NOTES: Living Your Exodus, Part 3

Sermon: Living Your Exodus: Week 3: Our Promise Land

Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025

Text: Numbers 13: 25-33

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people 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. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Let’s Connect:

Monster underneath your bed? (#1 fear of kids)

Just because a thought seems and feels real, doesn't make it true!

Text Explained:

Israel’s land of promise (Ex. 3:8):

God’s Promise of the Already (Deut. 1:21-30):

The believer’s ‘promise land’ is the free and abundant life already given through Christ Jesus. Our promise land joyfully anticipates the day when that inheritance is eternally and fully realized.

Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

For freedom Christ has [already] set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:13 (ESV)

13 For you were [already] called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Freedom - Abundant life - Spiritual inheritance:

Narrative: the report and thoughts of the 10 (vs. 27-33):

True or false? “seeing is believing”

Israel’s Nephilim (underneath their bed)

Faith of Caleb (Joshua) in the Promise of the Already:

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Rather than Israel fighting for victory - God wants Israel to fight from victory.

Who is your monster underneath your bed— keeping you from more fully possessing your already inheritance? (Gal 5:7)

Galatians 5:7 (ESV)

7 You were [already] running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Any thought that looms large in your mind that stands between you and the inheritance God has already promised.

Paul doesn’t call them monsters, he calls them arguments against truth:

2 Cor. 10:3–6 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Arguments (speculations) & Lofty opinions:

Take every thought captive:

Ready to punish every disobedience

Examples of your Nephelim thoughts:

The Take Out:

Your choice— What do we do with the monsters underneath our bed?

1. Ignore them 2. Fear them 3. Feed them 4. Destroy them

Destroy them:

1. The active (not passive) worship of God (Joshua 6; Ps, 91:9-10; James 4:6)

2. Speak and meditate on the Word of God (2 Cor. 6:7)

3. Put on the full armor of God (Eph. 6:10-13)

Our Challenge:

Check under your bed every morning and night, then take action!

1 John 4:4 (ESV)

4 Little children, you are {already}] from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.