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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Lectures
Today's scripture reading comes from Numbers 13, 29 to Numbers 14, 9.
This is the word of the Lord.
The Amalekites are living in the land of Negev.
The Hithites, Jesuitites, Amorites live in the hill country,
and the Canaanites live by the sea along the Jordan.
Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said,
Let's go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it.
But the men who had gone with him responded, we can't attack the people because they are stronger than we are.
So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted.
The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants.
And all the people we saw in it were men of great size.
We even saw the Nephilim there.
The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim.
To ourselves, we must have seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.
Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night.
All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them,
if only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in the wilderness,
why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword?
Our wives and children will become plunder.
Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?
So they said to one another, let's appoint a leader to go back to Egypt.
Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole assembly of the Israelite community.
Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were among those and who scouted out the land,
tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite community,
The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land.
And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and give it to us.
Only don't rebel against the Lord, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them.
Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us.
Do not be afraid of them.
This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated.
Thank you, Abby, and good morning, everybody.
The Oscars are upon us.
Oh, look at that. Second service. Let's go. I thought no one watched movies in first service
based on their reaction. You know, thinking about the Oscars, I was thinking about
some of my favorite movies and favorite directors. And I realized, you know, I'm a fan of Christopher
Nolan and Christopher Nolan films. That's right. Yeah. Come on. Second service. So excited to be
here this morning. And I'm not to say a fan, not a big fan. Right. So don't come to me with all your
questions about Christopher Nolan movies and all the lore, I don't have answers for that. I'm just
a fan. Just a fan. I notice I've kind of shot myself in the foot telling you all how much I
love movies. People ask me questions. I'm like, I haven't seen that one. I just, I like the act
of watching movies. But one of my favorite Nolan films is Interstellar. Interstellar. I was super
bummed last summer to miss seeing it in IMAX, but it's a great movie. If you're not familiar with the
movie. It's about a worn out earth and humanity's kind of being okay with and content with dying
here on earth. And they're searching for a way to get off earth before it's too late. And in the
movie, one of the biggest hurdles to progress is the cessation of imagination. The people in this
world, they look at the facts of their world and they see the crops dying. They see dust storms.
they see earth's demise and they lose all belief and hope. They lose all belief and hope. They look
at the facts of their situation through unbelief and through hopelessness. And at one point in the
movie, Cooper, the main character, he says this. He says, we used to look up at the sky and wonder
at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt. And he's
capturing kind of the sentiment the whole world is feeling of this is all going down and we're just
here to be a part of it. But there are some in the land who have hope. They see the same settings,
they see the same collection of facts, and they actually have hope and belief in progress.
They're not interpreting their world through a lens of unbelief and hopelessness, but through
belief and hope. They dare to imagine and move forward. So they get to work solving the problems
that the world is facing. And instead of saying humanity is finished, they say humanity must go
further. They look at the same facts of the same situation, but through a different lens. And
instead of being content to live and die on this world, they move towards a solution. And because
of the faith and hope and belief of just a few, they launch the endurance mission, right? And they
step into danger. They move towards a future instead of retreating back into the hopelessness
of the rest of the world. They make a move. Same set of facts, they have courage. And because of
this courage of a few people, the many are saved, right? Now, if you're sitting here having seen the
movie, it's much more complicated than that. I know there's Tesseracts and weird things with time.
it's an interesting movie. But you get the point. You get the point. There's a similar point in our
story this morning. In our story, the spies go out into the land and they see real facts. They report
real facts. They're not lying. However, they are interpreting their facts through a certain set of
beliefs, through a certain lens. They're interpreting the facts that they saw through the lens of fear
that leads to unbelief.
And 10 of the 12 spies,
they come back and they're in fear.
They see giant obstacles.
And seeing these giant obstacles,
they drown out God's promise to Israel.
And sure, again, they're repeating real facts,
but their over-realized fears
actually lead them to rebel against God
and rebel against his promises.
Why?
Because unbelief builds a life
on what we see, while trust builds a life on what God says. That's the key takeaway here today.
Unbelief builds a life. It builds a life on what we see, but trust builds a life on what God says.
Unbelief really gets in the way of us living life with God, and that's a theme we're tracing
with God, the with God life. We're in the middle of our second mini-series, so to speak. We've spent
seven weeks in the book of Genesis, and now we're spending seven weeks in the wilderness, is the
title of the second mini-series, going through the rest of the four books of the Pentateuch, of the
first five books of the Bible. And we're tracing this with God life. How is God with his people, and
how are his people with him throughout the story? And now again, we're in the wilderness. And the
wilderness, quote-unquote, in the wilderness, is actually the title, the Hebrew title, for this book
we're studying, the book of Numbers. Now, our English translations call it Numbers because it
starts and ends with a census. It starts and ends with literal numbers. But I mean, come on, isn't
in the wilderness just a banger of a title? It's like way, way more interesting. And not only is
it interesting, it also tells us and helps us understand what we're doing here in this book.
Because in this book, and particularly our passage reading this morning,
the people of God are at an important moment in the wilderness.
They're at an important moment in the wilderness.
Leading up to this, they've seen a lot of God's faithfulness.
They've seen how God has been with his people.
He's freed them from 400 years of slavery.
And he's done this by delivering them through signs and wonders that they see and experience.
He's brought them through the Red Sea.
He's given them his law as instruction on flourishing.
He's provided for them every step of the way.
Every step of the way in the wilderness, they've been provided for.
And they've been in this wilderness for quite some time.
In fact, they've been here for about 18 months, a year and a half.
And what's interesting is if God wanted to get them from Egypt to the promised land quickly,
he could have done that.
There was a route to do that by.
It's called the Philistine Road.
It's an ancient coastal highway that took, would have taken the people of God from the wilderness to promised land in just under a month.
But God didn't choose that route for his people.
Instead, he took what's called the scenic route for his people.
And the reason he did this, he did this because he wanted to train and test his people.
He wanted to teach his people how to be his people.
And this 18-month route showed the people of God how to trust God, how to trust his love, how to trust his law, how to trust his provision and his power.
But the time in the wilderness is coming to a close.
The training time is over.
Now they're literally at the brink of the promised land.
Training's over.
It's now game day.
Now it's time for the people of God to be the people of God.
Here's how Moses opens up chapter 13 of Numbers.
The Lord spoke to Moses,
And God has told them he's going to give them this promised land.
He's told them he'll provide what they need to actually inherit and inhabit the promised land.
And by the way, God is more than just talking about it.
He's actually done things for them.
He delivered them again from 400 years of slavery through a mighty hand and an outstretched arm through signs and wonders.
They've seen and witnessed the mighty works of God.
And I think after seeing and witnessing all these things, they believe what he says, right?
But now he's testing their belief.
He's testing their belief in what he said.
Will they trust God's word or will they trust their own judgments about what they're about to
see? Will they trust God's word and will they choose his promises and act in obedience or
they trust their own judgment? And maybe right now you're pausing saying, isn't it kind of mean
for God to just be testing people like this all the time? And I get it. It does sound kind of mean.
It does sound a little unfair, but think about it. What would you call a teacher who never gives
his or her students a test. You call it a bad teacher, right? If you're a student in the room,
you're like, no, it's a good teacher. We need those. What's a bad teacher? It's a bad teacher
who doesn't test their students and ensure they're unfair, unjust, mean teachers who give tests just
to be mean, just to be harsh, just to poke at you. That happens. But God is not a bad teacher.
God is not a mean teacher.
Tests aren't fun, but they're good.
And God is a good teacher.
And he will never test us for our harm.
He will only test us for our good.
Any test you have from God is not for your harm.
It is for your good.
And the test he's giving his people here in our text this morning is a good test.
It's a good test.
But it starts badly right away.
Verse 17 of chapter 13.
When Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, he told them,
go up this way to the Negev, then go up into the hill country,
see what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
And he says this, is the land they live in good or bad?
Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications?
Is the land fertile or unproductive?
Are there trees in it or not?
Be courageous, bring back some fruit from the land.
Moses here, he's adding to God's command.
He's adding to God's command.
God commands Moses to send out the spies, and Moses does that.
But God did not command the spies to make their own judgment on the goodness of the land.
God already told them the land was good.
God already told them he's going to give them a good land.
They don't need to make that determination themselves.
But Moses adds that command.
Moses adds to God's command.
It's like he's saying, you know, yeah, I know what God said, but shouldn't we just like double check?
Shouldn't we double check what God said?
I know he promised us this.
I know we've seen all these great things, right?
But shouldn't we just double check for ourselves?
Friends, adding to God's commands is never a good idea.
And it never works out.
Ask Eve in the garden.
Eve's adding to God's commands led to sin entering the world.
And you'll notice some Edenic language here in what Moses is asking of the spies.
Is it good? Is there fruit there?
We have here another Genesis 3 type testing.
In Genesis 3, Eve decides to act on what she sees, not on what God told her.
So she sees that the fruit is good for food and she takes the fruit.
And here in Numbers 13 and 14, the spies are sent out to see if the land is good.
Even though God already said it was good, they're sent to see if it was good.
And when they see it, they don't see that it's good.
They don't see it as inhabitable.
And as we read in this passage, we see that their sight deafens their ears to the promises of God.
Their sight deafens their ears to the voice of God's promise to them.
A promise to bring them into a good land.
Friends, unbelief trusts our own judgment over God's promises to us.
Unbelief, it's a sign of unbelief to trust your own judgment over God's promises.
And I know at times it's hard to see God's promises.
And it's hard to see because so many of God's promises are seen with the eyes of faith and not the eyes that are in our head.
A lot of what I see are obstacles in our daily lives.
It's incredibly easy for us to focus in on the obstacles that we see daily
and forget what God has promised to us from all eternity.
It's all too easy to rely on our own judgments and our own strength
to get us through the wilderness that we call life.
That's easy.
We have to hold on to the God who holds on to us,
even when our eyes deceive us.
It's a promise in scripture that God will hold on to us.
He will keep us.
Psalm 63, 8.
Psalm 73, 23.
Psalm 139, 10.
Isaiah 41, 13.
And on and on and on and on again, God promises to hold us.
To keep us.
To be with us.
To support us.
To care for us.
To care for you.
No matter how hard it gets to see God's promises,
remember that he's with you and caring for you.
No matter how hard it gets to see God's promises,
remember that there's a greater and deeper and truer reality in God's promises.
Build your life on that, not on what you see.
And right now, right now, we have to decide how we will build our lives.
Which reality are you going to live in?
Is it the reality of what you see and experience in life,
or is it the reality of God's word spoken to you, revealed in the scriptures?
Because unbelief builds a life on what we see,
while trust builds a life on what God says.
So how are you building your life?
You know, the problem, again, is that the human heart is dominated by what is visible.
We only see what we see a lot of the times, right?
And for the people in our story this morning, all they see is really giant people.
Really giant people.
They looked at the giants, they looked at themselves, and they said, yeah, we can't do this.
They let their sight define and redefine the truth.
Numbers 13.32 has their report.
The land we pass through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants,
and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.
We even saw the Nephilim there, those pesky Nephilim that keep popping up in Scripture.
The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim.
To ourselves, we seem like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.
now what are the spies referring to when they said nephilim
nephilim are just they're referenced way back in genesis 6 and there's
different interpretations of what they are jewish tradition would say that they are
giants born from fallen angels scholars aren't 100 sure i'm not going to answer all your questions
here right now i'm just a human being not a scholar the nephilim might have just been really
great warriors from ungodly lines i don't know but we do know that they're giants these descendants
of Enoch, that Goliath actually comes from them, this is what they saw. So they saw just a sea of
Goliaths, literal Goliaths, really tall people. That's terrifying, right? That's terrifying. A sea
of literal Goliaths, that's terrifying. But look, fear is universal. It's a universal human experience.
Ever since the fall, we've been finding something to be afraid of. So it's no wonder they're afraid.
Fear makes sense.
It's a universal human experience.
My question for you this morning is what are you most afraid of?
What are you most afraid of right now?
Maybe it's a doctor's appointment coming up.
You're really afraid of the results you're going to get.
Maybe it's a broken relationship.
You're really afraid to mend it or to try to mend it.
Or maybe you have a relationship you're just afraid of in general.
Maybe it's a performance review at work.
Maybe it's the due date of your bills.
Maybe you're afraid of the future, just in general.
Maybe you're afraid of fear itself.
Maybe you're afraid of being afraid.
And these are all valid reasons to be afraid.
I'm sure we could list more and more as we sit here.
Because the reality is there's much to be afraid of in a sinful and broken and shattered world.
But hear me when I say experiencing fear is not the sin.
Experiencing fear is not a sin, but fear does provide us with an opportunity to respond.
It provides us the opportunity to choose what reality we're going to live in
and to choose how we're going to build our lives.
And the tragedy of Numbers 13 is not that the spies were afraid.
That makes sense.
Again, a land of Goliaths.
It's pretty terrifying.
The tragedy is that they let their fear outgrow their faith in God's promises.
Is the fear of what you're facing now or going to face,
is that outgrowing your faith in God's promises?
Their fear led to unbelief.
In their unbelief, they forgot God's faithfulness.
This is a story as old as time.
It's not an isolated story that applies to just 10 spies.
It applies to you and me as well.
Unbelief focuses on our fears over God's faithfulness.
Unbelief focuses on our fears over God's faithfulness.
Remember what the spies already have seen with their eyes and heard with their ears and their experience.
What have they seen and heard?
Signs and wonders from God.
This is the generation that came out of Egypt, that experienced the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock.
They've seen the glory of the Lord descend on Mount Sinai.
They saw God's glory fill the tabernacle.
They saw God's glory consume Nadab and Abihu.
They saw God's glory consume their sacrifices.
They've seen all of these things.
They've seen it all.
But even here, after seeing all that,
they're still looking with the eyes in their heads
and not the eyes of their faith.
And because they're not looking at their circumstances
through the eyes of faith,
They actually stir up the entire congregation, the whole camp, into a frenzy.
It's so intense that the people of God demand to go back to Egypt and back into slavery.
Here's what Numbers 14.1 says,
Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night.
All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them,
If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness.
Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword?
Our wives and children will become plunder.
Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?
So they said to one another, let's appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.
Fear can lead us to forget God's faithfulness really fast.
Fear can lead us to forget God's faithfulness really fast.
There's giants in the land? Oh, no way. We're not going.
We can't face them.
We're not strong enough.
We're not big enough.
Let's go back to Egypt where it was better.
Hey, pass me some more of that miracle bread we have left over.
It makes no sense.
Hey, let's not do this whole giant thing.
Let's just reap the benefits of God's signs and wonders.
It blows my mind reading passages like this,
and they forget so fast God's faithfulness.
And listen, so do I.
Because fear can quickly lead us to forget that.
And fear can quickly lead us to idolize the good old days.
Even when the good old days were literal slavery.
What a tragedy, right?
And then this happens in verse 14, 10.
Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.
That's terrifying.
The Lord said to Moses, how long will these people despise me?
How long will they not trust in me?
Despite all the signs I have performed among them,
I will strike them with the plague and destroy them.
Then I will make you, Moses, into a greater and mightier nation than they are.
Time and time again, the people of God face obstacle after obstacle,
and time and time again, God shows up and is faithful to them.
And through mighty signs and wonders, he shows them he's faithful.
Shouldn't they be thankful for that?
Shouldn't they trust God after seeing all these things?
They should.
Yes, they should.
But the text is clear that they don't.
And it's not just a tiny rebellion that's rebelling against God.
It's the whole community.
Six times the phrase, the whole community, is used.
Nearly universal unbelief by the people of God.
And I do mean near, because there are two exceptions to the negative voices.
Two witnesses, if you will.
Caleb and Joshua.
And they stand before the congregation and they talk about how they can take the land.
They can inhabit and inherit the land.
And with bold courage, they contradict the negative report.
They're a negative report of true facts, but a negative report nonetheless.
They contradict that.
And they go into specifics as to how and why they can conquer the land
with one reason being the foundation behind it all.
In verse 9 of chapter 14.
Only don't rebel against the Lord
and don't be afraid of the people of the land
for we will devour them.
Their protection has been removed from them
and the Lord is with us.
Don't be afraid of them.
The Lord is with us.
That undergirds it all.
The Lord is with us.
Don't be afraid of them.
You know, before moving here to California
or from California,
this is not California, before moving here from California, I would get asked often,
are you scared to move to Kansas City? And I always reply, no. And how are you not scared?
Once you miss home, you're leaving your home, you're leaving your family, you're leaving your
friends, you're leaving all your support, you're leaving all that home has to offer you. Isn't that
scary? And I would say, no. Because home is coming with me.
See, it's not that moving wasn't scary.
It was.
It was a pain.
My parents were actually watching for a service, and they said,
what do you mean it was a pain?
You flew here.
You didn't drive.
Thanks, Mom and Dad.
Still a pain, though.
It was scary.
It was scary.
It's not that it wasn't scary, but it was not paralyzing fear for me
because I would have Christina with me.
I would have my home with me, my best friend, my family, my support.
It's all coming with me.
I'm not scared.
And I can do just about anything in life if Christina is right by my side.
And I promise I said this first service as well.
Her presence, it brings me a lot of comfort.
Her presence brings me peace.
Her presence gives me courage.
I'm not scared to leave home because home is with me.
It's going to be with me when I go to bed at night and when I wake up in the morning.
Do you guys have someone in your life, a presence that brings you comfort?
Have you experienced that before?
Or someone who's just, by being in the room, you just feel a little more at ease, a little more at peace.
It's a great and awesome feeling.
And friends, God himself is that person for you.
God is with you.
God is for you.
And he's with us all the time.
Don't be afraid.
The Lord is with you and he cares for you.
The Christian artist, John Guerra, he captures biblical truths like these so well in his songs.
And one of my favorite songs of his is titled, I See the Birds.
And I want us to hear just the first minute of that song right now.
Do not be anxious about your life.
I heard you say to me,
You dress the veilies, you leave the weeds, the sower of the seed.
Am I in charge of my own mind, or is it in charge of me?
I see the birds up in the air
I know you're feeling, I know you care
So won't you teach me how I mean more to you than that
In times of trouble, be my help again
In times of trouble, be my help again.
You know, later in the song, the bridge repeats over and over again in this way.
Don't you worry, child.
Don't you worry, child.
He won't leave you by yourself.
In times of trouble, he's your help.
He won't leave you by yourself.
In times of trouble, he's your help.
That fear, that universal human experience of fear doesn't have to paralyze us.
We don't have to worry.
Because in these moments of great fear and even greater, God is with us.
Amen?
Even in these moments of great fear, he's with us.
He's upholding us with a mighty hand and outstretched arm.
Gosh, I love that language.
You'll see in the Exodus, that language over and over again.
You'll see it later in Deuteronomy.
In the ancient Near East, there's these images of kings with mighty hands and outstretched arms as a sign of their power.
But God comes in the exodus and has an even mightier hand and even further outstretched arm and shows his power over the nations.
And friends, when you are afraid, that same arm and hand is outstretched over your life as well.
Conquering things for you.
What do you have?
What do you have to fear?
With great signs and wonders of his majestic love, he never leaves you.
He never forsakes you.
He's with you in the doubt, in the fear.
And when you have that fear, an opportunity lies before you, just as it did for the people of God
here in Numbers 14. Now, the story doesn't end well, but also doesn't end as bad as it possibly
could, surprising as that may sound. In a replay of the golden calf incident back in Exodus,
God wants to destroy the people for their unfaithfulness and disobedience, and Moses
mediates between the people and God.
He pleads with God to act in mercy and steadfast love towards his people.
And in response to Moses, God stays his hand.
God is gracious.
God is merciful, and he pardons his people.
And while he doesn't strike them down, he reminds them there's a difference
between forgiveness and reaping the consequences of their actions.
There's a difference between forgiveness and reaping the benefits of unbelief and rebellion.
And so God declares to his people, because they've continued to test him and continue to disobey him,
they will not enter the promised land.
Here's what he says in verse 28 of chapter 14.
Tell them, as I live, this is the Lord's declaration, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
Your corpses will fall in the wilderness.
All of you who are registered in the census,
the entire number of you, 20 years old or more,
because you have complained about me.
Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years
and bear the penalty of your acts of unfaithfulness
until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness.
Oof, these are hard words.
These are really hard words.
But notice something.
God is not giving this people something they don't want.
He's actually giving them exactly what they do want.
He's not being mean.
On the contrary, he's giving them the desires of their heart.
And the desire of their heart is to live life without God.
And as we've been exploring and explored last week,
life without God is actually death.
And so they want death.
Death is what they shall have.
They'll die in the wilderness rather than have life with God.
God says, fine, you have what you asked for.
And in getting what they desire, our story ends tragically in verse 39.
When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites,
the people were overcome with grief.
They got up early the next morning and went up the ridge of the hill country saying,
let's go to the place the Lord promised.
For we were wrong.
But Moses responded, why are you going against the Lord's command?
They won't succeed.
Don't go because the Lord is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies.
The Lord was not with them when they decided to do this.
How do you think that turned out for them?
The text tells us that then the Amalekites and Canaanites and Mosquito Bites and Termites
who lived in the part of the hill country, they came down, they attacked them,
they routed them as far as Horma. Friends, unbelief settles for our own grief over God's
blessings. Unbelief settles for our own grief over God's blessings. That's the story of this
generation of God's people. God's people end here. This generation of God's people ends here
in the dust, in defeat, and in regret. They end in the wilderness. They're at the brink of the
promised land, and because of their unbelief that settled for their own grief, they get the
wilderness. They get the wilderness. The wilderness is a place of consequence. It's discipline for
their disobedience. And ultimately, the place where the generation that witnessed the exodus
will die. But interestingly, for the children, the wilderness takes on a different theme,
a different function.
The generation after the Exodus generation,
the Joshua generation,
this will be a place of refining grace for them.
It's here in the harsh world of the wilderness
that the Joshua generation will have to lean into God,
into his promises.
They have to look at and rely on God
for absolutely everything.
And they do.
And because of their reliance on God,
They become the best generation yet, and they inhabit the promised land with bold courage.
Friends, that should give us hope today, that the story doesn't end with God's people dying in the wilderness.
The story ends with the people of God trusting in his promises and inheriting what he promised.
That should help us see that unbelief builds a life on what we see, while trust builds a life on what God says.
The Exodus generation decided to build their life on what they saw.
The Joshua generation decides to build their life on what God says.
And what a life we can build when we trust in the God who has made a promise to us.
Not only does God promise us his power and his provision,
but he steps into the story with us and he shows us how to rely on that.
He shows us how to live on God's promises.
He shows us in the person of Jesus.
Jesus, who had his own wilderness testing, not 40 years, but 40 days.
Jesus, who had to rely not on what he saw, but on what the words of God told him.
He resisted temptation based on what God said.
Satan tempted him with what he could see, power, provision, and safety.
And Jesus responds and withstands these temptations with every word that comes from the mouth of God.
More than anyone before or since, Jesus shows us just how beautiful life can be
when you build it on God's promises, not on what you see.
Jesus proved the reality we've been talking about all morning.
Unbelief builds a life on what we see, while trust builds a life on what God says.
How are you going to build your life?
are you going to build your life
on the fear that you're confronted with
are you going to build your life
on what you see lying ahead
or are you going to build your life
on what God has revealed to you
in his word
what God has promised you
let's pray
Father
God I pray you open our ears
to hear the promises
you have made to us
in your word
God, shut now
the eyes that are in our heads
the eyes that deceive us
with fear and unbelief
and open the eyes of our faith
that enable us to see you, Father
at work in this world
help us, God, to be the people
that only do what we see the Father doing
Jesus, help us to live
the good and beautiful life
that you modeled for us
in your life, in your death
and your resurrection.
Spirit, empower us now
to do these things to your glory
and for our good.
Amen.