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God wants to raise up an army of people who will hear His voice and walk out His will on this earth, people who will trust Him, seek Him and obey Him in every circumstance.

But sadly, too often, believers are wandering through life, walking in circles, just living to make it through each day or to make it to the weekend. I see many believers who allow the stresses of life to overtake them and to overturn their faith. Many believers are spiritually anemic and are living below their inheritance in Christ. How does that happen? 

Let me set the stage. It is now just one year from the Exodus. Say “one year.” It is just one year after God liberated Israel from the slavery they had experienced in Egypt. It is just one year from the time that 2-3 million Jewish people were delivered by God through a series of signs and wonders. Ten plagues had been leveled against Egypt while God’s people had been kept safe. It was just one year since the Jewish nation had witnessed, firsthand, the magnanimous power of God. Their final Exodus was brought about with a huge exclamation point, the parting of the Red Sea. And after just one year, God’s people had traveled to the edge of the Promised Land.

Moses, their earthly leader, decided to send 12 spies into the Promised Land to scout things out, and ten of the 12 came back and said, “There is no way we can take the Promised Land. They admitted the land was exceptional, overflowing with milk, honey and fruit, but the people who lived there were strong and the cities were fortified. They were out.

Numbers 13:30-30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then 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 are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 

Little did Israel know, this was a last straw for God. This was a last test He had given them to develop them, to ready them, to teach them to walk by faith, and they failed the last test He was willing to give. There wasn’t going to be a re-do. There would be no extra credit. This was it. God had, had enough.

Numbers 14: 11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

 17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. (I have forgiven them just as you asked.)

21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these TEN TIMES and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Here God said to Moses, “I’ve forgiven my people, but they won’t get what they have been promised.” They were going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and die without getting in. God alleged that the people had tested God 10 times (it was really God who tested them 10 times, and they failed each test.). He brought them to the Promised Land to be warriors, to conquer, to occupy the land, but instead of being warriors, they would be wanderers. That is tragic. They came so close, and they missed it all.

Notice something, the wanderers were forgiven people. They were forgiven, but the privilege of experiencing the Promised Land would be missed. This tragic turn of events happened just one year after the great deliverance by God. How, in one year, did God’s people disappoint Him so much that He withheld the Promised Land from that generation?

God gave them ten tests during that year, and they failed each one. They didn’t take the tests seriously. They didn’t welcome the lessons God was trying to teach them. They were willing to be led by God to the Promised Land, but they weren’t open to changing along the way. They didn’t appreciate that tests from God, moments when we can choose to trust Him or when we want to exert our own will, become opportunities for spiritual growth, the kind that make us ready for the privilege of Promised Land living.

They were to become warriors along the way to the Promised Land, but instead of becoming warriors, they were whiners. Instead of becoming dependent on God they became doubters.

And because of those failed tests, God kept them from entering the Promised Land. Oh, there were two people who did become warriors. They were Joshua and Caleb. They were the two spies with a positive report. They weren’t going to miss the Promised Land. Though it would be some time, they were going to possess the land.

Church, we need to learn to value the tests God allows us to take. We need to search our hearts and minds, to evaluate our habits and commitment, and to learn to lean on the Lord at every turn. Before God can take us on, He wants us to deal with where we are. People who live in the Promised Land are people who take their tests seriously.

Grumbling, complaining, disobedience, entitlement, doubt, none of those attitudes belong in the Promised Land. In the ten tests that took place between the Exodus and the edge of the Promised Land, God was trying to remove some things from His people so that He could in turn give them everything they needed and could dream of, but they didn’t let God have His way along the way. Let God have His way along the way as you move through life. As you do, you’ll become a warrior and escape becoming a wanderer.

Are you tired of walking in circles and getting nowhere? What bad attitude do you need to let go of? What sin needs to die in your life? What habit needs replaced with something holy? Is God your all in all? Is He enough for you? Do you have the spirit of Joshua and Caleb? The Bible says that Caleb had a different spirit. He followed God wholeheartedly, Numbers 14:24. You need a different spirit to make it to the Promised Land. Your tests aren’t meant to crush you, but to mold you and prepare you for something better. Evidently Caleb had been pliable along the way.

Hear I Corinthians 10:1-13 from the Message-10 1-5 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.

6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.

11-12 These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.

Hallelujah, Church. We have hope. We have help. We can become soldiers and not wanderers. We can pass the tests. We can develop as believers. We can grow in faith. Listen, the best way to miss your future is to keep walking in circles. We can stop walking in circles. We can march into Jericho. We can live forgiven and wander or we can be forgiven and learn to conquer.

God wanted His people to take the tests they went through seriously. He wanted them to learn something. He wanted them to be transformed by their trials. He wanted them to see God differently as they walked through some times of testing. Listen, what hinders you today shouldn’t hinder you this time next year. What trips you up today shouldn’t trap you six months from now. What is creating weakness and compromise in your life shouldn’t persist into the next decade. Stop wandering and become the warrior God says you can become.

I have just a few thoughts that I want to share with you as we begin our transition away from
Baptism reminds me that our God is a Waymaker! Exodus chapters 1-14 The Exodus is a wonderful Old Testament water
Today’s essential truth focuses on the Kingdom of God. Two of my opening texts come from Matthew chapter six which