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I don't know how to do this. All right, everyone, welcome to the big C bar. Let's make sure we don't have to stop a bunch and turn to a song. Are we on 27? Sing higher ground. Here we go. Sing higher ground. Let's go sing that. Okay, thank you. We'll sing song 300 and then 27. Are we ready? I'm pressing on the upward way Two lights are gleaming every day Still praying as I'm onward bound For a friend might be on higher ground For to lift me up and let me stand I've faith on heaven's stable land A higher flame than I have found For a friend might be on higher ground My heart has no desire to stay Where doubt, surprise, and fears display Though some may dwell where needs are found I pray my name is higher ground For to lift me up and let me stand I've faith on heaven's stable land A higher flame than I have found For to plant my feet on higher ground I long to live above the world Though Satan's guards and me are hurled For faith has gone the joyful sound The song of saints on higher ground For to lift me up and let me stand I've faith on heaven's stable land A higher flame than I have found For to plant my feet on higher ground I long to scale the utmost life And catch a beam of glory bright But still I'll pray till heaven I'm found Lord lead me on to higher ground For to lift me up and let me stand I've faith on heaven's stable land A higher flame than I have found For to plant my feet on higher ground Every time we get time out here So really next year we'll do it again We'll just run out of everything All the hospitals and everything So I'm just really happy that the Burns family got to come in I know it's a long drive for them to come in to Georgia So it's really fun to have them You know, we had to get everything out Because it seems like any time we go to a conference Or something like that We're always in to do something else So we don't really get to talk or anything But a good friend of mine has actually come in since 2008 When we marched for the long haul Actually that's when we met So he's been a good friend throughout the years So I know before he was in the past race But he was a great co-winner and a fan of God I'd like him to have him preaching for tonight But also he's going to be preaching on Sunday But he's got a message for you And then after he gets up preaching We're going to have the other men I think we have three others that are going to be preaching after him So whoever wants to come up first in hand If not, I'll just say that we didn't come up after him I don't know what's going to happen But that's what we agreed for Alright, thanks a lot, Pastor Robinson I really appreciate the invite to come And be part of the camp here It's been great so far It's nice to be able to meet everybody here We've been wanting to come and visit Ever since Mt. Matthew Church started Pastor Robinson Excuse me As Pastor Robinson just mentioned We've been friends for a real long time And that's why I'm really happy to be able to come out here And be able to spend the time Not just with him, but with all of you Because I know it's a great church And you've got a great pastor here Leading the church And it really is a privilege to be here this evening Now we're going to start The sermon is going to be coming from Numbers 13 If you have a Bible with you, you can turn to Numbers 13 If not fine, I'm going to be reading Chapter 4 tonight And I thought this sermon is going to be pretty fitting Just based on where we're at Actually, it's completely, in my mind, coincidental On the subject matter thing I've been preaching on today But in Numbers 13, it's a story of when The children of Israel had come out of Egypt And they were getting ready to spy out the Promised Land And they sent out the 12 spies And the only ones that brought back a good report Were Caleb and Joshua Remember that, we're going to go into that in a little bit This evening, but it's funny because we're staying at Canaan And I was looking on the trail map And there's the trails of the Promised Land So this is a real fitting sermon For the circumstances physically where we're at right now I'm going to kind of put you into Canaan land this evening But we're going to start reading in Numbers 13 Like I said, if you have your Bible, you can read along If you've got an app on your phone, whatever I'm going to start reading there in verse number 1 Read the entire passage The Bible reads in verse number 1 The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men That they may search the land of Canaan Which I give unto the children of Israel Of every tribe and their fathers, shall you send a man Every ruler among them And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord Sent them from the wilderness of Haran All those men were heads of the children of Israel These were the names of the tribe Of Reuben, Shemuah, son of Vakar Of the tribe of Simeon, Shabak, son of Korah Of the tribe of Judah, Halep, son of Jephunneh Of the tribe of Issachar, Eigol, son of Joseph Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea, son of Nun Of the tribe of Benjamin, Paltai, son of Raphim Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gadiel, son of Sodai Of the tribe of Joseph, namely of the tribe of Manasseh Gadai, son of Susai Of the tribe of Dan, Amiel, son of Gamali Of the tribe of Asher, Seetha, son of Michael Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nabai, son of Vothisai Of the tribe of Dan, Eul, son of Maekai These are the names of the men whom Moses sent out to spy out the land And Moses called Oshea, son of Nun, Jehoshua And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan He said to them, get you up this way southward and go up into the mountain And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwell therein Whether they be strong or weak, you are man And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad And what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds And what the land is, whether it be bad or lean Whether it be wood therein or not And be of good courage and bring up the fruit of the land Now the time was the time of the first wife of grapes So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zinn and the riddle As men come to Haman And they ascended by the south and came unto Hebron Where Ahimein, Sheshi, and Telmai, the children of Anak were Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan and Egypt And they came unto the brook of Eshkol and cut down to them to the ranch With one cluster of grapes and they buried between two upon staff And they brought the pomegranates into the city The place was called the Brook Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes Which the children of Israel cut down and finished And they returned from searching of the land after forty days And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron Where all the congregations killed in Israel by the lawyers of Pera and of Cadech And brought back word unto them and unto all the congregations And showed them the fruit of the land And they told him and said, We came unto the land where thou sentest us And surely it floweth with milk and honey, this is the fruit of the land Nevertheless the people be strong that dwells in the land And the cities are walled and very grey And moreover we saw the children Anak there Amalekites dwell in the land of the south And the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said Let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people For they are stronger than men And they brought up an evil report of the land Which they had searched unto the children of Israel Saying, The land through which we have gone to search it Is the land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof And all the people that we saw in it are men of the great stature And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come to the giants And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight Let's pray Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to congregate here together tonight We thank you for keeping us all safe through this trip We pray that you would please watch over us and protect us for the duration of this camp And Lord I pray that you would please fill me with your spirit tonight Lord help me to be able to preach Help me to make the concept here simple and easily understood And everything I say will be true from your word I pray that you would please bless us and our preachers will be preaching tonight as well In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Alright now, the title of my sermon is, and I don't know what I put actually on the live stream The title of my sermon is, We Need More Kalos We need more Kalos And we're going to kind of go through a pretty quick synopsis in general That's covered in a later sermon Of a summary of the life of Caleb And just highlight the great attributes that Caleb had And apply that to us today And one of the things that we see here As we start off, I already mentioned We just read the entire chapter of what this is about It's hopefully a very familiar story to you That the children of Israel They were tasked with this job to go out and just basically check out the land Because God had already commanded that they were going to get this land They were supposed to go in and take the land Now this is before they were wandering in the wilderness of sin This is right after they came out of Egypt They were supposed to be able to go in and conquer the land So as would make sense If you were just thinking from a military standpoint You want to go and say, hey, let's check out this land We've never been here before Let's see what it's like Let's see if there's woods in it If there's, you know, what the fruits are Bring some back to the fruit So God promised us it would be a great land Bored with milk and honey And see what the people are like Are we going to be facing cities, with walls Like what are we getting ourselves into here Let's just go send out some spies And get a game plan Essentially what they're trying to do So they send out all the spies And one other thing I think that is notable here Is how great the land is You know, the land that God is going to bring them into Is just this really luxurious, lavish land That is being very fruitful And it says in verse 23 That they cut down one of the branches of the grapes And it says there was one cluster of grapes That they buried between two upon a staff So, I mean, I can only imagine the length How great of a bunch of grapes that were coming off there For two people to be carrying it in between them To bring it back I mean, it wasn't just Oh hey, I've got this nice little bunch of grapes in my hand You can just walk with it and carry it They're carrying it on the staff between two people Obviously, it's just showing how very, very fruitful And lush the land was That God is giving to the people here So they bring a good report back on Yeah, the land's flowing with milk and honey They say, yeah, it's a good land Here's the food of the land But, you know, there's people there There's this wall of villages They're real strong They're stronger than we are And there's giants there And they're way bigger than us And there's no way we can do this This is what the report was That came back from everybody Except for Caleb and Joshua Caleb and Joshua were the two that said No, we can do this Let's obey the Lord Let's do this And as a result of the ten people who brought back the bad report Saying we couldn't do it It discouraged all the people And they ended up then not going in the Promised Land And it kind of cost them, you know, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness Just from this one event And it's a very significant event But I'm not going to focus as much on the naysayers as we're going to Do we focus on Caleb? Because he's the point of what I want to get to tonight And what we want to look to as a hero There's a lot of heroes in the Bible And Caleb's one of them I want to look at his strong points here Jump down if you would If you look at verse number 28 Because this is where The people are going to give the bad report Verse 27 says, and they told him We came upon unto the land Whither thou senteth us And surely it bloweth with milk and honey And this is the fruit of it Nevertheless The people be strong and dwell in the land And the cities are walled and very great And moreover we saw the children of Anak there So they're giving all these reasons Why they can't win These are a lot of adversaries To people like Joshua and Caleb Who are completely willing to serve the Lord They want to go out and do that Let's do the Lord's bidding Let's see what God has for us God told us to do this We went and spread out the land And it is a great land So let's go in and take the land And these people are trying to put a wet blanket on them And say, no we can't do this There's no way we can overcome them John 29 says, the Amalekites go on the land of the south And the Hittites and Jebusites and Amorites go on the mountains And the Canaanites go by the sea And by the coast of Jordan But verse 30 says And Caleb stilled the people before Moses And said, let us go up at once and possess it So you've got 10 people giving the bad report But Caleb has this ability to calm Let's mean the still He stills the people He calms the people And this is one of the great things about Caleb Is that even though you've got a whole bunch of people Trying to convince him, oh man we can't do this Caleb stands up and he's like, no we can't do this And today we need more Caleb's To be willing to make the stand That even if the majority of Christians Even if the majority of believers out there Are going to be saying, oh no this world is getting too wicked Oh there's nothing we can do You know, we just need to go off to West Virginia And hide the mountains Obviously we need to go off And just not do anything for the Lord Right, just pack up No, look we can do this God still has battles for us to fight today That's going to be one of the key points We're going to see as we get into this That Caleb was not one That he had one great battle way back in the day And that was it That he was done fighting And he retired Caleb, one of the great things about Caleb Is that he kept fighting All the way into old age And he just kept the faith And made faithful And continued to fight battle after battle After battle after battle And one thing If you don't get this from reading your Bible You know, God loves Showing himself strong In those that are not strong God loves using Not many people to do Very great things And it doesn't matter God can save by many or by a few But he's looking even just for one man If I was to stand in the gap One person Even just one He used to use one person God used Jonathan and his armor bearer To go and learn an entire army of people And bring a great victory Against their enemies Against their glistenings They were able to do this Because one man was going to say You know what? I'm going to trust in the Lord I'm going to trust in God It's not us that's going to win the battle anyway It's going to give the glory, the credit, and the God So we can do this And Caleb is trying to calm the people down Because they're starting to get upset They're starting to be like Oh man, what are we going to do? There's these Jebusites These Canaanites And the sons of Anak Oh man, there's no way we can beat those people And here's what we're starting to see these days Because there's a lot of Christians That are getting very afraid To even say things And stand up for the truth Because they're starting to see Oh man, the adversary these days Is what? It's the alphabet animal problem L-G-E-D-Q-L-M-A-B Whatever they want to call themselves These are the people that are going to stand up And try to make you too scared To say anything Scared that you might lose your job And look, it's a real fear Because it actually happens to people You're looking at one of them It's happened to me It's happened to many other people But you can't let that Scare you and intimidate you From doing what's right And preaching the word of God From the Bible I mean if the stand needs to be made We need to do it If God's got us in a battle If we're going to fight that battle We're not going to back down We don't care how powerful the adversary is I mean the Bible says that Safe to walk in the bow Is a roaring lion Safe to whom you may devour That might sound pretty scary Saying is a formidable adversary But you know what? We don't need to worry about The strength of the adversary When you start considering The strength of our God If God be forced Who could be against us? And this is the mindset That Caleb has And we're going to see this As we look at the scripture here Verse number 30 The Bible says that Caleb Stilled the people For Moses And said let us go up At once And possess him For we are well able To overcome it He said we're well able It's not like this Maybe we can do this We've got this long shot We're well able to do this Not a problem Let's just go up at once We don't need to wait around We don't need to plan out Let's just go The Lord said he's going to give it to us And Caleb believed that Now if you have your Bible again You can turn to Leviticus chapter 26 Why was Caleb able to say we're well able? Because he had faith in God's word And his promises Going back to the law I mean this wasn't that old If you consider it too The book of Leviticus Being given to Moses On the mount These people were all First hand First people to hear What God gave unto Moses And he brought down So these are the words It ought to have been very real to them This is the same generation That just was delivered on Egypt They saw the flames They saw the wretch departed They saw the miracles They had already gone through the impossible And then Moses Brings them the law He brings them the word of God The same man that was leading them out Brings them God's word And included in God's word Is this promise in verse number 3 Of Leviticus chapter 26 The Bible reads If you walk in my statutes And keep my commandments This is the key Because there's a lot of blessings That God gives here If you walk in my statutes And keep my commandments And do them And he goes Then I will give you the rain And he brings all these various blessings But then jump down to verse number 7 The Bible reads And ye shall chase your enemies And they shall fall before you by the sword And five of you shall chase an hundred And a hundred of you Shall put ten thousand to flight And your enemies Shall fall before you by the sword Hey Caleb heard that When Moses delivered that And he believed that Caleb heard that and said Amen Alright the Lord's already Delivered us from our enemies They've already spoiled the Egyptians They already had Pharaoh And their armies And their chariots Chasing after them by night And God destroyed all of them Miraculously in the Red Sea When they made it through safely And then brought the waters back Upon the armies of Pharaoh And decimated them Wiped them out He saw that He believed that We have the word of God to trust They of all people Should have known this They went through it Do you know what? The truth is still the truth Whether we witness that or not Whether we went through that or not It's still the word of God And the promises still hold true And if you're going to be Keeping the commandments of God If you're going to be following Obeying the Lord Then guess what? He's going to bless you And if God's calling you to battle As a soldier for Christ Trust Him Doesn't matter how strong The enemy may seem to be God is God's always able to do it Doesn't think about David and Goliath That's a typical Excellent story It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical It's critical Caleb trusted in that promise made in Leviticus chapter 26. Back in Numbers 13, we also see how damaging the evil report is to people who just want to go out and complain and naysay and try to bring down the great works that are being done. Verse 31 says, But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than this. Right after Caleb got done saying, We'll be able to do this. Let's go. Let's not stop. Let's just keep going. And they're now adversaries. Now they're saying, No, no, no. We can't do this. There's no way that we can flag against this people. It says in verse 32, And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sights as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. So talk about trying to instill fear in the hearts of people and say, These guys are so vague. We're just like grasshoppers. They're going to squash us. They're going to step on us. And when people bring these evil reports and these discouraging words, it has a significant impact on the people that hear them to the point to where what we see here in the next chapter, because this is a continuation from the end of chapter 13 where I just finished reading verse 33. It's already in verse number one. The Valerites and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried. And the people wept that night. So the people just they didn't they obviously didn't hear Caleb. They weren't siding with Caleb and Joshua. They were siding with the rest of the people. And now they're just in despair. Now they're just desperate. They don't know what to do. And they're in fear. Verse number two, Valerites and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God we had died in the wilderness? So now is when they start to turn on their leadership because of the people bringing forth the banner for because the people said we can't do this. We're not strong enough. They're way stronger than we are. Now they're going to turn on the people that want to do the right thing that are just bringing the word of God and saying, you know, why can't we just die in Egypt? Why can't we just die in the wilderness to bring us to this point? Verse number three says and wherefore the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be afraid were it not better for us to return in Egypt. And they said one to another. Let us make it happen. Let us return in Egypt. This is this is crazy. This is absurd. They're ready to go back into bondage and if you remember, they were slaves in Egypt. They were under bondage and they started being afflicted more and more and more and they're coiling and working. They have no freedom and then they're saying, you know, we should just go back into Egypt and over what? Nothing bad has even happened to them yet. It's over the words of the people who are trying to just discourage them and cause them nothing. That is how powerful words can be. But see, this is why we need to understand the power of our language of our words and what we say and what we preach and why it is so important to use your words and not back down and not just be silent when there are things that need to be said in the world today and not just let everything go because there's too many people doing that and when you're silent, you know what? The adversary is going to be really loud, really vocal and they're going to be scaring everyone else that would potentially stand up now to lose their mind and want to go back into bondage. Because that's what happened by and large with these people. They got to the point to where they said, look, let's make a new leader. Let's make a captain and let's just go back right back in Egypt. For what? What do you think everyone's going to do when you come back in Egypt? He's going to just welcome you home. Come on back. It's not thinking. Verse number five, the Bible says, then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel and Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of your buddy, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. So they're really upset about this. They rent their clothes, verse seven says, and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel saying, the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delighted us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us a land which floweth with milk and honey. So they're reminding them, hey, this is a good land. Like what's wrong with you people? God already promises this and he delights in us. He's going to give us this land. It's a great land. It flows with milk and honey. Why do you not want to go into the land? Verse nine says, only rebelled not he against the Lord, neither fear he the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from them and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. And it doesn't matter what time you live in and throughout all of history. This is going to hold true throughout eternity. You have nobody to fear when you're with God. If God's with you, there is nothing to fear. There is no one to fear. And don't, uh, don't rebel against the Lord. Stay with him and see the good that he's trying to do. And this is, this is amazing. Look at verse number 10, the Bible reads, but all the congregation, they hear him saying this, look, it's a good land. Let's go. God's going to give it to us. Trying to be an encouragement, trying to end it by the people. Verse 10, but all the congregation had stoned them with stones. Here's one of the great things about Caleb. He didn't stop. He didn't back down trying to do what's right. Trying to lead the people, trying to be an encouragement, trying to serve the Lord, even though all the people were against him. Even though the people are trying to say, Hey, no, let's go back in Egypt. And even to the point where the people are just like ready to kill them. This always kind of boggles my mind, but it's reality. And what this reminded me of is, you know, people who want to kill someone, preaching a good message. How about Jesus Christ? I mean, what did Jesus ever be wrong? He came in with this great message with salvation, right? He's preaching the kingdom of God, preaching to people. He's healing people. He was healing the sick. He's going around and just doing good works and preaching the word of God. If people still hate him and they end up crucifying him, of course we don't. This is what happened. We need to be prepared that if you're going to stand up for the Lord, that there are many adversaries. The adversaries are awkward, but we need to be like Caleb. That even if it comes to the point of people wanting to kill you because of what you're preaching, because they're saying, no, let's actually do something. I mean, what was so wrong about what Caleb was saying? Hey, God already told us this was going to be a good land. We searched it out and it is a good land. Yeah, there's these people there, but God promised to deliver us. God promised to deliver them into our hands. He said, they're like bread for us. They're like, this is nothing. They provided us with their defense is gone because if they don't have the Lord with them, what kind of defense can they have? And we need to make sure we remember that too. You know, God isn't with us, especially, you know, you start thinking on a grander scale, like the nation of the Canaanites. If God's not with your nation, you have no defense. And I would say, especially for those living in the United States of America, because we've brought up, I know I've brought up my whole life thinking like, oh man, we're the, you know, we're the powerhouse. We are the world leader, the world superpower. We've got the greatest military. We've got all the tanks and jets and armies and weapons and everything in the world. And no one can ever do anything to us. False. False. Because the Lord needs to be our defense. So if God is going to depart from this nation, then watch out. We know what's going to happen to Babylon. And I know you've been going through your series. Have you gotten to Babylon yet? Not yet? Well, you're going to get there soon and you're going to see that Babylon is this great, mighty city. Everyone loves Babylon. You know, it's this city of great wealth. But what happens? It's destroyed in one hour. One hour. Do you think that Babylon doesn't have defenses? Do you think that Babylon was all wealth and everything that's going on in the Bible that they didn't have all kinds of defenses and stuff? No. Why? Because God wants it to be there. If God's going to bring someone down, he's going to bring them down. God's going to lift people up, he's going to lift them up. That's why he wants God on your side. Caleb knew that. And Caleb stood with him. They didn't let fear. And even after trying to kill him, he didn't let a fear of the people cause him to stop serving the Lord and stop preaching the message that he's supposed to be preaching. He's doing what's right. We're going to jump down to verse number 22 here and number 14. Because God shows at that point when they're ready to kill him, God shows them. And God's not happy. We're going to skip ahead here to verse number 22. We're going to focus mostly just on Caleb. There's an old poem in the sermon. Read more Caleb. Verse number 22. So here we see God now. What did he do? He's rewarding Caleb for the stand anyway. Caleb stood up when it wasn't popular. That's why it says Caleb because he had another spirit. What does that mean another spirit? Because the spirit of the people was the spirit of rebellion. The spirit of the people was the spirit of fear. The spirit of the people was to not go in and take the land that God commanded them to go in to pay. Caleb had another spirit. Caleb had a spirit that was, hey, let's serve the Lord. Caleb had a spirit of, I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of them. God's with us. God promised us. And God says, you know what? I like that. I like that. And unfortunately, Caleb was part of a generation that didn't want to serve the Lord. And was constantly doubting, constantly questioning, constantly just saying, oh, man, how many times do we read and still have Israel going, oh, we were just back in Egypt again. Oh, man, yeah, you saved us miraculously, but now what are we going to eat? Now what are we going to drink? Now what are we going to do here? What are we going to do there? Just constantly burbering and complaining against the Lord after everything that they did. That's the generation that Caleb was a part of. Caleb and Joshua. It doesn't matter what generation you're a part of. You need to be like Caleb. Whether everyone around you agrees with you or not, you have to be able to stand in the Word of God when it's untopular. You have to have another spirit from the rest of the people around you. If everybody else is wrong, if everyone else has a spirit of fear, if everyone else has a spirit of worldliness, you know what? Separate yourself. Do what's right. We're going to flip ahead now to Joshua chapter 14. This is one of my favorite parts about Caleb because the stand that he made back here was great. And thankfully he had one other person standing with him, Joshua. Which is also why the Lord chose Joshua to lead the people in after Moses died. He was the next one to carry that torch because he had that spirit like Caleb did. Joshua chapter 14. We're picking up 45 years now after what we just read. This is 45 years after Moses sent in the spies to spy on the lander. They walked back up. 45 years had passed. We're going to start reading in verse number 6. The Bible reads, then the children of Judah came unto Joshua and Gilgal. And Caleb, the son of Jibani, the king of Zion, said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God concerning me and thee, and Kadishbarneh. Forty years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadishbarneh to spy on the land. And I brought in word again, as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt. And again, that's a great description of what people do when they're just trying to bring down something that's being done that's good for the Lord. Just making the heart of the people melt. And you know what? Don't be that person that wants to talk about all the bad things that can happen when you go out and serve the Lord. The easiest thing that comes to my mind, but most relevant for you, is when people want to go out and soul win and preach the gospel and witness it. And then, you know, hopefully you don't have this, but maybe you've heard people go like, oh man, yeah, this bad thing happened. They want to tell, when you get new people coming in, by the way, that are going to, they're kind of new to the church and new to the soul way and new to everything else, don't start telling them all the bad things that could possibly happen when you go out and serve God. Because you don't want to instill fear in them, right? There's no point. Say, oh yeah, man, one day we went out and this guy got so bad. You know, like, don't try to scare them. Try to encourage people to serve God. And, you know, sometimes people will do that. Obviously, sometimes people do that innocently. But you got to be, you got to keep the right mindset and attitude about all the circumstances and don't get bitter when bad things happen to you. You know, if you stay with it, what I've found to be true, even just personally, is that God ends up blessing you way above and beyond any bad things that you end up going through anyway. And here's the thing, if you don't receive that type of a blessing physically in this world, you know that God's going to take care of you. And the judge will see the price. Because when you do something that matters for the Lord, He always recognizes, He always repays. And if you want anyone making a paycheck for you, paying a paycheck for you, it's God. I mean, just think about this. Think about how much you don't deserve the love of God, His mercy, His forgiveness, and all the long sufferings. When you think of how many sins you've committed in your life, day after day after day after day, of doing things against what you know God's worth. And we oftentimes want to blow it off and not think about it and justify our own sin. But when you really go back and think about it, you're like, you know what? I don't deserve one ounce of business from the Lord. All the mercy, all the long sufferings, all the love, and paying for you. That is part of God's nature, being able to do all that for you. Now, do you think that that same God that has all that mercy and all that forgiveness, all that suffering, isn't then going to turn around and pay you generously for the work that you choose to do when He says He's going to pay you? I have not seen neither ear heard, neither ear nor the heart of man, what God has prepared for me to love me. I mean, God has. Jesus said that He's going to prepare a face for us, and that there's mansions. That His Father prepared mansions. I just tell them to make mansions. That's amazing. God is going to provide so far above and beyond what you imagine, but stand for Him. Make a stand. Don't be afraid. Don't lose out. Here's the thing. When the hardship comes your way, when the adversary comes your way, that's an opportunity for you. That's an opportunity to serve God. That's an opportunity to be rewarded by God if you stay made to Him. God rewards Caleb. God rewards Caleb physically. We see that. He gets to these cities. He gets to some stuff. But also, I guarantee you spiritually, and those spiritual rewards are way better because everything on this earth is going to go. Which is also why you shouldn't fear about losing any of your material possessions. Even in general. You think God's not going to take care of you? Seriously. You think you're losing a job. What do you really think is going to happen? People get all freaked out and scared about it. What do you really think is going to happen? Now look, I'm not saying it's not stressful. I've been there. It is stressful. There's some stress. But you know what? God is not going to leave you or forsake you. God knows the things you have need of. You think God didn't already know. You come and face one day the possibility of losing your job or maybe losing your job when we're making a stand for Christ. You think God didn't already know that was going to happen? You didn't know that was going to happen. You think God didn't know? These are the things you've got to remember when you're in the moment. God already knew that was going to happen. And if I can give a little bit of glory and credit to the Lord, you know, when that happened to me, I ended up with something much better that gave me much more time to serve God and do the things that I want to do anyways. And everything about that was better. I didn't know that at the time. But everything is better. Now I'm not guaranteeing that physically everything will always be better on the outcome. But we know that that's not God's deal to people. And we know that there's going to be rewards later. You don't get anything now. There's definitely something later. So there's nothing to worry about. So when people start making the heart of other people melt, that's all the more reason why we need Caleb. 1 Peter 5 says, Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. Said, yeah. They were making everybody start failing. I followed the Lord. I did what was right. For thine and Moses swear on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's forever, because thou wholly follow the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered from the wilderness. And now, lo, I am in this day four, four, five years old. He brings up the fact that God promised that he was going to receive an inheritance, and he was going to go into that land, and God promised me that. It's been forty-five years. And now, that promise is coming true. Caleb's eighty-five years old. He was forty years old when he went out to spy on the land. Eighty-five year old man. Now, at this point in history, this is not like Genesis one, two, three. You know, where people are living to be eight hundred, nine hundred years old, and they can be considered a young man at eighty-five. This is when people have fallen into that normal time frame of human life on this earth, which eighty-five is considered an aged man. It's an old man. Okay? Just as similar as it would be today. I mean, not a hundred, but still, that's a well-aged man. Someone died at eighty-five years old. You know what? They lived a long life. And I love this. He says, I am this day, forty-five years old, as yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in. God wasn't done with Caleb. God had more battles for Caleb to fight, which is why he kept him around and kept him alive. And you know what? Thank God, Caleb, he didn't back down. Even though it was forty-five years later, he's an eighty-five year old man, thinking like, man, am I retiring twenty years ago? No, that's not what he was thinking. He's not going, well, I'm done with all this stuff. You guys just screwed everything up, and now I gotta deal with this because you guys weren't faithful enough. He didn't give up. He didn't throw up his hands. He didn't just say, well, let's do it all. He stuck with it. He served the Lord. He said, you know what? I'm here to collect. God made a promise, and I'm still here. I want that mountain. Verse number eleven, excuse me, verse number twelve. Now, therefore, give me this mountain, where the Lord spake in that day, without earnest in that day, how the Anakins were there, and that the cities were great events. If so, be the Lord be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. Caleb sees, hey, that's a great, the land where the giants were, that was primo land. That was good land. Caleb's going, you know what? I want that mountain. I want that. And you know what? That one's going to be the hardest one to overcome. He thinks like the hardest battle at eighty-five years old, going, no, I want that one. And notice that one was still around, and he still didn't want to go and deal with the giants. And Caleb's like, I'll do it. Why? Because he can see past. He knows that they didn't have the strength. If God's going to deliver, if God's going to do it, if God's going to do it, then please with me, then I'm going to get this. And if God's going to do it, then that's what I want. What a great testimony. Still fighting the Lord's battles at eighty-five. We need more Kalos. We need Kalos that are going to live, not just for one battle, not just for one fight, not just for five years, not just for ten years, but for a whole lifetime. We need Kalos that are going to become old men that are still going to be thundering forth the word of God and fighting the battles and not backing down and not going soft and not apologizing for the preaching of the past like Jeff Owens. Shame on him for backpedaling off of preaching the word of God and now going soft in his old age. He's not a Kalos. We need more Kalos. We need people who aren't going to be afraid that can say, hey, forty-five years, as I was back then, I've still got that strength today. Now, we know physically talking about it, I physically have the strength to go out and fight the Lord and fight battles. Do you find that spiritually? Don't go into spiritual retirement and live off your glory days. Oh man, yeah, back when I was young. If you've got a young pastor, I don't know what I am. I'm not in the middle somewhere. I don't want to be just thinking back about, oh yeah, I remember when I used to go out solely and we used to have these marathons and we used to be like, I'm still leading the church, I'm still trying to serve the Lord, I'm still alive. Whether I'm a pastor in a church or not, God forbid that I would just get to this point of being like, oh, I'm done. Well, that's something for the young men to do. You know what, that's something for everybody. Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? God's got a battle for you to fight. God's got a battle for you, God's got a battle. I don't know what your church is at. I don't know all the details. I don't think you've had pain that's too crazy yet. If you haven't yet, and I don't know if you haven't yet, it's coming. It's coming. You know how I know that? Because you guys are solid on your doctrine. You've got a pastor that's not afraid to preach the whole Bible. And I don't know everyone here that well, but I have a very good impression already after having conversations with other people here, that I know that you guys are going to do great things for the Lord. And as long as you're going to keep doing great things for the Lord, then you better expect that there's going to come some advertising. Whether it's from without or within. J might do if it's from within. Don't be one of the people that's just trying to discourage people. Don't be like that. Be the pride of your church. Stand strong, stand together. And ultimately, God be boards who can be against us. Don't ever forget that. As far as I'm afraid of God. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for this great group of people here. God, thank you for giving me the opportunity to bring us here safely. I pray that you please bless the rest of the camp. And for the men that are going to come up and preach your word tonight. Lord, please fill them with your spirit and your power. And God, just bless everyone here. In the name of prayer. Amen. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. David. So, if you would turn into a bottle for mom, the second one. And it's getting there in race 22. It says, So, most Baptist churches will claim to follow the meaning of John the Baptist. But do they actually like what John reads? Let's look at one by number three again. Since the voice of one crying in the wilderness, carrying the real world, they can pass straight. John the Baptist made Christ stand straight, unclear, not muddy or confused. The gradual motion of the doctor to reach his gift to John the Baptist. You would think John is great, but he is not. John is a little bit of a mess, but he is faithful. He says,