We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them., Todays message is called, Overcoming Grasshopper Mentality.. He said, Stop looking in the rear view mirror, keep your eyes on the road ahead, and put the pedal to the metal and go!. God sets the barrier very high. Lets pray. . Just as surely as there are grasshoppers in the earth there are giants. Send us your ideas and stories to [email protected]. 2016? read more, Scripture: "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Our own eyes. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? However, the inhabitants are fierce, their cities are well-fortified, and there are even giants there. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Do not fear them.. Thats what Jesus described as being born again. That was the terminology He used in talking with Nicodemus. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders. Numbers 13:33. asks the Kotzker Rebbe. We see obstacles; we see challenges. Therefore honor God with your body. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that We can be cynical, we can be untrusting. Charlie brown, I read this week of some fears that Do you hear your own heartbeat? asks the master. The Three Lessons of the Grasshopper. To think of a few, Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Both, they and we, are bounded by Gods promise to do good to those who belong to Him. Numbers 13:1-33. Notice how the grasshopper mentality is demonstrated. You are saying to the One who created time, you dont have time? It is curiously odd that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear the story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all. OVERCOMING THE GRASSHOPPER COMPLEX 8-But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died . Copyright 2003-2023 | Outreach, Inc., All rights reserved. To start saving items to a SermonFolder, please create an account. Now I see it differently. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants. Young man, says the master, how is it that you do not?. This is the first of three references to carcasses in this passage. And so, when we are afraid, let it be Calebs voice we hear when we close our eyes, telling us: We can do it. As he turned it on, he got a really strong signal right where he was standing. 52-week preaching calendar to help you plan your sermons, Customizable sermon manuscripts for verse-by-verse preaching, Preach with creativity and impact throughout the year, Help your church understand God's plan in pain, Call your people to experience a higher freedom, Proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth, In Modern America who would want to have a grasshopper complex? Satirized by our childhood and criticized by others, would-be giants often shrink further at the thought of overcoming. That last sentence is the one that really stands out to me. Ill stop the moment He shows up. Unbelief tells us, God wont be showing up. Thats the attitude of the spies who bring the bad report. WHY DO WE DO THAT? "Life as a Grasshopper" - Salem Lutheran Church Later in the scene, the master instructs the boy: I hear the water. Twelve men were sent out to spy out the land of Canaan. The 2018 season of excavation at a Late Roman synagogue at Huqoq revealed more fascinating mosaics, including this one referencing Numbers 13:23: two Israelite spies sent by Moses to scout out the land of Canaan carrying a pole with a cluster of grapes. YET GOD WANTS TO GIVE US SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. A friend of mine works as a boilermaker in Bowen, Queensland Australia. More To Follow We need a new language. Baptist. read more, Scripture: Psalm 73 is one of those gritty psalms. That person will always say no and have a pessimistic or negative view of the outcome. Its as though, in the minds of the spies, the whole country was edible. If you have hope in anything else, get Christ today. Spot on for me today. He wants the Israelites to enter the land and conquer it, undaunted by the peoples already living there. Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days You must be born again by the Spirit of God. And as God causes us to be born again, He gives us saving faith which we place in Christ and now we have new life in Him. All the people we saw there are of great size. Has it not been toldyou from the beginning? Power is an amazing tool of deception. As Rabbi Steven Kushner puts it: their sin wasnt simply that they lost faith or that the scouts had misrepresented what they had seen Their failure wasnt even that they had low self-esteem, that they saw themselves as grasshoppers. We mine Gods Word for what He has promised. I loved the article/sermon. Are we kind? December 29, 2019. Grasshoppers have the ability to jump away from any kind of predator. How long will they not believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? The Hebrew word that the English Standard Version translates despise also means to scorn or abhor. Thats what you and I do when we make a choice to refuse to trust God. More significantly, parshat Balak, which is coming up soon, opens with statements by the Moabites and their king that mirror exactly the sentiment I think the spies have in mind when they describe themselves as grasshoppers. W. A. Criswell Sermon Library | I Feel Inferior, What Shall I Do? He dug and could not find anything. When you pass through the waters I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. The report they bring back has two main themes, the existing inhabitants of the land and, our focus here, food. Here is its fruit. What have they, as a nation, seen? 1 John 4:7-12, Denomination: