The part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on, and really this is what the entire chapter is about,
but I'm just going to hone in on a few verses here, is beginning in verse number 6, where the Bible reads,
And Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben,
Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
And wherefore discouraging the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord had given them.
Thus did your fathers when I sent them from Cadish-Barnea to see the land.
For when they went up under the valley of Eschol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel,
that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them.
And the Lord's anger was kindled at the same time, and He swears, saying,
I don't know, we'll come back to it, but basically let me give you the story of what's going on here,
and then I'll tell you what I'm going to preach about tonight.
But the story is that the children of Israel, they've come up out of the land of Egypt,
and if you remember when they first got to the land of Egypt,
they were supposed to go in and spy out the land and just make plans about invading the land.
Well, when they did so, it turned out that there were giants in the land,
and there were really formidable armies that they were going to have to face that had chariots of iron and a lot of other weaponry,
and they decided not to do it.
They didn't have the faith in God that they were supposed to have, so they didn't go into the land.
So God punished their lack of faith by causing them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
And all that generation from 20 years old and upwards who didn't have the faith to go into the Promised Land,
they all died, and their children that grew up were the ones who were going to go into the Promised Land with Joshua.
Now, when they get there, before they go into the Promised Land,
they're coming from the east, and they're crossing the river Jordan into the Promised Land.
Well, before they cross the river Jordan, they do some battles on the east side of Jordan before they get there,
and they defeat the Sihon and Og, the king of the Amorites and the king of Bashan,
and they defeat these armies, and they take over that land.
Well, when they do that, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad, two of the twelve tribes,
they really liked that land. They liked that land that was east of the river Jordan,
and it was really suitable for cattle.
Now, truth be told, they hadn't really seen the Promised Land yet,
so they don't know how much better the Promised Land could be,
but they see this land east of Jordan, and it's the best thing they've ever seen,
and so they say, you know what, we don't want to go over Jordan.
We want to stay right here. Let's just inherit this land right here.
Let the other nine and a half tribes go over Jordan,
but just let us two and a half tribes, we like it here, let us just stay here.
Well, when Moses hears this, he gets pretty angry,
and the reason why he gets angry is found in verse number six.
And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben,
shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
He said, wait a minute. We all fought this battle. We all won this land.
You want to just take this land and just sit here?
Well, we go into the major battle in the Promised Land
against these really strong opponents, these really big armies and so forth.
You're just going to sit here while we go to war?
And then he says in verse seven, and wherefore, wherefore means why,
wherefore discourage you, the heart of the children of Israel,
from going over into the land which the Lord had given them.
Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Cadiz Barnea to see the land.
For when they went up into the valley of Eschol,
this is a flashback, he's referring back to 40 years previously,
he says when they went up into the valley of Eschol and saw the land,
they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel
that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them.
Look what he says in verse 14, these are some strong words.
He said, and behold, ye are risen up in your father's stead,
an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel.
For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness,
and ye shall destroy all this people.
Now when they hear that, they realize the error of their plan.
That if they stay behind, it's going to discourage everybody else,
they're not going to want to go over.
And then they're all going to end up not crossing Jordan.
Same thing that happened 40 years ago, they're going to repeat history.
And he's saying, don't repeat that same mistake again.
So they decide, okay, here's what we're going to do.
We really want this land.
So we're going to build towns, we're going to build the sheep courts,
we're going to get everything ready to go for our cattle and our families,
and we're going to get it all set up.
Then we're going to go with you to war over Jordan.
This is their compromise, they work out.
We're going to go over Jordan, we're going to fight the battles with you,
we're going to defeat all the enemies.
Then when all is said and done, then we'll come back and inherit this land.
But this is what we're going to inherit.
Well, that's what happened, and they did make good on it.
If you keep reading, Moses says, hey, if you do that, great.
But he said, if you don't, then be sure your sin will find you out.
Famous words from the Bible.
Well, they do that.
The battling takes about seven years for them to inherit all the land
on the other side of Jordan, and when it's all said and done,
Reuben and Gad come to them and say, hey, we've done what we're supposed to do,
we're going to go back over Jordan now.
That's exactly what happened, and it worked out okay for a little while.
But anyway, what I want to preach about tonight is the seven of you.
Encouraging versus discouraging.
Because here we see talk about discouraging the hearts of your brethren,
discouraging the hearts of others.
And our accents can either encourage or discourage the people around us.
And in church, this is important, because in church,
it's not just a bunch of individuals who just show up at the same place.
This is called the body of Christ.
This is called Christ is the head.
This is the body.
Go to 1 Corinthians 12, if you would, quickly,
and I'll show you this just briefly.
In 1 Corinthians 12, the Bible says in verse 12,
1 Corinthians 12, the Bible reads,
For as the body is one, and as many members,
or body parts, you could say,
He's saying it has many members, and all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
But by one body are we all baptized into one spirit,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free,
and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand,
I am not the body of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye,
I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now God set the members, every one of them, in the body,
as it had pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of you,
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more, those members of the body,
which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.
And on and on, he goes on and on, and he explains this,
and he says, if you jump down, he says in verse 25,
that there should be no schism in the body,
but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
Or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
And on and on, he talks about different people in the body,
the apostles, the pastors, the teachers,
the people who have different skills and talents and abilities
and gifts, and gifts in speaking foreign languages,
gifts of healing, gifts of preaching, gifts of teaching,
all these different things that are listed, wisdom, knowledge.
God's explained that the church is like a body.
And just as our body has many various parts, they're all important.
You can't really say whether the foot's more important than the hand.
You need it all in order to be a complete body.
And you don't want to have just all hands.
Have you ever heard somebody about, they play the piano,
hey, that guy's all thumbs?
Has anybody ever heard that expression?
You want to have variety in the body.
You want to have different body parts, not just one big eye, one big ear.
Those are the examples he's using.
If you have eyes here and here, you're not going to hear anything.
You need the ears, you need the eyes, you need the nose.
Every part of the body has function.
And he said when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.
When one part is glorified, then the whole thing's going to be glorified.
For example, you can take the smallest, most insignificant part of your body
and then hit it with a hammer.
Take your little pinky, for example.
If you hit a hammer, it's not like just your pinky's going to hurt.
Your whole body's going to hurt.
I mean, he's trying to hammer down on your pinky.
It's going to affect you from your head to your toe.
And that's how this illustration is that he's explaining in 1 Corinthians 12
how the body is a group of people that are joined together, working together.
When one suffers, everybody suffers.
When one rejoices, we all rejoice.
That's what we are. It's a team.
It's a family. It's a body.
That's what God is explaining there in 1 Corinthians 12.
So what you have to realize is that everything that you say and do
can either encourage people or it can discourage people.
And I'm going to show you some examples of that in the Bible.
Here's an example in Numbers 32 of something that people were doing
that was discouraging to other people.
What discouraged them? Look at verse 6.
And Moses said unto the children of Gad and the children of Reuben,
Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel
from going over into the land which the Lord had given them?
So the first thing we see that discourages other people
is when we're not in the battle,
when we're not doing the works that God has ordained for us to do,
it discourages other people from doing it too.
Now, here's another verse that I can read for you.
You don't have to turn there, but Matthew 12.30 reads,
He that is not with me is against me.
This is what Jesus said.
He that is not with me is against me.
And he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
There is no being neutral in this battle.
And we are at war today.
The Bible says,
But we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
The Bible says,
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual.
We are in a warfare that's going on today between good and evil.
It's not a physical battle, but it's a spiritual battle.
And we have spiritual weapons.
We have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
We have the armor that's laid out in Ephesians 6,
the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation,
the shield of faith, the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
There is no neutrality in this battle.
Either you are in the battle,
either you are on the front lines,
either you are doing some job behind the front lines,
but doing something in the battle,
or you're actually hindering the cause of Christ.
It's not like, well, if I do nothing,
then I'm just neutral.
I'm not hurting anybody.
I'm not helping anybody.
I'm just kind of a spectator.
No.
He says, if you're not gathering with me,
you're scattering.
Jesus said, follow me,
and I'll make you to become fishers of men.
And Jesus Christ has commanded us
to go out and preach the gospel to every creature,
to preach the Word of God.
And when we are just neutral,
when we do nothing,
when we say nothing,
when we don't speak God's Word,
when we do not give the gospel to people,
when we do not do any soul-winning,
when we do not serve God with all our heart and mind and strength,
we are hindering the cause of Christ.
Unless you're helping gather people unto Christ,
he says you're actually scattering people from Christ.
Now, that's pretty sobering thought,
but you might be able to live with the fact,
well, other people are doing it.
Hey, praise God for the people that got saved
on soul-winning this afternoon,
out knocking doors in Tempe.
Hey, that's great.
You're doing a great thing for God.
I'm just going to show up and relax.
But here's the thing, though.
You're a hindrance to the cause of Christ
when you do nothing.
He says, if you're not gathering,
you're scattering.
Now, why?
Well, here's one reason why.
Because when you're a do-nothing,
you're actually discouraging other people.
A lot of the things that you fail to do
can discourage other people,
not just what you do that's discouraging,
what you don't do.
For example, as the pastor of the church,
it encourages me the more people are here.
I mean, if I come to church and the place is packed,
like we had a really packed house this morning,
that's encouraging to me.
Amen.
I remember when I was 17 years old,
I started going to a really good church
that I was really excited about.
And I would go there Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night,
and I learned about soul winning,
and I heard a lot of great preaching.
And I was really fired up.
You know, I would miss church from time to time.
Because you know how it is.
You're a teenager.
You've got stuff going on.
And sometimes other things
would take me away from church.
But I was there most of the time.
I was there 90% of the time or whatever.
But sometimes things would take me away from me.
But when I was 18, I went to Germany,
and I spent three months over there.
And when I was over there,
I was living in the home of pastors.
You know, this is my first time
living in the home of a pastor.
Pastors that I've had growing up,
I did not know very well.
I'd only talked to them a few times.
I didn't really know what it was like
to actually be behind the scenes of a church.
Because it's a lot different behind the scenes
than just what you see when you show up for church.
And you don't really understand everything
sometimes that goes into church
when you're not on that side of the pulpit, you know?
So I was just 18 years old, just a young guy.
And I would live in homes these past...
And every Sunday morning,
you know, we're getting everything ready,
you know, we're going through everything.
It's the big day that we've been working toward every Sunday.
And I remember just noticing
how the pastor really wanted people to be there.
And he'd be, oh, I hope so-and-so's gonna be there.
Hey, I hope so-and-so's gonna be there.
And I got to see that behind the scenes,
and I realized, you know what?
I wonder if my pastor is discouraged when I'm not there.
You know, later I realized that he probably wasn't.
But he was discouraged
when other people weren't there.
Anyway, he liked me deep down somewhere.
But anyway, no, honestly, though,
I thought to myself, you know what?
I'm probably discouraging my pastor when I don't show up.
And I thought to myself,
I bet I'm even discouraging other church members
just because I'm not showing up.
Because some people, when they come to church,
they go there to see certain friends sometimes, too.
Now, obviously, we come, you know,
we come for the right reasons,
and we come for the Bible, and we come for work.
But honestly, though, sometimes you're coming also
to see your friends a little bit, right?
You want to see your friends.
And that's part of the whole reason
why we don't even have church.
It's not just if you're preaching.
It's to show up and to be there
and to see your friends
and to be with the group
and to get the fellowship, okay?
Well, a lot of times, I remember even as a child,
I'd show up, and your friend's not there.
You know, you're down, but you're discouraged.
You know, it's just encouraging
when you show up and do what you're supposed to be doing.
It encourages the people around you.
And if people around you see you
being really faithful to church all the time,
that's going to make them be faithful to church.
Because if you're always there, they're going to be there.
Now, if you went to a church
where 80%...
And look, there are a lot of churches like this.
If you go to a church where 80% of the people
just show up on Sunday morning only,
that is going to spread.
But if you go to a church where most of the people,
where 80% of the people are coming to three services,
well, then most people are going to go to three services.
If you go to a church where there's no soul wedding,
probably, you know, you're not going to feel like
you need to be on soul wedding.
But when you go to a church
where 20% of the people are soul wedding,
you might think, like,
oh, this is just for, like, an elite few.
You know, the people are really spiritual,
really good Christians.
Maybe these guys are going to be preachers someday
and so they're practicing.
But when you go to a church
where, like, 80% of the people are soul wedding,
you're probably going to be a lot more likely
to jump into soul wedding
because it's encouraging you to do so.
And when people are not,
singing is another great example.
When we sing the hymns.
I've gone to a church before,
and I like to sing loud.
You know, I don't measure my singing in quality.
I measure it in quantity
because I don't have a great singing voice,
but I can sing loud.
And I remember before,
I showed up at a church before,
and they announced the first song.
I love singing.
Who likes singing?
I love singing.
I love...
I don't like watching people sing.
I like to sing.
You know, my own song book and sing and everything.
And so I showed up at this church before,
and I got out of my song book.
It was time to sing.
I just started belting it out.
You know, blessed, assured.
But then after a few seconds,
I realized, you know what?
Everybody else is singing.
Well, I need to quiet this down.
So I toned it way down.
But I remember when I've been in a lot of churches
where people were really singing out,
then you just belted out,
and you feel like you're drowned
in everybody else's voice.
Because you don't want to be just...
You know, you don't want to be heard
above everyone else, right?
That's why our church needs to be a church
where people are singing out loud.
Because then if we're singing out loud,
then other people will sing out loud.
And when we're singing, you know...
...
That's how everybody around you
is going to start doing it.
Because you're going to discourage
other people from singing out loud
when you sing quiet.
And the Bible says to sing joyfully to the Lord,
to play skillfully with a loud noise,
you know, to sing unto the Lord.
You know, the Bible's pretty clear
that, you know, he likes it loud.
You know, he wants us to sing it out,
not just an anemic,
just going through the motions of
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
He wants to sing it out with zeal.
And look, you can walk into two different churches
and see the difference right away.
A church that sings it out
and a church that is just singing it,
going through the motions.
They're not singing with all their heart.
They're not putting anything into it.
They don't really mean what they're singing.
They're just going through the motions.
And so you can see how your actions,
or lack thereof,
can discourage the people around you.
When other people are going to war
and you're sitting here,
that's discouraging.
Now, you say,
well, it shouldn't matter what I do.
It's between them and God.
Yeah, but it's reality.
I mean, even if Reuben and Gad and Manasseh
had decided to just stay on that side of Jordan,
the other nine and a half tribes just said,
well, hey, so what?
We're going forward.
We're going all the way.
We're not going to quit now.
We're crossing Jordan.
We're going to do this.
We're going to face those enemies.
We're going to believe what God has said.
We're not going to be like the previous generation.
We are going to have the faith
to go all the way and defeat the enemies of the Lord.
But you know what?
Just the human nature, the reality,
Moses knew.
He said if you don't go,
they're not going to go.
Now, you ought to go anyway.
But the truth of the matter is
if the people around you don't go,
you might not go.
You probably won't go.
Because people tend to be encouraged or discouraged
by the actions of the people around them.
You know, if one person takes a stand,
everybody's going to take a stand.
One person backs down,
other people start to back down on things.
Because we as human beings are encouraged
or discouraged by the people around us,
what they do.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 1.
Deuteronomy says you're in numbers.
Just go a few pages to the right of your Bible.
So we talked about Reuben and Dad
and the half of the tribe of Manasseh.
And then also there was that flashback
where they talked about,
hey, 40 years ago, you know,
your fathers, your ancestors,
they didn't have the boldness and the faith
to go into the land
and end up discouraging everybody else.
The 10 spies discouraged everybody else,
and they didn't go into the land.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter number 1.
And by the way, what does the word encourage mean?
Well, think about it.
Just break it down.
What does courage mean?
Bravery.
Bravery, boldness, right?
Strength.
Okay.
Well, what do you think encourage means?
Basically, I'm putting courage into you.
That's what encourage means.
Instilling you,
instilling the people around me with courage.
You know, if you're on a battlefield
and the guy next to you goes,
you know, starts running away,
you're gonna be like,
oh, man, I need to get out of here.
Something bad's about to happen.
But if the guy next to you is just,
you know, like a scone, you know,
and he's just, you know,
you're probably gonna be more likely to stay with,
because he's either encouraging you
or discouraging you.
He's either putting courage into you
or he's taking courage out of you.
That's what discourage would be,
to remove courage, okay?
Look at Deuteronomy chapter number 1, verse 20.
This is Moses speaking, and Moses is again
going back in time, explaining what happened in the past.
And I said unto you,
you're coming to the mount of the Amorites,
which the Lord our God doth give unto us.
Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee.
Go up and possess it,
as the Lord God of thy fathers has set it thee.
Fear not, neither be discouraged.
And you came near unto me, every one of you,
and said, well, send men before us,
and they shall search us out the land
and bring us word again by both ways.
We must go up, and into what cities we shall come.
And they're saying, please be well.
This is where he's sending out the spies.
And I took 12 men, if you want them to try.
And they turned and went up into the mountain
and came into the valley of Eshcol,
and searched it out,
and they took up the fruit of the land in their hands
and brought it down unto us,
and brought us word again and said,
it is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.
Notwithstanding, you would not go up,
but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God,
and he murmured in your tents and said,
because the Lord hated us, they're whining.
That's what murmuring is, whining, complaining.
Because the Lord hated us,
he brought us forth out of the land of Egypt
to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.
Whither shall we go up?
Watch this.
Our brethren have discouraged our heart,
saying, the people is greater and taller than we.
The cities are green and walled up to heaven.
And moreover, we've seen the son of the Anakins there.
Then I said unto you, dread not,
neither be afraid of them.
The Lord your God, which goeth before you,
he shall fight for you,
according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
And in the wilderness,
where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee,
as a man hath bare his son,
in all the way that ye went,
until ye came into this place,
yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God.
So the second thing we see here is that
our words can discourage or encourage the people around us.
The weakness of their words,
their lack of faith,
their whining, their complaining,
their negative attitude
can discourage the people around them.
Or as Moses was trying to encourage them by saying,
hey, God's already done this for you,
he's going to fight for you,
he's going to go with you,
he's practically going to put you on his shoulders
and do it for you, he's explaining to them.
Just do it, just have the faith.
But they were discouraged by the weakness and wimpiness
and cowardice of those ten spies
who came back and said we can't do it.
The I can't mentality.
This attitude that says it can't be done.
This attitude that says,
oh, soul winning doesn't work,
we're living in the last days,
it's too hard out there,
it's too hot outside,
or it's too much work,
or we can't do it.
Or they'll look at the map out there in the lobby
and say we're never going to get this done.
Look at it, we'll never get it done.
We will get it done.
We're getting it done.
Be encouraged.
And when you have an I can attitude,
a can do attitude,
an attitude of faith that says,
hey, let's go out and get people saved
and expect people to get saved.
Not go out there and just expect that nobody's going to get saved
and expect that everybody's going to slam the door in our face
and nobody wants to hear it
and we're just wasting our time anyway
because it's Timpy,
we shouldn't have went to the ghetto instead of Timpy,
we shouldn't have went to South Phoenix,
we shouldn't have went to Central Phoenix or wherever.
No.
We need to have an attitude that encourages the people around us.
And you need to be careful about what you say.
Don't say things that are down on soul winning.
Don't say things that are down on church.
Or what about this?
And look, this is one that I've heard a lot too.
Yeah, the church isn't going to grow
because basically you can't preach right and grow.
I don't believe that for one second.
That is bad doctrine.
That is false.
That is not right.
Well, we're living in the last days
so you've got to choose between growing and preaching right.
If you preach right, you're always going to be small.
No, we're not always going to be small.
We started out a lot smaller than this.
Why don't you ask the people who were here six years ago
and who were here four years ago and three years ago and two years ago,
our church is continuously growing
and I don't have this attitude that says
our church will never be that bad.
Hey, we'll never compromise.
We'll never back down.
We'll never water down the message.
We won't water it down one whit to grow.
But we will grow.
We'll grow without compromising.
We'll stand our ground and grow by the power of the Spirit of God,
not by some kind of a man-made method of toning down the preaching
and seeing what people like, seeing what's popular,
seeing what they want to hear.
We're not going to change our message to fit this city.
We're not going to change people in this city to fit this message
because it's a biblical message and they need to change.
I'm not going to change.
You don't need to change.
They need to change because this is biblical tonight.
What we stand for is biblical
and I do not believe in this defeated mentality that says
it can't be done unless you back down.
And if you're going to preach right,
you just got to realize it's not going to grow.
I don't believe that at all.
And I don't like it when people say that.
I've heard people say it.
I've heard people act like,
oh yeah, well, it's always going to be small.
No, it isn't.
It's growing and getting bigger and bigger.
And this church may someday run a thousand people, two thousand people.
Why not?
Well, we're preaching right.
We're getting people saved.
We're growing every year.
Why in the world not?
Now, I'm not saying that that's my goal.
My goal is just to preach it right and let the chips fall where they may.
But let me tell you something.
I don't like this discouraging attitude that says that we can't grow.
Yes, we can grow.
God said, surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee.
We are going to multiply.
I know my family is multiplying.
We have so many little babies and kids running around,
but not only that, we're getting people saved.
We're bringing people in.
We ought to be growing.
We're not trying to grow like a weed because we're not a weed.
We're trying to have strong, consistent growth, break upon break, line upon line,
precept upon precept.
And I don't like a discouraging attitude that says it can't be done.
We can't win.
We will fail.
No, we won't.
We're more than conquerors through whom the love does.
Jesus Christ is for us who can be against us.
And so don't get this discouraging attitude about the church's growth.
Don't get a discouraging attitude saying stuff about soul winning
or saying stuff about whatever the case may be.
You know, maybe somebody is new at preaching.
Maybe they come to the preaching class and they're new at preaching.
Hey, encourage them.
Strengthen them.
Don't shake your head and say, this guy does not have what it takes.
This guy is never going to have what it takes.
Because you know what?
If you would have heard me preach in the early days of my preaching,
that's what you would have said.
I promise you that.
People said that to me.
That I don't have what it takes to preach.
You know, you're like, I'm thinking that right now.
Honestly, you know, if you would have heard me preaching as a young person,
as a 17, 18, 19, 20 year old, 21 year old, 22 year old, 23 year old, 24 year old,
you probably would have said the same thing.
But you know what?
When I hear these guys preach, you know, first of all,
I think we have a lot of great preachers in this church.
By any standard.
By any measuring standard.
But you know what?
When I hear people preach, I see the potential.
Because I look at where I came from.
And I say, hey, these guys are already past where I was at.
And I have a vision and I can see that they will do it.
That they will have what it takes.
And I would never want to say anything to discourage them.
You ought not either.
Because look, nobody is going to be perfect at something their first try.
Nobody is going to just come out, they're just born out of the womb preaching.
Except John the Baptist.
You know, he's filled with the spirit or whatever.
But the bottom line is, you need to be encouraging to people.
And not discourage them, but give them boldness.
Give them courage.
And motivate them and say, you can do this.
You can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth you.
Now let me tie that in with my next point.
Go to Deuteronomy 1.
Or we're in Deuteronomy 1, sorry.
Jump down to verse 34.
It says, and the Lord heard the voice of your words.
This is where they discourage, they've had real negative, down at it, and we can't do it.
It's a failure.
Okay?
Well the Lord heard him saying that.
The Lord heard the voice of your words and was wroth and swear.
Saying, surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land.
Which I swear to give unto your fathers.
Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it.
And to him will I give the land that he had trodden upon unto his children.
Because he had wholly followed the Lord.
Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes.
So God was angry at Moses.
Saying, thou also shall not go in thither.
So Moses, because the people just dragged him down so much.
They were constantly whining and complaining and murdering, just so negative.
I don't care how great of a pastor you are.
I don't care how great of a leader you are.
I don't care how great of a father you are.
When the followers are continually dragging you, it's going to affect you.
Even Moses, great man of God.
Eventually it got to him.
When people are just negative and down and whining.
Eventually it got to Moses.
And a couple times he just lost his temper.
And he got really mad and made him disobey God.
God told him to speak to the rock and start beating it with a stick.
I mean, at least he didn't start beating the people with a stick.
He was so mad.
He just took it out on a stick, beating the rock.
And God, because he disobeyed God, a really clear command that God gave him.
God said, you know what, because of that you're not going into the land.
So now Moses is getting punished.
Moses doesn't get to go into the promised land.
Now this was a huge disappointment for Moses.
Because Moses really wanted to go into the promised land.
He was really looking forward to it.
And it wasn't, according to this passage, it wasn't really his fault that he didn't get to go there.
They ruined it for him.
Now, obviously, as we look at it in 2011, no big deal.
He went up on the mountain and looked at the promised land.
Then he died and went to heaven.
I'm sure heaven is a lot greater than that earthly promised land anyway.
But still, it was just something he wanted to do.
It meant a lot to him.
And he didn't get to do what he wanted to do.
And it was very hurtful to him.
And he even begs God.
And God says, don't ask me about that again.
God just told him, look, you're not going in.
It was a big, big disappointment.
I mean, it's what his whole life was about.
Taking the people out of Egypt, bringing them into the promised land.
And he doesn't get to do it.
Instead, Joshua gets to do it.
His servant.
Look what the Bible says in verse 37.
Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes.
Saying, thou also shall not go in thither.
But Joshua the son of none which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither.
Encourage him.
You see that?
Encourage him.
For he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
Moreover, your little ones, which he said should be a prey.
And your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil.
They shall go in thither, and none of them will I give it.
And they shall possess it.
But as for you, turn you and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
Go to chapter 3, verse 26.
Just a few pages to the right, chapter 3, verse 26.
But the Lord was wrong with me for your sakes.
This is where Moses is again begging to go into the Promised Land.
And would not hear me.
He's saying God would not listen to me when I tried to talk him into letting me go in.
And the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter.
He's saying don't bring it up to me again.
Verse 27.
Get thee into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward.
And behold it with thine eyes, for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
But look what he reiterates in verse 28.
But charge Joshua and encourage him, and notice the next words, and strengthen him.
For he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.
So we abode in the valley over against Beth Peor.
You see, we might get to a point in our life where we're not able to do certain things that we might have liked to have done.
Maybe we missed certain opportunities.
And instead of becoming bitter about that, we can encourage someone else to be able to do what we were not able to do.
You know, Moses really, I mean this was the biggest thing in his whole life.
And he doesn't get to do it.
And God tells him, encourage the guy who is going to do it.
Build him up.
You know, you're going to do it through him.
You know, by strengthening him, teaching him, training him.
And encourage him to do it.
You know, there are some people that frankly are never going to pass through a church.
Because the Bible has qualifications on being a pastor, and one of those qualifications is the husband of one wife.
You know, and so people that have been married and divorced and remarried, they're not going to pass through a church biblically.
I mean the Bible says no.
That doesn't mean that they can't do all kinds of great things for God and serve God.
And be just an important member of the body of Christ in the local church.
And be an active, important member.
But the one thing that is off limits unto them, according to the Bible, is being a bishop or a deacon.
The Bible is clear, it's got to be the husband of one wife.
And no, that does not mean one wife at a time.
That doesn't mean one wife per month, or year, or whatever.
The Bible is clear, it's got to be the husband of one wife.
So here's the thing.
Instead of some guy just, oh man that's not fair, I just can't do anything for God.
There's so much more to do for God besides being a pastor.
I'm not the only one serving God in this church.
There's a lot of other ways to serve God than to just be a pastor.
But instead of being down, and maybe you just say, but I really want to be a pastor.
But hold on a second.
Why don't you encourage someone else?
Why don't you encourage a pastor?
Or why don't you encourage some young guy that's going to be a pastor?
Or somebody who's on that track and you can help them and encourage them.
And help them to succeed.
Because it's not about you succeeding.
It's about the cause of Christ.
It's not about, well I want to have this title, pastor.
It's meaningless.
It's vanity.
It's about the cause of Christ.
John the Baptist, the greatest man that was born of a woman, said,
I must decrease.
He must increase.
It's not about personal aggrandizement.
And if you can't do something that you really want to do,
why don't you encourage the one who can?
Why don't you help him?
Why don't you help be a blessing to him,
the one that's coming up that did not make that particular mistake,
that's still able to do so?
Maybe you're just in a different stage of life.
Maybe you're just older.
And maybe you're not having a family right now because you're older.
But you can encourage those who have children and so forth.
And some people, they get really bitter because they don't have children.
And the Bible is filled with examples of ladies in the Bible
who really wanted to have children and they didn't have children
for whatever reason.
And some people, they don't have children, they're not married,
or perhaps they just are not able to have children for whatever reason at this time.
You never know.
God many times will step in later on and just have faith and pray and so forth.
But instead of getting bitter and getting angry,
and I've seen literally people get angry at someone who is having children
because they can't have children.
I mean, it's true.
It sounds strange, but this is a big thing.
Where women who are not having children right now,
maybe they're past that stage or maybe they are not married
or maybe they're divorced or maybe they just are not able to have children physically or whatever,
and they get angry and bitter toward the one who can.
And that's what Moses could have done toward Joshua.
He could have got angry at Joshua.
You can see why he did.
What, this young punk, Joshua?
I mean, I'm the guy who did all this.
I mean, I'm the one who was out in the wilderness,
and I've been putting up with these people's garbage for the last 40 years.
I mean, think about how long.
I haven't even been alive for 40 years, folks.
That's a long time.
For 40 years, I've listened to their garbage.
For 40 years, I've put up with it and been faithful and served God,
and then this guy gets to ride in with all the people that I taught, finally,
how to be faithful and do right.
Because after 40 years, a new generation came up that Moses straightened out,
said to those fools that he brought out of Egypt with no faith.
He finally, after 40 years of preaching and pastoring,
has a group of people that have the faith, that are ready to go into the land,
that are filled with the Spirit of God, that are ready to follow him in,
and Joshua gets to do it.
Joshua gets all the glory.
Joshua gets to be the one to lead the troops in.
Can you see how Moses could have gotten bitter about that?
And said, this isn't fair.
I'm not going to encourage him.
He needs to encourage me.
I'm the one who's getting the short end of the stick here.
But no, God said, look, you're not going to go in,
quit bringing it up to me, now go encourage him.
And that's what he did.
And thank God, Joshua was able to...
And by the way, what's the thing that God keeps telling Joshua in chapter 1?
Be of good courage.
You don't have to turn there, but we read some of it this morning.
In Joshua 1, he says to him over and over,
be courageous, be of good courage, be courageous, fear not.
And that's what Moses was told.
Hey, you need to instill that in him.
You need to encourage him.
You need to build him up.
You need to strengthen him.
And that was a hard thing for Moses to do, but he did it.
And that's what our attitude ought to be.
Not an attitude of, well, this isn't fair, it must be nice,
and blah, blah, blah, and I wish I could do that,
and woe is me.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Let's face it.
Everybody thinks that certain things in life are so great,
but really we all live our own life.
God is blessing all of us.
I mean, if you're serving God, God's blessing you.
And the truth of the matter is that just being saved
and just being saved and having the Bible
and having a church to go to and having food and raiment,
let us be there with content.
Let's just be happy with the life that we have.
And God made us all different.
God gave you different talents and abilities.
He made us all look different.
He gave us all different personalities.
You know, we shouldn't look at somebody and say,
oh, man, you know, I'm short.
I wish I was tall like so-and-so and blah, blah, blah,
and just this jealousy and envying of the people around us.
Like, oh, I wish I had money like so-and-so
and just this covetous.
I wish I was good-looking like so-and-so.
You know, I have a face only a mother could love.
I wish I had teeth like Joel Osteen
instead of these messed-up teeth, you know,
and stuff like that, you know, crooked teeth.
You know, I wish I had...
You know, why don't you just encourage other people
to be happy when they succeed?
Instead of trying to tear them down, like...
You know, she thinks she has it all together,
and, you know, he lives a perfect life,
and she's got everything that heart could wish.
You know, must be nice.
That's not a biblical attitude.
You know, you look at people
that are having kids and you envy them,
or you look at people who have money and you envy them,
and you look at people who are maybe doing
some of the things that you would like to do
or maybe they're better-looking than you
or they drive a better car than you
or have nicer clothes than you.
My car has 235,000 miles on it.
You know what I mean?
It's held together by wire ties.
Go look at it in the parking lot.
It's got a messed-up wheel.
It's got 235,000 miles on it.
It's held together by wire ties.
You're not gonna see me out there drooling over, you know?
I'm not gonna miss any names, but, you know,
these guys in their shirts
with the hot rods out there, you know?
Hey, and you know what?
I'm happy for them.
Praise God for it, you know?
I look at people that are taller
and better-looking than me, and I, you know,
so what?
Just be who you are and be happy.
And look, God didn't make everybody
to be this or to be that.
You know, we all have...
He didn't make everybody in the church
the eye or the ear or the mouth.
We're all different.
We all have different talents and abilities.
You know, we can't all have musical ability, you know?
I look at Matt.
I wish I could play the piano like Brother Matt, you know?
I, you know, I struggle to play the piano,
and he just effortlessly just...
And I have to, like, practice for hours and hours.
But you know what?
I'm glad.
Praise God for his talents, okay?
It's about the cause of Christ.
It's not about me being exalted
or you being exalted.
It wasn't about...
Like, let me put it to you this way.
Did it really matter
who led them into the Promised Land,
Moses or Joshua?
Did it really matter so long as they got there?
Was it really about being the guy at the front of the line?
No.
It was just about getting them there.
It was about being the spiritual leader that they needed.
It was about being the captain that they needed
to get them into the Promised Land.
That's what it was about.
It wasn't about who that was.
Moses, Joshua, that wasn't the point.
It was just about God's will being done
that they would get in there and succeed.
And you know what?
Moses probably had more to do with them
going in there than Joshua,
because he's the one who taught them for 40 years
and straightened them out
with a bunch of stiff-necked people
that he had to straighten out.
But he didn't get the glory.
So what?
Who got the glory?
So what?
It's just about doing God's will,
getting it done,
not envying the people around you,
encourage the people around you.
If somebody has it all better than you
or a more important job than you,
you know, because they lead the singing
or play the piano,
so what?
Just encourage them.
Just be happy for them.
Just be glad.
You know?
And, you know, probably some people
probably get sick of playing the piano
and leading the singing and stuff like that.
So, you know, that job's probably available sometimes,
you know, for you to fill in, okay?
And the bottom line is this.
We ought to be careful what we say and think
and our attitudes, our actions.
Is it encouraging or discouraging
for the body of Christ?
When we are not doing anything for God,
we're a discouragement to the people around us.
When we're not showing up for church,
that could be a discouragement.
When we don't go soloing, that can discourage.
Let me put it to you this way.
When I show up at the soloing time,
there's a big crowd.
Do you think that's encouraging?
Yep.
When we show up at the soloing time,
it's just me and one other person.
Does that sound encouraging?
No.
What's more encouraging?
You see what I mean?
And you say, I'm insignificant.
I don't matter.
I'm nobody.
Nobody cares if I'm there.
Yes, they do.
When they see you there,
they're glad to see you.
And when you come to church,
I'm glad you came to church.
And I'm not the only one who's glad you came to church.
Nobody likes me except Pastor Harrison,
and he only likes me because he has to.
He's the pastor.
He doesn't like it.
He has to like everybody.
He's the pastor, you know?
No, I'm glad you're here,
and so is everybody else.
There are plenty of people who are glad you're here,
who like you, who accept you.
They want you out soloing.
They want you at church.
They're glad to see you.
They're encouraged by you being here.
And they're discouraged when you're gone
or when you're doing nothing.
So that's our actions.
The singing.
Why don't you be an encouragement
by singing out loud?
Man, it gets me fired up to be in a congregation
where people are singing loud.
I talked to my dad.
He was at the very first service
of my friend, Brother Roger Jimenez,
the pastor's in Sacramento.
And he was at...
Who was at that first service out there in Sacramento?
Yeah, several people.
Yeah, you guys drove out there.
Just by driving out there,
you guys were an encouragement,
because Brother Jimenez was encouraged
that you were there in his first church service
to provide more people there,
to create a spirit of excitement and so forth.
But not only that,
you're encouraged with your singing,
because my dad was in that first service,
and my dad said that singing was so powerful, he said.
He said it was amazing.
I haven't been in a service like that in years.
He said it was powerful to walk in there.
And to hear all the voices singing out loud.
And, you know, some of the people from our church
were a part of that.
Some of the people that were over there
were a part of that.
And it was encouraging to my dad.
My dad was encouraged by the singing.
Are you an encouragement when you sing at church?
I mean, there's so many little things
that we don't even think of that are insignificant,
but everything you do is either encouraging
or discouraging the people around you.
When you're singing out, you're encouraging.
When you're soloing, you're an encouragement.
When you faithful to church, you're an encouragement.
When you're friendly, when you reach out to the visitors,
when you're winning souls to Christ,
when you're doing what you're supposed to do,
it encourages the people around you
to be better servants of Christ themselves.
Not only that, the things you say.
You know, when you're down on somebody,
maybe a new preacher, you're down on their preaching,
you're down on the piano player,
you're down on the song leader,
you're down on soul winning, it can't be done.
It'd be nice if we could get a real preacher,
a real pastor, or we could get a real soul winner,
or we could get a real piano player,
or a real this or a real that.
You know what? It's discouraging.
Be careful what you say.
You shouldn't be building other people up with what you say.
And have a positive attitude.
Yeah, we're going to get it done.
We're going to get people saved.
And you say, well, why would we be?
Because God already said that we have the victory.
He said he's going to put us on his shoulders
and do it for us.
He sent him numbers.
Just go in.
Just fear not.
Just dread not.
Just have the faith to do God's work.
He will give us the victory.
That's a biblical attitude about the work of God,
about the church.
And not this discouraging attitude of telling people,
yeah, you know why?
These churches are big because they're compromising.
You know what? That's true.
A lot of churches are compromising and they're big
because they just want to bring in as many bodies as they can
and they don't care about the doctrine.
They don't care about taking a stand.
But you know what?
That doesn't mean that you can't do it right
and succeed and grow and thrive and multiply.
And we're going to prove them wrong.
And the people who are discouraging and down about it,
I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to prove them wrong
and I hope you'll be right there with me proving them wrong.
Showing them how to do it.
Showing them that it can be done.
And we need to be careful what we say, what we do,
and not to look at other people maybe who have opportunities
that we don't have or talents that we don't have
or abilities we don't have.
And be down on them or discouraging them, encourage them.
Be happy for them.
Help them.
Strengthen them.
Be a blessing to the people around you
because we are one body here.
We are one church here.
Unity is part of our strength.
And so if we're all in one accord with one mind,
more great things are going to happen for God.
It doesn't matter who gets the credit.
It doesn't matter who gets the glory.
It doesn't matter who has the accolades.
It just matters that it gets done.
Joshua, Moses, whatever.
I mean, look, if I fall over dead tomorrow
and somebody else comes in and takes my place, right,
I'm not going to be up in heaven saying,
well, that's not fair because I had to sit there
and be in the stinking house, you know,
having no furniture in my house
and running a church out of my house
and I was there and there was nobody there
and it was small and I was struggling
and then this other guy just waltzes in
and it's all right there.
He's got this great church and then he's running a thousand.
Why didn't I get to see that?
Why didn't I get to be there?
It's just going to be praise God
that I was able to be there for the early days
and get it rolling.
Great.
Because it just matters that it gets done.
It doesn't matter if it's Pastor Anderson
or Pastor whatever that could take the place of me.
It's just that it gets done
and we need to encourage everyone,
encourage the people around us
and strengthen the people around us,
not drag people down, but encourage them.
Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer.
Father, please just help us to be encouragement
to other churches.
Maybe other churches can look at our church
and maybe get excited about soul winning
when they see some of our soul winning
and help us to encourage each other,
help me to encourage the people of the church
and God, thank you for all the people in this church
that encouraged me and strengthened me.
And when I see them serving you with all their heart,
that encourages me more than anything.
Just to see them doing what they're supposed to do
is a great blessing to me.
And so, Father, just help us all to be an encouragement
to stop and think about the things we do
and say and act and feel
and realize, hey, am I encouraging the church
or am I discouraging?
And we love you and thank you for everything.
In Jesus' name we pray.