Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for his Word and ask the Spirit for understanding, application, faith, and a life that walks in God's ways.
Read
Scripture Passage
Numbers 14:39-45
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
After refusing to enter the promised land, Israel mourned and then attempted to invade it in their own strength despite Moses' warning. Because the Lord was not with them, the Amalekites and Canaanites defeated and drove them back.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Numbers 14:42
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
The transcript contains no explicit Best Verse choice. Verse 42 summarizes why Israel's self-directed invasion could not succeed: they were acting outside God's command and without his presence.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Do not attempt repentance or obedience through self-reliance. Ask the Lord to lead and strengthen you, then follow the path he commands with faith rather than choosing a merely religious-looking plan of your own.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every weekday morning, you and I, we get together and have a little bit of coffee. Give you God's word. And we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, you tell me. Lord willing, we're going to get through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Hey, hey, hey, don't drink all my coffee, boy. Well, let's go ahead and have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Drink it on my coffee, boy. Can I? No, you may not.
Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word and we pray that you would please help us to understand your word. We pray that your spirit would apply it to our lives. We pray, Lord, that you would teach us to have faith. and to walk before you in your ways. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, so we are finishing up Numbers chapter 14. Numbers 14, we'll start at verse 39. Here, let me get you to Numbers 14. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Numbers 14. And we'll pick up right here at the end of Numbers 14. You see it? Alright.
How about you read verse 39? these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Here we are, and we will go up to the place which God has promised, for we have sinned. And Moses said, Now why do you transgress the command of the LORD?
For this will not succeed. Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies. For Yahweh is not among you. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you have turned away from Jehovah, and Yahweh will not be with you. But they presume to go up to the mountaintop, Nevertheless, neither the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in the mountain came down and attacked them and drove them back as far as Hormah.
What do you think happens in that story? The God does not wish them so. Now then, they've stolen my books. Yeah, right, they try to repent on their own strength, don't they? Alright, we've sinned, so we're going to go take it by force. Let's go boys! But who's not going with them? God, Jesus, God, and the Lord. Yeah, right, the Lord's not going with them. Because the Lord can't stop them. Yeah, right, the Lord told them, no, you're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
But did they like that? They mourn. I know, I know. Let's go conquer Canaan ourselves. And what does Moses say? You're not going to do it. You're not going to get it. Ain't going to work, boys. Right? No, don't drink my coffee. No, it's not going to work. And so they ignore Moses. The Lord doesn't go with them. And what happens? Yeah, they're defeated right away. Like us people. Get the axes. Yeah. Get out of here. Yeah, right. And so it doesn't go well for them.
Does it go well for us when we don't want to obey the Lord? You get spanked. What if we're trying to do something that looks righteous, but the Lord's not with us? You won't have enough strength to do it. We won't have enough strength to do it. Yeah, is the Lord going to let the good come out of it? God needs to give you courage to do it. God needs to give us courage to do it? Courage and strength to do it?
Yeah. But more than just that, He's got to be with us to do it, right? So we have to have faith, but we also have to walk where the Lord tells us to walk. You know, I see people try to do this when they try to repent of sin. They try to do it on their own strength. And then guess what happens?
I can't do it. Yeah. But did they try to do it God's way or their way? Can't. Well, hey buddy, I've tried to do this before, right? When we think, oh, I've listened to this great sermon. It's like, I'm really going to stop doing this today, right? Can't. Yeah, but we can't, right?
We need the Lord to be with us. We need to ask Him to lead us. Okay, you ready to pray? Yeah. You want to pray or you want me to pray? You can pray. I can pray? Okay, let's pray. God, thank you so much that where you lead, we can follow. And Father, we pray that we would walk in your paths Father, please do not allow us to go off thinking we can do things on our own strength and in our own ways. We pray that we would follow after you. We pray that we would turn away from our sins by your strength. We pray that we would be victorious, not in our own strength, but because our King goes before us. So Lord, please help us to have wisdom, to know where to go, that we may follow in your path.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May you follow after Jesus Christ. May you lean not on your own strength or understanding, but may you trust in Him, for He is our strength and our shield. We'll see you next time. Bye. You're silly.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.