What Does This New Year Hold For Me?

Scripture: Numbers 13: 26 – 33, 1 Samuel 17: 1-51,

2016 how big will your God or the Lord be to you, how much are you looking forward to seeing what God is going to do this new year or I should say the Holy Spirit is going to do with the Lord directing.

Are we going to be like the Israelites were so many times that they relied on their own ability and run from the challenges before them. Or are we going to put our full trust in the Lord.

I haven’t heard anything but there might be some that are ringing their hands and saying we lost our pastor and the next guy might not be as good as pastor Bob. The next guy might want to make all kid of changes, I don’t like changes I like how things are or were.

I had a guy in one of my churches say to me I wish things where like they were in 1957 they were a lot better and things went beautiful. Lord was doing things and things were just better. I said you want things the same as they were in 1957? He said yea, I had a puzzle look on my face. He said the church was going good, people were coming, and people were getting saved. And there not today, why I asked, no answer came. He was saying I don’t like the changes that are being done. I don’t know if God is going to help us.

The Israelites were not sure if God would be with them.

In Numbers 13: 17-33

Here we have the report of the spy’s who went into exploring Canaan to see what the Lord had promise them.

Let me give you somewhat of a summary, Moses set 10 spies’ into the land of Canaan

That God had promised them, Moses wanted a report what is this land like, what will we be facing if we walk into the Land of Canaan?, so he sent Joshua and Caleb along with eight others for a report.

We read in verse 27 “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large.” In verse 33 it says “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Let’s look at 1 Samuel 17: 1- 58(not going to read the whole thing)

I am going to tell you the store, but you should know it.

It is about a little boy and a big problem that he came across that to him was not a problem.

David

I The Problem They Saw

A. It looks good on the Surface but let’s look at the deeper picture.

What do they think is the bigger picture? The spy’s that went into Canaan and saw all the good thing that wait them, a land flowing with Milk and Honey, fruit that was so big that to carry a cluster of grapes that took two men to carry it on a pole. The land was fertile, there was a lot of promise to go into the Land God had promise them.

I means it was beautiful it was ripe for picking the land was what they wanted, it was what God had promise it would be, but there was a problem in their thinking. It looks good on the surface; it looks good when you first see it, the fruit that is huge, the grass is greener then the desert, but there was a problem.

David just a little guy, a boy shepherd taking care of his Fathers sheep. His brothers are in the army fighting for Israel, King Saul. David father Jesse had three sons on the front line of the battle of the Philistines. Jesse wanted to make sure that his three sons were alright. So he called David in and wanted him to take a ephah of grain (which is a bushel in measurement) and 10 loaves of bread to his brothers. Jesse was concern about his sons like most parents would be. Jesse taught his sons about God we know that because of David love for God.

David goes to the battle lines to see his brothers and while he is there he hears and see this Philistine man coming out and yelling at the top of his voice this

“Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”