God, that you would help us to learn from what you have given us here in your word.

God, I pray that you would raise up students, men and women across this room who including myself, God, will believe your goodness, and who will trust your greatness, who will obey your word and experience your blessing.

We pray that you would bless and lead and guide every facet of this conference to nurture that kind of faith in each of our hearts and our lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.