How to Be Brave
Updated: Aug 25
We can learn to see through our enemies to see God’s presence. When troubles like fear, depression, or anxiety seem right on top of us, we can look through them to see that God is right on top of them. Without struggle would assume that the strength came from us instead of from God. But God wants to show Himself strong on our behalf by working in and through our weaknesses.
We are afraid of bad news. “I need to talk to you about something.” If you get enough
bad news, it creates an undercurrent of dread in your psyche. What do you do with
bad news? Paul said in Philippians 4: “Think about things that are of good report.”
The report you believe is much more important than the news you receive.
A reporter wanted to write a story about our church. A veteran pastor told me, “He’s
not writing a story that’s true, He’s writing a story that sells, and that story is
already written.”
You are an investigative reporter. You go out every day collecting evidence. But may
I suggest that your story is already written based upon the nature of God and His
disposition toward you.
Numbers 13: 18-23
. The spies are sent into the Promised Land. They are requested to bring back a
report. What is the land like? Are there trees, fertile ground, fruit? Moses never asks
the spies to tell Him if they were strong enough to do what God has called them to
do.
God knows that if you size up yourself, you will always retreat in fear.
My purpose as a preacher is to be a big magnifying glass of a big God. You will tend
to size up yourself according to your weaknesses and not your strengths.
The report you believe determines the future you experience.
Verse 26 “Look at these grapes, the fruit of God’s blessings. The grapes represents
God’s reality. You experience your perspective. We don’t experience our reality, we
experience our perspective of reality.
Do you tell an all-powerful God that your enemies are too powerful to defeat?
There are ten spies talking about giants. There are 2 spies talking about grapes.
Spies inside of you? Ephesians says we have every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places.
Caleb silences the people. We should go up, take possession of it. We should for we
can. They saw the same reality, but they believed a different report.
We can’t so we won’t. They ended up dying in the desert. You are looking at it
wrong.
Verse 32-Fear will turn good news into a bad report.
You don’t have to have good news to have a good report!
The giant is big, but the grapes are bigger!
God had promised Israel about the land they were going into 170 times in Scripture!
Exodus 3:8 God said, “I have come to rescue them out of this land (Egypt) into a
good and spacious land, a land of milk and honey.”
God said, “Before you ever got here, I gave it to you.”
If you don’t experience victory, it isn’t because God didn’t give it!
If the Israelites didn’t have the faith to enter, how would they have had the faith to
fight!
Joshua 2:1 We can’t walk by sight, we MUST walk by faith!
We’ve got to focus on the first thing we have to do, then the next…just go check out.
God secretly sent how many spies. You only need two spies.
Psalm 23:6:
David said “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…you only
need two spies. Surely goodness and mercy (love) shall follow you all the days of
your life.
Goodness and mercy will follow me! I’m going forward in faith. I’ve got a great
report.
My story is already written!
Preached at Elevation Church. Used by permission.
