The Spirit of Breakthrough - Breakthrough Start

You're listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

You know, tonight I want to talk about.

Um I'm trying to think of the right title.

I have a title, A Breakthrough Spirit.

But you could also say the breakthrough outlook.

The breakthrough spirit or the breakthrough outlook.

And I want to look at kind of two different outlooks that we're all subject to and tempted by in living life.

And the best example of this in scripture is probably Numbers 13.

So turn in your Bibles to Numbers 13.

And all of you know the story that have been around the church a while.

If you're new to Christ, if you're new in your faith, you may not know it.

But Moses leads Israel out of Egypt.

And they cross the Jordan River.

I mean, they come to the Jordan River.

They're going to cross the Jordan River.

Now it's time to go in.

And God has promised them the land.

That's why we call it the promised land.

So he had promised this beautiful land to them.

And they're right on the edge.

And then what Moses does is he takes one representative of each of the twelve tribes as a leader.

He let each tribe decide who they were.

They could go in, scout out the land, come back and give a report.

And there's two reports that come.

One is a majority report, and the other is a minority report.

And that's not even one of my points, but I think we could almost say that the spirit of breakthrough is usually a minority report, not a majority report.

When you begin to believe God for miracles, when you decide that you're going to follow Christ as a wholehearted disciple, you're going to be in the minority every time.

Now, hopefully you're not in the minority in this church, but outside of the church, outside of the road at Chapel Hills, you'll probably be in the minority.

And so we we pick up the story in Numbers 13, and instead of going through the whole story from the beginning, look at verse 26.

Let's look at verse 26.

And it's a study in outlooks, it's a study in perspective.

Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Peran at Kadesh.

They brought back word to them and all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

Then they told him and said, We went to the land where you sent us, and it truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

Nevertheless, and you ought to underline nevertheless, nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified, and very, very large.

Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites and the Jebusetes and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea along the banks of the Jordan.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession.

This guy wants a breakthrough.

For we are well able to overcome it.

But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, and they are stronger than we.

And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants.

And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

There we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak, who came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

Now here's what's interesting and I think this is the rubric over everything tonight, and that is God always gives us promises, but he doesn't give them without each of us having to fight for them.

You've been given salvation, you've been given Christ, you've been given the power of the Holy Spirit, but then there is this cooperation with God and this cooperation with the Spirit where we battle for the promises of God.

And the only way I can describe why this is in God's economy is that I'm a parent.

And as a parent, we've kind of raised our kids this way too, in that we uh we have a home and we have a warm bed for them and we have food for them, we provide for them.

But as we're providing for them, and it's a and it's the grace of it's the grace of mom and dad that provides that, we're teaching them to work, we're teaching them to get a job, we're teaching them to be responsible.

And you may know people like this.

And Ryan was in the trust world, in the banking world, um, before he became a pastor with me.

He tells stories all the time of young people that inherit a trust from the grandparents or from the parents or something, and it's just handed to them.

And the difference between those who had to earn it and work for it and those it was handed to is like black and white.

It's just totally different because you were made in your spirit to have a vision and to work toward that vision because you get changed and transformed in the battle, in the fight.

You guys know that I fly fish.

And when I fly fish, I go up into these real mountain streams.

I don't go to ponds that are stocked or even streams that are stocked, but I go to areas where it's all wild trout.

And when I catch trout, there's a huge difference between a wild trout and a stalker.

One that was raised on a farm with pellets and then released, you know, for people to catch.

The beauty and the color is just stunningly different because that wild trout has had to fight, it's had to battle to stay alive, and there's a beauty to it.

So there's a beauty to the fact that God has this way in which he gives us promises and he gives us hope, he gives us faith, but then we've got to go in and possess it.

We've got to work it through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I don't know how many believers I've run across, it's got to be tens of thousands in my lifetime who they're just stunned that life's hard.

I mean, and it's like, oh, I, you know, I don't know if I can follow Jesus anymore.

And I'm listening to what's happened to him like, man, if that's knocking you out, please drop out because man, you are, you, you, you don't even have a clue about life because it's gonna get way harder than that.

And you know, if you haven't lost your job yet, if you haven't gotten fired yet, if you haven't been through a broken relationship yet, man, I feel sorry for you.

It's coming.

It's coming.

And so here we see that the um, and by the way, don't go out and like get fired so you can say, well, Steve's proud of me now because I got fired.

But what I mean is that it is coming your way.

If you've been so blessed that it hasn't happened to you yet, praise God, enjoy it.

But but God takes Israel right up to the Jordan River, okay?

And he doesn't hand it to them.

He they're gonna have to go in and possess it, gang.

And so that's and that's and that's the the truth about all things in life, that he God gives us these beautiful promises and he gives us these wonderful obstacles that become opportunities so that he can grow us in him.

Don't be a quitter.

And I don't think I'm talking to quitters, or you wouldn't be here tonight.

By the way, quitting is way overrated.

Quitters are so boring.

You know, and I meet them all the time, and they're in our church all the time.

I mean they come out, you know, I I they used to walk with the Lord, and now they've gone this way, you know, and we don't see them anymore.

And then they show up again and they're and their life is just in is in shadows.

I see it on Facebook all the time because they message me.

Sorry, I haven't been at church, Pastor Steve.

I da-da-da.

And you got a bunch of excuses, and then they they tell me about just this dismal, despairing life they've chosen.

And it's like, I mean, if it would be one thing if when you leave the faith, everything just goes so well, and they're and people are so successful.

It never works that way.

So, by the way, quitting is very overrated.

2 Corinthians 9, 8.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

My goodness, there's a lot of all's and everys here.

God, who is able to make all grace, all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

That's the nature of God.

He provides everything you need for every work.

John 10, 10.

The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.

I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.

Paul speaking of his life says this: not that I've already attained it or am already perfected.

This is Philippians 3, 12 through 14.

Not that I've already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may be, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended it yet.

But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I mean, that's a fighting verse.

That's it.

I want God's calling, I want God's vision, I want a breakthrough.

I'm always looking for a new breakthrough.

I'm always looking for a new goal.

I want more.

I am not satisfied with what's happened in the past, with all the mistakes and failures.

I'm gonna learn from those, and I'm gonna press forward.

I'm gonna look forward.

I'm gonna forget about what's happened in the past.

That's the Christian life, gang.

That's the way it works.

And so these so these uh twelve men come back and they give two reports.

Majority report, ten spies, giants in the land.

They're so huge.

They're from they're descendants of Anak here.

And the descendants of Anak would be those from the Nephilim.

And the Nephilim were those that were called the sons of God before the flood.

And they found beds along the Gaza Strip in archaeological uh digs that are eight feet long.

These were real giants.

It me actually means Anak and actually means long neck, long neckers.

And so it seems like they had like kind of a long neck.

But they were like eight feet tall.

So this is no exaggeration.

This is real.

These were real giants in the land, these these Anakim.

Here's what's interesting, among other things.

The majority report, ten spies, the minority report, Joshua and Caleb, the minority report, saw the same thing.

Saw exactly the same stuff, totally different outlook.

So I want to look at two outlooks, and here's the first one.

I'm gonna call it the nevertheless outlook.

The nevertheless spirit.

Verse 28.

That's the reason I said underline nevertheless.

This is also, you can coincide numbers 13 and 14 with Deuteronomy 1, just so you know, and nevertheless is used there too.

I like nevertheless.

It's like, here's this blessing, but nevertheless, it's really gonna be hard.

I don't know if I want to do this.

So, nevertheless spirit, three characteristics of a nevertheless spirit.

Let me give you a definition of the nevertheless spirit.

Small God, giant problems.

That's the nevertheless spirit.

Small God, giant problems.

And you can tell the difference in an outlook by how you view God.

And then how you view God will determine how you view your problems.

Small God, giant problems.

So here's the first, here's the first characteristic of a nevertheless spirit.

A nevertheless spirit focuses primarily on the size of the giants.

That's what these guys do.

The majority report is are you kidding me?

I mean, these are giants.

Verse 33.

We saw giants, the descendants of Anak came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

Now, I'm from Georgia.

I'm not very smart, but I figured something out.

There's no way that they've got a lineage tree while they're going through the land.

Now, who are you?

Now who's your grandfather?

And now who's your grandfather?

I mean, these guys are making this stuff up.

Okay?

So they knew that everybody knew about the Anakim and the Anak.

It historically went back in time.

It went back to Genesis, and they're freaking everybody out.

Now, is it true?

We don't know.

We don't know if they were the descendants of Anak or not.

I looked it up, and there's there's no way to know that.

Especially pre-flood, because everybody was wiped out.

So, so this is this is really an embellishment.

This is trusting, like it like it is in everything else, that nobody's gonna look you up like fake news.

You know, if you just say it enough, Hitler said, the people will believe it.

And so and so the nevertheless spirit, first of all, creates these big giants.

And so last night we talked about giants.

We talked about shame.

We talked about all of us have giants in our life.

Everybody here does.

And uh, what's a giant to one person may not be a giant to another.

It doesn't matter.

It's a giant in your heart.

And Joshua and Caleb never ever say there's not giants.

So if you're struggling with giants in your life or failures in your life, acknowledge it.

Don't run from it.

Be vulnerable and open about it.

I've got giants in my life.

We've got issues with our finances.

We're borderline bankruptcy.

We've got issues in our relationship with our daughter or our son.

I've got issues with sex stuff in my life, and and I want to walk in purity.

I mean, let's just acknowledge it.

You gotta acknowledge it to God, and you gotta acknowledge it to a bloodstained ally.

Okay?

But but but it's not, well we're gonna see in a moment, it's not as big as you think it is.

It's just too big right now for you to break through because your God is too small.

We'll come to that.

Number two, a nevertheless spirit has no vision.

A nevertheless spirit has no vision for your life.

Look at verses one and two of chapter 14.

So all the congregation lifted up their voices and they cried out, and the people wept that night, and all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron.

And the whole congregation said to them, Oh, if only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in the wilderness.

That's no vision, man.

That is no vision.

And one of the reasons you're here tonight, one of the reasons some of you bought those journals or you brought your journal and you're taking notes, is because you do have a vision for your life.

And you do want to grow.

You gotta have a vision for your life.

If you don't have a vision, if you don't know what road you're on, then any road's gonna get you there.

And we're on the road less travel at this church.

And you've got to ask God, God, what's your vision for us?

What's your vision for me in 2018?

Ask him.

Start setting goals.

Not just a vision, but you've got to have goals.

You gotta set some goals.

And then you discipline your life accordingly.

Desire, discipline, delight.

Desire, discipline, delight.

So desire, passion, discipline, goals, delight, joy of accomplishing all of that.

But you can't get to delight.

Everybody wants to get to delight from desire without discipline.

And so this there's no vision here.

Everybody's just is just so discouraged.

Hopelessness or lack of vision kills creativity.

Hopelessness or lack of vision for your life kills creativity.

You show me a man or a woman that's got a vision for something, I'll show you someone who'll creatively figure out how to get it.

And so creativity is birthed out of vision.

Without a vision, the people perish.

Actually, another translation is without a vision, people are unrestrained.

They're just all over the place.

And so vision birth is creativity in our lives as we have this view of something God's told us to do.

And we and we figure it out.

So the nevertheless spirit has no vision.

Verse 3, why has the Lord brought us to this land?

To fall by the sword?

That our wives and children should become victims?

Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?

Oh man, I was reading this and I'm going, oh, this is a biggie.

A nevertheless spirit lives with a victim mentality.

The nevertheless spirit lives with a victim mentality.

This spirit is always blaming others for their problems.

Their terrible childhood, terrible parents, their bad marriage, the weather, the car they drive.

Whatever.

Quarterback for Alabama.

Second string quarterback.

Have you guys read about that kid since then?

I've read about every article there is, and man, what a delightful young man.

Samoan birth out of Hawaii, just not given any chances at Bama this year.

Maybe seven times I think he played, like last minute of get blowout games, comes in to the second half of the national championship.

That tells me two things.

One, that I'm not I'm no big fan of Saban, but I'll tell you the dude's a genius.

And he's a risk taker.

Learn from that.

I mean, he he could see that his first string quarterback wasn't going to get the job done, and he was willing to risk on this kid.

Second thing it tells me is this kid was always ready.

He was ready and prepared when the opportunity came.

And men and women, God sets you up for opportunity when your heart is right.

And so, and so work on your heart.

In other words, opportunities tend to fall our way when we've prepared our heart for opportunities to fall our way.

It's not like if it ever comes my way, then, and this is really the way we are with money a lot.

Well, if I just had a raise, then I would start tithing.

And then it never happens, and you never tithe, and you go through, and suddenly your whole life's gone by.

You've always, always, always struggled with money because you never learned the first step of obedience, which is to give 10% away.

Even your top secular financial advisors will tell you give away 10% if you want to be wealthy.

Now, if you don't want to be wealthy and you always want to struggle, don't do it.

But if you want to be set free financially, learn to not let money possess you.

You possess your money.

And it begins with giving generously.

And as you give generously, then God starts to open doors.

God begins to knock over doors because he's got a conduit in you of his generosity flowing to the world.

That's true in everything.

And so what we see here is a victim mentality.

It's always somebody else's problem.

Two outlooks.

Well, there's these two men, Joshua and Caleb, and they give us the minority report.

Wasn't there a movie?

Got it called the minority report or something.

So this is the real minority report right here.

Joshua and Caleb, the spirit of breakthrough, the breakthrough spirit.

Look at verses six through ten.

But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephna, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes.

And they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.

Their protection is departed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Do not fear them.

And then all the congregation wanted to stone them with stones.

And the glory of the Lord appeared in the temple in the meeting before all the children of Israel.

So here's the definition of a breakthrough spirit.

Here's a breakthrough spirit.

Big God, pygmy problems.

Big God, pygmy problems.

Nevertheless, spirit, little God, giant problems.

Breakthrough spirit, big God, pygmy problems.

Three characteristics.

Number one, a breakthrough spirit focuses on the potential, not the problem.

It doesn't deny the problem, but it's looking at the potential of opportunity and breakthrough that can occur if we will believe.

This big God is what Joshua and Caleb believe in.

They believe that God has given this potential that's way better than anything they've had in the past.

In church, that's the way we've got to look at things.

That we want in 2018 something bigger, something greater, something more fruitful than you've ever had in the past.

You gotta want it.

How faith, faith in breakthrough gives us stuff that seemed insurmountable.

So the breakthrough spirit focuses on the potential, not the problem.

Number two, a breakthrough spirit focuses on the power of God to overcome.

The power of God to overcome.

Now listen, everybody, Joshua and Caleb don't have what it takes.

Joshua and Caleb, as far as we know, were no more talented.

They were not from any larger tribes than anybody else.

But they saw what the power of God could do through them.

And in this room right now, I would say, I hate to say it, I hate to break your heart, but you're all pretty average.

So am I.

I mean, we are.

We're average.

But with the power of God, we can be a genius on some things.

With the power of God, we can see God bring breakthrough that you naturally can never see happen.

You can defy the odds, you can break into stuff, and with your creativity and with your God-given skills coming together with a synergy that's supernatural.

And that is the truth, and that's what God always does.

He uses normal people to do astronomical things because they believe.

And again, I'm gonna talk about believing tomorrow night.

So, breakthrough spirit, running out of time here, focuses on potential.

Secondly, breakthrough spirit focuses on power.

And then this is the most important of the three.

A breakthrough spirit focuses on being a person God can be for.

This is really important.

Write this down.

A breakthrough spirit focuses on being the person God can be for.

To focus on being the person God can be for.

Now, this is the most important part.

We must be the person God wants us to be before we can do what God's called us to do.

And so when we make the focus, being Christ-like and loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, each day saying, God, I'm just gonna love you today with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, my neighbors myself, God, use me.

You're becoming the person that God can support.

You're becoming the person that God can strongly get behind because you're becoming his wholehearted disciple.

And it's really freeing, because you know how you do that?

There's so many ways, but one of them is you serve people.

Just start serving.

Just start serving.

It is amazing what God can do with someone who just becomes a servant.

I mean, tonight, you're gonna walk by and you'll see my wrappers, you know, littered around my seat.

No, but you'll see something and you'll pick it up.

Or you'll you'll go up beside someone who needs encouragement, you'll say an encouraging word, or you'll pray with a kid, or you'll pray with someone tonight.

Nobody notices that.

Except Jesus.

Nobody cares about that.

Except Jesus.

You see, with David, what was it about David that took him from the sheepfolds of Bethlehem to become king?

It says he was a man after God's own heart.

Nobody knew that but God.

And so as David worshiped with his sheep, when David cleaned their poop, when David carried the water, when David served his brothers, nobody was noticing that because when when Samuel came, they didn't even bring David to the anointing and forgot about him.

God didn't.

And so one of the things that we do in our lives, men and women, is we develop a hidden place with God, a secret history with God.

Nobody knows.

But he does.

And when he notices your heart, he will open doors, he will amaze you with miracles.

And so develop a secret history with God.

Develop a secret place with him.

Because he's seeing what you're thinking.

He hears the meditations of your heart as you cry out to him.

Nobody hears them but you and God.

And as you cry out to him, as you ask him to make you a man or a woman of God, to be a whole hearted disciple, that you really want to love him with all of your heart, soul might, he sees that, and he's going to start to bring breakthrough in your life.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.

If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.

Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.