What Did God Say?
Pastor Jim Lowe III
Sunday Morning,
1/16/22 (3rd Sunday Message)
{All scriptures are NIV84 unless stated}
Today’s Title:
What Did God Say?
Over the past 2 Sundays we’ve been talking about going after our goals for 2022.
Many of us have made plans for
We’ve set resolutions.
We may even have set plans to do things from 2021.
…maybe even 2020.
When it comes to goals.
We know from past goals…
We don’t always set out to do everything we accomplish.
Many of us may have
We had set goals last year to go after God’s Purpose for us last year.
The past few weeks we’ve talked about chasing many things.
Today it will now be about chasing what God has for us.
Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the
Things we can take from this.
1. God Has A Plan For Us!
He has plans for us.
He has a design for us.
We are not just here.
We
2. God’s Plan Is To
God has plans for your prosperity.
Prosper = success.
“Live Long and Prosper” - Long life with success.
God wants you to be successful in life.
God wants you to prosper financially.
God doesn’t want you living in lack.
He wants you to be a lender and not a borrower.
Prosperity is also more than just money.
God wants you to have
God doesn’t want you troubled by your circumstances.
God wants you to have joy in this life!
3. God’s Plan Is
Out of all the things God has planned for us…
Our downfall isn’t one of them.
Many people may have things against you…
But God loves you.
God Wants You Better Today Than You Were Yesterday!
God’s plan is NOT
No One Wants Greater For You Than Your God!
These are the plans he has for you!
4. God’s Plan Is To Give Us A Hope And Future!
Our bible tells us God’s plan so we have hope!
This gives us something to
When we go after
We might not know what’s coming in this life…
But God knows.
God knew everything when he designed his plans for us.
Many of us have been left trying to figure out what’s next after COVID.
God knew it would happen!
No Matter What Has Happened, Remember God Is Making Plans For You!
He has something he designed for us.
We spent last year talking about how to find and go after this purpose.
God’s Plan = God’s Purpose For Us
This is what we
Finding God’s plan.
Over the last year many of us made it a goal to not just find it…but walk in it.
Many of us have been unsuccessful.
{Question:}
Why Have We Not Been Able To Fully Walk In Our Purpose?
When it comes to things
We have been talking about the things we see.
Proverbs 4:25
25
When it comes to God’s plan for you, the things we
see
focus on
look at can distract us.
Exodus
7 The Lord said,
The Lord is talking to Moses at the burning bush.
He told him 2 things.
1. Go get his people from Egypt.
2. Take them to the land I show you.
This will teach another time.
God Will Not Just Deliver You From Something, He Will Deliver You To Something!
God said he would bring them up Into a land.
Verse 8
8 So I have come down
God was giving them
A “good and spacious land”
So spacious 6 nations were already living there.
Canaanites,
Hittites,
Amorites,
Perizzites,
Hivites,
Jebusites
This land was big…and God was giving it to his people.
God Had A Plan To Give This Land To His
Skip to when Moses has brought the people out of Egypt.
Numbers 13:1-3
The Lord said to Moses, 2
3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.
What did God say?
God Said Send Men To
The land he’s “GIVING.”
The bible lists the names of the people.
Verse 17-20:
17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said,
What did Moses say?
Moses Said:
1. See What The Land Is Like
2. If The People Are Strong
3. Is The Land Good Or Bad?
{what type of towns, fortified, unwalled, trees…}
4. Bring Back Fruit
Moses would ask for details.
He would want to know what everything looks like.
But God said to explore the
God already told them who was there.
The Minor Details Don’t Matter If God Is Involved!
So what happens?
They go and check out the land as God and Moses asked.
Verse 26
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
Moses sent them out.
They came back and talked
“Everyone!”
Verse 27
27 They gave Moses this account:
The land is great!
What did God say?
Explore the land!
They did that…and it’s good!
Here is the fruit!
But what about what Moses asked?
Verse 28-29
28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in
Moses was given the good and the bad.
Details that shouldn’t have mattered…
Details he told them to focus on.
God Wanted Them To Focus On The Land;
Moses Had Them Focused On The People
Moses wanted to know who was there…God already told them who was there.
He wanted to know if they were strong or weak.
It didn’t matter if God was going to handle it!
It Doesn’t Matter
These spies have found “The Devil In The Details.”
Details ARE important…but God TOLD them want to look for.
Now The spies have a negative report.
They share this in front of everyone!
What happens when the
They’ll start to talk…
“Nah…we need to go someone else.”
“Moses brought us out here to die.”
These were the same Israelites who were complaining about Moses the entire time!
They are flaky from the start!
So Caleb tried to
Verse 30
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said,
If Caleb silenced the people…
They were talking.
What was meant to be a good thing
Caleb tries to be positive.
Those with him double down.
Verse 31-33
31 But the men who had gone up with him said,
So Caleb tries to turn this back around.
The group shuts him down quick.
Verse 32
32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored…
They STARTED giving a report to Moses.
The crowd hears and begins to talk.
Caleb tries to control everything.
The spies start talking TO the crowd!
They aren’t talking to Moses anymore…
“And guess what else!?”
They started making
Verse 32-33
32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said,
The land we explored EATS the people living in it!
All the people are of great size!!
We saw GIANTS there!
We seemed like
We looked like grasshoppers to them!
This caused a MAJOR problem!
The bible states that the Israelites were planning on killing Moses and Aaron.
The spies believed what they saw.
God Wanted Their Focus On HIS Plan!
They Placed Their Focus On Other Things!
This happens in our life.
God has plans to prosper us.
God has plans to not harm us.
Yet when going after his plan…
We find things that distract us from it.
Same scripture from earlier in the MSG.
Proverbs 4:25-27
Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.
It’s Time To Get Back To God’s Plan And Focus On It!
We are getting close to the end of January of 2022 already.
Let’s get back to God’s plan for us.
Let’s get back to walking in purpose.
To do that, let’s stop focusing on distractions.
What You Focus On Can Either Help Or Distract You From God’s Plan!
Affirmation:
“Today I Am Focused On What God Says, Not My Circumstances!”