I'd love to answer any of the questions that you have. I titled this message, Decisions That Impact Eternity. Decisions That Impact Eternity. And then I also wrote underneath that, I wrote, What has God given you that you have yet to receive? What has God given you that you have yet to receive? We'll start in verse 1, Numbers 13, verse 1. It says, And the hand of the Lord was... I'm sorry. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou... Let me put these glasses on. Maybe I can see better. Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their father shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. Then let's skip down to verse 17. It says, and Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said unto them, get you up this way southward and go 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, few or many. And then we'll skip down to verse 26. It says, And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron, unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran and Kedash, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said, we came unto the land, whether thou sentest us, and surely it floweth 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 Achan there, and 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 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 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 saw it are men of grace. of great stature, and there we saw the giants, the sons of Achan, which come of the giants, and we in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. And so we were in their sight. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you again for tonight. God, I just pray that you'd clear my mind. God, help me to say something tonight that would be encouraging to your people. God, I pray if there's one here tonight that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, that tonight would be their night that they would come to know you as their Savior. God, we love you. Thank you for this great church, their pastor. I pray that you would just bless the service. And God, that we would leave here different than we came in. God, we love you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. What? What has God given you that ye have yet to receive? What has God given you that ye have yet to receive? Israel had already left Egypt. They had left slavery, got out of slavery, and they're wandering around. Now they're wandering around for a couple years, and they get to the River Jordan there. And right across the river is the promised land. Right across the river is the land that God had given them. And the Bible says it's clearly that he gave it to them in verse two. And in verse one, he speaks to Moses and he tells him, get some guys, take them across there and see how the land is. So he gets 12 men and he sends them across the river and they get over there. And what was their job? Their job was to see if how the land was. And when they came back, they told him that, man, it is blessed. It has got all this. Look at the fruit that we brought back. And look at these things. They have got everything over there. But they also wanted to see, in verse 18, you can see he asked at the bottom part, it said, whether they be strong or weak, few or many. And you know, God already knew how the land was. When God told them to go over there, I think it's really just a test for them to go over there and get their perspective on things and see how the land is. He said, are they strong? Are they weak? Are they a few? Are they many? And they came back and they said, the walls are around the cities. They're strong. The men are giants. And it almost looks like an impossibility to go into this land. That was the perspective of several of the people that went there, 10 of the 12 that went over there, they had a negative view of the land. Years ago, when I was in Rogers, Arkansas, I came back from Bolivia. We had to make a hard choice about where we were gonna be. We were praying about starting another church there in Bolivia. And this was when my wife Angie was really sick and we were praying and praying and praying and just couldn't get peace about anywhere to start a new church. And I remember my pastor, he said, why don't you pray about starting a Spanish church here in the United States? And we said, well, we enjoy being missionaries. There's missionaries that have been called to the field that don't want to go. And we're called and we want to be here. And he said, you know, just pray about it. So we began to pray about it and seemed like God was shutting all the doors in Bolivia. And we had a green light to come here and start a Spanish church in the United States. So we came back and we started a Spanish church in Rogers, Arkansas. And during that time was whenever my wife passed away. And looking back, I can just see the hand of the Lord in all of it because he was so good to my family. Allowing my my wife that passed away to have an opportunity to be around family and those things we didn't know that she was going to be Passing away like that at that time and also my mother had passed away two months before my wife did and so I just see the hand of God on all that the grace of God and being on all that. But during that time, I remember a pastor called me and he said, Brother Elsie, we have a bus. And if you would like to use it, if you would like to have it, just come get it. It was just a few hours away. And so we went and we got that bus and we brought it back to Rogers. We began to pick up a lot of people in that bus for the Spanish church. And a lot of people that rode on that bus got saved. A lot of people got involved in the church and they're still in the church. I just preached its 10th anniversary a couple weeks ago, and the church is doing great. But, you know, if we would have never, if that pastor would have given me the bus, if I would have never driven up there and picked up the bus, we would have never gotten the blessings out of that bus if we wouldn't have went and got it. if we wouldn't have taken it, the possession of that bus. And, you know, I think there's some things that God has given us that he has, you know, has given to the world and many people have yet to receive what he's given you. Tonight, I'm gonna just lay this $5 bill right here, and that's for any of y'all. Anybody that would like to have that $5 bill can have it. It's a gift, it's to you. Anybody? Any takers? I don't, you know, I mean, I can up it, you know. Maybe if I stick a $100 bill there, somebody might come and get it. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Oh, well, I'll leave it there. I'll leave it there. If my son Nicholas was here, he would have already came and picked that up. One thing that I think that God has given to the world, and many have not received it, is eternal life. Eternal life. Just like I offered that $5 bill, and I'm sure somebody's going to get it before the night's over, but that $5 bill was offered to everybody, and nobody has responded. Nobody has responded. God has offered eternal life to the world. It's not just to the United States or Bolivia or to whatever. He has offered it to everybody. And many people, even though that He has offered it, have yet to come to the place in their life where they have accepted the gift that He has offered. Man, he is so close. I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna give it to him. There you go. Amen. The Bible says in John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 10.10 says, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and destroy, I am come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Romans 6 23 it says for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord God has sent his son that paid the price for our sin and Has has forgiven us of our sin and it's it's offering eternal life for anybody in the world that wants it and Several weeks ago about a month ago a little over a month ago. I was out in that village that is say hi Indians And I was just watching the people out there when they're speaking. They're all speaking their own language But I was I was just watching those people and I saw these two little kids back there Playing and they didn't have any clothes on they were little bitty kids, but they were they were just dirty I mean from head to look like they were having a blast and and just dirty, playing in the dirt. And I looked at one of my friends, we're way out in the middle of the jungle. And I said, you know, when Jesus went to the cross, he was thinking about those two little boys. When he went and was hanging on the cross, he was thinking about them. He was thinking about, I'm giving my life for those boys out there in the middle of the jungle that doesn't have any hope. And you know, I think so many people, they realize that Christ died on the cross, that Jesus gave his life for, I mean, you walk around Bolivia and people believe in God, people believe that Jesus died on the cross, and many believe that he rose again from the dead, but that doesn't mean that they're saved. So many people. have been extended a gift, and they have not taken it. They have not taken it. That gift is free. I believe that we must have faith in God that He can save us. My pastor, Pastor Roger Hoots, was in someone's house the other day and was speaking to a man and sharing the gospel with him. And the guy felt just unworthy to be saved. He felt like God couldn't save him because of all the things that he had done in his life. Have you ever talked to anybody like that, that just felt like, that, you know, I just can't, I don't know if he can save me. Well, we need to have faith that God can save us. It doesn't matter who you are, God has the power to save you. Romans 10, verses 9 and 10, it says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has risen from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. God has the power to save anybody. In a few weeks, I'm hoping to have opportunity to speak to my father-in-law, it's not my ex-father-in-law, it's Angie, my wife that passed away, it's her dad. We've been praying for him almost 25 years. and to get saved, and he's not saved yet. Now he's diagnosed with a cancer, and they give him a very short time to live. And I'm hoping I get to talk to him, but he's a very hard man. But God has the power to save him. God has the power. We ought to have the faith and believe that God has the power to save and that not only can he save, but he will save. For anyone that calls out, the Bible says in Romans 10, 13, it says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It doesn't say maybe, hopefully. It says you shall be saved. Amen? And so He will save you if you call out to Him and repent of your sins and ask Him to come into your heart and life. I see a lot of people pray prayers and ask God to save them, and then I never see a change in their life, no desire to serve God. I really feel like if somebody asked Christ into their life, there's gonna be a change in their life. I believe, just like a friend of mine that's in Tennessee, he's a big man. He'd fill a doorway. He says, you know, if I slept in your bed, your bed would never be the same. If I ate breakfast at your house, it would be noticeable. I'd eat a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon and it would be noticeable. And he said, it just wouldn't be the same. And that's the same way if God enters the life of a person, God is gonna make a change in our life. We'll never be the same, amen? Not to say that we won't mess up and those things, but there's a different desire in our heart after salvation. And so God can save you, He will save you, and then we gotta believe, we gotta have faith that He did save us, that He did save us. How many people walk around nowadays, they walk around with questioning, am I saved or am I not saved? We've got a lot of people in churches across America, and even in good Baptist churches, where people are questioning if they're saved or not. They don't know if they're saved or not. The Bible says in John 5, 24, it says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. half everlasting life, you don't have to wait to the end of your life to figure out if you're saved or not. The moment that you received Christ, He gave you everlasting life, amen? And so you can have that assurance. And then it says, shall not come into condemnation. You're never to be condemned again. When you were born into this world, you were condemned to hell, but because of the salvation, we now will never be condemned again. says that you were dead spiritually and now you're alive. God can save you, He will save you, and He did save you if you're saved today. What has God given you that you have yet to receive. What has God given you that you have yet to receive? If you're not saved tonight, I want you to know that eternal life is yours. All you have to do is claim it. All you have to do is receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, repent of your sins, and ask Him into your life, and He will come in and change your life. Number two, tonight is, I believe another thing that we have many have yet to receive is the plan or the purpose for our life. The plan or the purpose for our life. You know, it's not the plan or the purpose for you to come to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and go out on visitation and that just be, that's the whole plan. There's more to it. God has a greater plan for each one of our lives, and it may be that you're that light at your job, in a job of just maybe a sea of lost people, that you're that light, you're that beacon that you shine there and that you show a godly example, but maybe your purpose, your plan for your life is different. I remember when God called me to preach, I was 23 years old. My dad was a pastor in Houston, Texas, and I remember when he called me to preach, I couldn't hardly read in English. 23 years old. I'm very dyslexic. You know, I'd say things backwards, read things backwards. I always had to tell people I do have a King James Bible, because sometimes I leave out words, I add words and different things, but I could hardly read in English, and I thought, Lord, how in the world are you gonna use me? You know, that's kind of like those people not going into the promised land because they begin to see these giants there. They begin to see obstacles that might confront them when they're in the promised land. We shouldn't allow the obstacles to keep us from doing the will of God in our life. I just said, Lord, if you want to use me, if you can use me, here am I. I went to Bible college. God helped me in reading. God helped me during that time out of Bible college. I started Gospel Light Baptist Church in Rogers, Arkansas. Just several years ago, I got to preach their 20th anniversary. They're running over 500. The Lord has blessed the church, How many people God has called them to a purpose, a plan, and they have yet to respond? They have yet to respond. You know, I remember as I was pastoring that church, and God was blessing, and then God came knocking at my door about going to Bolivia. And I thought, Lord, I don't even know my own language. I don't know grammar. I still don't know grammar. I know how to speak English, but I don't know grammar. And you know, it scares me. I remember, Lord, if that's what you want, that's what I'll do. I'll go to Bolivia. I resigned the church and I told them I'd stay until we got a new pastor. That didn't take very long to replace me, I mean. And so we got a new pastor. I left, started deputation, raised our support. Then I was going to a language school. That language school was supposed to be for a year on the border of Texas and Mexico. There were several hundred people studying Spanish there. I was studying, supposed to be for a year. After three months, the president of the college called me in, or the institute called me into his office, and he said, Brother Elsie, he said, I really think you should pray about going to a different country. And I was thinking, why is that? And he said, I don't think you're gonna speak Spanish. And I thought, you know, this guy didn't call me to Bolivia. This guy didn't call me into the ministry. And so what we did, and really I wasn't catching it. They're trying to teach me English and using nouns and adverbs and whatever those things are. You know, they're using all this stuff and I have no idea what they're talking about. And so it wasn't working for me. After three months, instead of staying a year, I quit and we moved to Bolivia. We moved out in the jungle and we began to talk to the people and try to minister to the people. I remember there came a day and I was just like, we're just gonna have to start the church. If I wait until I know Spanish, we'll never start. So we started the church. We had 126 the very first day. I had to read how to tell them, thanks for coming. I didn't know how to, it was hard. It was difficult. And I just want to tell you that sometimes being in the middle of the will of God is difficult. There are some giants that'll come along, there are some difficulties, some obstacles that will be there, but there's nothing better than being in the middle of God's will. That first day we had 126 and we had 11 people come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. God bless that work. And now, I mean, they texted me the other day and said, you know, Pastor, last week we had 185 people in our churches there in Rivadava, and God's just doing great things. Great things. But much of the time, we allow obstacles to keep us from doing the will of God. God has a plan and a purpose for your life. God has a direction for you. And I remember going into a church. We were trying to find a good church to go to on Sunday morning. We were traveling to a church on Sunday night. And I saw a sign that said, Hopewell Baptist Church, off of 45, going towards Dallas. And I said, well, let's just go to Hopewell Baptist Church this morning. So we started going down this road, and we saw another sign, Hopewell Baptist Church. We went down another road, and another road, and another road. We finally get way out in the country, and we find Hopewell Baptist Church. And when we walk in there, I think I was the only one in a suit. The pastor was in a western shirt and cowboy pants and boots. And he said, are you a preacher? And I said, yes, sir, I'm a missionary. And he said, well, could you give us five minutes this morning? And I said, yes, sir. I told him about Bolivia. This was while I was on deputation. And I told him about Bolivia. And this man was in his 70s. I think all the people had their Sunday overalls on. And he was in his 70s. And after church, we began to talk, and he just began to weep. He said, you know, whenever I was 18 years old, I went to Brazil. And while being in Brazil, God laid it on my heart to be a missionary in Brazil. And He said, I came back to the United States after six months of being in Brazil to come back and do what I needed to do to be a missionary there. And people discouraged me and told me that it was not possible for me to be a missionary there. And He said, you know, I'm getting close to meeting my Savior. And I know I didn't go where He wanted me to go. He said, you know, I'm pastoring a church. He said, you know, God has used us here. But I know that God called me to Brazil and I didn't go. And he was just weeping. How many people have been, God said, teach a Sunday school class, run a bus route, do some ministry, And they allowed obstacles to keep them from doing the ministry that God had for them. These people, they never went into the promised land. They wandered around 40 years. 40 years. Everything they needed was in there. All the riches, all the blessings. Like I told you earlier tonight, I feel like right now in my ministry, in my personal life, in my ministry, I feel like God has just opened up the windows of heaven and just began to pour it out. And just seeing blessing after blessing and just great things happening. Great things happening. But you know, it's in that land that he has for you. are those blessings. Not to say there's not difficulties. Many maybe didn't go because of unbelief. You know, Caleb, he was like, hey, let's go. We are stronger than them. We have God on our side. Sometimes we forget that. Then lastly is tonight. You know, I think God has given us an amount of time on this earth to accomplish something for Him, and many of us are wasting it away. We haven't taken advantage of the time He's given us. We haven't, you know, many people, they spend so much time on this thing, they, you know, all day long, they're looking and, you know, just wasting time. Wasting time. Whenever, you know, they say on a tombstone, they put your day you were born and the day you die, and that hyphen in the middle is just everything that took place between that time. You're in that time right now. And what are you doing for God? What is it that you're doing that is making a difference for God? He's given us an allotted time. And each of us, it's different. Each of us have a different amount of time, but I believe He's coming back soon. I mean, you just look at the times, and I know they've been saying that for a long time. He's coming soon, amen? But I believe it's closer. I know it's closer than it was yesterday. And so, you have an opportunity. An opportunity. We'll sit at the dinner table and everybody's talking to somebody in another part of the world when we're missing out on opportunity with our family. We're missing out on opportunity of teaching our kids something or opportunity of telling the man or the woman at the gas station about Christ. We're missing out on opportunities. The gift that God has given us that many people have not embraced, not taken. And that's time. They wasted 40 years walking around. You know, you only have one life to live for Him. I got here to the United States and I was, one thing that I like about America is the food. I don't like Bolivian food. I eat Bolivian food, but I don't like Bolivian food. Thank the Lord for my wife that makes American food in Bolivia. I mean, but I love the food here. But after being here two weeks, I had gained over 10 pounds. I mean, I was eating Shipley's like crazy, you know, just eating anything, everything. And it was good. And then I was like, I have to control this. I'm going to have to buy all new clothes if I keep going this direction. I'm going to be here for a few months. And I started a diet. And last week, last two weeks, I've been in missions conference every single day. All the good food, all the good things. The first week, because it was my home church and I was staying there, I was able to cook what I wanted. And then last week, I was at Capital City Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, and they had a lot of stuff. And I wasn't able to do everything to my diet. So Friday, when we left there, I told my wife, I said, I'm starting again. I'm getting up where, you know, and I'm starting another missions conference tomorrow. And so, but I'm starting again. And then yesterday, my wife throws a birthday party for my grandson. And they have cupcakes and Chick-fil-A and all this good stuff. And they're eating these cupcakes with the, you know, the, what is it, the cream cheese icing on top. And I was struggling. I was struggling. But I made the decision, I'm not going to eat it. This morning when I opened the refrigerator at the church to get a water, cupcakes. I made this decision, I'm not gonna eat it. We need to make a decision to serve the Lord. When we think about, sometimes we hear a great message, we get excited, we want to jump into God's will, do God's will, but we're slow about making a decision. For a diet, most of the time it starts on Monday or tomorrow. You know, at the first of the year, we're going to start that diet again. You know, the gyms are full at the first of the year. A couple of weeks pass, and then everybody's got a gym membership, but nobody goes. When are you going to get started doing what God has placed on your heart? We have a great vision for Riba Dauta. Huge vision, but you know what excites me about that our big vision about Riva Delta does not scare God He is not saying. Oh, that's a little bit too large That is too much When are you gonna start doing what God has for you and your family and and Making a decision, you know Paul, he said, I have finished my race, my course. He was saying, I'm at the end and I'm ready to see the Lord. Are you to that point tonight? Or would you be like one of our kids when we tell them to clean their room and I'll be home in a couple hours and you start pulling up in the driveway and now they're throwing everything in every corner that they can under the bed, in the closet and all that because they're not prepared? I think God has a gift for this world. And we need to share it with everybody and that's eternal life. He has a purpose for each of us, and He has a time for us to get it done. I'll finish this, or I'll give you this illustration and quit. You know, there in Bolivia, I mean in our church there in Ribadalta, in Bolivia, our church in Rogers, Arkansas, the Spanish church that we had, We, every Wednesday night, we would take up prayer meeting. We would have a prayer meeting. We would ask, you know, does anybody have a prayer request? And because it was a Spanish church, we had people saying, pray for my mom in Ecuador, pray for my brother in Honduras and Guatemala and Mexico and all these different countries. These people were from everywhere. And most of them were saying, Pray that God would send somebody to tell my uncle or my mama or my aunt or my brother or my sister about Christ. Most of the prayer requests were like that. That God would send somebody. And you know, I remember years ago when God began to knock at my door about Bolivia. He began to knock at my door, and I just wonder who was on their knees saying, God, would you send somebody to my mama in the jungles of Bolivia? And God says, I got just the person. I just got just the person to go there. He may not be the most intelligent, but I got the person to get the job done. If he would just submit to my will, God's knocking on my door. And I said, Lord, if that's where you want me to go, I'll go. You know, I think there's some people around this world that have some family in Houston, Texas. And their family's saying, God, would you send somebody to my mama or my brother or my sister or my aunt? And God's saying, I got just the person. They're next door neighbors to this person. Or they go in and buy coffee from this person every day. They work with this person. If they would just submit to my will, I could do a work in the life of your mother or your father or your aunt or uncle. There's no better place than to be in the middle of God's will. Israel, the children of Israel missed out on so much because they never went into the promised land. What's holding you back? What's holding you back? Well, I can't speak the language. Well, I just can't teach us. I can't speak in front of people. I can't. Stop saying I can't and allow God to do what only He can do.