"An Evil Report", Pastor John Bradshaw, September 19, 2020, Second Service

ceo like to welcome you my name is vanessa and we always start out our service with a couple of hymns the first time this morning is tip number 286 wonderful words of life me wonderful words of life beautiful words of of life [Music] beautiful words life words of life forever okay our next hymn this morning is him number eight we gather together [Music] we gather together [Music] he forgets not his own [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] escape [Music] all right good morning good to see each and every one of your smiling faces this morning i have a couple announcements that i want to make for you here for starters this evening at 6 pm i want to encourage you to come on out to our identify program now you may have many questions about what identify is and let me tell you something the only way to find out is to come now it's going to be a good program that will be put on by several of us for the youth of our church and also those who are young at heart so if you have nothing to do this evening actually i want to encourage you if even if you do have something to do come on out and join us for identify now my last announcement that i make for you here is that montez burke's sister gloria witcher and if you know montes here she's spoken of her sister and asked many of us here to lift her sister up in prayer gloria witcher passed away this week she had a long long battle with illness but now she is resting in jesus so please do remember montes and her family and your prayers if you would like to send her a card or her or anything else come talk to me and i can give you her address because we want to make sure that her and her family are wrapped in prayers and love during this time now i want to ask pastor rusty to come on up here because he's got a couple announcements that he's going to make himself all righty do you have a will i hope so are you new to hamilton county you need to learn there's a judge here that believes you better have a revocable living trust or interesting things happen to what you thought was going to happen and the good news is you'll never know about it but the rest of us have to deal with it so we're helping you out in a couple of weeks october 4 georgia cumberland conference is making their services available and if you want a will and are irrevocable trust they'll help you set that up just kind of contact on the information is in your bulletin there and you can set up a private interview with them and they'll be able to help you out and the great thing is is this this is uh help provided by your church i think i've not completely done it yet there may be a little smidge but for the most part last time i'd done it it was at no cost to church members so check it out uh church work b is going to happen just a few weeks we're gonna have a sign up sheet be thinking about that go ahead and put october 11 on your calendar now i've got a i've got a challenge here today and uh today it looks like we might be okay i don't know douglas i'm looking out here and i'm encouraged but um here's the thing we have been just just well we got a problem of all things our attendance is going through the roof especially with coven and we don't know what to do about it so here's the thing we're really encouraging you we built a whole new service in it's called first service yeah it's earlier um and if if that doesn't work we may even go to a third service but the thing is is we're getting pretty full now we've got a pressure relief valve i was so happy doug to get this pressure relief out it's called uh live stream in the fellowship hall and um what we want to do is if you get here late there's not a seat you can comfortably you know get to without you know breaking the social distancing thing um we we encourage you to go there come earlier next week or even come to first service uh so at any rate we just share that with you because we need some help we don't know what to do we're trying our best in the midst we think it's a great problem to have by the way we are awesome we really think it's great problem another thing too have you ever had testimonies your testimonies and some sister not in this church i've never heard of here i'm thinking about old church and previous churches they'll stand up and say i have a testimony and they say well this morning i was like you know really i was feeling bad in fact i was puking my guts out but god help me get to church today and i'm so thankful to be here and everybody's like and we didn't even know what social distance was and we just maybe you didn't know but we we stayed away from you we didn't want to shake your hand we didn't want to be there and we're like now's the time we can't have any more of those testimonies so please help us because here's the thing if we all do that we all kind of stay home when we're sick this is all going to work out just fine and we're counting on you because we're counting on you that's all we can say but we're in this together and we appreciate that a couple of other things here on a good note we want to encourage you to come tonight to identify it is for our young people i know chris mentioned that but one thing we're doing here that's maybe a little different when we gear things for our young people we know one thing you know what thing is that chris we know one thing and that is that we're all young right none of us think of ourselves as old i thought 50 was like archaic i don't think that anymore so you come on out we're going to have a great time uh got a great program planned and we got other programs coming up identified tomorrow night tonight tonight at six o'clock and we'll see you there all right god bless [Music] [Music] okay [Music] all right i want to invite douglas not and actually i want to invite our salt student up as you've been noticing week after week we have been having a period of testimonies here at our church so i want to invite our testimonial salt students to come forward right now to give a powerful testimony from this week happy sabbath church you know we are four weeks into our soul program and we have 20 plus assault bible instructors that have been uh going out uh door knocking in this community and they're meeting interesting and fascinating people who are interested and not so interested in bible studies and i wish we had a lot of time to share with you uh what we're doing out in the field and the people we're meeting but we're just going to highlight some of the best here and so i've invited rhett and azariah they've got a very interesting story about a lady that they met and so i'm gonna pass it on today thank you pastor doug have you sat with everyone so last week i gave a little children's story and this children's story applied really well into this experience i had this week and a week before the last week i gave the children about fruit well i gave that tron story because that applied to me i was unfaithful in believing that there are ripe fruit out there and in salt we call them a contacts okay everyone over here can say amen to that i didn't believe eight contacts were real i thought they were just some fairy tale or fable i thought well no there's everybody out there is either some christian they don't need jesus well god proved me wrong okay so ezra and i knocked on this one door and we went to this lady's door we went through the survey and i got to the end i said for those who are interested in bible studies and she interrupted me and said yes i'm interested in having bible studies and for the next 20 minutes she put me to shame in preaching revelation and things that were happening in the end times today and i was just flabbergasted i didn't know what to say so what am i getting to i'm getting to matthew 19 verse 26 it says that jesus beheld them and said unto them with men this is impossible but with god all things are possible amen so i asked you guys today to go out there and do some of the impossible things and with that we had a little bible study this past week and she was very interested and then to make things even more impossible she said i invited more friends over for the bible study amen god makes things work out when you go and do the impossible go out in faith and do the impossible amen thank you for your time [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] let's all stand as we sing our hammer preparation sweet sweet spirit [Music] there's a sweet sweet [Music] is on each place [Music] stay right here with us [Music] father in heaven lord we thank you for this morning fill us now with your holy spirit lord may our hearts and minds be open to you this is our prayer in jesus name amen let's continue to stand as we sing our hymn of praise god of our fathers god [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] r is [Music] sorry for the interruption but uh if you have a white jeep jericho cherokee ulysses is probably calling you out there alarm is going off so if you're on a hamilton county plate white jeep cherokee please see to it thank you morris and good morning our offering today is for local church budget and i'd like to share some good advice about training up a child if we've all heard that common phrase parents often feel guilty about not doing enough for their children and in fact at times we may even over indulge them so desires are satisfied when that happens toys pile up around the house and i'm just thinking this through from from some experience as well high-priced electronics are purchased and soon after buying some of these items interest in them subsides and they're forgotten and i'm sure like me many of you find this familiar as well the bible teaches this in proverbs chapter 22 verse 6 that we should train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it teaching children about ties and offerings is best done in their early years they can be taught to count out the ties for monies they've earned they can also participate in donating to worthy causes the keys in this training are three things the selection of proper attitude timing and benevolence the child should not feel compelled and if properly explained and that's very important most children are eager to participate in a project that helps other people there's a story about a pastor who is delighted to learn that a young boy was returning his tithe faithfully because in the boy's words that's what god wants so let each of us teach our children to be faithful in their earning and return to god what is rightfully his this training will reap surprising benefits in the future not only for the giver but also for our church in its mission of spreading the gospel if we as parents and even grandparents practices wisdom the church budget will not suffer let us bow our heads for prayer dear heavenly father thank you for the blessings you have generously bestowed upon us please bless our tithes and offerings and may they be used wisely to support the spread of the good news about jesus in our church our community and around the world in jesus name we pray amen offering plate is located at your entrance so you'll be able to drop your tithe envelope in there on your way out and i also encourage you to you know donate via your mobile app or just go to our church website you can donate online thank you very much i've been wondering i [Music] and uh on lost his mother tells and he even us yes and that's what he wanted you know it's inspiring to see a young boy [Music] [Music] no we do big things right here right now remember the bible text from first [Music] [Music] today's scripture reading is found in numbers 13 26-31 now they departed and came back to moses and aaron and all the congregation of the children of israel in the wilderness of peron at kadesh they brought back word to them and all and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land then they told him and said we went to the land where you sent us it truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit nevertheless the people who dwelt in the land are strong the cities are fortified and very large moreover we saw the descendants of anac there the amalekites dwell in the land of the south the hittites the jebusites and the amorites dwell in the mountains and the canaan canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the jordan then caleb quieted the people before moses and said let us go up at once and take possession for we are well able to overcome it but the men who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we in front of you you might find a prayer card and if you have a prayer request that you would like us to pray for elders are interested in praying with you and for those requests you can just turn that into the offering plate as you leave today another way you can do that is to just go online to our our website and just scroll down to prayer ministries and right there is an online prayer ministries card we get that and we pray for that as well and we can do the old-fashioned way if you have a prayer request and you'd like to have that remembered before the lord just raise your hand to heaven and we're going to pray for those requests god knows each one and we're going to pray for those just now let us kneel together for prayer [Music] heavenly father as we come before you father we do so recognizing that you're our creator you made us we exist we have we have breath because you created us and so father we've come to this place to worship you and as we do so we asked lord that you would come inside of our hearts we want to open our hearts door and allow you to come in and do what you do best to change us to wash us to purify us and i pray father that you would do what you've said that you would bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of jesus christ you know the requests that are on our hearts father some or perhaps for financial reasons perhaps there is a lost job or there is a fear of losing their job or that they're unemployed i pray father that you would be with each of these requests and that you would answer them as we hold out our hand and we partner with you and trust in you and ask you to help with expectation that you'll answer and i pray father that you would also be with those of us who have friends loved ones um that are sick that are suffering in many different ways father we pray lord that you administer to each one of them in the way that you see fit you know each one you know each need you know each ailment we know that some cannot even be healed without your hand moving so father we put our faith in you and put our trust in you and we ask that you would be with them and that you would help them i think specifically of roy tapley and that should also be with ben caim especially during this time lord there are other requests that may not fall into those categories father we pray that you would be the answer to all of those needs all of our questionings in our heart all of our wants even our desires we pray father that you would be with them and that you would help answer these prayers today i pray that you would be with your servant pastor john bradshaw and i pray lord that you would be with him and help him to be able to communicate the word that you placed on his heart that the word would come alive and come out of his lips and then enter into our hearts and that your word would have its way that it would not come back void but it would have its perfect will accomplished so i pray that you would bless us to that end for today father we just simply come and we worship you we honor you we uplift your name and we ask that you would bless us is our prayer in jesus name amen so my faithful father [Music] enduring friend your tender mercies like a river with no wind it all overwhelms me covers my sin each time i come into your presence i stand in water once again your grace still amazes me your love is still a mystery each day i fall on your grace still amazes me your grace still amazes me oh patience savior you make [Music] what can i give you lord what can i say i know there's no way to repay you only to offer you my praise your grace me your love is still a mystery each day i fall on my knees your grace still amazes me your grace still amazes me it's deeper it's wider it's stronger it's higher [Music] [Applause] still amazes me your love is still a mystery each day i fall on my knees cause your grace still amazes me your grace still amazes me well thank you for that thank you say thank you there you go vanessa thank you too we thank this uh vanessa and vanessa we thank the singers we forget the piano player we don't we hear it and appreciate it so thank you to the music the singers and uh our accompanist today great i appreciate the music here wherever it comes from a chat first let me say good morning good morning everyone i hope you're well today and and blessed and encouraged and excited about something i'm excited about a lot of things i am excited that we have our salt students here you will catch on maybe we have some scandinavians in the house there are some people who demonstrate their excitement like this no really there are and on the inside they're just they're just doing backflips and somersaults but on the outside you'd never know but anyway i'm glad the salties are here pasta nah thank you very much for your leadership we appreciate you very much salt is it has written evangelism training school uh working alongside chattanooga first in preparation for the other thing we're excited about and that is our upcoming evangelistic series come on and say man that's exciting uh series starts october 23. that's outstanding october 23 that's just around the corner ladies and gentlemen just around the corner which means that you are praying hey praying and you are asking god and you are appealing with god and to god to do something great in our community by the way things are not as they ordinarily are i'm guessing you've noticed things are a little upside down in society right now we understand that but we have some options when it comes to outreach we could sit on our hands and do nothing or sit on our knees and do something and i'm glad to be part of a faith community that is a community of faith we're doing something and by the way october the 23rd is not the destination it's just another uh a waypoint on the journey of church live so that's the beginning evangelist is a fellow named donovan keck you will like him very much and his family fantastic family you will like the message even more uh because jesus will be lifted up and i believe jesus once said that if he's lifted up he will do what draw i have a little cough sorry wouldn't be so bad if i hadn't lost my sense of taste and my ability to smell i was kidding about that it's a little thing here by the way you know it is it is appropriate to take precautions right now it is inappropriate not to it is appropriate to be using your head it's appropriate to be doing all the things that they're recommending social distancing and so forth that's wise it's not appropriate to fear the presence of fear is evidence of an absence of faith it's just true now i didn't say you shouldn't be cautious i didn't say you shouldn't be giving people a wide but do do the right stuff do the right thing fear isn't the right thing so anyway i'll leave you to work that through i don't want to get specific because i don't intend to trade on anybody's toes and i don't want to misspeak i'm just saying this is not a time for fear because unless god has evacuated the throne in heaven and i do not think he has unless god has decided that he's no longer god unless he's left us to our own devices we have nothing to fear we are on the right side god is with us the best is yet to come we're going to look back on these days one day maybe uh with a sense of wonderment at what god did things that right now we may not perceive him doing by the way something else i'd like you to pray about and that is starting on october 10 is another evangelistic series it's it's different to what we're doing here october 23. this is this is a sort of a seed sowing event it's taking place online it's called answers in prophecy and we're it's not a prophecy series where we look at all the usual suspects uh it's a prophecy series where we look at the prophecies and and and find some guidance and get some light as to how they speak to the days in which we live so really this is for people that you don't know people who haven't been to church people who are searching i hope you will know about it look out for it you'd love for you to join us online and tell people about it and that would be a good thing that you could use as a seed sowing thing share that with your neighbor share it with your friends tell them to go to answers and prophecy.com and sign up they can watch it online and then you can say did you like that and i said yes i like that and then you can say you'll really love what i'm about to share with you now come with me october 23 you see how that works see so use it as a seed sowing if it answers some prophecy second thing third thing fourth thing i want to tell you if you are regular here in chattanooga first and you look around and you see someone here who is irregular and you can define irregular however you want because there's always some irregular folks at church anyway but if you see someone that you don't know shame on you if you don't say hi i don't think i know you i'm just glad to see you here it might be that as someone who's been a member here for 10 years and you just move in different circles that happens but if there's someone here today and you are regular here and you don't know them or you think that might be somebody visiting then that's your cue to show some friendship so that you know maybe someone who's seeking refuge here because their church is shut down and when their church opens back up they may just drift off back you want them to go back and say those are some fine people at chattanooga first as a matter of fact i mean i i didn't say this and the pastor didn't put me up to he would never say this but if you say hello nicely enough to somebody they're going to look at that membership transfer card with their eyes wide open i'm not about that you know i'm not right oh look at that thank you man anyway point is not that the point is please be friendly and please demonstrate that you have the love of jesus the love of jesus the love of jesus down in your heart we're going to take to the bible now at least in just a moment and we'll uh ask god to guide us in a study of his word so would you pray with me now and we'll pray expecting god to speak our heavenly father we come to you in the name of jesus and we ask you lord to speak to us from your word bless these moments for your glory so that when we're done in spite of the limitation of both the speaker and the hearer we will be able to know that the the creator god has been in our midst and we in his and that he has spoken and we have heard that he has moved and we have been moved bless us now we ask you and we pray in jesus name please say with me amen november the 18th of 1983 was a friday friday november 18 1983 and a 14 year old boy was shot and killed at a junior high school in baltimore maryland it was the first ever homicide in a baltimore city school ah those were the days of course it was a senseless killing whoever it was who killed dewitt duckett shot and killed him for his jacket that was it parents did not receive a 14 year old kid home that night because someone wanted his jacket enough to kill him for it that was it it was not long before three 16 year old boys were arrested for the crime and sentenced to life in prison and by the way i would just like you to think through the sense or nonsense of sentencing a 16 year old boy to prison for the term of his natural life you've just wrestled with that one but what's interesting is that 36 years later the men were freed two of them had just given up we're gonna we're rotting here in prison we're gonna die here one day that's that but the third one knowing he was innocent and not guilty refused to accept his fate and so he worked and worked at work and researched and studied and went online and wrote letters and he heard about something and he found some new evidence and lo and behold the opportunity came for that sentencing to be reviewed and the men weren't just let out of prison they were exonerated that's when they say not you've done enough time not we'll let you out that's when they say you never did it because the three men never did it and so you wonder how could three men okay how could three boys be convicted of a crime that in the first place they never committed especially when numerous witnesses told investigators that an 18 year old had done it one student saw the 18 year old boy run away when the cops arrived and throw away a handgun now harlem park junior high school is as the crow flies one and a half miles from camden yards that's where the orioles play what got these three boys convicted was a false report happens with more frequency than you know students claim they were coached i'll leave that for others to figure out they say they were urged whatever the reason the number of them presented false testimony a false report they said they were pressured but whatever the reason they identified these three innocent boys as the perpetrators of this vicious callous and heartless crime a security guard said that he spoke to the three boys he said that he asked them gave him a bit of a hard time about why they were cutting class and he told them to run along and as they left the school he locked the gates or the doors of the school and that this happened 30 minutes before the 14 year old kid was killed and yet still they were charged and found guilty and convicted and sentenced to life in prison and between them they spent more than a century 108 years behind bars for a crime they did not commit all because of a false report false reports can do a lot of damage false reports can cost a lot of money in this case cost three boys basically their entire lives 36 years that's half of three score and ten six years ago woman named elizabeth holmes was the darling of silicon valley young woman at the age of 19 she founded a company called theranos theranos therinos and theron said that they developed the blood test you could take just a little amount of blood the blood tests were carried out rapidly and they were very effective and they could identify a bunch of different diseases just from like a little blood test a little tiny bit of blood and you could get these tests kind of everywhere they were portable and they were very effective and you know the company based in palo alto california palo alto california in the heart of silicon valley raised seven hundred million dollars from venture capitalists and private investors a number of heavy hitters sat on theranos's board including henry kissinger and george schultz i mean big time in a little more than 10 years miss holmes personal net worth skyrocketed she was worth four and a half billion dollars and then overnight her net worth went from four and a half billion dollars to zero billion dollars in fact it plunged to zero you see company after company had been frustrated by their attempts to work with theranos they were doing deals they were spending money they were investing they were developing safeway safeway the supermarket chain spent 350 million dollars retrofitting its stores putting in clinics and equipment so that therinosus blood tests could be carried out safely and efficiently and effectively but it came to nothing walgreens had a similar experience the cleveland clinic had a similar experience stanford university educated elizabeth holmes had allegedly been lying to everyone and making false claims we will find out she was due to go to court last month uh there's no such thing as a covert courtroom or it's it's difficult and so at least although she was meant to go to court last month the trial has been postponed until at this stage march of next year the company was valued at nine billion dollars now it isn't worth two cents elizabeth holmes has been accused of having perpetrated and i quote an elaborate years-long fraud which cost a lot of people a lot of money it was all one big false report but technology didn't work the company simply knowingly faked test results not listening to a false report on the other hand that can save lives in fact it once prevented the world from plunging into what would doubtless have been world war three 1983 you may remember a korean airlines airliner a jumbo jet was shot down over the soviet union remember that the soviet union 269 people on board passengers and crew the soviets figured this must be a spy plane we're done with that and boom down it went everybody perished of course three weeks later a man named stanislav petrov was sitting at his place monitoring a soviet early warning system this is the thing that would tell them if the united states was raining fire from the sky had sent nuclear weapons missiles and it looked like based on what the early warning system was saying that a minuteman missile had been sent from that field in north dakota and he looked at that and he said this does not look good he looked again five more were following five more what did that mean it meant that the soviet union was was about to be obliterated hell would rain down on the city of moscow and mr petrov looked at that with his superiors nearby it was his duty to tell his superiors what he was seeing on the screen but he chose not to and he chose not to because he reasoned that a superiors would say fire back immediately retaliate without delay he knew that would be the end they'd retaliate the united states would retaliate against retaliation to be more retaliation and everybody would wake up the next morning dead and the world would be inexorably and irretrievably altered mr petrov instead looked at that and said you know i don't think so just something in his bones told him no the united states is not attacking there must be a problem here and when they looked deeper into it it was discovered that that system had malfunctioned there were no missiles coming down from the american sky on the soviet terra firma countless lives were saved the man was honored honored by the united nations he was given gifts of money stanislav petrov you ought to you ought to thank god for him you might not be here today if not for his calm the screen was giving him a false report chose not to listen somehow he knew it was false he went with what he believed in his heart and you to be true and that may be the very reason that you and i are meeting here today you find false reports in the bible you remember the story god god sent the prophet down there to rebuke jeroboam jeroboam did some certain things he should not have done the prophet said aha his hand was withered you know crippled in a moment he appealed to the prophet the prophet prayed and intervened and jeroboam was restored god said to that fellow you get down there you get in jeroboam's face tell him what he's got to hear then go home don't go the way you came go another way and do not stop for anything or anyone he's on his way home he has followed the direction so far he's going home a different route but another man comes out claiming to be a prophet and says god has told me that you are to come home to my house we will feed you we will show you hospitality you'll be so happy it absolutely befuddles me as to why the man listened god told him this someone came along as it ah but god has told me that you get that when it comes to the bible all the time you read the bible people learning the bible they read some plain statements and suddenly counselors come from out of the woodwork oh you don't want to do that and they listen to somebody else so what happened was that prophet he was a disobedient prophet obedient on the one hand disobedient on the next he finally headed home and a lion came out of nowhere and killed him that was a lying report it was an evil report we find another one in the garden of eden god spoke to adam and eve you can have it all just don't eat the fruit that grows on that tree you can have it all just not that eve for some reason wandered close to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and she entered into a conversation with a slimy slithering serpent who said to her yea hath god said and she said well yes as a matter of fact and he said god knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like god knowing good and evil and something thrilled inside of her and she said evil and she was unwise enough to tarry there instead of running she should have run home as fast as she could you never believe what i saw i saw a talking snake i wonder about that let's talk to god let's ask but no eve ate the fruit adam followed on sin exists today because somebody chose to believe an evil report imagine if our original grandparents had simply chosen to believe god well now we find another example in the book of numbers and i would like you to turn there with me numbers is where we're turning numbers and chapter 13. do you know how long it should have taken israel to get from egypt to the promised land anybody know there are some people who say it should have taken 11 days if they'd walked in a straight line the direct route 11 days turns out they took a more circuitous route i don't know for sure i've read some reports that say they had to be walking pretty fast to make it in 11 days but 11 days or not you get the idea it was a short period of time but instead they wandered for four decades out there four decades and here's why it was because of an evil report the chapter starts with these words and the lord spake unto moses saying send thou men that they may search the land of canaan which i give unto the children of israel of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man everyone a ruler among them now don't miss those important statements i spoke to a young lady last night she said to me how can i have a more meaningful devotional life and i'll give you a hint right now this is this is worth something read the bible with your eyes open i i mean that kindly read the bible and see what's going on put yourself into the story look around don't just skip over phrases ask yourself what they mean suddenly things will start jumping off the page at you and you will see things that you hadn't seen before we might have just burned right by here except we're not going to do so the bible says that god said send men to search out the land that i give to the children of israel this was money in the bank not here's some land that i might give not this is land that i'm thinking of giving this was god saying i am going to give you this it's like when somebody says i shall give you five dollars here's a check take it to the bank cash it and the 250 dollars is yours god had promised them here's the land you are going to get it i'm going to give you canaan that's it ladies and gentlemen done deal when god speaks it's as good as done you may not feel like it but that's why the bible says we are saved by grace through faith not through feelings it might seem unlikely to you but i don't care you are god the question is is it likely to god and if the answer is yes then again it's money in a bank it's a done deal you can nail it shut god said i am giving you the land no question about it and then we read just a little bit further on that was verse 2. you jump down to verse 4 and these were the names of the twelve now you know the names of two of them we celebrate them joshua and i have a nephew whose name is joshua caleb oh we like those names that's great but i can tell you that i do not have a nephew whose name is shamu do you know any shamu shay fats i didn't think so do you know an igal paltai or a gadiel gaday or an amiel sether or a naby dewell no you don't those names are foreign to you they sound strange to you you might say i've never even heard of those names and you know why those were the other ten we would be singing songs about them today if they had come back from their reconnaissance mission into canaan saying yeah let's go man let's go we'd be singing songs about them they might have got a mention in hebrews chapter 11 right there in the hall of faith we'd be talking about them we'd be talking about abraham and isaac and jacob and gewell and shamua and shayfat there might even be a little boy named shayfat in sabbath school today and the kid at school would say where do you get a name like shafat he said don't you know that's a big deal name that's a legacy name this was one of the brave men who went to see canaan and spite it out and came back and brought the report i'm named after a big shot little shafat would say but there are no little shafets today we don't name our daughters jezebel we don't name our sons shayfat these are names that are covered in shame the faithless ten the anonymous ten if things had worked out ever so slightly differently the they'd be we would have a mount rushmore of faith and their images would be carved into it if things had worked out a little differently it's like ronald wayne did you ever hear of ronald wayne ron wayne not john wayne ronald wayne oh there's probably one and a half people here who can say oh yeah no no sure but the rest of us we've got no idea did you ever hear of a company named apple computers or apple uh you heard apple who founded apple oh that's easy steve jobs steve what was that other guy's name steve steve can you tell me wozniak that's right and a third guy ronald wayne ronald wayne was 41 years old at the time wozniak and jobs were much younger early 20s wozniak was the one who actually wrote up the partnership agreement and drew the very first apple logo smart fella bright guy good businessman he was there at the right time and he spotted an opportunity but as apple was i mean hardly even growing he realized that if things came unglued he'd be on the hook now these two young fellas jobs and wozniak they didn't have anything so if the company went belly up the creditors would go looking for what exactly well they'd go to wayne and wayne who owned a home and wayne who had some stuff man he didn't feel like jeopardizing all that he felt like the old man out with these two early 20 year olds technology was so new wayne decided you know boys i'm going to get out of this i'll leave you to it and so he sold his not 33 his 10 stake in apple he had 10 in apple he sold it for 800 bucks which today would be a little over 3 000. if he had kept it his share in apple computers would today be worth 95 90 95 what if you said 95 million you are wrong he would be worth today 95 billion dollars but you never heard of him the richest man you never knew because he bailed he says to this day that he does not regret it i say to this day that he's lying never heard of him just the same way you never heard of gaddiel amiel sether bye and here's why let's go numbers 13 we start in verse 17. moses sent them to spy out the land of canaan and said to them get you up this way southward go up into the mountain and here's here's the mandate here it is and see the land that's all they got to do see the land what it is see the people that dwell therein whether they're strong or weak few or many it didn't matter whether there were 10 million goliaths there their job was just to bring back the report it's like if you ever find yourself in court as a witness they're going to ask you what you saw tell me ma'am what did you see that afternoon as you were standing uh by the side of the street and uh somebody came running out of a bank yuan your job is not to say well the criminal is this fellow and here's all that he did and what he was thinking no no no just the facts ma'am i ran i saw him run out what was he wearing a mask that didn't mean anything by that he wearing a mask and a stocking cap ball cap on backwards he was wearing a a blue t-shirt and some cut-off jeans that's it you don't need to tell the judge about the fellow's dna you don't need to say just answer the questions all they were asked to do was go to canaan come back and answer the questions that's all moses said go see what the land is like and whether it's good or bad what cities they be that they dwell in whether in tents or in strongholds and what the land is whether it's fat or lean that is where that produces bountifully or otherwise whether there be wood therein or not and be ye of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land now the time was about the time of the first right grapes and so they went up searched the land from a to zed and they ascended by the south and went this way and that way and they came verse 23 unto the brook of eshkol and they cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes and they had to carry it between two men on a staff and they brought also of the pomegranates and of the figs can you imagine and verse 25 says they returned from searching out the land after 40 days now there were some little boys and little girls throughout israel who were so proud where's your daddy at oh he's on a special mission mr moses sent him over to canaan oh and what's he doing there well he's seeing what it's like and he's going to come back and tell us all about it then we're going to go oh i don't know 10 men how many kids do they have each four five six they were 40 or 50 special little kids couldn't wait 10 wives benefited the doubt 20 parents all waiting proud extended family proud everybody hopeful because they're going up to see the promised land that's where we're going we can't wait we are done with being in this wilderness come on man we cannot wait for the report and they came back and you can imagine that the marching band was there and you can imagine that there was uh i don't know ticker tape and streamers and the whole the television cameras everybody was there waiting to see the twelve oh i said ten didn't i well it was twelve times five or six and twelve times four parents each so you know bunch more people and they came back and you can imagine them what in the world they'd been down in egypt where grapes never grew like that they were out here in the wilderness where grapes never grew and what am i seeing a great big bunch of grapes hanging from a stick and then pomegranates and figs man imagine how many seeds would have been one of those pomegranates what a thing and so everybody's waiting the kids are hugging their dads the wives are just so happy the parents are just so proud the extended family is excited and all of israel sees those grapes and says yeah we gotta go i recall when my wife and i and our children we moved to the pacific northwest and so we needed to buy a home and we were told there was a certain place on the market it was really a lot with an old house on it and our our literal plan was to burn the house down it was worth nothing it was just a it was an old run-down shack we'll burn it down and then we're going to build a house we had never built a house before and my wife and i discussed and we said what kind of house and i said i don't care i kept my wife living out of suitcases for years temporary homes for years i would just stay here and then we'll find us another place never found another place you know that sort of lifestyle peripatetic wandering sort of a thing i said melissa you just have whatever house you want you design it of course we weren't going to build the biltmore estate or anything but just whatever you want i don't care how big a kitchen i mean where do you want the living room you want a swimming pool i don't care we're going to stay here for years and years another prophecy that didn't quite work out you just decide whatever i don't care melissa went to work she spent hours man she's doing little sketches she's looking online the living room will be like this the kitchen will be like that that's all the children of israel needed to do as it turned out the seller never sold the house we didn't move on to that property and we left town uh eight months later but you know that's all they needed to do we are going because god is giving us the land children can think about rope swings that swing out over a river or a pond and they can let go and splash and go fishing down at the fishing hole well they went and came to moses into aaron and to all the congregation of the children of israel unto the wilderness of parent to kadesh and brought back word to them unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land and so far it's going well verse 26 and they told him and said we came unto the land wither thou sentest us and surely it flows with milk and honey here's the fruit of it if they'd stopped there it would have been ideal if they had stopped there the future history of all of israel was about to hinge on one word one word how did you like her son nice dad was it a good first date oh yeah so tell me about her she's pretty all right what about her family good family okay what about a career oh yes solid career okay nevertheless you know it's over right it's not going to date number two not when they come out with nevertheless you know nevertheless she's a psycho oh okay i understand we get it right how's the team looking sunday oh yeah looking good running back is back from injury rookie quarterback but he's playing well nevertheless oh you know what's coming uh things aren't gonna go quite so well that one word has the power to undo everything in some translations it just says but it's all good but well what's the but here the people be strong that dwell in the land well that's not such a bad thing because god was going to take care of that and the cities are walled and very great all right and moreover we saw the children of anak there the amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the hittites it's getting worse because because the children of anak were giants and the jebusites and the amorites dwell in the mountains and the canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of jordan now look here they come here they come hey kids here's dad oh proud parents oh look at the grapes it's all good what's it like oh it's great froze with milk and honey but the people are big and the cities are walled and they're very great and the land is this and that now joshua and caleb have the ability to read the crowd they're good like that they're reading the crowd and they realize uh oh things are turning disgusted here everybody was excited but this negative report this evil report is turning things upside down and so caleb stealed the people you can imagine get inside the story shh everybody settle down no no no no no listen listen listen and he said it says he still the people before moses and he said let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it we can take this place because god is with us but the men that went up with them said we 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 unto the children of israel saying the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature we saw giants the sons of anak which came out of the giants and we were in our sight as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight i saw a grasshopper yesterday i was mowing the lawn and there was a grasshopper it's this big that's how we were in their sight and now the crowd they're done we ain't going not happening as a matter of fact their discouragement was radical this evil report had devastating consequences all the congregation i am in chapter 14 and verse 1 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 to them would god we had died in the land of egypt or would god we died in the wilderness verse 4 they said to each other let's make a captain a leader and go back let's go back to egypt come on think what had they seen they had stool they had stood on the shore and watched the lifeless bodies of pharaoh's soldiers wash up on the shore they had seen the pillar of cloud by day the pillar of fire by night they had seen the red sea open up they walked through on dry ground they remembered having to make bricks without straw they remember pharaoh telling the midwives we need to kill their kids kill the babies they remember how they were ground underfoot they were slaves and here they are saying let's go back you know that freed slaves after the emancipation proclamation went into effect said a whole lot of stuff but you aren't going to find anything in the history that says there were freed slaves saying let's go back to the plantation let's get ourselves back under that oppressive system nobody said that and here were these men saying we're going to go back let's go back moses and aaron fell on their faces before all of the assembly of the congregation of the children of israel and then you read this it was so dramatic that joshua he spoke and he said if the lord delight in us he will bring us into this land and give it to us a land that flows with milk and honey just don't rebel against the lord don't fear the people of the land they are bred for us their defenses departed from them the lord is with us we don't need to fear but all the congregation bade stoned them with stones and they would have they picked up stones to kill joshua and caleb joshua and caleb would have been dead that day except the glory of the lord suddenly appeared in the tabernacle and the people dropped the rocks to the ground and said and this is where god said 40 days has become 40 years and you will spend four decades wandering in the wilderness wandering in the wilderness this was a victory for the devil he wanted discourage he was successful they distrusted the power of god now they may if you read on the made an equally destructive mistake they said oh ow bad let's go we're going to go we're going to fight let's go and moses did not tell him to go god did not tell him to go they went up to canaan to fight and they got beaten up many of them died killed they had to flee home with their tails between their legs and this was a defeat and a setback for the cause of the kingdom of heaven a false report the spies came back with a bad report an evil report do you hear evil reports today let's keep this in the context of denying the power of god let's do that so where do you hear people denying the power of god it's fashionable these days to say that when jesus said go and sin no more he really meant go and sin a little less it's fashionable and maybe not in the circles in which i uh uh operate and maybe not yours but there are people left and right who tell you god cannot change your sinful life you were born that way you were formed that way you were uh irretrievably broken something happened to you along the line yeah your daddy had a bad temper you have one your daddy was an alcoholic you're gonna be one just live with it that's an evil report invented by the devil because the bible says no temptation has taken you but such as is common to man god is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which you are able but will with the temptation give you a tell me a way of escape that verse that pastor rusty alluded to in his prayer casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ and there's not one of us who sits here today and thinks and thinks oh that's easy we all say huh but we remember that's god's will we rely on god's power we grow in god's grace and the lord can perfect that which concerneth you i'm quoting directly from the bible god can do in you what you can't do in yourself and so you are not damned to be stuck with your addiction forever you are not damned to be bent this way or that way uh forever you are not condemned to have your bad temper or your dishonesty or your jealousy or your whatever it might be forever god is able to cleanse you straighten you up and iron you out and present you faultless before his throne you will read that in jude verse 24. god is going to do a work in this church you don't need to be the one bringing an evil report ah let's go back to egypt ah let's get out of here oh i'm down on the church you don't need to be that person because it's god's church and he's going to prepare it for eternity and everyone associated with it who wants to be prepared if you don't well you'll be prepared for eternity too it's just a different kind of eternity friend don't listen to the evil report concerning your salvation there's no hope for you what of course there is because your hope is in jesus christ that's an evil report if you want to believe it you can you might think it's the easy way but it's not nothing easy about standing outside the new jerusalem looking in that's the hard way you're either going to let god do what's working you now or do what's in you then this is the easy option it's the good option it's the eternal life option when the devil speaks to you and says you're not worth it that's an evil report when the devil speaks to you and says you need to give up because you just screwed up again that's an evil report when the devil says to you god would never forgive somebody who has done what you have done that is an evil report we ain't going to listen we will believe what god says because god can do in you that which you cannot do in yourself go on and say amen today amen and then there's another evil report we hear no no no no no let's go to that later quickly now i've got to go fast let's go to joshua chapter 2 because there's another story about spies except these were spies who are courageous spies let's go there joshua chapter 2 and let's find out what it says this is a good story joshua chapter 2 starting in verse 1 joshua the son of nuns sent out of him to two men to spy secretly saying go view the land even jericho and they went and came into an harlot's house named rahab and lodged there it was told the king of jericho saying behold there came men in here tonight of the children of israel to search out the country and the king of jacob sorry the king of jericho sent unto rahab saying bring forth the men that are come to the end of your house for they are here to search out all the country this was a time now 40 years later you know how costly that was those people who believe the lying spies god said you're going to die here in the wilderness and they did you know they said we want to we want to go that way we don't want to go to the promised land god said you don't want to go i won't make you go and everybody aged over the age of 20 died out there in the wilderness there was a lot of death and now you know why when you read no when there's a dead body don't defile yourself with it if you do you've got to wash this way and separate yourself unless and so there was a lot of dead bodies during those 40 years every family was affected everyone only joshua and caleb were over the age of 20 and made it into the promised land and so we see here it's 40 years later joshua is there the bible says that in canaan there were cities great and fenced up to heaven if ever there was a time to lose faith it was now but this was joshua leading he had seen what faith could do and he knew what faithlessness could do he knew what an evil report could do i am sure he coached the spies boys when you come back i don't want you bringing any negativity just tell me what you see understand the mandate be faithful to the mission they knew he told them 40 years ago spies were sent out ken came back with a negative report they were killed by god with a plague be faithful boys and they went on their way saying to themselves yeah we'll learn we'll learn from history jericho was one of the largest fortresses in the whole land it was an intimidating place it was a center of ashtaroth worship and i'm not getting into that here because there's not really a very delicate way of describing that but these people went forward really a do-over of entering the promised land a repeat of the failure of the ten spies god made a promise again i have given into your hand jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor joshua knew what this was there was a burning in his heart maybe a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach maybe a shot of adrenaline as he thought this time this time we will get it right there was resolve we are not making that mistake again joshua 2 23 and 24. so the two men returned descended from the mountain and crossed over and they came to joshua the son of nun and told him all that had befallen them they said to joshua truly the lord has delivered all the land into our hands for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us it's going to work out okay isn't that something there were no walls around the promised land you could walk and walk out maybe around the cities but not around the promised land but here they come to a city one of the premier cities of canaan with a wall up to heaven and they came back and they say god's got this one he's going to deliver these people in my hand our hand it's big they bad but god has this thing figured out come on ladies and gentlemen you know what we're talking about here we are about to step across the border into the heavenly canaan this is going to require faith not faith in you it will require that you have no faith in you but great faith in a great god believing that god is able we are about to live through a time where in heaven's most holy place there is no mediator jesus will leave think for a moment about the experience that we must have then think think about entering into a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation i'm not into any of that fear-mongering stuff and no need to go there we talk about the coming christ more than the coming crisis but it is for sure that we are entering into a serious time i want to ask you are you serious are you taking it seriously where's your faith do you believe god that's all he is able he is big enough think now think about reaching our community think about that you know we're about to launch into a very important evangelistic event that means we have entered into the series we start october 23. the assault students are here not for theater so ladies and gentlemen are we relying just on the salt students when they go well back to sleepy old normal or are we looking and praying and praying and looking and believing that god is able to reach your neighbor's heart god is able to reach your family member's heart god is able to reach the heart of that person at work now or later doesn't matter but you're going to chip away and work and sow and water and and cultivate and appeal and pray and pray you've got a top ten list you're praying you're boy i didn't pray when you go home pray if we if we went after this thing like we meant it do you think we could win one one sure so where there's one is there a second one yeah you heard rhett say earlier i heard rhett say earlier oh yeah we went out and man it was impossible didn't look like anybody in a home like this would be interested we got talking the lady is yes i want bible studies this is do we know what's going to happen no but something great is going to happen isn't that right rhett amen god is at work if there's one there's another not one on my street go to another street or have faith in a god big enough even to reach the people on your street ours is to share lift him up he'll do the drawing he'll do the drawing we've gone to two services here at chat first hallelujah but what a pity we're not at three too bad there's not four wouldn't it be such a shame if we had to say one day the church is just too small i'm not i'm not i'm not hyping here i'm saying why do we agree that god is able and god is big why isn't this thing here filled up every week oh well we can think of a reason it's probably the pastor's fault is it the pastor's fault no it can't be the pastor's fault god isn't dead heaven isn't empty the throne isn't cold the spirit of god is not on vacation ours is a big god it is an evil report that says ah never gonna happen nothing great around here we tried that once with an attitude like that of course god can't bless a congregation that's why we have covenanted to have a an attitude of faith in a big god we ain't believing the evil reports that say god can't change our heart we aren't believing the evil report that says god can't reach our community that says god can't significantly grow our congregation we're believing it because god is able because god is great because he has promised that this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations and then the end will come we got a message fear god and give glory to him why because it's judgment time since 1844 jesus has been engaged in a work of judgment he is preparing a people to be ready for his return it's imminent in his eyes and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and the fountains of waters and not everybody want to hear that but some do don't lose any sleep about those that don't go for those that do and those that don't some of them are going to have a change of heart babylon has fallen it's falling yeah you know i've always been a little concerned about sharing that message because it seems a little hard i shall tell you what's hard the lake of fire is hard being outside the new jerusalem looking in as fire and brimstone rain down from heaven that's hard if it's hard to tell somebody the truth in love and by the way you don't have to have too many conversations with people about revelation chapter 18 or revelation 14 verse 8. if any man worship the beast in his image and receive his mark and his foreheader in his hand the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of god no that's hard being a faithful messenger who says there is a savior that's easy saying god has touched my heart and changed my life that's easy receiving the mark of the beast and then the seven last plagues that's hard i wouldn't want to cause offense one day your neighbor's going to say you knew and you didn't tell me your stock price has got a crater you're going to be like enron on your street people thought you were respectable now they're wondering why you didn't have the heart what was in your heart that you hated us so much that you didn't dare to tell us these important things and ladies and gentlemen lest you understand let me say that again lest you misunderstand the true nature of the three angels messages somebody with more wisdom than me once said that the message of the third angel is the message of righteousness by faith in verity so if you are worried about i don't want to offend him with the babylon stuff and i don't know what to say about the mark of the beast how about just tell them about justification by faith and that's the message of a big god not the message of an evil report that's the message of a god who is able that's the message of a god who change your heart that's the message of a god who will forgive you and do so freely that's the message of a jesus who came to this world and died so that you your neighbor your spouse your kids your parents your colleagues may live that's what we're about to preach to this community starting october 23. that's our message to the world the rest is the details but the heart of it is jesus the saving jesus the life-giving jesus the transforming jesus that's the heart of what we share let's share it let's not listen to the evil report that says i didn't nobody in this community we don't have the money if a church isn't going to spend money on evangelism god should just stop giving the church money because nothing else as important as it may be is that important nothing there are other important things that's what's most important thank god for vision no today there's a good report a good report god is able god is at work we are about to go home to heaven we can almost hear the chariots rumbling in the distance imagine being a spy in jericho hiding on that roof rahab covered him up reminds me of the story of scott o'grady f16 pilot shot down over bosnia he spent a week hiding from his pursuers they got so close to him when he was hiding in the long grass or the bushes or whatever it was that they almost stepped on him miraculously he made it out and made it home yeah there's a battle going on friend the devil is pursuing you and me he comes close to stepping on us at times but we're getting out of here soon jesus said i will come again he said let not your heart be troubled how's your faith today uh you're not sure just look at the bible and if you can look at that book and say i believe it your faith is pretty good if you can look at the book and say i believe what god says your faith is okay if you can look at that book and say i believe that what god says about me and salvation is gonna happen then your faith is doing okay god has called us to believe this this is a good report a good report jesus is coming back soon we are done spending time in the wilderness we are going home what do you say today come on and let's pray together let's pray our father and our god we want to get out of here we do but the original evil reporter the devil fills our minds with doubt fills our lives with distraction fills our pathway with obstacles and so we pray for grace today that we would never believe the evil report but in our hearts believe that jesus is the living christ in our hearts believe that the holy spirit is able to do in us what we can do ourselves give us grace today to believe the gospel and to share it like we mean it today we thank you lord we thank you for the good report there is a savior let the day of his appearing come soon we pray and keep us lord for you are able in jesus name we pray amen before we sing our last hymn i want to remind you that when we're done singing singing to him just please be seated and they're going to dismiss you for starting at the back coming towards the front now let's stand and sing sing with me him number 223 crown him with many crowns [Music] [Music] of him who died for me through all eternity behold his hands and side those wounds yet visible [Music] above no angel in the sky can't fully bear that sight but downwards is [Music] faces is is [Music] is [Music] is we praise you heavenly father your prayer shall never ever fail throughout eternity thank you that today we've been able to open your word and i pray be encouraged that your word is sure that you are able that you are guiding and leading your people working out in us all of your glorious plans that jesus may be honored so that on the day when he returns not one of us would be missing and besides us many who are there because we have lived jesus demonstrated jesus and shared him with others lord bless us as we go give us the grace that we would never ever entertain an evil report but that our faith in jesus in the creator god in the power of your holy spirit and in the veracity the potency and the effectiveness of of your word would never fail we thank you today we love you give us grace to love you more keep us please in jesus name we pray amen you

Channel: Chattanooga First SDA Church

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Length: 107min 28sec (6448 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 19 2020