A Survival Kit for an Economic Downturn Period
When Giants are on Your Life’s Path
Memory Verse: (Mat 11:28 NIV) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Text: Deuteronomy 9:1-4
(Deu 9:1-4 NIV) Hear, O Israel Jordan
Introduction:
Who is a giant? A person marked by exceptionally great size, magnitude, or power. A person or thing of extraordinary power, significance, or importance. About 9 or 10 feet tall.
(Deu 8:7-9 NIV) For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; {8} a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; {9} a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
"God put giants in the Promised Land to keep unbelievers out." --Jimmy Evans
1. The Challenge.
(Deu 9:1 NIV) Hear, O Israel Jordan
(Deu 6:4 NIV) Hear, O Israel
(Deu 7:1 NIV) When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations--the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you--
(Num 13:28 NIV) But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
(Num 13:33 NIV) We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
(Num 13:30 NIV) 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."
(Num 14:6-8 NIV) Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes {7} and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. {8} 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.
(Exo 14:13-14 NIV) Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. {14} The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."
“Faith is the ability to look past adverse circumstances and see God’s hand at work.” Kent Crocket
2. The Complications.
(Deu 9:1-2 NIV) Hear, O Israel Jordan
(Num 13:31-33 NIV) But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." {32} And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. {33} We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
(Deu 2:11 NIV) Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites.
(Josh 15:13 NIV) In accordance with the Lord's command to him, Joshua gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion in Judah--Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron
(Num 13:28 NIV) But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
(Num 13:33 NIV) We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
(Deu 1:28 NIV) Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.'"
(Josh 11:21-23 NIV) At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron , Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah , and from all the hill country of Israel Gaza , Gath and Ashdod
“Through faith we can believe in things that we can’t see, based upon God’s revelation that they do indeed exist.”-- Kent Crockett 3. The Confidence.
(Deu 9:3 NIV) But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
5 Key Hebrew Words Used:
1. Devouring. consuming, devouring, eating, and burning.
2. Destroy. Devastate, demolish, annihilate, destroy and eliminate.
3. Subdue. to bend the knee; hence to humiliate, vanquish: - bring down (low), into subjection, under, humble (self), subdue. to be humbled, bring down or humiliated.
4. Drive-out. expel, evict, dispossess, possess, to succeed.
5. Annihilate. to be undone, fail, perish, destroyed, void, broken, to lose oneself; to perish , break, destroy, not escape, fail, lose, perish, spend, be undone, be void of, have no way to flee.
(Exo 19:12-13 NIV) Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. {13} He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain."
(Exo 19:18 NIV) Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently,
(Exo 19:21 NIV) and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish.
(Exo 24:17 NIV) To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.
(Exo 15:6-7 NIV) "Your right hand, O LORD, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy. {7} In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.
(Psa 18:7-15 NIV) The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. {8} Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. {9} He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. {10} He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. {11} He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him-- the dark rain clouds of the sky. {12} Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. {13} The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. {14} He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. {15} The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
(Psa 21:9 NIV) At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.
(Psa 50:3-5 NIV) Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages. {4} He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: {5} "Gather to me my consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
(Psa 46:1 NIV) God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
(Mat 28:20 NIV) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
“Faith doesn't necessarily know where it's going, but it does know Who's leading.”—Kent Crockett
“When I climbed in the ring during my comeback, the announcers often introduced me as “the former heavyweight champion of the world.” As they introduced me, I’d mumble to myself, “And the next heavyweight champion of the world.”
“How could I ever win the title if I didn’t believe that I could? If you have a great dream you are attempting to fulfill in your life, you’ve got to believe it can happen before you can actually do it. I wasn’t trying to be proud. I simply believed what God had promised me—that I would regain the title.” (George Foreman, God In My Corner, Nashville
(Rom 3:23 NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Isa 64:6 NIV) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(John 3:16 NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(Rom 6:23 NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
CONCLUSION:
(Mat 11:28 NIV) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
