Appreciate that good singing tonight. Well, we got, or I've got, rather. I haven't preached from paper since parking lot preaching. The day the sun cut my laptop off. So, I don't know what happened. It asked me for a pen to turn my laptop on. I don't have a pen. So, we'll get that figured out later. If you would, turn in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, chapter 13. And we're gonna be going through, skipping some verses to save some time. And Numbers chapter 13, be in verse 2, and then verse 26. Reading from 26 through chapter 14, verse 9. And of course this is the account of when God had sent the spies into Cana to spy it out and they come back and two give a good report and ten give a bad report. Bible reads in Numbers chapter 13 verse 2, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel unto the wilderness of Paran to Kadesh. and brought back word into them, I'm sorry this is verse 26 if I didn't say that, and then to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said, we came into the land where thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great, and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The 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 stealed 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'd 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 unto 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 giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Chapter 14. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night. And all the people 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 this wilderness And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of Israel, of the children of Israel. and Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes, and they spake unto 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 delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us a land which floweth with milk and honey. only rebel not ye against the Lord neither fear ye the people of the land for they are bred for us their defense is departed from them and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Word of God. Lord, we thank you throughout the Word of God where you have given us examples, Lord, of where you have brought your people through many, many times. And Lord, we know that, and Lord, we know from experience that you have brought us through many, many times, and you will continue to do so, Lord. And Lord, we pray, Lord, that you would help us to preach this message tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Preach the message tonight, if the Lord delight in us. If the Lord delight in us. You know, both sides were correct in describing the land. They were not telling lies about the fact that there were giants there, that they were men of great stature, that they were stronger individually as human stature-wise than the Israelites were. They weren't telling lies But what they were not doing, they were not relying on God. And Caleb and Joshua, they didn't contradict and say that they were telling lies about the land, but what they contradicted was they weren't telling the truth about God. They were saying that it doesn't matter who we are, we can't go up against them. It doesn't matter who God is, He cannot defeat this people. After all that God had brought them through, He had brought them out of Egypt, took them across the Red Sea, brought them through the desert, all the times that He supplied the food and the water for them, and all of a sudden, one bad report, and they're ready to give up. I mean, they didn't just give up and say, oh no. They was ready to go back. They was going back Through everything they just come through, they were going back. And we look at it and we say, well, them people, I'll just tell you what about them Israelites? What about them Baptists? Well, sometimes, you know, we'll go through a battle and God will get us through it, and then we'll hit something we wouldn't expect and, oh my God, we can't do this, we can't do this. But if the Lord delight in us, we can. If he delight in us. Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Through Christ, we can do all things. Now, we can go to church, we can witness, we can tithe, we can read, we can pray. We can do all those things and not do it through Christ, can't we? We can do it our own way, our own pace. Not relying on God to lead and guide us. I mean, we can go to church, we can go through the motions, and we can go out and not only pass a few tracks out and not pray about it, not think about it. You know, we can even give a little money to the church. We can read a little bit now and then. We can pray when we need something. But what about if we was to do all that with the Lord? through Christ, through Christ's strength, through praying to Him and His direction. I hope if you're a member here, that's the reason you're a member here, it was through Christ. Because when you do it that way, you see, when hard times come upon the church, or you come through a hard time in the church or a hard time in your life, then you have help and you have a resource. But you know what the devil does? If you just pick out and see any old church, you go, well, I'm going to go to this because it's close to the house. I'm going to go to this because this is where my family goes. I'm going to go to this because my friend goes here. And then when hard times comes, you've got no grounding. You've got nothing to rely on. And you're ready to do what? Jump to another church. You go to church because that's where God first, God said go, but He also gives you a church. He'll give you a church to go to. And we witness. And we witness. And we ask God about which and ask God's blessing upon the witness when we witness. You know, we're going to give you an account of how many door hangers and tracks we've done this month in about a week. We'll give that to you. But it's not, yes, it's a number, but it's not just a number. There's prayers behind every one of those door hangers and every one of those tracks, everybody that we spoke to on the way. And we didn't run for people, we just didn't knock on their door to get them to come to the door. But we welcomed the opportunity. Many times we were able to hand that door hanger to somebody and talk to them about the Lord, about the church, invite them to church personally. And most cases, very receptive. I know Ms. Brenda Keough, I don't think she's here tonight. She had one case that wasn't too receptive, I think. And you ask me later, I'll tell you that story, or she can tell you that story, or Ms. Bobbie can tell you that story. For the most part, people were very receptive. And as I said earlier, the hurricane, of course, slowed us down, but people have really stepped up. Some of you have. And I appreciate that. But it's not just the number. It's what's behind the number and what we do and pray and what God can do through that number. I remember years and years ago before I was really in church or anything, I was saved, didn't really know much about the Lord, and I heard about this church called Gospel Light. And you know the first thing I heard about Gospel Light Baptist Church? All they care about is a number. And they were just trying to go out and get people on the bus and get them in and get them saved. They were concerned about numbers. They did keep track because it gave them a goal to go by and to improve on that goal next time and do better, do more next time. Not that they say, look what I did, or look what Gospelite did, or look what Currytown did, but look what God can do. If he delights in us. You know, you can give money, you can even give 10%, or you can give 20%, but even if you give the most in the church, percentage-wise, are you giving what God said, or are you just doing it so you can tell somebody you give? Or just because somebody knows you give it? Just so Miss Sarah knows you give it. She's about the only one who really knows. That's not why you give. You give because that's what the Lord said to do. And you follow his guidance in that. I remember years ago, we were in a financial struggle. Our income went down, dropped about 60% in one year. And so, of course, we were laid on some bills, and we would call, you know, they'd call us, we'd call them, we'd talk to them. They suggested we go to credit counseling. You know, the first thing the credit counselor told us we needed to do? Stop tithing. He said, you got to do two things. You got to bring more money in or stop putting money out. And the easiest thing to do is stop tithing. And I said, we can't do that. So we were done with the credit counselor. I mean, we paid what we could. We got called up. It wasn't easy, but we did it. Because I didn't tithe. Because somebody told me to. I tied because God said to. Because that's what God says to do. And there wasn't a question. And we didn't sit down and say, well, should we do what the credit counselor says? Should we cut back? We just kept doing what we were doing. And reading the Bible. Well, we got to read, but we can't just read to mark a number down and move our bookmark over in the Bible. I'm not saying you have to study each page or each verse and then read the next one, but pray for God to show you, to give you wisdom out of the Word of God, give you understanding in the Word of God. You see, when you got saved, the Holy Spirit moved in. You had a Bible teacher moving in with you. and you ask that Bible teacher to teach you the Word of God he's the only one who can teach you the Word of God and there's some great schools that give great instructions on the Word of God but without the Holy Spirit you're not going to get it you're not going to get it and then pray it's not just I lay me down to sleep but pray and ask God for leading and guidance in every day of our lives So Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ. But we've got to do these things too. If not, God said I can do all things through Christ and I'm saved and whatever I want to do, I can do it. Well, you've got some things you need to do first. You need to go to church and witness and tithe and pray and read the Bible. And then God will be delighted in you. And then you can do all things through Christ. And not only can we do all things through Christ, we can overcome. We'll go back to talk about Joshua a little bit and then David. In Joshua 11, verse 22. Now, of course, God had given the instructions to Israelites to wipe out the people that were there. God had given that land to the Israelites and these people had moved into their land and God said, just wipe them out. But Joshua 11, 22 says, there was none of the Anacoms left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza and Gath and Ashdod there remained. In other words, except in those three places, they got rid of all the giants. But then you move forward 400 years in the book of Samuel, chapter 17 and verse 4, And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And all the men of Israel, when they saw him, fled from him and were sore afraid. And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause? And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight with the Philistine. And then on down into verse 45, then David said 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 hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into 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. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead. And the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. And then, of course, David actually took the giant's sword and cut his head off. He did exactly what he said he was going to do, but he also said, The Lord will deliver thee into mine hand. Because David knew what needed to be done. Now, put yourself where David was. Now, it was a big thing to do what he did. But to know what needed to be done was no problem. There was a giant that had come out against Israel. And they said, if you just defeat this one man, we'll serve you. But if you can't, you'll serve us. All they had to do was defeat one giant. But everybody was scared. And David come up, he had said what was going on, and he says, is there not a cause? And the reason he could do it, and one of the reasons David knew that he could do it is because he had been living for God for quite a while. He had been following the leadership of the Lord for quite a while in the menial task that he was given of keeping the sheep. That's always been known as one of the nastier jobs, the dirtier jobs, the stinkier jobs. Even in your old westerns you'd watch on TV. Even on Bonanza when you watched that. Oh, the cattlemen, oh, they're the great men. And here come these stinky sheep. They were the downtrodden of the earth. And that's all David was, just the downtrodden of the earth. But when the bear and the lion come out, he trusted God. And the menial task, he did what he was supposed to do, and followed the leadership of the Lord, and the Lord lent his helping hand. And he gave the lion over into David's hand, and he gave the bear over into David's hand. And he was a bit worried about this giant. He said, so I'll go get him. I'll go get him. Giant, you're coming down, because the Lord is going to give your head to me. He said, I'm going to go take your head off. He said, the Lord is going to do it. And he knew that he could do it because he knew that he had been following the Lord and he knew that the Lord delighted in him because he trusted in the Lord. So we can overcome. So David's past encouraged him. You know, sometimes we go through trials in our lives, and we go up against hard tasks, and we overcome them, and we thank the Lord for it, and we, it's like we think that giant's dead, right? And we go years, we don't have any problem with that. And old giant pops his head back up, and we say, oh no, I don't know what to do now, I don't know what to do anymore. Just trust in the Lord. He helped you through it before, He'll help you through it again. He helped that person through it, He'll help you through it. He helped you through it, He'll help them through it. If we just trust in the Lord. The Bible tells us greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. If you're saved today, like I said, you've got the Holy Spirit in you. There's nothing out there in that world that is greater than the Holy Spirit. God can help you overcome anything. I say it's going to be easy, but He can do it. If we'll be consistent in following the Lord and loving the Lord and reading our Bible and praying, attending church, all those things we said earlier, if we're consistent with that, we'll have that confidence that David had. You get inconsistent in some area of your life with the Lord, you know who knows it? before you do, God knows it first, and the devil knows it second. That's the exact area that he's going to come in at. That's the exact area that he's going to attack when he finds out, he figures out where you're the weakest at, that's what he's going to do. Over there when the Israelites were supposed to go into Canaan land, and he said, oh, this is just wonderful land, this is just, oh, it's just unbelievable, full of milk and honey. But nevertheless, and they rebelled against what God said. And rebellion always brings chastisement. And they rebelled and all those above 20 years old except for Caleb and Joshua was unable to go into the promised land. Because that's the only thing that said, hey, we can do it. And everybody else said, no, we can't. Now Aaron and Moses didn't make it for other reasons. over in Philippians it uses that word nevertheless when it's talking about hard times coming and this difficulty and that difficulty but nevertheless we can overcome and when you use that word nevertheless say we're going to do it anyway when you use it toward obedience a blessing always comes When you overcome that challenge, either that test that God has given you or that temptation that the devil has put in front of you, when you overcome that, there is a blessing to follow. It's a wonderful time when you have overcome and God sends his blessing. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the goods of the land, God told them. If we are willing and obedient, we will have good times in our life. It won't be all good times. But we'll have good times. The problem with Israel, they wanted to be like it was in Judges 21-25. In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And that's the way this world is today. That which is right in his own eyes. I'll tell you. They say, they try to tell you this is right, and I said the other day, it might have been Sunday school, I don't know about these signs that you go up, and it's one of the things that says science is truth. Now the same person that probably put that sign out thinks that you don't know if you're a boy or a girl until you're about 20 years old. And only you know, nobody else could possibly know. I thought it was science was whether you was a boy or a girl. That's a pretty well-known scientific fact about two years ago. But now it's, so if they believe, do they believe science or not? They believe the science that they want to believe. But it's do what's right in your own eyes. We got to do what's right in God's eyes. Not only that, number three, we can have power. So how do we have power in our Christian lives? The Bible really teaches us and tells us how to do that. Number one is from preaching. 1 Corinthians 1 and 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved it is the power of God. That's the power of God. A bunch of preachers didn't sit down and write that. That's what God said. And he called men to preach that the congregation may hear the preaching of the word and be encouraged and strengthened and given wisdom to go out and live their life out in the world and give them power to do that for the cause of Christ. You can do it, you can live, you can be saved and not hear preaching, but you're not going to be the Christian you could be. And it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't have to be me or a pastor or even at Currytown Baptist Church. Of course, you should be a member of a church. But if a man is called to preach and he's preaching the Word, you can get power from it, you can get strength from it, you can get knowledge from it, and you can grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ from the preaching of the Word of God. There's a difference in just reading and studying and preaching the Word of God. Get power from separation. 2 Corinthians 6 and 17 and 18 Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and Will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty. I I don't know about you, but that's a pretty good promise that God said, if I just live like he says live, he'll be my father. Now, he is our father, but when we go outside of what he says to do, outside of his rules, outside of the word of God, then that relinquishes his responsibility to watch over us. He said, basically, if you stay here under my house, then I'll be my father to you. But if you're going to go out in the world and just live any way you want to, then you're going to have to suffer the consequences of it. And he gives us the guidelines in the Word of God of how to live. It doesn't say, now you live what you think is right, and you do good, and if you think it's good, you go ahead. No, he gives us that guidelines to go by. And he says, if you'll live by these guidelines, I'll be your father unto you, and you'll be my sons and daughters. See, when you have to do things, it's difficult. I know when I was growing up, there was things that I had to do, that I was given to do. I did the best I could, but it just wasn't exactly right. I just couldn't do it the way my daddy did it. And he would come along, and my daddy didn't talk much. He'd just come along behind me and he'd straighten it up. He'd say, you did this wrong, you did this wrong. I mean, he never told me much about what I did right. But He knew how to show me how to do it right. He didn't tell me, but He would show me how to do things right. And God, our Father, shows us and tells us how to do things right. And then He blesses us when we follow His commands. You say, what? I just don't know about that separation stuff. And I've tried it before, and I just don't know. That's just it. You just tried it. You didn't do it. You just do it. It's not a, it's not, okay, here's a list of things. It's not like you're passing a test, you're in high school, you're in school, and you're passing, you know, well, if I get 70% of it, I passed, right? God wants it all right. If you understand it, once the Holy Spirit has revealed it to you, and you know that's what you need to do, And every time you don't do it, you fail. You know, I did these nine things, right? Just this one thing, you fail. You fail. Because you know you did that wrong. Those of you here that have kids, are you not delighted when your kids do right? Sure you are. Sure you are. If you're any kind of parent at all, and your kids do right, boy, it makes you feel good inside, and you want to bless them, and you want to do for them. But when they do wrong, you're not much of a parent. You just say, if you don't correct them, if you don't tell them where they did wrong, if you don't show them where they did wrong, and they continue to do wrong, then you have to correct them, and there has to be some chastisement. You don't want to do that. I never enjoyed... My son told me just recently, he said, you used to say this, and he said, I never understood it, and I thought it was just something you said. He said, but you always said it hurts me where it hurts you. Well, he knows what I mean now. He got a two-year-old and a four-year-old, and that two-year-old's got a spirit. She's got one, I tell you. They got easy with the first one. They got a little training under the belt, and that second one come along. So he put them to the test. But God wants us, just like you want your children to obey and to do right, God wants us to do right. Then we'll receive power from prayer. This page turned here. James 5, 16, a very familiar scripture. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It did not say the effectual fervent prayer of a man availeth much. It said a righteous man. If you're living right. I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and God don't answer my prayer. How are you living? God's not obligated to answer your prayer if you're not living right. He might. He can. But He has no obligation to if you're not living right. Acts 4 and 31, And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Shaken. That doesn't mean the spirits. That means the building was shaken. From the power of God. Could you imagine, I'll tell you what, if everyone in this building tonight was filled, filled with the Holy Ghost, I'd believe the building was shaken. I'm not saying that as a What am I trying to find here? I'm not saying that like the building was shaking. I mean the building was shaking. We can press toward the mark. Philippians 3.10. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehend of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's Paul. After all Paul's already done, he's saying, I press toward the mark. That's not a newborn Christian saying, I press toward the mark. It's Paul saying he's pressed toward the mark. And sometimes Christians get to the point where they, as Paul's saying, I haven't apprehended, they get to that point, they have apprehended. They've reached that level where they say they're in some kind of, they think they're in some kind of shekinah glory or something where they just stay in that one bubble for the rest of their Christian life. Paul said, no, you've got to keep pressing toward the mark. You've got to keep going on. You've got to keep learning. You've got to keep praying. You've got to keep working. You've got to keep doing. You've got to keep pressing toward the mark. William Carey said of himself, now he accomplished great things. He said in a sermon, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. And he did that. And William Carey was not somebody that was born again one day, called to preach the next day, and was a great preacher the next day. It took him a while. He was a very smart man. But it took him a while. His first message was a complete failure. And he went and preached at a preacher's fellowship. And he had a message all prepared and he was going to tell them, somebody needs to go into different countries of the world and missionaries need to go out and take the gospel. And they laughed at him. It just wasn't going on. Nobody was doing that. But he went back later and preached a message called a deathless sermon. And he used that phrase, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. and the Missionary Society was formed. He was sent to India. But he said, after all, he translated the Bible into many different languages. He was there seven years and began to teach that language in the college. He didn't know that language when he got there, but seven years later, he was teaching that language in the college. He was teaching teachers of that language in the college. And he was doing that to be able to translate the Bible into many different languages there. And all that work, he said, he said, I'm just a plotter. I just plot. He said, if you're ever going to say anything about me, just say I plot. I just keep going. In other words, he said, I just keep pressing toward the mark. I just keep pressing toward the mark. You've heard this expression, winners never quit. As long as you're pressing toward the mark, and God does, you're a winner. You say, well, I'm not accomplishing too much. Are you headed in that direction? Are you plotting? Are you attempting great things for God? Are you trying to do what God wants you to do? You're a winner. You stop, you're not winning anymore. When you attempt great things for God, when you press toward the mark, You're winning and the devil's losing. Every time. You don't have to be a great theologian. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. Just keep pressing toward the mark. You've got the Holy Spirit in you. You're reading the Bible. You're praying. You're coming to church. You're learning what God wants you to do. And then you're just doing the best you can to get that done. As I said, when David got there to the giant, It was his decision was to do it. There was no question what needed to be done. That giant needed to come down. But somebody had to do it. Elijah used the expression, how long halts you between two opinions? If there's something that you know God wants you to do, and you're not doing it, you're halted between two opinions. I need to do it, but I hadn't done it. I need to do it, but I hadn't done it. If you need to do something, just do it. If you know what it is, and if you don't know what it is, then you need to find out what it is. Pray, go to church, read, all those things we talked about, you do those things, but ask God to show you what he would have you do. And he'll show you what he'll have you do. I'll tell you, my wife knew me, I guess the only one here that knew me before I was a preacher. She had no idea, I promise you. Nobody in my church at that time had any idea that I would ever be preaching. I was the shyest person in church. I'm the shyest person in this room. Really, I am. Without the Lord. I'm the shyest person in this room. We stand to our feet.