Janna: Hello there, I’m Janna Faith, and welcome to episode 29 of Faith Talks. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but we are coming to the end of another year. I’m flying solo this time; Anna Faith did it last month. We’ve been going on and off because I’m still traveling with the Minutemen team. But this is actually our last week, so we are here in Bonita Springs, Florida. It’s been very interesting having Thanksgiving in Florida in Destin, FL with some friends, and then we’re down here for a week, gonna spend some time in South Carolina. Seeing all the Christmas decorations, hearing jingle bells, and it’s like 80 degrees this morning, 95% humidity. Crazy! It definitely doesn’t feel like a normal Christmas, but it’s definitely getting that time of year.

So, we’re excited for where we’re at, and there’s a lot of different things that are gonna be happening even in the next year for Anna Faith and me. I think we’ll share that a little more in the next podcast, which we’ll be doing together. Anna Faith is going to be heading to Papua New Guinea for about six months, so pray for her there and all the opportunities there. Then I’m gonna be home, working this spring, getting ready for the wedding, which is gonna be May 17th. I’m excited about that. We’re gonna be moving to Indiana after that, so just a lot of changes and a lot of stuff going on.

Really excited for the next year, and just thought we could maybe just review just a little bit of last year and the theme on relationships. Then I actually just had a clip that I listened to recently that was very encouraging on “Can God?” and maybe some of you have already heard that message from Harold B. Sightler. But we’re going to talk about that a little bit, listen to a clip, and then just give a short challenge.

Year in Review

So let’s look back over the year of relationships. We started out in January with Mrs. Shaw talking about Building Relationships with the Lost. I hope that’s something that you’ve all been able to do this year. We’re all around lost people every day, but just building a relationship with them so that you’re able to cross that bridge and to share the gospel.

Then we heard from Mrs. De Leon on Closer Through Trials, how God often puts trials in our lives to bring us closer to Him.

Me and Anna Faith shared about relationships Close to Home, talking about siblings. That’s probably the relationship that most of you are actually interacting with the most. It’s always a trying thing too because you might be able to hide stuff from your friends or people you see at church, but your siblings, you really have to be walking with that if you’re going to see victory in that area.

In May, we heard around Mother’s Day about Your Mother, Your Best Friend from Mrs. Reed and Hannah Reed. I was really touched by that, just to see their sweet relationship and even just how they’ve grown in that. Hannah’s gotten married and different stuff, but just to see that progression of that’s really how every mother and daughter can be, but I know it takes work and enabling from the Holy Spirit.

In June, we heard from Graciela on Treasuring Your Father. I love that word treasuring because it’s definitely a choice to whether you’re gonna treasure a relationship or not. Yet your parents are a relationship that you didn’t pick; God gave it to you, and He knew that dad or that mom was going to be exactly right for you. So you can either be bitter with maybe some things that have gone wrong, or you can treasure what you’ve been given. I love that.

Then in July, we talked about Fatal Friends or Christ-Like Companions, just on really who you hang around is what you’re one day gonna be. You might say, “Oh, I can be different than my friends,” but really, truth be told, I mean, you look at most friend groups, some might be a little better or worse than each other, but really they kind of lend the same direction.

In August, we heard from Stephen Gilmore on Navigating the Circus of Brother-Sister Relationships. If you haven’t listened to that podcast, and you need a good laugh, there are many laugh lines in there. Stephen makes me laugh a lot. So I’m glad we got to, though I know he’s even just seen a lot of growth in that area.

In September, we heard from Mrs. Weaver out there at West Coast on How to Like Your Harvest. Basically, the idea that what you sow in your life is what you’re one day gonna reap. If you sow seeds of the gospel, you’re gonna reap salvations. If you sow seeds of bitterness, you’re gonna reap anger and frustration.

Our most recent one back in October was Moving Mountains with Mrs. Muzzy and the idea that sometimes mountains can arise between you and somebody else. I love how she said in there, you can kill those with kindness, kill the mountains with kindness that you might have between you and another person in your life.

Reflecting on Your Year

So we’re on to today’s podcast, and that’s gonna be the last one of the year 2023, which is very hard to believe. It seems like it’s flown by. Well, I would just think back on your past year and maybe think about those relationships that are the most close to you and the most important and just kind of reflect on what God’s done. Maybe there’s been success in those relationships, and you feel like you’ve been able to take steps. Maybe it’s your parents, and you feel like you’ve been able to take steps to be closer to them or your siblings. You’ve been able to show them love or your friends at church or maybe your co-workers or your neighbors. Just think about those relationships and what God’s done this year. I can think through even girls at my Sunday school table this past year who were able to build a relationship with them and see them saved. Different relationships in my family that have gotten stronger, and just so many things that God’s done.

But I also want you to think about if there’s been failure in relationships this year. Maybe it’s something you’ve done, things you said you shouldn’t have, things you’ve held onto that have developed bitterness between your relationship with somebody else. Reflect upon that, and I love the verses in Psalms where it talks about when your heart is overwhelmed, lead me to a rock that is higher than I. It talks about the psalmist pouring out his complaint to the Lord. The Lord really wants us to come to Him right where we’re at. If you might be at a point where you feel like, “How am I going to make another year of this?” Or even if you’re looking back in discouragement on the past year, really take that to the Lord, and I’m hoping to give you some encouraging thoughts today even about that.

Can God? Clip

We’re just gonna listen to a 12-minute clip of it, so it’s not the whole thing. I would encourage you, if this strikes a chord, you can go on YouTube, and there’s the full message there. But the message is called Can God. So often we ask that question, “Can God do this? Can God do this?” Maybe you don’t ask it outright, but when overwhelming things happen in your life, you’re like, “Could God actually rescue me from this? Does God actually know what he’s doing? Is this a mistake? Is God good?” We’ve this child to forget in my life. We so often question God, but I love how Pastor Sightler switches it. Instead of asking the question “Can God?” we need to proclaim “God can!”

So I’d encourage you to go to Psalm 78. That’s where he takes his passage from, and I kind of cut the clip right out of the middle of the message. Hopefully, it all makes sense in there, but his main verse he’s looking at is verse 19 where the Israelites spoke against God. They said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” and they go on to ask all these questions. Can He give bread? Can He provide? Can He do this? Can He do that? They didn’t believe, and we’ll talk about that a little bit at the end too. The biggest thing is they were questioning God, coming at Him with words of unbelief. Let’s just listen to this little excerpt here, and then I’ll come back, and we’ll talk about a couple of things.

I also apologize if it’s a little fuzzy. It is an old recording, so I hope you can understand it. One other note that my dad mentioned is a lot of times he uses the word “fundamentalist,” and that can refer to a lot of different things in today’s world and different groups. But he was using it back in that day to refer to someone who believed the Bible and stood behind exactly what the Bible said, aiming to follow exactly what God’s word proclaimed. That’s what he means by fundamentalist. Anyway, okay, I hope you enjoy this clip, and I will be back in a few minutes.

Harold Sightler: “Now, I want you to look at my text in verse number 19. Yea, they speak against God. These Israelites, of all the people who should have believed, and yet they speak against God. You and I can kind of expect the Philistines to speak against God. All that Goliath the giant said as he made fun of the God of Israel, we expect that of the Philistines. We expect that of the world in our day, the worldly wise of our day. We don’t expect them to sing Amazing Grace. You and I do, but we don’t expect them to join in. I extol the greatness of God. But I’m not expecting the world to come and stand by me and say, Amen, while I extol the greatness of God. They never have done that, and they won’t do it now.

But of all the people who ought to extol the greatness of God, it ought to be me and you. And in Israel’s day, in the Psalmist’s day, the people who should have known the greatness of God should have been Israel, of all the people of the earth. And yet, verse 19 reminds me that they spake against God. Isn’t that tragic? They spake against God.

Now I’m not surprised at anything a liberal or modernist may say about the Bible. I long since have gotten case-hardened to many things that I read in religious publications and in the newspapers. I can expect most anything from a man that’s a liberal or an apostate or a modernist. And they come up with some of the wildest ideas I’ve ever heard of in my life. And I’m not in the least surprised. But I would become surprised if some fundamentalist came up with these ideas. Of all the people who ought to believe God, it’s me and you. We claim to be fundamentalists, Bible believers. And we honor Jesus and believe that Jesus is the Savior. Oh, me and you of all people ought to believe God. And yet here’s the answer, you know. God’s covenant people, God’s chosen people, God’s delivered people, miraculous and completely they were delivered as I pointed out in the morning hour, and yet those same people speak against God. Verse 19. Look at that verse again. “Yea, they speak against God, and they said, ‘Can God? Can God?’”

Now, take a pencil and put a line under those two words, “Can God?” That’s the question. And down through the years, men have said, “Can God?” And I want us to turn it around, and fundamentalism allows me and you to turn those words around, and we can say, “God can.” The world says, “Can God?” and me and you who are fundamental to faith, come care! But the world says, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?”

Now that’s my text. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Now you know the context. You know the story behind the words of my text. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? The people of Israel by this time have crossed the Red Sea. The waters have come together and drowned in the armies of Pharaoh. And here they are now on the Cain’s side of the Red Sea headed toward Israel. And they could have gone into the land in about 10 days had they only believed the Lord. They made 10 days of a rapid journey across the desert to Kadesh-Barnea. And when they got to Kadesh-Barnea, Moses and Joshua sent the 12 spies.

And the 12 spies crossed Jordan and spied out the land of Canaan, the land of promise. They saw the land flowing with milk and honey and plum granites and grapes, but they also saw that the Philistines were like giants. And they said, we are but as grasshoppers in their sight. And those swell spies came back over Jordan to the wilderness and they said to these, Israelites, we might as well capitulate and forgive it, give it up. We are not able to possess the land. It’s a wonderful land. In fact, they brought back some of the glories of that land. It’s a wonderful land. All that we’ve heard about Canaan is so. 430 years they’ve been out of Canaan. And they’ve been hearing about Canaan and talking about Canaan all these 430 years. And these 12 spies said, “Everything we’ve ever imagined is more abundantly true than we’ve ever concluded.” But they said, “We can’t take it. The children of that land are like giants in our, in our size. We are but as grasshoppers.” And so they said, “We might as well go back to Egypt and consent ourselves, content ourselves with a grave in the land of Egypt.” Ten of them, they gave it up. They said, can God, can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Now we can’t do it. We may as well give it up. And you know the story. They believe the report of the ten, the two, are Joshua and Caleb said, “We’re well able, let’s cross over.” But the minority report was rejected. They accepted and received the majority report and they turned away from Kadesh-Barnea. to wander for forty years in the wilderness. So long did they wander until Moses died, he never put his foot into Canaan’s land. So long did they wander in the wilderness until every adult above twenty died, not one of them put their feet in the promised land with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. “Can God“ they said, “furnish a table in the wilderness?”

Now when they turn back what are they going to do? It would be forty years. They didn’t know at that time that it would be forty, but it was forty. How are they going to live? They had neither goods nor substance. And the wilderness was barren and unproductive. They had no tools with which to cultivate the ground had they had the rain, and had they had the ground to cultivate. What can they do? They’ll starve to death.

Now if you read the rest of the 78th Psalm, you’ll find some of the things that God did in furnishing a table for those people in the wilderness. Now you remember how God sent the manna, that little wafer, and they didn’t know what it was, they’d never seen anything like it, and I’m not having a name for it, they called it manna, which means “What is this?” But it tasted like bread with honey on it, a little round sweet tasting wafer. And for 40 years those people lived on that bread from heaven. Angels food, it’s called in the 78th Psalm, angels food. That’s what it is. And God sent that angel’s food down from heaven to feed the people for 40 years. Now don’t tell Washington they’d have a dying kid if they knew somebody lasted 40 years on bread alone. They never would get to apologize to the people. But here are people that nothing but a bread diet. And that’s high in calories, they tell us. And it is not good for a person. You’ll soon get pellagra if you eat nothing but bread. But yes, people eat bread for years. And not one of them got pellagra. But when you eat angel’s food, you eat all you want, you’ll neither get pellagra nor fat. You’ll just be right. When God does something, it’s always right, you see.

And then you remember how they said, we want meat. God said, “I’ll give you quails.” And God sent quails, some of you fellas that love to hunt quails, wouldn’t it have been something if you’d have been around there then? God sent so many quails for the people of Israel, until they couldn’t put their feet down on the ground except they stepped on a quail. And they had quail in season out of season. They had all the quail they could ever want. And they tell me, I don’t care much for fowl any kind. But they tell me that quail is wonderful meat. Real (somebody said amen on that) real good meat. Some of you love quail. And God said, those is what I call the quail they’re gonna be. “Can God?” And they said, well, we’ll die fast.

And to top off the miracle, God said, Moses, you smite that stone, that flinty stone. It was not a soft rock, it was a granite rock. You take your rod and you smite that stone and I’ll give you all the fresh water from the great depth that you’ll ever drink. And Moses struck that flinty stone and a miracle transpired and out of that finished stone gushed forth water from great depths in those people at all. “Can God furnish a table in this wilderness?”

Now you can’t beat a good heaven’s angel food bread and some quail, real good quail, and then a nice glass of good cool water from great depths. You can’t improve on that, my friend. You never have had coffee that tastes better than water from great depths. You never have had meat that tastes better than quail when it sticks just right. And you never have had eaten bread that tastes better than angel food, and those Israelites found out that God can furnish a table in the wilderness when everything seems to be impossible when everything seems to die when there seems to be no way out, when the people say let’s go back Egypt and die and be buried in Egypt’s land. God said, “You just wait. I’ll set a table for you in the wilderness!” I want to say to you that God’s able to set a table for me and you in 1973.

This world looks at me and you and they say you’re crazy. You’ve got too much religion, you’re beside yourself. Some of my relatives feel that way about your pastor. They had high hopes of me when I started out in the ministry 34 years ago, as a young man of 25, but they’d given up all hopes. He’s gone plumb wild about the Lord. He believes the Bible, he believes the miracles, he’s a plum fanatic. He believes God’s able! Amen! I believe God is able, brother. God can set a table in the wilderness for me and you. God can. These Israelites said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness.” Can God set a table? We’ll starve to death, but there is no record that not a one of them starved to death. And there were two million of them in the wilderness for forty long years and there was no record that one of them starved to death. All of them died, but so far as we know, they died of natural causes, and not one of them starved to death. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. And I believe God is able yet to feed his people and bless his people. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? God can. God can.

The world says “Can God?” and we fundamentalists go to bed and sleep at night whispering, “God can. God can.” The world say, “Can God?” and we sit down and enjoy ourselves and say, “God can.” The newspapers says, “Can God?” and we come to church and shout and say “God can! God can!” The world says old time religion is dead, “Can God?” they say. And we fundamentalists say, “God can! Old time religion is not dead. It shall never die.”

Janna: Well, I hope you enjoyed that; I certainly did. It’s a really good sermon. I hope that was a blessing to you. I know I was personally stirred, even just how excited you can hear the audience and after, kind of right where we stopped, you can just hear the hooping and hollering of the audience. For a while, He doesn’t say anything because there’s just so much noise.

And honestly, you can look at that and be like, “Wow, that’s not how it is at my church or whatever,” but think about it, we should get excited about the God who we serve, and I don’t think it’s wrong to express that emotion and to get excited about that.

So just thinking back on your relationships, think, “Okay, if you’ve ever asked the question, can God enable me to have a good relationship with my brother? Can God do that?” And the answer is “God can.” You might think, “Could God ever heal my relationship with my dad?” And God can. Maybe you think, “Well, there’s this friend at work; she’s mocking me and she’s not saved and seems completely in her own world. Can God save her?” And the answer is “God can.”

You might have somebody who wronged you last year and done something very hurtful, and you think, “Can God help me to forgive her or him?” And the answer is “God can.”

And so often we like to look at ourselves with relationships, you know? You might look at how you’re doing with somebody and be like, “Oh, it’s all my fault,” or even look at them, like it’s all their fault. But the truth is “we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood.” It’s really… It’s really the Lord who makes or breaks any relationship.

So I would encourage you to come to God with your most impossible situation. And don’t ask him the question in unbelief, but instead, look at who he says he is and believe him for it. Don’t speak those words of unbelief, saying, “Can God?” but instead say, “God can.”

And I love how looking at if you look at Psalm 78 I was just looking at it actually before this podcast just looking at it more, and there’s so many times in there where it talks about God’s anger and he’s not angry at the Israelites because you know they had needs in their life or maybe they were struggling; he was angry at them because of their unbelief. Look at verse 20. They’re asking more questions: “Can God give bread?” And then verse 21, therefore the Lord heard this and was wrought. And so a fire was kindled against Jacob. Just look at, I mean, God’s anger in that, at their unbelief. Look at verse 22, because they believe not in God and trusted not in his salvation. And 32, for all this they sinned still and believed not in his wondrous works.

But then look at verse 38, but he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yet many a time, sorry, turned his anger away and did not stir up his wrath. And I think of God’s incredible mercy and of the verse where it says that it’s of his mercies that we are not consumed.

And yes, I want us to realize that unbelief is a serious sin. And I know I’ve been convicted of that even just yesterday of some unbelief in my life. Just even wanting to ask that question, can God do this for me? Can this happen? But the truth is that unbelief that we are having in our hearts, that is sin.

But also realize, don’t get discouraged by that, but realize that if you come to the Lord and say, “God, would you help me? I’m having unbelief in this area, but I want to believe you.” And you even proclaim those words of truth that God will help you. And he’ll give you that faith so that you can say, “God can.”

And if you go back and listen to his message, right after the clip, he talks about a young lady who is a reprobate said she’s committed every single one of the 10 commandments and… just a really, you know, a wicked lifestyle. And he just talks about how God saves her and transforms her.

And wherever you’re at today, be encouraged that God’s mercies are absolutely infinite. And there’s nothing you’ve done or will ever do that is past God’s love and his forgiveness.

So I just have three challenges for going into the next year. First of all, reading. Read the Bible not just through the lens of, okay, here’s some great stories and he talks about this in the podcast, but read it and see, okay, who is my God? I’m going to look at this, I’m going to read these verses and I’m going to read this story and realize who is that God that delivered these people? Because he’s the same God that is going to deliver me in my life. And you think of the song, he’s still the same, my God hasn’t changed. That’s exactly right. Read the Bible and realize that’s the same God you served.

I loved how this morning here at Gospel Baptist Church in Bonita Springs, Florida, they had a very big push on reading through the Bible in a year and even just how reading the Word of God can completely change your life. So I would encourage you to read the Bible. Look at those stories with fresh eyes and then secondly, speak up. And speaking really helps you even in your unbelief. I know for me if I’m really struggling with- Believing God even to just speak a verse or to speak truth to somebody that’s even saying those words God can do this. Speaking it with your mouth can really make a difference.

And then the third thing is prayer and specifically believe God for your life, but also Believe God for other people’s lives. I know you guys are gonna be in different homes and maybe with family over the holidays and I would encourage you personally if You hear somebody who’s having a struggle, maybe they’re talking, maybe it’s an aunt you haven’t seen in a long time, she’s struggling with cancer. Believe God for her. Pray with her. And you know, put your faith out on the line.

I think so often we are scared as even younger generations, I know for me, it’s like you believe in God and you believe he’s powerful, but then like to put him out there, like God can do this, God can heal. You’re almost scared that it won’t happen or something, but that’s really unbelief.

I love how he just said like If you trust the Lord and you follow him, you’re never gonna be desolate. You’re never gonna hungry. He’s always gonna provide. And just believe in who your God is and share that with your family. Maybe they’re unsaved, maybe they’re not. But I know for me there’s been times in my life where I’ve been struggling and somebody’s put an arm around me and believed God for me. And that just makes all the difference when you’re really struggling in your faith.

So be that person for another and believe God for them. So I hope this has been a blessing to you. I know it’s been a little bit different of a podcast. I’d encourage you to even go back and listen to the full message and just share it with others. That whatever you’re going to face in the year 2024, you can confidently say that God can enable you to do that. He definitely has a plan, but it really is a matter of faith. So just as we go into this next year 2024, just remember that faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.