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Your Story Has A Villain
Jonathan Pokluda // Feb 11, 2025
The Porch Returns this week to talk about what it means to depend on the Lord while navigating the new. Our Director, Kylen Perry, points to Numbers 13-14 to remind us of key truths from Scripture that should mark our decision-making and actions as believers.
Porch, how are we doing? Are we doing okay tonight? It's great to see you. I'm so glad to be back. There feels like no better way to start a brand-new year than being right back in this room with this group of people, so thanks for being here. If this is your very first time, let me be, hopefully not the first, but one of the first to welcome you.
This is a really special thing that's happening, not because I'm standing up here or the band is up here or we have amazing leaders who are around the room, but because God is here. I really believe that. He has given us, as a team, as a ministry, and as a group of friends, a great vision for what he wants to do this year, yet the heart behind this entire ministry is that this wouldn't just feel like something you show up and spectate in; it would feel like something we're all participating in.
That's why we wanted to represent it with a big choir on the platform. We wanted to put people in front of you just like you. That way, you know, "Man, this is something we're all on the same level, engaging with the same God about." So welcome. I'm so glad you're in the room. You need to know this before we go any farther.
We're going to look at a different text in just a minute, but the passage of Scripture we're established on, as a ministry, that's right to the core of who we are is Psalm 27:4. "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple."
That's what we want this place to be: a place where every one of us is seeking to get as close to God as possible. "God, we want to dwell in your house. There are so many things in life that could demand our attention, yet there's one thing worthy of our attention, and it's to be with you. It's to get close to you. God, that's what we want. We want to come near. We believe there's no one like you, that you're most beautiful of all and worthy of knowing."
So, that's what we're going to do. The way we do it is we like to read the Scriptures together. We love that God is letting us do this with a people here in Dallas, Texas, but he's also letting us do this with people all over the nation, because The Porch isn't just gathered in this room; it gathers in rooms all over the country.
So, would y'all do a great job of helping me say "Hello" to our Porch.Live locations right now? That would be awesome. Porch.Live, we love you. Special shout-out to Porch.Live Fort Worth, Indy, Midland, Wheaton, Springfield, Dayton, Greater Lafayette, Scottsdale, and Fresno. We love what God is doing where you are, and as much expectation as we have for this room, we have an equal amount where you are too.
Well, it is the beginning of a brand-new year. How are you feeling about it? The year 2025 is officially upon us. How do you feel? Do you feel good? Yeah, mixed reviews. I get it. The beginning of a brand-new year is likely the start of a journey toward some new goal you may have set out for yourself. Sure, maybe you don't subscribe to traditional resolutions. You might be an "ins and outs list" kind of person.
The reality is wherever you fall with respect to your commitment in the new year, what we know is we all want to do something meaningful with ourselves in this calendar year. We want to achieve something or accomplish something or attain something significant. It's characteristic of us all. Maybe it's losing 10 pounds or maybe it's gaining 10 pounds and drinking as much creatine as it takes to get there.
Maybe it's landing that job you have always dreamed of or it's leaving the job you currently dread. "They've taken too much of my life. It's time for me to get some of my life back." Maybe it's finding new friends or reconnecting with old friends. Maybe it's speaking out more, letting the world know, "I have a voice." Maybe it's thinking before you speak and letting the world know you actually can control your voice. Maybe it's getting more sleep at night or maybe it's just trying to get out of bed every morning.
I don't know what the case may be for you. Why don't you tell me. What are your New Year's resolutions? Do you have something? Anything that's in for the new year? Just shout it out. "Run a marathon." You're going to do that one on your own, my guy. What else do you have? Give me something else. Wait, wait. Ironman? You just got one-upped. This friend says he's going to go further. He's also going to swim and bike. What else? Give me something more.
I heard "Basketball." What was it? "Dunk a basketball." Okay, man. Let us know when it happens. One more. Give me something else. You know, if I could discern what you all want to do, I would call these things out, but it's a mass of humanity. What I know, though, is you're verifying the fact that we all have something we want to do in the new year. We have big dreams, big hopes, goals we want to achieve, and destinations we want to arrive at.
That was the case for Brooke and me several years ago when we decided to go and visit the Greek islands. While we were there, we spent several days on the island of Santorini. While we were in Santorini, there was one thing we knew we wanted to see, because it was a must-see attraction. It was this volcanic hot spring. Just the sound of it is awesome. Yet, it came with one massive complication, because in order to get to the volcanic hot spring, you had to sail through the Aegean Sea.
That sounds awesome. Even just the thought of moving through a Greek sea sounds incredible until you think about the fact that, while beautiful, at the time of year we were in Greece, we knew there were these Meltemi winds, which are really unpredictable or unreasonable gale-force winds that would stir up over the sea and would throw the entire thing into a commotion. It was a disorienting journey to say the least, yet we knew we wanted to get to this volcanic hot spring.
So how did we do it? Did we do it because we really wanted it and we were going to find a way to get there on our own? No. We needed to find someone who was skillful at decision-making, who was accustomed to the open waters, a true sea dog, if you will. We needed to find a captain who was trained at reading the waves, watching the wind, and adjusting course accordingly, depending upon what happened on the journey.
Now, why do I tell you that? Because the reality is many of us enter into a new year with hopes of a proverbial hot spring. We have something we really want to get to, yet the difference between where we are and where we want to be requires not just desire, not just discernment, but true dependence on someone who knows better than ourselves.
You see, the reality is the hope you have today and the future you want tomorrow is separated by the difference of several decisions you must make along the way. What you bring to the table is not your savvy decision-making. You bring a really intentional dependence on one who knows the waters better than yourself. That's what I want to talk with you about tonight.
We're sitting at the beginning of a brand-new year, yet there's a way to navigate the new in 2025, particularly three steps I want to help you understand. If you have a Bible, turn with me to the book of Numbers, chapter 13. Just to bring you up to speed, we're catching up to the people of God in a moment where they're standing at the beginning of a brand-new chapter themselves.
They are staring down the barrel of their own new beginning. They're at the precipice of God's promise, the doorstep of the land they've longed for, but to get there, to go into the Promised Land, they have to make a really big decision. They have to navigate their own set of "new." As we watch them do it, we'll learn some things for ourselves.
This is what it says. Numbers 13, starting in verse 1: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan…'" That's the Promised Land, the land they're going into. "…which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them."
Now, at first glance, this feels really wise. "Send spies out. Collect new intel. Do some reconnaissance. Build a scouting report." It makes reasonable sense to do research before you make a big decision. Yes? Listen. If you're in the room and you're a young man and you want to ask out a young lady, you should probably do some recon. You should probably figure out… Is she available? Is she interested in actually dating somebody? If she were, where would she want to go? What would she want to do? What would be the best way to engage this individual?
"Should I text her? No, that's probably too impersonal. Should I call her? That could be awkward. Maybe I'll just flirt with her through her Insta story. Eh, that might be slightly misdirected. Is DM-ing still a thing? Should I send one? Maybe I shouldn't. That might be ill-advised. Talk to her? No way. I would never." You need to do some recon. You have to do some research to figure out "What's the best way for me to make a big move?"
Spying out the land seems like a really good idea…that is, until you realize it's not God's idea; it's the people's. That can feel confusing, because you read this, and verse 1 says, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan…'" It sounds like God's idea, so how is it not his? Well, if you go and read Deuteronomy, you find Moses is speaking to an entire new generation of Israelites, and he's recollecting this story. He's telling them what happened in times past, and this is what he says in Deuteronomy 1:20-22:
"Then I said to you, 'You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.' Then all of you came to me and said, 'Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.'"
So, was it God's idea or was it the people's? It was the people's. They cooked up the idea. So then what's happening in verse 1? God is simply permitting the pursuit of it. That's what he's doing in verse 1. He is allowing them to do that which they want. You see, God isn't telling them, "Yeah, you really need to go spy out the land," because by this point, God has already spied out the land. He's not searching anything he has not already searched.
If you go and read, you see God has been promising this little piece of real estate to God's people, their ancestors, for centuries. He predicts literally everything they're going to find…what specific nations there were (Genesis 15), how rich the land would be, how he would defeat their enemies (Exodus 3), that this was their promised inheritance (Genesis 12). They had no reason to search out the land, because God already searched it out for them.
So why did they do it? Because they trusted themselves more than they trusted God. They thought, "There's a destination we want to get to, but I don't know that the captain knows best. Maybe we should grab the wheel and direct this thing ourselves." That's a massive misstep, and it's not one we should take if we want to navigate the new.
Instead, the first step we have to take, as we move into a new year and consider the things we believe God is leading us toward, is to know it is better to trust God's Word than man's wisdom. They have every reason to believe God. Literally, they don't get to this point, to the foot of the Promised Land, without him, yet despite everything he has done, they conclude, "He hasn't done enough," which feels crazy when you think about everything they've lived through.
If you go and read the moments that lead them to this situation two years after they've been journeying from Egypt to the foot of the Promised Land, you see God parted the Red Sea for them. He brought manna from heaven. He brought water from a rock. He was leading them by his own presence through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
You hear all that, and it's like, "They are crazy. Why wouldn't they believe him? Why wouldn't they trust him? Why do they need to discern what's ahead for themselves? Why would they do that?" Well, what's funny is we do equally crazy things. Often, we choose to trust ourselves instead of trusting in God. Where God made a way for them through the waters, he has made a way for you through your sin by Jesus Christ.
Where they forgot the fact that he provided manna from heaven, we often forget the fact that we've been given the Bread of Life through Christ himself. Where he poured water from a rock, we have living water in Jesus. The presence of God, cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night… That's amazing. We have the presence of God indwelling through his Holy Spirit. It's crazy that we wouldn't trust him ourselves, yet we do this.
We stand on the cusp of that which God has been leading us to…moving to a new city and taking a new opportunity or the chance to change our career altogether or having gospel conversations with our neighbors or going to therapy to unpack our past and pursue healing or reconciling with a friend we've lost touch with because of some hurt caused in the distant past. Whatever it may be, we often stand on the cusp of what God is leading us into, but rather than respond in faith, Porch, we reason in fear.
We do what they did. We talk ourselves out of what God is talking us into, because we trust our discernment more than we trust his own. Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 146. "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God…" You trust in him. You don't trust in yourself.
Now, some of you hear me unpacking this point, and you're like, "But, Kylen, listen. Are you telling me I shouldn't be measured and prudent and wise with respect to my choices? Like, I'm supposed to just trust my gut, follow my heart, follow my instincts?" No. I'm not telling you to just do that, and neither is God.
The reality is, often, we are not at risk of being hasty; we are in danger of being hesitant. We hear the call of God. We know what his Word says, yet we're slow to obey it. We feel conviction, but we're reluctant to take any action. We process and pray and second-guess despite the fact that everybody in our community is looking at us and saying, "Yeah, you should do it. You should go for it." We're reluctant.
You see, what we do is instead of initiating in faith we procrastinate in fear. The reality for why that is is we don't just want clarity of God's plans; we want certainty of God's plans. Some of you are so locked up you won't move into what God is trying to do in your life, because you're just not certain it's going to happen.
In what world is faith and certainty possible? Those things cannot coexist, for faith requires the presence of some uncertainty, because in the face of uncertainty, trust can exist. God wants you to trust him. Now, he's not going to leave you out on a limb. He's going to give you clarity. He's going to bring conviction. He's going to call you to take a step, yet too often, we procrastinate in fear rather than initiate in faith.
Warren Wiersbe said faith takes God at his word and needs no other evidence. It trusts. "God knows best, and what he says goes, so if he says I go, then here I am. I'm ready, God." Here's the thing. We struggle to do this. We wrestle with it. We're like, "Oh man, I really want to, but, God, I don't know yet." In his kindness, he knows we want for more reason, so he often gives it to us. He does that right here in this passage. He does that for the Israelites. If we keep reading… We'll jump to verse 17.
"Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, 'Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.' Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes."
I remember reading this, and it striking me how strange it was that Moses was giving such very specific instructions. Moses is giving specific instructions because he knows what they'll find. He's not curious. "I wonder if there's any fruit." He already knows, because God has already told him. So he gives them very detailed instructions on what to look for. He tells them in verse 18, "Hey, go and investigate the people. Are they strong? Are they weak? Are there few? Are there many?"
In verse 19, "Go and investigate the land. Is it a good land or is it a bad land? How about their cities? What are they like? Are they big? Are they strong?" In verse 20, he tells them to investigate the soil. "Is it a rich soil or is it a poor soil? How about the trees? Are there trees there? Do you see fruit? Bring some of the fruit with you." Moses is oddly specific in what he wants them to search for, because he knows what they'll find. God has told him, and he wants them to know, "If you find what God has already foretold, then you will have sufficient motivation to go."
As we seek to navigate the new, our second step is God will give you good reason to go if he calls. They're going to see, "God has given us really good reason to take this land," yet Moses knows they have to find it to find sufficient motivation. Several years ago, Brooke and I were snow skiing when she lost her iPhone somewhere out on the mountain. Naturally, she really wanted me to find it, which wasn't incredibly motivating. "You want me to find your phone on the side of a ski slope? It's crazy. It's a needle in a haystack. There's no way I'll do it."
The mission was not incredibly motivating for me…that is, until I learned her "Find My Friends" was miraculously working. Now I had good reason to go. I actually was moving in a way where I wasn't just searching; I was seeking. I wasn't just aimless; I was directed. I knew where I could find it, and it motivated me to get out of my chair and get back on the mountain. Miraculously, we did, in fact, find the phone.
You see, that's what's happening here. The spies want to survey the entirety of the land, but Moses doesn't want them to do it aimlessly, because that's not going to make any kind of difference for the people. No, Moses gives them very clear instructions. He doesn't want them to search; he wants them to seek several things in specific that will motivate the people when they're found.
That's why he says, "Go and see if there's fruitfulness." He's literally sending them to a place called the Valley of Eshcol, which means the valley of grape clusters, and it's during the season of the first ripe grapes. What do you think they're going to find? They're probably going to find some grapes, and not just regular grapes but grapes so big they actually have to be carried between two men on poles. That's the kind of reality they're walking into.
This is the ancient Near Eastern Napa. That's where God is taking them. It is bursting with life. It is full of flourishing. Moses knows, "Hey, this is a land that will motivate our people to go, but you're also going to find some things that will motivate our people to not go alone but to go with God." That's why he tells them, "Hey, go look at the nations. Assess their strengths. Inspect their cities. How strong are their fortresses?"
He knows the people are going to see this is a land that is bursting with abundance, yet also it is a land that is begging for dependence. There are plenty of reasons to go, but there are plenty of reasons to not go alone. That's how you know if God is leading you someplace new. Some of you are here, and you're like, "Man, I'm torn between two decisions, and I don't know which one I'm supposed to take. I'm trying to discern whether God is leading me in or leading me out. How do I know?"
He gives you two reasons. He says, "Look for signs of life, first, and then look for causes for trust, secondly." It should be bursting with life, and it should be begging for dependence. That's how you know. It should be bursting with life. That's what Jesus says. When he talked in John 10:10, he was like, "Hey, the reason I came is to give life. The thief came to steal, kill, and destroy, yet I came that you may have life and have it abundantly." Just like this.
So, the places you consider, the things you do… You should evaluate, "Is this going to let me give life to the rest of the world, to the people I engage with, and to the places I occupy?" Because that's what the gospel does. The gospel gives life. Here's the thing. If you're thinking about a new job, yet there's no opportunity within that job to bring gospel flourishing, to lead people to life in Christ, then Jesus is not leading you there. He doesn't want you to take it, because he is going to lead you to a place that is exploding with fruitfulness. That's what he wants to do.
If you're thinking about dating someone, and you realize, "In this relationship, I'm more prone to compromise in my sin than conformity in Christ," he's not leading you there. He doesn't want you in it, because that's not what he has come to give. If you're thinking about friends, are they exclusive or inclusive? One is characteristic of Jesus, but the other is characteristic of the world. Do they gossip or do they encourage people? One is what Christ would do, and the other Christ would have nothing to do with.
What decision are you trying to make? Does it have signs of life? But also, it should have causes for trust, which is what we see as we continue to go. Verses 25-28: "At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land." They found it. "Hey, man, here it is. Look at this stuff."
"And they told him, 'We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.'" God has led them to a land bursting with life, brimming with potential, and boasting with resistance. Why would God do that? Because, as God leads you into a new place and you navigate the new, you should know God will not lead you someplace faith is not required.
The path of least resistance is never the path of greatest faith. The reason for that is the path of least resistance needs no God. We don't live lives where we do not need him. Such an existence is not possible. If we follow God, then we can expect we will go places beyond compare, and we will go places far beyond our depth. Why? Because he wants you to trust him. He wants you to need him. He wants you to cling to him, not just in the face of adversity. Yes, he wants that, but he wants you to cling to him, grip him, hold fast to him in the moments of opportunity as well.
These people said, "God, we really need you in the wilderness. We have some big problems out here, yet, God, the minute we've gotten to the Promised Land, I think we're good. I think we don't need you any longer. We can make decisions for ourselves. We can figure out the way on our own." God is having none of it. God is not just a God we need in the face of our troubles, our trials, and our testing. No, God is a God we need at all times and in all ways.
I think God is looking at them in this moment, and he's like, "Hey, that is not how this relationship works. I will be there with you to work through your problems, but I will also be there to walk with you into my promises. You will never not need me, and that's actually good news, because I will never not be there."
So many of us wrestle with inadequacy, but have you ever thought your inadequacy…"I'm not enough"…is actually just a declaration of dependency? "But my God is." "Sure, I'm not enough to be eloquent in my workplace and lead my coworkers to Christ, but my God is enough, and I depend on him, so I know I can do it.
I'm not bold enough to approach my neighbor and really help them in the face of their situation and share Christ's love with them, but even though I'm not bold enough, Jesus in me is bold enough. I can move in my dependency. I'm not strong enough to forgive that person. Good thing Christ is with me. He is strong enough to forgive every person." That is the heart he has…not just to love his friends but to love his enemies.
Any inadequacy you feel is a declaration of dependency. "Jesus, I never don't need you, and you are always here with me." Praise the Lord that that is the case. Friends, God will never take you someplace where he becomes optional. He will always take you places where he is required, because those are the only places that actually exist. He will take us where we are most dependent, for when we are in greatest need he is closest by.
God did this to me yesterday. I was going a completely different direction with this talk. I had been planning it for weeks. I had been doing deep study, building great illustrations, assembling carefully worded points, and gathering parallel Scriptures all pointing to the person of Jesus. I had been prepping this message that I felt God gave me shortly after The Porch ended in 2024, yet last night, in the wee hours of the morning, it's like I hit a block.
I was talking to the Lord, and I was like, "God, I've been writing, but I can't write any longer. What is happening, God? We've been sitting on this. This is something we've been preparing for, Lord. Why is it so frustrated now? Why are you complicating my life? Why are you contesting my purposes, Lord?" I think he was looking at me and was like, "Hey, I have something else I want you to do. I want you to walk with me and depend on me along the way. I want us to do something different, and I want you to be willing to move by faith."
So we started thinking about this passage, and it feels so consistent with what God would do in my life, so consistent with what God will do in your life, because he will not lead us places where faith is not required. I remember, when I moved from Houston and came to Dallas, I was driving here, car loaded with all of my belongings to. I told the Lord, "God, if your presence will not go with me, do not take me up from here."
We made that agreement, birthed right out of Exodus 33. As I've arrived, what I know is even in moments where faith feels required, that agreement still stands, for God is always with me. His presence will not depart. Now, why do I tell you that? Firstly, because whenever I do preach that other sermon, it's going to be great, and I can't wait for the day when it happens, so you should stick around.
Secondly, and primarily the reason I share that with you, is because God, in his kindness, will lead you places where your faith will be asked much of but his presence will always deliver on. Do you want that? To live not just a year but to live a life where you experience the unexplainable, where you make way through the world, and the things that happen… People can't really measure up who you are with what that is. There's a discrepancy.
"You're not great enough. You're not smart enough. You're not impressive enough. You're not talented enough. Why, then, are these things happening? Why is it that someone so simple as you could find yourself dwelling in the face of something as amazing as this? How is it that you arrived to a place of promise?" You'll be able to look at them and say, "It's nothing I've done; it's by everything my Christ has done."
That's what they have the opportunity to do, to move into a place that is so significant, yet they're shackled in fear. As we read, we find one man who defies the rest. He looks forward, and he's not shackled in his fear. Instead, he is released by his faith. It says in Numbers 13:30, "But Caleb quieted the people…" Everyone is freaking out, and he's like, "Calm down. Everybody, silent." "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."
Caleb knows, "This is impossible apart from God, so thank goodness our God is with us. No foe is too great, no fear is too strong, and no force is too mighty if God goes with us." How do we know that? We can be confident that God will go with us in times ahead because God came toward us in times past. We can look back and see the fact that Christ has stepped into our reality and has made all the difference.
Jesus trusted the words of God more than the wisdom of man. He knew, "There's a call on my life," and he did not hesitate from fulfilling it. He was obedient. He wasn't reluctant. He was released. He made moves, because he knew, "If God is saying it, then I'm going for it." We also know that Jesus knew God had given him a good reason to go. He looked at you and me, and he was like, "Man, they are enslaved in darkness. They can do nothing for themselves. I need to get there. They need my help. I will go quickly, and I will come to them that they might be with you again, God."
Then Jesus, while going to Calvary, walked to a place where faith was most required of all as he laid down his life for the sins of many. Friends, it's better to follow Jesus into a dangerous future than abandon Jesus for a safe existence, for Jesus abandoned the safe existence so you might not have a dangerous future. What is shackling you in fear tonight? What is keeping you dependent upon yourself as opposed to God? He wants to identify it, and then he wants you to let it go, not just because it's a new year but because you have a new life in Christ Jesus.
God, we love you, and we thank you that we had time to work through your Scripture. We're eager to sing back to you, God. We want to be a people that live our lives where faith is most required. We want to be a people that go wherever it is you want. We know, God, so often it's our fear that locks us up, that keeps us at bay, that will not let us move forward. So, God, what we're asking is that you would release us from that fear, that you would set us free from a safe existence and lead us into a glorious inheritance, the chance to be with you, to live as Christ, and to experience all you want to give.
This isn't a prosperity gospel. No, God, this is your promise to us, that every day forward with you is better than any day we've lived behind. Yet, God, we know the days forward are days where we must walk by faith and not by fear, so, God, we pray that you would help us to do it. I pray, God, that you would help us right now as we take action on it, please.
Jonathan Pokluda // Feb 11, 2025