Sunday 1st February 2026

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.

Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 1 February 2026

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: Be careful little eyes what you see

Scripture Reading: Numbers 13:26-33

 Today's reading is from numbers chapter 13, verses 26 to 33.

They came back to Moses and Aaron. And the whole Israelite community at Kardash in the desert of Perran there, they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the lamb. They gave Moses to this account. We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey.

Here it is fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anna there. The ics live in the Naji, the heat hikes, ides and Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live near the cn, along the Jordan. Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land for, we can certainly do it, but the men who had gone up with him said, we can't attack those people.

They are stronger than we are, and they spread among the Israelites. A bad report about the land they had explored. They said the land we exploit, devours those living in it. And all the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there. The descendants of Anah come from the Nephilim. We seem like grasshopper in our own eyes.

And we looked the same to them. Hear the words from the Holy Bible,

the story of the Exodus, and we're doing it with a message from numbers. So go figure. And yes, that was a play on words. One or two of you got it. Thank you for indulging me the title of our message. Be Careful Little Eyes, what you See. Let's pray and uh, commit this time to the Lord. Father, we thank you that your word is sharper than a double-edged sword.

Holy Spirit, we invite you to come prepare our hearts. Allow the word of God to penetrate deep that it would touch us afresh a story we know well, but let it speak afresh to our hearts. In Jesus' precious name, amen. I wanna start by telling a story of a man named Larry Walters. That's him there. He's a man who had a dream to fly.

Now, a lot of people would say, I've got this dream to fly. But Larry, he was not conventional. He didn't wanna learn to fly in a, you know, a helicopter or a plane. He, what he wanted to do, he had this dream that he would build this, you know, deck chair that can take him to the, to the sky. So what he did is he got into his backyard with his mates.

Got this deck chair and they attached it, you know, by ropes to very large helium balloons. You can see there, can you see right at the bottom? That's him, right at the bottom of all these very large helium balloons. So here he is, he is got this makeshift aircraft. He's ready to fly. When it's time, he just gives his his mates the, uh, thumbs up.

They release the ropes that are holding the chair down and these 42 large helium balloons lifted him into the sky. Now he had no flight in instrumentation, no navigational equipment. All he had was a sandwich, couple of beers and a pellet gun. 'cause you know, what else do you need? He eventually reached a height of 16 and a half thousand feet.

Yes. Now we only know this because he entered the flight path of airliners that were coming into land at LAX airport. That's Los Angeles International Airport. So this deck chair tied to helium balloons actually entered commercial airspace. So here's Larry. He's a man with a dream, A dream that he is obviously well and truly exceeded.

The question is, is he ever gonna lift to tell about it? Now, when you reach 16 and a half thousand feet, guess what? It becomes hard to breathe. So it's time to come down. Now, this is where the pellet gun comes in. Larry takes the gun and he starts shooting some of these very large balloons so he can, you know, begin his descent.

Now, clearly Larry's not the sharpest tool in the shed. He hasn't calculated how many balloons he needs to pop, and so he starts falling back to earth at this rapid pace. He's outta control now, fortunately for him, he hit some power lines. Fortunately for him, he hit some power lines. Go figure that. Hits some power lines bounces off, and then he lands in his deck chair on the ground with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises.

He's arrested and fine. You can see the police there on the scene, and he became somewhat of a legend. He's on talk shows and stuff like that. In fact, this story was the inspiration behind the Australian film Danny Deck chair, which I have not seen by the way. He was interviewed by a newspaper who asked him, you know, just the usual questions, were you scared?

Do you have any regrets? Then they asked the $64,000 question. Why did you do it, Larry? It's a good question. Now you're looking at this and think, this guy's gonna have a few screws loose to do something like this. You know? Gotta be a bit crazy. Listen to what he said. He said, I had a dream and I couldn't just sit around.

If I hadn't have done it, I would've ended up in the funny farm. Now I'm actually thinking the opposite. You do this, you should be in the funny farm, but this is him. If I don't fulfill my dream, I'm gonna go crazy. He had a dream and he made it happen. He took whatever, you know, he did whatever it took to realize that dream.

And so what about you? What's your dream? What is it that you aspire to? Maybe you're saying, pastor, I'm too old to dream. No, you are still drawing breath. What is it you would dream? What? What is your dream? What do you think God might want you to do with the years that you have left on this earth? How long is your time?

You don't know, but you know, is there something that you aspire to, a dream that God's birthed in your heart and, and, and are you, are you willing to take the steps to make that a reality? Understand, you're still here with us and there's purposes that God might want to work in and through you, and so are you gonna make it happen?

That's what I'd like us to, to think about this morning. And so, as I said, today is our last look at the Exodus story. Now, reading from Catherine came from numbers chapter 13, and in that story we've jumped ahead from last week. Last week they were facing that, you know, the death march of the Egyptian Army, the red seas before them.

Moses lifts his arms, they walk on through. Now they've come a long way. They're at that point where they're finally gonna realize long way to dream. 80-year-old Pastor Moses, he has led 2 million people out of Egypt. They've come through the Red Sea across the desert. God met with them at Mount Sinai, gave Moses the law, Torah, and now they're here at the finish line.

That's where they are. We began this journey. They're crying out to God. God send a deliverer, set us free. Now they're here. They've come the length of the journey. They're at the finish line. The dream's about to be realized. This is the generation. They're finally gonna, you know, receive the promise that God gave to Abraham over 400 years earlier.

It's a promise to make his descendants into a great nation and to give them somewhere to live a land all of their own. It's coming to fruition all in them. They're the lucky ones. Others have died before this point. They're the lucky ones. They're standing right at the edge of the promised land. All they have to do is obey God and turn that dream into a reality.

Are you getting that? That's all they have to do. We just gotta obey whatever God says we've gotta do. We will turn the dream into a reality. Other generations wish they were where we're standing. We're the lucky ones we get to, to fulfill and live the dream. The start of chapter 13, we read, the Lord says to Moses, sends are men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.

Do you get that? I'm giving this to you from each ancestral tribe, send one of its leaders. It's God says, Moses sends some spies into the land. Send one man from each of the 12 tribes. And don't just send anyone. Send someone who's recognized as a leader. Send someone who's got credibility, someone that people are gonna listen to.

And here are these words that I've highlighted. God reminds them right from the very outset. This is the land that he swo on oath to give to Abraham. He's the one that passed between the pieces. Do you remember that? All those weeks back, he swot on oath. I'm gonna give you this land. And he's reminding them right from the outset.

I'm giving it to you. He can. He can take this to the bank. Yeah, he can take it to the bank. God said he'd set it's free. God said he'd give us the land, take it to the bank. And in verse 17, we see the brief that Moses gives the spies. He says this. Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country, see what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak.

Fewer, many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they un walled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some fruit from the land? So basically it's a fact finding mission. That's all they need to do.

They need to go observe, come back and report. That's it. It's a, you know, it's a reconnaissance mission. And they're gone for 40 days now. 40 days as we know. It's a, it's a period in the Bible. It's often associated with a time of testing. Jesus is 40 days in the wilderness. Moses was 40 years in the desert.

And what we're gonna see here is that the spies will be tested by what their eyes saw. And in turn, the people are gonna be tested by what their ears hear. You're getting that. You go in and observe. You come back and report. That's it. No commentary, no opinions. Just report the facts, Jack. And they're gonna be tested by what they see.

And in turn, the people will be tested by what they hear. In verse 27, spies begin to tell their tale. And they say, yes, it's true. The land is everything God said it was. God said, it'll be a good land flowing with milk and honey. And it is. And here's the fruits. They bring back some fruit and they bring back these, you know, huge cluster of grapes that's so massive.

Two men have to carry it on a pole between them. This is a fruitful land, a land of blessing. That's verse 27. Verse 27 should seal the deal. The land is everything God said it would be. Everything God promised it would be. We can take the promise to the bank 'cause God said he's gonna give it to us. His people should be enough.

Right? That's it. End of story. Let's pray. No, they agree with what God has told them, but there is always a, but God said, but where does this go back to? Genesis chapter three, did God really say Verse 28? But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. Now, this word for fortified literally means that these cities are impregnable.

They cannot be penetrated. These cities, they're, they're walled. They cannot be penetrated. Now, remember what I said, their brief was to do what? Come back and give commentary and opinion. No, just report the facts. That's their brief. And what are they doing? We're drawing our conclusions. We're giving our own opinions.

And basically with the these words, they're saying, Hey, hey guys, forget about it. God may have said it, but we gotta forget about it. These cities are large, they can't be defeated. They're meant to report on what they saw, but instead they bring their opinion. God says it's yours. And they say, yeah, yeah, but, but in verse 30, we see an alternate opinion.

It's brought by Caleb. He silences the people and he says, we should go up and take possession of the land for, we can certainly do it. That's the dissenting voice. We can certainly do this. You might say no. I say yes, but that's as far as he gets. The other 10 spies, they interject and they paint an even bleak a picture.

We want to drown you out, Caleb, your voice of positivity, your voice of reason and faith, we're gonna drown you out. And they bring what the Bible calls a bad report. They say this, we can't attack these people. They're stronger than we are. And we saw the Nephilim there. Now, for those who don't know, the Nephilim, were these mysterious giant like figures.

Do you hear the bad report? They're bigger than us. They're stronger than us. What can we do? What can we do? And they closed by saying, we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. That's how they saw themselves and we looked the same to them. How did they know they didn't stop and do a, you know, a, an exit pole as they were leaving the land?

They're projecting, this is how we see ourselves. They must see us the same.

We seem like grasshoppers. What, what happens to grasshoppers when you see them in the house? What do you do with them? You stomp 'em, you squash 'em. That's right. When insects come into the house, you crush 'em. And remember, this is how they see it themselves. We're gonna go into that land. We're gonna get squashed like bugs.

You spray 'em, okay? Yeah.

They are completely defeated before they've even done anything. Now, if you thought the situation was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. In chapter 14, the people raise their voices and they grumble against Moses and Aaron, and they say, if only we had died in Egypt or in the desert. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land?

Only to let us fall by the sword? Now remember, nothing's even happened yet. Nothing's even happened. You ever done this? You go somewhere in your mind. Here you are in life and you've gone somewhere in your mind and you are reacting to something that's not even happened. It's fantasy. It's a product of an overactive imagination.

That's what's happening here, and you work yourself into a frenzy. That's what they're doing. Their imagination's just running wild. Then they complain. I love this. They complain that their wives and children will be taken as ponder. They're gonna come and steal the wives and children. You know, it's bad when you start appealing to something like this.

This is the ultimate appeal to emotion. Won't someone think of the children? You heard that before? They're gonna come and steal our jobs, our children, our wives, et cetera. They're gonna take it all. Then it's followed with a line. It will be better for us to go back to Egypt. We've gotta go back. And if you are not gonna take us there, we'll choose a new leader.

And, and you know, he'll, he'll take us. Moses, you're fired. The tribe has spoken. Doesn't take much, does it? One bad report. Now talk about a selective memory. This is their mindset. They're thinking, you know, now that we think about it, Egypt really wasn't so bad. Come on guys. Think about Egypt. Remember the good old days?

The nostalgia, don't you paying for what we, what we used to have, we had two square meals a day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I know. We were slaves. But you know that, you know that all that oppression stuff, it really wasn't as bad as you're making it out to be. That's what they're thinking. That's their mindset.

They are standing on the edge of realizing God's promise for Abraham's people, and this is their mindset. Nothing's even happened yet. Nothing has even happened. This is, you know, just a, a, an alarmist response. The fruit of overactive unfaithful imaginations. Imaginations set a light for what their ears heard.

The 10 spies were tested by what they saw, and these people are being tested by, by, you know what they're hearing now? The people have spoken now, Caleb, Joshua, Moses, and Aaron are gonna have their say. You guys are painting pictures of Egypt that you know you're leaving out all the bad bits. Let us speak authoritatively as, as leaders.

This is what they say in verse five. Then Moses and Aaron fell down in front of the whole Israel assembly gathered there. The leaders are so shocked. They just fall down. They're falling down. Joshua and Caleb, who, among those who had explored the land, tore their robes. They're grieving, they're mourning, and said to the entire Israelite assembly.

The lamb we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey and will give it to us. Now, here's your part. People only do not rebel against the Lord. God's gonna do his bid is gonna give us the land. Our bid is not to rebel and do not be afraid of the people of the land because we will devour them.

Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them. Now that is an emphatic statement of faith. It's a declaration that God is with us. We can do it. This is what trust looks like. They basically turn around to the people and say, guys, now don't. Don't listen to those 10 spies. We are not the insects here.

We are not gonna be devoured. We, we will devour them because God's gonna fight for us. God is a warrior. He fought for us by opening up the Red Sea and devouring the Egyptians. He's gonna do the same to these people too. Yeah. Amen. Give it a clap. Amen. That's what they should be doing. They should be saying, yes, yes.

Pastor Caleb, yes, pastor Joshua. You guys are right. This should be a turning point, shouldn't it? This should be enough to sway their minds, but that's not what happens. You think this is gonna be a moment of clarity for those who are not seeing properly. You know, it's time for the people to to stop and say, hang on, you know, you know you guys are right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guys. Hey guys, we, we need to listen to them. Remember guys, we were slaves in Egypt and God came along. He heard our cries. He brought all these plagues and our houses were the ones passed over on, you know, on that night by the angel of death. And then remember, we were trapped and we cried out to God and he, he parted the waters of the sea.

We were able to pass through on dry land. And then guys, remember that time when we didn't have water and Moses struck the rock, and we were able to drink to our heart's content. And then that time we were hungry. We cried out to God, manna came down from heaven. All this time, people, God has carried us.

He's provided for us. He's protected us. That should be the moment of clarity. That's what the level heads ought to be saying in this time and reason, and faith should prevail. Amen. Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. But do you know what it says in verse 10? It says, after this appeal has been made, the people considered stoning them.

Oh, guys, if you're upset with me, don't stone me on a Sunday. Come to my house on a Monday. Gimme the afternoon off. Gimme time to get right with God. So instead of thinking, you know, guys, we've gotta think back and remember God's brought us this far. We're right here now at the finishing line. We just need to cross over.

That's, that's what they, that's what they should be thinking. You've brought the clarity, this is where we are. We just need to cross over. Instead, they're saying, let's kill these guys and get new leaders. Let's kill 'em. Stone them. But more than that, worse than that, they're saying, let's forget about, you know, realizing this longer way to dream.

To hell with the dream, to hell with the promise. Forget about it. That's what they're saying. It's all at the window, all because of what tan men saw. Be careful little eyes. What you see, oh, be careful. Little eyes. What you see, you know these people, they're no different from us.

Ouch. Time and time again, they've experienced God's goodness, and yet their hearts are still hard, and they're watching with their eyes instead of trusting with their hearts. They look and they say, we can't do it. We're old, we're helpless, we're not warriors. It's like they haven't learned from everything that's been happening.

They've learned nothing. Each week I put prayer points in the messenger this week. I've included the following Monday. Let me read Lord, when we see both the fruit of the land and the strength of the opposition, 'cause you're gonna see both. Yeah. Help us not to let fear drown out the goodness you've already shown us.

Amen. Let us not lose sight of where you've brought us from and have a sense of where you're taking us to Tuesday. Father, teach us to describe what we see without drawing faithless conclusions. Guide us from turning observations into declarations of defeat. We need to pray these things because we can be just like these people.

Amen. That's, this is the time to say amen. Because we can be just like, and we need to be reminded. I need to be reminded 'cause I'm just like them.

So here's this situation. Everyone takes the side of the 10 spies. They're saying we can't do it. It can't be done. The whole community is there. We can't do this. And they're, they're so angry, so alarmed, they're ready to stone anyone, including Moses, Aaron, Caleb, Joshua, just for having a dissenting voice.

Can you imagine how much courage it takes in that time to stand up and say, guys, yes, we can do this. We can do this. God can give us the land. It takes courage to stand and go against the crowd. Amen. Amen. And this is what it means for us to follow Jesus in our lives. We're all gonna face situations where we're gonna have to take a stand and go against the grain.

The question is, will we have the courage to do that? I dunno what your weaknesses are. I know some of them. And when someone gives the offer of something, did you know God is saying no to? Do you have the courage to say sorry, God said no.

You know, I remember when I was in Bible college, you know, I, I'd done my studies, I'd been an accountant, you know, I was earning good money and God calls me out of that way of life. I'm a Bible college. God had something different for my future, and so I've gotta do all these, you know, part-time jobs to pay the bills.

One of them was a delivery driver. I worked my way up in this company, we used to, you know, deliver food from restaurants. Now, this was a long time before Uber Eats. We're talking 25 years ago now. What would happen is that this business, people would call us, they place an order with a restaurant. Then one of our drivers would go to the restaurant, deliver the food to the customer, and with each order we make with the restaurant, we get a certain percentage of that sale.

The money goes to the restaurant, except we keep apart for ourselves. Now, it got to the point where the business was going under, it was very clear. We were struggling, we're going under the new honor. She told me that we could only stay open for another two weeks. She said, Jamie, two weeks time, we're gonna close the doors.

You're gonna need to find a new job. And she said, here's, here's what we're gonna do For the next two or three weeks. We're gonna place some orders, but all the money we take, we're gonna use that money to pay our drivers and we won't be paying the restaurants for the food we ordered. That's what she said.

Now, my job, at the time, I'd graduated from being a driver. I was now in the office. I could be trusted. I was the guy on the phone, you know, calling the, the restaurants, placing the orders. So I was literally being asked to make the calls knowing that we were not gonna pay for the food that I was ordering.

And many of the people I'm talking to, I've met face to face. I know them good people. They've got a small business, they've got bills to pay, you know, mouths to feed. So at that moment, I had a decision to make. I was owed about one month's wages. I owed money, I gotta stay, get what's mine, but I couldn't in good conscience do that job as a Christian.

Clearly to my mind it was stealing. And so I told my employer, I'm sorry, but I can't do this. Can I tell you my integrity provoked in her a reaction that was ugly. I was sworn at. My faith was ridiculed. I was insulted. I was told to leave, and it was made very clear. You are not getting any of the money that's owed to you now when you're a poor Bible college student.

Man, it's hard. Now. This was a moment that required courage, the courage to stand for my convictions despite the cost. Okay. I don't care who you are. It, it hurts to be insulted. It hurts when they make fun of your faith and it hurts to be hit in the hip pocket. But I can tell you this is what it means to follow Jesus.

We follow Jesus. We make this decision to say, this is not the way I'm gonna live. I won't give you the second part of the story, but I can tell you, God honored me and God blessed me. Amen. Now, here's the point. It's easy to go with the flow, easy to drift along and do what everyone else is doing. Enrich ourselves.

It's a lot harder to be a Josh or a Caleb and go against the crowd. And so my question is, whatever it is you are facing, whatever your convictions are when they're tested, do you have the courage to stand by your convictions? Do you have that courage? So we've got 12 spies. They go into the land, they all see the same things.

And you'll notice as you read the story, Caleb and Joshua don't minimize what they saw. They don't come back and say, Hey, well guys, you know, there's really not that many people. Their armies aren't that strong. The cities, you know, there'll be a cinch to capture. They never minimized the problem. You don't have to deny reality as a person of faith, they never minimized the problem.

They saw the very same things that the other 10 spies saw. They just drew different conclusions. The same data, different conclusions. How? Because they understood that God was with them.

Think about the story of Joseph Joseph's in Egypt. He's the one that kind of, you know, led them down this path to start with. He's working for Poter and the important man and his wife. She comes to Joseph, she sees, Hey, this guy's pretty hot. He's a, an attractive young man and she wants to sleep with him.

And she looks around, she says, Hey Joseph. No one's here. My husband's not home. He's not gonna know. And she's got him cornered and she's close enough where Joseph, you know, can smell the perfume on her body. She's close enough where he can look into the beauty of her eyes and see the softness of her skin.

He sees all that and she says, come to bed with me. No one will know. And what does Joseph say? He sees everything she sees. He sees this beautiful woman whose husband's not around. He saw that, but he saw something more and he said to her, how can I do such a wicked thing and sin against my God? She's saying, Hey, no one's here.

No one's gonna know, but Joseph sees something beyond. He sees that the hand of God is with him, and he says to her, how can I do this? My God is here. I cannot do this. He saw something more. Remember the story of Jesus and his disciples. They're on that boat, the sea of Galilee. Now, when you go to Israel, you'll see there's these hills.

I haven't been there, but they say there's these hills that surround the entire body of water. It's like these mountain ranges, and when the wind blows down from those hills onto the water, it causes it to churn up like a washing machine. Now some of the disciples of Jesus, their, their fishermen as were their fathers and their grandfathers before them, they know exactly what happens when a storm hits that body of water.

And in their minds they know. Woe to us if we're on the sea when the storm hits. 'cause here's what happens when a storm hits, it's not fish. You pull outta the water. Okay? It's the bloated, pale bodies of dead fishermen. And now they're the ones caught out in the storm. The waters are churning up violently and they're crying out to Jesus in panic.

Rabbi, we are going to die. This is it. We're gonna die. Jesus. Jesus was calm. He saw the same winds. He saw the same waves. He saw the same storm. He saw the exact same things they saw, but he saw something more. Jesus knew that his father was present. He saw that the hand of God was there. Guys, when things go south, south, because they will, yeah, following Jesus.

You know, we're not immune. We're never immune. When things go south, what do you see? What will you magnify? Are you gonna magnify your circumstances or will you see the hand of God in his presence in your life? Because that's what Jo, Joshua and Caleb see. And as a result, they come to a whole different conclusion about what is possible.

They saw that God was with them and they didn't say, we can't do it. They said, we can do it, not because they're weak, but because our God is greater and our God is with us. And so what do you see in all the stuff that's happening? And the circumstances that can drown out a vision of God in your life, what are you gonna see?

Are you gonna see and trust God's presence? Are you gonna know that God's hand is upon your life? That's what people of faith see. As I said before, faith doesn't deny reality. Their word giants in the land. Faith is just not allowing the giants to eclipse or drown out your vision of God. We see our circumstances, but in faith we say we're gonna move forward anyway.

We move forward because we know God is with us and because we know that God is greater and as we know, this story ends on a sad note, a really sad note. These people that have left Egypt, they've suffered for so long, they get right to the point where they can receive the promises of God. The finish line's right there, it's, it's, it's in sight, but they falter.

They faltered because they say, you know, we just can't do it. We, we can't cross over. It's too much. It's too hard. And as a consequence, what does God say? He says, this entire generation will never enter my rest. They miss out. Now if anyone's in need of Arre arrest, it's this generation of been slaves. They needed rest.

And what happens is they die in the wilderness because they refuse to believe that God would do the thing he said he would do. Didn't get to live the dream. They miss out on their inheritance. As we know of that whole generation. Only Joshua and Caleb would enter the promised Land or because of unbelief.

Lemme close. There was a story of a woman. She lived into her nineties. She was blessed with long life, but by the time she died, she was a recluse. She was cut off from her family on her own in an apartment. No one even knew she was dead. Until a smell started coming out of her apartment. So what happened was people could know something was not right.

They called the police. The landlord came, they opened the door, they found her remains. She'd been there so long, her body was decomposing. And so as they walk into this apartment, they can see the place as a, as a pigsty instead of furniture. She's sitting on some boxes. And as they went through the trash, they noticed that there were no pets there.

There were all these empty cans of dog food. So they're judging that this is all she can afford to eat. She must have been really poor. That's what they're thinking. And so what they can see is they can see this woman who's living a miserable life, and when they search the apartment, and they found this set of keys and someone recognized that there are keys for a lockbox down at local bank.

So they go down to the bank and they found that this box contained a hundred thousand dollars in cash. And stocks and bonds valued at over, you know, well over a million dollars. Here's the thing, it was right there under her nose, and yet she lived like a puppa. Now, maybe she'd forgotten the money was there.

Maybe senility had set in whatever the reason was. It was there for the taking and she missed it. She missed what could have been hers. Do you know what your inheritance is? Do you know what it is? Jesus invites us to walk with him. He says, come follow me. Walk with me, live with me. He invites us to know the presence of his father in our lives.

Jesus wants to come into your life and he wants to fill it with love and joy, and peace with kindness, with goodness. Are you experiencing those things? Are you living out of that inheritance? Jesus wants to come. He wants you to experience the freedom and power that come from a greater fullness of him.

He wants the spirit of God to pour out each, you know, into each life here, all of these things. But it's something we only receive by faith when we walk with Christ and trust in him. The sad thing is for many Christians, we miss out on the inheritance God has for us. It's like we're standing there and the finish line is, is right in front of us and God is saying, I've got so much more I want to give you.

I wanna bless you. I just want you to reach out and receive it. That's where I wanna leave us today to ask you, are you receiving this in your life? Is this your dream? What is it God wants to do in you and through you? Will, what does God want to give you? Will you just reach out your hand by faith and lay hold of it?

You don't have to miss out. You don't have to be overwhelmed and defeated by circumstances. You can know the presence of God even through the most difficult of trial. It's the thing that will sustain you and keep you and uphold you. Are you receiving it by faith? I'm gonna close by praying over us as a body.

A prayer from Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus comes from the first and third chapters. If I could ask you to bow your heads. While every head is bowed, eyes closed, I'm gonna pray these words of Paul, I want you to drink in these words, Paul prays. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him more.

Amen. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe, and I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wired and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. This is your inheritance.

In Jesus name, amen.