If you would, if you got your Bibles, let's look at the book of Numbers chapter 13. That's where we're gonna pretty much be staying is Numbers 13 and 14. For this morning and just kind of let me see if I can tie all this together a bit We have two more months left in this year. Of course our the the front of the bulletin there Reminds us every single time that we get one that our our focus for this year our theme for the year is for such a time I must be about My father's business must be about the work. There's not much time left, and we must work while it is day, because the night cometh when no man can work. And we are here for a purpose. If we had a choice, we probably would not have chosen this time frame. And you think about it, you could probably think about several times in the past, in the history of our country, of the world, there are probably several timeframes you'd look at and say, that would be my rather choice right there. However, God did not ask our opinion. He decided to put us here at this time because he knew exactly who he would want to entrust this time with. And we are here not because he has to have us, we are here because he wants to use his people in this time to do a job that he's left us to do. Well, we've been looking every single month with a different focus of if we're here for such a time, then what's it gonna take for us to be effective? for such a time. How are we going to be what God wants us to be and accomplish what God desires us to accomplish in this time with all that we face? Well, the only way to accomplish it, we looked in January and we talked about faith. It's going to take a genuine, not just a made up, well, here's the faith I've come, here's my version of truth. No, no, no, the Bible version of truth. God's word, the faith that matters. Then we said February's gonna take compassion. If you don't have compassion, you'll walk away from everybody and everything and say, forget it, it's about me, not about them. It's compassion. Anybody ever made you mad? And let me guess, when you got mad, you wanted to do, I mean, as much as you possibly could to help them. No, no, compassion probably left quickly. And so compassion is what holds us accountable and keeps toe in the line on that and keeping us from just becoming cold hearted and ugly. And we need compassion if we're gonna accomplish the job. We need commitment. That's a dirty word today. Commitment, ones that will stick with it, not let the ups and downs of hardships cause people to say, well, I thought this is what God wanted me to do, but I've changed my mind, I'm out. We need commitment, stick with it. April, we said we need, you gotta have times of renewal. You gotta allow the Lord to refresh. If you always are giving out, giving out, giving out, and not giving God the time to renew and to replenish within you what is needed, you'll eventually give out to the point that you run dry and there's nothing else to do. There's nothing else you can give. We must allow the renewal within us so that God can continue working through us. In May, we brought up another hard topic of it all, and that is brokenness. If we're not willing for God to break us, not willing for God to bring hard things, if we're not willing for God to bring about that which may not be desirable in order to put us in a moldable state, then if we're not willing to be broken, we can't be fashioned in the way that He desires. We'll build our own, we'll do our own, and we won't let God touch us. No, sometimes He needs to break us of our will so that He can fashion us according to His. In June, we said, we need courage. You ain't gonna last if you're not courageous. There's a lot of things to scare us in the world today. And if we're not courageous, if we don't have courage, we will tuck tail and run. Forget charge, we'll say retreat. July, we said this one got, a lot of folks commented on this one. If we're gonna accomplish what we need to today for such a time as this, we're gonna need consistency. That's a tough one. We're really good at starting things, not so good at seeing it through consistently. August, we said we need conviction. It's not about how you feel, not about how I feel. It's about the conviction the Lord places upon our life according to the truth of his word. And by that conviction, I stand. By that conviction, I speak. By that conviction, I live. And by that conviction, I will not be moved. There is not always a bad side of stubbornness. There can be a good side of stubbornness. It's just got to be pointed in the right direction. September, we said, we need steadfastness. That steadfastness, yeah, it goes along with commitment, it goes along with consistency, but steadfastness is keeping our eyes fixed. It's keeping ourselves looking forward, looking to God, the author and finisher of our faith. Steadfast in that which he has given us to do. It goes back again to that thought of I shall not be moved. I'm gonna stick to the path that God has for me. And then last month was purpose. What is that path? An individual who has no purpose has no reason for life. And if you look around the day and you're hoping the job you have or the things you have or even the family you have or the friends you have give you your purpose, all of that can change in a heartbeat. There has to be a purpose that pushes me forward outside of the material things of this life. There must be a purpose that goes beyond me. And God has given us that purpose. God has given us that reason for life. It's called the gospel. I have a purpose. It's to get missionaries. No matter who they are, they're getting the gospel out. It's to get missionaries to the field to get the gospel where maybe I cannot be. And it's also for me to be faithful here to get the gospel where I can. Gotta have purpose. And then this month, we just got two left. Not gonna give you next month, so you gotta wait for it. But this month is in the bulletin there, the pastor's pen. It's gratitude. See, that's kind of an odd one. Well, it is and it's not because it does go along with what we're looking at in Numbers chapter 13. As we continue looking at the children of Israel in our focus here, the dying in the wilderness, why? Why so many die in the wilderness? Why not get out of the wilderness? Why do you wanna go back and live there? Well, what's going on with that? There is a promised land across the other side of decision that there is hope of the ability of God's promises and God's blessings and God's goodness. Why would you want to try to survive in the wilderness of God's grace and mercy instead of thriving in the promised land of God's blessings? And that's what it comes down to. When you're in the wilderness, you have God's grace and mercy being applied, because it's not where he wanted you. So every day, by his grace, he provides what you need, and by his mercy, he doesn't destroy you. Sometimes by His grace He gives you that which you do need but you don't deserve and by His mercy He restrains that which you do deserve because you chose not to follow Him. I don't know about you, I appreciate God's grace and God's mercy. I'm not against that idea. I'm thankful for God's grace and God's mercy. If it wasn't for grace and mercy, we wouldn't have salvation. But as a whole, to live every single day in nothing but hoping for grace and mercy, grace and mercy, grace and mercy, that's no life for the child of God. I live every day in the wilderness just trusting that God's gonna show me a little more mercy. Well, that's no way to survive or no way to live. That is just surviving, it's not truly living. God desires his children to go across the decision point of the Jordan into what he provided as the promised land. And we already, we've mentioned again, I don't wanna rehash everything, but we do have some folks that maybe have not heard and all that we've going through. So just in a quick glance of it all, the promised land is not a picture of heaven. Jordan is not a picture of death when it comes to dying in this life and passing over into heaven. If the promised land was heaven, then there's gonna be battles and there's gonna be ups and downs. There's gonna be valleys and mountains. No. Heaven is not battles that you might lose. Heaven's not facing hardship. When we get to heaven, all of this passes away. Being in the presence of God will fix all the issues. And you only get there through the blood of Jesus Christ. But the promised land shown to us in a picture of the children of Israel, the promised land is just that. It is a land where God fulfills his promises in this life. A land where God can provide his blessings in this life. It is a place that God desires all those who put their faith and trust in Him. It is the place where God desires you and I to dwell and live with His help, His guidance, and in obedience to His will while we live in this life. That's the picture. So what is Jordan? It is a picture of death in one aspect. It's the death of me. It's the death of self. It's the death of my want. It's me crucifying that which would drive me to, I'm gonna do it my way. And saying, Lord, I'm gonna do it your way. It's crossing over, it's a fork in the road. Do I follow my own path? I'm a child of God, I've been born again, I am His, but am I gonna follow what He wants for my life as the new creature in Christ, or am I still gonna try to follow my own way? That's the point of the Jordan decision. And we're gonna see that today very quickly here. in this passage of scripture, and we're gonna look at what it is we're dealing with, the children of Israel. Now, I'm just gonna tell you now, my clocks are not saying, so I am confused when it comes to time right now. It's not my fault. All right, I'm picking, okay. You're with me in November. You're with me in Numbers. We are, you're with me in November too. If you're with me in the book of Numbers, look at chapter 13, starting in verse number 25. I'm just gonna read three verses and then we're gonna look. And let me tell you, yes, this month is about gratitude. If we're gonna accomplish what God wants us to accomplish in such a time as this, we better learn to be grateful for what God is doing. Be grateful for what God has done. Be grateful for what God provides. Be grateful for what God gives me opportunity to accomplish. Because the children of Israel faced their issues due to the fact that they had a lack of gratefulness, and when they, if you read the pastor's pen, you'll see where I'm going with this, that with a lack of gratefulness, they became inwardly focused. And as they focused inwardly, they could not see God moving. All they could see is not getting what I want. Their lack of gratitude caused them to take their eyes off the Lord. And when they took their eyes off the Lord, they could not see his promises. They could not see his faithfulness. They could not believe by faith he would do it because it's not fitting what I want. They turned inwardly, forgot their gratitude, and they said, it'd be better off that we just do our own thing and go back to Egypt. That's what we're gonna see happen. So this morning, via title. Our title this morning is Old Fashioned Faith and Obedience. Look with me in verse number 25 through verse number 27 of Numbers chapter 13. It says, and they returned from searching of the land after 40 days. So God has told, they come, they finally, after all this traveling across the wilderness, there was a period of time in the wilderness, getting from Egypt, getting to their opportunity to go into the promised land and to take it and to be victorious. And they come to that point finally, after months of traveling to get there, and the children of Israel reach that destination, and God tells Moses, send spies into the land to go look and search. Basically, go in, send your spies, which makes sense, number one, but also it's a double purpose. They're gonna come back with a message that all I have promised is true. They're gonna come back with a message that all they saw just confirmed everything you've been hoping that I said would come to pass. Now watch, they go in, now they're coming out. They come back, they return from searching the land, they've been there for 40 days. I'll give you this little nugget. When God decides and says, your rebellion has now caused me to have to put sentence of judgment upon your lives, you're gonna wander in the wilderness. The Bible tells us, why 40 years? Why would it be 40 years? The Bible specifically tells us, God tells them one year for every day they spied out the land and saw that my promises and my blessings were true. and yet came back and you rejected and rebelled against me. One year for every day they went in and they stayed and they saw the goodness of the Lord and the promises and the blessings to be true and yet you denied following me and you denied faith in me and you decided to do your own way. One day for every year you'll wander for 40 years. So that's where we get the 40 from. Verse number 26 says, here's what takes place. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation, the children of Israel, under the wilderness of Peran. And that's where they're at right now, to Kadish. And brought back word unto them and unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Here's the evidence of God's truthfulness. Verse number 27 says, and they told him and said, we came into the land where thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. That should be all it takes, right? God told us the truth. God's promises are real. It's waiting, it's there just like he said. And yet, that's not enough. Let's pray real quick and ask the Lord to help us and we're gonna look very swiftly at the account of what takes place. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning. Use this time, show us, Lord, the issue and the problems that stem from a lack of gratitude from a focus inwardly and not a focus on the goodness of the Lord and the faithfulness of our God, the faith that we should have and the obedience that we should follow. Lord, would you help us to see the evidence of others' failure and realize I don't want that. I want the blessings of God. I want the benefits of following God. Lord, would you help us to see this and apply the truths that we learn to our hearts and our lives today. We ask it all in Christ's name, amen. So as we look at this, let's look at the things that happened. Just a few things here. First and foremost, here it is. Number one, there is the good report. We just read it. They come back and they say everything God said is true. Everything God promised is there. It's all waiting for us. Not a single thing is missing. We spent 40 days. We've seen it all. We've experienced it all. We even brought back some evidence. You gotta try these grapes. They're awesome. And there's a ton of them. This place called Eshkol over there, boy, it's full of grapes. And boy, it's so much, it took two of us to carry it on a pole. And this is just a small section. There's food abundant, there's land abundant. And it's ripe for us to go in and possess and do everything God promised we could do. We can flourish in this land. There's the good report. You would think that the good report would be enough, but unfortunately it wasn't. Now watch. You say, well, how did they know for sure what that report, what they were looking for? Well, in Exodus chapter three, verse seven and eight, God specifically tells them that he is going to take them, he's gonna remove them, I'm not gonna read it, go back and read it yourself, but in Exodus three, verse seven and eight, he says that he is coming to Egypt Through Moses, he is coming to bring his children out of captivity, out of Egypt, to take them to a land which floweth with milk and honey. In other words, the milk and the honey is a general understanding of everything that a person would need, provision. You've got the milk, and all that goes, that idea of the milk is a sustaining, nature of all that you're gonna need in provision. Think about it with milk and calcium and all the different things, the things a body would need, all that you want. And then honey, the sweetness of provision. I mean, you have the fullness of provision and you have the sweetness of provision. It's all there. And God said, I'm taking them to a land. It didn't literally, I mean, it wasn't Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, okay? It wasn't literally flowing with chocolate milk and honey and all that kind of stuff. But it was an understanding. A place that flowed with milk and honey was a place that had the fullness of provision and the place that had the sweetness of provision. It's all there. It's got everything we need. And God told them in Exodus 3 that he was going to take them to a place with that description, where they would be able to live in this life in the abundance of the blessings of God, with victory, and not being held as captives to that which destroys. Not only that, but from that point all the way until they go and they spy out the land, five times they were told this land is a land that flows with milk and honey. Five times they are confirmed over and over and over again, and then when they see it, every bit of it is proven true. All their hopes is right before them. But then we have number two, the good report. exciting. But the only two that stuck with the good report is Joshua and Caleb. Twelve men, one out of each of the tribe, one man from each tribe of the children of Israel were sent together. Ten of them come back and say, we've seen it, here's all the evidence, and they start with a good report, but then they, let's do what we do today, they spun it and turned it to an evil report. Joshua and Caleb hold true to the good report, to the promises of God, and to the fact that we need to trust him by faith and follow him in obedience. but they're the only two. The rest of them, look with me in verse number 28, down to verse number 33, we get a negative outlook that comes from this. Bible says, nevertheless, the people be strong. This is the 10, they're now speaking. The people be strong that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. They're huge. Children of Anak were known as being giants. And verse 29 says, the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. Now, hold on. You just go back and do some reading for yourself and you will find that when God said it's a land that flows with milk and honey, He also told them it is the land of the Hittites and the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Amalekites. He told them that they're all there. The enemies are there. He didn't just tell him about, oh, it's all good, it's gonna be great, don't worry, you get there, you'll have no problems. No, he said, there are all of these, the enemies of Israel, they are there, they dwell there, because when God removed Joseph and put him in Egypt, and then God exalted Joseph during the time of famine, and then God used Joseph to bring his father and his brethren They were in that promised land to begin with. Don't forget that. People often forget that. They think, oh, they came in and stole it. No, they were there for generations. They were there. But then because of the issue, God moved them out and moved them to Egypt where they would survive the famine. And God said, I'm bringing them to Egypt because I'm gonna use them one day on a certain time frame. He said exactly how long they would be there. And on a certain time, I will use them to bring judgment on wicked Egypt. And then I will use them and bring them back to the land I gave them in the first place. I'm gonna bring them back to it and all those people who moved into their dwelling places when they moved out, you know, all those people that just took advantage and began squatting on the land that belonged to these people? Well, they're not here, we're just gonna take it. If you have anybody that took it, it's the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Canaanites and the Amorites, the Amalekites, they're the ones that moved in on empty land and they took over what wasn't theirs. So the children of Israel come back and God says, I'm gonna use them when they come back in to bring judgment on the wickedness of these individuals when their wickedness has come to its fullness. So in other words, the children of Israel being used as a hand of God, as God desires. Now watch, they come in, they say, wait, all these people are here. God told you they were there. You evidently just weren't listening. But here's Caleb, verse number 30, and Caleb stilled the people. He said, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, y'all, hold on. He stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess. What are we waiting on? Why are we even talking about this? Let's be quiet, let's get together, let's go on, let's go take it. God said it's ours. God said he'll fight for us. Why are we holding back? Why are we discussing it? So Caleb said, let's go and possess it for we are well able to overcome it. Verse number 31, but the men that went up with him said, we'd be not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel saying the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. That's a whole different mentality. It's not flowing with milk and honey. It eats up anybody that comes in. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. I guess it wasn't enough to say that we saw the giants the first time. They had to repeat it again. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. Now here's the thing, they then project their feelings to somebody else's mindset. I don't think they went around asking the giant, how do you see me? How do I look in your sight? No, no, they had a feeling about themselves and they projected the way they felt about themselves into the way others evidently think about me. They had no evidence of that. Matter of fact, think about it. Man, there's so much to cover. Think about this. When they go in the second time, when they obey and they go in, they face Jericho, the first city. The Bible says Jericho was so fearful that the hearts of the men melted within them like wax. Oh, what about, hold on, I thought these people saw you like grasshoppers in their sight. And when they finally do go in, they find out that the entire city shuts up, boards up, puts everything around and says, hey, nobody's going outside the city. We're in trouble. They were the ones fearful. And yet at this point, the children of Israel are saying, oh, they'll squash us like a bug. But he said, we are in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Yeah, well, you have no clue what they really thought. But when you're trying to have your own way, you'll say whatever it takes to justify yourself. When you don't wanna follow God, you'll say whatever it takes to justify your decision not to. People still prove that today. It doesn't have to make sense. It just has to be, in my opinion, a valid justification. And the way we are taught today, you're supposed to take everybody's truth and, well, that's their truth. Truth is not relative. Right is not relative. God's Word gives very specifics concerning truth and right according to the will of God. So there's the good report. There's the negative outlook. There's a differing opinion. Look at chapter 14 with me very quickly. And once again, the people murmur and complain against the Lord and Moses and Aaron. Now this time, at least they're honest. They start off saying that they have an issue with God. Before, they always blame Moses, blame Moses, blame Moses, and Moses keeps reminding them, I didn't do this, God did. You got a problem with Him, not me. You're focused on me, but it's your problem with Him that's the real problem. At least this time, they get honest. And as a whole, verse number one says, and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt. There's their mantra again. Would to God we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died, now here's a new one. If only we had died in Egypt, or better yet, it would be better if we just died in the wilderness. By the way, when God brings his declaration of judgment, he says, I'm gonna give you your desire. You said, would to God we had died in the wilderness. I'm not taking you back to Egypt. You've been freed from that, but the wilderness can kill you. And I'm gonna take you 40 years and every single one of you, your carcasses are gonna die in that wilderness where you said it would have been better for me to die. I'm gonna give you exactly what you thought was better. Kind of depressing, but watch. And they go on in verse number three. Now here's where they actually point out their real grievance. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword and our wives and our children. They're really worried about all that. They're just worried about themselves. Wives and children should be pray, were it not better for us to return to Egypt. And they said one to another, now here's what they, they come up with an idea instantly. They said one to another, let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt. They said let's find somebody who's willing to take us back and let's go ahead and follow that person. Let's make a new leader who'll give us what we want and we'll do it that way. I'm tired of following this individual who constantly brings us to things I don't want. Now watch. The varying opinion comes in when you see verse number five. Now you have Moses and Aaron, and then you also have Joshua and Caleb. There's two additional individuals joining the band of truth and right. But it says that, verse number five, that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of congregation, the children of Israel, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes." That was a sign of great sorrow and distress and just how awful. And between Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb, there was a plea to the children of Israel, don't do this. You have an option to follow God and go into victory and go into blessings. And if you do this, you're rebelling against the will of God for your life. Don't do this. By the way, the decisions we make don't just affect us. Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb and all their families, though God spared their life throughout the wilderness, they still had to spend the 40 years like everybody else wandering. going on quickly in verse number 10, after a little bit goes on there, and they all say, in verse number nine, they speak to the children of Israel and say, only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not. And here's their answer, here's the children of Israel's answer to Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. Let's just shut them up for once. Let's just get rid of them final. Let's just get done with it. We're sick and tired of hearing these people constantly tell us, you gotta follow God. You gotta follow God. You gotta obey God. We're so tired of it. Let's just stone them and do our own thing. Real brave, real focused on what they knew was better. So you have differing opinions. You have the majority saying, we need to do our own thing, go back to Egypt. And you have a small minority saying, no, we need to follow God. We cannot turn our back on Him. He has delivered us from bondage. It's time that we go forward with Him into victory. Then we have just two more things, the Lord's decision, and I'm not gonna read it all. I've already mentioned some of it, but in Numbers 14 in verse 20 through 32, the Lord lays out and tells Moses at first, the Lord says, step back, Moses, I'm gonna take him out. And this is the first time, one of the first times where Moses steps in and says, now Lord, you promised that you would take care of your people. And Lord, I hate to bring up this matter, but if you destroy them, then what are they gonna say in Egypt? And what are these people here that know that we've come to the brink of this land, what are they gonna mean? When you look at everything, they're gonna say that their God just brought them out of all that just to kill them. And that's really not gonna be a good testimony, Lord. I've seen you do better than that. I mean, can we not give the enemies ammunition, you know? So he kind of works with the Lord and talks with the Lord. And we find in verse number 20 that the Lord says this, and the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. God heard him, God listened, and God said, okay, all right, Moses, your compassion has touched my heart, and I have pardoned. However, here's the thing, he pardoned what happened right there and did not destroy them as they deserved, but he didn't wipe away punishment and consequence. He said, but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness have tempted me now these 10 times. We'll probably be looking at that next. God specifically says they tempted him 10 times from Egypt to the first opportunity to get in the promised land. 10 times they pushed his buttons. He said, they've tempted me 10 times and have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. We know from 20 up, he says, you are gonna die in the wilderness. I'm gonna send you back, I'm gonna give you what you said it would have been better for you to have than to go in the promised land where I want you to be. I'm gonna send you to the wilderness, I'm gonna let you die there because that's what you wanted, that's what you said. You're gonna die in the wilderness. And the Bible specifically gives us your carcasses are gonna die. Your sorry rotten carcass is gonna rot in the wilderness. And you will not enter in, you will not have the blessings of God. You're gonna survive with grace and mercy until it kills you. but you will not go in. Why do so many die in the wilderness? Because when they come to the point of decision to follow God, they gave him their life when it came to salvation. They said, Lord, I trust you. I need you, forgive me. And he has delivered them from the bondage of sin. But when it came to giving God their everyday life and their will of living this life, they said, no. No, I've got things I want to accomplish and I'm afraid you might call me to a mission field. No, no, no, no, no, no. I like this job. I don't want to go over there. No, no, no, no, no, no. I like having these things. I don't want to give them up so I can actually send more missionaries around the world. No. And people choose to follow what they want versus following what God desires for them. and they go back and they live in the wilderness and it kills them. Here's the last of it and we're done for this morning. Here's the change of mind. Moses goes and he declares to the people, look at verse number 39, chapter 14. And Moses told these sayings, all that God said was gonna happen. Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel and the people mourned greatly. Oh, now they're sorry. Oh, now they believe God. They didn't say, oh, we don't believe he can do it. No, no, they knew he could. Now they're gonna believe him and they're gonna mourn and oh, we made a mistake. Oh, we're sorry. Now watch. but they go beyond that. Verse number 40, and they rose up early in the morning and got them up into the top of the mountain saying, lo, we be here and we'll go up into the place which the Lord hath promised for we have sinned. And Moses said, wherefore do you now transgress the commandment of God? God's already made his mind up. He's already said what you're to do. You were to leave and we're going back to the wilderness. We're gonna go down by the way of the Red Sea. We're just gonna follow down along the coast of the Red Sea. We've been told what to do. So now God has already made up his mind. What he desired for us to do first has been removed. Now he said, here's what you're gonna do. And now you're gonna say, no, we're not gonna do that either. We're gonna go back and do the first. Now you're gonna double transgress? You just don't wanna do what God said, period. Doesn't matter if it's going in or it's staying out. You don't wanna do what God said. You just wanna do what you want. And Moses begs them, don't go up. Do not do this. Verse number 42, go not up for the Lord is not among you that ye be not smitten before your enemies. You go up and you try to take it. You're going by yourself. God was going with you before. God was gonna help you before. God was going to lead you before, but now you've turned your back on Him and He has said, I will not take them in. I will not go with them. I will not bless them. And now they're saying, oh, but we're going to go now. Let's go, God. Let's go ahead and do it now. We don't want that consequence. So let's go ahead and go over here. And God said, I'm not going with you. And Moses says, don't do it. Don't go. You will not survive. You're gonna try to give yourself the blessings of God on your own merits. It's not gonna happen. They go up, and the Bible says, verse number 44, but they presumed to go up under the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of God and Moses departed not out of the camp. Moses is like, we ain't going. God's not going, I ain't going. Then the Amalekites came down and the Canaanites, which dwelt in that hill, and smoked them and discomforted them, even unto Hormah. They lost greatly and suffered greatly. And Moses said, don't do it, don't do it. A.W. Tozer said this, and we're done, but here's the whole point of this morning, as we're looking at their lack of gratitude caused them to be focused inwardly, and when they came back and said, look at the promise of God revealed, it's true, they did not see and say, wow, isn't God good, let's go, no. They stopped looking at what God had and their gratitude was gone. They start immediately murmuring and complaining because of the other aspects of what was waiting. You mean I became a Christian just to deal with problems? Well, you had them before, but you were doing it alone. At least if you know Christ as your Savior, you got problems, but at least you got somebody with you to help you through the problems. I don't care if he's with me, I didn't want the problem. I thought he was gonna fix everything. No, there's never been a promise that you receive Christ as your savior and in this life you face no more issues. That's nowhere to be found. Children of Israel said we love the grapes, we just don't wanna have to deal with the people. We love the milk and honey, we just don't wanna have to deal with any struggles. In the end, the children of Israel came to a point, I had this, oh yeah, they were wanting the blessings without the battles, the benefits without the struggles, and the reward without the work. That's what they wanted. A.W. Tozer said, the Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience. Nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are at opposite sides of the same coin. Faith brings obedience, and obedience comes from faith. Old-fashioned faith and obedience. And here's the end, here's the last, we're done. What do we learn from this? It is of major importance that we learn to follow God with the heart of obedience and not just the head of compliance. Because once they realized, oh, we're gonna go in the 40 years in the wilderness and we're all gonna die? Okay, we're ready to comply now. but not from the heart. They just wanted to comply with the head because now they knew what was waiting. Now I can weigh it all out. I'm like, let's go with God now. Okay. It was already decided. They had no heart of obedience. They only changed their mind, not their heart. We'll comply. And God said too late, you will comply, but you're going to the wilderness. because you've passed up your opportunity to follow me in my will for the blessings. Now God provided for them in the wilderness, but they merely survived, they did not flourish. Joshua and Caleb, they get to go in, why? Because they stood with faith, and they stood for obedience. And God said, those two and their families will get to see it. I'm gonna take care of them all 40 years, and when I bring them in, I'm gonna give them the same blessing I had for them the first time. Because of faith and obedience to the will of God. How are we doing this morning? How's our faith? and our obedience. How's our gratitude to a good God who has provided so much? If we skip out on the gratitude, we'll skip out on the faith and we'll completely walk away from the obedience. They all go hand in hand. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning