The Communion of Saints | A Sermon on Heb 12:1-2 & Rev 7:9-12

Introduction
Last week, I reminded you to put on the whole armor of God because there is a spiritual war happening beyond the veil of the physical world that we can see.  So much is happening beyond what we can see.  But today I also want to remind you that part of what we cannot see is a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on.

Imagine standing in a great stadium filled with a roaring crowd.
Now, I know we have a lot of football fans here at Pleasant Grove — you’ve been to those stadiums packed with thousands of people. But picture something far greater — ten, twenty, a hundred times larger. And this crowd isn’t cheering for a football team. They’re cheering for you — for us — brothers and sisters in Christ who are striving to do the will of our Father.

Abraham from Genesis is there. Moses from Exodus. Mary, the mother of Jesus. The twelve apostles — they’re all there, cheering for us. Isn’t that incredible? We’ve spent our lives looking up to them, admiring their faith and courage — yet now they are the ones cheering us on!

Martin Luther of the Reformation, Martin Luther King Jr. of the Civil Rights movement, John and Charles Wesley, Billy Graham — they’re all in that heavenly grandstand, lifting their voices for us. And among them are the saints of Pleasant Grove — people whose names you may never have heard, who worshiped in this church 150 years ago, dreaming of the ministry you’re living out today. They are in the glory of heaven, cheering for you now.

And then there are the saints we do remember — Sarah Brooker, T.W.W. Soby, Bonnie Sloan, Eddie Marlow, Sue McKenna, and so many others. I couldn’t possibly name them all; we’d be here forever. But they’re all part of that great cloud of witnesses, watching, hoping, and cheering for you.

Among them are former pastors of this church — Jack Gillespie, Dean Milford, Jack Summers — and even those early circuit riders who came on horseback, preaching in this very place, pouring their hearts into this congregation, loving you just as I have loved you. Now, they’re in heaven, still cheering for you. They haven’t forgotten.

This is the Communion of Saints.  It is the living, eternal fellowship of all believers in Christ–both those living in this life and those living in the afterlife.  Whenever we worship, they worship with us.  They care about us.   The Bible says they are cheering for us.

Hebrews 12:1
¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 

Revelation repeats the vision of the Communion of Saints in even greater detail: 

Revelation 7:9-12
⁹ After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they were shouting with a great roar,

“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne
    and from the Lamb!”

¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. ¹² They sang,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
    and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength belong to our God
    forever and ever! Amen.”

The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is so much bigger than we can see or even imagine.  It is a multitude from every nation, worshiping the Lamb — a vision of ultimate unity and joy. 

For fifteen years, we have been on this journey together.  We have loved each other, challenged each other, encouraged one another, helped each other, and learned together.  We have worshiped side by side, and through it all, we’ve seen God’s hand at work among us.

No matter where I am—whether on earth or one day in heaven—I will always be cheering for you. Always.  I will continue serving as the pastor of Pleasant Grove Methodist in Dalton until December 31st. But even after that, though I may no longer be their pastor, I will always be their friend, their brother in Christ, and their biggest supporter.

And thanks to the gift of technology, I will still be able to keep up with them and even worship with them online from time to time.

Most importantly, I will always be their brother in Christ; and in Him, that bond is eternal.
In the meantime, we still have a race to run.  We still have a kingdom to build.

 

Hebrews 12:1-2
¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.^[a] Because of the joy^[b] awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Strip Off...
Hebrews says, “Strip off every weight that slows you down.”

When I first came to my church in Dalton, we had a program called Run for God.  For many people, it was the first time they had ever tried to run, and I was so proud of how everyone gave it their all. I went back and looked through some of the old Facebook posts from that time, and it was so encouraging to see the comments like:  “I’m out here trying to run for God… it’s a good thing I’m running for God, because otherwise I’d have quit already!”

You could hear the struggle, but also the determination and joy behind it. Running is hard work—and so is walking in faith. Some people couldn’t run, but they got out there and walked. They were walking for God. And you know what? If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. Whatever it takes—just keep moving forward for God.

But the writer of Hebrews says, “Strip off every weight that slows you down.”  Imagine trying to run a race with a 50-pound bag on your back, your arms full of boxes, maybe a few grocery bags too. How far do you think you’d get? Probably not very. It would be exhausting—maybe even impossible.

That’s what happens when we try to run the spiritual race while carrying things that weigh us down. The passage says especially sin, because of course, there are things in our lives we know we need to let go of—things we ought not to do, things we know aren’t right. We’ve got to lay them down, like the old hymn says, so we can run freely and effectively.

But notice—it doesn’t just say sin. It says, “Every weight.” There are things that aren’t sinful, but they still slow us down. They still keep us from running the race effectively. It’s like dragging an anchor while you’re trying to run a marathon.

So what are those things?
Maybe it’s worry—carrying anxiety that God never meant for you to bear.
Maybe it’s fear—hesitating to follow God’s call because you’re afraid.
Maybe it’s busyness—being pulled in so many directions that you can’t focus on what really matters. Not everything you do is bad; it just may not be what God wants you to do.
Maybe it’s comparison—constantly looking at what someone else has, how they look, or how they serve, instead of running your own race.

Like Amy said earlier, it’s easy to want someone else’s “nose”—or their talents, their gifts, their circumstances. But God made you to run your race, not theirs.

So let’s strip away anything that slows us down—sin, fear, distraction, comparison—and fix our eyes on Jesus. He’s the one who set the course before us, and He’s waiting at the finish line with open arms.

Eyes on Jesus
Verse 2 says:  "Keep your eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."
Jesus is the reason “Love Lives at Pleasant Grove”. 
Jesus is the reason so many saints have come from our pews.
Jesus is the reason Pleasant Grove has endured through so many trials over the years ans continued to be a vital part of our community.
Jesus is the reason this church will continue to be a beacon of love and hope for years to come.

I will be leaving at the end of this year to go serve where Jesus is leading me.
But the mission of God continues here at Pleasant Grove.
The same Spirit who brought us together will continue to lead you.
And my sincerest hope for you is that you will continue to follow Him with your whole heart. 

Closing Ceremony
[Invite everyone to take the hand of the person next to them until we are all holding someone’s hand…]

Pastor:  We stand as one body — saints together, past, present, and future.
As I prepare to go where God is sending me,
and as you prepare to receive what God will do here next,
let’s bless one another.

Congregation:  Lord, we thank You for every saint who has run the race before us.
Thank You for the love we have shared, the prayers we have lifted,
and the lives You’ve changed here.

Pastor:  Bless this congregation as they continue their ministry.
Strengthen them in faith, guide them in hope, and unite them in love.

Congregation:
And bless Pastor Chris as he prepares to go serve another part of Your body in January,
that together we may keep running the race You’ve set before us —
so we all gather together at Your throne in eternity.  

All:  Amen.

 

"Following God" | A Sermon by Guest Speaker, Amy Harris

This week we have a guest blogger post.  Amy Harris shares her struggle with fear and uncertainty as she stepped into a new church role. Though she prayed for closed doors if it wasn’t God’s will, every door opened—including support from her husband. She reflects on Hebrews 11, James 1, and Isaiah 55, teaching that true faith means trusting God’s character and promises, even without full understanding. Growth requires stepping out of comfort zones, facing fear, and obeying despite uncertainty. She encourages the congregation not to miss God’s blessings by hesitating but to follow His leading with trust and confidence.

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Chris asked me several weeks ago to type something up for the newsletter about how excited I was for my new role at the church. Then, two weeks ago, he said, “Oh, can you preach on the 31st?” So, I figured—why type a few paragraphs when he’s given me twenty minutes in the pulpit and I can just talk and talk and talk?

If I’m being completely honest, I couldn’t write anything for the newsletter because “excited” was not the adjective that I was feeling. Stressed, frustrated, confused, unsure—those sounded more accurate, but probably not what he was hoping to accomplish with my brief article.

And if you’ve stopped by and asked me how things are going, I’m not one to sugarcoat things. If my words didn’t come across as my honest thoughts, my face surely did—I have no control over my facial expressions.

Now, let me stop here and make a statement: I’m not leaving my job. This isn’t my resignation sermon. If you only pay attention every now and then, or if I lose you after the first few minutes, you could walk away thinking I’m done. So, call it a spoiler alert—but that isn’t how this chapter ends. This isn’t even the true subject of today’s message; it’s simply my inspiration for it.

Called Into Something New

Have you ever felt called into something and you knew 100% it was meant to be? No reservations, just peace, excitement, and certainty? I have. I can remember multiple times when God gave me a beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt “yes.” Those are good, those are fun.

But this job opportunity was not that kind of experience for me. I had reservations. I was hesitant, uncertain, and full of questions. This new role meant big changes—my weekly schedule, my finances, my workload, and my commute (and yes, traffic on Cleveland Highway at 8:00 a.m. nearly drove me insane!).

I began praying very specific prayers: “Lord, if this is not Your will, close the door.” I prayed that before Chris even took the job description to the HR Committee. But the HR Committee approved it. Door one open.

Then the Finance Committee agreed the position was important and trusted God to provide funding. Door two open.

Finally, I thought my husband would close the door. He doesn’t like uncertain change any more than I do. But when I asked him, instead of “No,” he simply texted, “I think you should change.” God wasn’t closing doors—He was holding them wide open.

So why was I still questioning Him?

Faith Tested

I realized I trust God completely when things are out of my control. But when I do have a say—when choices affect my family, time, and finances—I hesitate.

Yet Hebrews 11:1 says: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Faith is more than believing God exists—it’s trusting His character and His promises. Even when we don’t see the outcome, we walk by faith. Hebrews 11 reminds us of people who died still believing God’s promises without seeing them fulfilled. Sometimes our faith isn’t even for our blessing—it’s for someone else’s.

Isaiah 55:8–9 says: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways.”

A lack of understanding does not excuse a lack of obedience.

Growing Through Trials

James 1 says: “When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”

Faith is like a muscle—the more you use it, the stronger it gets. The more you obey God’s call, even when uncomfortable, the easier it becomes to live faithfully.

Fear is the number one barrier to following God. We want guarantees before we take the first step. But growth comes when we step forward without a guarantee—when we get comfortable being uncomfortable.

One month into this new role, I still don’t know exactly where God is leading. But I know this: He opened every door, and He has a plan.

Conclusion

I love Jesus. I love my church. You, my church family, are one of the most precious parts of my life. Your encouragement, kindness, and prayers mean more than I can say.

And because I listened to God’s voice, I get to be part of growing the ministries of Pleasant Grove Methodist in ways I never imagined. I don’t know what that will look like yet, but I know I won’t miss His blessings—because I said “yes.”

So I ask you:

• What areas of your life do you need to stop overthinking and start following God’s direction?

• Is He calling you out of your comfort zone?

• Is fear keeping you from His blessings?

Don’t miss what He has in store for you. Ask Him. Seek His guidance. Be still and listen. And remember—He will never call you anywhere He won’t also go with you.

Don't Fall Away

Introduction
Do you ever stop to review all God has done for you?  I have lived long enough now that it is quite easy to forget all the wonderful things Jesus has done for me.  It's not that I'm not grateful.  It's that there is just so much my brain is not big enough to consciously contain it all--unless I intentionally sit down and try to recall it.  As I do, I think of how Jesus saved me from a broken, abusive home and from poverty.  I remember how Jesus led me to the woman who would become my wife.  I recall how Jesus inspired me and my wife to get a college education, even though it was very difficult and we didn't have a lot of financial support from our families.  Then, Jesus called me to leave a promising career in engineering to enter the ministry, which was another great unknown and tremendously difficult.  Furthermore, Jesus somehow gave us the wisdom and energy to raise 3 brilliant kids, despite moving around from place to place and living on very little income.  I could go on and on about God's blessings to me and my family.  

How about you? What has God done for you? Some of you have survived strokes, heart attacks, and other devastating injuries.  I know someone who conquered cancer and gone on to be very active in my church.  Others have overcome, with God's help, substance abuse or other terribly difficult problems.  Some of survived losing a child or a spouse or someone else you love deeply, picked yourself back up after a divorce, or coped with mental illness.  We’ve all made it through COVID (so far); do you remember when the world shut down?  Here we are.  We are still alive and living, with God's help!  Let us give thanks for God is good!

This is the last blog in our series about conquering your fears. Through faith in Christ we can overcome our fears because God fights for us and we are not alone.  God is with us and the heroes of the Bible and even our loved ones who’ve died and gone to heaven cheer us on when we have faith in Christ.

We’ve been studying how the Israelites had to conquer their fears in order to enter the Promised Land.  The Israelites started out as slaves in Egypt.  God sent 10 plagues to force the Egyptians to let the Israelites go free.  Unfortunately, the Israelites were too afraid to enter the Pormised Land, so they were stuck wandering in the wilderness for forty years until Moses and all the original generation died (except for Joshua and Caleb).  Then Joshua became the new leader who led a new generation to conquer Jericho and the rest of Canaan.  

Now, as we come to our story for today, Joshua is an old man.  God has done all the major fighting for Israel.  Most of the unbelievers have been driven out of Canaan.  A few remain as a test of Israel’s faithfulness—to see if they will complete the work of driving out all the worshipers of false gods (or if they will be unfaithful to Yahweh, the God of Israel).  And now, Joshua is coming to the end of his life and he has some parting advice for his people. 

Joshua 23:6-13
⁶ “So be very careful to follow everything Moses wrote in the Book of Instruction. Do not deviate from it, turning either to the right or to the left. ⁷ Make sure you do not associate with the other people still remaining in the land. Do not even mention the names of their gods, much less swear by them or serve them or worship them. ⁸ Rather, cling tightly to the Lord your God as you have done until now.

⁹ “For the Lord has driven out great and powerful nations for you, and no one has yet been able to defeat you. ¹⁰ Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the Lord your God fights for you, just as he has promised. ¹¹ So be very careful to love the Lord your God.

12 “But if you turn away from him and cling to the customs of the survivors of these nations remaining among you, and if you intermarry with them, ¹³ then know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive them out of your land. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap to you, a whip for your backs and thorny brambles in your eyes, and you will vanish from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

Joshua’s 4 Pieces of Advice
Joshua gives the Israelites four pieces of advice:  1.     Be Obedient.  2.     Be Faithful.  3.     Continue the Mission.  And 4.     Love the Lord your God.

 

Be Obedient

God wanted the Israelites to be obedient.  It’s important to point out that God’s grace came before His call to obedience.  In Exodus 1, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.  Then God does amazing, miraculous things to deliver the Israelites:

He sent ten plagues on the Egyptians to force them to let the Israelites go.  Then God parting the Red Sea so Israel could cross the sea safely on dry ground.  Next God fed the Hebrews in the wilderness with mana from heaven and quail for meat and water in the desert.  

Now notice, all this happens before God gives Israel the Law.  Exodus chapters 1-19 is all about what God does for the Israelites.  It is not until Exodus 20 that God gives Israel the ten commandments and the rest of the Law.  You see, God’s grace and deliverance precedes the requirements He gives, even in the Old Testament.

 

The same is true for you.  God’s grace pursues you, woos you, encourages you, and invites you before you even spend a single second thinking about Him.  Then, when you realize you need God and you turn from your sin and turn to God through Jesus, God saves you and adopts you as His very own child.  Now, you are part of His family forever.  It is only after God has done all this that you don't deserve that God asks you to be faithful and obedient and act as a member of His royal family.

 

Be Faithful

God enabled Joshua and the Israelites to drive out the unbelieving Canaanites from the Holy Land, because the Canaanites had rejected the One True God for generations (for at least 400 years).  So now, God gave the land to the Israelites.  They were to be God’s royal priesthood who would represent God to the whole world.  They were to help all the nations return to God.  They had a special purpose. 

A few Canaanite settlements remained in the land.  They were there to test Israel’s faithfulness.  Would Israel be faithful to God?  Would they become bored with their devotion to God and become intrigued by the exotic foreign gods of the Canaanites who remained in the land?  Would they decide to hedge their bets?  (You know, let’s worship the God of Israel so He will be good to us, but let’s also worship the gods of the Canaanites just in case?)  God wanted Israel to be faithful to Him alone.

Unfortunately, Joshua 23:12 has been used to say God forbids intermarriage between different races or nations because it says, "if you turn away from him and cling to the customs of the survivors of these nations remaining among you, and if you intermarry with them, then know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive them out of your land."  God doesn't have a problem with intermarriage between people of different races.  It is intermarriage between believers and unbelievers that God discourages.  We know this is true because the clues are right there in the Scripture.  Caleb was the only other Israelite (besides Joshua) who left Egypt who was also honored to enter the Promised Land.  Caleb was not an ethnic Israelite. He was a Kenizzite (which were a Canaanites), yet Caleb married and had descendents who were accepted as Israelites who received allotments in the Holy Land.  Furthermore, Rahab was a Canaanite from Jericho. God saved her when she converted and worshiped the God of the Israelites.  Rehab married an Israelite named Salmon.  She became the great great grandmother mother of King David and one of the direct ancestors of Jesus. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, is listed in the New Testament as one of the great heroes of the Christian faith (Hebrews 11:31).  Intermarriage of different races wasn't the problem. Marrying people who worshipped false gods was the problem.  The person you marry is the person who has the greatest influence in your life.  Therefore, we should chose someone who shares our most important core values, which should be our devotion to God through Christ.

In this life, there are many things that will entice you away from God.  Be very, very careful that you remain faithful to God.  He is the only one worthy of your worship.  He must be the first priority of your life.  Do not turn away from Him for riches, for family, for power, for influence, for nation, for politics, for entertainment, for anything.

 

Continue the Mission

God chose the Israelites for a purpose.  He blessed them so that they could be a blessing.  God had already done the hard work of driving out most of the Canaanites.  All that was left was to mop up the few remaining groups.  This was certainly doable for the Israelites who now had a majority and who occupied the fortified cities of Canaan.  Unfortunately, they lost their focus on being the royal priests of God.  They turned their attention to their own personal pursuits—their families, income, and pleasure.  They forgot the mission of God.  Before long, this led to complacency and unfaithfulness.

 

Christians have a mission too.  We are to go into all the world and make disciples of Christ.  We are to teach people about the love and salvation of Christ and invite people to follow Him as Lord.  We are to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  When we get distracted, we worry about all the other things in life.  The main mission of Christ becomes an after thought or no thought at all.  Our lives are about what makes us happy and soon we don’t even care about God at all, except that maybe He can be useful to give us what we want or help keep us from losing what we love.  Where are we then?  We've become like the Canaanites.  We are right back where we started—full of fear, feeling lost and alone.  

We must stay focused on the mission of God or we get lost once and consumed by our selfishness, fear, and depravity.

 

Love the Lord Your God

Joshua told the Israelites to love the Lord their God.  Jesus said the same thing.  He said the most important commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  And the second was like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  

Love is powerful.  Fear of punishment only goes so far.  It’s an immature and incomplete way of living.  God doesn’t want us to obey Him out of fear.  He wants us to obey because of love.  

 

How is it with your friends, your children, your spouse?  Do you want them to be faithful only because they’re afraid of what will happen or how you will react if they betray you?  No!  We want the people we love to be kind and faithful because they love us. Right?

God is the same way.  God has already loved you with the greatest love of all.  Romans 5:8 – “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”  God wants us to be obedient and faithful—not out of fear, but—out of love.  When you love someone, you try to the best of your ability to do what they want.  Most importantly, you do what they need (even if it's not what they want).  That's love.  

What Christ asks of us is not so difficult.  It is an easy burden to bear and one He helps us carry.  It is love.  Love God with all you are love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Is that so hard?  We are not asked to take up a sword and drive out Canaanite armies.  In America, thanks be to God, we are not even in danger of being tortured or killed for our faith as many other Christians are around the world. So can’t we be obedient and faithful and love?

Closing
As I close, I want to invite you to decide who you will follow.  Have you ever decided to follow Jesus as a Christian? If not, please do that today.  Ask God to forgive you for the ways you've turned your back on Him up until today.  Now make a commitment to follow Christ and ask Jesus to help you keep your commitment.  From this day on, seek to be obedient and faithful to God through Christ.  

Perhaps you are already a Christian.  Maybe you even became a Christian a long time ago.  Have you been faithful or have you drifted from the faith or from your commitment? If so, please chose to recommit your life to Jesus today.  God will forgive you for getting off track.  He will help you to make a fresh start if you ask Him.  So ask Him today.

What Are You Afraid Of?

Introduction
Halloween is just around the corner. It's a day we make fun of our fears. Many dress up as monsters--not to celebrate monsters, but to make light of them. There's no such thing as actual vampires, werewolves, or zombies. These are figment of our imagination that serve to personify our fears.

Our fear is real. But until we understand our fear, fear morphs into the monsters of our imagination that paralyze us. We cannot move forward in God's mission for us because we fear the imaginary monsters that lurk around the next corner.

This is the first in a series about Conquering Your Fears. Today, I want you to consider: what are you afraid of?

God’s people have always had to face their fears.  God gives us the ability to overcome when we trust God more than our fears.  The Hebrew slaves who left Egypt had to conquer their fears before they could conquer the Promised Land.  Moses sent twelve scouts to check on the Promised Land and report bac their findings.  Listen to part of their story. 

Numbers 13:17-33
¹⁷ Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps? ²⁰ Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)

²¹ So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. ²² Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai—all descendants of Anak—lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.) ²³ When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.

²⁵ After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned ²⁶ to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. ²⁷ This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. ²⁸ But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

³⁰ But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

³¹ But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” ³² So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. ³³ We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Naming Our Fears
The Israelite scouts reported the bounty of the land.  It was a good land, a great land!  However, the land was also full of strong people living in fortified cities and there were even giants living in the land!

Ten out of twelve of Hebrew scouts were too afraid to enter the Promised Land.  Their fear was greater than their faith in God.  Two of the scouts—Joshua and Caleb—new the Lord God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt was more than capable of conquering the land.  They trusted God.  But the other 10 scouts were afraid and they convinced the rest of the people to listen to their fear instead of trusting in God.  Their lack of faith caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.  Their fear paralyzed them.

Our fear can paralyze us too.  We can’t move forward until we overcome our fears. 

What Do You Fear?
What do you fear?  The first step to conquering our fear is to identify exactly what we are afraid of. 
Once we can see the “monsters” we face, we can compare them to the greatness of God.  Make a list of your fears.  When did you first notice that fear? 
Was it triggered by something? What does that fear keep you from accomplishing?  Name your fear so you can start to face it.

Our fears are always scarier when they’re hiding in the dark.  In the shadows, our imaginations run wild and blow our fears up to supernatural proportions.
Once you shine some light on a fear, you may see isn’t as scary as you first thought.  It might still be scary, and still dangerous, but at least you can see it for what it really is.

Now that you can see your fear, you can compare it to God.  Is your fear bigger than God?  We don’t have to face our fears alone.  God promises to be with us.  God doesn’t want your fear to keep you from His promises, but you have to trust Him.

David Conquers Goliath
The Hebrews were afraid to enter the Promised Land because it was inhabit by Giants.  Do you remember another story about a young boy who had to face a giant?

David was just a young boy when a giant named Goliath challenged the Israelite army, spouting blasphemies against the God of Israel.  David was so small, he couldn’t even wear armor or swing a proper sword.  However, David had something special.  He trust God.  David knew God was with him and so David fought Goliath with only a sling and some stones and God defeated Goliath through David’s faith.

God can defeat all the giants and monsters in your life too, but you’ve got to trust Him.

Isaiah 41:10 says, "Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

Don't you know that if you are a Christian, God is with you?  He will never leave you.  And if you are actively following Jesus and and doing His work, He will strengthen and help you.  He will hold you up with His victorious right hand!

I challenge you this week to to make a list of your fears and also write down when you first notice that fear?  Was it triggered by something?  What does that fear keep you from accomplishing?

Whenever Christians celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, we remember the last meal Jesus shares with His disciples.  I'm sure the Disciples were afraid as they sat around the table.  They could sense that Jesus was in danger and they were in danger because they were His disciples.  Maybe they were afraid they'd put their trust in the wrong person—that despite his many miracles, Jesus was not as powerful as the Roman government or their religious leaders in Israel.  Maybe they were afraid of the trials, persecution, and death they faced because they’d chosen Jesus as Lord.  Maybe they were afraid of what might happen to Jesus, who they loved, simply because He spoke the truth in a time when truth was not appreciate and was dangerous.   

Jesus knew their fear.  He knew the reality of the danger they faced.  Jesus knew the "cup of suffering" He was about to drink, but Jesus also knew the power of God that wins the ultimate victory and so Jesus shared one last meal with His disciples before He was crucified.  It was a meal that revealed the real suffering and death He was about to endure for our sake, but also a meal to give His followers strength, and help us to remember what He did for us.  I invite you to find a church where you can share Holy Communion regularly with other Christians, because it is a special way Jesus has given you to remember who He is and what He did for you and to find God's grace to strengthen and encourage you to face your fears, knowing that God is even more powerful than death.  He raised Jesus back to life on the third day and God will resurrect all Christians to eternal life after death.