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So in Numbers chapter 13, we're kind of getting on the end part of what God was wanting for the children of Israel to finally enter into that Promised Land. So in the back story, we have God has delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians, and God wanted to bring them into the land of Canaan. He wanted them to dwell where the Hittites and the Jebusites and all these people were to take over this great land, a land flowing with milk and with honey. And one of the interesting things about this whole story that we see in the first five books of the Bible is the fact that it's really kind of a symbol of the Christian life. You see, when they had the Passover, it's a symbol of salvation. The blood being sprinkled on the door is the blood of Jesus Christ being sprinkled on our hearts when we accept him, when we become saved. Then they pass through that great cloud when they walk through the Red Sea, and we see it's like baptism. And then they go into what? The wilderness of sin. We see that they struggle. People backslide. People are having doubts in the Lord, and God's trying to bring them into the Promised Land. Now some people make misapplication here, and they'll try to say that the Promised Land is salvation. The Promised Land is heaven. The Promised Land is like you being saved, and so it's like this constant fight. You just have to be faithful to the end. You have to endure all the way to the end to make it into heaven. That's the wrong application. Look, the Promised Land is having blessing in this life and the next, and that's where God wants to take you. Look, salvation's easy. It happens in a moment. Just like that. Now after you've been baptized, it's over, but now what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Are you going to have the faith in the Lord? Keep your finger here because we're going to come back to this story, but go to Romans chapter number 8. We see there's the miracles of salvation from Egypt and their bondage. Look, Egypt is a picture of the bondage of sin. When someone is not saved, they're under bondage. They can't get free from the bondage of sin. The only way is through salvation. The only way is to sprinkle Christ's blood on your heart. Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 24. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why did he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our affirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And the title of my sermon this evening is, If God be for us. If God be for us. Look, if the children of Israel had had this mentality, if they had had this attitude, if they had had this faith, they would have easily entered in the promised land. They would have had no problems. They would have taken the entire area, they would have wiped out all the inhabitants thereof, and they would have dwelled in peace and safety, and they would have the Lord blessing them in their lives. But we see they didn't have this attitude. They had many challenges, and they had many fears that they had to overcome that they were not able to overcome. Flip back if you would to Numbers chapter 13. But look, this is the attitude as Christians that we should have. We should have hope. Look, you've been saved by a miracle. It was a miraculous thing when God came and he quickened your heart, he quickened your spirit, you were circumcised in the heart, you became new, he says behold all things are become new. Look, it's a great miracle. We are saved by hope. We're saved by faith. But then it seems like Christians, they lose sight of faith after salvation. They don't realize that the rest of your Christian life is still going to be a walk of faith. Faith is not something that you see, faith is not something that you can touch. Look at something that you believe, it's something you're hoping for. When you read God's promises, when you read what he has in this book, and you say I don't see it, I don't know if I understand it, but guess what? I believe it and I'm going to hope for it. I'm going to pray and I'm going to get on my knees and I'm going to seek the promises of God by faith. But there's a lot of challenges, there's a lot of enemies to this. One of the enemies would be the giants in our life. The children of Israel, when they're knocking on the door, when they have the opportunity to walk in the promised land, all they can see is the giants before them. We see Caleb and Joshua, the son of Nun, I mean these guys have the right mind, these guys have the right attitude. They're like, look, let's go up and take the land. The Lord's with us. But there was the other 10 spies and they brought up an evil report and all they could focus on was these giants, they're focused on these children of Anak. Look at verse 31. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched from 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 son of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. So they just constantly bring up these things. They're stronger than us, that we saw the giants, they're the Anakims, they're the children of the giants. Look, we're like grasshoppers in their sight. I mean, they just can't get over the fact of how big these people are. I mean, here's like, man, these guys are giant. There's no way. But you got to think what these people have already seen. They've already seen the Lord deliver them from the Egyptians. He's already seen them destroy all of them in the waters. They didn't have to lift a finger. They didn't have to pick up a spear. They didn't have any weapons. They didn't fight at all. We see the Lord's constantly feeding them this manna from heaven. We see the Lord's consuming fire on the mount. He's given them the Ten Commandments, but they're still focused on the flesh. Even after all those great miracles, after all those great signs and wonders, they were still struggling. And Christians today, they'll get saved by faith. They have the hope in the Lord to be saved. But then they struggle with the future. Where is the faith in the future? But the question is, if God be for us, who can be against us? Look, we can have confidence in every single one of God's promises by faith. Go to 1 Samuel 17. There's another story where someone's focused on the giant. Where they can't see past this giant in their path, someone is obstructing their view, and they don't have the faith to overcome it. Look at 1 Samuel 17, verse 4. And they went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's bean, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are you common to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If ye be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. So we have this battle, they have this great champion, this guy standing, you know, ten feet tall. I mean, this guy's so tall, we don't even know exactly. But he's a giant, and he's defying the armies of Israel. He's blaspheming the Lord. He's going against God's people. And what do they do? They're afraid. They only can be focused on this giant. They don't have faith that the Lord could deliver them. Look, this guy's blaspheming the Lord. Shouldn't he be the one who's afraid? I mean, the guy that's blaspheming the God of the universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, that's the guy who should be afraid. We see people today, they're so afraid of these giants in their life, and we have many giants in our lives sometimes. We have people like false prophets, constantly deceiving people, spreading lies, putting doubt on you, trying to get you to doubt the King James Bible, trying to get you to doubt salvation by faith, trying to get you to doubt being a Baptist, trying to get you to doubt going soul winning, trying to get you to doubt going to church three times a week, trying to get you to doubt to dress right, getting you ready to doubt God's Word over and over and over. And you think, but this guy's super popular. Look at him. I mean, he's got thousands of people following him. He looks really big on TV. I mean, he's got all these people with him. I mean, look at the big host of people that are in his auditorium. Maybe he's right. Maybe he's the one that's right. But see, they're trying to get you to doubt God's Word. These giants. And sometimes people look at the giant and they think, well, I mean, I guess the giant must be the one that's right. I mean, I guess the Catholic Church must be right. Look how many members they have. I mean, look at the Pope. I mean, he must be the one that's God's man. Look, we need to not look at the size of the host. We need to pay attention to what words are coming out of their mouth. How about Joel Osteen and Ed Young and Houston? These guys have a huge host. Look how many followers they have. I guess they must be right. Just because they have so many people in the sanctuary, right? I mean, look at all these Philistines. But the question is, if God be for us, you know, who can be against us? Look, if we're right with the Bible, who cares how many people are against us? Who cares how many people are in Joel Osteen's fake church? Look, that's not real Christianity. They're not trying to learn the Bible. You know what the Bible says. If you've read this Bible cover to cover, you know that's a joke. But sometimes people, they see the big host and they get scared. They get afraid. They say, well, how come there's so many more of them than us? How come their host is so much bigger? How come their champion just looks larger than life? Look, it doesn't matter. If God be for us, who can be against us? Look, if we know what God said, we can have assurance in God's word. You say, well, am I going to see it? Sometimes you might not see it. It's by faith. Look, go to 2 Chronicles chapter 16. Keep your finger here because I want to keep going to this story. 2 Chronicles chapter 16. God is just looking for someone to have faith in him. God is all powerful. He's omnipotent is what the Bible says. He just wants somebody to get fired up to believe the Bible that he gave us, to believe the promises that he's given unto us. He's just trying to find those people. And he thought, I mean, it seems like the children of Israel are going to be his people. But they just keep failing. Why? Because they lack the faith. They don't have the faith in the Lord. The Lord is willing to bring them in. The Lord's willing to win the battle for them. The Lord's going to do all the work. They just have to provide the faith, don't they? Look at 2 Chronicles 16, verse 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the half of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou is done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth, thou shalt have wars. Look, if you want peace, if you want God to bless you, look, he's looking for you to show himself strong on your behalf. God wants to get victory through you. But you have to provide the faith. You have to walk in his statutes. You have to be the one that says, hey, I don't care how many giants there are. I don't care how much the host is. I'm going to follow God's word. I'm going to do what it says. And I have faith in God's promises. I have faith in God's word. And he can use you greatly to turn this world upside down. One man. Go to Mark chapter 16, too. We're going to go out soul winning a lot. And one thing I noticed is north of here, there's a lot of apartments. There is like a ton of apartments. One thing's really in common with all those apartments, they have these gates. And they have these big scary signs. No soliciting. I mean, they got all these signs and gates and barbed wire. And I guarantee, if you go soul winning with us on Wednesday, if you go soul winning with us on Saturday, if you go soul winning with us on Sunday, you're going to have this big scary giant called the apartment manager. And he's going to come up. And he's going to say, hey, you can't come here and do this. You can't soul win here. This isn't allowed. You need to go away. You need to get out of here. Look, what are you going to do? How are you going to sin? Do you have promise and faith in God's word? Or are you going to be intimidated by every little persecution, every little affliction? Because it will happen. People do not want you to preach the gospel. The devil is going to try and use his minions to try and stop you from preaching the gospel. But in Matthew 28, Jesus said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to serve all things whatsoever commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Now, he says this to his disciples. And I love that end part, because he says, even unto the end of the world. You know, he's saying not just to you guys, but to all the Christians in the future. Because look, they didn't tarry. They're not still alive today. Do we still have Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew? No, they're not here. But we are here. And Christ is with us when we go out and preach the gospel. Christ is there on our behalf. God wants to show himself strong on our behalf. He says he has all power. He's going to give it unto us to go out and preach his gospel, because that's his commandment. That's what he's telling us to do. Look at Mark 16, verse 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. So when some little apartment manager, or some other giant tries to come and intimidate me, I'm going to say, hey, Christ told me to preach the gospel to every creature. Now look, I'm not trying to go around and start strife. I don't think anybody in this church should go around and cause strife. But look, I'm not going to let some little enemy, some little giant, come and intimidate me and tell me I can't go soul winning. You know, when I was living back in Amarillo, I was trying to find a church that did soul winning. And I had calling different pastors. I talked to this one independent Baptist pastor. They did a bus ministry. And I said, yeah, I want to do soul winning. You know, do you all do any kind of soul winning? Yeah, well, we don't do any soul winning, because if you go to the apartments, they all tell you you can't do it there. So he just doesn't do any soul winning. I mean, he doesn't even try to do the neighborhoods, I guess. I mean, he was just so scared that an apartment manager might sometime tell him to leave that he just wouldn't do any soul winning. And look, I did plenty of soul winning. I never had it happen one time to me. I never even had one apartment manager approach me. I never had anybody even threaten it. It's just a boogeyman. It's just this giant that you just think there, and it's going to stop you from doing God's work. But God says, hey, I've given you all power. I have all power in heaven and earth. I am with you all the way into the end of the world. Look, if God be for us, who can be against us? Oh, that scary apartment manager. Oh, he's so big and intimidating. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 17. Go back. Said in Mark 16, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Look, the Lord was going out there with them when they were preaching the gospel. Why, because they're going everywhere. They're going everywhere to preach the gospel to every creature. We see there's another enemy, another giant, as it were. Look at verse 23. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines and spake according to the same words. And David heard them, and all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid. And Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, why camest thou down hither? And why whom thou hast left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. You know, another giant that a lot of people have in their life is their family. You have your family try to attack you when you want to serve God. When you want to do the thing that's right, you're going to have a family member say, oh, you're just so prideful. You think the King James Bible is the word of God without error? You're just so arrogant. You're so prideful. What's prideful about believing God's word? What's prideful about the truth? What's prideful for standing on Christian belief? There's nothing prideful about that, but that's what they'll attack you with, to say, oh, you're just so prideful. You just think you're right. Look, I think the Bible's right, and I'm just telling you what it says. It's not my opinion that matters. It doesn't matter what it said. I just believe it. You're just mad because you don't like the truth. That's the problem. Look, they're not standing for the word of God. He says, the naughtiness of thine heart. They'll even accuse you of doing wrong. They'll call good evil and evil good. They'll stand against you. And I think family's probably one of the biggest giants we may have in our life, one that's really close to us, one that we care about their opinion. But they're going to try and attack you. They're going to try and stand against you. Say, are you going to that cult down the street? Are you going to that cult called Pure Words Baptist Church, started by all these cult leaders, and they got their following? They're so prideful. They're so arrogant. They're just naughty. That's what they're going to say. But my question is, if God be for us, who can be against us? If we're standing on the Bible, why should we care who it is that says that? And look, we all care about our family. We all want our family to have good relationship with them. But look, I'm not going to be a specter of persons. If my family is going to stand against God's word, I'm going to stand on the Bible. Why? Because if God be for us, who can be against us? Go to Matthew chapter 13. You know, if Jesus Christ could have this problem, I think we should think of ourselves that it's OK if we can have this problem. Look, if he has the same problem, how much more then should we have this problem? In John chapter 7, verse 5, it says, for neither did his brethren believe in him. Can you think about that? The Lord Jesus Christ is perfect. I mean, did he sin? The Bible says he was tempted in all points like as we are without sin. So if lifestyle evangelism is true, why did his brethren not fall down at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved? I mean, think about it. Who has a better lifestyle evangelism than the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh? But it's because it's a joke. Lifestyle evangelism isn't reality. And look, his brethren even didn't believe in him. And this is just a common thing of God's people, that you're going to have family members. You're going to have close friends that are not going to see eye to eye. They're not going to want to believe God's word. And look, I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to evangelize to them. We shouldn't try to get them saved. We shouldn't try to compel them. But the reality is, if you're only going to be satisfied in your life if your whole family and all your friends agree perfectly, you're not going to do big things for God. You're going to be distracted. You're going to be afraid. You're going to be discouraged. Look, we need to realize that we're on the Lord's side. And it doesn't matter who's coming with us. Look at Matthew chapter 13, verse 57. And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. Jesus said, look, the prophet is not going to have respect in his own house. Even among his familiars, the people he grew up with, the people that knew that he was a kid and a teenager, they look at him like he's just this punk kid. I mean, they're not going to have respect for him. They're not going to look to him as some kind of a leader or some type of authority figure. Go to Luke chapter 12, too. Go a couple chapters forward. You know, and I honestly share this testimony myself. My family members don't really care for what I'm doing. They don't really believe in me. They don't really believe the things that I'm doing. But you know what? It doesn't really matter. Because you know, when I was at Faith Word Baptist Church, they had a going away party for me. And they had like hundreds of people show up just to come support me, to say, hey, we believe in you. You know what, that means way more to me than my family giving me feigned, you know, flattering compliments trying to say, oh, what you're doing is pretty good. Or we kind of whatever. I don't care. Look, I only want people to give me a compliment if they mean it, right? Look at Luke chapter 12, verse 51. Suppose you that I'm come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five and one else divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, and the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. And that one's not a big shock. And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. I mean, in-laws, that's a different story. But the first ones, they hit home, right? I mean, a father and a son, a mother and a daughter, these are precious relationships. These are key important relationships. But the Bible's saying, look, when Christ, you know, is in the center of things, there's going to be a division. People are not going to always see eye to eye, and especially even in a family. And we need to decide, hey, am I going to let the giant of my family stop me from serving the Lord? Am I going to let them discourage me? Or am I going to say, if God be for us, who can be against us? Go back to you would to Numbers chapter 13. You know, even when I would grow up, we like to play this game called Balderdash. I don't know if you've ever played this game. But basically, it's an interesting game. You have words that are just uncommon or certain things like that. And you try and write definitions for these words. And you pass all these cards around. And everybody kind of reads these definitions. You're trying to guess which one's the right one. When I was younger, you know, I wasn't necessarily the best reader. And people would write in chicken scratch. So as I'm trying to read their answers, I would a lot of times kind of give away who it was that wrote the clue. Because I couldn't read their handwriting. I didn't know what they said. Because I was the one that wrote the real answer. So I knew exactly how to read that one really well. But people would give me all these chicken scratch. I'm reading it wrong. I don't know what it's saying. You know, my family would just mock me. They'd say, you're not good at reading. You're not good at public speaking. And I would say, you know, I gave them the idea that I might want to be a pastor one day. Or I might want to be in the ministry. And they mocked at it. They thought it was hilarious. They thought there's no way you could be a pastor. You can't even read. You think you could be a pastor? You could do public speaking? I mean, your own family members are mocking and scoffing at you wanting to serve God. I could let that just discourage me. I could have said, you know what, they're right. You know what, Goliath's too strong. You know what, what he's saying, I'm too weak. There's no way I could go out and do that. But look, if God be for us, who can be against us? The Bible says in Isaiah 28, for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people? Look, hey, if I'm stammering tongue, you know, I could be in this verse. I could be of a feminine prophecy, right? Also, I'm sorry, go back to also to 2 Samuel, or 1 Samuel 17 where we were. Keep your finger where you were. It said in verse 45, I'll start reading. Then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee in my hand and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee. And I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. So what did David wanna do? He wanna say, hey, I know what you're saying, but you're defying the Lord and I'm gonna defeat you today, not for my glory, not to raise up David's name, but to give glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, to give it to the God of Israel, to say, hey, I know what you're saying, but God's gonna be for me because you're blaspheming his name. You know what, when they attack us for God's word, we can stand on God's word so he can get the honor, he can get the glory. We can let our light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven. You know, it's really hard for people to attack you when you're saying, hey, look at all these people that got saved. Look at me bringing all my shes in with me. Look at all these people that are trusting Christ and changing their life and trying to serve God. It's much harder for them to wanna attack that than all the other little stuff. It's always the little stuff that are trying to attack you, how you dress, where you go, your friends, your habits, all the things that they just don't like. You know, it's a lot harder for them to attack the fact that you're getting people saved and you're affecting people's lives. Go back to Numbers chapter 13. So my first point is we need to be aware of the giants in our life. We need to realize, look, there's gonna be giants in our life. There's gonna be challenge. There's gonna be affliction. But if we stand on God's word, look, if God be for us, who can be against us? We need to have more faith in God's word and the fact that God wants to deliver us. The next point I had, point two, sometimes people get afraid of the overwhelming task before them. They think the task before them is so big that they end up just doing nothing. Look at Numbers chapter 13 verse 32. And they brought up an evil port of the land which they had searched from the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we had 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. So they're saying, not only are these people giant, not only are these people big, the land is just massive. I mean, there's no way. We can't inhabit all this. It's gonna eat all of us up. It's just too big of a job. And then you come into this city, I want to get the gospel to the entire Houston area. All of it. You say, what about the north part? Yes. What about the east part? Yes. All of it. You say, oh, that's way too big. You could look at the map and you could get discouraged real quick. You could look at a huge map of Houston and get discouraged even quicker. You could say, man, that's a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. I mean, have you seen any people who are coming to church? We could be knocking doors for days, for years, for centuries. But you know what? There was a lot of people in the Bible that had big tasks before them. Think about Noah and the ark. Building an ark to save all of the animals of the planet and his family. And he had done it over years and years and years and years. That's a lot of faith. Can you imagine building an ark? Think about how your wife feels after you've been building for 10 years with no rain. And then 20 years. I mean, how about that side project you got that your wife keeps nagging you about? Like, that's not gonna ever turn out. I mean, he's gonna 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. That's a lot of what? Faith. Faith in God's word. He couldn't see the rain coming. He didn't know for sure in the flesh that the rain was coming. He only knew it by faith of what God had said. God's words. We see Moses. He has to go through a lot of these challenges. He says, you know, who am I to deliver the children of Israel? I'm not an eloquent speaker. You know, Moses, when he's asked to give them water to drink, he's like, how am I gonna do that? When he's asked to feed the children of the wilderness, he's like, look, we can't even get enough food to possibly feed all these people. But God keeps delivering them and God keeps providing for them. Moses to lead them in the promised land. A big task before him. How about the building of Jerusalem or the rebuilding of Jerusalem? Rebuilding of the wall. All these things are taking years and years and years and years. Look, they had to have the faith to see it through. And we have the promise of God. Hey, he says, go out and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, do you think God is just gonna give us a huge task that we can't accomplish? You think he's just this, you know, sadistic person that's just like, I just wanna give them something they can never fulfill, something they could never do. Look, the Bible says in Matthew that the gospel will be preached in all the world and then the end will come. God said that it would happen, but we have to have the faith and the foresight to see, hey, if God be for us, who can be against us? I don't care how many people are going to Lakewood, you know, church or whatever. I don't care how many of the hosts of the Philistines there are. Look, we can get it done here if people would have the faith, if people would get the right attitude. Be not like the children of Israel, be like Caleb, be like Joshua. Say, look, God's gonna be with us, God's gonna go out, God's gonna give us deliverance. It's not through me, it's not through my flesh, it's not how strong I am, it's not how great I am, I'm not this special speaker. Look, God is gonna be the one that gives us the deliverance. Sometimes we get scared about the task. Go to Exodus chapter 23. Now, I was running some numbers. You know, you look online, they say there's about a million houses in the Houston area. But I didn't feel like that number really added up because there's about seven million people, depending on kind of what statistics you look at. And I know for a fact that there's not an average of seven people in every house. I mean, people today are having less and less and less. I mean, the national statistics, about 2.58. So I just kind of rounded it to two and a half. I said there's probably about two and a half people in a household. That would make there about 2.8 million doors to knock in this, you know, greater metro area. Now, how long would it take to knock all those doors? That's a good question, right? Well, to me, if you're gonna do it, it's the sole winners. That's the number. Not necessarily how many times you are going out. Personally, we need more workers, don't we? Before I get to that number, let's look at Exodus 23, verse 28. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little, I will drive them out from before thee until they'll be increased and inherit the land. Look, God had the wisdom and the foresight and the knowledge to say, look, I'm not just gonna turn over this huge land to you overnight. Look, by little and by little and by little, you're gonna multiply and grow, and I'm gonna continue to bless you and deliver you. You have to keep the faith, don't you? It wasn't a one-time faith. It was keeping the faith and growing little by little by little. That's what we need to do. We need to just keep adding a sole winner one at a time, another sole winner, another sole winner, another sole winning time, another sole winner, little by little by little, and we'll start to see us growing and growing and then multiplying exponentially, not by just one person, start growing even greater. So if we had 250 sole winners, 250 people, an army of sole winners of 250 in a city of seven million people, okay, that's not that big, and they just go out twice a week for one hour. So a total of just two hours a week. I'm not saying something massive. I'm not trying to say something unrealistic. If they go out, you could get every door knocked in 10 years. That's not even that unrealistic. When you just break down the numbers, and look, Faith Board Baptist Church, they have about 300, 350 people on a Sunday morning, and they have almost 200 sole winners going out soul winning with them. Now here's the thing. We're not gonna get 250 sole winners tomorrow. We're not gonna have them by Wednesday. We're not gonna have them by next week. They're probably not gonna be here for years. Let's just be realistic, right? But we can grow little by little by little, and then once you get to that point, now you're really taking care of the map. Now you're really growing. Now you're covering even more ground. You say, do we have to divide the city and figure out a timeline and try and get exactly that proportion done now? No, we're gonna do less in the beginning, but then we can do more as we grow, more as we get more sole winners, more as God sees fit to deliver more people unto us, and then we can grow exponentially. That's how you can reach an entire city. That's how you can reach an entire country. That's how you can reach the world with the gospel. Look, God doesn't have to have millions and billions of sole winners. If we had that, we'd get everybody the gospel next week. If you had a billion sole winners, you'd have to give it to seven people. I mean, everybody in this room, it seems like probably already done that. Hand-fold over, right? Go back to Numbers chapter 14 now. Look at, before you do that, also flip backwards to Leviticus chapter 26. Like, I had a boss, every time we had a really big task before us, because in software programming, a lot of times, your projects will be years. They're not necessarily done in months. Sometimes you have a whole two or three or four-year project that you're working on. And you say, how do you eat an elephant, Jonathan? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You know, you just take that one bite, you finish it. Then you take another bite, and you finish that. And before you know it, it starts looking more manageable. It starts looking more reasonable. It starts looking like, now I can accomplish it. Look, when you have a big task, don't get so overwhelmed by the task. Just be focused on the next step. Just be focused on the next goal. Just make practical steps and goals, and just take care of those. Then when you get in the future, you'll be like, wow. Your faith will become a reality, and you'll see how you ate the elephant. Leviticus 26, verse six. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land, and ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put 10,000 to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will respect unto you, and will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. The interesting thing about God's word is he says, when you grow, your power grows exponentially. Because he says five would chase a hundred. But then he says a hundred of you. That's 20 times. 20 times a hundred would be 2,000. But it doesn't say here that a hundred will chase 2,000. It says a hundred will chase 10,000. So as you grow, as your numbers grow, God can do even more exponentially with your growth. You can do even more. You can do even bigger things. Go back to Numbers, chapter 14. Look, why can't we just look at all the miracles of God, the fact that we received eternal life, the fact that we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and say, look, if God be for us, who can be against us? We can go out and take this city on. We can go out and take this state on. We can go out and take this country on. We can get the gospel to every creature if we'd have the faith, if we'd let God go out and deliver him for us. If we try to do it ourselves in our flesh with our own ideas, it's not gonna happen. We just need to be steadfast in God's fundamentals, God's commandments, God's plan, God's way. And he'll give the increase. He'll multiply us. He'll use this exponentially. But there's another enemy. Look at Numbers, chapter 14, verse one. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried. And the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God we had died in this wilderness? We see that a lot of times when you have this overwhelming task, when you have the giants, when you have difficulty, when you have struggle, people begin to what? Murmur and complain against the leadership. They start to get, well, why did you do it this way? Why are we going in this neighborhood to go soul winning? Why do you make the map over here? Why did you put these people together? Why are we meeting at this time? Why are we doing all manner of things? They just have to complain to complain. They don't have a better idea. They don't have a suggestion. They don't have a way to make anything profitable. They just wanna nag and complain about every situation. That's the kind of person they are. And look, you're not gonna do anything big for God by complaining. Nothing good happens from complaining. I mean, if you've ever complained to your spouse, they're like, oh, I'm so sorry, you're right. Let me fix all that. No, usually they get mad at you, right? And they fight you back on it. And they bring out all your faults. You don't get anywhere by murmuring and complaining against anybody. Go murmur and complain about your boss at work. See if you get a promotion. See if it takes you anywhere. It's not gonna work, it's not godly. Go to 1 Timothy chapter six. We even have in Numbers chapter 16, a man named Korah and Dathan and Abiram. They didn't like Moses' leadership. They didn't like the fact that they weren't in control. So they had to murmur against God's man. And guess what? The whole earth swallowed him up. They were all destroyed. Look at verse 10 of chapter six, verse one. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereth cometh envy and strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputes of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. The godliness with contentment is great gain. Look, the Bible makes it clear that no matter who is over us, we are supposed to submit ourselves unto them. Look, we're supposed to count our servants, our masters worthy of all honor. That's a tall order. Your boss at work, man, this guy is supposed to have all honor. You're supposed to treat this guy like he is the Lord Jesus Christ giving you a commandment. That's how you're supposed to have respect unto him. That's how you're supposed to treat him at work. Look, and the guy that's teaching otherwise, the guy that's coming around saying like, man, do you really like what the boss said? Do you really think we should tuck in our shirt? Do you really think we should, you know, take out the trash this way? Do you really think we should do the report this way? Do you really like what he said? Look, that's wicked. You need to say, yes, I do. Everything he says is right. I'm just gonna do whatever he says. Yes, sir, that's my attitude towards him. And look, this is the attitude Christians should have towards unbelieving masters, let alone believing masters, let alone someone that's authority over you that is saved, that is a man of God. We see so many people today, they have this bad attitude. They think, well, if I was in charge, things would be going well. But look, that's not how God's ordained it. God has ordained it that you're supposed to be respectful and submissive to the authority figures in your life, and that's how God's gonna get things accomplished. When the people murmured and complained against Moses, they were halted. They're stopped. They're not doing anything. They're not winning any battles. They're not going anywhere. Nothing good is happening. The people are dying, and they're getting all kinds of wrath from the Lord. Look, if we want to be successful as a church, we have to be submissive unto the authorities in our life, at work and even in the church. When your soul-winning leader says, be here at this time, be here at this time. If a soul-winning leader says, go over here, go over there. If he says, be with this partner, be with that partner. Don't do all this murmuring, complaining. It's not gonna accomplish anything. Look, we need to be submissive to the people that are authorities in our life. We need to be submissive unto one to another, as brothers, as brethren. That goes for me as well. If I've got a soul-winning leader, and even as the pastor, and he tells me to go somewhere, I say, yes, sir. It doesn't matter. We should be submissive unto the authorities in our life at any given time. Go to Numbers chapter 11. We even have Jacob and Laban. And the problem is, is people think, well, the problem is, is I agree with my boss every time he's right. Every time he makes a good decision, I agree with him. But you know, when he makes a bad decision, I gotta kinda say something. When he does something wrong, when he does something against me, when he makes me work that double shift, when he makes a big mess and I have to go clean it up, when he breaks everything and he tells me to go fix it, when he calls me on the weekend that I told him I need it off and tells me I have to go work, when he does something wrong, when he tells you you're gonna get a promotion in six months and you've been there six years and you haven't seen one. I mean, these type of things happen, don't they? I mean, if you work in the real world, these things will happen. The question is, how is a Christian supposed to respond to that? How is a man that loves the Lord gonna respond to that? Well, in Genesis chapter 31, I'll read for you. This is Jacob. He says, and your father hath deceived me and changed my wages 10 times. But God suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, the speckled shall be thy wages, then all the cattle bear speckled. And if he had said thus, the ring streak shall be thy higher then bear all the cattle ring streak. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father and given them to me. Look, Jacob served with Laban and he got cheated and he got stolen from and he got lied to and he got taken advantage of over and over and over for year after year after year. But guess what? Because he was faithful, because he was a good worker, God saw fit to give him all of Laban's cattle in the end. God blessed him through his labor. God is the one that you're ultimately working for. God is the one that's gonna bless you. And when someone does you wrong at work and you do right, God sees that and he says, I'll bless you. I'll take care of you. I'll be the one that makes sure you get recompensed for your hard work, for your labor. We ought not think, well, I need to murmur and complain against the boss because he keeps doing me wrong. Look, as long as you're doing right, you can have faith that God will take care of it. God will take care of you. God will bless your efforts. God will be the one to be with you. If God be for us, who can be against us? Look at Numbers 11, verse one. And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. And the Lord heard it and his angle was kindled. And the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the utmost parts of the camp. Look, God does not like complaining. He doesn't tolerate it. He's just wiping people out for complaining. I mean, talk about a complaint department. I mean, I don't want to go to that one. He's gonna wipe you out. Go to Colossians chapter three. Bible says in Proverbs 14, in all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tinneth only to penury. Talking at the water cooler, disrespecting your boss at work, complaining at work is gonna get you nowhere. But you know what, labor, all labor there's profit. When your boss is making you work extra hard, do all the work, there's profit in there for you. But there's no profit in you complaining and getting disgruntled against your employer. Titus chapter two, verse nine says, exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again. If your boss says, you know, jump, you say, how high, or you just do it. You don't sit there and say, well, I don't like jumping. You know, my knees kinda hurt. I don't wanna do that. I don't like it. That's not part of my job duties. That's not what you told me to do last week. I have a better idea, let's sit down. Let's take a nap. Look, this is not a godly attitude. Colossians three, verse 23, or look at 22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. Look, the children of Israel, it seems like they're just lazy. I mean, they're basically getting everything handed to them and they still don't even wanna walk in the promised land. They just wanna complain and moan and bellyache. They wanna have all the, and they wanna let fear control their life. Go back to Numbers 14 and look at my last point. So there's gonna be a lot of giants that come when you wanna serve God. When you want to have faith in the Lord after you're saved, look, there's gonna be giants that are coming in. Look, you're gonna have the temptation to wanna complain when things don't go right, when you don't see it the way that you wanna see it, when things are not going how you believe they should be. Look, even with wives, sometimes they think, well, I'll obey my husband as long as I agree. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says in all things. And sometimes when we have a big task in front of us, it can seem so overwhelming that we just get discouraged. We decide to do nothing at all. No, we need to just take one step at a time. And lastly, we need to have faith. We need to not be unbelieving. Look at Numbers 14, verse three. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be prey, were it not better for us to return into Egypt? Look, after all the Lord's done for them, I mean, he spared them from the Passover, he spared them from all the 10 plagues, he brought them through the Red Sea, he slaughtered all the Egyptians before them, he fed them and gave them clothing, their shoes aren't even waxing old, he's trying to bring them in this promised land, and they're saying, oh man, the Lord's so evil. He's trying to bring us out here to kill us. What a horrible attitude. Look, they have no faith in the Lord, apparently. You know, a lot of people think, if I just saw the miracle, I'd believe. Look how many miracles they saw and they didn't believe. Look, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's how we can have the faith. And when we hear God's promises, when we hear God's commandments, it doesn't matter what you see in the flesh. We need to have the faith to believe that it's true. You say, am I really supposed to, you know, beat my children with the rod? Yes. That's what the Bible says. You should have the faith, because look, you can't really see what your kids are gonna be like when they're 18, when they're two, when they're one, when they're a baby. You don't know. So where are you gonna put your faith? Are you gonna put your faith in what the world's doing, and what it looks like the world's trying? Are you gonna try it in some book that you read about how not to spank your children? Or are you gonna put it in God's word, which is telling you not to spare the rod? He that spares the rod hateth his son, is what the Bible says. Look, go to Hebrews chapter three. Look at verse number six in Hebrews chapter three. But Christ has a son over his own house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence, the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if you'll hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do all way err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you, any of you, an evil heart of unbelief, and departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called the day. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Look, the deceitfulness of sin is gonna try and draw you away from the church. It's gonna try and draw you away from reading your Bible. It's gonna try to draw you away from praying. It's gonna try and draw you away from soul winning. It's gonna try and draw you away from all the things of God. And look, we need to be exhorting one another. You being here this evening is exhorting your brethren. When you see your brethren struggle, when you see your brethren have these giants, when you see the overwhelming task, when you know that their family member's persecuting them, when you hear people complaining and murmuring, we need to be there to exhort the brethren. We need to be there to bear one another's burdens, to love one another, to care for one another, to see that we're all people, we're all just flesh. We're gonna have weaknesses. We're gonna have times of temptation and trials. We need to be there for one another. Esteeming other better than ourselves. Looking upon not our own things, but the things of others. That's what the Bible says. Go to Hebrews chapter 10 now. Look, they didn't enter because of unbelief. They didn't have faith in the Lord. Otherwise, they would have been in the Promised Land. Otherwise, God would have given the deliverance. Otherwise, God would have given them blessing. Look, the yoke of the Lord is easy and His burden is light. But if you don't follow His commandments, it's rough. It's real rough. You're gonna wander in that wilderness of sin and it's gonna be terrible. Otherwise, you could just be in the Promised Land enjoying the promises of God, enjoying the blessings of God, enjoying the milk and honey for the rest of your life. If you just follow and serve God, if you just have faith in the Lord, He'll provide for you. He'll take care of you. But you know what? A lot of people wanna wander in that wilderness of sin. They wanna be double-minded, double-hearted. They wanna go to Joel Osteen's church. What a wilderness that is. Hebrews 10, verse 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the man or son is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Look, we need to encourage one another to go to church. We need to encourage one another to get together. Every time we have a chance to assemble, every time we have the chance to come together, we need to be exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching. We shouldn't be going to church less. We shouldn't be getting together less. We should be doing it more and more. Look, one more chapter over. Hebrews 11, verse six. I'm sorry, verse one. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Look, if we're gonna have a successful Christian life, we have to walk by faith. Faith is not walking by sight. It's not the things that you see. If you look at this room, there is no way anybody in the flesh would think that we're gonna be able to get the gospel ever in Houston. There's no way. But if you have faith in the Lord, if you have faith in God's word, if God be for us, who can be against us? Look at Hebrews chapter, verse six. But without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Look, God is looking for someone to have faith. What is faith when you can't see it? When it doesn't look realistic in the flesh, but you know that's what the promise of God is. You know that what God's word says. When you put in your trust in what God's commandments are. What are you hoping for today? Do you have faith in anything? I mean, isn't that how you got saved? Didn't you get saved by faith? Why don't you have your faith in something else too? Faith in the Lord's commandments for your children. Faith in the Lord's commandments for your marriage. Faith in the Lord's commandments for your church, for your life, for your vision, for everything. That's what we should do in the Christian life is not just faith for salvation, but in all areas of our life. For our friends, for our family, for our relationships, all the giants that are standing before us, all the overwhelming tasks, all the people that are complaining and murmuring against us, all the thoughts of doubt and unbelief and strife. We need to have faith. And we need to realize he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Do you believe that God will reward your efforts if you follow his commandments? Sometimes you see people taking shortcuts, taking the easy way out, doing things wrong. And it looks like maybe they're getting away with it. And you think, maybe I should take a shortcut. Maybe I should do that which is wrong. Maybe I can dabble in sin a little bit. Maybe I don't really need to go to church. But the problem is, is you can't see what's gonna happen in the future. You don't know the future. And if you have faith in God's word, he won't let you down. But if you try to take that shortcut, you'll always regret it in the end. You will never regret standing on God's commandments. You'll never regret standing on his word. I'm never gonna regret any time I went out soul-wanting. I'm not gonna regret going to a Bible-believing church and hearing a good sermon. I'm never gonna regret it. You know what I might regret? Not going soul-wanting, not hearing that great sermon, not being with the brethren, not doing the commandments of God, not spanking my children, not loving my wife, not being obedient to the boss at work. Look, you're never gonna regret the fact that when he called you on the weekend that you had to take off and you went and you worked. You're not gonna regret that you worked hard. You know what, you will regret when you complained and murmured against the boss to all these people and now all of a sudden they're starting to tell everybody about what you said. They're starting to tell the boss what you said on the weekend, how you complained about him. Look, you're never gonna feel bad about doing that which is right. Don't be like Thomas and doubt, believe. And look, Christ is always challenging his disciples' faith. If you read through the gospels, what is he always challenging? He's challenging them faith. Look, the Christian walk is a walk of faith. It's not just faith to save, it's faith for the whole rest of your life. That's what a Christian life should be. And we should take the promises of God in the Bible and put our faith in them because if God be for us, who can be against us? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for your promises. I pray that we would be a church that walks by faith and not by sight, that we could see that you give us all these promises and all these commandments so that we could depend on you and not on ourselves, that we could see that you are a great and merciful God, one that's omnipotent and strong, and that you wanna show yourself strong on our behalf, but it requires our faith. I pray that you would give everyone in this room a great spirit of faith and that we'd have the right attitude that if God be for us, who can be against us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.