The title of the message is, actually I have a few titles to this message. The one title is The Power of Your Presence. And it's not talking about gifts for Christmas. The other title is How to Discourage Your Brothers. I prefer the more positive title, The Power of Your Presence. but both would be right. If you read Numbers 32, one through 23, which I've decided not to read that, but it basically gives us a pattern and the understanding of the power of your presence in anything. Children of Israel had left Egypt under, as you remember well and know the Bible much, left under the power of God, under the hand of God Almighty. The 10 greatest miracles maybe have ever been performed except for what Jesus did, maybe his were even greater. But they're great miracles that were done. And those miracles are, we read in the Bible that one of the reasons for those great miracles we see in the Exodus is to judge the gods of the Egyptians. It wasn't just to show God's muscles. It was to show the Egyptians that all those gods that they had, and they had a whole bunch of them, 10 major ones, were false gods. Once in a while, God comes out of his place and shows the world that he is God, nor is none else. I think we're about due for that again. These 10 great miracles, they took them into the wilderness. I'm thinking somewhere around, you can maybe vary on this, but somewhere around two million to two and a half million people, not including their cattle and all of the animals that they took with them. Big group of people. Moving slow. They slowly went out into the wilderness. came down to the Red Sea, it was an impossible feat to get across the Red Sea, simply impossible. The Egyptians kind of woke up after being beat up badly, eventually losing their firstborn, firstborn of the cattle, firstborn of their families, firstborn, all the firstborn died in Egypt. After they got done with their grief and buried their dead, They said, what do we do? What do we do? We let these slaves, these people who are doing our work for us, we let them go. Let's follow them. So about 600 chariots and the full force of the greatest power on earth at that time began to pursue, went in pursuit of the children of Israel. As they got close to the children of Israel, and the children of Israel understood what was going on there, God placed between the armies of Egypt and Israel a cloud by day and fire by night. They couldn't pass to get in with the children of Israel to conquer them, which they were gonna conquer them and take them back as slaves. God said to Moses, go forward. I love that. Sometimes he tells you to do the same thing when there is no visible possibility of going forward. He says, go forward. Trust me. I like it where it says in the Bible, the reason we have infirmities is so that we'll learn not to trust in ourselves, but in God. I love that. So Moses lifted up his staff, and as you know, the story split the Red Sea. A great wind came that night, I believe, and this is just personal with me, that he froze a path through the Red Sea with frozen water on both sides. And the water, the ground was dry. And they walked through, two and a half million people, two to two and a half million people with all their cattle walked through the Red Sea. The Egyptians could not come to them because of the wall of cloud by day and fire by night. Eventually, they got on the other side and God allowed the Egyptians to pursue them into the Red Sea. And they pursued them with all their might. God killed the entire army of the Egyptians in front of the eyes of the children of Israel. Bible says their dead bodies floated up on the shore. The most powerful military in the entire world at the time was destroyed like that. Now you'd think a group of people like that would believe God, would you not? What is going on? So they come into the Kadesh Barnea They decided to send 12 spies into the land to check it out, to kind of map it out. The modern day seals went in ahead of time and get the things squared away, find out where to go, how to go. They came back and instead of being encouraged by what they saw, 10 of them out of the 12 were so discouraged they gave an evil report and told the children, now this is after they saw what I've just described plus more. He says, we can't do it. We can't do it. They're big, they're tall, they're tough. They're educated in war. Their cities are high. It's estimated that the walls of Jericho, I was over there in 92, walls of Jericho were somewhere around 80 feet tall. of stone or mud, they couldn't get over it. No way you're gonna take Jericho. No way you're gonna take the cities of the coast. Can't do it. We're grasshoppers. We're like little grasshoppers in their sight. And I wanna stop reading the Bible about that time and say, where is your memory? about the God who just destroyed the greatest army in the world before your very eyes and had them float up on the shore. What happened? What happened to them can happen to you. I'm not much into miracles, signs, and wonders. I'm just gonna say this, it doesn't seem to produce a very strong Christian. just by facts. If you won't believe with what God has given you as a witness in the word of God, you won't believe the one came back from the dead. Do you believe this morning? I've had people say to me, if God appeared to me at the end of my bed, I'd believe. According to what I've read in the Bible, the signs and wonders thing doesn't work too good. People today are going after signs and wonders. Give me signs and wonders, signs and wonders. Stop. You've been given all the sign and wonder you need in the Word of God. It's the biggest wonder that you ever grabbed the whole love or ever thought about. It's the old King James Bible. It's a wonder that it's here. And the Spirit of God will testify with your spirit that you are his when you believe in the Christ, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He'll testify to you and you'll know that he's the one. Well, they had come up to Kadesh Barnea. They turned away from going into the promised land, as you know. Caleb and Joshua gave positive reports. The only two out of the 12, the rest of them, They went with a majority vote. They turned around and went back and God judged them and said, everybody 20 and over is gonna die in the wilderness. So 40 years they wandered in the wilderness. Now that was said this morning just to give you a heads up on where we're at in Numbers chapter 32 here. Number 32, they had already conquered the people on the east side of the Jordan River. The Jordan River cuts Israel from top to bottom. And they had conquered all of the east is over here on your vision. So east of the river, they had conquered the two major nations, the Moabites and Ammonites and destroyed them and took their land, their cities and everything. And Gad and, Oh my goodness, Gad and Reuben said, we like the east side of the Jordan so much, we're going to stay here. We're going to leave our cattle here. We're going to take over their cities. We'll leave our wives here. And this is good for cattle and we're kind of cattle people. And so we want to stay here. And let's pick up, let's go to Numbers 32 real quick here and pick up a couple of verses. that Moses replies to them. In verse six, he says, And Moses said unto the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and ye sit here, or if I may say it, stay home? Wherefore, to discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel going over the land which the Lord hath given them. That's our text this morning. I believe that Gad and Reuben had normal intentions of self-preservation and protection. I believe they were trying to play it safe, settle for a second best, because the land that they really were initially given was on the west side of the Jordan River. Moses wanted to go there, didn't let him go. And so, the good is always an enemy of the best. I hope you get that. The good is an enemy of the best. People settle for good rather than having the best. God wants you to have the best. He wanted Gad and Reuben to go over on the other side with the rest of them. That was the original plan. They said, we're not gonna go. We're gonna stay here. And Moses threw a fit. I'm not gonna read it all for you there, but Moses threw a fit. He says, are you gonna discourage your brothers like at Kadesh Barnea? You saw what God did. He took those people from 20 and up and had them all die in the wilderness over a 40 year period of time. And he says, he'll do it to you if you turn away. They said, oh. No, no, no, no, Moses, we didn't talk about, we're gonna leave our children and our cattle and everything, but we as men, we're all gonna gather together from Gad and Reuben and we're gonna go to war with the 10 tribes that are on the west. We're gonna go across the Jordan with you and we're going to war with you. We're not staying home. We're gonna be there with you. And Moses cooled off. He said, well, If you'll do that, you'll be free from transgression. But he said, if you don't do that, and I want you to look in Numbers chapter 32, 23, that's a transposition. I want you to remember this. Numbers 32, 23, it's a transposition. 32, 23. Now you people with their dilexic, you already see it that way. 32, 23, you're gonna remember it. The last part of that verse is a very, very well-known verse, teaches a principle that we all should remember, be sure your sin will find you out. I preach a sermon on the best detective that has ever been, and that's sin. Be sure your sin, the Bible says someday the hidden things of darkness will be revealed. Be sure your sin will find you out. You think you're getting away with it and nobody knows about it. Be sure your sin will find you out. I can do this and nobody will ever bother me. Be sure your sin will find you out. That's not the message. But sure do wanna mention that. Moses, Moses said, why in the world would you discourage your brethren by staying at home when they got a war to fight? I call it the sin of absence. The sin of absence. You have a sphere of influence. Some of you people in this room may think nobody knows you, nobody cares about you, nobody loves you, I'll just eat worms. I mean, some of you may think I don't have any, you don't know, I'm insignificant, I'm not really contributory to what goes on here at the gospel. You are wrong about that. You are wrong about that. If half of you this morning decided not to come, it would in some degree discourage us. Because you have a sphere of influence. You're either an energy giver or an energy taker. I believe your influence can be either way. Have you ever had the experience of being with someone and after about an hour with them you feel totally drained? When you see them coming, you go, you have a sigh of grief and say, oh no, not them. I hope you don't say that when I walk up to you. I'm trying to make that not happen. But then have you ever had the experience of the opposite? Or when somebody walks up to you, you have a little burst of energy and saying, boy, this is gonna be good. We get to be around this person. They're gonna encourage us. They're gonna be an energy giver. Not an energy taker. I've had people come up to me and bled on me for so long, I had to go take a nap. I'm human like you are, I can only take so much negative. Only give me a couple bad things, don't make a list. One guy came in my office one time, and he told me I wasn't fit to be a preacher, which I said amen. I'm not fit to do this. And he said, I have 10 things that I can tell you why you're not fit to be a preacher at the gospel. I said, where's your paper? He said, I don't need one. He had a list of 10 things memorized. And when he got done with it, I said, I totally agree with you. I hugged him and said, I love you, brother, but God's chosen me and I can't get away from it. Isn't that the way Moses felt? He said, try this guy, try that guy, try Aaron, maybe you made a mistake. He's talking to God. I've said those things to God. He must know something I don't, and he does. But anyways, people come up and they're uplifters, they're energy givers. I think of Dr. Heller, Wendell Heller, an energy giver. Dr. V.L. Martin, most of you don't know him, energy giver. Pastor Harry A. McKinney, his initials were H-A-M, ham. If you knew McKinney, he was a ham. That was a joke he told me about himself. Harry A. McKinney, I miss you, old boy. He was an energy uplifter. And there's been hundreds of people I've known through the years, 45 years here, that are energy givers. But I've also known about that the number that will take energy away from you. Which one are you gonna be today? Which one are you gonna be? You have a sphere of influence. We need each other. What we do here at gospel on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night is kind of pep rally. Go team. Scatter out there in the darkness of the world and the wickedness of the world and the discouragement of the world and be a light. Be a soul. Tell them there's something better than what they know. Give them the gospel. Then come back in here on a Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday night and be recharged by the grace of God through the preaching and singing of the word of God and get fired up to go back out there and go Indiana. Oh, you thought I forgot that, didn't you? I didn't forget that. I don't watch sports much. I didn't watch the game and I won't watch the game because we won. I don't need to watch it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to eat alone. I don't want to eat alone. I will eat alone rather than starve to death. but I don't wanna eat alone. One of the reasons I love to go to restaurants and eat, even though it's extremely expensive and awful high and food's not all that good. It's the truth, the food's not all that good, but much better probably eating at home. I like to be with people. I wanna be with people. You don't even have to talk to me, I just wanna be around you. Oh, you don't even have to sit with me. You can sit over there and carry a conversation out with your family, or you can sit over there and carry a conversation with your family, and you can sit over there and you can, I just love to have the conversation and the power of their presence. I lobstered quite a few years, caught thousands of lobsters, and one thing I learned about lobsters is they like each other. They're gregarious. They run around in groups and of course as a lobster catcher, I love that because I wanna catch a big group of them together and take them and help feed the rich. Some people feed the poor, we fed the rich. One year I took home 900 lobster tails to my house. I told my wife, I told my wife, start inviting everybody you know. We gotta get, we gotta eat these up within a year. And we filled our freezer with them. And we had 200 probably people over to our house with lobster. You know, nobody ever turned me down. I'd invite them over for a ribeye. They'd say, I got a doctor's appointment that day. I'm sorry I can't come. I invite them for lobster. They'd say, I'll cancel my doctor's appointment. I'll be over there, preacher. Now, some people are allergic to lobster. I had one guy eat over my house, went to hospital the next night. That's what we bring in, if you don't like the lobster, we'll feed you a hot dog. Earth the bait, hot dog. I gotta be careful. I like to eat with groups of people. What am I trying to say? You have a sphere of influence as a person that you don't really maybe fully understand your power. Animals understand it, they're herders, most of them are herders or gregarious and stick together. And we born again believers need to stick together, not underestimate your influence. Come to church, even if you don't like it. Come and be cheered up by the people around you and cheer them up. See, it's not just one way. It's you cheering me up and me cheering you up and me grabbing your hand and saying, it's good to see you and I mean it. And me and me, we're all on the same side. Let me tell you, we're in a war against the world, the flesh and the devil, against thrones and principalities and powers on high, organized powers of darkness. We have been sent out as born again believers for we are Yeah, we've been sent out as born again believers to go and confront the world with the gospel. They don't like it. That's why they killed Charlie Kirk. What was he hurting? They liked the gospel. Why'd they kill Jesus? What he talked about. What was wrong with what Jesus talked about that he deserved to be crucified? Nothing. As he convicted them of their sin. And men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. They hate the light and won't come to the light, lest their deeds be reproved. That's John chapter three, read it yourself. But we need each other and we need to encourage. There's churches out there today with 15, 20 people that should have 40, 50 people that are writhing in discouragement because people don't understand. I'm talking about born again believers that are part of that body, don't understand the power they have and the influence they have by showing up. It's so important. Moses says, will we go to war while you stay at home? He said, if you do stay at home, be sure your sin will find out. You say, Brother Bill, is it a sin? Is it a sin? The Bible says, he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him is sin. That's what the Bible in the New Testament says. So, I mean, I hate to say this, but if you stay home, in some way you're detracting from what things could be. What things could be. I know sometimes you miss, sometimes you got reasons to miss that are good and all that. And I'm not necessarily hammering on you. I don't talk about this very much, rarely. Because I don't want you to come be out of guilt. I want you to come because you get to come. I want you to come on the whole other side of the spectrum and come because you're excited to come, because you're giving your influence to come. You say, I voted with my feet, I showed up. Well, maybe you didn't do much else, but you showed up, you voted with your feet and you encouraged people to keep on keeping on for the Lord Jesus Christ. The power of your influence. Someday you're gonna need the local church. I don't need local church, someday you will. Someday you're gonna be lonely and you're gonna need them. Someday you're gonna be maybe financially in a place where you need them. Someday you're gonna just need somebody to help you. Maybe come over to the house and change the light bulb. You're gonna need the local church. The local church's function is not just for go out in the world and preach the gospel to every creature, but we help each other. We take care of our widows here at the gospel. Listen, if you're a widow here this morning, or if you're a widow listening to me over the web, and you're a part of Gospel Baptist Church, I can tell you this, we're gonna help you. We got your back. Now you may frivolously spend, and we may tell you not to do that. but we're gonna help you one way or another. We're gonna get behind you. With us alive, you're gonna have food, clothing, and shelter by the grace of God. We're gonna help you. We're gonna put everything we got behind you. You're not alone. We're like the three musketeers. One for all and all for one. That's a local church. Learn to love it. Learn to appreciate it. Learn to contribute to it. In every way you can, contribute to the survival of the local church, wherever it's found that believes the old Bible's the word of God, and help it grow, help it go, help it live. Help it prosper. And when you see Jesus, who died for the local church, You'll be happy you did. You will be happy. What I'm talking to you about this morning is a sure thing. You'll be happy you did. You'll be happy you came. The times you showed up, the times you came, the times you wanted to be an encourager, the times you wanted to see the local church live, when you see Jesus, you'll be glad you did. Are we gonna go to war while you stay home? God forbid. Father, help us this morning. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for its power, its grace. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. If you would like to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, you may contact us at the church website, gospelbaptistchurch.com, or you can go to Facebook and type in Gospel Baptist Church Bonita Springs, Florida. Also, you could call the church office at 239-947-1285. Thank you and God bless.