Faith Builders
Living Environmentally Friendly
Faith Builders
Numbers 13:1-2;21-23; 25-33 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”
21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, a they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
Report on the Exploration
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “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. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
A. God Desires to Give You Good Things
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
1. God really does desire Good Things For You
• Many convince themselves the more suffering is involved the deeper the spirituality, yet I do not believe this is scriptural. While there are moments of suffering and pain in our lives God does not desire for you to mope around discussing how much suffering you are going through for the cause of Christ!
• We can understand the desire of God better when we view Him in His fatherly role. Any decent parent desires good things for their child.
2. God’s Goodness is Based on the fact that He is Good & Desires Blessing Your Life
• The attractiveness of God is based on the fact that God desires goodness and love to follow you.
Psalm 23:6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
B. Obtaining Your Promise
1. Living in and Obtaining Your Promise requires Action on Your Part!
• Many people never obtain God’s promises because they believe it is everyone else’ responsibility to give them the promise.
• If you want to obtain your promise you must create an environment for your promise to be realized.
o If God’s promise to you is to be a businessman – go get a business degree
o If God’s promise to you is to run a multi million dollar company, begin now by learning how to run a $100,000 company.
o If God’s promise to you is to find a Godly spouse, be a Godly person that would attract a Godly spouse and make yourself available.
o If God’s promise to you is to be a leader, begin learning everything you can about leadership now.
o If God’s promise to you is to live debt free, start paying off your debt and get on a budget today.
o If God’s Promise is that You will be a soulwinner, invite your friends and relatives to church this week.
2. Wrong perceptions of God’s Promises which hinder us from Receiving
• They are for everybody else
• They are not for this lifetime, but the hereafter
• They are Void of obstacles – if it’s meant to be it will be
• They require nothing of me
3. What you do Today will Largely Determine Whether You Obtain Your Promise Tomorrow!
4. At The Bridge Church We Need To Create an Environment That is Conducive to the Promises God has Given Us!
• Speak Faith About Numerical Growth
• Work to Overcome Obstacles to Receive Our Promise!
• Prepare Today For Tomorrow’s Harvest
• Look Today for a New Location for Tomorrow
• Keep Our Eyes Open for Opportunities of Expansion
C. Attitude Has Power to Steal Your Promise
1. Negative Attitudes can Destroy God Given Promise
• 10 spies gave a negative report that filled the entire nation with negativity about the impossibility of the task.
• The spies focused more on the obstacle than the promise
• The spies focused more on why they couldn’t receive rather than on the one who was Promising.
• The spies negative self perception, became the assumption of what others thought of them.
2. Faith Filled Attitudes can Obtain God Given Promise
• Joshua and Caleb entered the promise land
• Faith Filled Attitudes focuses on the Greatness of God, not the greatness of the Problem.
• Faith Filled Attitudes do not minimize obstacles, but they do magnify God!
• Faith Filled Attitudes Create an Environment that says, if God has promised it, we want to obtain it!
3. The Bridge church needs Faith Builders, not Fear Spreaders! We need people with the spirit of Joshua and Caleb that stand and say, God is ABLE!!!!!! Fill Your Life With Faith Builders, not Fear Spreaders!
Numbers 14:36-38 36 So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it—37 these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. 38 Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.