Fear or Faith?

Fear or Faith?

Matt Turrigiano

I. Introduction

A. Numbers 13:1-2 (NASB) ¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ²“Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.”

B. Numbers 13:26-31 (NIV) ²⁶They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” ³⁰Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” ³¹But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

C. Numbers 13:30-31 (NLT) ³⁰But 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!” ³¹But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”

II. What Are the That We’re Moving Backward in ?

A. We our .

1. Despite Jesus’ clear command, we make because of .

2. is always an of fear.

B. We the .

1. Numbers 13:31-33 (NIV) ³¹But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³²And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

III. The Answer Is to Our Future With .

A. Numbers 13:1-2 (NIV) ¹The Lord said to Moses, ²“Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

1. When we choose to move forward in faith, we our .

B. We seeing God’s present .

1. Numbers 13:23-27 (NIV) ²³When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. ²⁵At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. ²⁶They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.”

IV. Conclusion