Experiencing A Faith Failure

In this important message, Dr. Stanley shows us what a faith failure looks like. The Israelites paid a heavy price when they listened to the fearful report of their spies instead of believing God and following Joshua and Caleb into the land of Canaan. Learn five reasons why our trust in God wavers, and be encouraged to maintain your faith at every turn. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

As we look to the future, we are excited and prepared to continue sharing Dr. Stanley’s messages with those who haven’t heard them before or who would love to gain a deeper understanding of God’s word by listening to his messages again. 🙏

One of the most important gifts in your life is a gift of faith and we take it for granted some time.
But the truth is we live by faith every day. Some people have more faith than others.
And yet faith is a vital part of our life.
When you have a faith failure in your life, you suffer the consequences.
When I think about all the passages of scripture in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament.
And I think about those that are so practical in description, so beautifully illustrated and yet so tragic when it comes to the failure of faith, this passage of scripture, is it so turn in the Bible if you will, the numbers chapter 13, the Children of Israel have left Egypt through the Red Sea out into the wilderness on their way to the promised land which God had promised Israel.
And so what happens here is an awesome example and a and a powerful lesson about what happens when people lose their faith.
That is, and this is the title of the message experiencing a faith failure.
And so I want to, to, to define what a faith failure is.
A faith, failure is the failure to express faith to trust God.
When confronted with a challenge, a trial or temptation.
When we are challenged to trust Him, we’re confronted with some challenge in life, some trial or some temptation.
And our text is a perfect example of this and what I want you to notice uh in this passage here, we’ve been in Exodus all this time.
We’re gonna jump all the way to numbers.
The 13 chapter numbers starting with verse one says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan which I’m going to give to the sons of Israel.
That’s the promise of God. And then um the scripture says in verse 17, look, if you will, when Moses sent them to the land at Canon, he said to them, go up to the, up to the place in and go to the hill country, see what the land is like.
And whether the people there who live in that area are strong or weak, whether there are few or many, they’re checking out the land.
How is the land in which they live? Is it good or bad?
How are the cities of which they live? Are they open camps or fortified cities? How is the land?
Is it that a and uh the, the trees in it or not make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.
Now, the time of that time was the time of ripe grapes.
So he sent a group of men, despite the land that he and they were convinced of that God had promised to their ancestors, Abraham Isaac Jacob.
All the rest can was their promised land.
And so what we have here is a, is an area in which he’s spying at the land.
Then I want you to notice in verse 25 of that same chapter 13 chapter of um numbers.
And I want you to notice this is their report when they return from spying out the land at the end of 40 days.
So they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation, the sons of Israel in the wilderness of per at a and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the food of the land.
So they picked up all this fruit. Thus, they told him and said, watch this carefully.
Now we went to the land where you’ve sent us and it certainly does flow with milk and honey and this is the fruit of it.
And so they brought back some of it.
So what they found is what they were promised and then watch this carefully.
Nevertheless, you might ought to underline that word because this is where people start their failure and have a faith failure.
Nevertheless, the people who are in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large.
And moreover, we saw the descendants of there a is living in the land of the, the the the are living in the hill country and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.
So they said, you know what, everything you said, it was perfect.
Nevertheless, then Caleb quoted the people before Moses and said, we should, by all means, go up and possess it, but we will surely overcome it.
But the man who had gone up with him said, we’re not able to go up against the people for they are too strong for us.
Look at what they’re looking at, not what God said, but what they saw.
So they gave out to the sons of Israel, a bad report of the land which they had spot out saying the land through which we have gone and spying it out is the land that devours its inhabitants.
All the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There.
Also we saw the ne the sons of and a part of the and we became like grasshoppers in our own side.
And so we were in their side, grasshoppers now watch this.
God said, yo, through Moses, God has given us the land, they said, sending out to know exactly how we should approach our attack.
And so they come back and only two of them come back within their faith.
The rest of them said. And I like this when he says, it certainly does flow with milk and honey.
This is the fruit. And remember they’ve been in the desert for quite some time.
Nevertheless, that is in, in spite of what God has said.
Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong cities are fortified, very large.
Moreover, we saw the ascendant, those big people, they’re large people. So they have a choice.
They’re gonna believe what God said. I’ve given you Canon. You’re gonna believe what the spy said.
We can do it. Are you gonna believe what the unbelievers have said? No, we can’t do it.
And so as a result of what they concluded, listen to this, what a tragedy.
Think about this all the time they spent crossing the desert and through the Red Sea and think about the fact that when they got to the Red Sea, God opened it up, they walked through on dry land, the waves came back, destroyed the Egyptian army.
And so uh what, what else could God do?
And then the scripture says in verse one of chapter 14, then all the congregation watched this instead of listening to, to Caleb and Joshua.
All the congregations looked at the lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night.
You know how they wept. They had a choice.
They could have believed what two Godly men of faith said, or they could believe what the rest of them said.
Then all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night.
All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The whole congregation said to them, listen to this, watch this carefully.
Would that we had died in the land of Egypt or would that we had died in this wilderness?
Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword, our wives and our little ones will become plunder.
Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? Listen to that.
So they said to one another, let us appoint as a leader and return to Egypt to us.
That is absolutely ridiculous. But now watch this, the, the title of this message is experiencing a faith failure because this is a very, very vivid expression of what happens to people’s lives when God has blessed them and blessed them and blessed them and brought through things and then he gives them an opportunity for another blessing and because things look a little rough, they forget all that they’ve been through and listen.
Let us upon a leader and return to Egypt.
Return to what slavery and under the rule of the pharaohs, how would they get back?
I caught a around through the desert, not through the Red Sea.
Listen, then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of Israel.
Joshua, the son of nun and Caleb, the son of Jeff.
And I those who had spot out the land, tore their clothes and they spoke to all the congregation, the sons of Israel saying the land which we passed through the sp is an exceedingly good land.
That’s the expression of faith. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into the land and give it to us.
The land which flows with milk and honey only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land.
But they will be our pray.
Their, their protection has been removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not there.
That’s the expression of faith because that’s what God had promised.
But all the congregations said, so listen to this stone, them stone them with stones.
Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of the meeting of all the sons of Israel.
The Lord said to Moses, how long will this people spurn me?
And how long will they not believe in me despite all the signs that I have shown them?
So when I think of all the scriptures, I think of all the passages in the Bible and think of all the lessons that we should learn.
I don’t know one any more important than that. Listen to that.
They’ve been enslaved, their families had died, everything was bad. And so what did God done?
He freed them from Egyptian bondage. The Egyptians gave them gold and silver and everything that they had.
They headed out toward the desert and God miraculously let them around the desert.
So they would end up at the, at the Red Sea with no way out.
And the reason God did that, he wanted to perform one awesome miracle. They never forget.
He opened up the sea, led them through, it, closed up. The Egyptian soldiers drowned them.
And then now they’re on their way to the holy land, the promised land canon.
And what are they doing? They’re complaining, send us back to Egypt.
I don’t know of a passage scripture in the Bible.
That’s more, more explicit when it comes to having a faith failure.
Because this is what happens to us.
You think of the blessings that God has given you and think about this also, regardless of what’s happened to your past, you have a future and part of your future is influenced by your past.
But God’s future for us when we trust them is always the best.
So here’s a whole group that go up to at the land and only Joshua and Caleb say if God says we can do it, we can do it.
And God said we can do it.
It’s not a listen, send out yourself men so they can spy out the land of Canon, of which I am going to give to the sons of Israel.
That’s the word of the living God, I’m gonna give them the land and yet when they send the spies out, only two of the whole bunch believe.
So, what I’d like to do is I’d like to, um, tell you why we have faith failures because you can have one in your life.
You can have one tomorrow. You can have one this afternoon.
So they had the promise of God of Canon. They had almighty God’s promise.
They had everything that they longed for. Canon. The promised land on Jordan Stormy banks.
I stand and cast a wish for lie is an old song about Canon Cannon’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie.
That’s what they felt. And when they get there because they listen to the wrong voices, they lost it and here’s what it cost them.
40 long years in the desert. 40.
They already been in Egyptian 40 long years in the desert because they listen to the wrong voices.
Did you get that say? Amen? You listen to the wrong voices you’re gonna lose.
So I wanna talk about the causes of a faith failure.
And the first one is this the fear of failure. Oh, we can’t do that.
There’s no way because those men are so big.
And so they begin to describe all that and listen to what the word of God says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love.
And of a sound mind. And we quote that 23rd psalm, listen, we quote that, quote it and quote it and then disobey God, I will fear no evil.
And the scripture said, whom shall I fear? The Lord is my defense. But here’s what happens.
Fear is a paralyzed fear paralyzes your thinking, paralyzes your reasoning. It can paralyze your body.
Fear is a tragic, tragic emotion, especially in the life of believers who have the promises of God.
They had everything their hearts had dreamed of.
They dreamed about the promise of Canon down in Egyptian bondage, slaving away for pharaoh, freed and liberated.
And now on the very banks of Canon, oh, we can’t do that. We, we can’t do that.
Those big, those fellows were so big and yeah, the land was just exactly like God said, the land flowing with milk and honey.
In other words, God didn’t give him any false knowledge.
He gave them a knowledge of what it was gonna be like.
And because they listen to the wrong voices, what happens? Think about this, think about your age.
You just wanna go back 40 years and think about making a decision and living the next 40 years in poverty, dire poverty because they had a faith failure.
They had watch, watch this. They had all the reasons in the world to believe God. What were the reasons?
First of all, they came out of Egyptian bondage.
And not only that, the Egyptians gave him all this gold and silver to help him along the way.
They came to the red sea. God opens up the sea. Think about this.
What’s the difference in God miraculously opening up a sea and walking through on dry land and then watching God close the sea and destroy the Egyptians.
And now a few guys up there look pretty good size and things that don’t look too, too well when it comes to the, what’s the difference?
Miraculous working God and listening to the wrong voices, listening to the wrong voices can affect everything in your life.
The fear of failure. That was one of the primary things. Secondly, false information.
He had two fellows over here who believe in God and the rest of them don’t believe God.
And so these, this group said, let me tell you what’s up there.
I’ll tell you what’s up that large walled cities, big guys. I mean, big armies.
There’s no way we can do it.
Other two fellow over here, Joshua Caleb looking through eyes, seeing the same thing and saying yes, we can do it.
And the difference was their faith in Almighty God because Joshua and Caleb had not forgotten the Red Sea.
They had not forgotten how God had delivered them out of Egyptian bondage.
And now here they are facing this false information, the fact that, well, what’s gonna happen?
We’ll, we’ll be overcome and we’ll, we’ll lose, be very careful who you listen to in your life.
I’m gonna say that again. Be very careful who you listen to in life because of their lack of faith.
If you’re not careful, you let their negative attitude drift over into your attitude.
And the next thing you know, you’re believing what they believe.
There’s a third reason for that failure.
They failed to recall the power of God in the past.
And that is how can you forget the Red Sea and God’s deliverance from the Egyptian?
But how can you forget that when God has promised you what he has promised you and has given evidence of it?
How is it that Joshua and Caleb could say yes, yes, yes.
And the rest of the group said no, no, no, no. You know what Joshua and Caleb watch.
This were looking at the giants, they were looking at them through the eyes of God.
And so here we are, we have a faith failure because uh uh a fear of failure, false information and failure to recall the power of God in the past.
And so as they look back in the past, how could they possibly doubt God?
And when I look at this is so dramatic, I’m thankful to God.
He put this in the scripture because here is here, here are two men who say yes, I believe that God can do it because look what He’s just done.
He just brought him out of that. And now there’s a, we can’t, we can’t do it.
What’s, what’s, what’s the basis of, we can’t do it?
Watch this, the basis of failure and the basis of a lack of faith is looking at oneself.
Here’s what, here’s what I can do.
Here’s what I think I have the strength of, I don’t have enough money to do that.
Oh, I, I, I could never do that. God. God doesn’t love me that much.
You’re looking at the wrong thing.
Our view should be fixed on God, not on the people around us, not what somebody else has not where we have been, but what God Almighty has for us.
And here’s the problem. They fixed their eyes on what they saw and, but what they forgot is this, those chariots and those armies of Pharaoh, where are they?
Now? They’re at the bottom of the sea. What if, if, if charted Egyptians couldn’t destroy them?
What could a bunch of folks who live behind cities do?
And besides this Almighty, God said I, I have, I have given you the land.
I promised that Abraham Isaac and Jacob, I’ve given it to you, period.
And what I want you to say is this the same thing can happen in your life, whether it’s a little issue or a big issue.
The issue is this, am I willing to believe God watch this carefully?
Am I willing to believe God because he said it period? Or am I willing to believe God.
Uh If He, if He’ll do the following certain things to ensure my faith.
But this all look at this congregation, see your age and so forth. You shouldn’t be having any doubts.
If you believe the word of God, my God, listen, my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus through your relationship to Him.
Because if you leave off that part, you say, well, my God shall supply all my needs on the basis of what not on the basis of your goodness.
You built his talents and skills because of your relationship to Jesus. That’s the reason.
And so they had all the reasons in the world to believe that God would do it.
But they spent 40 years in the wilderness suffering because they didn’t believe God.
Then of course, they didn’t see things from God’s perspective. From God’s perspective.
Cannon was a sure thing.
It was a finished issue as far as God was concerned.
When we look at things through the eyes of God, we’re gonna see them. Watch this.
I want you to get this when you look at things through the eyes of God, what do you see?
You see what Almighty God is able to do in you through you for you, if you’ll keep your focus on Him.
Not. What about them? What about this? Suppose this happens? Suppose that? Oh, I know that’s what the Bible says.
It was, you can come up with enough reasons not to trust God, but they’re not legitimate reasons.
Are you getting the message?
What does, what’s, what does God have in store for your life?
You, you, you don’t look at your past and make judgments on the future.
You look at your past and thank God for what he’s done that the nature of God does not change.
So you see things from God’s perspective and here was the difference when Joshua and Caleb looked at the promised land, they said, uh cities, we handle that.
These big guys, we handle that because God has told us we could handle it and God has made the promise that we can take it.
God is the one who’s provided for us.
We’ve been looking for this for years and years and years and now we’re coming to the, to the, to the very boundaries of the promised land.
And most of the folks here are saying, oh, we want to go back to Egypt.
But Joshua and Caleb looked at the big guys in and so forth.
They looked at them and said, how big is God?
And that’s the way you and I look at everything. How big is God?
How rich is God do I have enough? How rich is God?
How big is God is, is, are, are my situations and problems big bigger than God? No.
And so what we have to ask is who, who are we gonna believe, how are we gonna respond?
Am I gonna believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?
Am I gonna believe things are really tough? I know that. What, what about the stock market?
Suppose it does this, suppose it does that? And I suppose this election in words, that’s not what we believe.
That’s not the way people who committed to Jesus believes.
We trust God that whatever we face in life, he’s more than adequate to see us through it.
It’s a matter of choice you say, yeah.
But at this point in my life, I don’t know where this point in your life is.
But I know this the same God who was with you at 21 is with you at 81 same guy.
So the issue is, do you believe that you’re not?
So then I think about when I think of all these causes of failure, the last one was they focused on the obstacles rather than God when it says, and all the congregation lift up their voices and cried and the people wept that night, the sons of Israel crumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole congregation and said, I wish we had died in the land of Egypt.
Oh, we had died in the wilderness.
Can you imagine that when I look at that piece of scripture, it just comes off the page to me.
Here is canon and the difference is, am I willing to believe God or am I not?
And I think there are many of God’s people who are living in the wilderness because they’ve come to a place in their life when God said, trust me, here’s what I’ll do.
Oh, you may have done it for my brother and my sister, but not for me.
Oh, you may have done it for them but not. No, I couldn’t get that kind of a, an apartment.
Mm mm mm mm. Look around you don’t, you don’t weigh your obstacles.
You trust God, you put your faith in Him.
You believe Him that no matter how bad things look, you trust in God and for them to say overnight, it’s better to be back in the desert, dying with nothing better to be back in, in, in, in Egypt as a slave than the promised land.
When I look at this passage scripture, I don’t know if any more, any passage.
It so grabs me like this because I see what’s happening to people.
And so scripture says we went to the land where you send us and it certainly does flow with milk and honey and this is its fruit and showed them the fruit.
There were giants there.
But the this the primary reason for that focus for for example, why do you think they failed?
Here’s the reason they fail their focus and said, looking at God, looked at Egypt, looked in the wilderness, you think?
Well, wait a minute. Compare that with, compare that with the holy land. I compare that with Canon.
They, but you see, when they looked at can, let’s watch this, when they looked at God’s promised land, they looked through all the fruit and all the things that they described how fantastic it was and all they sell these giants, citizen and giants.
What, what’s a wall sitting in a giant to God?
And often times we miss God’s greatest blessings in our life because our focus is wrong.
It isn’t that they’re not there. It isn’t that there are things that, that we wish were different.
But what’s my focus? Am I gonna trust God? Believe God?
Because He, what, in other words, what does God have to do to prove to you anything in your life?
Think about that. If God tells you to do something or here’s what I’m gonna do in your life, what does he have to do to prove it?
Can you just take God in His word? It’s a choice we make.
I can look at things from the, from the standpoint of, of, of a Godly person or I can look at things from the standpoint of somebody.
So I don’t know about me. I don’t deserve that. Now, you can’t look at it that way.
So the primary reason for failure, their focus watch this carefully.
Joshua and Caleb had eyeballs that saw the same thing Joshua and Caleb.
So one thing and the rest of that group saw something else.
One group sees walled cities, big guys and all the, and all the other things, Joshua and Caleb.
So fruit, wonderful, fantastic land and all those we can handle that. You know what they said?
We hand it because they saw God and had not forgotten that God destroyed the whole Egyptian army and they didn’t have to raise one sword.
That’s why they knew it. It’s all a matter of what I believe or what.
I don’t believe what I’m willing to trust God for now.
I want you to write this down, but I want you to listen first.
Are you listening to say amen, listen carefully. I’ll say it again. So you won’t forget it.
Everything and listen. This, everything looks larger in a prayer life, everything looks larger in a prayer life.
But when you’re talking to God and praying to God and listening to him and trusting Him, what happens all the big obstacles in life.
Joshua and Caleb, they didn’t see giants.
They saw guys who, who would die just as quick with a sword, walled cities. What’s a walled city?
Watch this? What? And I just love this. What’s a walled city to Almighty God?
Is there anything about God that changes? Then you should not doubt Him.
You say, yeah.
But if God doesn’t change and God loves you unconditionally and he saved you as one of his Children.
There are no exceptions to what God can and will do in your life.
If you trust him, maybe it won’t be the same as somebody else’s life. But what about your life?
None of us are adequate within ourselves. We’re only adequate within God and you have the promise.
I’ll never leave you nor forsake. You. Can you beat that?
The sovereign God of the university who controls every, every single solitary thing that exists?
He said, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. Now, I wanna ask you a question.
Who are you going with if you’re not going with Him and every decision, that’s what we have to decide.
I’m going with God. Hey man, father, we love you and praise you and thank you for all the scripture and thank you for placing this in your precious word to warn us and to encourage us.
And I pray that today somebody listening or watching who’s never trusted Jews of their savior help them to understand they’re living in the wilderness.
They may have gold and civil and stocks and bonds and property, but they’re still living in the wilderness because the heart beats the last time.
None of that’s gonna matter. The only thing that’s gonna matter is their relationship to you.
I pray that you help them, trust the Lord Jesus as their savior.
And to realize that even today, they can be saved right now, I pray in Jesus name that that person’s watching listening today.
Now would realize it’s a wilderness out there without Jesus and with him, it’s totally different that they trust Christ as their savior.
Lord, let this message sink deep into the heart of every person who hears it right now.
In Jesus name. Amen.