Great, thank you. Sure is good to be with you. As I look over here, Dr. Scovel was my men's chorus director back in the day. He tried to get me to, tried to teach me to sing, but I passed because the back of my shoes were as shiny as the front of my shoes, and he said he liked that, so he passed me. It is good to see you. It's good to be here. It reminds me of my early days at this college I went to, Maranatha, back in those early days, and how we praise the Lord for what God is doing here. We support Ambassadors, one of the two schools we do support, and praise the Lord for Ambassador Baptist Bible College. Ron Comfort, good friend of mine. I love this guy, too. Is he still here? Yeah, there he is, right there. Yeah, I appreciate so very much his ministry and we're looking forward to being together this fall at our Teachers' Convention, Great Lakes Teachers' Convention. He'll be speaking there. My wife, Kathy, and I have been married for 47 years. Kathy, if you'll please stand. There she is, and she's the writer of the book, All This in Heaven Too. Tell you a little bit more about that a little bit later. But it is a great book. She would write, email her Sunday school class on Saturday nights, and send them an email, encourage them to get out, be faithful to God on Sundays, and put some of those together, and you'll enjoy the book, I'm sure. Then my son, Clint, Clinton Douglas Jackson, there he is. He's strong, he's tall, and he's handsome, all right? And he's a character and a half, really. He takes after his mother in many ways. Yeah, somebody, I was preaching, I was preaching for Vanderman, and I was telling the folks how Clint saw the first episode ever of the Beverly Hillbillies. I've never seen a full episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. If you've seen a full episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, raise your hand right now and get a demerit, okay? And so we get home and all of a sudden in the mail here comes every episode of the Beverly Hillbillies on DVD. And so Clint opens it, oh this is great. And so he watches one of them and of course Kathy and I, we're not gonna watch it, it's just ridiculous. But anyway, that night he comes in, every night now for 34 years. I have twin daughters, matter of fact I've got pictures of them right here, here's my twins. There's Kathy and the twins right here. Can you see that? It's better if you know the guy before you start listening to him, don't you think? Yeah, right there. There's my wife in the middle and my twins. One's married to Aaron Wilson, Camp Kobiak, and he's the director there. And the other one's married to Daniel Bonner, and he's my principal and assistant pastor at our church. Here's my grandchildren. There's five grandchildren right there. Can you catch that back there? Need these? Need these? All right. And then, I always get a little choked up whenever I show this one. It's my pride and joy. This is a 35 pound salmon I caught. Anyway. So every night, Clint comes in, and I appreciate Clint so very much. My girls, they marry people they hardly knew. Clint stayed with me all these years, and I appreciate that. Thumbs up over there. And so he comes in, and he comes over to my side of the bed, and he gives me a kiss, and he says, goodnight, father. I love you. Then he goes to Kathy's side of the bed, and he says, or he comes to your side of the bed first. Anyway, he comes to my side of the bed, and then to Kathy's side, and gives her a kiss. I love you, mother. Okay, so after watching this, he comes to my side of the bed, and he says, goodnight, Uncle Jed. So I know what he wants, all right? I say, goodnight, Jethro, okay? And so he goes to Kathy's side of the bed, gives her a kiss, and he says, goodnight, Granny. He goes around the bed. Kathy was so, she's up in the bed just like this. What do you mean, granny? How about Ellie Mae? Mm-mm, granny. But anyway, so you have a chance to meet Clint. If he doesn't know your name, he may just give you a name. He also likes the Ponderosa, so he may give you one of those names. It was a little embarrassing. We were at a church, and I said, now, how about this pastor? What do you call him? He said, Hopsing. But anyway. Take your Bibles and turn to Numbers chapter 13, Numbers chapter 13, Numbers 13. Let's all stand, we're just gonna read a couple verses out of Numbers chapter 13. Numbers 13, starting with verse number 26. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel and to the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh 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 into the land where thou sendest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and 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 Jesuitsites 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. And to 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 a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own side as grasshoppers, and so we were in their side. And all the congregation leapt 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 unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in the wilderness? And wherefore hath the Lord brought us up unto 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 the children of Israel. Heavenly Father, I pray now that you'd bless the reading of your word. I pray, Father, you would use your word to encourage our hearts today, to edify us, Father, to energize us as we have opportunity to serve you. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Moses sent 12 men to look over Canaan land, the Bible tells us in Numbers 13, 17, to spy out the land, the promised land that God had promised them. They went over there to look over the land, and then they came back with this report, this dismal report. All Twelve went over, they all saw the same thing, but ten came back with a very negative, negative report on this exploratory expedition. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, gave a different report. Joshua and Caleb's report was energetic. Joshua and Caleb's report was positive. Joshua and Caleb's report was full of faith. They had trusted God. They said, let's go now. Let's go. God has given us this land. Let's go up against these giants, against all this opposition, and let's go take the land for our God. Why the difference? Why the difference between the 10 and the 2? They were both in the promised land. They saw things in the promised land, but they saw things differently. You know, on our way here, we stopped by a mall. How many of you are married? If you're married, okay. Sometimes when you're married, you do things you don't want to do. Did you understand that? Let me say that one more time for some of you guys that aren't married yet and you're dating. Sometimes you do things you don't, like I don't like going to malls. And could I hear an amen there? A very weak amen. That's too bad. Way too many snowflakes here. No, okay. Let's have a stronger amen on that next time so I have some backing, what I'm about to say here. But going to the mall with my wife, when she goes shopping, we see things differently. Just like the 10 spies saw things differently than Joshua and Caleb. See, I see parking problems. I see crowds. I see germs. I see hard floors. I see lack of manners. Think about it just for a second. I see, many times, it's like a circus. I mean, have you ever gone and just looked at people in the mall? Too hot? Too cold? Not enough chairs? Unsafe, dangerous, maybe, you know, you look around, you think about, what do you mean unsafe? Where do you think they got the word mall from? Too many sales people bugging you? Too frustrating? She can shop all day and not buy one thing. That is frustrating me. When I need something, I know the store, I know where it's at. Sometimes I'll call ahead and have them set it on a counter. I mean, it's there. Just looking, honey, I'm just looking. Man, I've got to tell you, I've been through three cups of coffee. I've got the big pretzel already down with lots of cheese. I've had a dozen of those very expensive cookies. I've had the Chinese special. And my wife, what does she see? She sees specials. Opportunity. She sees percentage off. She sees coupons. She has visions of how people, when they open those gifts, they will just say, wow, this is wonderful. This is exactly what I was looking for. She realizes someday she's going to be able to tell the sisterhood of shoppers that this is a really good deal, and they'll all squeal with delight to hear the good deal that she had. She tells them of the great deals. She sees savings. I see suffering. 12 of them all saw the same things. 10 of them saw just suffering. and two of them saw the sufficiency of God. God will give us this. See, Joshua and Caleb, they were looking in the land of milk and honey with eyes of faith. They were looking at the fruit of their faith. They were looking not at failure, but at taking what God had given them. They looked at it differently because of faith. Tell the person next to you. They looked at it differently because of faith. Go ahead, tell them. All right, great. The giants were a threat to the ten. But to Joshua and Caleb, they were just an obstacle that God would take out of the way. because God had told them, this is your promised land. In verse 13, excuse me, there's a great statement of faith by Caleb. Let's look at it one more time together. The Bible says, 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. This verse shows the importance of faith and what faith can produce. First of all, I see in this verse of scripture, Caleb is saying faith produces peace. The Bible says that Caleb stilled the people. There was a calmness. We sang about it the last song we sang, the last verse. Why did they need calming? Because the others had caused a riot-typed atmosphere and their convincing unbelief had convinced many of them. And when you're around people who are always negative, pretty soon you're gonna be negative. Unless you step up and say, let us possess this promised land at once. There's no reason for us to be negative. We have a mighty God in heaven who will help us in all the situations of life. They were upset, they were afraid, they were panicking, they were doubting, they were disbelieving God, who had brought them out of Egypt, out of the miry clay, through the Red Sea, had let them, fed them. They were now on the threshold of promised land and they were panicking, they were anxious, they were doubting God. But Caleb said, let us go up at once and possess the land. Caleb gave a report of faith. And that report had a calming effect for a moment on the people. He stilled the people, the Bible says. Faith has that effect. If you believe that, raise your right hand and say amen. Amen. But the first step of faith has to go toward God. That's right. When you put your trust in God, it gives you a peace that relieves pressure, like the pressure valve on an air compressor. it's done. Or like a boiling pot when you pull the lid off. It lets out that pressure. Listen, you can have peace even when you have a bad quiz. You can have peace even when you have a bad test. You can have peace when you have a bad speech. You can have peace when you have a bad date. You had a bad date lately, buddy? Have you had a date? I was afraid of that. You're a sharp guy, too. Yeah, you did a good job, yeah. Looking back at the girls right now, some of them are hanging their heads because they did not take advantage of you. It's fine. How many of you girls have had a bad date? Let me see your hands. I mean, you got a really bad, bad day. Doesn't have to be a bad date, since you've never had a date, you wouldn't know a bad date. But since we look at this, or as we look at this, we can see His focus was different than their focus. Caleb and Joshua, their focus was different than the 10 spies. And they had great peace. You know, take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 26, verse number three. Isaiah 26, verse number three. That will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. I understand why things went bad, you may say. Well, why did this happen to me? Why am I facing this giant in my life? Well, trust in the Lord, lean upon his everlasting arms. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 3, 5, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding, but all thy ways acknowledge him. I'm going to keep on trusting God. I'm going to recognize that God is in control. It's so very important. Listen, is God real to you today? Amen? God is real. And God said, I'm going to help you. You're my child. You've been bought with a price. I'm going to help you. Just like I care for my son, you know it's a blessing. Clint was born with Down syndrome and he knows about 100 scripture verses. And he's just a blessing. I mean, what a blessing, but I care for him. I shaved him this morning. I gave him his haircut on Saturday morning. Every Saturday he gets a haircut, yeah. His mom cleaned his glasses today. His mom tied his tie today. We enjoy helping our son. You think God enjoys helping you, amen? He does. Let God have his way in your life. Let God direct your path. Let God be a part of your life. Listen, there's so many people walking around. I mean, they're like vacuums with their lower lip. I mean, they're just going around so... There's no need for that. God can give us the victory. Caleb. wasn't trusting in himself or even in his strength, or even in the strength of the numbers of the Israelites, but his trust was in God. You know why? Because his mind was set on God. His thoughts were upon God. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about your thoughts being on God? Brother McGowan, is that it, McGowan? I met him last night as I was dragging my suitcases in, all right? Yeah, how many thoughts do you think you have a day? Few thousand? That could be possible for you, but most of us have five to 10,000. You don't feel as bad now, do you? No. Hey, come here, I'll give both of you guys five bucks. Come on over here. There you go. What are you gonna be, a pastor or evangelist? Are you? Is this the guy you were talking about? Oh, okay. All right, and what are you gonna be? Well, you need to start learning how to accept money in a better way. No, no, no, you take it, you take it. Yeah. No, he won't, he doesn't. Not if he books a meeting at my church. All right, now. We have between five and 10,000 thoughts a day, okay? Let's think about that just for a second. Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. I've never worn glasses in my life, but I've had to start wearing them because I had a vein burst in the back of my left eye. And so the only way to take care of that, they say, is to put a needle in there and keep on applying that stuff they put in that needle. But there's all kinds of problems that can happen with that. I went to get the first treatment done, and my blood pressure was too high. Well, my blood pressure's normal all the time, but it was too high, and so he said, I'm gonna have to send you back to your family doctor. So I went back to my family doctor, and my family doctor said, I said, yeah, the specialist said my blood pressure's too high, and he couldn't shoot my eye, couldn't put that needle in my eye, and he said, He said, he was gonna do what? I said he was gonna put a needle in my, he said, well, that's why your blood pressure's high. My blood pressure would be high too. But anyway, 2 Corinthians 10, four through six, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing to captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Think about that for just a second. Then he says, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience with your obedience is fulfilled. Well, obedience, trusting God, the way we think, how's your thought life? You can get involved in negative thinking or you can get involved in positively thinking about what God can do for you. After a person has received the peace or made peace with God, he can certainly have the peace of God. The Bible tells us this. As Paul was writing from Nero's prison, he was telling the church in Philippi, hey, you can have the peace of God. Philippians chapter 4. Take your Bibles and turn there. Philippians 4, 4 through 7. Very quickly, let's look at that portion of Scripture. Yeah, you know about those Scripture verses, don't you? Yeah, you've quoted those scripture verses, or you've written those scripture verses, you understand. But have you applied them to your heart? Do you recognize you can have peace, a peace that passes all understanding? The Bible says in Philippians chapter four, verses four through six, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds Through Christ Jesus. Yeah, the mind, the mind, we've got to make sure it's thinking right. Got to make sure that we're thinking about God and his promises. Instead of letting the problems of the world pound you down. The 10 spies were looking at their resources. They were looking at their size. They were looking at their ability. They was looking at their strength. Guess what? No way, no way. As they weighed all they had compared to the enemies, they left God out of the equation. When you leave God out of the equation, you will become discouraged. You will become defeated before you even start the task. Their thinking was all wrong, and it caused them to doubt, and ready, rebel against God. Caleb didn't focus on the problems, but on the promises of God. Hey, I can see, I remember we were in Egypt, now we're going forward. Yeah, I've seen what God can do. I'm not gonna trust God to whack these giants. It'd be like, you know, it'd be nothing. God's power, God's resources, God's size. What God can do, not what I can do. God knows what we need. God knows and God cares. 1 Peter 5, 7, casting all our care upon him for he careth for you. I think it was Phil Schuller, he had a great illustration. I'm sure you remember Phil Schuller and his illustrations. Talk about this little guy who had a paper route and he was throwing his papers out in the morning. How many have ever had a paper round? A bunch of people have. Well, he was on his bike, had all his papers there on the basket in front and some on his back and he was throwing his papers and he got to this big farmhouse and it said puppies for sale. And so he stopped and straddled his bike and he took the paper and rolled it a little tighter and then he threw it against the door and called for the man of the house. Well, the man came out and he said, son, I just paid you. He said, no sir, I'm not here to collect. He said, but I'm here to inquire about your puppies. He said, I'd like to see your puppies. And so the man said, sure, sure. In just a few moments, he whistled and around the corner of the house came the mother dog and then there's one, two, three, And the fourth little puppy came, but he was dragging his back leg. Something was wrong with him. The boy was really interested in that last puppy. And he said, what's wrong with that puppy, sir? He said, we're not sure. We've taken him to the vet. There's something wrong with his hip. He'll probably never be right. But this puppy here, look at this one, looks a lot like that one. How about this one? How much are they, sir? Well, I'm trying to get $25 for him. He said, would you take 50 cents a week, like for 50 weeks? He said, sure, from you I would. So the little boy's still straddling his bike and he said, well then I'd like that puppy. And he pointed the one with the bad hip. He said, son, you don't understand. I don't wanna sell you that puppy. We're never sure if that puppy's gonna be right or not. How about this puppy? Take this puppy. And he went down and picked it. He said, no sir, I want that puppy. And he reached deep in his pocket and he pulled out the first 50 cents and he starts to hand it to the man and he said, well, son, you don't understand. He said, I think I do. And he pulled up his pant leg and around his pant leg was wrapped iron and leather. He said, I want that puppy. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ knows exactly what we go through. Philippians chapter two, verse number seven, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in likeness of man. Jesus knows our struggles and our problems and the giants we face. So put your faith in him for peace. But secondly, faith produces passion. Faith produces passion. What are you talking about, Pastor? Passion. Yeah, look at it. There was a new intensity that was produced by faith. There was an excitement. He was excited, really excited about getting involved. Let's go up at once, he says, and possess that land to see what God was going to do. Caleb said, let us go up at once and possess the land at once. Speaks of his zeal, speaks of his passion for God's bidding. I love this. God's work, he's fervent. Let's go, let's do it. I like the excitement for the Lord's work. How many like excitement for the Lord's work, amen? I've been to some churches where you walk in, it's Pastor Jack Frost of the First Church of the Deep Freeze. Here are the cold and the frozen. Caleb did not want to procrastinate. Caleb wanted to be prompt about obeying God. Jesus said to Peter, remember this? Lovest thou me? Lovest thou me, lovest thou me, three times, lovest thou, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. Why? Because affection affects our actions. Affection affects our activity. Yeah. Yeah. It's important. You know, faith stirs the heart and gets you moving. Maybe, Winnie, you don't even feel like moving, huh? You found that out? I found that out, yeah. Yeah, it's wonderful to recognize, you know, faith stirs the heart and gets you moving, inspires you, you think about what God can do, but unbelief kills zeal. It kills them for the Lord. The Israelites lacked faith and did not want to move forward. Joshua and Caleb said, let us go up at once. That kind of passion can ignite a church. That kind of passion can get your Sunday school class excited about coming to Sunday school. That kind of passion can excite your youth group where you have young men stepping out and say, hey, I want to do something for God. Young lady saying, I wanna be with him because he's gonna do something for God. Yeah, Christian school. You walk in our Christian school, you see verses along the wall. It's not just a place for education, it's a place to be edified, a place to be inspired to serve God. One of my three senior boys are all going to Christian college next year. I praise God for that. That's what Christian education is all about, getting young people out for the Lord's Word. But you have to trust God. If you can't trust God's Word, you aren't going to take down any giants. You're not gonna go forward for God. You're gonna feel like you're beat down. What kills a relationship? Trust, lack of trust. When you have trust, when you put your trust in God, When you put your trust in God, you go forward for God. When you don't put your trust in God, you backslide. What kills a relationship? The lack of trust. Boy, girlfriend, deal. Matter of fact, if this guy gets a girlfriend today, which I imagine you will, And then he sits at lunch with her, and then two days later, there's another girl that comes up to him. Hey, I saw you in chapel. I really never did recognize what potential you have. And then he starts sitting with that girl. He's gonna be toast. How many girls think he's gonna be toast? Yeah, they're nodding their heads right now. You're toast. Not toast we scrape off either, toast we throw away. But lack of trust, your relationship will be rocky at best, rocky at best. When trust is gone, then there's no passion or lack of passion, lack of excitement. When there's trust, you see her and she sees you. Yeah, the hills are alive with the sound of music. Trust. The opposite of trust is what? Unbelief. Unbelief. Very good. You need five? Here, come on. Get up here and take, learn honors. You know you need five bucks. Yeah, good. What are you going into? The ministry. Yeah, what kind? Pastor? You don't know? That's the plan. All right, great. Take the five. Great, great. You have a girlfriend? Do you have a girlfriend? Does he have a girlfriend? Who are you laughing so hard about? Do you have a girlfriend? You do? Come on up here. Is she here? Huh? Are you the kind of guy that has a girlfriend at home and a girlfriend here? Okay, here's five of you, here. Where's your girlfriend at? Would his girlfriend please raise her hand? Come on up and get a five, come on up. Come back up here, your girlfriend's coming. Right here, stand right here together. Well, I'll have this man to be thy. Here you go. Here you go. Great. How long have you known this guy? August? Anybody else know this guy? Oh, all those girls over there. You never said a word. She's told them all. All right, great. Lord bless you. Amen. Great. Amen. Oh, that's great. That's great. I love it. That's great. Notice next, faith creates a positiveness. Well, let me stop here. Wait, wait, I was gonna tell you, this is a great story. I've shared this before. The lack of trust. A faithful soldier in Afghanistan named Bill received a Dear John letter from his girlfriend back home. Among other things, she wanted her picture back and told him that she loved someone else. That would be untrust. A little miffed, Bill was encouraged by his buddy to respond in an unusual way. His buddy's pitching pictures of girls they had known, and Bill sent the following note to his girlfriend with 20 pictures of other girls. He wrote, Dear Julie, your picture's in the envelope, but I'm sorry that I can't remember which one you are. Please keep your picture and send the rest back to me. With a daring love, Bill. No, I don't think there's a lot of trust there. But anyway, let's go to the third point. Faith creates positiveness. There's a confidence, there's assurance, there's a spirit of boldness that comes from trusting God and having faith in God. If the Israelites acted by faith, they would possess the land flowing with milk and honey, the grapes the size of grapefruits, bigger maybe, pomegranates were beautiful, the figs, wow, it was great. You notice in Numbers chapter 13 verse 23, but, but, There was a lack of faith. It was a lack of faith. They weren't gonna get the good produce. No, they were gonna be involved in 40 years of funerals. Caleb was so positive. Caleb was so full of faith. So trusted God's word. This isn't a selfish positiveness. This is a positiveness that came from trusting in God. putting his faith in God. Unbelief in the 10 spies produced a negative spirit, a critical spirit. It produced a discouraging attitude. It produced a lack of faith, a lack of contentment, a lack of gratefulness. Look at how they're talking about God and Moses and Aaron. They go down, they put their hands in their face, and they can't believe this is happening. As you look at your heart today, Can you find any of these negative things in your life? Negative spirit, critical spirit, discouraging attitude, lack of faith, lack of contentment, a lack of gratitude? Unbelief prevailed with the Israelites, the exception of Caleb and Joshua. All those under 20 and the rest would wander in the wilderness for 40 years and die in the wilderness. They rejected God's word. They rejected God's promises and embrace the words of the critical and the complaining and the unfaithful spies who were murmuring against God. That's where their lack of faith took them. Well, be careful, friend. Don't let the flesh overcome you. Don't have a bad day. You don't need to have a bad day. You can have a bad hair day, but don't make it a bad day. Talking about using color on your hair. I don't use color, but I use 70 mile an hour hairspray on my hair. Fourth, notice faith provided power. Verse number 30. The Bible says, notice Caleb, this is great. This is great. He says, and Caleb still to people before Moses said, let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able. Don't you like that? Well able. Well able to overcome it. How many like that? Do you like that? I like that. I mean, isn't that great? Well able. He wasn't looking because Caleb wasn't. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, he was looking to God. We're able. Yeah, we've been a community now for nearly 41 years. When we went there, the city was running about 135,000 people, Dr. Skoll, and now it's at 44,000 people. Places where there were huge plants are now vacant lots or vacant fields. They've torn down the buildings because they had to pay extra property taxes on it, Brother Joel. But God has been so good. We have the best years we've ever had financially with our missionaries this past year. You know, we praise the Lord, our bus ministry's down a little bit, but we just are praising God for using us, continue to use us in Saginaw, Michigan. We just saw some, I just saw a couple saved the other day, and you know, so it's wonderful. Now, he needs to get baptized, she needs to get baptized, they both need to get married. But, you know, they got saved, and we're working with them. There's a young man who's just graduated from high school last year, 19 years. He just got saved. And his dad came with him, and they were in church now three weeks in a row. And they're doing follow-up work right now. I'm telling you, that shows you God can use you anywhere and everywhere. God's still on the throne, people. God is a God who is powerful. We need to recognize that. And well-able. Faith in God's power, strength that comes by trusting Him. You know, Isaiah 26 and verse number three is a great verse. We all know that verse, but look at Isaiah 26 and verse number four. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. That faith makes us winners instead of losers, smiles instead of frowners. Gives us a calmness instead of a nervousness. Brother Stevens is here. Where's Brother Stevens at? Where's he at? Right back there. How many know Brother John Stevens, Dr. John Stevens? He's a blessing, isn't he? You know, we both have had just a great time together over the years. We've been on some boards together. Matter of fact, can you imagine, they've separated us on those boards and won't let us sit together sometimes. Most of the time it was his fault. What a blessing, what a blessing. You think he's gone through some tough times? Certainly has. His wonderful wife Marilyn, think she's gone through some tough times? Exactly, she has. Married to him? I don't know much to say, my wife too. Faith taps the power of God, walks in the strength of God. Why does he have the walk? Why does he have the testimony he has today? Because he's walked by faith. He's been a Caleb. almost as old as Caleb was at this time. Unbelief, however, makes us weak, leaves us discouraged. We're unable to see what we could do if we trusted in God what God could do and can do when we trust in Him. We're weak no matter how strong we are, no matter how smart we are, we're weak. I love this. I love Cassius Clay. I remember Cassius Clay. Anybody know Cassius Clay? He was the guy that they renamed Muhammad Ali. How many of you know Muhammad Ali? All right, he had Parkinson's and he was a prize fighter and he was also a draft dodger. But anyway, he was in his height of, of, of, Boxing he was quite famous and even more famous at the end of his life. He did some things Especially for Parkinson's and I have a couple folks in my church with Parkinson's one man who is going through a rough time But he was on a plane, and this is when they called the airline people stewardesses. And so he was on this plane, and the stewardess came by and saw Muhammad Ali there sitting in a seat without his seatbelt on. And she said, please buckle your seatbelt. And he retorted, Superman don't need no seatbelt. Then the stewardess said, Superman don't need no plane either. Buckle your seatbelt. When it comes to living our Christian lives, nobody is Superman. Nobody is Superman. We're all utterly dependent upon God and God's power to accomplish God's will. There must be a determination upon our dependency upon Him. You say, well, Yeah, well, does it get any easier? It only gets easier if you put your trust in God. You recognize he's in control, God can do all things. Then you recognize, hey, it's foolish for me to doubt God. Take your Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter six, verse number 10. The Bible says, find him, my brother, and be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Clint has a bunch of action figures. How many of you guys know what I'm talking about? You probably had action figures growing up. How many of you guys had action figures growing up? All right, how many of you girls had action figures growing up? All right, some of you did. Okay, wow, did you check those hands out one more time? All right, no, no, okay. But his action figure is pretty interesting. His action figure's about this tall, and he doesn't have one arm. He only has one arm. The one arm got torn off somehow, but that's his favorite guy, the handicapped guy. And so what he does, he sets up all his other men over here, and then this handicapped guy's over here in his right hand. And he takes this handicapped guy, and he goes through him. Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Now why? Why does this guy always win? Because he's in Clint's right hand. Yeah, he's in his hand. And you know what? When we allow God to take control of our lives, we put ourselves in his hand. Recognize his power. Are you facing some giants? I just don't know how I'm gonna pay my bill. I don't know how I'm gonna get through Greek. I don't know how I'm gonna, I don't know how I'm gonna date three or four girls all this semester since Pastor Jackson brought me my name up. No, seriously. Are you facing some giants? Have you allowed some unfaithful spy to influence you, take you away from a position of faith and blessing? There's a great blessing in Caleb and Joshua's life, because they were obedient to God. Keep the faith, friend. Keep the faith. Live in faith. Live by faith. Live for God. God is on the throne. We have that access, the very throne room of God. I just think that's so great. God would wanna talk to me. And God would wanna take care of me. But then I look and just like I want to take care of my son, he wants to take care of me. Don't walk around another day frustrated and worry. Trust in God. When I was in college, my mom would send me letters and I loved my mom's letters. My dad's letters weren't as good as my mom's letters because my mom's letters always had money in them. But she always signed Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. She always wanted me to recognize I need to lean upon the Lord. I need to get a hold of faith. You need to get a hold of faith, faith that produces peace, passion, confidence, positiveness, and power. The Word of God helped your heart today. It helped your mind. You see how important it is to people. We need people out in ministry today that are saying, you know what? Let us go possess the land today, now. Not with a fake energy, but with an inspirational energy. Knowing God has promised that my labor will not be in vain. Father, I thank you for this time you've given us this morning, for this chapel, for this school, for these young people. I thank you for these young adults. And Father, I pray that you would help us recognize that you are in control, that, Father, you have so much for us, if we'll but tap into your power. Help us, dear God. Help us. Help us to live by faith. Help us to have hearts that are full of peace, hearts that are have a passion, a passion because we know that affection affects activity. Dear God, help us. Help us not be like the rest. I don't care who the rest may be. Father, we don't want to be like the ten. We want to be like the two, and dear God, help us. Help us see there's so much more to our Christianity than just getting by. Father, help us. fresh and anew today see your power. Oh, I thank you, dear God. I thank you for calling me into ministry. I thank you for this opportunity today, and I pray, dear God, that you would use your word to speak to hearts this morning.