Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss this past Sunday's sermon from Numbers 13.
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss this past Sunday's sermon from Numbers 13.
Lindsey: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Lindsey Blair and I’m joined by Bobby Gilles. This past Sunday Pastor Jonah preached Numbers Thirteen. He taught us to see that the promises and presence of God protect you from the despair of doubt.
Jonah said that trust looks like promise and presence. We root ourselves in the promises of God and pursue the presence of God. This is what helps us to stay anchored in times of uncertainty; God always keeps his promises, and we can trust him, even when we are struggling to believe.
Bobby, what stood out to you?
Bobby: Jonah said that questions are good and healthy. Uncertainty is a normal part of the life of faith… but there’s a kind of doubt that kills the heart, and that kind of doubt is one of our enemies’ most powerful weapons. That kind of doubt doesn’t lead to inquisitiveness, it leads to something more like paralysis, where you can’t even see beyond your doubt.
Now, for anyone who missed the sermon or needs help remembering, let’s do a quick recap.
Lindsey: Pastor Jonah began by saying that doubt is one of the greatest weapons of our enemy. When doubt creeps into your heart, it leads to despair. We saw this in the text, when God told Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan. This was the land God had promised them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And the spies indeed came back with the report that the land was bountiful. However, it also contained giants. The spies filled the people with fear, which led to doubt.
Bobby: Caleb tried to calm everyone’s fears with an attitude of “we can do it,” but it didn’t work. One way you can tell this is a spiritual attack, not just a failure of nerve, is how irrational it is. How many times did God need to tell them he would give them the land? Doubt pulls us away from the promises of God. Some of the Israelites even convinced themselves that slavery wasn’t so bad, and maybe they should return to Egypt.
Lindsey: Moses responded by rooting the people in the promises of God. This is where it’s so helpful to be a student of God’s word — to love it, cherish it, and hide it in your heart. This is why we are participating in Bible Fellowships, to help the word of God sink deep within us. And when you have the promises of God in your mind, when you’re rooted in what’s true, you ask yourself a very simple question: What would I do if I believed this? How would act if I believed this promise was true?
Bobby: Trust the Spirit’s indwelling presence. He lives there, not because of your perfect faith, not because of your steadfast will and total commitment. But because of Christ’s. In the wilderness, unlike Israel, Jesus trusted the promises of God and lived like he believed them. In the garden before his death, he trusted the promises of God and lived like he believed them. At the cross of his execution, he trusted the promises of God and died like he believed them. At the empty tomb of his resurrection, we all bear witness that the promises and presence of God protect us from the despair of doubt.
Lindsey: This coming Sunday we’ll continue our current series, looking at the condition of spiritual blindness, through the lens of King David’s great sin. And in Bible Fellowship we’ll study Isaiah Fifty-Five, verses One through Nine, a classic passage to help us journey through the season of Lent.
Join us, and bring a friend.