Intro: One of my favorite animated films of all time is “Toy Story.” The 2 main characters in the story are Woody, a stuffed cowboy doll, and Buzz Light Year, who’s the latest and greatest action figure doll. Now my favorite of the two is Buzz Light Year. And the reason why is b/c he believes he’s a REAL hero and not a toy.
-But Woody comes along and begins to tell Buzz he’s not a hero, but he’s just a TOY! And as time goes on Buzz begins to realize that he’s not what he thought he was and it’s actually kind of depressing watching him become aware of his short comings, watching him realize the dream of who he thought he was not be a reality.
-Now obviously I didn’t get too depressed @ this part of the movie for a very simple reason. We all know that the idea of toys coming to life is just make believe. But I think there’s something @ Buzz that we can all relate to: and that is dreams that go unfulfilled in our lives.
-Today we’re continuing our series “Breaking Bad.” And the purpose of this series is to help us see how so many of us get to a place in life where we look back and wonder, “How in the world did I get here? This wasn’t a part of my plan for life!” Some of us as Xians have these same thoughts and wonder, “How did I end up controlled by this addiction in my life; how did I end up w/this broken marriage; or how come I feel so unfulfilled in my life?”
-Last week we examined King David in the OT who was known as a man after God’s own heart. And yet this godly man found himself very far away from God as he fell into adultery, lying, and murder. I guarantee you he didn’t envision that would be a turn he’d take in his life. This week we’re going to look at the dreams the Hebrew people had for themselves (actually it was the dream God had for them) and how those dreams, for a period of time, ended up on the trash heap.
Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see the typical journey of a people who had God-sized dreams come crashing down. And my hope is as we go thru this text we’ll discover how to move from living a life of destroyed dreams to a life of fulfilled dreams.
TEXT: NUMBERS 13: 26-33
Bckgrd: It’s important to understand the background of this text. Moses had led the Hebrews out of a 400 year Egyptian captivity. And during that time God had promised His people a land that would be their own. A promised land, a land flowing w/milk and honey. All they had to do was take the land and it would be theirs.
-Well, as the Hebrews got to the very edge of the Promised Land they sent out 12 spies to scout the land and tell people what they saw. And it’s in these verses that we read their report, and we discover the majority of the spies are ready to let the dream of having their own land die on the vine.
-Now what was the cost of them not being ready to take what God was giving them? The cost was a dream unrealized; the cost was not taking possession of a land that would be their very own.
-God is so generous. Jesus tells us in John 10: 10, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” He then tells us in Matt. 6: 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” Those are some seriously strong promises from God. Yet very few people find an “abundant” life! Why is that? B/c very few people are seeking the things of God FIRST in their life and the result is we go thru life w/unfulfilled dreams.
-The story we’ll examine today gives us a picture of the typical journey to broken dreams. The 1st part of the journey begins with:
1: DOUBTING THE DREAM (vv. 26-27)
Exp: God first shared the dream of His people having their own homeland to Abraham. In Gen. 12: 1-3 God told Abraham, “Go out from your land, your relatives and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you w/contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed thru you.”
A.Over and over again the Lord reiterated His promise to His people that He had a land where they would establish their own nation. So finally, when it’s time for it to happen, the people come to the edge of the Promised Land and Moses tells them in Deut. 1: 21, “See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
1.Here’s where the journey to a dream fulfilled begins to unravel. It’s like Moses is standing on the edge and he yells out “CHARGE!” but no one follows him. Instead, they tell him in Deut. 1: 22, “Let’s send men ahead of us, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report @ the route we should go up and the cities we will come to.”
a.Here’s my question. Why? Now you can say, “That seems pretty prudent to me. It’s always a good idea to have a plan of action. It’s always a good idea to THINK before you ACT!” I get it! I’m all for being prepared, but it’s not like the Hebrews hadn’t been prepared for this day!
b.God had been demonstrating to the people while they were in slavery that all He wanted was for them to trust and follow Him and then He’d provide a way. They didn’t get out of Egypt b/c they made great plans. God miraculously pulled it off! He sent plagues, He split the Red Sea wide open for His people to cross, He drowned the Egyptian army, and then He showed Himself as a pillar of fire during the night and a cloud of smoke during the day for the people to follow!
2.At this point you’d think the people would be like, “Let’s get this ball rolling! Let’s cross over and see what God’s going to do!” But when they got to the edge, they stopped. Their trust in God and His promises began to slip and doubt began to creep in.
a.They were asking Moses to send out their tribal leaders to investigate the land first. Let me tell you something. The land didn’t need to be investigated. Why? B/c God had already promised them it was theirs! The land needed to be conquered! God had already assured them victory!
b.The dreams that are worth pursuing are the ones God’s behind! Where we get into trouble is when we substitute God’s dreams w/our own! The Hebrews had a dream of living in peace where no one would bother them. I get that! Think @ it. After 400 years of slavery they were ready for a break. But when they looked into the new land they knew the people already living there weren’t going to open their borders and say, “Come on in! Take over our country!”
B.To experience real peace meant there was some battles to be fought. But the key was that God had already promised them victory. Their plan was to forego God’s dream of them having their own place, and continue to wander in the wilderness and be a displaced people.
1.We have similar challenges that the Hebrew people had. I believe we naturally want to live joyful and peaceful lives. But sometimes we look at the action plan God gives us for living, as provided by Scripture, and we think, “That’s too demanding!” So we try to work around God’s plan by installing our own plan that we think will have the same results but will be easier.
a.So we see people going after their own route of happiness w/premarital sex, w/cutting corners in our integrity, by seeking to get our pound of flesh when we’ve been wronged, and you can fill in the rest. What’s the result of that? It doesn’t bring the desired results! We simply become a displaced people who can’t find satisfaction.
b.It reminds me of Ps. 95: 7-11, “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice: ‘Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness where your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they had seen what I did. for 40 years I was disgusted w/that generation: I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My anger, ‘They will not enter My rest.’”
2.That sounds cruel. It’s as though God’s saying, “If you don’t follow Me I’m going to make you pay!” But that’s really not it. It’s that a life lived a part from the leadership of God naturally is destructive.
ILLUS: Take food for example. We all know what we need to eat in order to maintain a healthy body. Eat vegetables, fruits, and protein in moderation. Avoid eating more than 7 donuts at church and drinking a 6 pack of Cokes before lunch. But what do most people do? We skirt around a healthy diet and seek to get FILLED by stuff that instantly gratifies our cravings! And that stuff typically is harmful! A poor diet leads to jamming our bodies w/food that’s NOT good for us! weight gain, increased chance for heart disease, sluggishness and more!
a.As the people bypassed God’s direction to seeing their dreams fulfilled, they ended up on a path where their dreams died!
Reit: The 1st part of the journey that leads to broken dreams is doubting the dream. The 2nd part of the journey that leads to broken dreams is:
2: ONLY SEEING OBSTACLES (vv. 28-29)
Exp: The Hebrews had a great dream...being free in their OWN land! I’m sure it was a lot of fun for them to think @. Up to this point they weren’t WANDERING in the wilderness. They had left Egypt and made a bee line to the Promised Land. God had shown them He was w/them in numerous, miraculous ways! But then as they got to the Promised Land, the doubts began to creep in. The “What ifs” began to take control.
A.It’s real easy for me to look at this whole deal and think, “These people are absolutely ridiculous! How could they doubt at this point?” But when I’m real honest w/myself I do the same thing. I can’t tell you how many times my life has been eaten up by the “What ifs”. A few weeks ago I had some things going on physically that threw me for a loop. I called my brother in law, who’s a doctor, and he told me, “I’m 99.9% sure this is what’s going on. It’s no big deal.”
1.Do you think I found comfort in that? Nope! Guess what my focus was on. It was on the 0.1%! And I lived in misery until everything my brother in law said was confirmed. This is what the Hebrews did! They began to think, “What if what God promised isn’t accurate?” So they sent the spies to investigate the land that God had already promised would be theirs!
a.And 10 of the 12 spies didn’t rejoice in what they saw in the Promised Land. Instead of focusing on the promise, instead of focusing on the fact that the land was good, they focused on the obstacles! What were the obstacles? They started off by saying the people who were living there were strong. Not only that, but they said some of the people living there were related to the Anakites.
b.Obviously that doesn’t mean much to us. But it meant a lot to the people at this time. The Anakites were a scary group of people b/c of their size. They were thought to be descended from a race of giants. So there were some giants living in the land and the cities were well fortified. The people became so overwhelmed w/the potential problems that they began to lose heart in what God had called them to do. More than that, it caused them to lose sight of their God!
2.Listen. There are some BIG, SCARY obstacles in life. But you know what? God’s bigger than all those obstacles! Rom. 8: 38-39, “in all these things we are more than victorious thru Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
a.It’s only when we take our eyes off Jesus that we find the obstacles in life short-circuiting God’s intentions for us.
ILLUS: This reminds me of the story of Peter and the disciples when they were on a boat in the middle of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus came walking out on the water towards them during the storm to calm them. Remember what Peter did? He said, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you.” And Jesus told him to come on and Peter got out of the boat and walked on water!
-How cool is that? But the text goes on to say that Peter took his eyes off Jesus and started paying attention to the waves. What happened next? He began to sink! While his eyes were on Jesus, he walked on water! He was able to walk OVER the storm. But when he took his focus off Jesus, the obstacles overwhelmed him.
b.When the Hebrews kept their eyes on the path God laid out for them, they were able to walk ABOVE the storms of life. But as soon as their focus shifted to the obstacles, the storms of life started to overwhelm them.
B.Folks, when God puts a dream before us, when He lays out how He desires us to live, our job is to keep our eyes on what He’s called us to do and not worry @ the obstacles that stand in the way. It comes down to us putting our faith in who God is. It comes down to us trusting that when God calls us to follow Him that His path is the best path for us.
Reit: The 1st part of the journey that leads to broken dreams is doubting the dream. The 2nd part is only seeing obstacles. And the final part of the journey that leads to broken dreams is:
3: PARALYZING FEAR (vv. 31-33)
Exp: The dream was sitting before the Hebrew people. The land was theirs for the taking. But the spies came back w/reports of big, strong people; of cities that were well fortified. And their report led them to say, “We can’t go up against the people b/c they are stronger than we are!”
A.Their fear became so strong that it paralyzed them to putting into action the plan to secure their dream. They ended up doing what most of us do. They started making excuses as to why they weren’t going after their dream. They started off by saying, “These people are strong!” Then they moved to talking @ how the dream of the Promised Land really wasn’t all that great.
1.If you look in v. 32 they said the land devoured its inhabitants. Before they said it was a land flowing w/milk and honey. Now they were saying, “The land is so rough it kills the people who live there!” Then they said, “Besides! Look at us! We’re just like grasshoppers.” In other words, we’re inconsequential. We have no business going after something so grand!
a.Fear is the greatest enemy to our dreams. Now fear is something all of us experience. But when we allow it to have control over us it paralyzes us to a point of inaction. Fear caused the Hebrew people to forget God was on their side. And as Rom. 8: 31 says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
b.The Hebrews became so dominated by fear that they forgot God was on their side. And their fear moved them to inaction. What was the result? They spent the next 40 years missing out on God’s blessings as they turned back into the wilderness w/no place to go.
2.Xians, VillageChurch, right now we stand on the edge of the Promised Land. God has promised His people He will be w/them. He’s promised us a life of hope and meaning. He’s promised us a better life than what the world offers. And yet too many of us become fearful that we’re going to miss out on real life if we go after God’s leading.
a.For some reason we tend to think that if we follow after God’s leadership that we’re going to end up getting short-changed in life! So we allow ourselves to go after the pleasures of this world thinking that’s a safer route. We’re afraid to speak @ Jesus w/other people b/c we don’t want to offend anyone when it’s even more offensive not to share the greatest news of all...that God can redeem, forgive and provide hope for eternal life!
b.Why is it so easy to make choices that run contrary to what God commands? B/c we become fearful! B/c we forget who we are in Jesus! Let me give an example.
ILLUS: An African man, as he was walking on the street, saw a black cat crossing over the road. He thought to himself that he was going to have bad luck on that day. Worried about seeing a black cat he asked his friend what would be his fate because of the black cat he saw in the morning. His friend replied, "Well, that will depend on whether you are a rat or not." The lesson in the story is this. Know who you are in Christ and you will not fear.
Conclusion: The greatest dream you can have in your life is to be who God has designed you to be. Now I’m going to be honest w/you. This doesn’t mean that seeking after God’s leadership is easy. Jesus was very plain @ this. He said in Luke 9: 23, “If anyone wants to come w/Me, he must deny himself take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
-Is it worth it? Listen to what Jesus said in vv. 24-25. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life b/c of Me will save it. What is a man benefited if he gains the whole world, yet loses or forfeits himself?”
-Are you ready to start pursuing the dream? Do you desire to see real dreams realized? Then let me encourage you to pray this prayer after me: Dear Jesus, I’m tired of living in fear. I want to live in the assurance of who you are. Today I’m placing my hope and trust in you. Forgive me of my sins. I turn away from them. I believe in you, the Risen Savior, and ask you to be my Lord and Savior.
