Facing the Giants
“A Risk Worth Taking”
Numbers 13:17-33
In his autobiography, Just as I am, Billy Graham tells about a conversation he had with JFK shortly after Kennedy was elected president. On te way back to the Kennedy house, Kennedy stopped the car and turned to Dr. Graham. He looked at him in the eye and said do you believe in the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. Graham replied I most certainly do. Kennedy said well does my church believe it? Graham said it is written in your creeds. Kennedy said well they don’t preach it. They don’t tell us much about it. I’d like to know what you think.
Graham explained what the Bible says about Jesus coming the first time, how he lived his life, his death on the cross, his resurrection and how he then promised that He would come again. And he said then and only then will we have true world peace. Kennedy said that’s very interesting...he began to look away and he said we’ll have to talk about that someday. And he drove on.
Several years later the two of them met again, this time at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1963. Dr. Graham said I remember I had the flu, so after I gave a short talk and the president gave his and then we walked out of the hotel to his car. At the curb, Kennedy turned to Dr. Graham and said Billy could you ride back to the white house with me? It was a cold, snowy day and he said I was freezing as i stood there without my coat. On top of that Dr. Graham was running a fever and feeling pretty weak. He said Mr. President I don’t feel well and I don’t want to pass this along to you... couldn’t we wait and talk some other time? Kennedy graciously said of course...
we’ll talk another time.
But the two of them would never meet again. Later that same year Kennedy was assassinated. Billy Graham says this....his hesitation at the car door and his request to talk with me...those things still haunt me. What was on his mind? What was he thinking? Should I have gone with him? He said it was an irrevocable moment.
Would you agree with me that all of us have moments like that ? They may not seem as dramatic, they certainly don’t involve the president but nonetheless they are moments in our life when we find ourselves at a crossroads and the decision we make at that moments changes us forever. Every one of us experience moments like that. Moments in which the future of our family stands in the balance, relationships with friends are in danger and opportunities can be forever lost.
I believe that is where Eagle’s landing is today. Let’s face it. There are some opportunities that when we miss them we simply do not get a 2nd chance to go back to them. They go away. The opportunity dies, someone else picks it up and we lose out. Having said all of that I believe that with all of my heart that God has blessed this church. We have seen 143 people give their lives to Christ and be baptized. We have seen small groups for discipleship emerge and people are getting involved. We have seen people in our own congregation healed of illnesses for which their doctors did not offer very much hope. We have had a vision of reaching this area for Christ. But here’s the thing...I am not sure we have taken enough risk. I am afraid that we stand in danger of becoming complacent and satisfied with things as they are.
In the book of Numbers chapter 13 we find an interesting story. It is a story of risk vs fear and it goes something like this...the Israelites were wandering around in the wilderness and they had been for years so they were becoming very tired and weary. Their goal was to get into the “promised land” but it was not going very well. So they selected 12 men as spies to go and look at the land....Canaan. Here are the instructions they were given....verse 18-20.
The report they brought back was a mixed report. The fruit they found was incredible. The land flowed with milk and honey. It’s hard to imagine how inviting this must have looked to the men who had been wandering around in a lonely desert for almost 40 years. So for 40 days the spies wandered over the entire land of Canaan. The report however that they brought back was a mixed one. Verses 27-28. They were frightened about the giants but at the same time they were excited about the resources that were there.
Caleb, who was really God’s man for the hour steps up and says we should go and take possession of this land and I think that he had 2 simple reasons in mind (1) we should go and take possession because we certainly CAN do it. In other words it is possible. (2) Then from all that they had seen, a land that is attractive, that has so many possibilities, it will certainly be worth it. This is a land worth taking. I believe that you and i live in a land, an area that is worth taking. It may not be flowing with milk and honey, but it still is the land that God has promised to us. And it is a land worth taking.
In 1858 a scientific expedition passed through what we now call the Grand Canyon. A young lieutenant by the name of Ives made this entry in his report: the region we explored is completely without value. It can be approached only from the south and after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours has been the first and doubtless will be the last to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended that the Colorado River will be forever unvisited and undisturbed.
Obviously they did not appreciate the value of the Grand Canyon. Rather than being the last man to visit it, he was actually the first. But he had no vision. And we are often the same way. We give up too easy...we never take risk. Many times it is because of obstacles that stand in the way, obstacles that we do not believe we have the power to move and if we would admit it, it is because of our lack of faith...there are obstacles out there that we don’t believe that God can move either.
Verse 28 tells us that the land of Canaan was heavily fortified. Verse 28. So the Israelites were overwhelmed. The scriptures say that they even saw the descendants of Anak. They are related to the Nephilim. These were giants.....a whole group of people much like Goliath. And they were so big that they felt they had no chance.
There were 12 spies in this group, 1 that had been sent out to inspect the land....10 of them said, No way! So the majority report was that no way would tey go into Canaan. They turned down the promised land.
Here is how they described them. Verses 31-33.
(1) THEY ARE STRONGER THAN WE ARE
(2) THE LAND WILL DEVOUR ALL OF THOSE WHO LIVE IN IT
(3) ALL THE PEOPLE ARE OF GREAT SIZE
(4) WE SEEMED LIKE GRASSHOPPERS IN OUR OWN EYES
(5) THEY THOUGHT WE LOOKED LIKE GRASSHOPPERS ALSO
Now here is what I would call the path to defeat. There is a path to defeat and there is a path to victory. Here is how the path to defeat works.
(1) Decide to stand still....to remain right where you are. This is a crucial step because it is this step that leads us right down the path to defeat. We have 2 options here....we can (1) take a risk or (2) we can run away. These men decided to run away.
(2) Exaggerate the difficulty of your situation. Things are not always as bad as they seem at the outset. Typically all of us exaggerate certain situations. And the key player here is this thing called fear. The spies were very afarid.
(3) Forget how big God is and focus on how big the enemy is. They had seen Moses bring water out of a rock in the desert, the Red Sea parted, manna/food rained down from heaven but all of that they had forgotten and all they could say was “all the people there are too big!”
(4) Expect the worst. They said the land devours alll of those who live in it. If we go in we will surely die.
(5) Act small. They said we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. So the battle was lost before they even stepped into the land.
(6) Tell yourself that other people feel the same way as you do. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them. At this point we have sealed our fate and we are defeated.
Years ago Zig Ziglar, a motivational speaker wrote a book titled See you at the Top. In the book he shares a story about how to train fleas. Yes fleas. He says you do it by placing them in a jar. They will jump out of course. So you put a lid on it. The will then jump and hit the lid over and over again. Then an interesting things happens. The fleas continue to jump but they no longer jump as high. Then ad it’s a matter of record, you can take the lid off and though they will continue to jump, the won’t jump out of the jar. They can’t. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high. Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that’s all they can do. It is what Zig Ziglar refers to as stinkin’ thinking. Fears sets in and we run, we drop back.
Let me leave this thought with you this morning. Your personal ability to take a risk will be determined by what holds your attention. That is the way it is for me...it is the way it is for you and that is the way it is for the church.
If you want to be distressed...look within. We usually do not like what we see.
If you want to be defeated...look back. Look at the past.
If you want to be distracted.....look around at all the obstacles.
If you want to be dynamic...look to God.
What do you want?
