Whose Report Will You Believe?

Sunday Morning, December 5th, 2004

Let us pray

Welcome.....

We are now in the final month of the year 2004, and today is the second Sunday of the

Advent season. It is a time of cel-e-bra-tion of our Lord’s coming to earth as God In-car-

nate; God in the flesh. Last Sunday we talked about The Eternal Word, and we said if

people want to know what God is like they can look at Je-sus; and if people want to know

what Je-sus is like they should be able to look at you and at me.

In our Bible class last Wednesday night, Sis. Kitchen challenged us to live holy lives.We

are called out from the world, and sent back into the world to be a witness for our Lord.

We were reminded that somebody is watching the way we live, and so we should let our

light shine in a darkened world. Our key verse for this year is taken from Matthew 5 verse

16, and it says, Let your light so shine...................................Our theme for the year is,

Glorifying God, everything we do, and everything we say should be done to glorify God.

How well are you glorifying God as a child of God? ........elaborate....

Even though we are in the Advent season, we are going to take a slight detour, and we

will be looking at Numbers 13 verses 25 through 33 as our Scripture reading for today.

This is found on page 5 of your bulletin. Let’s all stand and read together. Please tell

someone, It’s alright to believe God.

I will be using as my to-pic for to-day, Whose Report will you believe? Number

One.........Will you believe the negative report of the majority? or Number Two......Will

you believe the positive report of the minority?

Today we are hearing all kinds of reports, and it is important as to whose report will you

believe. We listen to the weather report which might say, today you will be having

scattered snow fall in the evening, and by tomorrow morning you will be having 6 to 8

inches of snow, so if you don’t have to go outside, it is best to stay inside. God has given

you a special assignment for tomorrow, and God has assured you that you will have a fair

day, it will be cold, but there will be no snow.Whose report will you believe, the weather

report or God? You have prayed to God for your son who has been diagnosed with

cancer, and God has told you that he would be alright, but the doctors have told you he

has only 6 more months to live. Whose report will you believe, the doctor’s report or

God? You have no money to do your shopping at Christmas time to buy those things that

are needed, your friends have told you to give up because God has forgotten you; but God

has promised to supply your needs. Whose report will you believe? Your friends report

or God? You are somewhat discouraged as you come to the house of God, and see just a

few people, someone whispered to you, what’s the use, but God told you he will not leave

you nor forsake you and everything will be alright. Whose report will you belive? That

someone or the word of God?

People today like to go along with the ma-jority. They like to go along with those who are

in-flu-en-tial. They like to go along with those who think they know, but I prefer to go

along with what God says, and believe his report.........elaborate..

In our text for today we find 10 men giving a negative report, and 2 men giving a positive

report, and the majority prevailed. Twelve men were commissioned from each tribe of the

children of Israel to go and search out the land of Canaan, and to bring back a report.

After searching out the land for 40 days, in verse 25 of our text they returned. Forty days

must have been a long time to be waiting for a report. Most of us would have become

impatient, most of us would have given up waiting.

In Exodus 3 verse 8 God had made a promise to the children of Israel while they were in

bondage in Egypt, and we read these words, And I am come down to deliver them out

of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land

and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.... The Children of Israel were

delivered from Egypt, and the time has come for the fulfilment of God’s promise. The

spies have gone into the land of Canaan, and they are now back to give their report. In