When Fear Keeps Us from the Blessings of God

Psalm 106, verse 24 is where we will start tonight.

Psalms 106:24

We've just been breaking down all these different

instances of Israel's disobedience and looking

at some of these examples. These are not necessarily

listed in chronological order. They kind of jump

back and forth. Some of the ones that are listed

before happen later and then skip to one that's

happened before. Kind of bouncing back and forth,

so they're not necessarily in chronological order,

but the psalmist here is just covering some of

the big moments in Israel's past where they were

disobedient, and there were certainly plenty

of them. We've kind of seen a theme here. They

were disobedient. God was angry with them. We

would see Moses or Aaron or both of them intercede

for the people in some way or atone for their

sinfulness. And it's a good foreshadowing there

of what Jesus was going to do, that ultimately

we would be no better off than the Israelites.

We too would be sinners deserving of God's wrath,

but there is one who stepped up for us and took

atonement for us and made atonement for us, and

that was Jesus Christ. And so tonight we are

just looking at another example of Israel's disobedience

in Psalm 106, verse 24. Just four verses is all

Psalms 106:24

we'll look at. And if you want to go ahead and

put a finger in Numbers 14. Numbers 14. We were

in Numbers 16 a week or two ago. And looking

at that story. And tonight we're flipping back

a little bit in time. And looking at Numbers

14. We're not going to read through the whole

chapter. That'd be good homework for you this

week. If you want something to read, read through

Numbers 14. You'll get a little more of the context

about what's going on, but we're going to hit

the high notes. So let's pray, and then we'll

get started. God, we come to you tonight. We

look at so many of these examples of Israel being

disobedient, dear Lord, and let us look at our

own lives and help us, dear Lord, just let your

Holy Spirit just convict us. Maybe there are

areas in our life now where we're being disobedient

and maybe we're missing some of your blessing.

And I pray, dear Lord, that we wouldn't be so

stubborn and so hard -headed, but that we would

be those who hear your word and hear your commands

just as the Israelites did. And maybe we can

do better in some ways than follow them, but

dear Lord, a lot of times we just don't do any

better. We do just as bad. And so we ask for

your grace and your mercy that you would just,

Be patient with us, dear Lord, that through Jesus

Christ that we would receive that grace and atonement

for our sins. We don't deserve it, but I pray

that you just help us to continue to come back

to the cross, dear Lord, because where else can

we go? So I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, Psalm 106, verse 24. This is

Psalms 106:24

speaking of the Israelites here when it says

they. They despised the pleasant land and did

not believe his promise. They grumbled in their

tents and did not listen to the Lord's voice.

So he raised his hand against them with an oath

that he would make them fall in the desert and

would disperse their descendants among the nations,

scattering them throughout the lands. So the

people are so close to getting to go into the

promised land. They had been delivered from Egypt.

They had made their way. And they were right

on the precipice of being able to cross over

into the promised land. And there were some spies

that were sent to see what was going on, to see

what things looked like there. And when the spies

came back, they were afraid. They said, hey,

look, this land is fantastic, but there are some

folks there that are big and strong and scary,

and I just don't think we can do it. If we go

in there, they are going to slaughter us. And

that's what's being referenced here in this particular

passage, that God had brought them out of slavery.

He said, I'm going to take you to your own land

flowing with milk and honey. It's yours. You

just got to go in there. All you got to do is

just go get it. I'm with you. It's yours. Just

go get it. And the people were too afraid to

do what God had called them to do. And that's

what this... This part of this psalm is talking

about they grumbled in their tents. They did

not listen to the Lord. They were too afraid.

They were just complaining all the time about

everything. And as a result of that, they experienced

God's punishment. Now, we've already seen some

examples in the last few weeks. People that were

disobedient, and God's ready to destroy them

all. And some of them he did destroy, and some

of them suffered consequences, great consequences.

A plague came on them, and there was all kind

of stuff that took place. And so you would think

in all of these stories that God's people at

some point would start to learn their lesson,

but they really never do. And I guess maybe there's

something to be said for that, because how many

times should we have learned our lesson? How

many lessons are there things that we've done

repeatedly and we should have learned them by

now? We should have learned them when we were

10, when we were 20, when we were 30, when we

were 40. And maybe for some of us tonight, we're

70, we're 80, and maybe there's still some lessons

that we should have learned and we're still struggling

with them. And that's not a good thing. It's

not like, oh, well, that's just humanity. We

just do that. Well, we do fail sometimes, but

we should never just be content to say, well.

People just fail. Well, we do fail, but we should

strive to try to do better. And maybe by looking

at these examples in Scripture and maybe some

of our own failures, we can look back and say,

you know what? I know the power of God. I just

need to start trusting God. And these people

didn't trust God, and they found themselves in

a lot of trouble as a result of that. And maybe

that's true for us too. Sometimes in our foolishness,

Some of our bad choices, we find ourselves in

some trouble that could have been avoided had

we have listened to the Lord. But like the Israelites,

there are plenty of times in our life that maybe

we just didn't listen in the way that we should.

Now, the first three verses that we looked at,

we see this in Numbers 14. We see this story

kind of unfold. The last verse that we looked

at here in verse 27, it's... It's actually a

reference to Ezekiel. And, of course, the story

in Ezekiel is also pointing back to the same

event. But that's kind of more of a connection

with Ezekiel than it is in the passages that

we're going to look at in Numbers. But if you

flip back to Numbers 14, you'll see this story.

Now, I've kind of gone over the story with you.

We won't go over it in great detail tonight.

Like I said... You can go through and read through

all of it this week. But just to get a little

more context and kind of see the story unfold

in numbers, let's look at Numbers 14, verses

Numbers 14:1–3

1 through 3. This is after the spies went out

and a report came back in and the people were,

oh, things are so bad. We should have just stayed

in Egypt. It's horrible. We can't go into the

land. And this is the response of the people

that we see here. Numbers 14, verse 1. Then the

Numbers 14:1

whole community broke into loud cries, and people

wept that night. All the Israelites complained

about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community

told them, If we had only died in the land of

Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness,

why is the Lord bringing us into this land to

die by the sword? Our wives and little children

will become plunder. wouldn't it be better for

us to go back to Egypt? Well, that seems kind

of like a little bit of an extreme reaction.

Now, these are the same people that were enslaved

in Egypt, that had witnessed the power of God's

plagues, and they had witnessed the power of

being delivered, and they weren't just delivered

empty -handed. They were delivered with all this

gold and stuff that they were able to take out

with them. I mean, they were delivered with wealth

and freedom. They see God part the Red Sea. Even

in all the disobedience they had seen up to this

point and experienced up to this point, the gold

calf and all their complaining. And God had got

them all this way and brought them right here

to the promised land. He said he was going to

give them. And they get a bad report. Oh, the

people in the land are big and strong. What are

we going to do? And they just go to the extreme.

Oh, we should have just, it would be better if

we had died in Egypt. That would have been better

than where we are now. If we had died between

Egypt and here in the wilderness, we'd be better

than we were now. It would be better if we just

turned around and went back. Woe is us. The sky

is falling. Everything is so bad. And they just

went totally to the extreme. Now, we don't ever

do that about anything, do we? We don't ever

go to the extreme about nothing, do we? Something

bad happens, it didn't happen just like we wanted

to, and then all of a sudden we just forget it.

I don't want to hear nothing. I don't want to

do it anymore. I'm done. We go to the extreme

about the stupidest little things. We make a

pizza at night, and we want a pizza, and we want

some ranch dipping sauce. And we get our pizza

cut up and on the plate, and we go to reach for

the ranch dipping sauce, and there ain't none

in the refrigerator. And we say, just forget

it. I'm not hungry. I don't want anything to

eat. Now, that's not a true story, by the way.

I'm just using an example. I'm just using a random

example here. But sometimes we go to the extreme

on things like that. Y 'all don't do that. I

know y 'all don't ever do that. But sometimes

things aren't as bad as they seem, and maybe

if we just stopped for a second, we'd realize

that maybe a little bit of an overreaction. You

know, you see that football season, like you

get a quarterback that, like they played great

for ten weeks, and then they throw three interceptions

one Sunday, and then the next Monday, it's like

the next day, it's like fire them, send them

to the Cleveland Browns where they can just rot

away with the rest of the players there. We just

overreact about things as human beings, and it's

not a good thing. And this was a serious thing.

This was an awesome thing that God said, I'm

going to take you to a great place. And then

all of a sudden there's one little thing that

just goes wrong and they're just, oh, it's over.

We'd just be better off dead than to be here.

But what they should have said was, hey, God's

been pretty good. I know what God's done for

us. We've heard God speak. We've seen God's instructions.

We've seen God's leader in Moses. We've seen

these awesome miracles. This is going to be kind

of scary, but hey, we see what God can do, so

let's go in there and get this land, y 'all.

But they didn't do it. Now, how many times do

we know God's Word and know God's power? And

we should be ready to say, okay, I'm up against

this really hard thing that's in my life, or

maybe there's something we feel called to do,

and it's kind of scary, and we're like, golly,

I don't have the skill set to do that, or I feel

uncomfortable doing that, but... But there's

something in us that convicts us, that just tugs

at us, that makes us want to feel like it's what

we need to do. And we become too afraid and we

say, man, I can't do that. We come up with all

these excuses and we just kind of throw our hands

up. And maybe we're missing the blessing that

God wants to bless us with, the way that he wants

to use us to bless somebody else, which is also

a blessing to us. We just give up because it's

too scary what's before us. Well, what was before

them? It seemed scary to them. They were ready

to die. It was so scary. And they were complaining

all over the place. Well, Joshua and Caleb were

two of the ones that had gone into the promised

land. And they came back with a good report.

They said, hey, look, this is good. This is going

to be scary, but we need to go in there and get

what God has given us. We see that if you skip

down a couple of verses into verse 7. Joshua

and Caleb here, it says, and said to the entire

Israelite community, The land we passed through

and explored is an extremely good land. If the

Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us into

this land, a land flowing with milk and honey,

and give it to us. Only don't rebel against the

Lord, and don't be afraid of the people of the

land, for we will devour them. Their protection

has been removed from them, and the Lord is with

us. Don't be afraid of them. Now, that's good

instruction right there. Joshua has some sense.

He has some wisdom. He says, look, this is going

to be all right. Like God brought us here for

this all the way here, and he said he was taking

us to a land of milk and honey, and boy, is this

land good. This is a good land. Yeah, there's

people there, but God's going to take care of

us, and he's going to devour them. And Joshua

tried to talk some sense into them, but they

weren't having anything to do with it. If you

skip down toward the bottom of the chapter there

in Numbers chapter 14, verse 28, we see the Lord

Numbers 14:28

speaking here in verse 28. The Lord is not happy

with the people. They don't listen to Joshua

and say, all right, Joshua, you're right. Let's

go in there and take this land. Nope. They continue

their complaining. Moses intercedes for them,

as is usually the case. And then in verse 28,

the Lord says, Tell them, as surely as I live,

this is the Lord's declaration, I will do to

you exactly as I heard you say. Your corpses

will fall in this wilderness, all of you who

were registered in the census, the entire number

of you, 20 years old or more, because you have

complained about me. I swear that none of you

will enter the land I promised to settle you

in, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua,

son of Nun. So God says, okay, you say you'd

rather die in the wilderness? You're going to

get what you want. I brought you here to bring

you into a promised land to bless you, to take

care of you. But if you'd rather do it your way,

if you'd rather die in the wilderness, God says,

so be it. You're going to die in the wilderness.

And they were so close to experiencing the blessing

of God, but because of their disobedience, they

ended up missing it. They ended up dying in their

disobedience and missing God's blessing. Now,

how many times is there blessing that God wants

to pour out on us? How many times may God be

calling us to something? To do something for

Him, to serve Him in some way, to minister to

somebody else in some way. How many ways might

God want to bless us in service to Him and we

just refuse God's blessing because it looks too

hard? Now, I'm not implying when I say God's

blessing, I'm not implying that it's riches or

wealth or whatever that may be. A lot of times

God's blessing... It's just simply doing the

right thing. I mean, there's a great blessing,

and if God calls you to do something, to go help

somebody, to love on somebody, and you do that,

like, man, you're just so blessed by being obedient

to God. It doesn't even have anything to do with

what you're going to get in return. A blessing

is not necessarily a physical thing in return.

It's just knowing you did the right thing. Now,

in their case, there was going to certainly be

some physical return, and sometimes in our life

there is too. There's certainly... physical blessing

that comes. But how many times do we miss God's

blessings because of our disobedience? It was

all right there before. God says, here's how

I want to bless you if you would just trust me.

And how many times are there in our life that

maybe God's saying the same thing to us? That

God's calling us to something, leading us to

something and saying, Here's what I called you

to do. I want to bless you. I want to be with

you. Here's what I want you to do. Just go and

do it. In the first little roadblock, we say,

ah, golly, I can't do that. I'm not equipped.

I'm not qualified. I'm not brave enough. I'm

not whatever. We could all write a book of the

excuses we've used. But maybe we could learn

from God's people here and take a second to think

about those opportunities when they come. And

think about the words of Joshua. And Joshua says,

look, if God has brought you here, if God's called

you to this place, he's going to be with you,

so let's go do what God wants us to do. And maybe

Joshua's words can be an encouragement to us.

We just started Joshua in Sunday school on Sunday

mornings. In chapter 1, we see right there at

the beginning, he says multiple times, don't

be afraid. The Lord's with you. Don't be afraid.

You don't have to fear. It's all good. That's

the same message that we see Joshua speaking

of here in Numbers 14. Joshua says God's going

to be with you. You don't have to be afraid.

So let us think about that in our life. Next

time we feel that there's something in us that

I believe is the Holy Spirit that's just convicting

us and calling us and feels like, man, I need

to do that. I need to step out in that way. May

we have courage to do that. If the Lord's calling,

may we have courage to follow and trust Him even

if it may be hard. Let's pray. God, we come to

You. We thank You for these good words and these

stories of Israel's past and maybe their stories,

dear Lord, remind us some of our stories. God,

maybe we have been disobedient more times than

we even care to say, dear Lord. We're embarrassed,

ashamed. in our disobedience. And I pray, dear

Lord, that you forgive us for the opportunities

that we've missed to serve and to listen and

to follow you. And maybe we've missed some of

your blessing along the way, but maybe there's

some opportunities now, some ways that you want

to bless us now or use us to bless others now,

dear Lord. Some things that you're calling us

to that may at first glance seem pretty scary,

but I pray that we would just trust you and that

we would seek you and that we would know that

you're good. And that wherever you lead us in

life, God, you're not going to lead us there

to just stay there. If we just trust you, dear

Lord, you'll lead us right on through whatever

it is. And so I pray, God, that we would learn

from the Israelites' mistakes here, that we would

not be those who come up short of your blessing,

but that we be those who follow through and trust

you and get to see your blessing. And I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen.