God's Keeping Power

Stephen shared a message entitled God's Keeping Power from Numbers 13 - 14:11. He spoke about the 12 men who went out to spy the land of Canaan and the report these men brought back. 10 brought back a negative report while 2 were different.

Negative Report:
Numbers 13:27 - 28 & 31 - 32 "And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.......................................................................................................................................................
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. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land they had spied out.........."

Positive Report:
Numbers 14:6 - 10 "And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, 'The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.'"
Reaction v 10 "Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

The way we see things and situations is very important. We will either be negative or positive and sometimes when you are positive, we'll get a bad reaction. Joshua and Caleb believed God was with them and that they could conquer anything but the other 10 spies gave a bad report resulting in the congregation wanting to stone Joshua and Caleb but the glory of the Lord appeared.

Stephen encouraged the church to learn from these stories - that God can bring us through anything. He is always present. Steve encouraged the young people to learn from the older folk and for the older people to teach the young people. We need to "get into" each others lives and encourage/build one another.



It was a good service.

Compiled by Molly Manhanga