“Entering the Promised land”
July 10, 2005
“Two of the spies, Joshua (the son of Nun), and Caleb (the son of Jephunneh), … said to all the people, "It is a wonderful country ahead, and the Lord loves us. He will bring us safely into the land and give it to us. It is very fertile, a land ’flowing with milk and honey’! Oh, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land. For they are but bread for us to eat! The Lord is with us and he has removed his protection from them! Don’t be afraid of them!"
Num 14:6-9 (Living)
I want you to understand the background of this incident. God’s people had lost favor with the rulers of Egypt and had become their slaves for hundreds of years. No one was left alive who had seen Joseph as the leader of Egypt - second in command only to Pharaoh, himself. They only experienced life as slaves. They were looked down upon and mistreated and abused. To be a Jew or and Israelite was not considered a blessing by most people.
But God had left them with promises- wonderful promises that they could build their hope on. Promises of freeing them from slavery and giving them a land that flowed with milk and honey. That doesn’t mean that much to us - but to a people who lived on leaks and onions and garbage that other people didn’t want - it was a tremendous promise. To a people who had no sugar, no flower, no milk - nothing sweet or good - it was a fantastic promise! Their daily fare was bland and plain with very little spices or condiments to make it tasty. If they had enough gruel to dispel the hunger pangs - they were doing good. A cup of dirty river water was all they had to wash it down with.
Don’t you think that a nice cup of cool milk would have been heaven to them? Don’t you think some honey over that grain cereal would have been wonderful to them? It reminds me a little bit of when I was in Korea. The only milk we had was powdered and to someone raised on raw milk that floated with speaks of cream - it was pretty awful! I couldn’t drink it!
And to someone raised on Mom’s home cooking, the mess hall wasn’t too appealing. It was usually pretty bland and tasteless. And often we would sit around and talk about what we would eat when we got back to the ‘world’, as we called it. We would make our mouths water as we talked about all our delicious favorite foods. These people probably saw some of their slave masters eating delicacies and rich deserts and longed for some of their own. Then someone would mention God promised them their very own land that flowed with milk and dripped with honey. What a promised to place your hope in! What a great promise to build up hope.
I want you to know that God promises you a land that flows with milk and honey, too. Listen to what the prophet says,
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11 (Living)
This promise is not just for the Jews. I believe this promise is for all God’s people. This promise is for you. 1. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Before you were born, God had plans for you. King David says,
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous--and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book! How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!
Psalms 139:13-17 (Living)
Paul said,
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Do you understand that before you were even born, God had plans for your life. I think He had a plan ‘a’ and a plan ‘b’ and probably a lot of other plans. Maybe you are
working on plan “m” or ‘T’ right now. But that point is that God loves you. He thinks about you constantly! And He has such tremendous plans for you. He wants to take you to the promised land - right now. He has a much better life for you right now - right here! Listen.
"When I, the Messiah, shall sit upon my glorious throne in the Kingdom, you my disciples shall certainly sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And anyone who gives up his home, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, or property, to follow me, shall receive a hundred times as much in return, and shall have eternal life. Matt 19:28-29 (Living)
“And Jesus replied, "Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything--home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or property--for love of me and to tell others the Good News, who won’t be given back, a hundred times over, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land--with persecutions! "All these will be his here on earth, and in the world to come he shall have eternal life.”
Mark 10:29-30 (Living)
Do you understand that there are tremendous promises for us right now - in this life? There is a promised land for you - now. Jesus promises if we live sacrificially for Him - we will receive so much more than we give up, so much more than we surrender, and it will be in this life - here on earth! I don’t know if it will be health, marriage, finances, relationships or what. But I believe God has tremendous promises for you - a promised land for you right now - right here - in this life. And He longs for you to enter into this blessed place.
2. Jesus also wants to free us from the slavery we are in. We are slaves. We are addicted and enslaved to sin. We are born rebellious. The bible says,
“We--every one of us--have strayed away like sheep! We left God’s paths to follow our own.” Isaiah 53:6 (Living)
“Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal” Romans 3:23 (Living)
We are born into slavery. We are born into sin. We are born addicted to the wrong things - self destructive things. But God wants to free us. Just as he longed to free the children of Israel - He longs to free us. He says,
“The thief ’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:10-11 (Living)
“He personally carried the load of our sins in his own body when he died on the cross so that we can be finished with sin and live a good life from now on. For his wounds have healed ours! Like sheep you wandered away from God, but now you have returned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls who keeps you safe from all attacks.” 1 Peter 2:24-25 (Living)
Jesus’ purpose is to give us life - abundant life. Life that flows with milk and honey. He came to heal us and enable us to life a holy life. The Word says,
“For the power of the life-giving Spirit--and this power is mine through Christ Jesus--has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death. We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours--except that ours are sinful--and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.” Romans 8:2-4 (Living)
Are you following me so far? I want you to know…
I. God loves you.
1. He has a wonderful plan for your life.
2. He wants to free you from sin and self-destructive addictions
3. God wants to take you to the land of abundance right now.
Most of us are not experiencing the abundance we could have. The abundance God has planned for us. Most of us are still wandering around in the wilderness instead of enjoying the land flowing with milk and honey. Why do you think that is? Well, what kept the children of Israel out of the land? Let me suggest a couple of things.
First, unbelief. They didn’t believe Moses was send from God. They didn’t believe that God gave them that land. They didn’t believe God would help them take the land. They were just unbelieving. Consequently, they had no faith.
Do you remember the formula for faith? God gives us His promise. That inspires hope, then faith is the substance of things hoped for. We believe, trust and act on that hope. God gave the promises. Those promises inspired hope - but they didn’t believe. They didn’t
trust God. They didn’t act. Consequently, the promises was not realized. The land flowing with milk and honey was enjoyed by others.
Is someone else enjoy YOUR promised land because of unbelief? Maybe you don’t believe God could love someone like you. Maybe you don’t believe you are worthy to enter the promised land. Maybe you don’t believe that the abundant life is for you. You will never enjoy the land of milk and honey until you believe it’s for you.
Secondly, another thing that kept them out of the promised land was a love for other things. Other gods. Remember the golden calf? What’s your golden calf? Money? Your job? Pleasure? Drugs or alcohol? What do you love more than God? If you have to choose between doing God will and this other thing - you choose this other thing. That’s your golden calf. Moses burned up that calf and ground it into powder. We need to completely do away with out calves - at least in our minds and lives.
A Third thing that kept God’s people out of the Promised Land was rebellion. They simply wanted to do their own thing and go their own way. It cost them the Promised Land. They all died in the wilderness. Only the children were able to enter the Promised Land. Rebellion even kept Moses, the preacher, out of the Promised Land.
If there is any rebellion in your heart - get rid of it. God says,
“Come, let’s talk this over, says the Lord; no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool! If you will only let me help you, if you will only obey, then I will make you rich!:”
Isaiah 1:18-19 (Living)
Let me conclude by sharing with you what we need to do to enjoy all the blessings God has for us in this life. First, believe. Jesus said,
“…to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust him to save them.” John 1:12 (Living)
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (Living)
"I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life.”
John 5:24 (Living)
The first thing we must do is simply believe. The second thing we need to do is to turn from rebellion. Jesus says,
"If you love me, obey me; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, and he will never leave you.” John 14:15 (Living)
“The one who obeys me is the one who loves me; and because he loves me, my Father will love him; and I will too, and I will reveal myself to him." John 14:21 (Living)
There is no other way - but to trust and obey. God doesn’t ask us to agree with Him in everything; He doesn’t ask us to know everything; He doesn’t ask us to want to do everything He wants us to. He does ask us to obey, though. We must be willing to obey in spite of how things may appear. It may seem like He is asking the impossible of us. Our obstacles may see like giants and we may appear to be grasshoppers. The job may seem to be way too big for us. God asks us to obey anyway.
What’s God asking you to do? Is it too much? Obey anyway. Rebellion is not an option if you want to enter into God’s blessings.
A third thing we need to do is to accept in faith what God has given us. Satan is a false accuser. He will tell you that you aren’t worthy. He will say those blessing are for others. Just accept in faith and gratitude the promise that God has a blessed place of abundance for you. Like the prodigal son, we eat out of the slop bucket with the pigs, when we were created for more. We can live in the castle; we can live in the mansion rather than the pig pen - if we will just accept God’s promises.
One last thing. The fourth thing we need to do to enter the promised life of
abundance is to believe that God will help us with the impossible giants in our life. To the majority of the Children of Israel the people who occupied their promised land looked like giants. They didn’t believe that they could defeat them. And on their own - they couldn’t. But with God’s help - it was a piece of cake. God sent hornets ahead of them to drive out some of the giants. He enlisted some other armies to help with others. He gave supernatural strength to still others. But to those who dared to believe - with God’s help - every giant was defeated.
The same is true in your life. That giant addiction is simple to overcome - with God’s help. Whether it is food, drugs or alcohol - it’s a piece of cake with God’s help. That financial giant you are facing? A piece of cake with God on your side. Heath problems? Jesus is the great physician. Unemployment? Car problems? Marriage? Relationship problems? It’s a piece of cake when God’s on your side.
This week would you remember that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. God has plans to bless you and prosper you. Would you remember that He has a promised land that flows with milk and honey for you. He wants abundance and blessing in your life. Don’t continue to wander aimlessly in the wilderness. Be strong and courageous. Go and kill those giants! Go and take that land. It’s yours for the taking. That’s a promise!
