The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Today as you hear the word of God, I pray that it will so encourage and help you to trust the Lord and to go in and claim the promises and take the promise and enjoy the blessing of that promise.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Grasshoppers and Giants. That's a strange, even a funny sermon title. Talking about the people of Israel feeling like they're grasshoppers in relation to the giants that are occupying the land that is actually their land. They didn't have the faith to go in and take really what was theirs.

Today as you hear the word of God, I pray that it will so encourage and help you to trust the Lord and to go in and claim the promises and take the promise and enjoy the blessing of that promise. God promised His people the land of Canaan. He promised this to Abraham so many years prior to this passage that we read today from the book of Numbers.

He promised it to Abraham and his descendants. Moses has led these several millions of people right up to the edge of the land, and it's time now to go in and possess the land. It's a rich land, it's a land that flows with milk and honey. You're thinking, I think maybe you are like some of the people of Israel, that this is just too good to be true.

There are a lot of people that are looking for their peace, their joy, their happiness by their own workings, their own doings. They're looking for it in a bottle of alcohol. They're trying to find some peace, some comfort, trying to find relax. They drink until they can go to sleep. They can't find it any other way, only to wake up and find their situation is worse than when they first started.

Others are looking for it in pleasure. They just can't get enough of good times. They go from one party to another party to another party. Other people are looking for it in their riches. They're looking for it in something that they can do. Friend, you can't do anything but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him and you'll experience good in your life.

It comes through faith. It comes through Jesus. Taste and see. Please experience it. Taste and see that the Lord is good. This does not mean that you'll be free from problems and trouble. No, we still live in a world that has been cursed, a fallen world. There is difficulty in this world. We know about this situation down in the Gulf. It has been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks.

We wanted oil. We got oil. We've got too much oil right now. When people become addicted to something, just like America is addicted to oil, we can't live without it. We have to have it. At least we think we have to have it. When we get addicted to something, and we have somehow come to be addicted to our own self, we think that we can manage our own affairs.

We cannot. All the technology in the world keeps failing. The BP petroleum, they're going to get it. I know they're going to get it fixed someday, but I want you to know and God wants you to know that we're not as smart as we think we are. We really are not. We just don't have all the answers to everything. One has the answer, it's Jesus and He'll give you the answer when you go to Him and look to Him.

There will be problems. There is going to be trouble in this world. As you walk through this world and you are confronted with a problem, and you will be, some of you are right now up against a boulder, a big giant standing right in your way. It won't allow you to pass through to where there is peace to give you victory. When you face that boulder, you face that giant, God's peace is there.

God's energy is there. It continues to flow in. God doesn't give out little thimble-full blessings. He gives in abundance. His blessings come in abundance. When your heart is filled and then something else tries to get in, it can't get in because it's filled. You can have the trial, the difficulty, the trouble just impacting you and impacting you, but the blessing of God is stronger.

It's greater. There is an endless supply and it keeps flowing in and you keep living, you keep walking, you keep in victory even in the midst of trouble. This is God's blessing. God will give and He will bless. You might have a lot of problems on the outside, but on the inside, there is peace and comfort. The blessing of God. These troubles on the outside are not affecting your life or your emotions.

Your life and emotions are filled with Jesus, filled with the land that's flowing with milk and honey. Milk and honey keeps flowing in and flowing in, keeping you filled up. You can face now the giants because you have God's power within you. Let me tell you what happened. Moses sent out twelve spies. That's what they were called in the Bible, so that's what I'm going to call them.

This is the land. God says it is yours. Way down here in Kadesh Barnea, right before the green, right in this area, that's where the children of Israel were three months out of the land of Canaan. They were ready to go in in three months. Why forty years of wandering in the desert? What happened? God says you can go in now. They ended up wandering for forty years.

You know why? They didn't believe. They didn't trust the Lord. They saw giants. They didn't experience the infilling that God had for them. They cowered down and said it is just too good to be true, it is not for me, it is not time. God turned them around and said, "Back into the desert with you then." If you don't believe, then you'll go into those dry desert spiritual experiences.

The joy is gone, the comfort is gone, the peace is gone. You can live in the desert or you can live in the land that flows with milk and honey. The choice is yours and it's yours by faith in Jesus Christ. All in Him. When He sent out the twelve spies, Moses said to go up and look at the land and come back with a report.

Jesus said when a man is going to build a tower, he first sits down and counts the cost. Jesus said when a king is going to go into battle with another king, he first counts his own soldiers to see if we have enough to get in there to win the battle. We don't go in blindly. The Lord is not asking anybody to go in blindly.

The Lord is asking us to open our eyes and see the promise, believe what we see, and let our hearts be filled with that promise. This is what they were doing. They were going in now to explore the land. Notice they were gone, the spies were gone for forty days. The majority came back and said we can't do it. God is not as democratic as we are.

We say let's vote on this thing and let the majority rule. If when I started, the Largo Community Church, if I went by majority rule, we wouldn't be here today. You know that? This is our 38th anniversary today. 38 years we've been doing this. Some of my dear friends told me not to go to Largo. These are older ministers ministers I have revered.

They're good men. They knew what we were going to go through. They knew we had no money. They knew that if we did this, they were going to cut us off and they wouldn't support us. I knew that. They said if you need money, we'll give you money, but not money to go to Largo. We'll give you money not to go over there. Others have come over and over and told me not to go.

I said I have to go. They said then you cannot be a member of our denomination. You must surrender your ordination. You cannot go. That tore me to pieces. That about broke me down. I said we're going, we have to go. We came right up to the edge and we had to make a decision. We made a decision based on the conviction that God put in us, not based on majority rule.

The Holy Spirit strategized this. This was of God. We had fifty dollars. That's all we had and we came in and we believed the Lord and the Lord did the rest. He did it all. Here these spies, they came back with a negative report. They said it is a good and fertile land. It is everything that Abraham and Moses and everybody else has told us.

It's good, but there's where they failed. Don't ever put a "but" in there. But there are giants up there. There are walled cities up there. We can't do it. Two fellows, Joshua and Caleb, said we can do it. Let's go in and take it. God said so. When God speaks, it happens just like God says. Here were the two to three million people voting according to the report of the ten.

Not the report that God gave Joshua and Caleb, that God gave Moses, that God gave Abraham. Only two believed the report and only two got the blessing. Friend, I just wonder how many of you here this morning are going to get the blessing. I'm just wondering. I'm praying that many of you will receive the blessing that God has for you. They said there are fortified cities.

Archaeology has explored that region of Canaan. The archaeologist did excavation and they looked at the Late Bronze Age period. That's about the period that these people were trying to get into the land. They said indeed back then there were walled cities. Walls were made out of stone and mud brick and the walls were twenty-four feet thick.

That is what these ten spies saw, those walled cities. Archaeology, a science, not scriptural archaeology, but a pure science, and some of them are believers and some of them are following the word of God I'm sure. They said that cities to their best estimate had approximately 40,000 people. A city with 40,000 people was like a city with almost 10 million today.

Those were huge cities with these huge walls. In addition, there were giants there. Did you ever face a giant? How many of you are facing a giant today? When you begin to disbelieve and get your eyes on your problem and focus on your problem, your problem will start growing bigger and bigger and bigger. These ten spies come back and said those giants are like Nephilim.

Their mind goes all the way back to Genesis chapter six where it says the sons of God came down to earth and married the daughters of men. It's believed by the theologians that when Satan was cast out of heaven, according to the scripture a third of the angels were cast out, those angels came down and married human women.

I'm not saying I go with that theory or not, but this is what they were saying and this is perhaps what these ten spies were believing. They married the women so here are fallen angels marrying human women having sex with them and they give birth to giants, superhuman people. Here are these ten spies. They saw those giants, their mind clicks all the way back to Genesis six.

They say my God those people are demon possessed, they're giants, they're filled with supernatural power. Listen, when you start looking at the problem, your problem gets big. When you look at a giant, the giant gets taller and you feel like a grasshopper. There were two men. They saw exactly what the ten saw. They saw the walled cities. They saw the giants.

They saw everything that everybody else saw, but they also saw God. Friend, some of you are complaining about your problems. How much time are you putting in praying about that problem? Praying about your family? Praying about your marriage? God is bigger than anything that comes against you. Anything that the enemy will form that will hurt you or destroy you.

Anything that will sap your energy or take your joy and peace. God is bigger. If you look at that problem and keep talking about it, talk about God. Talk about the power of God. See what God can do with the giants. God will handle these situations. The scripture says as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. That means a woman too.

Listen, if you think you can't, you can't. If you think you're a failure, you're a failure. If you think you're a loser, you're a loser. The Bible says as a man thinketh in his heart. Friend, you keep thinking that you can't. You keep thinking it's too good to be true. Then it will be too good to be true. If you keep thinking he'll never change, she'll never change, then he won't change.

If you believe that God's power is greater, amen. Let the power of God come against that situation and bring it down. God can handle it. You cannot. Weeks now you've been struggling with this. Months you've been struggling with it. Some of you have been struggling with a problem for years. It hasn't gotten one bit better. It's only gotten worse.

Now you're thinking about giving up. Friend, God answers prayer. God is still almighty. He still has all power. He promised you blessings and victory. If you don't get it, is God a liar? Are you now angry? You're mad at God? Friend, if you don't have it, it's because you haven't received it because you haven't looked to the Lord.

Here is what the majority said. Let me read it. Verse 27. The majority says we went up to the land, it does flow with milk and honey, but giants live there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. Listen to this, we seemed. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. They were looking at themselves. In our own eyes, we can't do it.

So far so good. You're right. In your own eyes, you can't do it. In our own eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers. There was one man in the group who jumped to his feet about that time and it's in verse 30 and he said listen to negativism and negativism and negativism and you vote and majority rules and it's all against God's promises.

Then the majority is wrong. Then there's something wrong spiritually. Then our eyes are on ourselves and our own faith. We can't afford it. I heard that for years. We can't afford to buy the land. We can't afford to build the buildings. We can't afford television equipment. Of course we can't, but He can. Mister, you're not on the throne.

We're not going to vote according to your wallet and bank account because you're not going to give it anyway. Friend, it's time to believe and to trust and to receive the promises of God. Listen to what this one man says. God give us more men like this, more women like this. Caleb jumped to his feet. He said we should go up and take possession of the land.

We can certainly do it. He had a certainty in his statement. They had minuses, negativism, doubt, and they were just pouring it on the people. The people were eating it up. They were buying it. They said we can't, everything is a failure. Caleb said we can. Twelve men went out. Twelve men saw the same thing, but two men saw God.

Hallelujah, they saw God. They chose to keep their eyes and their focus on the Lord. I read about David. Remember when David was just a boy and there was a big Goliath in the land? David was told by his father to go take the lunch up to his brothers who were on the front line of Saul's army. David was just a sheep boy, a sheepherder.

The scripture says he was ruddy, meaning his complexion. Two times he was referred to as a lad and two times he was referred to as a boy. He must have been about sixteen, seventeen years old. He wasn't old enough to even go to war. He went up to the land where they were fighting. There were two great mountains. On this side the Philistine armies, on this side the armies of Israel.

In between was a valley. Every morning this huge giant, nine feet tall, would walk out down into that valley and he'd call, "Send me a man. If I kill him, you become our slaves. If you kill me, we become your slaves." Here is David up there fixing lunch for his brother and he hears that roar and he turns and looks and here comes that huge monster.

David said, "Who is that?" The armies of Israel would flee. The scripture says the whole armies would run. They would run away from that every morning and every evening. How many times have you been hit with that giant that's still in your house? In your home? In your office? That giant would come out. David then said, "Who is that uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the living God?"

That uncircumcised Philistine is not under the covenant of Abraham. He can't do what he says he's doing. But the whole army believed that the giant was stronger than they were. David said, "I'll go. I'll do it." They said, "But you're just a boy. You're not even draft age yet. You can't fight." He said the armies of God have been defied.

He takes his little slingshot. All boys have slingshots and BB guns. David is just a boy. Here are these men who are supposed to be elders of the faith saying we can't do it and they're afraid we're going to go bankrupt, we're afraid we're going to get foreclosed on. The elders are saying we can't. David said, "I believe in God. I believe we can."

He went up and he defied that giant and he brought him down. Now Israel rejoiced. There's a lot of people today who said it can't be done. They're here today, they're rejoicing today because it has been done. If I had listened to them, I don't know where we'd be. Thank God for the voice of the Lord, for His holy scripture, for the word of God.

David had been anointed to do the work that God had called him to do. Samuel anointed him. The armies of Israel didn't know it. I don't even know how many people of his own family knew it. David said, "Look, King Saul." Saul said, "Don't go down there, you're just a boy." David said, "But I've been anointed. Do you know King Saul there was a bear that came after my sheep one day?"

There was a lion that came after my sheep one day. In those days there were bears and lions in the land of Canaan. He said, "I chased them and I brought them down and I killed them. Now that giant is just another animal, but just bigger and louder. I'm going to bring him down in the name of our God." And he did it.

He brought him down in the name of God. Friend, you have been blessed. You have been washed in the blood of Jesus. You have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You don't have to put up with what you're putting up with. You can bring that giant down. That problem, that difficulty. You have been anointed. There is nothing that has been formed against you that can prosper if you'll trust in the Lord.

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Let God's truth speak to your heart every Monday morning. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.