The Spirit of Age-2

Last week we dealt with the spirit of this age and so we continue dealing with that,

the spirit of this age.

So where do you get the idea of the spirit of this age?

In German, and you hear this very often at Regent, there's this German word called Zeitgeist,

which is basically the spirit of the times.

And it's often used by theologians too.

But if you look at Ephesians 2, you'll find Ephesians 2 verse 2 and 3, that's where you

Ephesians 2:2

find the idea of the spirit of the age.

And different characteristics of the devil become evident in different eras.

So in the 60s it was different, in the 80s it's different, in the 2020s it's different.

But if you look at Ephesians 2, verse 2 and 3, it says, in which you, let's start at verse

Ephesians 2:2

So going back to verse 2,

In which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of

the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient.

So in every age, in every era, there is a spirit of the age and certain characteristics

of that spirit become very prominent.

And when Christians are not aware of it, they buy into it without knowing.

During Daniel's time it was evident, during David's time it was evident, different eras

have different characteristics that used to manifest.

And you need to be aware of it, so that's one thing.

The second thing, and I don't know how to drive this point home, is that this is a spirit

that's very pervasive.

It loves operating through the world.

And it's all around you.

You're inundated by it, you're bombarded by it.

So I would suggest that it's a good idea to kind of be aware that there is something

in the air, literally in the air, that tries to influence our mindsets and our thought

patterns.

This is what Paul is talking about in Ephesians.

So why am I prefacing it this way?

So that you take it seriously, because I do.

That's not the reason you should take it seriously.

You should take it seriously because it's in the scriptures.

The spirit of this age is a spirit that fits you into the mold of prevalent culture.

Do not think that you are not subject or susceptible to it.

Do not think you're not susceptible to it.

It doesn't matter who you are and what you do.

Doesn't matter how pastoral or bishop-y you are, you are still susceptible to it, which

is why Paul writes about it.

So the spirit of the age is a spirit that fits you into the mold of prevalent culture.

Fits you into the mold of prevalent culture.

And it marinates you in the mindset of the world.

It marinates you in the mindset of the world.

Because you're continuously saturated in it.

Your children are at its mercy if you as parents don't watch.

Your children are at its mercy.

At least you have the advantage of having perhaps grown up in a time where it wasn't

as bad.

But your children are at its mercy.

Worldliness, if you want to define it, or the ways of the world if you want to define

it, worldliness is what any culture does.

And church culture also has it.

So church has a culture too.

Worldliness is what any culture does.

And here's what every culture does.

Every culture tries to make sin, self-centeredness, and the majority opinion normal.

This is what every culture likes to do, tries to do, attempts to do, and is continuously

at work at.

I wish for an instance God could open our eyes to show us the spirit world around us.

I wish for an instance God could open our eyes to show us the spirit world around us.

And if you saw it, it would frighten us into obedience.

But he won't do that because that's not the way he draws people to himself.

But worldliness is when a culture tries to make sin, self-centeredness, and the majority

opinion normal.

And on the other hand, while it is doing that, worldliness also tries to make the right ways

of God academic, archaic, strange, and hostile.

So on one hand, it tries to make sin, self-centeredness, and the majority opinion normal.

This is what is happening in North America really.

All you have to do is watch CNN.

So on one hand, it tries to make sin, self-centeredness, and the majority opinion normal.

On the other hand, the right ways of God, the right works of God are being made academic.

As in, my God, they begin to discuss the Greek and the Hebrew of it for hours on end.

And people write books on it so that by the time you're done, your brain is a mushy mess.

It either renders it academic or archaic where it's so old that it doesn't apply.

Or it makes it strange as in your Christian ways are so strange.

Or it makes it hostile where to take a stance for what God says is right now makes you the

enemy of the rest of culture.

The reason I'm saying this to you is because you have children or you will have children

or you will be in charge of people younger than you.

And they are being molded every day in your absence into this.

You must be careful for their sake because you are way too old now.

And there are certain parts of you that cannot be molded.

Thank God for that.

And your children, every day they're going through it and you are not present when this

is happening to them.

And that is almost 16 hours of the day you are not there.

The six hours that they sleep, you're not there, but at least they're sleeping.

Any questions?

Because I really mean that.

Yeah, so when you go to school there's a very different way of education that highlights

things that are completely not neutral but anti-biblical.

When you watch TV everything takes from what culture wants to.

That is almost all TV focus on, sin, self-centeredness, majority opinion.

That's the only way TV can be popular.

You cannot have a popular program that will run more than a pilot or two shows if those

three items are missing.

It's not possible.

There'll be no advertisers to sponsor it.

Even Christian programs have to be made with sufficient dilution so that it appeals to

a larger audience.

You can't stick to the sheer truth because the sheer truth is so boring.

You may have escaped it and thank God for it and you may have reinforced yourself and

praised God for it, but what about your children and your children's children?

Because grandparents sometimes play an even more critical role than the parents.

Do not allow the right ways of God to be made academic by theologians or Bible schools.

Anger rises up in me when I think of that.

Unfortunately it's an issue with me that I haven't gotten over.

Archaic, where it's made old, strange but worse, hostile man where you cannot take a

stance without being proven an enemy of the state.

Literally, I'm not exaggerating when I say enemy of the state.

Try saying a few things and see if you can get away with it.

I would love to but you would lose your charitable receipt next year.

It's a counterfeit spirit.

This spirit is a counterfeit spirit and the reason I say it's a counterfeit spirit is

because it imposes not unity but uniformity.

It's a counterfeit spirit.

The spirit of this age is a counterfeit spirit.

It imposes uniformity.

It imposes uniformity.

Guys, I'm repeating myself but perhaps it's important.

You need to listen to this for the sake of your children and your children's children

and for the young ones who will come into your care because every day they are being

pushed into a place of uniformity.

Doesn't matter whether they go to a Christian school or a non-Christian school.

A culture tries to mold you into this and it worms its way into places through people.

So it's a counterfeit spirit because it tries to impose uniformity and tries to build things

out of bricks and not stones.

This goes back all the way to Genesis 11 verse 3 and it's odd that God highlights it.

Genesis 11:3

In Genesis 11 verse 3 it says, and so they began to build a tower of Babel.

Genesis 11:3

They all came together, united in purpose.

And they began to build Genesis 11 3 and they used brick instead of stone and asphalt instead

of mortar.

And yet throughout biblical history God has always built with stone and mortar, not with

brick and asphalt.

Bricks were baked in the kilns of Egypt, ordered by Pharaoh.

God has always built with stones that have to somehow fit together.

He never builds with bricks.

There is a strange diversity that God preserves even in oneness.

When a church becomes like, when you can't differentiate people, when everything in a

church becomes the same, flee because something there is not right.

God's always have everybody parroting, behaving, saying, acting the same way.

It must not happen at Acts 29.

It should be different.

God preserves this diversity so uniquely.

He's got 8 billion and He's still creating and they all look different.

There's an attempt to try to make your kids uniform and to be as creative as the other.

You get it.

I call it counterfeit because very often uniformity is mistaken for unity.

It's not the same.

Yeah, because there is a tendency to think, if you're all uniform, it'll be fine.

No, it's not.

It's a spirit that smothers belief and bridles godly passion.

It is a spirit that smothers belief.

It is a spirit that smothers belief and bridles godly passion.

As in, I'm talking about the spirit of this age.

It smothers belief.

Whenever you start taking the risk of believing in something that is impossible, this spirit

has the ability to smother belief.

Smother is to not kill, but to suffocate sufficiently so that you come gasping up for air and abandon

the idea of doing anything else but surviving.

It smothers belief and it bridles passion.

It bridles godly passion in words and in actions.

That's something I spoke of last week, that Acts 29 has its godly passion bridled.

You must be troubled by 1 Kings 18, 21.

In 1 Kings 18, 21, Elijah has made this impassioned speech to Israel and says, choose this day

who you will serve.

Will you serve Jehovah or will you serve Baal?

And 1 Kings 18, 21 says, and the people said nothing.

There must be something that happens in you when someone makes a plea or makes a statement

or a declaration about God.

And when that rises to hold it down is to make it stillborn.

It is not right.

You must see that it is the spirit of the age.

It is not that you are not one type or the other.

I really don't want us to fake hallelujahs and praise the Lord's and make that kind of

noise.

It's hypocritical.

It is drama.

God hates it.

But when that thing begins to rise in you because you hear something of God and your

entire body is now trained to bridle the passion of God within you, then know that it is not

the Holy Spirit.

Because the spirit of God is rising in your womb and then the spirit of the age overpowers

it not because it is more powerful but because the traditions of men can nullify the works

of God.

Jesus said that.

Don't let it happen.

Don't let it happen.

It is evil.

It comes from the spirit of this age that used to have sway over us, still has sway

over the sons of disobedience but not over us.

And for different people it will be different.

You may not be as passionate about a sentence I speak or a sentence someone speaks but you

might be passionate about something else and at that moment do not let it stay.

Let a tiny little whisper come out first and then perhaps one year from now the whisper

will be loud enough for your wife to hear.

Good enough but you must start.

These are declarations that are not spoken but are felt in the heart but are not spoken

are stillborn and they die.

There is nothing to the English way of living where I am laughing inside.

There is no laughing inside in the Bible.

This is the spirit that poisons you with the philosophies, the traditions of men and

demonic principles.

First Corinthians chapter, sorry Colossians 2.8 says do not be deceived or deprived by

the philosophies of the world, by the traditions of men and by the elemental spirits of the

world or in some Bibles it says by the elemental principles of the world.

If you combine both the word used there is stoichia and it means the elemental demonic

principles of the world are constantly active in this world and the spirit of this age has

the ability to influence children right from when they begin to see and hear and speak

with the traditions of men, with the philosophies of the world and with demonic principles.

What are demonic principles that you see around you?

Can you call out some?

Demonic principles that you see around you?

Being abusive to parents, me first, the more I have the happier I am.

Sorry, anything is acceptable.

Self made men and women, my truth, your truth, everything is relative.

It may sound harmless when we utter it in a context like this but this is the fuel

that runs the world and it's exponentially not growing, it's like a juggernaut and it

just rolls over anyone in its way especially the young whose minds are impressive.

You have to counter this and we'll talk about that, how to have a different spirit.

It's a spirit that is double minded, it is a spirit that is double minded and it's double

minded how?

It values facts over truth, it values common sense over God's power.

I'm proud of some of you guys who I have seen stand up against facts and experience

that stare you in the face and you look at facts and the experience that you are going

through and you say this may be a fact, this may be the experience, this may be what Google

says but this is the truth and you stand on it.

I'm so proud of some of you guys who've done that.

Your children will learn differently, otherwise this spirit leaves you double minded.

Double mindedness always results in confusion and getting nothing.

It's a spirit that causes you to be double minded, choosing facts over truth, choosing

common sense over the power of God.

Common sense will always dictate that you do what is commonly done.

Common sense does not require faith, common sense does not need God, common sense does

not even require a bright person.

You have enough common sense.

If that is how you're going to live, you don't really need God.

Here's the thing guys, the moment we step into a place where we don't believe what we

are supposed to, the moment we step into a place where facts rule over truth, the problem

with unbelief is you will at some point, once you go down the road of unbelief, you will

at some point begin to circulate false rumors about God.

It's unfortunate but it's just the way it is.

Once you step into an area of unbelief, as in once you decide that this may be the truth

but these are the facts and I cannot trust God in this, you will not be able to keep

it to yourself.

You will circulate false rumors.

Israel had to go through this.

Israel is standing there and the land is plentiful.

They're carrying on their shoulders grapes from the valley of Eshkol but they also have

seen the giants.

They came back and they could not keep quiet.

You will circulate false rumors about God.

God said the land is good, yes, but please let the facts prevail that these giants are

way too difficult to handle because unbelief cannot be kept quiet, just as faith cannot

be kept quiet.

And unfortunately when you start spreading false rumors, you're not spreading false rumors

about your neighbor, you're spreading false rumors about God.

This is why when my experience dictates something, I have to more loudly, even if I don't believe

it, say what is true till I believe it.

You may say that's hypocritical, it's a divine hypocrisy.

Say what is true even though you don't believe it till you believe it.

God directed self-talk, meditate.

It's a spirit that binds you to security.

It's a spirit that binds you to security.

It makes you an addict to security.

You get bound to this idea of security and in being bound to security, it castrates kingdom

potency, it castrates kingdom potency and it renders you undangerous.

It renders you undangerous.

It renders you undangerous.

This spirit has the ability to make you addictive or addicted to security.

Once it makes you addicted to security, it castrates kingdom potency in you because you

cannot have security in the things of the world and step out for the kingdom.

It does not work.

Jesus said it long ago, count the cost.

When you count the cost, Jacob, you will find that you do not have what you require to pay.

Once you realize you don't have what you need, now step out having come to the full conclusion

that I cannot meet this demand, I cannot pay this cost.

Having counted it, I now step out absolutely afloat on the grace and the power of God.

Count the cost, not so that you count the cost and say, oh, I can't do this, let me

retire.

Count the cost, face the fact that regardless of how much you have, it ain't enough.

Now that you've stared, the absolute futility of what you have, step out.

And the thing is, this spirit binds you to security, castrating kingdom potency and

renders you undangerous.

Churches must not be full of undangerous people.

Don't think of yourself, think of your children and your children's children.

And your sister's children and your brother's children, if you don't have any.

And your young ones that come to your path, think about them and come against the spirit

of this age because it is as thick as the air you breathe and the only one thicker than

that is the Holy Spirit.

But till your children learn how to be a good person, they will not be able to do anything

against the Holy Spirit.

But till your children learn how to breathe in the Holy Spirit, you must keep them.

And you must keep them by being active, not waiting for something to happen so you can

be reactive.

You must guard them every day against the spirit that is all around them.

When I say your children, till they leave your home, they're your kids, man.

It's a spirit that blunts the different spirit or the excellent spirit that God gives us

children.

In the Bible there are two places, one in Numbers 14, 24, God says about Caleb, hey

Caleb, I have given you a different spirit.

In Daniel chapter 5 verse 12, he says about Daniel, hey Daniel, in you is an excellent

Daniel 5:12

spirit, a different spirit or an excellent spirit is given by God.

And when people who have a different and excellent spirit are able to nurture and sustain

it, because every child of God has a different and excellent spirit, it's just that in the

face of the spirit of the age, it just lies dormant.

And the spirit of the age has the ability to blunt this different spirit or excellent

spirit that you possess and that your kids possess.

It has the ability to blunt it.

How does blunting happen?

Blunting happens, again it starts when they are very young and it continues through the

ages, it continues into our churches.

It blunts by first recalibrating the measure of success.

It recalibrates the measure of success.

It decides what your children will think is successful.

It decides what your value of success is.

It recalibrates the measure of success.

This is how the spirit of the age blunts the excellent spirit we possess.

It tells you what your recalibrated measure of success is.

It tells you how much to earn, which course to apply for, what to turn out at.

Which job to pick.

It does everything for you so that right from when you are a child, you are aspiring for

a measure that God never set for you.

It recalibrates the measure of success.

I'll give you biblical evidence.

It offers you a new identity.

It offers you a new identity.

It hangs the carrot of a new identity.

And then it encourages you to dilute your morality to achieve the success and the identity.

It dilutes your morality.

It invites you to just lower your morality or your standards of purity so that these

new measures of success, this new attractive identity that is being offered to you,

can become yours just by compromising a little, not much, and it's being offered to your kids.

And it's being offered to you, by the way.

When you read Daniel chapter 1, verse 3 to 7,

Daniel 1:3–7

Daniel 1, 3 to 7, Daniel 1, 3 to 7.

I'm reading from the NIV.

Daniel 1, 3 to 7.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service

some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility.

Young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning,

well informed, quick to understand, qualified to serve in king's palace.

He was to teach them the language and the literature of Babylonians.

The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table.

They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service.

Among those who were chosen were some from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah.

The chief official gave them new names to Daniel, the name Belteshazer, to Hananiah Shadrach,

to Michelle Meshak, and to Azariah Abednego.

Let me read it from the message.

The king told Ashpenaz, head of the palace staff, to get some Israelites from royal family and nobility.

Young men who were healthy and handsome, intelligent and well educated,

good prospects for leadership positions in the government, perfect specimens,

and indoctrinate them in the Babylonian language and the lore of magic and fortune telling.

The king then ordered them to be served from the same menu as the royal table,

the best foods, the finest wines.

After three years of training they would be given positions in the king's court.

Four young men from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah were among those selected.

The head of the palace staff gave them Babylonian names.

Daniel was Belteshazer, Hananiah was Shadrach, Michelle was Meshak, Azariah was Abednego.

The point is, there were 15,000 young men who left Israel.

15,000 young men Babylon brought from Jerusalem because these were young men of nobility.

These were young men from royal lineage.

15,000 men were brought. 15,000 young men.

And they were trained. Some of the men are mentioned here in the book of Daniel.

Out of the 15,000 brought, the only ones who resisted were these four.

They would not eat pork, but the king would serve them pork.

They would not drink certain kinds of wine. The king was serving them wine.

What was being offered to them was a scholarship instead of slavery,

was a banquet instead of bread and potatoes.

You think you and I are not susceptible to it?

May I suggest to you that some of you have already taken it?

I've done this in my life where I've gone for the dainties of the king's table

and for measures of success that the world said would be right for you, Jacob, and I went that way.

Thank God I escaped the clutches of these things.

Neither I nor Acts 29 would be where it is if I went the way that God said would,

that the world said would make a successful church.

It's odd. These qualities are highly prized. There's nothing wrong with it.

The spirit of this age prizes personal appearance.

Nothing wrong with personal appearance.

It's good if you have a better dress sense than me.

The spirit of this age prizes professional abilities.

That's good. One should encourage that.

It prizes skill and intelligence.

It prizes potential for advancement.

And it prizes these highly sought values.

And there's nothing wrong with it.

But the strange thing is Daniel did not occupy the positions he finally occupied

because of any of these qualities.

He occupied them simply because he had an excellent spirit.

Do you know what was going to happen to Daniel along with others who had these prized values?

They were going to chop off their heads.

And then one man goes to the king and says,

There is one amongst the Hebrews who has the spirit of the gods dwelling in him.

He has the spirit of the gods dwelling in him.

He actually helped your father when your father had dreams.

So why don't you call him?

And Daniel and his friends were waiting for their heads to be chopped off

because the king saw a dream that he did not remember.

And he's asking his magicians and astrologers to tell him the dream that he dreamt that he did not remember

and then to interpret the dream that he dreamt that he did not remember.

It's happened to me once.

I was in Indonesia and an army general's daughter came.

He sent her and she said,

I've got something in my mind that I won't tell you that I want you to tell me and pray for it so that it happens.

And I think to myself, this guy is an army general.

What do I do?

And so I turned to Himavan, the guy who brought her and I said, never again.

And yet, I was still thinking about it.

And I said, never again.

And yet, her son had a tumor in his brain and God showed it.

And so I said, it's to do with your son and it's something to do with his brain.

And she couldn't believe it, man.

But never again.

The point being this.

It wasn't even an unspoken prayer request.

It was a prayer request that she wasn't going to give until God showed it.

But the point here is, Daniel did not get to the positions he got to because of these great prized possessions

that are highly valued in the world.

He got there because of an excellent spirit.

What I'm trying to say is, is it possible for you?

Is it possible for me as a pastor?

Is it possible for you as a parent or a business owner, as an employer,

as an employee who is in charge of people, is it possible to help people cultivate an excellent and a different spirit

in your students, in your employees, in the people who come to church, in your children?

Is it possible to do that instead of choosing to go down the route that Babylon always goes?

I don't know whether it's common to parents in North America, but in Asia, parents love this stuff.

This is why every child has to go for piano lessons.

Every child has to go for this and that and the other because your kid has to be creme de la creme.

If you don't make UBC, you ain't worth it.

And look after all the UBC stuff that Derek and Dawn did.

Look, can't fix a light bulb.

Okay, sorry, I'm talking about Derek now.

Yeah, they can't move a piano and in the process jam Jeevan against the wall

so that there's an impression of him on your wall.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, instead of cultivating an excellent spirit in our children and our churches,

we have to be able to cultivate an excellent spirit in our children and our churches.

Unfortunately, instead of cultivating an excellent spirit in our children and our churches,

we place greater emphasis on the Babylonian model.

And yet, 1 Corinthians 1, 25 to 29, you should read it in the message.

1 Corinthians 1, 25 to 29.

It doesn't mean that you guys who are in school should now say, well, dad, well, mom, that's it.

I'm not studying anymore. I'm going to start a coffee shop.

That is not the idea. Just in case you were thinking that, Liddy, I've already wandered.

And so that's not the idea.

The idea is these are not the things that we establish as marks of success.

These are not.

And you need to repent of it because all of us are subject to this.

Please understand, all of us are subject to this.

I'll give you time to repent as I do need it to.

So, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25, from the message.

1 Corinthians 1:25

Human wisdom is so tinny, so important, next to the seeming absurdity of God.

Human strength can't begin to compete with God's weakness.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life.

I don't see many of the brightest and the best among you, not many influential,

not many from high society, families.

Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that culture overlooks and exploits and abuses,

chose these nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of the somebodies?

That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God.

Any questions before we go on?

Can you just take a little time to repent of allowing the spirit of this age to touch you or your family or the way you live?

Can you repent of what you may have seen as marks of success?

As the identity that you want for yourself?

You know what Michelle means?

Michelle means he is who God is.

You know what Meshak means?

He is who the moon god Akku is.

Slight change.

Michelle means he is who God is.

Meshak means he is who the moon god is.

And the moon god is who the moon god is.

Slight change.

Michelle means he is who God is.

Meshak means he is who the moon god is.

Just a slight change.

Can you just repent?

What have I said as a standard of success as a pastor and success as a church?

What have I said?

Because what I have said will affect you.

That's how I will measure you.

How do I measure you?

What if you don't meet my qualifications?

Then what happens?

Slight change.

You have no idea how people will affect this.

People will try to affect this.

I'm sorry that I have walked in a different circle.

Even though I knew it in the back of my head.

I'm sorry that I haven't waged war against the spirit of the faith.

I said waged war against the spirit of the faith.

I'm sorry for desiring anything for Acts 29 and all for myself.

It did not come from what you said as a standard.

I'm sorry for the number of times I have lost security.

I'm sorry for the number of times I have lost security.

I'm sorry for the number of times I have lost security.

Let's look at how we can define a different spirit.

Caleb had a different spirit.

Go to Numbers 14.

Ah shucks.

I won't be able to finish.

Numbers 14, verse 24.

Numbers 14:24

Numbers 14, verse 24.

Numbers 14:24

Numbers 14, verse 24.

Numbers 14:24

Numbers 14, verse 24.

Numbers 14:24

And it says there, let's read from verse 20.

The Lord replied, I have forgiven them as you ask.

Nevertheless, as surely as I live, and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth,

not one of the men who saw my glory and miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert,

but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times,

not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers.

No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly,

I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

So what defines a different spirit?

First, surprisingly, it goes back to something we've been talking about,

God declarations in the midst of negativity, in the midst of negativity.

We are defining what a different spirit is like.

Someone with a different spirit, and may I remind you that because you are born again,

you have a different and excellent spirit.

Someone with a different spirit is someone who has the ability to make God declarations

in the midst of overwhelming negativity.

Numbers 14, numbers 14 verse 6 to 10, overwhelming negativity around you,

Numbers 14:6–10

either because of people around you or because of your own circumstances.

Numbers 14, 6 to 10, starting at 5.

Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly, gathered together.

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephaniah, who were among them,

who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly,

The land we pass through and explore is exceedingly good.

If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into the land,

a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.

Only do not rebel against the Lord.

Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.

Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us.

Do not be afraid of them, but the whole assembly talked about stoning them.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

To be able to continuously hold fast to the truth or to the declaration that God has made,

even though he slay me, yet I will trust him,

and under circumstances that are overwhelmingly negative,

to keep on declaring the goodness of God.

This is part of having a different spirit, guys.

I remember when I was in severe pain in Indonesia,

one strange thing began to happen.

I began to say to God things like,

Oh God, what have I done wrong?

Why is this pain going on?

Tell me what I need to do. I'll repent.

I'll do whatever you want. Please take this pain away.

And as I kept doing that, God was coming out really ugly.

He was coming out like a guy who is looking for an opportunity to do me harm.

I remember calling up Chantel's mum and asking them to pray.

I was telling her about this and she stopped and said,

This doesn't sound like your father.

So why are you talking like this and praying like this?

I had to repent of it.

I remember going up after that and saying, Father, I'm really sorry.

I'm really sorry for making you sound like an ogre who is looking for ways to do me harm.

I'm really sorry. I'm saying stuff like, Oh God, please take this away.

Tell me what to do. I'll repent.

Whatever sin you want me to get rid of, I'll do.

Please take this away. Oh God.

It sounded like he was a tyrant who...

It was horrible.

I was so ashamed of what I was doing.

Sometimes even our pleas to God that sound terribly Christian-ese

are actually an affront to him because it makes him look nasty.

Imagine one of Dano's kids coming, Dad, please take this pain away.

What do you want me to do?

Can I clean up the yard?

Can I eat less?

Can I polish your shoes?

Tell me what to do.

What do you think it'll do to the father?

God declarations in the midst of overwhelming negativity.

The second thing is, man, this Caleb was something else, man.

He goes back 45 years to a promise that God gave him

and he stays alive and wrestles through it

because he knows that 45 years ago God gave me a promise.

Go to Joshua, Joshua chapter 14.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

You know, we get so hung up with Joshua and others

that we forget other heroes like Caleb.

You know how many giants David killed?

One.

You know how many giants Caleb killed?

A whole tribe.

Who do we write songs about?

David, because it sounds better in a song.

Caleb doesn't fit in a song well.

What do you rhyme with Caleb?

Bravid.

Go to Joshua 14, Joshua 14.

I don't know, David somehow fits more in a song than...

Caleb loved the Lord? Doesn't go well.

David loved the Lord? Yes.

Joshua chapter 14.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

Ah, look at this, man.

Look at what he says, starting verse 6.

The servant of the Lord sent me to Kadeshbarnia to explore the land.

And I brought him back a report according to my convictions.

Beautifully.

I brought him back a report according to my convictions.

You know what convictions are?

In the US courts, a conviction is something you're willing to go to prison for.

You can say, I believe and it's okay.

You can change your beliefs.

I have an opinion, that's okay.

You can change your opinions.

But the moment you say, I have a conviction,

what you're saying is, this is so deep that I will go to prison for it.

And he says there that...

And I brought him back a report according to my convictions.

But my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear.

That's what I meant by circulating rumors.

I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.

So on the day Moses swore to me,

the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever,

because you have followed the Lord your God wholeheartedly.

Now then, just as the Lord promised, look at it.

He has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses while Israel moved about in the desert.

So here I am today, 85 years old.

I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.

I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.

Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.

You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and the cities were large and fortified.

But the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.

And Joshua blessed Caleb the son of Jephaniah and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.

So Hebron belonged to Caleb son of Jephaniah the Kenazite ever since,

because he followed the Lord the God of Israel wholeheartedly.

Hebron used to be called Kiryat Arba.

You know what Kiryat Arba means?

Kiryat Arba means the greatest of giants.

It was named after one of the greatest of giants.

Hebron used to be called Kiryat Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.

Then the land had rest from war.

A different spirit wrestles to inherit the promise.

A different spirit wrestles to inherit the promise.

Guys, wrestling is always grappling for position.

Wrestling is always jockeying for position.

Wrestling is always jockeying for positions.

Jockey for position.

Whenever a promise is given to you, jockey for position.

Because whenever a promise is released to you,

know that there is an enemy who actively wants to stop the promise from happening.

You don't need to rebuke and drive him out and all this stuff.

Do whatever is necessary to jockey into position where you have the upper hand.

This man, because of a promise that was given to him,

stayed healthy, vigorous, absolutely not old, full of passion.

Why? Because the promise sustained him.

You know what sustains some of the guys in Israel?

The bones of Joseph.

How do the bones of Joseph,

how do the bones of a devil sustain him?

How do the bones of Joseph, how do the bones of a dead man cause people to be sustained?

Because Joseph had said that one day,

you will bury my bones in the promised land.

And these slaves would come back, their backs opened by the whips of the Egyptians,

and they would go past this tent where the bones of Joseph were kept,

and they would remember, a day is coming, a day is coming,

when we will carry these bones and bury them in the promised land.

A promise is worth holding on to.

And if you can hold on to it with faith,

it has the power to invigorate, quicken your mortal bodies.

Quicken your mortal bodies.

Many different ways to live long, guys.

We've got to be visibly and audibly different

from the faithless religious generation that you find in churches.

We've got to be visibly different.

None of the promises can be promises if they're not spoken by God and repeated by men.

Do not think that you can survive on a promise by being silent about it.

Hear me again. You cannot have a promise live if you don't speak about it.

And someone will have to come against the spirit of the age in this church that smothers expression.

Someone will have to come against it.

It cannot be me, because I'm doing it anyways.

I'm talking about when someone speaks and if I'm sitting there, then it applies to me too.

But someone has to come against it, because it is so difficult to break that in Acts 29.

That someone has to begin the, begin the process of the promise.

That someone has to begin the, begin the practice of daring to speak in a whisper.

When God moves you, not when Jacob moves you, but when God moves you.

And slowly as you begin to do that, this thing will break.

We just need three or four different cracks in the wall and the water will gush.

Don't do it for me. Don't do it for hallelujah. Do it when God touches you.

Third point. Man, this guy had unflinching strength. Unflinching strength.

I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me.

Guys, a different spirit does not backslide with regard to passion.

A different spirit does not backslide with regard to passion.

A different spirit does not backslide with regard to passion.

A different spirit does not backslide with regard to passion.

Passion, in fact, fuels strength.

Find things that, are you going to retire shortly?

Find things that fuel your passion. Otherwise, all of you will retire.

Are you changing jobs? Find things that fuel your passion.

Are you changing the pathway that God has for you?

Find things that fuel your passion. Are you a student?

Find things that fuel your passion.

Because passion fuels strength.

People with different spirits, and all of us who are born again have different spirits.

People with different spirits do not backslide with regard to passion. They do not.

There are a number of old people who, after 65, do not do much in church.

No, no, I didn't mean Acts 29. I meant in church.

All they do is give decent offerings.

May that not happen to us, eh?

Next point.

A different spirit asks for challenges.

Give me this mountain.

A different spirit asks for challenges.

You must ask.

You can't ask for normal stuff.

You have to ask for challenges.

A different spirit asks for challenges. Give me this mountain.

I always, every year I ask this question, what is it in your life that you are presently doing that requires oodles of faith that you've never attempted before?

What is it that you're presently doing that you've never gone into before and you need faith for it?

Different spirit asks for challenges, give me this mountain. Caleb asked for terrain where the giants lived.

You know, this is the same place that petrified the ten spies.

What's the guy trying to do? He's trying to prove the report that he gave out of his convictions 45 years ago.

45 years ago he said to the Israelites, hey listen, their protection is taken away. They are like bread before us, we can take them.

45 years he held on to that conviction, that report that he gave.

And what is he asking for? At 85 he's saying, can I please have the same place that I spoke about as saying they can be taken.

Now that I'm 85, can I please have that place back? That was the very place where Israel fell and that is the very place I want because I want to prove that my report was right.

Whose report shall we believe? Ron Canole. We shall believe the report of the Lord.

And he goes back to the same place where the ten spies were petrified that he never got a chance to show that God is who God is.

And he says, please give me those hills.

He waited for 40 years to prove what he had said would happen and he proved it. David killed one giant, Caleb killed a tribe.

Last two points, a different spirit submits to authority, a different spirit submits to authority even though it's entitled.

Even though it's entitled, it submits to authority. Caleb and Joshua went together.

Caleb seemed to have the greater role during the conquest. He says, remember Joshua, you came with me but remember what Moses said to me, I'm supposed to have this land.

Caleb and Joshua were the sages of Israel. They were the oldest of the lot.

Yet because he knew that Joshua was chosen as the successor to Moses, Caleb did not just go ahead and take what is entitled to him and that he rightly deserved.

And from the mouth of God, instead he goes and asks Joshua.

Sometimes, purpose is more precious than position or privilege.

Be ready to give up your position, be ready to give up your privilege because in getting position and privilege, you may lose purpose, but purpose is more precious than position or privilege.

Position or privilege?

Guys I want to say this to you, just because you commit to something doesn't mean you have

to see it through if you find out that it ain't God.

Just because you commit to something, don't keep your word when you find out that oops

this was not God and you gave your word.

Break your word.

Sometimes we have this noble idea that because I've given my word I have to see it through.

If you find out that the word you gave was not a good idea, please break your word.

Proverbs talks about it.

If you give a guarantee for a guy, go quickly and do what is necessary to get out of it

before you lose the shirt on your back.

I'm not saying break your word indiscriminately, I'm saying break your word when you find out

that you've broken covenant or agreement with God.

Last point because we can't go further than that.

A different spirit activates rest in time of trouble.

Last verse in Joshua 14 verse 15 says that and then he took Kiryat Jerem and named it

Joshua 14:15

Hebron and once he got his inheritance they entered into a time of rest.

A different spirit activates rest in times of trouble.

Jesus would do this.

He would be in the middle of a storm and he would wake up and in the middle of the storm

there would be rest.

A different spirit activates rest in the middle of the storm.

You become the pillow that people can lay their heads on.

You become the pillow that people can lay their heads on in the boat in the middle of

a storm because somehow you have a different spirit that does not get frantic in the middle

of a storm.

We won't be able to do the rest now but what I was going to talk about was how do we sustain

a different spirit and two points that I would have made today and then the rest later.

First point is first love.

I know you've heard about it before but we won't go there.

I just want to read out this line which really bothered me.

I can never understand when people say that remember when you first were a believer you

were so much in love with God and you are not in love with God as much now.

I can't fathom that because I find that I'm far more in love with him now than I was when

I first met him because I know him more.

But here's where I find a problem.

I find that when I first met God I had more time that I would give to him than I give

now and love is measured in time.

There I fall short.

I remember I would just sit and read and read and read, sit and think and talk and converse

and write.

First love sometimes is not the intensity that you love him with right now.

The intensity may have increased actually because you know him better.

The ease with which you connect with him may have increased because you know him better.

But what I think we miss out on as we get older in God is that we do not give him the

priority of time and love is always measured in time.

Men and women cannot figure out why husbands cannot understand that love is measured in

time.

But it is and it's a God thing, it's not a husband thing.

The priority of time and this line I read it before at Acts 29 but it's very very bothersome.

Listen to it and I assure you I'm ending with these lines.

Adult spirit is often the result of treating God like a pigeon in the park that is thrown

left over crumbs after a long day of caring aboutiter things.

Adult spirit is often the result of treating God like a pigeon in the park that is thrown

left over crumbs after a long day of caring about other things.

Like the guests who excuse themselves in Luke 14, 18, I use my busy schedule to justify not attending

my master's banquet and then use his blood to exonerate the guilt of ignoring him and then use

his blood to exonerate the guilt of ignoring him. And these lines have bothered me because I'm

finding out that I love him more, I find it easy to enter his presence, I'm far more in love with

him than I was when I first met him. But when it comes to time, my busy schedule prevents me from

giving him the priority of time. And at the end of the day, love is measured in time.

Let's pray.

Father, this is pretty intense about it. It's a solid message into our hearts that you're sending.

I thank you, Holy Spirit, because you're the teacher.