I QUIT, I QUIT, I QUIT
In the book of Matthew chapter 16 verses 14-17 Jesus asked his disciples who do people say that I am? And they replied some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said unto him, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in Heaven.
This was a question that this world had many answers for. Different people had different views as to who this Jesus of Nazareth was, and quite frankly all their answers were wrong. But when Jesus asked those in which he had a relationship, those who were closest to him, those who he had revealed himself to and they gave him the only true answer. Peter answered and said you are the Christ the son of the living God.
Now this is not part of the message as much as a call to attention. You see, if you were to ask someone quietly how many churches are represented at the Thanksgiving combined service, you might get an answer like 4 or 5. If you asked someone else they might say 3 because this person and that one belong to different congregations but the same denomination. I think you get the picture. However, in light of the scripture I just read I would hope that if you asked someone who has a personal relationship with Christ; their answer would be just one. Folks let me tell you something, and I’m not trying to be arrogant, but I don’t care who you are, where you live or what the sign on the outside of the church you attend says. If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if you have truly given your life over to Him, if you love God with all your Heart, soul and mind then you are his child and therefore a member of His Church. It has never been about where you worship or what name the world has given the group you meet with it is about your own personal relationship with God.
Now that really wasn’t intended to be part of the sermon but it does kind of set a foundation for this message to build on. Because, if we are Christians and we as Christians represent Christ here in Sterling Oklahoma What would happen if we simply stopped doing what Christ wants us to do? What if we just said I QUIT I mean what if we still went to church, but we just didn’t step out in the world and did what we knew the spirit of God was leading us to do? What would happen? Or maybe I should ask, have we stopped doing what God would have us do and if so what has happened?
Think about some of the saints of old, what would have happened if they had refused to follow Gods direction, or Gods commands? If Moses, upon seeing the burning bush and actually speaking to God through it had walked away and refused to go to Egypt and confront the pharaoh how much longer would the people of Israel have remained in captivity? And because of that how many would have died there without ever seeing Gods hand at work? There’s no doubt that God would have brought up someone else eventually to accomplish his will but in the meantime how many people would have lost out on experiencing Gods hand at work?
Or what about Noah? It would have been easy for him to say no to God, especially since he knew the people would think he was crazy. I mean here is a man building a boat out in an area where there’s no water saying that God told him to do it. How many of us would follow through with a command like that? Honestly, how many of us would be willing to deal with the attitudes of the people in our neighborhood, the looks, the whispering and just the knowledge that everyone thinking your crazy? We are afraid to talk to someone about Christ when God leads us to can you imagine being asked to build an Ark? If Noah had simply said no then there is the possibility that God would have just said okay then and none of us would exist today.
Or what about David? A man after Gods own heart. What if he had cowered with the soldiers of Israel as Goliath taunted them day after day? Goliath was a giant of a man and an infamous warrior and here was David a young Sheppard boy who wasn’t even old enough to join the army. I mean Goliath was so well known that even the trained soldiers refused to fight him. However if David hadn’t gone up against Goliath then he would have never become king. This one act of disobedience would have affected the fate of the entire nation. It would have affected the very direction of (king) David’s life; it would have even affected the very lineage of Christ himself.
And what about Paul? After Christ got his attention what would have happened if he continued in his wicked ways? Paul went on to write most of the New Testament and evangelized more than anyone of his time. Where would you and I be without the writings God inspired him to write?
Now having said all that
Let’s take a look at the book of Numbers chapters 13 & 14 where we can see a clear example of what happens when we decide to go out on our own and ignore what God would have us do. Now this is set at a time when the children of Israel who had just been freed from 430 years of being enslaved by the Egyptians. Now I am sure those of you here know about Mosses and how God sent him to Egypt and how through Mosses, God freed Israel and began leading them on their journey to the land He had promised to give them (the promise land, the land flowing with milk and honey) Exodus 3:8
Now after some years later after seeing Gods hand at work over and over again providing for them, protecting them and guiding them they finally reached their destination. They were there. The Promised Land, They could literally see it, right before their eyes, the very land they had traveled so far to possess. All they had to do is obey God and take the land.
It was then that Mosses sent out men into the land to search it out and see what the land was like and who the people were that occupied the land that was to be theirs. When they returned this is what happened.
Numbers 13, 1-3….13:17-20…..13:26-33…..14, 1-10…..14, 26-34
Numbers 13:1-3
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
13:17-20
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain And see the land what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; And what the land is that they dwell in, Whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in whether in tents, or in strong holds; And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
13:26-33
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. And they told him, and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 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 by the coast of Jordan. 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. But the men that went up with him said, we be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 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 eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
14:1-10
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sward, that our wives and our children should be prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, the land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
14:26-34
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
What were they thinking? Here is a people who were held in slavery for over 400 years, who cried out to God for their salvation, who witnessed daily the power of God and they were willing to return into slavery than follow him. How can this be possible?
They were enslaved: God protected them and brought them out of Egypt
They were trapped: God parted the sea and let them through on dry land
They were thirsty: God provided water from a rock
They were hungry: God sent Quail and Manna from out of nowhere
Now they finally arrived at the place they were trying to get to the whole time and God is telling them go take a look at it and see what it is that I am giving you. Go and see the land that by my power you are going to posses. All you have to do is listen to me and do what I tell you to do and I will perform yet another miracle just like the ones you have seen me perform on the way here. And everyone said we can’t do it. In other words God we don’t believe you have the power to do what you’re telling us you are going to do. God you might be able to part the red sea but you can’t give us the victory we need in order to possess this land. God you may have the power to provide water and food out of nowhere but you can’t defeat these people we saw in this land they are just too big and strong.
Isn’t that crazy? How could they be like this? Yet you and I do it everyday. How many times have you felt God leading you to say or do something and your heart started beating faster and your palms got sweaty or you got nervous and you walked away thinking I should have said this or I should have done that? How many things can you remember if you just stopped and thought about it a minute that God has done in your life? I mean miracles things that can only be explained by the power of God himself, I can think of many in my own life and yet even knowing what he has done we still walk away time and time again. But when we read something like this we think I can’t believe they did that when we are just as guilty.
When I was at Dallas Baptist University, it was mandatory for us to go to Chappell on Wednesdays. At one of the meetings we had a speaker who was talking about the power of prayer and how important it is. As the service went on I began to feel a real need to pray for someone I hadn’t seen in a very long time. This young man was a couple years younger than me and he wasn’t anyone I had anything in common with. I didn’t have any reason whatsoever to have his face before me, but it was. I knew I needed to pray for this person. His name was ______________I went about my day and forgot about him all together after all I had other things on my mind. A couple of days later I got a phone call from home and I was told that he had been in an automobile accident and had passed away. I couldn’t even be trusted with something as simple as a prayer. The consequences of our actions or lack there of are serious. What might have happened if I had just prayed even one time? What differences, not only in his life but in the lives of countless others could we be seeing today? Ill never know, because I didn’t follow Gods direction. You would think the lesion would have been learned through that tragic event but just like the children of Israel it wasn’t. I have failed over and over to follow Gods direction in praying for people, I have failed to remember what happened back then so that I wouldn’t let it happen again.
How many times have you failed to remember the past when faced with a decision for the future?
40 years later after almost everyone who was there that day had died the children of Israel were back at the Promised Land once again. Only this time they obeyed God and God blessed them beyond their expectations.
We have an entire town here that God wants us to reach out to. And even though we have seen all he has done in our lives we seem to be afraid to honestly reach out to them. All we have to do is what He asks us to do and He will do the rest. All we have to do is follow and he will lead us into the Promised Land All we have to do is follow and God will bless us his children beyond anything we can ever expect. But 1st we have to follow.