Date: July 2, 2006
Passage: Numbers 13-14
Message: The Necessity of Seizing the Moments With God
Series: Surviving the Wilderness [4]
Talk about your ‘default settings’.
What kind of attitudes, responses or thought processes are ‘automatic’ in your life?
Read v31-34
….we can’t.. [v31]
…we saw…[v33]
…we seemed…[34]
Powerless, intimidated and insignificant!
In what areas of our lives do we often look like this?
What can we do about it?
“Israel wanted the land of milk and honey so much but they wanted it to come with a ‘no-risk’ clause.
They wanted the fruit of the land without a fight.
They had conceived in their mind that the land was just there to be possessed.
It was a place where faith was not necessary!
They wanted the promise land to be safe, domesticated and welcoming!â€
Is that our default position?
Thankfully it was not Jesus default position.
See John 1:11; Matthew 4:8; Matthew 27:45
God’s opportunities or defining moments never come with a ‘no risk’ clause.
Discuss
1. Those who seize divine moments KNOW that they don’t KNOW
People who seize divine moments embrace the danger and uncertainty and risk of obeying God.
We don’t always know what it will involve.
We don’t always know what it will cost.
We don’t always know where it will take us.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:26ff
Have we become too measured in our Christian life?
Have we become too practical?
Do we require God to give us more than we need to know before we will move?
Erwin McManus said that after September 11 he told his children that they had no control over how they DIE, but they do have control over how they LIVE.
Discuss
2. Those who seize divine moments know they won’t live until they die.
This is an often forgotten truth of the gospel.
Mark 8:34 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.
We find it hard to die to approval of others.
We find it hard to die to life in the ‘comfort zone’.
We find it hard to die to our dependency on things.
We want faith that enhances our living not one that encourages our dying!
Discuss
3. Those who seize divine moments will GO until they get a NO
These twelve men were sent into promise land not to make a choice whether to GO or not, but to SEE where they were GOING!
They were not sent to consider their options but to embrace their opportunities!
We keep turning God’s challenges into choices!
Give examples from our own lives?
There are many times when we claim to be waiting on God when in fact God is waiting on us!
Why do we keep asking God about things He has already spoken to us about?
What is it about our conversations with God that we seem to hear ‘no’ more readily than ‘yes’?