OPENING STATEMENT:
Life is a journey that is filled with grapes and giants. Grapes represent the rewards, the opportunities, the possibilities and Giants represent the risks, the obstacles, impossibilities.

OPENING SCRIPTURE:
“We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 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. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (Numbers 13:31-33 NLT)

• Comparison: Next to them we felt like grasshoppers
• “Comparison is the greatest thief of joy.” Theodore Roosevelt
• Comparison led them to believe that life in Egypt was better:

Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” (Numbers 14:2-4 NLT)

Comparison is always our greatest enemy when we are following God.

They are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant! (2 Corinthians10:12 NLT)

Comparison is when you use someone’s measuring stick to measure yourself.

• The only standard of measurement is Christ Himself!

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer (the author), and perfecter (the finisher) of faith. (Hebrews 12:2 NIV)

• When we look up to Him, we are measuring ourselves to His perfect standards.

Being confident that he who began a good work in you will finish it – Philippians 1:6

• This confidence comes when our eyes are on Him.
• The Israelites lost sight of God.

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. (Numbers 13:23 NLT)

• Their minds were so consumed by the giants that they forgot all the physical evidence they brought with them.
We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:33 NKJ)

• In whose sight? Our own sight.

Out of the 12 spies, 2 of them gave a different report because they did not lose sight of God.
Different report because they had a different spirit:

But My servant Caleb, because he has A DIFFERENT SPIRIT in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. (Number 14:24 NKJ)
God wants you and I to have that kind of spirit. A different spirit.
#1 Peace Instead of Panic.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses (Numbers 13:30 NKJ)

• A different spirit brings peace brings the focus back onto God.
• When you have a different spirit, you bring peace instead of panic.
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#2 Opportunities Instead of Obstacles

“We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. (Number 13:27 NKJ)
“Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30 NKJ)

• When you have a different spirit, you see opportunities instead of obstacles.
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#3 God’s Battle Instead of Your Battle

If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.” (Numbers 14:8-9 NKJ)

• When you have a different spirit, you realize that the battle is the Lord’s not yours.

CONCLUSION:
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?