We need to Burn the Boats

Welcome to this week's message from the church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

So thankful to be here.

I'm so thankful that you're here.

And um want to let you know that our pastor and his wife, Pastor Danny and Miss Susan, are on vacation, and they're probably watching right now, if we had to guess.

So we want to say hello to them.

And I hope that you all have a good vacation.

Yeah, everyone say hello.

Hello.

And um again, I'm just honored to be in this place and um so blessed.

I'm learning so much under this pastor, it it kind of overwhelms me, really.

Um that God would allow me to be where I'm at and uh learning under him.

And uh there's people in this church have took me in like family, and it's just such a blessing.

Um I'm thankful for God's moving, his calling, for what his will looks like.

And I'm thankful to be here, to be able to preach before you this morning.

I'm excited.

And I want to talk to you about the topic this morning.

The title is called Burn the Boats.

And I want you to turn your Bibles into Numbers chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, I want to share with you an old story.

In February of 1519, Hernando Cortez set sail on the final leg of a voyage that was to take him from Cuba to the shores of the Yucatan.

He commanded eleven ships with more than 500 soldiers, 100 sailors, and 16 horses bound for Mexico to take the world's richest treasure.

There was precious jewels, gold, silver, and statues of sculptures in that peninsula that had been hoarded by the same army for over 600 years.

The quest for these riches began several years before in Spain, where Cortes was already a wealthy man but had heard about the treasure, and for centuries people had tried to take it, but were never able to.

Ambitious Cortes knew or felt like he knew that he could if he had the right kind of help.

He decided to get more people involved.

He wanted to build an army that could accomplish this giant task.

So Cortes began to travel around Spain and talk to people, build a dream in them.

Since he was already rich and successful in their eyes, as he told them of this treasure that could be theirs, they started to believe him.

And of course, a few said, I really don't believe that there's treasure there, I don't think it'll work.

But the majority of people enthusiastically caught on to this idea, this vision.

So Cortes's ships were in place, the soldiers were in position, and the sailors were prepared, and the horses were aboard, and together they set sail for Mexico and the rich treasure.

Once they were out on the ocean, it didn't take long for Cortez to realize he had some problems.

Some of the people who were excited at the beginning of the journey began to complain, began to whine.

And you know, on every journey there's whiners.

Isn't that true?

Christ, if I shouldn't have come, this isn't what I thought it was.

I didn't know what we were going to have to work this hard or what we were getting into began to circulate.

Yet Cortez persisted in spite of that and made it to Cuba where he took on water, food, and supplies.

After resting his men and letting the quitters get off the ship, he began the final leg of the journey.

He formulated an idea as they traveled that hadn't been used before.

He created a system to motivate and train his soldiers and sailors.

When they landed on the shores of the Yucatan, Cortez began training and coaching, stoking them.

He would even hold what he called seminars in the afternoons and sort of like pep rallies at night.

He would remind the people constantly of what they were about to accomplish.

Cortez painted a panoramic picture of the treasure, the magnificence that would soon be theirs.

But there was one more level of commitment that Cortez wanted to take them to.

He wasn't sure how they would take to it, but as they arrived to that place on that historic day, they lined up to march inland, and before they would be allowed to seize the treasure that no army had taken for 600 years, Cortes would speak to them one final time.

And as they listened, Cortez leaned in and said three simple words that would change everything.

He said, Burn the boats.

Which meant we have no retreat.

We have no plan B.

We must put an all-out effort of commitment and everything into the strategy that's ahead of us.

He said, Burn the boats.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that you would use your word to speak to our hearts this morning.

As only you can.

God, I pray that you would help us, God, to look at the boats in our life that need to be burned, to follow the strategy that you've put in place for us, God, that leads us to John 10, 10, where you said we could have abundant life.

God, that we'd follow you fully and committed.

God, I pray that you would do a work in our hearts this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Numbers chapter 13, we pick up the background from chapter 11, verse 10.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

The people of the Israelites have been out of captivity now for two years and walking through the wilderness as they were walking through.

God was taking care of their everyday needs, and they were getting manna to eat.

And it was, they were, they have seen these miracles of God as they left captivity.

And now they're getting to a place two years later in the wilderness where it's kind of getting old.

And they begin to complain about the bread they were eating, complain about the place they were at.

Everywhere you go, there's whiners.

And so they began whining.

And in chapter 13, we catch up.

And so God, look at verses 1 and 2.

Chapter 13 it says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel.

From each, that's right, I am giving to the children of Israel.

From every tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.

And so God sends out these twelve spies through Moses, one of every tribe, and they go out to Canaan.

They spied for 40 days, and they were to go in and look at all the land.

And you know kind of how the story goes, or maybe when you were young, you sang the song, but ten came back with a bad report.

Ten were bad and two were good, right?

You remember that song?

Ten came back with a bad report.

But those two, Joshua and Caleb, were different.

You see, Caleb had a burn the boats mentality.

And I want to teach today three things we can learn from Caleb to burn the boats.

And the first thing in your notes that you can look up, Caleb was a man of foresight.

Caleb was a man of foresight.

The Bible says, where there is no vision, the people what?

Perish.

They cease.

And so we have to have people of vision, of foresight.

And Caleb in verse chapter 13, verse 1, the first thing he did as a man of foresight, he was sent out to spy out the promised land.

This is God's promised land.

Note that in verse 2.

It's the land, he says, that I am giving to you.

It was a promise from God.

You know, my children, oftentimes they claim that I make promises to them.

It's kind of funny, they try to corner me.

They may say something through the day like, uh, Dad, do you think later I could have some ice cream?

To which usually I'll say, maybe, or I'll talk to your mother, which is kind of code for like, no, right?

Probably not.

And so I'll say those things, and it never fails, you know, or or they want to come sleep on the couch at night instead of sleeping in their room.

Can we sleep on the couch tonight?

It's summer.

You're being and I'll say, maybe, or I'll talk to your mother.

And and so it never fails later in that evening, or you know, an hour later, my kids come back and say, Daddy, you said I could have ice cream.

Or you said we could sleep on the couch.

I'm like, No, I didn't.

That's not what I said.

But you promised.

Like, I never promised, I never made that promise.

And so you understand, humanly speaking, even when we do promise, even a good parent that loves their children, sometimes we fail.

God has never failed with his promises.

And God promised that land to the people.

But yet ten men came back with a bad report.

You see, God, if God made a promise, you understand God is immutable.

It's a big word that means God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He does not change.

He cannot change, it's a part of his attributes, and he cannot lie.

So if God said, This is my promised land to you, why do you think ten men came back with such a dismal report?

I don't think they were very close to him.

I know one thing.

None of them had foresight, they couldn't see what was not yet.

But Caleb looked in there and he saw something.

He saw something that was for the taking.

Um, I read a story about Winston Churchill.

He became the prime minister of Great Britain at age 62.

As a young man, he failed the entrance exam twice into military college.

And then for 10 years or more, from 1929 on, he was estranged from his political party.

This was his life.

And they said he was estranged because he had a wild vision.

His ideologies were too grandiose.

He was he was a man that had too much going on.

And today, if you look it up, he's considered the greatest Brit.

And I looked this up, out of the greatest Brits that ever lived, he was number one.

The man had vision that others couldn't see.

He became the greatest prime minister because he had foresight, he could look ahead into things that were not.

So Caleb, he had this vision, he had this foresight, and so he spied out, and then the second thing under that, he spoke out.

He couldn't just sit by and let these bad reports come in.

But because he has foresight of what could have been, look over at chapter 13, verses 30 through 33.

Oh, Caleb couldn't sit by and just be quiet.

He had to speak out.

It says in chapter 13, verse 30, then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome.

But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they're stronger.

And they gave the children of Israel bad report of the land when they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

There we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak, came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

But look back up at verse 30.

You see the ten reports 31 through 33.

But verse 30, Caleb was a man of foresight.

The man of foresight spoke out and he spoke out against their complacency.

He said, He had everybody together, he said, Let's quiet down and let's go in now.

We had we can take this place all at once.

Let's go now.

And Caleb spoke up and spoke out against that complacency.

He says, We can do this.

He didn't have a plan, he didn't have things written down, but he knew, he looked at that land.

This is God's promise to us.

We can do this.

Travel over the chapter 14, verse 9.

It didn't stop there.

Actually, look back at verse 8.

It says, If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.

Their protection has departed from them because the Lord is with us.

Don't fear them.

And so Caleb speaks out not just against the complacency, but against rebellion.

He says, Don't rebel against our Lord.

Remember him, remember what he's done, remember where we've come from.

We can take this land.

He speaks out against the rebellion.

He says, Please don't do this.

Please.

And he was a man of foresight.

He spoke out against their fear.

He says, Don't be afraid.

Don't look at them and say, This is what I can't do.

Look at them and say, This is what I can do.

And Caleb was a man who spoke out.

He was also a man, thirdly, there, who stepped out.

I want you to understand again in verse 30 that we looked at when he quiet the people and he said, We can go up at once and do this.

For a man to burn the boats, he must step out immediately on the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

He must step out in a church service.

At the moment the Holy Spirit prompts at the invitation is so sad.

I've been in probably 1,500 church services as a pastor now.

And I don't understand.

There are people that have been in 1,500 services that I rub shoulders with.

And man, God gets a hold of my heart.

There's nothing I can do sometimes but to get down to an altar.

And there's nothing about this place that's different, but but it's a place where we've stepped out, it's a place where we've shown.

And I and I watch 1,500 services where somebody can come faithfully and never be moved.

How does that happen?

How can we get to a place so cold that 1,500 chances for God?

I don't have that same God where He doesn't work on my heart.

So either you're lost and you don't know Him, or you know Him and you're fighting, stepping out.

And that's what these 10 men, they saw the work of God and they said, Oh no, oh no, we can't.

So a man that has foresight of God has to step out.

They step out at that invitation.

They step out when the offering plate comes by.

They step out when there's a chance to give a testimony.

Instead of saying, Well, I wonder if so-and-so is going to say something again and save this opportunity.

I wonder if I should say something when the word says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

And we say, Well, let the other redeemed of the Lord say so.

We have to be people that'll step out.

The difference between a Caleb's spirit and the other ten is a willingness not to give in to what you're bent to.

You see, I hear a lot of people say, Well, Pastor Rick, it's it's really just not my nature to do that kind of thing.

It's it's it's not my nature to I I'm not really comfortable with doing those kind of things.

It it feel it feels really against who I am.

Can I tell you what the Bible says about your nature?

Psalms 51, 5 says, You were brought forth in sin, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Jeremiah 17, 9 says, The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

James 1.13 says, Let no man say when he is tempted, he's tempted of God, but when he is tempted, it's of his own lust and taste.

Let me tell you something.

I wouldn't be going with what my nature says.

Because our nature isn't it.

Okay, our nature isn't it.

You won't be bent, you'll be bent to comfort and convenience.

And so for a man to have foresight, he's got to be willing to step out.

He's got to be willing to burn the boats.

And Caleb was willing to do that.

You see, foresight is being able to see something that's not yet happened.

And the Bible says this about faith, Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And we say, well, it's illogical to believe in something that we can't calculate, Pastor Rick.

It's illogical to believe in something we cannot touch, that we cannot see.

It's illogical, and I want to hold you to some scriptures that if you say you're a Christian and you're a logical person, listen, the Bible says that we believe that God is three in one.

That's illogical, right?

We believe that a man didn't have sex with a woman and a child came forth.

That's illogical, right?

We believe that a man was swallowed by a whale.

Is that logical?

But it seems logical to us to say to God, you didn't really mean for me to get it right with that person.

No, that's not what you really meant, God.

You you didn't really mean for me to surrender my whole life to be a missionary.

That's that's not logical, God.

You certainly didn't mean for me to give my hard-earned money.

It might cost me, and God says, exactly.

You're right, it will cost you.

And Hebrews 11, 6 follows up this way without faith, it's impossible to please God.

It's not probable, it's not maybe, it's impossible to please him.

And then he says, but this, he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

You see, Caleb was a man of foresight, but he had that next element.

He was a man of faith.

He could do this with God because he had this faith.

And I want you to turn over the again, looking at the scripture in chapter 14, verses 24 through 32, it talks about Caleb's faith and what he looked into.

He says, But my servant Caleb had a different spirit in him.

And as he followed me, fully I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

Caleb was a man with faith.

And everywhere you look, you see that following word with Caleb.

It was a whole-hearted.

And so Caleb was a man of faith, and the first thing under that, he was a whole-hearted God follower.

You know, I've coached for about six years now uh adolescent soccer.

Okay, it started with my son around four years old, five years old.

And when I first started coaching Wyatt, it was very frustrating.

Uh, it still has its days, but it was very frustrating because I saw all this speed, and as a father, you see everything that could be, right?

You know, I'm like, he's the next Pele, he's gonna be amazing.

At four, look at his leg structure.

There's no way he can't be great.

And so, you know, I'm looking at the kid, but when he first started, I was so frustrated.

He would get out on the field and he would find dirt patches.

The whole team in the ball would be over here, and Wyatt would sit down and play with dirt in the middle of the game.

And I'm the coach, and I'm like, you never want to take your kid out, but I wanted to take Wyatt out, you know.

But mom's back there, I'm like, I better not take him out.

You know.

So he'd be playing one time.

I'm serious, he was over there playing in the dirt, and he picks up a flower.

I got a picture.

The ball and the team are over here on this side of the field.

Wyatt's over here with the flower, walking it to mom on the sidelines.

Like, what is he doing?

So at the end of that season, as a four-year-old, I pull the four-year-old aside and have a man to four-year-old talk.

I'm like, listen, Wyatt, your commitment has been poor.

You act like you don't want to play this game.

Is that true?

Do you not like soccer?

No, I like soccer.

I'm like, well, you don't act like you like soccer.

When it's time to play soccer, you're playing with dirt and picking flowers.

I'm like, I said, do you want to play this game?

Okay.

That was like one game before the last game of the season.

I promise you, all of a sudden, the next game, something happened.

It was like this.

Wyatt scores four goals the next game, okay?

And I've never seen nothing like him since.

I'm still that dad, so bear with me.

I still think he's you're right.

You know, I'm that guy.

But the kid scored 27 goals this season, okay?

He goes all out.

He's 100%, and he goes and he goes, and he'll come out the field sweating to death.

But you know he's given his everything.

When we look at that word wholehearted, looking up the Greek to it, it means this.

The word holy literally means to fill.

It carries the idea of filling a sail with air.

It's a picture of sails filled to capacity with all the available air so that the ship can move across the water with maximum speed to fill and be full.

Caleb was a man that was full of the Holy Spirit.

It means every inch, every ounce, every nerve, every fiber of his being belonged to God.

Church.

Don't you want to be called a whole-hearted person?

We don't want to be called half-hearted.

Nobody likes that.

When you're a husband, don't you want to be a whole-hearted husband?

All in wives?

Don't you want to be called, man, my wife is all in.

She's wholehearted.

A grandparent.

You don't want to be a half-parent.

Nobody wants to say, man, my grandparent, they're just a slouch.

Everybody wants, I have the greatest grandparent that ever lived, right?

Is this man entrepreneurs?

Don't you want to be wholehearted, all into what you're doing?

Loving it, and everyone around you knows it?

You want to be all in.

You see, the opposite of all in is this.

Empty.

We don't want to be empty.

See, the Bible talks about the filling of our flesh.

And it seems like a simple thing.

And I believe what Caleb did.

You see, when you become a Christian, you're full of all the Holy Spirit that you'll ever have.

But you have to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit to be filled.

You're full.

You have access to every part of the Holy Spirit, but you have to do things to be filled.

You understand me?

You have to get in this book to be filled.

This bottle of water doesn't fill up on its own.

Somebody had to fill it.

And you got to be filled with this.

You have to be intentional about prayer to be filled.

I'm not talking about you prayed over a meal.

I'm talking about you've got to have a journal and a list, and you've got to be intentional about your time with God.

You say, oh, well, that's what they always say at church.

But so many people don't do it.

We got people that come in halfway or near empty because they don't fill.

Caleb was full of the Holy Spirit.

He was purposeful.

I want to show you all a little video that I looked up just to kind of illustrate this point of being filled.

Watch this video for a moment.

You.

Look at your eyes.

Look at them.

Speckled.

Colorful.

Each one unique.

And I created every one of them.

I created everything in the universe.

Thank you.

I gave you your personality.

I made you pure.

Complex.

And every day.

I give you life.

I love you.

But something happened.

You cheated on me.

You didn't trust me.

You said yourself off from it.

And although you're still alive.

You're slowly dying.

So you look for other things.

To fill the void.

It's a picture of all the emptiness we're offered.

And I'm afraid that we all hear the answer so often that we just get used to the answer and skip right past it.

See, the world is empty and we have the feeling available to us, but we're not full.

We don't allow that fullness.

And Caleb was a man who was full.

He was a whole-hearted God follower.

He wasn't just a whole-hearted God follower.

He was a whole-hearted kingdom of God finder.

You see, he sought after what God had promised.

The promised land was promised to them.

Not talking about just Canaan.

You see, the ten spies settled and they came back and they had a bad report.

And I want you to understand this is this is what we're offered.

This is what the world offers us through these means.

Intimacy and acceptance.

And the bottle and all these things are offered to us.

And this is what the ten spies come back and say.

What if we just went back to Egypt?

They come back and say, Why don't we just go back to bondage?

At least we were comfortable and we knew it.

At least we understood our place in bondage.

I'd rather take the chains and the bond because I know it and understand it, instead of looking ahead and having foresight to what could be, I'd rather know and be comfortable in bondage.

And the world around us, that's the picture we're given.

Do this and you'll be full, and you're never full, we're always empty.

If you take this road, you'll be full, and you're never full, we're always empty.

And all the while, the filling that we have available to us, we won't take.

See, God told him to go to the promised land, sent them men in.

And Caleb wholeheartedly came back and he wanted to be a part of finding that kingdom.

You see, Canaan land, the kingdom, the promised land, is a place of God's presence.

And see whether Caleb got in there or was back in that wilderness or not, he had God's presence in his life.

He knew the Lord.

I want you to understand, I don't know what trial or struggle or what's coming up in your life or what place you're in right now, but you can still be in the presence of God.

The place of God.

Because the place of God's presence is the place of God's peace.

See, God had a plan for them.

In Numbers 14, 23 and 24, it says this.

We find out, it says, They certainly shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers.

After that bad report, they're not going to see it.

They're not going to see the promised land, nor shall any of those who reject me see it.

You get in the picture, church?

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, wholeheartedly, I'm going to bring him into the land and his descendants shall inherit it.

Listen, God had a plan and a purpose for them people when he pulled them out of Egypt.

When he walked them through the dead, the Red Sea, he had a plan in place that they would go into this promised land.

But they had no faith.

Caleb had faith.

These people had no faith.

And I'm telling you, church, if we don't, as a country, as a church, begin to be a people of faith, we won't ever please God.

We're not ever going to get to the full potential of what we could because we're not pleasing God.

We're not looking to what is not there, but to what who is there.

God had this plan, land for them, this inheritance.

See, but they had no faith.

Caleb and his people would see that land.

You see, Caleb was a whole hearted kingdom of God finder, but he was also under that, and you know it's a whole hearted God fanatic.

He was a fanatic.

I was looking up that word fanatic, and it said, one definition said, one willing to jeopardize their own goods or put oneself in danger.

I like that.

A fanatic?

What if, church, not taking a risk would jeopardize your future?

Think about that.

What if God puts a risk before you and you don't take it, it would jeopardize your future?

Think about that, because I think that's the place that we're at.

What if a successful risk would benefit the many?

Would you take that risk?

Would you be a person that was wholehearted, a God fanatic?

What will it take for us to burn the boats?

You see, in James, I want you to turn over there, James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

I want you to look at a scripture.

That's right.

James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

I think there's a myth that we often miss, this myth of security, this boat of security, if you will.

In James 4, that we can look at verses 13 through 15, it says this, come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there buy and sell and make a profit.

Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.

For what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then it vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or do that.

See, I think we got this myth of security.

We think in our own comfort and our own convenience that we're secure.

It's kind of like uh the other day, uh, my kids think I can do anything, and it's kind of funny.

They come over to me the other day, and my wife has a picture she wants me to hang.

And so the way that I do things like that, I don't want to go back and forth to the garage, so I get everything out at once.

Okay, everything I'm gonna need.

I got my drill, I got the nails or the screws, and I've got I've got the uh extension cord for the drill, I've got the ladder, okay.

You know, the only thing I don't have is like a construction helmet, right?

And so I got all my stuff together, and my daughter comes out of the room and she goes, Daddy, did you used to be in construction?

To which my wife in the other room audibly laughs out loud.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

But her looking at me, it's like anything can be done.

And it's really, really a strong myth.

And we get confused about things, and she was confused.

And I think sometimes we think of life in this confused state.

You you don't know your breath, you don't know what will happen with your car, you don't know if you will have a stroke, you don't know if somebody's gonna jump out in the highway and be a sniper.

We don't know what's gonna happen.

Your life has never been in your hands.

We live in this sea of uncertainty, but we try to grasp it and we attempt to think we're being logical, and it's this large mirage that that we're certain and we're safe, and that we have some type of control of our boat.

It's this great enchantment to believe.

And tragically, as Christians, we're deceived to believing that we shouldn't take any risks, all the while living on the edge of actual risk.

Y'all understand?

We think we're not taking any risks, but I want you to understand when we don't take risks for God that we are, in fact, taking risks.

To deny the voice of the true God, you see, instead of for the boat of comfort, the boat of your time, the boat of your plan B, the boat of what I'm not good at, the boat of I'm insecure, the boat of if somebody else will go, I'll go, the boat of maybe when I get older, the boat of when the majority does it.

Burn the boats.

That's right.

Scripture says that Esther had an opportunity to save her people.

And Esther, as she had this opportunity, she went before the king, and the king didn't know her identity, that she was Jewish, and um they had put together a law that the Jews were going to be hung, and Esther's cousin sends her a letter that says, Go before the king, present him with the truth.

And there was this great risk involved.

If Esther was going to do that, Esther could lose her life for going into the king, not just sharing what she had to share, but to going before the king like she would have to.

And then she would could certainly lose her life for sharing that she was a Jew and had never told him.

And then there was already a law in place, and so Esther has this great fix that happens.

And Esther says these words that I want you to hear.

She said, For such a time as this, if I perish, I perish.

But I'm going.

Man, if we would have that faith, if I perish, I perish.

And so Esther went in and it saved her people.

You see, whatever steps of faith God is calling to you, know this.

It doesn't mean you're going to regret it.

Because of Caleb's faith, he was willing to fight, no matter what the cost was.

You see, James 2.14 says this.

What does it profit a man if he gains this whole world?

Or what does it profit a man if he says he has faith, excuse me, but does not have works?

I will show you my faith by my works, Scripture says.

You say you believe, the Bible says the demons believe.

The body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

Caleb's faith was alive, and so that made him a fighter.

And that's the third thing.

In order to burn the boats, you better be ready to fight because the Bible says that the spirit and the flesh are waging a war within you, and so you gotta be a fighter.

Caleb was a man of fight.

Proverbs 28:1 says this that the wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

Proverbs 28:1

You understand this picture?

Why the wicked flee when no one pursues?

That looks silly in my mind.

Nobody's pursuing, but the wicked are running.

Why?

Because if you're a liar, you gotta cover your check, your tracks.

If you're a cheat, an adulterer, a poor worker has to go back and cover his tracks.

Exhausted from their fleeing, exhausted from the bondage that they're living in.

But the righteous man doesn't have to hide.

Caleb didn't have to hide.

He could come right out and say what he thought.

The righteous man doesn't have to do that.

You see, ten spies were wicked, but not Caleb.

He was a visionary, full of faith, full of foresight, and he did not lose his fight.

What I really like about boxing or mixed martial arts, I kind of keep up with some of that, is when an underdog in the fight, somebody that was not supposed to even have a chance, wins.

And some of you may remember back the Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson fight, right?

Mike Tyson undefeated a phenom.

The kid started at like 18 and was beating everybody.

I mean, in no time, he was putting people out.

And Mike Tyson has this fight schedule with Buster Douglas.

A 42-1 underdog was Buster Douglas.

And in the biggest upset in history of boxing, Buster Douglas, as you go into the eighth round, it doesn't look good.

He's been doing pretty good through the fight, but Tyson hadn't taken any major damage.

It's kind of funny as the notes, as I was reading about it, his corner people forgot to even bring ice.

And so they're over there scrambling when he actually gets a cut because they've never seen him get a cut.

And so his cutman are like, what do we do with this?

And so in the eighth round, it takes a turn, and Buster Douglas gets knocked down to the mat.

Okay.

Counts to nine seconds, and something within him gets him up.

And so they go into the ninth round, and there's kind of a twist of things.

Tyson comes out full-fledged, like, I got to win this fight.

And so he's going at him at the beginning of the round, giving everything he has, throwing haymakers, and Douglas slips an uppercut on him, and it stuns him.

And all of a sudden, the tide of that ninth round changes, and Douglas pours it onto him to the end of that ninth round.

And so they go into the tenth, and which would be the final round.

And in desperation, here comes Tyson trying to rally, and Douglas hits him with an uppercut that sends Tyson flying to the mat.

And in a picture that would not be forgotten, Tyson's mouthpiece comes out, and he's scrambling to get up.

He tries to grab the mouthpiece or something, and he can't get back up to his feet.

Knocked him out.

42 to 1 underdog.

Tyson's first ever defeat.

Douglas, emotional at the finish of the fight, was asked, How'd you do this?

Nobody expected you to ever be able to do this.

In fact, people were just glad that you were coming in to fight Tyson because they wanted to see Tyson.

How did this happen?

And Douglas, see the fight happened in February of 1990.

And January 18th of 1990, Buster Douglas' mother passed away.

Douglas said, You know what?

I was fighting for something bigger than fighting.

Not me or a belt.

I wanted to honor something that I believed in.

You see, Caleb had a fight in him because he believed in something bigger than the giants that the people were seeing.

And we gotta believe in that something bigger, church.

You see, Caleb was a man of fight.

Look back at chapter 13, look at verse 33.

You see, oh Caleb had to overcome some things to be a man of fight, and the first thing he had to overcome was the grasshoppers.

Look at verse 33.

There we saw giants.

The descendants of Anak came from the giants.

And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight.

And so we were in their sight.

You see, he had some people around him that had grasshopper thinking.

Grasshopper thinking is demeaning.

The Bible says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

And so when the people around you are all saying, We can't do it, there's no way we can do it.

Oh, the land was great.

They came back.

Oh, the fruit is beautiful.

The land is bountiful, it's plenty, it's amazing.

But there's some big old giants in there, and we just can't do it.

They just came from Egypt where God brought all these plagues.

The Red Sea stood up in front of their face and they said, We can't do it.

There's a couple of big giants.

I mean, God stood up the water, and all they can see is what they can't do instead of what God can do.

Grasshopper thinking.

It's demeaning.

Grasshopper thinking is doubtful.

I don't think we can do it.

I used to have in my old youth ministry something on the work on the wall that read, Who or what makes you doubt?

God is not a God of doubt.

Man, He's a God of truth, He's a God of power.

And there's no room for us to be doubting.

Grasshopper thinking is doubtful.

Grasshopper thinking is double-minded.

A man who's unstable, the Bible says, in all his ways, he vacillates back and forth, and we don't know.

And in our Christianity, I wonder, because some folks they come in here and it's like a fire happens, and then three weeks later, it's out.

And it's not about a one Sunday morning motivation, it's about an everyday feeling.

The fire's in you.

It's not about how you felt when you came off of that service or that worship experience.

It's about what you have every day available.

Grasshopper thinking it's double-minded.

You see, but I want you to turn over to Joshua chapter 14 and see what happens.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

Now there was a long wait.

Caleb waited.

And he waited.

But what was his words he spoke?

And he kept he kept walking with the Lord.

He kept being full.

In Joshua chapter 14, we find him 40 years later.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

He's walked with them men in the wilderness.

Look at what it says.

Look at what happens.

Verses 7 through 12.

I want to read these verses out to you.

This is Caleb speaking.

As the land's being divided out, and they've come into the land.

He says in verse 7, I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land.

And I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.

Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made heart of the people melt.

But listen, I wholly followed the Lord my God.

I gave him my all.

So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have what?

Wholly followed the Lord my God.

And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive.

As he said, these forty-five years.

Eighty-five since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness.

And now here I am this day, eighty-five years old.

Listen to this.

He never lost his fight.

As yet I am as strong this day as on the day when Moses sent me to spy it, just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.

Now therefore give me this mountain, which the Lord spoke in that day.

For you heard in that day how the Anakim were and the cities were great and fortified.

It may be that the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out, as the Lord said.

You picture that 85-year-old man.

Still focused, still full.

It's now.

And see, he goes up and knees.

He says, You can take these young boys with me.

You can take whoever you want with me.

But I'm telling you, me and my cane were going in, and I'm about to beat some giants up some other head, and you ain't gonna sing no destruction like what came has been bubbling me for 40 years.

I'm gonna whoop somebody.

And he goes in and he says, I'm gonna take this mountain.

And my fear is there ain't enough people with fight in them anymore.

We look at the plight of our country, look at the plight of our homes, and we're afraid to tell our kids that they have to go to church.

I don't want to be hypocrites.

Are you crazy?

You better face that mountain.

You better burn them boats.

We look at things and say, Well, I don't know.

You know, I really want to do this and that, and I just can't.

There's no room for that.

We've got to overcome the giants by keeping our focus.

We gotta fill up.

You see, in the scripture in John 16, it says this is the last point under Caleb's fight.

He overcame grasshoppers, he overcame giants.

God tells us we can overcome the world.

John 16, 33 says this.

You can be assured of this thing, that in the world you're gonna have tribulation.

He says, You're gonna have it, that's gonna come.

Then he says, But be of good cheer, for I have overcome this world.

I want to finish that video that we started a minute ago.

I want you to watch how this thing closes.

I created you not to be destroyed, but to know me.

So I became one of you.

A fragile creation.

I was tempted, but I never sinned.

I came to save you.

So they said, and they have a cost.

Someone has to die.

You or me.

So I took on your step.

I traded my life for yours.

I die in your place.

Because I love you.

I rose from the dead.

I am the way, the truth of eternal life.

I am Jesus.

I'm not here to condemn you.

I came to bring you back to life.

Rely on me.

I will forgive you.

I will give you eternal life.

I love you.

And I did all of this to have a relationship with you.

Will you follow me?

You see, church, as we begin to close, Revelation 21, 7 and 8, at the end of the book it says this.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things.

And I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

He follows that by saying, But the cowardly and the unbelieving have their place in hell.

You see, Cortes said the three simple words.

He said, burn the boats.

Those simple words led to Cortes and his men being the first in 600 years to conquer Mexico and enjoy the fortune from their labor.

You see, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, there's a place where he's contemplating and praying before the Father, and he says, Father, if there's any other way for these people to be saved, can you take this cup from me?

Let it pass.

If there's some other way, he knew the pending crucifixion.

If I can save them without this happening, if there be any other way, he said, This.

Father, it's not my will, yours be done.

He said, burn the boats.

I'm going all the way, all the way to the cross.

I'm giving my everything for them.

I'm committed fully and holy.

I'm gonna finish it.

Because it's not my will, it's yours be done.

Burn the boats.

Would you bow your heads this morning?

Close your eyes.

See, Jesus John 10, 10, it says he came to give you life and life more abundant.

Says that right now, this life that we have on this earth, it can be the very best life that we possibly could have here.

We gotta burn the boats.

Maybe you're here this morning and you're lost and you've never met Jesus as your savior.

Can I plead to you?

Scripture says that the Father's standing by you, by the door of your heart, and says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

He wants to come in and sup with you.

You gotta let him in.

And to let him in with that equals is total and complete surrender.

Repentance and change.

Second Corinthians 5.17 says this if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away, all things are become new.

It's a complete surrender.

So maybe as you've listened to the message this morning and you think about your heart and life, and you look at who it's belonged to, you think, man, Pastor Rick, I just need to burn the boats in my life and give it all up and give myself fully, completely to Jesus.

I never have done that.

Maybe you're here like that this morning.

Of repentance.

The Bible says if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus died and he rose again for you, that you can be saved.

The simple thing, the changing of your will.

It's an all thing, it's an everything thing.

You're here this morning, you say, I'm ready for that.

I'm burning the boat.

I'm not turning back.

I'm gonna surrender this morning, my all.

You can pray a prayer like this saying, Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.

And I am so sorry for my sin.

God, I pray that you would forgive me.

I believe that Jesus died.

That he was buried and rose again for my sin.

And on this day, I'm committed totally, fully, my whole will to you.

I'm not gonna do it on my own anymore.

It's all yours.

Save me.

There be anyone in this crowd this morning with all heads bowed and all eyes closed.

Would you just lift up your hand and say, I prayed that prayer to accept Jesus as my Savior?

Amen.

Anybody else?

I just prayed that prayer and accepted Jesus as my Savior.

Anyone else?

Amen.

Anybody else?

I'm giving him my all.

I'm burning the boats.

I'm not looking back.

Amen.

Just a moment, those of you that raised your hand.

The altar's gonna be open for an invitation.

Would you please come?

Come down here.

Tabitha's down here, I'm down here.

Darren, there's other folks.

I'd like to show you from the Bible what that means.

For the rest of us here, if you're a Christian, you know the Lord.

Let me ask you a question.

Have you felt empty lately?

Been running low?

I know I know him, but I just been running on fumes, really.

I just been getting by, and life seems like everywhere I look, it's hitting me.

And I say to you, gotta burn the boats.

You gotta empty that baggage.

Gotta release those strongholds.

Because I promise you, there is a new territory to seize.

There's a new level, Christian, that he wants to take you to.

And I I I've seen 1,500 services of people fighting that new level.

Don't fight that.

Don't fight what the Holy Spirit's prompting.

Who cares what somebody around you thinks?

You got to burn the boats for you, not for them, for you.

Seize this moment.

I promise you, He'll take you to that new territory and you'll start experiencing that abundant life.

But you got to be willing first to burn the boats.

You got to be willing.

And I love to see this place filled with people willing to step out.

Don't let it just be another Sunday church.

Not another habit.

Not another time where the presence of the Lord was there and you left it there.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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Send us an email at office at the church at cw dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.