How to Possess Your Provision

Now you're there at numbers 13. Are you okay? Please insert your finger or your hand in there and Turn over to 1 Corinthians 10. The reason why I feel strongly prompted to go on is in reference to the word that our sister gave over here on my right. Because I believe. That was a word from God and not that the word in the back wasn't. But this word over here relates directly to the message this morning. Let's pray. Father, we trust your spirit this morning, Lord. We're here, Father. The last thing we want to do is go through emotion, Lord. The last thing we want to do is just be false with you, Father, and phony to be spiritual, Lord, but in an untrue sort of way, Father. We want to be perfectly yielded to you, Lord, and open to what you'd want to speak to us. And so we just utter to you, Father, I will, Lord, receive your word. Would you say that, Church? I will receive your word. We trust you, Holy Spirit, to quicken both this servant who shares it and these servants who receive it, Father, in Jesus name. Now you've got your hand in both places. Just listen a second. I'm sure that many of you know someone like Donnie, who is a person, fictitious name that I want to use describing a person that I knew in high school who was a tremendously gifted natural athlete, a person who could take practically any sport in a short period of time, master the basic skills, and then a little bit later was playing with people who had played the game much longer than he had. Basketball was the game where I saw him excel. He had a touch, but yet he had power, he had the ability to leap, and yet he could be smooth and make his cuts and so on. I remember how many times I used to go out and work for weeks and weeks and weeks trying to master a particular part of the game, and he could step out there, just do it. And I remember all the love that used to go up from me toward him when I see that happening. But Donnie never played varsity basketball where I went to high school. In fact, he never tried out for the team. In fact, what he'd do most of the time was simply make a comment or two about not really needing the hassle of practice and discipline. And so Donnie never had a chance, never took the opportunity to show what he could do in an organized way. And consequently, when he graduated from high school and went off to wherever he went, he never had an opportunity to put his name in the record book or to cause the school team to be recognized as A power in its division. And he's just like so many people that you know that have skill, have ability, have gifts, but never develop them, but never submit them in order to see them brought to fulfillment. He's what we call an underachiever. And you know them in business, you know them as students, you know them as partners, you know them in athletics, you know them in music, people who can do it because God's put it in them to do it, but they never come to it. They never amount to anything. They never have any real accomplishments. And I want to share this morning, beloved, on the subject of how to possess your provision, because I believe that the same principle in the natural is true in the spiritual, as so often is the case. Spiritually, we are made rich by the provision of God in Christ Jesus, but very few of us ever really come to see that potential fulfilled. And so the tragedy is today that all throughout the earth, believers never really amount to what God has purposed for them. And the church, rather than being a dynamic power to confront evil on the face of the earth, is for the most part rendered ineffective and unnoticed, which is even a worse insult by the culture. Whatever you think about the debate that's going on right now in the candidates, between the candidates about religion, praise God that it's an issue. Praise God that enough of a voice has been raised that people have to take notice and sort it out. Whatever you think of all the fundamentalist attacks and charges, praise God that at least a voice is being heard crying in the wilderness. But why is it, beloved, that so few come up to what God has for them? Why is it that so few ever really can say, I am fulfilled as a believer in Jesus? Last week we saw very clearly in Philippians 4 that God shall supply all of your needs according to his resources and glory in Christ Jesus. And we saw similarly that you can do all things through Christ, who infuses you with strength. And yet that isn't most of our experience. That isn't the experience of the Church by and large. Rather, we find ourselves limping from one skirmish to another with problems and difficulties. I wonder sometimes if we ever really have a day when we say, I live fully today in the grace of my God, and I overcame the forces that would take this life from me. Jesus himself, from his own lips, pinpoints the nature of the struggle. There's a paradox when he says in Luke 12:32, fear not, little flock. It is the Father's good pleasure to what give you the kingdom of God. Now remember that the kingdom of God is the place where God's rule is enforced. The kingdom of God is not a boundary in physical limitations, but it's a realm, folks. It's a. It's a dimension where God's delights, God's will, God's purposes are enforced. It's where they are acknowledged. And there are two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, or Satan. And God's purpose is to restore his kingdom on the face of this earth through his church. Jesus said, fear not, little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure, pleasure to give you the kingdom. What does that evoke in you? Hey, God's going to give me the kingdom. God's going to give me the areas of rule where I'm struggling. But yet this same Jesus in Matthew 11:12 says a very profound thing when he says that from the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and violent men take it by force. A paradox. For we have, on the one hand, God giving us the kingdom, on the other hand, violent men taking it by force. And what I believe the church has largely come into, the church that is, that's been being restored by the Holy Spirit, is a posture of grace which needs to be there. Because grace is what flows the goodness of God toward us in an undeserving way, those of us who are undeserving. But beloved, it's also the church, the church's position, the church's responsibility to take what God gives and deal violently and forcibly with the powers that are within us that would prevent us from being all that God wants us to be. When the Bible says that violent men take the kingdom by force, it's not talking about pounding on God for something. It's saying, listen. And the verb used there is in the middle voice, which I believe has to do with something that's happening on you. It's saying that a violent thing has to happen inside of you for the grace of God, the kingdom of God, to take rein in the different areas of your life. And I want to say to you folks that so many of us, so many of us don't want that to happen. We don't want to be in violence. We don't want to risk what has to happen in our lives to go on with God. You see, Paul said the reason why things were going in his life in such a fruitful way. He said, because I work harder than any of them. I don't think he meant I was up more hours. I think what he was saying was I violently deal with the things in me that aren't of God, and even that's by grace, he says. Now, I want us to look this morning at an Old Testament story and highlight just a few principles in a brief period of time which will help us to come to grips with what it means to take the kingdom of God violently in our hearts. And I think, church, if you'll hear me, this will lay the foundation in our spirit for the next several months of what I think God's calling this community into. I'm going to use the Old Testament text, but I needed to say something in preface to that. So many times we'll flip to the Old Testament and say, you know, Lord, there's a lot of things here I don't understand. You ever feel that way? I'd be a whole lot more comfortable with this if it didn't have some of that stuff in there about the heads rolling and all that. And so we tend to just, well, the New Testament, it's the church material. The other stuff is just sort of. But I want you to see 1 Corinthians 10 as what God says about the Old Testament by the Holy Spirit talking about Moses and going, well, I just have to read it. I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink, for they drank from the supernatural rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Do you think God wasn't in the Old Testament? Do you think that Jesus christ wasn't alive 3 and 4000 years ago? Moving nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things are warnings for us not to desire evil, as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance. We must not indulge in immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. And that's the part we're going to look at today. Now look at verse 11. Now, these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages has come. Could it be any clearer than that? This is written down for our instruction. Now turn back to numbers 13. I'm not going to read through this because it would take the better part of our remaining time to do so. But you'll need to pick up the story as we go. And I trust that in so doing you'll understand the flow of what's happening and not feel left out. Principles that God has given for our instruction that will enable us to move on and allow the kingdom of God to have its place in our heart. Principles that God has given to possess the provision that Jesus Christ has brought for us. The story is, as you know, that the children of Israel have been delivered from the oppression of the Egyptians. Brought out. Now, what is that a picture of? Folks, those of you who've studied the Bible know that the Israelites are a picture of the church of today. What is it foreshadowing when we say that they were delivered from the Egyptian bondage? What is that? A foreshadowing of salvation coming out from the bondage of sin. And there's so many details of that which are really exciting to study. And they're on their way to the Promised land. Alright, they're on the way to the Promised land. What is the Promised Land? A foreshadowing of what? Aha. Some said kingdom of God, some say heaven. It's very important that you recognize that that is not a foreshadowing of some time yet to come which we call heaven. But it's a foreshadowing of a life being lived in the full purpose and destiny of God. Right now, the promised land is not the sweet by and by. Oh, the sweet by and by. Let me read it. Ofttimes the day seems long, our trials hard to bear. We're tempted to complain, to murmur in despair But Christ will soon appear to catch his bride away. All tears forever over in God's eternal day. And then it goes on to sweep by and by. You see the slaves of the early 1800s. That's what theology they were given. Well, endure it now, suffer now, because in the sweet by and by, you'll get to the Promised Land and all your burdens will pass away. Now, as true as that is, that's not what God wants for his church today. He wants his church today to live in the Promised Land of the fulfillment of his purpose and destiny. Now here's the first principle. The first principle is you need a vision of the provision. Alright? You need a vision of the provision. Numbers 13:12. Spies had been sent out to the Promised land that God had told him he was going to give to the Israelites. The spies come back with their report and we're going to pick it up. Alright? Are you there? Numbers 13 at the end of 40 days, 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. In the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, they brought back word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit. Now what they had done is cut down a cluster of grapes. And that cluster of grapes was so enormous that they had to tie it on a pole and carry it between two men's shoulders. This is the fruit of the land that God promised to them. Verse 27. And they told him, we came to the land to which you sent us, and it flows with. With milk and honey. And pointing to the grapes, he says, and this is its fruit. It's a tremendously fruitful, lush, productive land that God has given to us. Beloved, I have to say, as a beginning point, it is a crucial understanding in every Christian's heart to see that God has a vision for your life. If you've come to God through Jesus in the last months or years, but haven't really sensed a direction, haven't really sensed what's God want to make of me. I want to urge you with all of my heart to come to grips with the fact that God has a vision for your life. He didn't just redeem you, to keep you on the shelf until the sweet by and by, but he wants you to be fruitful, fulfilled, growing up. In all righteous virtues and godliness, we have no concept. Ephesians 2:10 says, God has created good works for you to walk in. So many believers miss out on that and they slip into a mentality of, well, I'm not as talented or gifted or skilled as. And I'll name off a few people and. And things don't go that well for me. So I don't guess God really has something for me. And I want to urge you this morning to catch a hold of the vision of what God wants to provide for you. Now, look around the room and I know there are those here who are beginning to see that God has a call on their life. He has gifts that he's given to them. And it begins when we send out the spies. Greg and Robin McAtee are here this morning. They're going to share at the closing of the service about the fact that they came to a point where they had to make a decision. Would they Stay kind of where they were from job to job, trying to just make ends meet? Or would they venture out and take a step of faith and see what God has? And the story that they're going to share is just exciting. Because, you see, once we get past it, once we get out there and see the land, something happens inside of us. Once we risk, as I said last Sunday, that God has something better than we're in, that God has a fulfillment for us, it loosens to us all sorts of possibilities that God wants to work. We were at prayer just last Tuesday morning. And the brothers who were there may remember the Lord spoke prophetically that we were to come up and see situations the way that he saw them. That we weren't to pray pleadingly before God for things to happen, but that we were to ask God for his perspective of faith so that from the mountaintop we would see the situation as he sees it and be able to speak it the way he sees it. Have you ever had the experience of standing on a mountaintop and looking down and seeing things happen and recognizing that the people down there don't know that? I read a story once of a man who was on a high peak looking down and was one of those long, serendipitous. What do they call those, cutback roads or whatever. They were going back and forth like that. And he could see that there was a vehicle going down the road that was out of control. And he could also see that coming up the road was a big bus that couldn't see the car coming. And from where he was, he was totally helpless. But from his perspective, he saw the whole thing happening long before either of them ever saw what was going to take place. Fortunately, there was an accident, but apparently no one was hurt. The point is that he saw what was going to happen. He saw different perspective. And beloved, that's what God's saying to us. Let's see his provision. Let's get his heart and mind on what he wants to do with us. How do we do that? You say, I want that. How do I do it? I don't believe there's any substitute for spending time with the Holy Spirit, spending time in communion with God. Listen to what one author says. As I begin to wait upon him and talk to him, he becomes very real to me and begins to change my vision. In fact, as we set our gaze upon the Holy Spirit, he takes the brush of faith. I like this. Dips it into the ink of the Word and draws beautiful pictures upon the canvas of our hearts and after he gives us this picture, there's a new internal motivation that's imparted. It doesn't come by just saying, well, I have a vision of myself leading a bible study with 35 men in it. The Holy Spirit makes it alive to you, the promised land of your fulfillment. What is the vision? You can't possess a kingdom that you don't see. The second principle is expect obstacles to arise immediately. Alright, here we go Back to numbers 1327. We just got the report. Leave that up for just another second in case they're writing it down. Paula, would you please? It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit, verse 28. Yet 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. And then he goes on and names these people. And in the Bible dictionary, if you look up the name of each of those, each one of them has some characteristic of fearsomeness. Either they're huge, physically speaking, or they have the hardest metals that are being made and they can crush or pound. And so there are all these reasons. Look over in verse 31. We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought the people of Israel an evil report of the land which they spied out, saying, the land through which we have gone, it is a land that devours its inhabitants. What a word. Can you see the people of Israel with their jaws? This is amazing. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. And we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seem to them, not only did we see them, but they saw us. We thought we were grasshoppers and so did they. That's bad news, folks. If you're the grasshopper, expect obstacles to arise immediately. I could just give you personal illustration after personal illustration of the facts that happen every time that the minute you see the vision that God has for you, the minute you move that way, expect it, just look for it, because it's going to come. The minute you take a step, you're going to have something go wrong. Something's going to just raise its head up and you're going to know that, well, I'm in for a battle. Why doesn't God just give it to you? I mean, he said this was their land. Why didn't he do it? Because he wants to fashion a character. He wants a heart that's responsive and obedient and knows how to touch the heart of God and not just give it gifts. Opposition comes all over the place, doesn't it? I remember when we were going to look here in the North Hills for a meeting place. I see Jay McCain sitting here this morning. Jay and I. The Lord spoke to my heart that he had a place for us picked out. And we were meeting in home groups at that time. We had four home groups going and different houses. And the Lord gave us a date of March 29 to start meeting publicly. And he said, I have a place for you to meet. Oh, well, praise God. So I was sitting in the open door in my little office, just waiting for the phone to ring. I don't know if I had a phone the first month or two, waiting for someone to come and knock on the door. It didn't happen. So Jay and I, on his days off, we'd drive up and down on Route 19, stopping in at places. We stopped at the old Oldsmobile dealer. We went all the way out to the Whale's Tail in Cranberry. Every fire hall. Is this the place? God had promised that he'd give us a place? And I remember both he and I were wondering. It looks real slim here. God. March 21, the people that we know as the Bradleys moved into this building and said, well, I guess you can come in here. When do you want to start? How about next Sunday? We were the first client that they had in this building. But we didn't just get it dropped in our laps. We had to go and knock. We had to go and search, seek out the vision that God had. Obstacles will come. They will come. When you hear God speak, don't expect it just to fall open before you. I need to say this. Sometimes the obstacles come for you to recognize that you haven't heard God. Ever have that happen? When you say, I think the Lord's saying this, and you try 15 different ways to make it work, and it doesn't work. Well, God might be saying, that's not what I was trying to do. If you try this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, and it doesn't work unless you know it was the Lord. I'd just say, well, wait a minute, I've got to back up. Reconsider that. But look at this, beloved. The obstacles that come are not just the external giants. Look what else happened. Verse 1 of chapter 14. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel murmured against Moses And Aaron and the whole congregation and said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness. Why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall by this sword? And our wives and our little ones, you see, the family gets brought into this will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And I want you to see that they're not only external obstacles, but they're internal ones. Fear. Fear. If I press on, what might happen to me? What might I lose? What about my family? I might die. And not necessarily die physically, but die in terms of things that I want to see happen. Both the external obstacles and the internal fears. Beloved, those are human nature things. Those are things that we deal with by choice. Only the strictest obedience to the word of the Lord will victor over those things. You choose to go on with God and deal with that fear, or you just choose to wallow in it. But there's a third kind of obstacle, and it's another story. And it's seen in those same verses. It's the sin of unbelief. It's not a battle, in that case, you see, of making the flesh come under. It's a battle of repentance. It's not believing God. The Israelites murmured and complained, the Bible says. And this was sort of the last of a lot of murmurings. You know, something. Murmuring takes a lot of different forms. Complaining to God comes out a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's just out and out. Oh, I don't want to do that. God, this is ridiculous. What are you asking of me? Other times it's just sort of the questioning, like, well, I don't know that they really understand the whole story, God, or I don't think they've thought through all the implications. And we start making a way for God to sort of hedge his command to us. You know what I'm saying? Our complainings come in a lot of rationalizations. We murmur by saying, well, God, not everyone is where you are. Not everybody sees it the way you do. And I want to say to you that is a destructive spirit unbelief calls the character of God into question. Will he really provide when I step? Will he really make it happen? If I step out, will he be there? Is it worth it? Do I want to pay the price of getting the my heart enlarged to receive his vision? I learned two things about murmuring as I was studying this and complaining. Here's the first one. You'll always Find someone to agree with you if you find something wrong with the situation or the fellowship. If you go unwound enough, there's always going to be somebody saying, uh huh huh. Yep, yeah, I've seen that. That's true. Here it says, all the congregation murmured. And here's the second thing, and this is the one that's just really stopped me in my socks when I saw it. Turn over one page or whatever and look with me what the Lord says to them. Verse 28. Say to them, as I live, says the Lord. What you have said in my hearing, I will do. Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness church. Is it possible that God, if we complain and murmur and mumble, that God will give us the very things which we speak out against him? Is it possible that we could create and affect our own failings? That's what happened to the Israelites. There's a third principle of possessing God's provision. In order to possess the provision, you may have to stand alone. Turn back now to 14. Joshua and Caleb, of the 12 spies were the only two who believed that this was the land that God had given them. Look what they say, verse four. And they said to one another, let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt. They want to get another leader. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel, and Joshua the son of nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, rent their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we pass through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land which flows with milk and honey only do not rebel against the land. You see, they took their stand on the side of Moses and Aaron, the whole congregation, the majority of the spies, and Joshua and Caleb and Moses and Aaron standing alone. Have you ever made a decision for God because you believed he was calling you to something and nobody else agreed with? Just didn't. I'm not saying that you went to council and council, said, that's not the Lord, but rather you went to some others and said, well, this is what I think is happening. They say, no, no, it can't be that, can't be that. And then you go back to the Lord and the Lord says, this is what I want you to do. This is in fact my word. And then you say, well, I'm not sure I'm just not real sure what's going on. Beloved, you may have to stand alone. You may be the only one. Have you ever had someone say to you, you Christians, I believe in God and in Jesus, but why does he have to be the center of everything? Why does he have to. When you're playing cards and you get a good hand of cards, why do you say, praise the Lord? I didn't have an answer for that one. I had to say, I don't know. But why does Jesus have to be the center of everything? Because he is. And look what the Lord says about Joshua and Caleb. Flip over again. Verse 24. My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. You see, there's a different spirit about a man or a woman who gets a vision from God and moves ahead and God blesses it and honors it. All right. Finally, Moses intercedes for the people, and the Lord stays his hand and pardons the iniquity of the people. But the last principle is this, beloved. Because they refused to go ahead, because they murmured and complained, here's what happened. Principle 4. We need to recognize that to shrink back has profoundly negative consequences. There is no middle ground for the believer. There is no place of saying, well, I just want to stay here. Because, beloved, the story tells us very plainly that because they wouldn't go on, they were destroyed. That's an awesome thought. What does that mean to us today? I just think it means this. It's not that God wrenches your salvation away from you. It's just that you'll never become what God wants you to be. You'll never rise up and be the salt and the light and the fruit bearing fragrance of God in the earth. The church will never come to what God wants it to be. And I think that's as great a loss as anything I can imagine. Interestingly, if you read the end of the chapter 39 through 45, after they realized what had happened, what did they do? They said, oh, wait a minute, we're going to go ahead. We'll go ahead and get it. Look down there. They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, see, we are here. We're going to go to the place which the Lord promised church. It's a tragic thing when the word of the Lord is spoken and the summons is to go ahead and the church says no. Then when they realize the consequences, it's too Late and presumption moves in and they force the hand. And what happened to them? The Amalekites and the others in the hill country slaughtered them and off into the wilderness they went. What is the application then of this to us? This morning I look out in this assembly and the second service as well and I recognize this that God has called us to move on in the establishing of his kingdom. I believe that with all my heart. He's called you and you and you and each one of you to fulfill a destiny that he's given you. To be violent in dealing with the things inside of you that would keep you from moving on into the fulfillment of the promised land of God's will for your life. It will not happen. Church. It will not happen just because you call yourself a king's kid. It will not happen just because you go to North Way. It won't. It will only happen if each of you individually say, I want what God wants for me and I don't expect anyone else to do it but me. The responsibility of the leadership of this church is to discern what God's saying and call the church to come along. And that's another issue. Will you make room for the life that God wants to give. Or will you resist? Paul and Sandy are here this morning and they're parents of a lovely son that they adopted when God and he used this church to pray them through that whole situation. Right? Months and months and months of praying. But something happened in them that had to make room for that little baby. God wanted to give them life. He wanted something to break loose in them that would be fulfilling and fruitful. But I guarantee that they're sitting here today recognizing that there's been a cost. I see Paul running around keeping up with Timothy, putting this in him and on him and around him. I think he'd tell you that he's had to make a sacrifice. He's had to deal with some of his own desires. There have been times he hasn't been able to go out at night because didn't have anyone with the baby. There have been choices that Paul and Sandy have made to make room for that little life that God gave to them. So God gave it but they've had to take it and they've had to deal violently with their own desires. And it's not only or not always a joyful thing. Is it because we see our selfishness. There's nothing like a baby to remind us how self centered we can be. Church. God wants to give us new life, new Kingdoms. And it's up to us to deal with those things that would keep us from inheriting the promises. Let's pray. Lord, even to us, your church would receive the word, Lord, that we deal violently with the things that are within us as we pray now together for one another. I pray, Father, that ministry would happen, that we'd identify the obstacles. Or, Father, if we don't have a vision, that we pray and see that vision come forth in us, Lord, and that, Father God, we'd recognize that if we stand alone, even that, Lord is worth the cost in order to make room for the kingdom in our hearts. In Jesus. Name. Good morning. Praise the name of the Lord. Would you be seated for a moment? Welcome you this morning to worship and. To a time of coming before the. Presence of Almighty God. Wipe the sleep. Put your sheets down. Go ahead. Put them right down right now. Thank you. Put your coffee cups down right now. Put them down. I sometimes wonder if we recognize brothers and sisters and those of you who are with us this morning who are coming to visit, how important these first 10 minutes of our gathering are before God. We've gotten ourselves sort of into a pattern where it's easy for us to just kind of assume that, well, things don