Sunday Evening Bible Study - October, 3, 2021

hello and good evening in 1956 the late great albert goodson while serving as musical director of the radio choir to the fellowship baptist church in chicago illinois made popular this hit tomb we've come this far by faith leaning on the lord trusting in his holy word he never failed us yet and while these lyrics were written many many years ago they still ring true today we really have come this far by faith family and we're going to trust the lord because he still has more work for us to do welcome to bible study it starts now um [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] you're worthy [Music] and [Music] i praise you [Music] good evening and welcome to bible class shall we bow in prayer to the great god of heaven to the father our lord and savior jesus christ father we want to thank you father for allowing us to simmer here father to study another portion of your word we just pray father that you would be with us and forgive us for any sins that we may have committed whether they have been by word thoughts indeed now probably just pray that you would be with father that we would put all things aside that we would let our minds uh concentrate on your word for that we would be able to learn from this bible class we pray father that you would bless the teacher that he has studied uh the things that is necessary to be able to impart them to us that we would be able to understand it probably would be remiss if we did not ask prayer for those who were yet sick in and believe we just pray father that you would uh continue to bless us through this pandemic protecting us and keeping us safe now part of these blessings we pray in your daughter and son jesus's name our man and now our bible class teacher will be none other than brother randall tupler minister of the south union church of christ hello and good evening family and friends it's so good to see you here for bible study we hope trust and pray that this message finds you and your family well at this time we know that god is in fact worthy and he's worthy to be praised we give him all of the glory and every ounce of the praise on tonight we're just so thankful to have you here with us for this moment of spiritual study it is our prayer that something is said that will encourage your soul if you don't mind take a moment and just share this message with as many people as you possibly can for here at south union we know that as god blesses us he expects for us to be a blessing to others as well to those who might be visiting here with us on tonight it's always great to have you come into this fellowship and this space of study it is our hope that as we continue to trust god and as we continue to read from his word as we continue to collaborate in this effort that you will be eternally blessed and anytime you are in the neighborhood we'd love to have you here at the south union church of christ and to my brothers and sisters at south union the superlative saints of the union how sweet it is to be a child of the king well now let's just get right down to it on tonight secure your copy of god's everlasting word meet us or beat us navigate over on your electronic devices to the book of numbers the 14th chapter numbers chapter 14 numbers chapter 14 we will begin reading with verse one numbers chapter 14. when you have it just type into the live chat i'm ready for my blessing i'm ready for my blessing amen god's going to bless us tonight amen and we pray that that blessing finds you right on time and the bible reads and all the congregation 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 unto them would god that we had died in the land of egypt or with god we had died in this wilderness and wherefore hath the lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey were it not better for us to return into egypt and they said one to another let us make a captain and let us return into egypt family we would like to be encouraged on tonight from this title theme tag for this text we've come this far by faith amen we've come this far by faith i can hear my mother singing this song we've come this far by faith leaning on the lord trusting in his holy word he never failed us yet it's good to know from whence you've come only the lord could bring us out of devastation and disaster only the lord could take our feet out of the mirror clay of sin and set us on salvation's rock i praise god family that he has brought us to this moment in time and we must embrace this time for what it is realizing that god has us positioned here to make a difference we have been sent here on assignment we must always remember our purpose and make a difference in this world how many people when they look back over their lives how many of us can admit that there have been times when we felt like giving up come on in this room on tonight family how many of us can be honest and transparent that there have been times when we felt like giving up we felt like turning around and going back we felt like you know i'm here but i don't even know what to do now that i've arrived family this is a real life human element to wonder to worry and yes even to doubt this is exactly where the children of israel find themselves and i pray that as we read and as we study on tonight that we will see ourselves somewhere in the text that we can be honest with the things that we have gone through and even some of the situations we may find ourselves in even right now but i want us to leave being encouraged to know that god has you positioned where you are for a reason and if you trust in him and hold to his unchanging hand the lord will make a way somehow let's unpack this text family here it is the children of israel they are on the cusp of the promised land but yet they are twixed and tweened they are between two points they have left egypt where there was slavery oppression destruction and they have now been liberated they have been set free they have been here it is delivered by the hand of god but yet they are in the wilderness they have not made it to the promised land but they are in camp for a wilderness-like experience surely they must have been concerned because in egypt egypt was a developed land and they were used to the customs of that day but now they are in a spot they've never been in before somebody ought to see me coming they're in a spot that they've never been in before and because they are in a situation where they are made to feel uncomfortable some begin to lose hope and even wish to go back in the land of slavery come here family perhaps there's someone here even right now you are perplexed perhaps you are bewildered and you don't know which way to turn but i want to encourage someone to know that god has you positioned where you are for a reason your life has purpose god has not brought you here to desert you or to leave you all alone by yourself no god is going to make a difference and you may not see how he's going to make a way but that does not mean that god is not capable of making her way somehow let's unpack this text and let's dig into the psychological elements that are embedded within this periphery of scripture in verse 1 the text reads and all the congregations somebody say all type into the live chat all the congregation that's 100 lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night oh lord watch this in this particular text we see the intensity of their fear i want you to write this down the intensity of their fear fear fail upon all of the families now you know fear cripples faith as a matter of fact the two cannot cohabitate they cannot be in the same room together if you have faith then you cannot have fear and if you have fear then it's impossible to have faith we have to trust god and that's not always easy family when the things and the situations around you seem to be negative more so than positive in this particular passage family the bible says that the congregation wept that night they cried that night because they looked around and saw that they were in unfamiliar territory family fear set in and that fear crippled their faith now if you would like to dig a little deeper and find out why or how the fear entered into the camp in the first place we would need to rewind just a bit and go back up to chapter 13 let's turn back to chapter 13 and let's just read one verse the last verse of chapter 13. the bible reads and there we saw the giants the sons of anac which come of the giants and we were in our own site as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight oh watch this family if you want to know how fear fell upon the camp the people feared because here it is they lost focus they had intense fear that moved within the camp all because they lost their focus they lost focus of the fact that it was god who brought them through the land of egypt they lost their focus that it was only god who liberated them from the hand of the dictator named pharaoh it was only by the power of god that they were able to cross over through the red sea and watch behind them as the tyrant pharaoh and his army drowned family they simply lost focus and how many of us can be honest in here on tonight and admit that sometimes we too lose focus you know having god as the focal point of our lives that should be our objective each and every day of our lives but many times we are distracted many times we uh are watching things around us instead of keeping our eyes on the prize knowing who we are and whose we are they were looking back to egypt because they lost their focus and there are many things in the world that can cause us to lose focus people can cause us to lose focus keeping up with the materialism of the day can cause us to lose focus going after money and serving money more than serving god that can cause us to lose focus putting others ahead of god that can cause us to lose focus sometimes we get sidetracked by our careers our endeavors we're trying so desperate so desperately to be industrious until we lose focus and fear begins to set in listen family they should have been focusing here it is on him and not them do you read it in the text it's right here in verse 33 they saw the giants they should have seen god they saw that they were grasshoppers in their sight and they saw how the giants were looking at them watch this they saw themselves but then they also saw that the giants saw how small they were but family they lost focus because just like they were in egypt they were outnumbered in egypt but didn't god bring them out by a strong arm and an outstretched hand didn't god open up a way through the red sea didn't god perform miracles in front of them yes god knows you're outnumbered yes god knows that the odds are not in your favor but listen if the odds were in your favor then when you were able to be victorious you would think that you did it i would think that i did it so god allows the odds to be here he is stacked against us so that when we go through our valley when we come out of our desert-like experience we can give him glory and know that it was nobody but the lord oh somebody ought to help me teach in here i'm getting excited because i've seen the power of god and i know that god can make a way i know that god can heal my burdens i know that god can lift me out i know that god can take care of whatever situation i may find myself in the lord is able to provide is there anybody here on tonight who knows that the lord is able to provide have you seen him provide in your life have you seen him step in have you seen him carry you have you seen him give you strength and stand you up in situations that should have taken you out nobody but the lord let us not lose our focus let's keep our focus on god let's keep on going family watch it now they not only feared they lost focus but they also forgot drop down to verse number two they forgot and all the children of israel murmured against moses and against aaron and the whole congregation said unto them would god that we had died in the land of egypt or would god we had died in this wilderness they forgot that god and only god secured them god gave them deliverance liberation and freedom and family oh how quickly we can forget can we just get real on tonight how many of us will be honest and admit that it's easy to forget sometimes not because we want to but because we're human we forget we forget about situations where god has delivered us from and then many times unfortunately we go right back to doing what got us in trouble in the first place we simply forget it's important to note here family that the wilderness is symbolic for the unknown they had grown accustomed to egypt they had gotten comfortable in a foreign land and yet god is telling them that it's time to move forward somebody ought to help me teach i said god is telling them it's time to move forward family in a real sense here and where we find ourselves right now as the church we too have to admit that it's time to move forward listen we cannot turn around and go back to egypt egypt is in our rearview mirror we don't want to go back to egypt where there are enough graves we want to trust in god for his glory come on in the room on tonight family trust god for his glory god brought us through 2020 god is bringing us through 2021 he will continue to be a very present help even in the time of trouble let us not stumble trying to get back to how we used to be pre-pandemic no god is moving us forward let's trust him let's embrace the moment that we are in for god has blessed us in the past god is blessing us right now in the present and god can be trusted to bless us in the future we cannot return and go back to the way we used to be family they forgot what god had done for them family we should never forget what god has done for us because family in this situation of the unknown we have to remember to not allow the pressure here it is to paralyze our promise do not family do not somebody ought to write that right now in the chat do not allow your pressure to paralyze your promise canaan is promised for them they cannot allow the pressure of the wilderness experience to crush their promise god goes before them and god will set them free family i fear of the unknown here it is oftentimes will our destiny we cannot fear the unknown we have to walk by faith and not by sight because our fear can our destiny beloved let's drop down to numbers 14 and 3. we're almost toward the finish line we're getting closer we're inching closer toward the finish line and verse 3 the bible says and wherefore hath the lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey were it not better for us to return into egypt oh lord watch it now family let us not be the kind of people expecting the fall let's not be the kind of people expecting a fall listen to the text listen to the pessimism of the text they were looking for the negative i want to point that out somebody needs to hear that they were looking for the negative have you ever been around people who always kind of seem to find the worst of any situation it's like they just have a knack for finding the worst of the situation and highlighting and underscoring the worst of the situation family god does not wish for us to have a spirit of negativity and he's trying to usher us into a new season we cannot allow the winds of negativism to hold our sales of promise down family it's not about what we don't see and it's not about what we used to be it's about who god is and how god is opening doors and creating ways even before us right now family we've got to learn to trust him and this is where spiritual maturity really kicks in i mean you have to be a spiritually mature person to trust god in the season of the unknown it's easy to trust the lord when you're comfortable it's easy to trust the lord when you're used to it but what when what do you do when god is doing some new thing amen i mean he's taking you into a new season he's opening a new door he's created a new avenue can you receive it or do we look for the fall praise the lord i hope that we never look for the fall but that we trust god with our future here it is family in verse 4 in verse 4 they had decided and settled within their souls that they were willing to forfeit their testimony it's right here in verse 4 and they said one to another let us make a captain and let us return into egypt whatever you do family do not forfeit your testimony in order to keep and maintain your testimony you have to go through the test they're about to throw in the proverbial white tile turn around hit reverse and go back where they've come from and god is saying don't forfeit your testimony somebody right now wants to turn around and go back listen don't forfeit your testimony god has great things in store for you you have to trust him and walk through the door and then lastly family we must behold our future in numbers 14 verses 6 through 10 joshua and caleb speak of the good land if the lord they say delights in us he will bring us into the land and here it is and give it to us if the lord delights in us we trust him with our future family somebody needs to remember that god is ultimately in control we're not in control but god is in control so therefore family we trust him with our future can you say that do you really mean it let's say it at home type it into the live chat trust god with our future amen trust him with our future he's been good to us he's been merciful he's been long-suffering and kind he has shown his power trust him with our future don't lean to our own understanding but in all of our ways acknowledge him and guess what he that's right you've got it shall direct our past amen we really have family come this far by faith and that's the lesson on tonight we cannot turn around beloved we must continue on to trust in god and even when we can't see him we must know that his presence is still with us amen trust in god we've come this far by faith say it at home say it with me we've come this far by faith type it into the live chat make it real write it down make the vision plain we've come this far by faith leaning on the lord trusting in his holy word why he he's never failed us yet amen and that's the message family if you're here right now and you desire bible study you desire prayer we would like to partner with you if you would call the number that you see on the screen we've seen lives transformed we've seen doors opened and we've seen the lord preserve us even in the time of uncertainty so family partner with us as we pray together partner with us as we study together and let god be glorified now as we descend back to the tarmac of spiritual study we just want you to know that here at south union we in fact love you and there's not a thing that you can do about it may god bless you may god keep you you're going to have a wonderful week be empowered be inspired the lord loves you and we do too god bless [Music] is [Music] [Music] and i i praise you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] can't we sing it [Music] is [Music] can we say that you are worthy put a smile on my face [Music] foreign [Music] oh

Channel: South Union CoC Media

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Id: 20ZqVHEyc9Y

Length: 33min 23sec (2003 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021