What Is Your Jack Story?
Scripture: Numbers 13:25-33; Proverbs 18:21; Hebrews 11:1
The title of my message this morning is “What Is Your Jack Story?”
Let me start by telling you a jack story. “There was a traveling salesman who got stuck one night on a lonely country road with a flat tire and no jack. So he starts walking towards a service station about a mile away, and as he walks, he begins talking to himself. ‘How much can he charge me for renting a jack?’ he thinks. ‘One dollar, maybe two. But it’s the middle of the night, so maybe there’s an after-hours fee. Probably another five dollars. If he’s anything like my brother-in-law, he’ll figure I got no place else to go for the jack, so he’s cornered the market and has me at his mercy so he’ll probably charge me ten dollars more.’ He goes on walking and thinking, and the price and his anger keep rising. Finally, he gets to the service station where he is greeted cheerfully by the owner. ‘What can I do for you, sir?’ But the salesman will have none of it. He responded, ‘You got some nerve to talk to me, you robber! You thought I was stupid enough to let you take advantage of my unfortunate situation and pay that amount to rent your jack? You can keep it!!!’ After making the statement he stormed off back down the road from whence he came.”
As you listened to that story, could you relate to the salesman? The salesman had a flat tire and he did not have a jack available to change it. At this point, he could wait by his car and hope that another car comes by with a jack or he could walk to the nearest service station to rent one. He chose to walk to the nearest service station. As he set out towards the service station to rent the jack, something happened. He began to create a story in his mind about what would happen when he reached the service station. Notice I said he created a story about what “would” happen versus what “could” happen. The story he created was so real to him that by the time he actually got to the service station he was so furious with the owner and accused him of trying to rob him and refused any sort of help the owner could give him. Can you imagine the bewilderment on the face of the station owner after the salesman marched back down the road cursing at him for trying to rob him?
I share this story with you because some of us might be dealing with our own “jack” story this morning. I don’t know about you, but I have had times when the story I created in my head was more powerful and convincing than the reality that I was facing. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is when we share our created story with others and it becomes their story too. Do you remember the story of the twelve spies? This is a very familiar story but I think it illustrates how a “jack story” can have dangerous consequences. Turn to Numbers 13:25-33. To set the stage, Moses had sent out twelve spies to look over the Promised Land so that they could see that it was everything that God had said it would be. He did this as a means to “fire up” the people so that they would be ready to go in and possess the land. But what he had hoped would happen didn’t happen because ten of the spies, between seeing the land and returning to Moses with their report, had created “jack stories” that scared the people. Let’s begin reading at verse twenty-five.
“(25) And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. (26) And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. (27) And they told him, and said, ‘We came unto the land where you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. (28) Nevertheless the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. (29) The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.’ (30) And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.’ (31) But the men that went up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.’ (32) And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’” (Numbers 13:25-33)
When the spies returned, they confirmed that the land was everything that God had promised to them. But, in their fear, they created “jack stories” of how impossible it would be for them to go in and take the land. They talked about how big the people were and how vast the land was. In truth, they were afraid and had totally forgotten about the reality that God was the One doing the heavy lifting for them. After Caleb immediately jumped in and said that they should go up immediately and possess the land, the other ten spies began creating another narrative talking about how difficult the land was. As their fears rose within them they created another narrative to explain why they believed they could not take the land. They said in verse thirty-two that the land “eats up its inhabitants.” Most scholars believe that what the ten spies were trying to convey was that because of the environment it would be hard for the people to live there – that many would die. In their hearts, after spending years in bondage in Egypt, their confidence in themselves was lost. You see, according to their report, on the one hand the land flowed with milk and honey (meaning prosperity) while on the other hand the environment was so harsh that it consumed (killed) the inhabitants living in it and only the strongest survived. It appears that they were seeking any excuse possible to make their case to not go up and take the land. In verse thirty-three, they confessed what truly caused them to fear and create “jack stories” as to why they could not take the land. In short, they were afraid of the inhabitants. They said, “….there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” They said that they became grasshopper in their own sight! In other words they looked at the people of the land and then compared those people to themselves and they believed within their hearts that they were lesser – in strength, power and ability to overtake the land. Because they believed they could not take the land, their focus now was on staying alive. Imagine for a moment what would have happened if they had tried to take the land with this mindset. Imagine how scared they would have fought because, in their minds the battle was already lost. God did not force them to take the land. He allowed them to make their decision which led to the children of Israel walking away from God’s promise, the Promised Land, into the wilderness, the rejection of that promise.
Now you might be wondering why I called this specific story out. The reason is simple. God had delivered them mightily out of Egypt. They witnessed what He did and how He did it. They had firsthand experience with God doing exactly what He said he would do. But their fear caused them to create two “jack stories” in their minds defeating them before the battle ever took place. They had talked themselves out of believing God even though they had witnessed what He had done to the Egyptians. Fear is a primary driver of the jack stories we create in our minds – whether it’s about not getting or achieving something to not believing that God truly has your back. Fear drives us to create jack stories. Fear takes a situation and becomes the pen that writes a story on our minds of an outcome that is not in our favor. Fear then takes that written story, records it, and then plays it repeatedly in our minds until that story becomes our new reality. When that story becomes our new reality, then just like the salesman in the jack story, we reach a point where we are operating on what the story tells us versus what is actually happening around us. In other words, we bring that story to life.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” You have heard this verse many times. You know that it means that our words, how we think and what we say, carry power. They carry the power of both death and life. If you are creating a jack story like the salesman did, where he knew the service station owner was going to raise his prices and stick it to him so he chose not to let that happen, you are creating death in a situation that is actually killing the life that’s waiting for you. The twelve spies had God working for them and ten of them chose to create a jack story that was the opposite of the life they were currently living. Think about it, they were living in the grace and power of God every day since leaving Egypt and yet they created and sold a story of absolute fear and failure. And what happened? They never got to enter the Promised Land. They said they couldn’t and they didn’t. Their children did. The adults who refused to go in when God led them there initially never made it in.
This brings to mind what we refer to as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you were to look up this definition, you would find that a self-fulfilling prophecy is the “psychological phenomenon of someone ‘predicting’ or expecting something, and subsequently the person’s resulting behaviors align to fulfill the belief, and as such this ‘prediction’ or expectation coming true simply because the person believes or anticipates it will.” It suggests that people’s beliefs influence their actions. The principle behind this phenomenon is that people create consequences regarding people or events, based on previous knowledge of the subject. When you read this definition for what it says: a psychological phenomenon of someone expecting and receiving something because they believed it, doesn’t it sound just like it could also apply to faith? I mean this is exactly what Hebrews 11:1 says faith is, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So by definition, walking in faith is the same as walking in the psychological phenomenon of predicting or expecting something and subsequently our resulting behaviors align to fulfill the belief and the expectation coming true simply because we believe it will. New Light, a self-fulfilling prophecy is simply someone doing something by faith – whether it good or bad. Remember, faith is neutral. Believing is neutral. You can have faith for something positive and you can have faith for something negative. Faith works both ways which brings us back to the jack story.
In the original story that I told you, by the time the salesman left his car and arrived at the station he had talked himself into the reality that the station owner was going to try and rip him off. The station owner never got the opportunity to help him. Now I want you to listen closely to me on this point. The station owner never got the opportunity to help him because by the time the salesman arrived at the station and knocked on the door, his purpose had changed. Initially he wanted to ask for help. But by the time he arrived he wanted to let the owner know in no uncertain terms that he would not be ripping him off with his high price to rent his jack. The only thing that changed was the story that the salesman wrote in his head during his walk. The story he wrote became his focus. The story he wrote became his expectation.
What is your jack story? What situation are you dealing with that you have created a story about the outcome not being in your favor? What story are you writing that will become your self-fulfilling prophecy – your faith walk. Remember, the salesman acted on what he believed – his actions came into alignment with his belief. If you are believing God for anything, let that be your story. Let your actions align around that story of success, not one of failure. I want to leave you with what is recorded in Hebrews chapter ten. Hebrews 10:35-36 says, “(35) Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. (36) For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” The Amplified Bible reads this way, “Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full, what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36, Amp.)
Remember the negative report from the ten spies – the story they created out of fear? They had cast aside their confidence in themselves and more importantly, in God Who had delivered them out of Egypt and had made a promise to them. This is an example of what is captured in verse thirty-five where the writer says that we should not throw away our confidence. If we actively throw it away that is a choice. This is not something that we cannot control – it’s a choice. Our confidence is aligned to our belief so if your belief is skewed your confidence will be skewed. The easiest way to cast aside your confidence is to create a jack story of failure out of fear versus believing what God has and is saying to you. When we believe something that is contrary to what the Bible says it opens the door for everything the Bible says to be questioned. Maybe Adam and Eve did not eat of the forbidden tree. Maybe Noah never entered the ark – I mean could he really have taken two of every kind (male and female) into a boat. Maybe Jesus died on the cross and maybe He didn’t. Maybe there is sin and maybe it’s just what it is, people living out their wishes. Maybe God exists and maybe He does not! Are you seeing the picture? Once we start with the questions it will never end. This is one of the strongest resources that our enemy uses against us to attack our faith. He does not always have to use demonic spirits and sickness to attack us; his most effective weapon is attacks on how we think, getting us to create jack stories that are opposite of what God is telling us. If he can influence that, the hardest part of his job is done.
Proverbs 23:7a says, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he….” This is our battlefield – our minds. Our minds is where our battles are being fought and we must strengthen our understanding of the Word of God which will change how we think, which will change what we believe. When our beliefs change, the world around us will change.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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