Steven Furtick — It's Already Written
You are an investigative reporter. Everyone is a reporter going out each day collecting evidence, but before you ever go out into your day, might I suggest that your story is already written. Based on what you believe about the nature of God and His disposition toward you.
Now the goodness of God is all around us. I would compare this to the Old Testament Promised Land. Just so we can have an image to work from how that Moses before they went into the Promised Land to defeat the enemies, the land that God had promised to give to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and now Moses is supposed to be the one that takes them in, but he doesn't take them in because before they went in, God instructed Moses, I want you to send a few reporters into the land.
And God gives him some specific instructions. He says I want them to explore the land. And so Moses, we'll actually pick it up in Verse 17, Numbers 13:17, Moses sent them to explore Canaan, and he said, "Okay, go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. And see what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many."
What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are unwalled or fortified? How's the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land. In other words, bring the people back a sneak peak of what they're fighting for. 'Cause it's supposed to be a land that flows with milk and honey and grapes, and I'd like them to taste the grape so that will inspire them to go forward.
Notice what Moses does not command them to investigate. He never asks them whether or not they think they're strong enough to do what God has called them to do. He tells them to size up their situation, but he never tells them to size up themselves. Because God knows about you that if you start sizing up yourself, you'll always retreat in fear.
Now we should size up our situation. He says size up the situation, but he never told them to size up themselves. God says that we are to magnify Him with our worship. To magnify God doesn't mean you make Him bigger. You really think a magnifying glass can make God bigger than He is? It means that you bring Him into closer visibility, and now all of a sudden, you see Him for something like how big He really is. [
Hey, that's one of my purpose statements in life as a preacher. To be a big old magnifying glass and that when I get up here and start hollering, yeah, I yell about it. I'm not afraid to yell because, you know, people turn up the volume sometimes when they've seen a vision that causes them to get a little bit excited.
So, I want you to look through me today and don't look at me, but look through me and see your God in your situation get bigger than your problem. Size up the situation, but be very slow to size up yourself because you will tend to size up yourself according to your weaknesses and not God's strength, and because they got it wrong, listen, because the report you believe determines the future you experience.
Watch this. Not the news you receive, but the report you believe determines the future you experience. Because they believed the wrong report, let's see it together, Verse 21, "They went and explored the land from the desert of Zin as far as Rehob toward Lebo-hamath. They went through the Negev and came to Hebron where Ahiman..." The descendants of Anak lived. Go to the next verse. It says when they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a bearing a single cluster of grapes, two of them, carried it on a pole between them. Some big grapes.
Touch your neighbor and say you've got big grapes. Most awkward touch-your-neighbor of the year. Didn't think about it. Just said it. And two of them carried it on a pole between them. Shut up. Along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eschol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there.
At the end of the 40 days, come on class, get back with me. At the end of 40 days, they returned from exploring the land. So, they spent 40 days exploring. As far as we can tell, it was a good trip and coming back with some fruit, and they came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the desert of Paran, and they... What's the word? Reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
Look at these blessings. Look at the fruit that grows in the land God has given. Look at these grapes. Look, here's the proof of God's promise. And they gave Moses this account. Watch this. The grapes represent the reality. That's what God was giving them, but what they say next represents their perspective.
Now I need to blow your mind. You experience your perspective. This young lady named Kat who cuts my hair, and she cut my hair the other day, and she dropped a bomb on me. She said the Lord told me the other day, "Kat, you experience your perspective." It was so deep, I had to think about it for the whole haircut, and about five minutes later, I jerked, and almost messed up my haircut 'cause I thought that's exactly right.
We don't experience our reality. We experience our perspective of reality. You can be carrying grapes on your shoulder but so worried about giants that you never go into the land and get what God gave you.
We went into the land to which you sent us, Moses, and it does flow with milk and honey. Oh, it's good. Here's its fruit, but the people, but the people. The promise is true, but the people. The Promised Land is every bit what we thought it would be, but the people who live there are very powerful. Perspective. And the cities are fortified.
Mustn't it sound strange to God when you start telling your God who is all powerful how powerful your enemies are that He's called you to defeat? Mustn't that annoy Him? Mustn't that aggravate Him? The cities are fortified and very large.
We even saw descendants of Anak there. Those are some bad boys. The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites and the most feared and dreaded people of all, the cellulites, live near the sea. And then Caleb was one of the 12 spies. It was Caleb and Joshua. They were two of the 12.
You know, I found out it's about a 10:2 ratio of the number of thoughts that we have that tell us that we can't to the number of thoughts we have that tell us that we can. It's about 10:2 for most people. Some of y'all are positive and happy, and then the rest of us are trying to get that way and for us it's about 10:2. There's ten spies that come back talking about giants. There's two spies that come back talking about grapes. There's ten spies that come back talking about problems. There's two spies that come back talking about promises.
Now, I want you to think not about the spies that are in this passage, but the spies that are in your mind. I want you to think about the spies inside of you. These thoughts that go out and survey even as I'm preaching what God could do through you and what God is calling you to do, and the dream God put inside of you, and all of this promise that God has given us in Christ.
For Ephesians says He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, but your thoughts are the spies that determine whether or not you take step. [Applause] I love Caleb. Caleb silenced the people. We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.
We should, for we can. We should, for we can. We should, for we can. They saw the same reality as the other ten spies, but they believed a different report. We should 'cause we can. The other spies talking 'bout, "We can't, so we won't." But the same spies that went on the mission to say we can't, so we won't ended up dying in the desert. Ended up dying. Your faith is dying in deserts not because of your enemy, but because of the way you're looking at your enemy.
You're looking at it wrong. That's the problem. You're looking at it wrong. And if you are afraid, the thing you fear will come to pass. Feel weak, you'll be weak. Feel small, you'll be small. We can 'cause we should. I would if I could. No, no, no. You could if you would. You could if you would. But the man who had gone up with them said, "Can't attack those people, stronger than we are."
Wait a minute. Stronger? When did God or Moses command you, Mr. Investigative Reporter, to give your opinion and use your measuring stick. Your scale is broken, and when you start weighing yourself rather than weighing God's word, you'll always stop in weakness and doubt. "And they spread," 32, "among the Israelites a bad report." See it. A bad report.
I can't find anywhere in the passage where they got bad news, but here's what fear will do. Fear will turn good news into a bad report. Congratulations on your new job. Oh, yes. It was real stressful, man. I mean, I didn't plan on working on the weekends. Wait a minute. I was congratulating you. I thought it was good news you got a promotion.
Well, it is, but he people who work for me, they just... man, it's crazy. I never knew I'd be overseeing so many people. I got my kid over there at the school. I don't know if we could afford to keep him in, but I can't go any soccer games. Never mind. I'll never congratulate you again.
I mean, what kind of report do you bring into people's lives? It says they spread a bad report, and some of you all, I'm going to solve the problem. This is why nobody wants to go on a second date with you. Too much. Because they don't need to know all about your chronic back pain on the first date. Some of you all, this is why nobody asks you how are you doing anymore 'cause the last time they asked you it took two hours, and they had to be somewhere, and they really didn't mean how are you doing. They're just being polite. The report.
Ask the person next to you, do you have a good report? 'Cause I need one. There's enough bad news in the world, y'all. What I need is somebody who will not turn good news into a bad report, but I need a believer with a kind of faith that can turn bad news into a good report.
See, I want to clear it up. The news is not the report. The news is what happened, but the report is what you make of what happened. My God. The news is the issue. The report is your interpretation of the issue, and I don't always have to have good news to have a good report. See, I want the kind of faith, church, like Caleb that says, "Yeah, the giants are big, but the grapes are bigger, and God is bigger than them all."