God Is Good, But Are We Good With God? | Pr Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

The title of my message this morning is God is good,

but are we good with God? That's the title of

my message this morning. And yes, when I say God

is good, you say it all the time, right? Amen.

We believe that God is good all the time. He

is good.

Amen.

But the question is, are we good with God?

And when I ask that, The question basically just says,

you know, are we in a good place with the Lord?

Or are we at peace with the Lord? That's what

the question really means. Oh, by the way, I forgot.

I forgot to welcome all the students who came back

from the summer break. So a big welcome. Let's give

them a hand. You know, welcome. Welcome back from your

summer break. I just realized. Yeah.

And I hope you had a wonderful and fantastic time

during the summer. Yeah, we welcome you back for the

new semester. It's going to be wonderful. Okay, so let

me continue. So God is good all the time and

He never changes. In fact, we would always say that

nothing is impossible with God.

Amen? It's just a common theme.

That you will find in the Bible, repeated I think

at least two or three times, that nothing is impossible

with God. But the thing is this, I thought about it.

Nothing is impossible with God, but there's a but to

it within His very nature and character.

Okay?

Because if we use the word nothing is impossible to

God very loosely, I'm going to suggest to you that

there are many things that God cannot do.

One of it is God cannot lie. You know? It's

that simple. Why? Because God is truth.

Right?

And He cannot lie. You know?

It is impossible for God to lie. Actually, the Bible

does say that it is impossible for God to lie.

It's found in Hebrews 6, verse 16. And It's because

Hebrews 6:16

lying is out of His nature. You know, lying is

not in His nature. Lying is not in His character.

And so hence, it is impossible for God to lie.

Let me give you a few others, okay? God cannot

be tempted by evil. Okay, the Bible just says it

very clearly. I'm going to read it to you in

James 1, verse 13. It says, Let no one say

James 1:13

when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. Okay,

for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He

Himself tempt anyone. That's another one for you, okay? So

God cannot be tempted, okay? And neither will He tempt anyone, okay?

God will test, but He will not tempt.

There's a difference, okay?

And I'll get to that as the message progresses, okay?

Another one will be, God cannot deny Himself, okay? I

gave you the easy ones, because the Bible clearly says it.

You can find it there, okay? It says in 2

2 Timothy 2:13

Timothy 2, verse 13, if we are faithless, He remains

faithful and He cannot deny Himself.

Okay?

Of course, if you look at that verse, we also

can say that God cannot be unfaithful.

You can actually go further than that. Okay?

But I'll just skip into that for now because it's

very clear. It's in the Scripture. So yes, we believe

God is able to do all things. Nothing is impossible

for Him. within His very nature and the character of

God that never changes.

Amen?

So that's who our God is. So I started by

saying that God is good. He's good all the time.

And He never changes. But the question is, are we

good with God? You know, are we in a good

place with Him? Are we at peace with Him? When

times come and we feel that He is not so good,

you know, Are we still at peace with God? Okay,

and so the story I'm going to share about this morning,

which I'm going to draw from, is actually taken from

the story of the 12 spies that went into the

Promised Land.

Okay, and you'll be very familiar with this.

I'm sure you've heard this message preached before a thousand

times in different angles. But today, I'm going to try

to go a little bit deeper on... I'm trying to

pick up some details, you know, that I caught from

the Children's Bible, and.

I'm going to go deeper, okay? Alright, so... Before I

go there, can anyone.

Tell me when did Moses send the child spies into

the Promised Land? Okay, so you know that, I shouldn't

assume that you know, but I shall tell you that

the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, yes?

Yes?

Okay, if you didn't know, now you know, 40 years. Okay,

so can anyone tell me when did Moses send the

12 spies into the promised land? Okay, if you see,

he sent the 12 spies at the end of the

40 years.

Raise your hand, let me see. Anyone? Okay, no, okay.

He sent the 12 spies in the middle of the

40 years. Anyone? Okay, middle one or two, okay.

How about if anyone says that he sent the child

spies in the early part of the 40 years?

Anyone? Okay, one hand.

Okay, then 99% of them raised their hands. How many

of you are not sure? Let me see your hands.

All those people go to heaven, it's okay.

Not sure, okay. Okay, don't worry. I must confess to you,

I also wasn't sure. So I was just like you.

And that is why when I read.

The story in the children's Bible, I was shocked to

find out that did you know the child spice was

sent into the Promised Land, into Canaan, the Promised Land,

at the early part of the 40 years?

Before, actually it was before, okay? So I was surprised myself, okay?

Because when you read the book of Numbers, it's not

arranged chronologically, okay? So when you read it, you may

not exactly know when the spice was sent into the

Promised Land. So to give you an idea, the punishment

for the 40 years came after the spies went into

the Promised Land because they disobeyed God.

Now, I already gave you the end of the story.

We can go back already.

But that is actually how the story is like, right?

And so I hope to bring a bit more clarity

for us today on this story of the 12 spies

that went into the Promised Land.

Okay, so... By the way, if you read the Bible,

you will know that.

God commanded Moses to send the 12 spies into the

Promised Land.

And He commanded them.

To choose 12 leaders, one leader of each tribe. But

did you also know that it was actually not God's

idea to send the spies into the Promised Land?

Okay, let's read it.

Let's now start by reading from Deuteronomy 1, verses 19-23. Okay,

Deuteronomy 1:19–23

so Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 19 to 23. I'm going

Deuteronomy 1:19–23

to try to bring us through, step by step, chronologically,

how this event happened. And after this, we will be

much clearer on this, you know, 12 spies that entered

the Promised Land, the story of these 12 spies, okay? So,

Deuteronomy is written in such a way that Moses was

telling the second generation of the Israelites, okay? Not the

first generation that came out of Egypt. Now, I hope

you're aware of the story. Basically, the whole story started

when Joseph was betrayed by his brothers.

He got sold to slavery.

He ended up in Pharaoh's palace.

He was highly favored. He did so well in his job.

He went to the prison, into the king's palace, and

finally into a high place. He was a governor, or

he took care of the resources. And then after he

invited his entire family into Egypt, and they dwelt in Egypt.

For many years, okay? I think it's about 400 years

if I'm not wrong. Okay, many, many years.

They grew so strong that Pharaoh was afraid of the

Israelites and he punished them or he put them into slavery, okay?

And that's where the Israelites were in deep suffering. They

cried out to the Lord and the Lord heard their

voices and the Lord sent Moses to bring the Israelites

out of Egypt.

Following me so far? Okay, that's the whole.

Synopsis in like 30 seconds, okay? Which I took hours

to read. So, So now, Moses brings the people out

of Egypt. And if you're familiar, you will know that

he parted the Red Sea. And, you know, Pharaoh's chariots

went after them and got killed by the Red Sea.

And all the way, they journeyed.

And about within the first two years, they landed at

this place called Kadesh.

Now, can you show the map for a while? Benedict,

can you show the map for a while? Okay, I'm

so sorry. The map, you can't really see it, right?

Okay, but if you can see the journey, he went

all the way down and came back up to the

left-hand side, right in the middle.

You see right in the middle there?

That was actually where they ended up and where Moses

sent the 12 spies into the Promised Land. Okay, that

was not their final destination yet. You will know that

after that, they had to continue their journey all the

way down again and took a whole loop and only

they ended up at the top where they entered through

the Jordan River.

Okay, so that is the summary of the The Exodus.

The Exodus meaning that the Israelites came out of Egypt,

wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before they entered

into Canaan land, the promised land which God had promised

the Israelites.

Okay?

So my point is that the child spies that were

sent to the promised land was not God's idea.

It was actually suggested by the people. Did you know that? Okay?

It's found in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 19. It says.

Deuteronomy 1:19

So this Moses telling the story to the next generation,

to the next generation that has risen up.

This is not the generation that came out of Egypt.

He's telling the story. So we.

departed from Horeb and went through all that great and

terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the

mountains of the Amorites as the Lord our God had

commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Baniya. That's why

I showed you this now on the map in the middle.

Kadesh Baniya. That was roughly within the first one to

two years. of that 40 years.

Following me? The early part, okay? Okay?

And every man of you came to me and said,

Let us send men before us, and let them search

out the land for us, and bring back word to

us of the way by which we should go up,

and of the cities into which we shall come.

Okay, there you go. Did you see that?

Okay, so this, just to help you understand better, Moses

is narrating to the second generation, of what he was

speaking to the first generation. Okay, so it was the

first generation who came out of Egypt that suggested to Moses,

you know, and everyone who came to me and said,

let us send men before us and let them search

out the land for us and bring back word to

us of the way which we should go up and.

Of the cities in which we shall come. The plan

pleased me well. Moses, Moses speaking, the plan pleased me well.

So I took twelve of your men, one man from

each Okay, and I will stop there. And verse 24 says,

and they departed and went to the mountains and so

on and so forth.

Okay.

So here's my main point I'm trying to draw. The

Lord actually had already promised to the Israelites that He

was bringing them into the Promised Land. And despite of

all the promise, they still doubted Him. You know, as

I told you, it was not God's original plan for

them to send the child spies.

It was the people who actually asked for it.

Basically, the people, in other words, were testing God. God,

are you true to your word that you're going to

give us this promised land?

Okay?

Let us go and look at it or see it

for ourselves whether is God really true to his word

or not.

You know? Whether the land is really good or not.

Whether is it really legit or not.

It's like as though, right, a father promised a son

that if you studied well in your studies, I will

give you a present. You know, how many of you,

your dad did that to you before? You know, maybe

I'll buy you, I don't know, a phone or buy

you a toy car or I don't know, maybe whatever

it is.

It could be a.

Laptop for your studies to a university, whatever it is,

you know, okay? And then you scored your 10 A's.

Oh, I praise the Lord. You scored your 10 A's.

Then your father said, I bought the gift already.

And then you say to your father, where is it?

Show me. I want to go and see it first.

You know, then you go and spy your father's bank

account to find whether he bought the, whether the payment

went up or not.

You know?

So that's exactly, to give you a picture, that's exactly

what the Israelites did.

Okay? God had already given them a promise. Okay?

It's very clearly written, look at the land in which

the Lord is giving you.

Okay?

He's giving you. And do not fear, do not be discouraged.

But they wanted to test God. And they suggested to Moses,

you know, out of a good heart, maybe a very,

very innocent heart, let's just see it for ourselves first,

you know.

And Moses relented. Moses agreed to their request.

And part of the reason why Moses agreed was because

I think Moses was under a lot of pressure. If

you read the whole story, you'll know that there was

two people who went against Moses before they sent the

child spies, which is Miriam and Aaron. because of Moses' wife. Now,

I won't go into the details, but he was, I

would believe, under a lot of stress. That's why he

relented with that request, even though it was not God's

original plan to send the child spies into the land.

So my point is this.

In our journey in life, when God gives us a promise,

we don't necessarily have to see every part of the journey.

We don't necessarily have to see every detail of that promise. Because,

what if I told you that the journey to that

promise is going to be a rough one? It's going

to be a journey filled with challenges, with struggles, with

your ups and downs.

Would you still take it? No choice.

Because some of us may say, no thank you. We

may doubt God. We may be fearful. Because maybe the

challenges will scare us too much that we'd rather not

take the promise. That's what I'm trying to get at.

And that's what happened to this story. They were so fearful.

They wanted to see the promised verse before they trusted

the Lord. In other words, they doubted the Lord. They

wanted to see before they believed. How many of you

know in our journey of faith, God never asks us

to see before we believe? He calls us to believe.

He calls us to walk by faith and not by sight.

Amen. Walk by faith and not by sight. So I

really believe that that is God's.

Plan for us when He leads us on a journey.

Because if He shows us every single detail that we

had to go through, I don't think so we would

do it.

So I was just thinking about it.

You know, if many of our leaders saw the struggle

or the challenges that we would go through to plant

a church here in Ex-Somonyi, if I look back, if

I could see every detail of it, maybe it would

have happened, maybe. Or maybe I would have said, God,

find somebody else. You know, ask Ben.

Ben will do it.

You know, ask Wendy, you know. Whatever it is, okay.

Some of you are looking down, you're scared I call

your name. But no, you get the point. You know,

I would have been so afraid. So don't doubt. That's

my first point actually, okay. Do not doubt because God

never asks us to.

See before we believe.

He asks us to trust Him, believe in Him, you know,

to walk by faith and not by sight. Now let's

come to the stage whereby Moses actually sent the 12 spies. Okay,

now let's fast forward to Numbers chapter 13. And let's

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

look into a few more fine details of what exactly

happened when he sent the 12 spies into the Promised Land.

So Numbers chapter.

13, verse 1 to 3.

If you're there, say yeah. Yeah.

Okay, so this is where the account of the child

spies is found. And Numbers chapter 13 verse 1 says,

Numbers 13:1

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send men to

spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving

to the children of Israel from each tribe of their fathers.

You shall send a man, everyone a leader among them. Now,

when you read this passage by itself, we would think

that God commanded Moses to do it. But that's why

I showed you the passage before.

That the suggestion actually came from the people. Okay? God

actually accommodated the request. Okay? And gave the command to

Moses on how to do it. That's the difference. The

request came from the people.

Now God is giving the command on this is how

you should do it.

Okay?

So he says, Send men to spy out the land

of Canaan, which I am giving to you, the children

of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall

send a man, everyone a leader among them. So Moses

sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the

command of the Lord, all of them men who were

heads of the children of Israel. Okay, then a whole

list of names go there, which I'm going to skip. Okay,

you can read it. And verse 17, let's look at

verse 17. Then Moses sent them to spy out the

land of Canaan and said to them, go up this

way into the south and go up into the mountains.

catch this, and see what the land is like. Whether

the people who dwell in it are strong or weak,

few or many. Whether the land they dwell in is,

come on, good or bad. Are you catching something?

Good or bad.

Whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds.

Whether the land is rich or poor.

Whether there are forests, There or not? Wow.

Did you see the command that Moses gave to the

twelve spies? Does that tell you something already? Did you

know that in that command itself, it was different from

what God initially had commanded Moses and the Israelites? Why

did God initially command them? Go into the land. I'm

giving you this land.

Who stopped? Okay? Okay?

And the other detail that God gave to them was

the land is flowing with milk and honey. When you

look at the command that Moses gave to the 12 spies,

you don't see those details. In fact, there were more

details than what God actually told them to do. right

Moses actually asked the child spies to look to spy

the land and find out whether the land the people

there are strong or weak strong or weak what if

they were strong would you not go what if they

were weak they would have still gone but they would

have gone with their own strength you see you see

what's the problem Secondly, asked to see whether the land was.

Good or bad.

Come on, God already said, I'm giving you the land

flowing with milk and honey. But yet, the question was

asked to them, see whether it's good or bad. See

where the doubt came and where there's now disobedience because

the commandment was different now from what was originally given.

You know, see whether the people are few or many.

See whether the cities are like camps or strongholds. See

whether the land is rich or poor.

Wow, can you see that? It's getting worse. The commandment.

I'm not sure whether you have seen this detail before

or not. As it is.

You know, because it's very different from what was the

original instruction given. You know, see whether there are forests

or not. And in the command, right, Moses did not

reaffirm that God is already giving you this land.

You know, it's like as though you.

Go to the exam hall and your lecturer came out

to you and said to you, this exam, the question

to the exam is really this question. And yet, you

still don't believe it and yet you still want to

go and you will still probably study everything. Maybe you

don't believe the lecturer. For whether the lecturer is true,

he literally told you that yes, this is already the question.

And if you only literally study this one question, you

would have scored 100 marks. You know, it's that kind

of scenario, you know. Yeah, that's what they went through,

you know. And this is what I call as partial

obedience is still disobedience. You know, because although they obeyed

God with the commandment to send the 12 spies, but

it was only partially correct. It was only partial obedience.

You know, he only obeyed the command partially. And so

I thought about it, right? Why did God still send

the child spies into the land? Why did God allow it?

God could have just said no to the request. And

by the way, not every request that comes to you

is maybe a good request. You have heard us say

before that not everything that is good is of God.

Right?

Not everything that is good is of God. So sometimes

your friends may come to you with... A simple recommendation,

you know, maybe you could say that, oh, you know,

I'm having exams, it's very busy, I'm a bit tired.

And your friend out of a good intention just tells you, yeah,

maybe you.

Should just skip church.

Sounds like a good idea, but it's not a God idea,

definitely not a God.

Idea, you know.

So not every request or every suggestion that comes to

you is of God. And we ought to discern and

to know and to ask God for wisdom to discern.

And so Moses relented with that request, okay? And so

the question is, why did God allow it? God allowed

it because He wanted to test what is truly in

their hearts. You know, it's only during the testing that

we know what is truly in our hearts. And I

told you earlier that God does not tempt us. God

will test us. There's a difference, okay?

Normally, temptation is something related to something evil. Okay?

But when God tests us, He always tests us to

pass us, not to fail us. That's why I told you,

God already given them the answer. Whether you like it

or not, the land I'm already giving you, whether you

believe it or not, God's telling the Israelites. And I

already gave you the answer to the exam. The land

is flowing with milk and honey. That's the answer. That's

all you needed to know. But yet, in that time,

their hearts were tested. Whether they truly trust God in

His promises or whether they doubted Him and wanted to

see it for themselves. And so, that is what we

ought to live our life with, which is to live

by faith. You know, to trust God in the unknown,

to trust God in the unseen. You know, and I

like to put it this way, faith for the unseen

and faithfulness for the waiting. You know, faith to trust

God in the things that you cannot see. Faith to

trust God in the time that you may not fully understand.

And faithfulness in the waiting. Faithfulness in the waiting. Faithfulness

in the suffering. That is what we ought to live

our lives. And so, God will test us. May I

suggest to you that God will test us to reveal

what is truly.

In our hearts. Because God already knows what is in

our hearts. Okay?

God knows everything. You know, the Bible actually says that

our hearts, I think it's our hearts condemn us or

something like that. No, God already knows what's already in

our hearts.

Okay? We cannot lie to God because He knows all things.

So Proverbs chapter 17 verse 3 says, The refining pot

Proverbs 17:3

is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the

Lord tests the hearts. The refining pot is for silver

and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.

So God already knows what's in our hearts, but He

tests us so that we will know what is really

in our hearts. So friends, when you go through testing,

don't be too quick to blame God for it. Because actually,

I really believe that it's a time that reveals what is,

reveals what is in our hearts.

It's like how the.

Goal goes through the five-way furnace, you know, through the...

the pot, the refining pot, and it melts away all

the infirmities, melts away all the bad stuff. And then

out of it, you get, you know, a shining gold,

you know, or you get the metal that we are

looking for, as pure as it is in its purest form.

That is what the Lord will bring us through in

our lives. He will test us to reveal what is

in our hearts so that we can trust Him, so

that we can obey Him, so that we can.

Follow Him, so that we can change.

According to who He wants us to be.

Amen?

That is the journey that you and I ought to

trust in Him. Every fire and journey that we go

through is to bring out the best in us. It's

a process to bring out the best in us. So

when I look at this story of the child spies,

it's sad. It's really sad, no? That when they went in,

The commandment was different from what was originally given. And

because the command was different, you will find that the

outcome was different.

Okay? So now let's look at the outcome.

What happened after they went into the promised land?

Okay?

I stopped at Numbers chapter 13 until verse.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

20 just now, right? Where the land, okay.

Okay, so verse 21 says, So they went up and

spied out the land from the wilderness. so on and

so forth. And we will skip all the way until verse,

let me see, okay. Let's look at verse 23, okay.

Let's look at verse 23. Then they came to the

valley of Eshcol and there cut down a branch with

a cluster of grapes.

They carried it between two of them on a pole.

Now the grapes that they took from the land was

so big they needed two people to carry it. That

was how prosperous and how wonderful the land is. Because

God had already promised the land flowing with milk and honey, right?

And so they brought some of the pomegranates and figs.

The place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of

the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.

And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days.

Somebody say 40 days.

Now 40 days is usually likened to a test in

the Bible. Okay, numbers have significance in the Bible. And

40 days is usually likened to a test. Jesus was

So Jesus pastored 40 days in the wilderness and he

was tempted by the devil. And of course he passed

the test. So 40 days is very commonly known as

a period of testing. So they returned from spying the

land after 40 days. Now they departed and came back

to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the

children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.

They brought back word to them and to all the congregation,

and showed them the fruit of the land.

Wonderful. Praise the Lord.

Then they told them and said, We went to the

land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk

and honey, and this is its fruit. Now if I

zoom into every detail of it, what they're basically saying is,

it truly flows with milk and honey. So now they

are saying, God, your word is true. Did you catch that?

Now they are actually proclaiming God, whatever that you said,

it truly is.

Now they cleared the doubt already. Okay?

Truly is flowing a milk and honey and this is

its fruit. And comes verse 28. Nevertheless, the people who

dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified

and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites,

the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains. the

canonized jewel by the sea along the banks of the Jordan.

You see the response?

What did Moses ask them to do? See whether the

land is good or bad. See whether it's rich or poor.

So yeah, they agreed. The land is rich, the land

is good. What else did he ask them to do?

See whether there are few or many. Now he's saying

there are many. He asked them to see whether they

are strong or weak. And now they are saying they

are strong.

You see?

So based on the command, the child spies did what

was commanded. And the result came out exactly what was

asked of them. You know, more details than what God

had initially given them or told them.

To trust Him.

That was the promise then that God was already giving

to them. And so then Caleb quieted the people before Moses.

We have a Caleb here. Hey, shout out to Caleb.

And let us go up at once and take possession

for we are well able to overcome it. But the

man who had gone up with him said, We are

not able to go up against these people, for they

are stronger than we. Come on, you see, it's getting worse.

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 in a land that devours its inhabitants.

And all the people whom we saw in it are

of great stature.

Not only did they now no longer trust God that

it was good Now they are saying there is a

bad report. And verse 33 says, then we saw the giants,

the descendants of Anak came from the giants and we

were like grasshoppers in our own sights. And so we

were in their sight. And now comes the desperation out

of fear and trembling and out of, you know, their

fear when they saw the people And now came the exaggeration.

They looked like grasshoppers in the sight of the giants.

They forgot that the same God who promised them was

the same God who brought them through the Red Sea,

the same God who provided for them with a pillar

of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

It was the same God who fed them manna and

quail in the wilderness, the same God who provided water

for them in the wilderness, the same God who made

their clothes not.

Wear out in the time of the wilderness, the same

God who made their sandals not wear out.

But yet, the response tells us that they saw that

the people and the giants were stronger than we. Friends,

when God gives us a promise, sometimes I really believe

there's a good reason why He doesn't want us to

see every detail.

Because we may doubt Him.

And we may look at the challenge, we may look

at the struggle, we may look at the giant that

is bigger than our God.

Which in fact is not true.

God is bigger than any giant, than any struggle, any challenge,

any obstacle that we may face. Because His promises are

yes and amen. Can I have a good amen? His

promises are yes and amen. God has already given the promise.

And when they doubted, they first had a doubt. From

the doubt, they had disobedience. From the disobedience, they had disillusioned.

When they saw that now, they became so small. And

their eyes focused on the impossibility of God rather than

the possibility of God with them. You know, their eyes

focused on the giants. Their eyes focused on the problem.

And so we have a saying. You have heard us

say this before many times. Don't tell God how big

your problem is. Tell your problem how big your God is.

Because God was with the Israelites. You know, He never

left them. He performed miracles in front of them. And

every single one of them saw it.

They knew. First-hand experience.

I will say, right, if we experience the miracles today first-hand,

I think all of us will be like super on

fire for God. But it's hard to say that because

sometimes as humans, we tend to forget very easily.

You know?

From the time, I told you, from the time that

they left Egypt and God performed all the miracles, it

was within the first two years when they came to

this place called Kadesh.

It was more or less within there, okay?

It was in the early stage of the 40 years. Now,

if they wander for 40 years, only they end up

in the canon and spying the land, maybe I can understand.

40 years is a long time. You may have forgot

by then. But it's not this. It's only in the

early stage of the wandering in the wilderness. Yet, they

can forget. And we are like that because as humans,

we tend to forget. We tend to forget what God

has done for us. We tend to forget His promises.

We tend to forget His character and His nature. Even

as we get along with the business of life and

the hustle of life, we can forget. And today I

want to remind us to remember what God has done

in your life. You know, sit down and just reflect.

You know, every year I do this exercise, you know.

At the end of the year, I will sit down

and I will just reflect of how good God has

been to me personally, to my family, to the church.

And I remember some of the miracles that we have had,

some of the good things that God has done for us.

Because if we don't sit down and remember the good things,

we will forget. Because as natural as human beings, we

tend to remember the bad things more than the good things.

So I think we need more help or more effort

remembering the good things. So it reminds us of who

God is and that God is with us.

Amen. Amen.

And so this story didn't stop there. After they saw

the impossibility, they had fear. They saw that the giants

were bigger than their God. They saw that they couldn't

do it. They saw the impossibility. And out of that,

the response came from the Israelites. What was the response?

In chapter 14, just the next verse, it says, So

all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and

the people wept that night. And all the children of

Israel complained against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation

and said to them, if only we had died in

the land of Egypt or if only we had died

in this wilderness.

Ouch.

Can I say to you, be careful what you ask for.

Careful what you pray for. 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? So

they all said to one another, let us select a

leader and return to Egypt. I'm going to continue reading it, okay?

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all

the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son

of Jephunneh, who were among those who spied out the land,

tore their clothes and then spoke to the congregation of

the children of Israel and saying, the land we pass

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 has departed from them,

and the.

Lord is with us. Do not fear them.

And the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now

the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of

meeting before all the children of Israel.

And I'm going to stop there.

So now, from their doubt to their disobedience, now they

refused to go into the land. And they have turned

their back against God and this own God. And they

wanted to go back to Egypt. Now I said, be

careful what they asked for because what they wished for

actually came to pass.

Did you know that? This was the first generation that

came out of Egypt.

They said, if only we had died in the land

of Egypt or if only we had died in this wilderness.

So if you continue reading this story, it's quite sad

because This entire generation that came out of Egypt never

entered the Promised Land except two people. Joshua and Caleb

was the only one in that generation that entered the

Promised Land. Every other one of them died in the wilderness.

And only when God raised up the next generation were

they able to enter the Promised Land which God had

promised to their fathers.

So I thought about it, you know. be very careful with.

What we ask for or even what we pray. Because oftentimes,

if we are not careful, the very complaints that we

have are actually a result of our answered prayers. Think

about it for a moment. I'm going to pause there.

Think about it.

Sometimes the very complaints we make can be a result

of our answered prayers. And this hit me very hard

when one time I was on Instagram and I like

to scroll Instagram at times.

I'm not on it a lot, okay?

But when I'm on it, I like to find things

that are motivating or would, you know, would speak to me.

You know, sometimes I find baby contents and yeah, okay.

Basically healthy things lah. And I bumped across this one

post that really struck me hard. And it says this.

Be careful of the prayers that we pray and the

complaints that we make because we get stuck in traffic

because we own a car.

We complain that we get stuck in traffic because we

own a car.

We complain that we are tired from work because we

have a job. We complain about waking up in the

middle of the night because we have a baby. we

are exhausted after a workout because you have a healthy body.

We have a sink full of dishes because you had

food to eat. We have a basket full of laundry

because you had clothes to wear.

And I read it, right?

There was that moment where the Lord just spoke into

my heart. And sometimes I can be like that. You know,

I pray that none of us are like that. But

by the grace of God, you know, we are still sinners, right?

And sometimes the very complaints that we have, right, are

actually the result of the answered prayers.

That God has given us.

And so sometimes in the middle of the night, I'm

like agitated because my baby is waking me up at

like 4am.

In the morning. And I'm like, I'll tell my wife,

is she your son? It's a joke. As parents, I

will tell the other spouse, is she your son or

is she your daughter? You know? And so, I thought

about it. And like, yeah, it wasn't the baby, the

answered prayer that we had prayed to the Lord. You know?

And if you're not careful, sometimes you're like that. You know,

the very complaints that we have. And so, the reason

why we complain is because we forget. We either forgot

that that was the prayer that we prayed for. We

either forgot that God has been gracious and God provided

for you.

God gave you a job. And some people.

may not have a job or may struggle to find

a job. And so I learned to be grateful.

I learned to be grateful that I can wake up

early and go.

To an office which has a job. Now your job

may not be perfect. Your office may not be perfect.

Your school may not be perfect. Your lectures are not perfect.

But aren't we grateful that we have, we are privileged

like that?

And we complain.

Because we forget. So I want to encourage us today.

You know, I don't intend to end the message on

a low note. But I want to encourage us today.

There is power in remembering. Because when we truly remember

what God has done for us, when we truly remember

what God, who God is to us, His character that

never changes and His character that is good. That's why

I started my message by saying, God is good. He

is good all the time. But the question for you

and me today is, are we good with God? Are

we in a good place with Him? Are we at

peace with Him? You know, will you only accept the

good times and not the bad times? Because I read

it in Job, the book of Job. He also said,

you know, when God allowed Satan to take everything away

from Job and his three friends told him, you should

curse God and die.

And Job said, will you only accept the good and

not the bad from the Lord?

So God allows certain things to happen in our lives,

not because He is bad. He is good all the

time regardless. But He allows it to shape us. He

allows it to put us through the refining fire. He

allows it to test our hearts. To test what is

truly in our hearts so that we may learn to

obey Him. We may learn to trust Him. We may

learn to surrender our lives to Him.

Amen.

So that's my encouragement to us this morning even as

I invite the worship team to come up. You know,

in this story of the child spies, they disobeyed God.

And because of their disobedience, that 40 days of spying

the land became 40 years of punishment.

You can read it.

It's actually there. It's written very clearly. And so God

did not require them to spy on the land. And

so I thought about it. You know, when God gave

us a promise, when God told us to do something,

Maybe the Lord has given you a word. Maybe the

Lord has given you a promise. And His promise is

everywhere in the Bible. You can find His promises all

over there in the Bible. Maybe God has already spoken

to you of a promise. Maybe learn to trust Him.

Maybe learn to obey Him.

Don't doubt.

And don't only partially obey. Because partial obedience is still disobedience.

And most importantly, don't look at the giants and the

challenges that are.

Ahead of you. But rather look to God.

Look to God who is the author and finisher of

our faith. So I'm going to close with this one verse.

It's not on the slide. It's found in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:20

chapter 1 verse 20. For all the promises of God

in him I yes and amen. Yes and in Him, amen.

To the glory of God through us.

Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

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is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.