Good morning. It’s really good to be here with you. As Pastor Terry said, I’ve been here for some women’s events and I see familiar faces. I’ve met a few of you before, so it’s wonderful to be back. For those of you I’m just meeting for the first time, it’s just great to be with you this morning. I’m a wife and a mom. My husband would be here with me this morning, except that he actually works at our church. So Sunday is a workday. He’s working with the kids and families over at our church. I have two boys, Keelan and Phoenix. They’re eight and four years old. Hopefully, right now they are enjoying the kids’ church over there. I founded a ministry called Because Justice Matters about 10 years ago.

I just want to take a moment right now and share about an upcoming event that we have going on. Some of you, I know, are familiar with Because Justice Matters. You’ve volunteered with us. You’ve been to some of our events in the past. We have an event coming up on September 21st. It’s called Legacy and we are going to be celebrating the last decade. It’s our 10-year anniversary gala, celebrating what God has been doing. The legacy that we’ve been building, we’re all building a legacy, right? That’s what we’re going to be looking back at. We want to invite you to come. We have some flyers here in the bistro table area. You can also go to the website Because Justice Matters/legacy, and find out more. I would love you to come. Bring your women’s group, bring your men’s group, bring your mom’s group, bring your colleagues, bring anyone and just come.

More than this being a fundraiser, we have a sense that what God is going to do on this night is to reignite hope in us for San Francisco. It’s just emboldened our faith because what we’re going to look at is, “Look what God has done.” We’re going to be talking about the future and what He’s going to be doing. I believe that He wants to stir in all of us, this hope and faith for our city, for the bay area. If that’s the kind of night that you’d like to be part of, come out and join us. It’s going to be a really fun evening. I’d love to see you there.

I am jumping in this morning with your sermon series and it’s called “Where Faith Gets Moving.” When Pastor Terry gave me this theme that you’ve all been in the summer, I was super excited. Partly because I love to teach on faith. It’s one of the primary things that I love to teach. Also, the passage that we’re going to be looking at this morning is a passage that God has had me in personally for the last few months. It’s something He’s been working into me. What you’re getting this morning is a download of what God has been doing in me. We’re going to read a chunk of scripture in just a moment. I want you to hang with me. I know it’s a little bit long and that’s the nature of the Old Testament, right? If you want to get a story, you have to read through all the details of it. What you have on your notes are some key highlighted areas that I’m going to point back to throughout the sermon.

Feel free to follow along on the screens, your Bible, phones, or wherever you have your Bible. Also note that in your notes, I’m going to refer back to that. We’re going to be reading from Numbers 13. We’re going to be starting at verse 17. Numbers 13:17 says, “When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live that 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 they unwalled or fortified? How is 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?” It was the season for the first right grapes.

They went up and explored the land from the desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. When they reached the valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. At the end of 40 days, they returned from exploring the land.

They came back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh and the para Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit, but the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” They spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there. The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Let’s pray. Father God, I thank you that you’re the same God in our lives this morning as the God in this passage that gave the promise to your people to go into Canaan to take the promised land. I thank you, God, that you’re faithful. I thank you, God, that you’re always moving us forward. I pray Lord, this morning if there are any obstacles, resistance, or hindrances that would get in the way of us moving forward into the promise in our lives, would you move it aside and silence it in Jesus’ name? I pray Holy Spirit this morning that you’d have the freedom to work in our hearts to make us a people of faith, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In order to understand where we’re picking up the story today, we’ve jumped into the middle. It’s like opening a book and just jumping right in. What’s going on? Who are these people? What is this promised land that they’re heading into? Why are they sending spies out? To understand what we’re reading today, we need to jump back a few hundred years. I know that Pastor Terry, a few weeks ago, started this series by talking about the life of Abraham. That’s really where this starts for the people of Israel. God encounters this man called Abraham. He begins to build this relationship with Abraham. He says, “Hey, Abraham, I want you to pick up and move to a new place. I want you to be in a relationship with me. I want you to trust me. If you do that, then I’m going to commit myself to you. I’m going to make a covenant with you. I’m going to tie myself to you and say, I’m going to be your God and you and all your descendants will be my people. I just want you to believe me.”

God makes this covenant. He says, “I’m tying myself to you. I’m covenanting. I’m promising you that if you follow me, if you trust me, that I’m going to make you into this great nation, all your descendants, and I’m going to take you into this place called Canaan,” the place that we often refer to as the promised land. “There, I will be a God, you will be my people. It will be a place of prosperity and abundance.” The important thing about this connection between God and Moses is that God is faithful. It’s His promise. He sustains it. He remains faithful and committed to Abraham and all his descendants over the hundreds of years, between that moment and this story. We go through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We move through all those generations and God continues to show up and be faithful, even when they are not faithful to Him. Even when they wander off and do all kinds of crazy things. God remains faithful and consistent. His promise is good. If you remember from the Old Testament, the life of Joseph. During that time, God brings Israel into Egypt to save them from famine showing His faithfulness to them. Then a new Pharaoh comes to Egypt. A new Pharaoh shows up. He’s not happy with the Israelites and he enslaves them for 400 years. The descendants of Abraham, the people of promise, end up enslaved for 400 years in Egypt.

If God, faithful as always, shows up through the life of Moses, says, “Hey, I want you to go in there and rescue the people.” Moses goes in, there’s that whole story in the book of Exodus, where the people of God come out of Egypt. They’re faced with the Red Sea, God parts it, brings them over. They’re heading towards the promised land. There’s a history here of hundreds of years with God. You can read it through the books of Genesis and Exodus, and now in the book of Numbers this morning. God has been consistently faithful on behalf of His people. Where we’re picking up today, is the pinnacle and climax of this story. We have to remember this promise, they’ve been holding onto it for hundreds of years. There’s been struggle, slavery, pain, and hope that one day God would bring them into this place. God will bring them into this promised land known as Canaan.

We hear these words. There are a lot of words in that scripture that make us wonder, “What are all these places?” Just to put it in context, Canaan today is modern-day Israel, modern-day Jordan. This is a real place. This is a real land. This is not a fantasy. This is not made up. God is taking them to a new place where He wants them to prosper and be in relationship with Him. So we find ourselves at the climax of the story and the land is unknown. Though God has promised it, they don’t know what to expect. Moses sends out 12 spies, and he says to them, “I want you to go and explore the land. Tell us what it’s like. Give us a little bit of information. Tell us about the soil. Tell us about the trees. Tell us about the people. Go check it out, then come and report back.” That’s where we pick up the story today.

The spies come back and 10 out of 12 of them have the same story. Two out of the 12 have a different story. Verses 27 and 28 say, “we went into the land in which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful. The cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.” This is the report of the 10 spies. They’re coming back and saying, “Here’s the abundance.” They’re literally carrying the grapes on a pole between two people. They’ve got all this provision and abundance. They’ve come back to say the land is indeed fruitful. It’s good, but it’s inaccessible to us. There are so many powerful people. There are so many fortified cities. Yes, there are good things there, but we can’t access that. We can’t grab a hold of it. We can’t go up and take the land. It’s possible to taste and touch the promise of God and still turn around and go the other way. It’s possible to creep into the edge of your promise for your life, for your family, and your community. It’s possible to experience it and then turn around and go the other way. How is that possible in the face of all of God’s goodness, all of God’s abundance? For Israel to taste it, carry it back and still say, “But no, we can’t have this?”

The 10 spies had their attention elsewhere. Not on the promise of God, not on the grapes, abundance, and everything that was possible. They had their attention on other things; powerful people, large and fortified cities, and the descendants of Anak. They begin to paint a picture for Israel of the land that’s ahead of them that is filled with fear and intimidation. The cities are huge. The people are huge. There were giants there. Yes, it’s fruitful, but it’s unattainable for us. Have you ever felt like God’s promise for your life is good, but not accessible, not attainable? That’s exactly this place that Israel finds itself at. Yes, we can see the grapes and we can see the goodness, but I don’t think we can get that. I don’t think we can reach it. The obstacles are so big, so impenetrable, so reinforced, we can’t access it.

Who are these descendants of Anak? What is that even talking about? This is a reference to giant-sized war-like people. Their reputation would have preceded them. When they spoke these words, Israel would have felt incredibly intimidated and terrified. These were people that would stand in the way of God’s promise. The mention of their name would have evoked so much terror in their hearts. The spies don’t stop there. The storytelling continues in verse 32 after they’ve mentioned the powerful people, the giants, and the fortified cities. They go on to say, “The land we explored devours those living in it.” The land that we explored is going to eat us up. It’s going to devour us. This is an interesting play on words here. Let’s take a moment to consider what is this land supposed to be? What had God promised?

In Exodus 3, God is talking to Moses on a mountain. This is the first mention of milk and honey. You are probably familiar with that term. It’s often thrown around when we talk about the promised land. God shows up and says to Moses, that He’s going to rescue them from the Egyptians and bring them into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. This is the first reference to it in the Old Testament. This land that I’m going to take you into is going to be good. It’s going to flourish. It’s going to thrive. Not only that, but it’s going to sustain you. It’s going to enrich your lives. It’s going to feed your families. It’s going to be a provision. It’s going to be supplied. The future I have for you is a good future. I have plans to prosper you. This is the promise of God to Israel. This is a life-giving promise.

Here we are with the spies, knowing God’s Word, that this was the promise that the land would feed, sustain, enrich, and be good for you. Now that gets twisted. Now that’s turned upside down. No longer is it a land that will sustain and give you life, but it will be a land that will take your life. It will devour you. It will destroy you. God’s words here are being twisted and manipulated. It almost sounds familiar to Genesis 3 when the serpent says, “Did God really say that?” Are you sure?

The enemy has been reinterpreting God’s Word since the beginning. He’ll take God’s promise. He’ll take God’s words and twist them. Are you sure God said He was going to show up for your marriage? Are you sure God said that was the promise for your family or for your finances? Are you sure God said He promised to never leave you or forget about you? It doesn’t look like that. Actually, it looks like things are going towards disaster. Actually, it looks like things are going towards ruin. The enemy will take God’s Word, re-interpret it, sprinkle it with threats, intimidation, and fear, and throw it back into our face. Do you think God’s going to provide for your debt, or your financial needs, or your housing situation? God doesn’t care about that. You have to pull yourself up and do it yourself. Do you think God’s going to save your kids? You’re still holding onto those promises from when they were children? That’s cute, but God doesn’t care about that. God can’t save them. This is how the enemy takes the promise of God in our life and begins to turn, twist, and manipulate it. He’s a thief and a liar.

The enemy will mock every promise of God over your life. He has no interest in supporting God’s Word or God’s work. He will manipulate it, lie to us, and steal from us. The enemy isn’t just satisfied to bring fear into our life or make us feel like obstacles. The giants and the cities are so big and so terrifying. He’s not satisfied with that. There’s a strategy to how he works in our life, and we can see it in the scripture this morning. In verse 33, it’s also on your notes, it says, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them.” The spies said, “We felt like grasshoppers, grasshoppers, tiny little insects, insignificant, small, powerless. You can crunch them beneath the bottom of your feet. We felt so small and powerless.” Why is it that Israel resonated with this image so much? Why is it that they felt inclined to believe that that was true? Sometimes when we talk about Israel, we think it’s this is a great powerful nation. But we’re not there yet. We’re not into Kings. We’re not into the life of David, all the armies, the fighting and the powerful conquering things. We’re talking about a group of people that were just saved out of Egypt by God alone, not by their own effort, not by their own strength.

They had been enslaved for 400 years. That means that generation after generation was born into slavery. They were born into a mindset that said, you’re small and insignificant. You have no value. You have no power. You have no voice. Generation after generation, family member after family member was born into a way of thinking that they felt small and insignificant. When the spies come along and say, “We felt like grasshoppers,” everybody probably said, “Yeah, we feel like grasshoppers. We feel small. That resonates, that feels like a true story in our lives.” Sometimes when the enemy comes with insecurity, it feels so true, doesn’t it? It feels like, yes, we can resonate with this. Yes, this feels like my story.

If the enemy can’t terrify you with what’s out there, he’ll paralyze you with what’s not in here. If he can’t make this seem so impenetrable, large, and terrifying, he’ll come at you and make what you have seem so lacking and small. He’ll convince you that you’re under-qualified or inexperienced, not far enough along in your Christian faith to try that kind of big faith prayer. Not far enough along, not handsome enough, not pretty enough, don’t make enough money, not smart enough for a meaningful lasting relationship. He’ll make you feel like something is always lacking, always missing. He’ll turn your eyes to the attention of those around you, so you can just compare yourself and feel like, “Wow, they’re so accomplished. They’re so able. They’re better at that. They’re more gifted at that. I’m just me. I don’t have anything to offer.”

This is the enemy’s strategy. It’s a one-two punch and comes in with the fear like we’re in this boxing ring. It comes in and he’ll just pound us with fear. He will just pound us and tell us everything is so terrifying and big that you can’t do it. It’s always the language of defeat with the enemy. But just when you think you can get your hands on the ropes and you think, you know what, I’ve been fighting this war a long time, I’m going to call a friend and ask for support. I’m going to pull out those scriptures I’ve memorized. He that’s in me is greater than he is in the world. You know, we’re just kind of pulling ourselves up on the rope.

Just in case we might be finding our feet and the enemy may feel slightly threatened, fear will tag out and insecurity will tag in. He’ll just remind you of all the things you’re missing. All of the things you’re lacking, all the ways you failed in the past, and why you’re going to fail again. It’s his one-two punch, fear, and insecurity, fear and insecurity. The strategy is incredibly effective. It has been in my own life. I feel like I’ve always been fighting this one-two punch. I have felt so intimidated, at times, by the giants of San Francisco. My husband and I are in full-time ministry here, raising our kids here. Sometimes ministry feels incredibly challenging. Sometimes raising a family in San Francisco feels incredibly challenging. Navigating the school system, figuring out housing. I mean, how do you even do that here? It’s like a giant, it’s overwhelming. Then the community that I work minister in, has all these complex ever-changing needs. It just feels like, “How can I keep up with something so vast, so huge, and so overwhelming?” San Francisco can feel like a giant every day we get up, walk out the door, and face the city.

Often I feel like I don’t have what it takes. The enemy likes to remind me that I’m a small girl from a small village in England that grew up in a rural farming community. How could I possibly have anything to offer in a city as magnificent as San Francisco? I always feel like I should have more experience or more training and am missing something, somehow. I wake up and at times I feel like I’m missing something, but I don’t even know what I’m missing. Does anyone relate? Does that resonate? I don’t know what it is. I just feel like I’m lacking. I just feel like I’m missing. This is the work of the enemy in our life.

This one-two punch, fear, and insecurity are all designed to make us retreat. It’s all designed to make us pull backward. This is exactly what happened to Israel. In numbers 14:2-4, it says the whole assembly said to them, “If only we died in Egypt or in this wilderness. Why’s the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Would it be better for us to go back to Egypt? They said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’” The result of the fear and insecurity made Israel say, “Let’s go back. Let’s go back to slavery. Let’s go back to something that was unhealthy, unsafe, not good, but at least it was familiar. At least we know what to expect.” Sometimes the unknown is so terrifying. The fear and insecurity, so overwhelming, so paralyzing, that we find ourselves saying, “Let’s go back. This is too difficult. This is too hard. I can’t do this.” How often do we go back to familiar mindsets, familiar thinking, old habits, addictions, and unhealthy relationships? We go back because moving forward is so terrifying. We go back and we step back into that same captivity, that same slavery.

This is the plan of the enemy in our lives. He wants us to retreat. He wants us to move back into negative thinking, the expectation of failure, rejection, and inadequacy. Because people who are passive, people who are stagnant, people who are moving backward are not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. You’re no threat to the enemy’s plan for your family, for your life, for San Francisco, if you’re moving backward. There’s no threat there. We’re not designed to be a people that are passive, stagnant, or moving backward. We’re designed and called to be a people of faith. The beautiful thing about this story is there’s one voice, one dissenting, powerful voice. That’s Caleb. Caleb stands up in the midst of all the fear mongering, all the anxiety, all the defeat, and all the call to just abandon the promise, “Go back, retreat, go back to captivity.” In the midst of all that, we have this one man, who stands up and says in verse 30, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

Then in Numbers 14, he says, “And we shall devour them.” We shall devour them. This is the voice of faith. This is the voice of faith that says, “Let’s go. Let’s do it.” What is so special about Caleb? Did he see something that nobody else had seen? Was he aware of something? Did he explore some part of the land that they hadn’t? That is not in scripture. It doesn’t point us to that. Was that some kind of inside knowledge that he had that the other spies did not have access to? I don’t think so. I think what’s going on here is that Caleb had an unwavering trust that God was still the covenant God. Abraham, in that moment, when God gave him that covenant, committed and said, “I’m tied to you, I’ll be faithful to you.”

It’s as simple as this, Caleb still believed that. He still believed that God was the same yesterday, as he is today. He still believed the promise, even though it was hundreds of years later. What a beautiful thing to say, “I still believe God.” How many of us this morning can raise our hand and say, “I still believe Him. I still believe Him for that promise.” Caleb saw the same giants. He saw the same cities. He probably felt insecure, he was human. Yet, all of that was inconsequential. All of that was unimportant because God’s promise superseded all the giants, all the fortified cities, all the insecurity.

Caleb refused to come into agreement with fear and insecurity. Fear and insecurity will always be the strategy of the enemy in our lives. It’ll always come at us. It always rushes at us, especially at the moment when we’re trying to take a step of faith. It will always feel paralyzing. It will always feel overwhelming, but we have a decision whether we come into agreement with it. Whether we say, “Yes, this is true, and I’ll build my life on that.” Or whether we say, “I’m going to agree with God’s promise for my life, family, future, and I’m going to build my life on that.”

Sometimes we look at people of faith and we think they just have something that I don’t have. Like they have a special gift. They have a special anointing. It’s easier for them. I’ve heard people say that it’s easier for that person to step out in faith. As if somehow their life has just been easier and it hasn’t been difficult for them. I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think people of faith have it easy. I think they see the same giants. I think they walk out of the doors in San Francisco and face the same obstacles. I think that they face the same insecurity, inadequacy, and fear, but they see something beyond that. They see something that isn’t seen with human eyes. They build their life on the promise of God. They build their lives on the character of God. I want to build my life on the promise of God. I want to build my life on what is unseen, not on what is seen.

What are you building your life on this morning? What have you come into agreement with in your life? Is it the promise of God? Are you driven by the spirit of Caleb with this faith that says, “Despite all of that, I can see that God is at work and I believe. I’m going to hold on and say yes when everybody else says no.” Or have we come into agreement with a spirit of fear where we’re literally intimidated and won’t step out? Have we come into agreement that we’re so small, inadequate, and lacking? Some of us live under this agreement that we’ve made with the enemy. Agreement with the kingdom of darkness will never lead to life. It will never lead you to life. This morning, God’s invitation for us is to come out of agreement. To say, “You know what? That’s not true. That might feel true. That might look true, but this is what’s really true because I’m called to a life of faith. I’m called to build my life on what is unseen.”

Hebrews 11 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Confidence and assurance. How do we step into this kind of life? Well, that’s the beauty of the gospel. Jesus took the fear, defeat, insecurity, and all of our sin. He took that to the cross. When he died and rose again, he declared this is defeated. This is defeated. Not you, but the sin, shame, fear, and insecurity, defeated. That’s the end. Now, let me tell you a new story about your life. That’s the power of the gospel. Sometimes we live like that didn’t really quite happen. Maybe He defeated some little bits and left some work for us to do. Let me tell you that the death and resurrection of Jesus were complete. There’s not one part of your life that He didn’t redeem, restore, and make whole at that moment when He rose again.

There’s not one part of your life that you can’t bring to Him. There’s not one place of inadequacy, or insecurity, or place that has been there too long. Israel had been enslaved for 400 years. I don’t think there’s anyone here 400, right? You’ve not been enslaved and captive as long as Israel. God still freed and brought them into the promised land. There’s nothing in your life, family, or generations that God can’t step into and say, “I’m going to free you.” Let’s break the agreement. Some of you, your families have been in agreement with fear and insecurity. The invitation this morning is to say, “Not just for me, but for my house too. Not just for me, but for my marriage, for my children, for my future. I’m coming out of agreement with these things.” That’s the power of the cross. That’s the gospel.

Faith is always moving us forward. It’s always moving us forward. The enemy always wants us to retreat. Where are you this morning? Are you retreating? Do you feel defeated? Are you overwhelmed and hopeless? Let me tell you there’s an invitation to come and meet with Jesus again this morning. To experience Him and the power of the cross. You know, “I want to be that person of faith.” Sometimes we think that moments like this have to be this big woo-woo emotional thing, but it’s a decision that we make in our heart to say yes to God. I’m going in to take the promised land.

The sad thing about this story is that Israel believed the 10 spies. They came into agreement with the fear. They felt intimidated by the giants. They felt small like grasshoppers. For that, they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years. 40 years later, because again, He’s a covenant God, committed, always working to restore relationship with us, always pursuing, God in His faithfulness brings them back to the edge of the promised land. Who is leading? Joshua and Caleb. Can you imagine? I was just thinking about this last night. I actually started crying because I was so moved by what it must have felt like for Joshua and Caleb to have been the ones that said 40 years ago, “We can take it, but nobody listened to us.” They’re wandering around, God faithfully brings them and the next generation to the edge of the promised land.

I imagine they probably looked out and they thought, “We’re going. No matter what, no matter what giants we see, no matter Jericho in the distance, no matter what’s standing against us, we’re not going to miss this opportunity a second time.” This is God’s invitation to us this morning that some of us are standing on the edge of the promised land, we think, “Oh, I’ve missed it. I missed it. I made some bad decisions. I’ve been in agreement with fear and insecurity my whole life. I just feel so unable. It’s too late.” It’s never too late. It is never too late for God to bring you into your promised land.

God’s invitation to us this morning is to simply do what Caleb said, to say, “Yes,” when everyone else said, “No.” To say, “Yes,” that’s the kind of life I want to lead. I want to shift from building my life on what I see, to build my life on what is unseen. It’s the supernatural power of God. In just a moment there’s going to be a time of giving. But before that, I want to invite you to close your eyes. We’re going to respond to God. I’m a big believer that when God stirs our hearts, we don’t want to walk away from that. We want to respond. As our eyes are closed, if you’re here this morning and something this morning resonated with you, maybe it’s fear or insecurity. Maybe it’s been that trap of the enemy that has been twisting God’s Word over your life and trying to convince you that he’s not good. That He’s not for you. That He’s withholding from you. I just want to encourage you to open a hand in your lap or a couple of hands in your lap. A significant spiritual shift can happen in just a moment. Don’t let the enemy deceive you. What you’re doing right now is not powerful, cannot change the course of your life and your family.

Lord Jesus, I’m so thankful for you and the cross. I’m so thankful, Lord, that even when we stray and get lost and we say, “Oh, I don’t think I can.” Even when we come into agreement with fear and insecurity, you are the covenant God that says, “I’m tied to you. I can’t help but love you. I can’t help but pursue you. I’m a redemptive God, by nature.” You bring us to this moment this morning again. You give us the invitation to say yes. Father, I just want to ask that where there have been agreements in this room with fear and insecurity, would you break them in Jesus’ name? In your hearts, in your mind, as I’m praying, just come into agreement with the truth of God over your life. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be experienced. The promised land is taken by the people that believe, and simply that.

Holy spirit, would you come fill us and enable us to do this because we need your strength. We need your power this morning. That we would be a people of faith that would move forward. I pray that even right now, you’d highlight to us places where we have been stagnant and retreating. Give us the boldness and confidence to say, “We should go up and take this land because we can devour them. Seal the work you’re doing in our hearts, God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.