Caleb: Conquering Instead of Complaining - Pastor Bruce Mejia

chapter 14, and I want you to go to Numbers chapter 13. Hold your place there in Joshua.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

We're going to come back to that at the end of this sermon, but we're going to go to Numbers chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

This morning I want to preach on Caleb. Now a lot of times when we study the Bible,

especially in this particular era of the nation of Israel, we often focus on the Bible character

known as Joshua. And of course he was a very prominent character.

He aided the children of Israel into going into the Promised Land.

He's the one that basically took up after Moses and he did all that Moses commanded him.

The Bible says they left nothing undone all that Moses commanded.

And of course we know that Joshua is a very powerful Old Testament picture of the Lord Jesus Christ

because of the fact that just as Joshua was the one who led the children of Israel into the Promised Land,

in like manner Jesus is the only one who can lead us into eternal life, right?

And there's a lot of parallels between Joshua and Jesus Christ.

But often when we study these Old Testament events, we often focus on him.

But you know there's another character in the Bible that is just as great,

just as many great exploits and is worthy of noting and learning from.

And that's Caleb. Caleb was a very prominent character during this particular time.

And in fact he's one of the two who actually brought up a good report when they went to spy out the land.

We obviously know that Joshua brought a good report, but so did Caleb.

And I want to go through the chronicles of Caleb this morning and just kind of extrapolate some principles

that we can learn from his decisions, from his life as we go into the tenth year of our church.

I believe there's some principles that we can learn from Caleb.

Now we're in Numbers 13. Let me bring you up to speed on what's taking place here.

Of course, God has just delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, of course, through the hand of Moses.

And at this point, you know, God's will is for them to inherit the land, right? Canaan land, the promised land.

And so he wants them to inherit this land, but obviously he wants them to put in the work for it as well.

He doesn't want to just hand it to them and just give it to them.

He wants them to plan. He wants them to fight.

He wants them to put in a considerable amount of effort in order to conquer the land.

And so even though it's promised to the children of Israel, he wants them to put some planning to it.

So what does he do? He commands Moses to essentially survey the land, okay?

And he specifically commands Moses to pick out men of the 12 tribes of Israel,

leaders of the 12 tribes in order to go in and spy out the land and sort of survey it and take a consensus

and take an inventory of what the land looks like.

And verse number one of chapter 13 says, the Lord spoke unto Moses saying,

Send down men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel,

Of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one, a ruler among them.

And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Peyran.

All those men were heads of the children of Israel.

So you know, what better people to send into the promised land than the leaders themselves

when it's talking about the heads of the children of Israel, when it's talking about the rulers,

these are the prominent individuals of those tribes.

So you think of the tribe of Issachar, the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin,

all of the leaders of those tribes are going to be the ones who are going into the promised land

for 40 days in order to take inventory of it.

Now who's one of them? Well, we see in verse number six, it says,

Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Japhuna.

So Caleb is numbered as being one of the rulers who selected by Moses in order to go into the land.

Look at skip down to verse 17.

It says, Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and sent unto them,

Get you up this way southward and go up into the mountain and see the land, what it is,

and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many,

and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad,

and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether intense or in strongholds,

and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not.

So what is he saying here?

Well, we obviously know that the land is already promised to the children of Israel.

But God wants them to set up a plan, right?

He wants them to go out and see what they're actually dealing with.

Now, this is an important principle for you and I to learn,

that even though God has promised us a certain things, he's promised us victory,

he's promised us success and prosperity, and certain spiritual matters,

it still requires effort on our part to actually obtain it, right?

It's like, well, you know, God's promised to bless you,

he's going to provide for you, he's going to protect you,

but you still got to put in some effort on your end to be able to obtain that.

Moses said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and these things shall be added unto you.

So obviously God wants to add these things to you,

but it's your job to actually seek the Lord, his righteousness,

do that which is right in the sight of the Lord,

and of course, he will fulfill his end of the bargain.

Now, thankfully it's not like that with salvation, amen.

You know, the only thing that's required on our end for salvation

is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's it.

You know, Jesus Christ did all the work for us.

And that's always an important message to understand

that eternal life can only be granted through our faith in Jesus Christ

because he's the one who died on the cross to pay for our sins,

he resurrected them on the third day.

And when we say place our faith in Jesus Christ,

what does the Bible mean by that?

It means exclusively, it means only on Christ,

meaning you can't add anything to that,

and once you do so, the Bible says you have eternal life

and you can never lose that salvation for any reason whatsoever, okay?

And I'm going to tell you right now,

if you don't know beyond a shout of a doubt that you're saved,

if you're visiting with us today,

and you're like, you know, that's one subject

that I've never really been able to, like, fully grasp.

I've never really understood.

I don't know if I'm saved.

I don't know if I were to die at this moment that I would go to heaven.

Well, you need to get that settled today, okay?

And look, thankfully, you don't have to keep God's commandments to be saved.

Thankfully, you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved

because of the fact that the matter is

no one can turn from all their sins for salvation.

It's impossible to.

There's only one man who has never sinned

in the history of mankind.

That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so that's why the Bible tells us

that we need to place our faith in him

in order for his righteousness to be imputed upon us

so that when God looks at us,

he sees us through the perfection of Jesus Christ

and not through our own righteousness

because there's none righteous, no, not one.

There's none that do with good, no, not one, right?

There's not a just man upon earth that do with good

and sin is not.

You're like, well, what if I sin after salvation?

Well, here's the great thing about salvation

is that once you get saved, you're actually forgiven

of sins past, present, and future.

Meaning that 2,000 years ago,

when Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross,

he died knowing what sins you were going to commit in the future.

And all of our sins, past, present, and future,

are all future sins

in respect to where Jesus Christ died on the cross.

Just keep that in mind.

And it's not like, you know,

you catch God off guard by your sins

of whatever you do in the future.

It's not like God's like,

well, I didn't know you were going to do that.

Like, hey, this wasn't part of the deal here.

I saved you, but, you know, I didn't know you're...

No, he saved you knowing

what sins you're going to do in the future.

He saves you knowing that

and he saves you forgiving you of those sins

according to Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

The Bible clearly tells us that, okay?

And people often hear a message like that

and think to themselves,

oh, you're just giving people a license to sin then.

Because what you're saying is I can believe

and live however I want.

No, that's not true.

You can't live however you want.

Because life has consequences.

Life has consequences for the wages of sin is death.

The Bible says that God will exact vengeance

upon his own people.

And it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands

of the living God,

meaning that if you're at a sin after salvation,

God can and will severely punish you.

Here's the difference, though.

He'll punish you here on this earth.

He's not going to punish you in hell

because he gave you eternal life.

And you know what?

You say, well, I just think I'll lose my salvation.

Well, then it's not a gift to you now, is it?

Because the Bible says,

for my grace are you safe through faith

and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works

lest any man should boast.

Not by works of righteousness

which we have done but according to his mercy,

he saved us.

We conclude that a man is justified by faith

without the deeds of the law.

Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life

and listen to this.

They shall never perish.

Maybe it depends on what you do, though.

It depends on what kind of sins you commit

or something like that.

No, never.

What about mortal sins?

All sin is mortal sin.

What are you talking about?

The Bible says, who's to ever keep it the whole law?

Yet, if they're in one point, he's guilty of all.

Don't allow the Roman Catholic church

to define for you what sin is.

Sin, according to the Bible,

is defined as the transgression of the law.

And let me just give you the bad news here.

You've all sinned.

Everyone has sinned before the Lord

and therefore are in need of salvation.

Now here's the thing.

After you get saved,

now it's time to put in work, right?

The Bible says, for we are as workmanship

created in Christ Jesus unto good works

which God hath before ordained

that we should walk in them.

Not that we will walk in them

because not everyone does good works.

Not everyone maintains good works.

Not everyone lives a righteous life.

That's why God is constantly putting out

the carrot.

He's constantly putting out the incentive,

the motivation to do that which is right

in the sight of the Lord so we can be blessed of God.

You know, there's different motivations

that God gives us in order to stay right with God.

The consequences of sin,

the rewards of obedience,

or how about this?

The love of Christ constrains us, right?

All of these, at the end of the day though,

produce blessings in our life

but it requires effort on our end to do so.

Just like what we see here in the story.

You know, the Promised Land,

the land where they get to dwell

in houses that they did not build.

You know, drink out of wells that they did not dig.

They get to eat of the vineyards that they did not plant.

That's all given to them

but they have to put in the work to actually

deserve it, to obtain it,

to actually inherit that physical land.

So Moses is telling the children of Israel,

take inventory.

You know, find out if the people are big.

Find out what kind of houses they dwell in.

Find out if they dwell in tents.

Find out if they dwell in houses.

Why is he telling them this?

Well, because he needs them to go into the Promised Land

with a plan, right?

You don't want to just flippantly live the Christian life.

You need to have a plan.

It's like, well, I'm going to read the Bible this year

but what's your plan though?

You know, oh, I'm going to read the Bible

two times this coming year

but what's the plan though?

Oh, I'm going to win 50 souls to Christ.

That's great but what's the plan though?

There needs to be a plan,

a structured plan that you put into place

in order to obtain that

and this is exactly what Moses is telling

the children of Israel.

He's saying, hey,

find out if they have strongholds.

Find out if the land is fat.

If there's wood.

He goes on to say in verse 20,

in BE of good courage

and bring of the fruit of the land.

Now the time was the time

of the first ripe grapes.

So what is this saying?

He's like, hey, aside from, you know,

a canvassing the land,

checking out the enemies,

where they live,

make sure you bring some of those grapes back too.

Now why is he saying that?

He goes, well, the reason he's saying that

is because he wants them to have an incentive

of what's to await them, right?

So he's like, bring back some of the grapes,

bring back some of the fruit

so that people are incentivized

and motivated to actually go in

and fight for the land.

He goes on to say in verse 21,

so they went up and searched the land

from the wilderness of Zinn and Rahab

as men come to Hamath

and they ascended by the south

and came unto Hebron,

which is a high man, Shishai,

Telmai, the children of Aenak were.

Now Hebron was built

seven years before Zohan in Egypt.

Now why is that important to know?

Well, the Bible's simply telling us here

that this land that they're going into

is the land of antiquity.

Because it says here

that it was built seven years before

Zohan in Egypt

and the children of Israel

are familiar with Zohan

because they were in Egypt for that long, right?

Four and 20 years.

So they know Zohan

and they're saying,

well, Hebron is an even older city

and the significance of this,

if you know the story,

is that Caleb ends up inheriting this land,

this particular land, Hebron, okay?

Now, why is that significant?

Well, because Hebron is the area

that's a very difficult territory to overcome.

But this is the area that Caleb requests, okay?

So they're going into Hebron

and this is where, you know, the giants are.

This is where the cities that are walled

are very high are.

This is where the challenge is, okay?

It says in verse 23,

and they came into the Brook of Eshkall

and cut down from fence a branch

with one cluster of grapes

and they bear it between two upon a staff

and they brought it to the pomegranates

and other figs.

And the place was called the Brook of Eshkall

because of the clusters of grapes

which the children of Israel

cut down from fence

and they returned from searching

of the land after 40 days.

Now, here's one thing we're going to learn

from this particular passage

is that the Christian life is all about perspective.

Why?

Twelve men go into the promised land

and they all see the same exact thing.

They all see the same walls.

They see the same enemies.

They see the same clusters of grapes.

But yet, 10 out of the 12 bring back an evil report.

Two girls are just like,

let's do it, let's whoop them.

Let's take it over.

These guys are nothing.

The other 10 are just wimps.

They're just scared.

But it's not because they saw something different

than what the two saw.

They both saw the same thing.

And let me just say this.

The Christian life, that's exactly how it is.

It's all about perspective.

You know, you could have the same people go to church,

listen to the same sermons,

fellowship with the same people,

have God work in the same way in that church

and walk away having two different perspectives.

Oh man, he was just too mean.

Oh, he just preach it.

Yeah, he's just too angry.

I just can't handle it.

But then someone else will walk away and be like,

man, that changed my life.

Someone will walk away and be like,

well, that guy is kind of rude.

Oh man.

And then another one will walk away

and I was like, that guy used a lot of scripture.

Want to walk away and say,

I don't feel like the spirit of God is there.

I just don't think God is in there.

And the other person will be like,

you know what, God's presence is there

because I heard the word of God being preached.

They both experience the same exact thing.

But they have two different perspectives.

One is of faith and the other one is not.

The 10 had a negative perspective on the promised land

because they were in unbelief.

They were afraid.

They were scared.

They were cowards.

They did not have faith in God.

Whereas Joshua and Caleb,

they're just like, man, I want more grapes.

Let's do it.

Skip down.

Let's go to verse number 26.

So they come back after 40 days.

Look, 40 days is a long time.

You're hanging out with these guys for 40 days.

You're seeing the same exact thing for 40 days,

the same enemies, the same fruit for 40 days.

And what's the job of these 12 men?

What are they supposed to do?

Well, because they're leaders,

because they're rulers,

they're supposed to be an example to the congregation.

Meaning they're supposed to come back and say,

man, you're not going to believe it.

Like, this place is awesome.

Because keep in mind, the children of Israel,

they're just really scared all the time.

They're always afraid.

They're always scared.

They're kind of wimpy in a lot of ways.

So they need strong leaders to lead them

and say, hey, this can be done.

God's already promised it to us.

It's awesome.

I already picked out my house.

I got this one well that I already picked out.

It's going to be awesome.

It's going to be great.

And that's exactly what they need.

They need to be encouraged to serve

to actually obey the Lord in this area.

Right?

That's what they're supposed to do.

Look at verse 26.

And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron

and to all the congregation of the children of Israel

unto the wilderness of Peyrand to Kadesh

and brought back word unto them and to all the congregation

and showed them the fruit of the land.

And they told them and said,

we came into the land whether thou sentest us

and surely it floweth with milk and honey

and this is the fruit of it.

So everything so far so good, right?

They're like, hey, we went there.

It is awesome.

It does flow with milk and honey.

Look at these massive grapes that we brought back.

Go to report.

They should have just ended it right there.

And say, Moses,

do you have any other words you want to say?

When do we start?

Here's the bad word right here, verse 28.

Nevertheless,

nevertheless.

What do you mean nevertheless?

Yeah, it's a great land.

It is the land that God promised.

It's true that God fulfills his word.

It's true that he fulfills his promise.

But what?

Nevertheless,

the people be strong that dwell in the land.

And the cities are walled in very great.

Moreover, we saw the children of Adam there.

Now let me tell you why this

statement is so stupid and absurd.

Everyone already knew that these people were there.

Way back when,

when God is telling them about this land,

he's explaining to them that there's going to be giants.

He's explaining that the children of Aenak are going to be there.

He's even telling them, hey, they're stronger than you.

Like he literally said,

he's like, I just want to let you know

you're going to go into this land

and they're actually stronger than you.

And he's like, okay,

but all of a sudden, oh man,

there's just so many people there.

There's giants.

It's just like, why are you saying this?

We already know this.

It seems as though you're just trying to instill fear

into the hearts of the brethren,

into the congregation,

because you're too scared to go out and fight.

So therefore, you have to discourage the hearts of your brothers

so that they don't go out and fight.

This is already new.

We already know this.

It's common knowledge.

You don't have to bring this up.

And this kind of demonstrates to us as Christians

that we need to make sure

that we're not always negative about things, right?

Have the right perspective.

If it's time to fight a spiritual battle,

don't make it as though,

don't make a mountain out of a molehill

and say, yeah, but you know,

what happens if we get persecuted or something?

You know, they threaten to blow up our church.

Yeah, we know that already.

That's already happened.

This is not new, you know, territory for us.

God already told us that this was going to happen.

He said, yeah, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution.

Think it not strange the fiery trial which shall try you

as though some strange thing happened unto you.

Why are you bringing up the sons of Aenok and the wall of cities

as though God didn't tell us this to begin with?

Nevertheless, verse 29,

the Amalekites dwell on the land of the south.

Yeah, thank you, Sherlock Holmes.

I appreciate that information.

We know that already.

And the Hittites and the Jebusites

and the Aborites dwell on the mountains.

Yeah, they're called Canaanites.

It's called Canaan land.

We already know this.

And the Canaanites dwell by the sea

and by the coast of Jordan.

And you just want to throw that extra information in there.

And they're by the ocean.

So, you know, if you could, you know,

imagine what this looks like at this moment, okay?

Because again, the children of Israel

are just naturally afraid.

Any amount of negative information or news

just gets them scared and gets them going, right?

It's kind of like you when you're on social media and stuff.

You start hearing all kinds of stuff

and all of a sudden you're afraid, you're just all scared.

What's gonna happen?

You know?

Yeah, it's true.

God's taking care of me this far

and he's provided for me.

But what if?

You know, news them.

Yeah, we've had news this whole time.

It's like when other states criticize California

and they're just like, yeah, but your governors do some.

Oh, really?

No way!

Honey, did you know that?

Really, I didn't know that.

Thank you for pointing out the obvious.

You know what it's meant to do?

It's meant to instill fear.

It's meant to discourage.

It's meant to minimize faith, right?

There's no reason why you didn't bring this up.

So, obviously, this is causing a stir

within the congregation.

And this is where Caleb steps in the picture.

Verse 30.

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses

and said, let us go up at once

and possess it for we are able to overcome it.

Okay?

So Caleb was just, what does it mean to stiller?

He's like, calm down, relax.

Lower your voice, okay?

Stop shaking.

It's okay.

You know?

Relax, alright, relax.

Let's just go up at once and overtake it

so we can overcome them.

He's trying to instill courage.

And look, Caleb is a courageous man,

but there's only so much courage you can instill

into a congregation that has already been infected by fear.

So he's trying to still the people.

And keep in mind, Caleb is 40 years old at this time.

He's 40 years old.

He's like, let's just go up at once.

Let's possess it.

We're able to overcome it.

Verse 31.

But the men that went up with him said,

we'd be not able to go up against the people

for they are stronger than we.

Yeah, God already told you that.

But here's the way it works with God,

is that when something is stronger than us,

God makes up the difference on our end.

You know, greater is he that is in us

than he that is in the world.

You know, God and us make up the majority.

If God be for us, who can be against us?

No weapon formed against us shall prosper.

That's what the Bible says.

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

There's just like, they're stronger than,

everyone's stronger than you.

You're weak.

That's not any new thing.

We already know this.

We're not doing this based upon our own might.

We're wrestling not against flesh and blood.

We need to make sure that we rely upon the Lord.

And look folks, the Christian life is going to be filled

with challenges that require for you to rely upon God.

And it's good when you are lacking.

It's good when the challenge seems daunting.

It's good when it seems as though,

you know, from a practical perspective,

you're not going to come out winning

because then God can show himself strong

on the behalf of those who's hardest perfect with him.

That's what the Bible says, right?

It's like, they're stronger than us.

Look at verse 32.

And they brought up an evil report of the land

which they had searched until the children of Israel

saying the land through which we have gone

to search it is a land that eats up the inhabitants

throughout.

And all the people that we saw in there

are men of great stature.

So the Bible says here that they brought up an evil report.

What does that mean?

Well, a people of good report,

according to Hebrews chapter 11, are people of faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

An evil report is when someone begins to instill fear

because they lack faith.

They're basically removing the faith of the people

by slandering the land.

It actually uses that phrase later on

that they slandered the land, okay?

Verse 33 says,

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Aenak,

which come of the giants.

And I want you to notice this.

And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers

and so we were in their sight.

Now that is a super funny verse to me, okay?

Let me explain to you why it's really funny

because what they're doing is really projecting here, right?

What are they saying?

Well, first of all, they went out to spy the land

meaning that no one saw them.

First and foremost, okay?

Meaning they didn't commune with anybody there, right?

So when it says here,

we were in our own sight as grasshoppers

that just believe what they're saying.

They're basically saying,

you know, we see ourselves as grasshoppers in their sight.

And it's almost as if they caught themselves

and then they said, so we were in their sight.

How do you know that?

You didn't commune with them?

Now I'm reading this and I'm thinking to myself,

well, that makes it even better if we're grasshoppers

in their sight.

That's even better.

You say why?

Well, what does God use to judge lands?

Locusts and grasshoppers.

How does God destroy Egypt?

Locusts and grasshoppers, right?

How does He just destroy crops?

You know, locusts and grasshoppers

often just overtake entire crops

and just destroy resources.

I would have been like, great illustration.

Thank you for proving my point.

We are going to be like grasshoppers in their sight.

We are just going to completely destroy their resources.

We're just going to completely take them over.

But what we see here is these guys are just fearful.

They're afraid.

Oh, they're like giants and they're really tall.

Now let me just make a side note here

that has nothing to do with the sermon,

but it's worth mentioning since we're in this verse.

When it says giant, it's not referring to a 450-foot giant.

This isn't referring to some Christian fantasy

known as the Book of Enoch.

And it's funny because anytime you criticize the Book of Enoch,

people automatically think you're criticizing Enoch.

Enoch takes no credit.

The biblical Enoch takes no credit for the Book of Enoch.

And because we are rejecting the Book of Enoch,

does not mean we reject Enoch

because he's not the one responsible for writing that book.

Now the Book of Enoch is the one that is largely responsible

for promoting this false doctrine, this false ideology,

that there were literally 450-foot giants in the Bible

even though nothing in the Bible

says the size of these people.

Being 450 feet, only in the Book of Enoch

is that measurement found.

But secondly, the giants in the Bible

only measured up to about nine, possibly,

10, 11 feet at the most.

That's considered a giant.

You're like, that's not a giant.

Stand next to a person who's 10 feet tall.

You tell me if that's not a giant to you.

A giant is just someone who's just large.

And so you're like,

well I still think there was 450-foot giants

in this world at one point

and then God had to destroy them with the flood.

And that's why, then why did giants exist after the flood?

Can you explain that?

According to the Book of Enoch,

the reason God flooded the world was to destroy the giants

but yet we find giants after the flood

as noted here.

Doesn't make any sense, folks.

It's Christian science fiction is what it is.

And you know what?

I reject the Book of Enoch wholeheartedly

because it completely contradicts the Bible.

When you put it, when you actually prove all things

whole fast that which is good.

When you compare it to the Scriptures

you actually see that they're not compatible

one with another.

It's made by apostate Jews

who just are writing their own thing.

They're just putting together these Jewish fables.

They're making up all kinds of stories.

It's basically Greek mythology

that's written by Jewish apostates is what it is.

Okay.

So we have here Caleb

stepping up to the plate

stilling the people they're not listening.

Go to chapter 14.

14 verse 1 says

and all the congregation lifted up their voice

and cried and the people wept at night.

So they're crying about this.

I mean, good night in the morning.

I know that there's men here

but I'm just thinking you guys are acting like women though.

What happened to the men of these households

who are just like,

okay, we don't need to cry about this.

This is not a big deal.

We can overcome it.

Caleb's right.

Joshua's right.

Moses is right.

But more important than that, God is right.

They wept at night

and all the children of Israel

murmured against Moses and against Aaron.

The whole congregation said it's in

would God that we had died in the land of Egypt

or would God we had died in this wilderness?

What in the world?

This is called exaggeration.

Because what are they saying?

Oh, it would have been better for us

to just die in the wilderness or just in Egypt

instead of dying at the hands of these Anakins

and these Canaanites or whatever maybe.

It's an exaggeration.

It's like when people, as a Christian,

the Christian life gets hard.

It's like, oh, it would have been better

if I just stayed in the world.

Really?

You really think it would have been better for you

to just stay in the world,

just living a Godless life

under the wrath of God as an unsaved person.

You really think that would be better for you?

You're exaggerating.

You're exaggerating.

Well, I didn't have it as bad now.

Let me just tell you right now

that whatever problems you're going through now,

unsaved people go through outside these walls as well.

Here's the major difference between the two.

We have God.

That's the major difference.

They don't.

So they're going according to the course of this world,

according to the Prince of Power of the Air.

They're just suffering.

They have no hope in this world outside of Christ.

There's no hope.

There's no grace.

There's no mercy for them.

They have no idea that they're just pain bills.

They're just pain bills that try to just live life.

Whereas us, we actually have purpose.

And you know what?

When things go hard for us,

when we experience suffering and trial and tribulation,

the Bible says that all things work together for good

to them that love God,

to them who are called according to his purpose.

So the Bible says,

even when we suffer,

God says it's okay,

I'll take those ingredients

and make something good out of it.

Whereas the people in this world,

they just suffer.

Think about this.

They suffer and if they don't get saved,

they die and go to hell.

Your worst day here is still

some unsaved person's best day.

Because our worst day here

still works together for good.

So it's not worth,

oh man, it's just so hard.

What to God, I just stayed in Egypt.

What to God, I just stayed with my girlfriend.

What to God that I just stayed with my boyfriend.

What to God that I would still drink

and smoke and run with those that do.

It's an exaggeration.

Don't you remember how much you complain

when you're in Egypt?

You complain and you ask God to save you.

You ask God to change something in your life.

You ask God to deliver you out of Egypt.

But all of a sudden,

you're met with this little challenge

of obeying God

and it's just like,

oh I should have just died in the wilderness.

He says in verse three,

and wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land

to fall by the sword

that our wives and our children should be a prey.

We're not better for us to return into Egypt.

Who said that?

Who's this guy who's like,

God wants to kill our kids?

And this hit one to another.

Let us make a captain.

And let us return to Egypt.

So this is what happens

when people become overly emotional.

They make hasty decisions.

Irrational hasty decisions.

Let's just get a captain

and we'll go back to Egypt.

Like what?

God literally,

you can't go back to Egypt.

There's nothing left over there.

Remember God destroyed it?

Remember all the plagues and stuff?

You sure you want to go back?

It's going to take a while

before they can rebuild that thing.

The cucumbers aren't there right now, bro.

The melons aren't there right now.

You want to go back to Egypt

that no longer exists

at that particular moment.

Oh, let's make a captain.

Let's just return into Egypt.

Let's just make a hasty decision

because things are just really hard right now.

No, you need to just go to sleep,

eat those grapes that you just,

they brought back,

take a nap, you know,

and just chill out.

Stop hanging out with fearful people.

Get off of social media.

Get off of Instagram.

Get off of Facebook for a while.

Go on a social media fast for a little bit

so you're not consuming all types

of negative information

that's causing your faith to Wayne and God

and you might feel different about it tomorrow.

He says in verse number five,

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces

before all the assembly

of the congregation of the children of Israel

and Joshua the son of Nun

and Caleb the son of Japhuna,

which were of them that searched the land,

rent their clothes.

So the guys who actually are level-headed,

the ones who actually have faith,

they're devastated by this.

Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb,

they're absolutely beside themselves

in this regard

because they know what this means.

Because the majority of the congregation

does not want to go in,

they know this means this is bad news.

When they're renting their clothes,

they're just like,

no, this is going to turn out

to be very bad for the entire nation,

for my family.

And this kind of demonstrates right here

we're going to look in just a bit

that sometimes you unfortunately

have to suffer the consequences

of other people's actions.

That happens sometimes.

You live in a home

where your mom and dad aren't saved

and they're not making the best decisions.

You're living in a home

where maybe your marriage isn't necessarily

up to Christian par.

You're living in a condition

that's not necessarily conducive

to spiritual growth.

You might end up suffering the consequences

of being in that environment.

That's just how it is sometimes.

But you know what?

I don't see Caleb and Joshua

just completely usurping the authority

in order to fix things.

They're just going to say,

well, I know the Lord's with me.

And unfortunately, Caleb,

though he's a man full of faith,

the Bible literally says that he

wholly followed the Lord,

he went in the wilderness

for 40 years too.

And that kind of sucks.

To be one of the guys

who actually was pro going into the land,

wanted to serve God,

wanted to overcome,

but was hindered by the faithlessness

of the rest of the congregation

and have to go in the wilderness

for 40 years?

I mean, that kind of stinks a little bit.

But you know what?

Caleb, he went with the flow.

Because at the end of the day,

Caleb understood

that he's like one of those

in Sardis, right?

He's one of those,

the few names in Sardis

who has not defiled his garments,

he still has faith in God,

and he recognizes

that God can bless him

in any situation.

Look at verse 7,

and they spake into all the company

of the children of Israel saying,

the land which we pass through

to search it

is an exceeding good land.

So you know, Caleb and them,

they're still trying to like

reason with these people.

They're like, man,

it's such good real estate.

It's free.

We should just go in there.

And he says this in verse 8,

if the Lord delight in us,

then you will bring us into the land.

He said, don't worry about the giants

and all the walls

and all the challenges.

If God delights in us,

we're going to be able to overcome it.

You shouldn't worry about that.

He says,

and give us a land which flow

with milk and honey.

Only rebel not ye against the Lord.

Neither fear ye the people of the land,

for they are bread for us.

Their defense is departed from them.

And the Lord is with us.

Fear them not.

So, you know,

he delivers this great dissertation.

He's just like,

man, we're going to eat them up alive.

God's going to delight in us.

He's going to deliver us.

We just got to believe this.

Just do it, right?

And you would think the congregation

would be like,

yeah, you're right, Caleb.

I'm being a wimp right now.

You know, I'm being a wuss.

My wife is the one who's, you know,

it's really just her, you know.

You would think like someone would actually

come to their senses at this point, right?

But let me give you what happens

when you give people the truth.

It says in verse 10,

but all the congregation

bade stone them with stones.

They're like, wait here.

I think we should kill this guy.

So they said.

They're just like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Just take them out.

I didn't think we should stone them.

Like, what?

What?

Have I become your enemy

because I tell you the truth?

You know what this demonstrates?

This demonstrates that some people

just can't handle the truth.

They can't handle it.

Even when the truth is, hey,

God is for us.

We can do it.

It's like, I don't want to hear.

I don't want to hear.

I don't want to hear it.

They'd rather just silence you

for telling them the truth.

And look, folks, you know,

this is why it's funny

when people are like, oh,

you should have preached like that.

All that negative stuff

like your pro-death penalty

and against sodomy.

You're just so mean and everything.

You know, that's why people did that to you.

People bombed your church

because of how you preach.

They wanted to stoke Caleb

and he was encouraging them.

We talk about it.

He's like, we can do it, guys.

And they're just like picking up stones

like, you say another word.

You know why?

Because sometimes people

just hate the truth

no matter how it's delivered.

No matter what is stated,

sometimes people just hate the truth.

That's the truth.

And so like, you know,

this, you know,

I'm glad that it overreact.

Bay them stone them with stones.

You're just like,

you're going to stone Joshua and Caleb

for trying to exhort you

to continue to just go in the land,

to succeed as a Christian.

But this demonstrates

how faithless and carnal people

have become at this point.

You know, Christians

can be the same way.

You can encourage Christians,

you know, to go so many,

stop asking me to go so many.

I'm not going to go.

You can encourage Christians

to read their Bible,

to go to church,

stop doing that.

I'm just not going to do it.

And you almost become

like an enemy to them.

But this simply demonstrates

that when it comes to serving God,

it's often the minority

who's willing to do it,

not necessarily the majority.

Okay?

He says in verse 10,

but all the congregation

bade stone them with stones

and the glory of the Lord

appeared in the tabernacle

with the congregation

before all the children of Israel

and the Lord sent them to Moses.

How long will these people

provoke me?

And how long will it be

ere they believe me

for all the signs

which I have showed among them?

Now, you can relate

to this frustration

of the Lord, right?

He's like,

I just destroyed Egypt for them.

Like Red Sea?

Remember that?

Ten plagues?

Hello?

And then all of a sudden

they're just like,

good giants.

He's like, how long

are these people going

to provoke me like this?

He says in verse 12,

this is God's solution,

by the way.

Okay?

That is a great solution.

I will smite them

with the pestilence

and disinherit them

and will make of thee

a greater nation

and mighter than they.

That's called

replacement theology, amen?

He's like,

I got an idea.

Why don't I just like

wipe out the entire nation

and then we'll just

start again with you, Moses?

Now, Moses is a far greater

man than me

because I would have been

like, let's do it.

That sounds good.

The Lord is able, you know?

Just start fresh with Moses.

But of course,

Moses is merciful.

He's gracious.

And he obviously

cares for the reputation

of the Lord

before the heathen.

But I just want to show

you that, you know,

if you think, oh, no,

the Jews are such

God-chosen people

and Israel God shows.

He's willing to replace

them even back then.

He was literally willing

to just completely

wipe them out.

Okay?

And these are the verses

that people, you know,

they just kind of avoid

a lot of the times.

You know?

Especially when they say,

like, oh, you know,

God will never break His promises.

Well, look at verse 34.

Just real quick,

just for good measure here.

After the number of the days

in which He searched the land

even 40 days each day

for a year,

shall ye bear your

iniquities even 40 years,

and ye shall know,

listen to this,

my breach of promise.

I'm sorry.

Come again again?

What was that?

What was that?

Like, oh, you know,

He will never break His promises.

It says,

you'll know my breach of promise.

What He said?

You'll know that

I will break my promise to you

because of your,

you know,

because you broke your promise

towards me.

You broke the contract.

So it's like, oh, man,

you know, God will never,

well, then you're going to

have to explain to me

what this means

because that's exactly

what He did.

But you know,

and a lot of people,

that doesn't sit well

with them,

but it's because they just

didn't pay attention

to Numbers 14.

They're just kind of

reading through the Bible

and ignoring that part.

Right?

I mean, that's why it's

important that when we

read the Bible,

we actually pay attention

to what we're reading

because it actually says

that there,

you'll know my breach

of promise.

And who are you to tell

God that He can't break

His promise

to the nation of Israel?

And keep in mind,

the reason He's

breaching His promise

is because of the fact

that they breached their end

as well.

He did it in response to

them breaking

their covenant with Him.

So I was like,

okay, then I'm not obligated

to keep my end of the bargain.

Okay?

Now go back a couple

verses here.

Skip down to,

let's see here.

Verse 13 says,

In Moses sent unto the Lord,

then the Egyptians will hear it,

for thou broughtest up

this people in thy mind

from among them,

and they will tell it

to the inhabitants

of this land,

for they have heard

that thou, Lord,

are among this people,

that thou, Lord,

are seen face to face,

and so forth.

So what does He say?

He's like, don't,

because everyone knows

about the Lord,

they know what you've done,

and it's going to

tarnish your reputation.

So obviously,

Moses did this

in light of God's reputation.

He's interceding

for the nation of Israel

not because

he necessarily cares

for the nation of Israel,

though he does,

he cares more

for the reputation of God.

And he's like,

you brought them out,

then people are going

to start slandering

your name,

you know,

just be merciful to them,

and so forth.

And of course,

the Lord ends up

forgiving the nation

of Israel for this,

but here's the thing,

not without consequence,

though.

So what does He do?

He says,

okay, I forgive you,

I won't kill you,

but you're going to

wander in the wilderness

for 40 years.

For 40 years.

And on top of that,

everyone who is

20 years old

and upward

are going to die

in the wilderness.

That's the punishment.

So, you don't want

the promised land,

you don't want

the blessings of God,

you don't want this

wonderful promise

that I've given to you,

okay, then die

in the wilderness

is what He's saying.

And the wilderness

wandering was basically

like a huge funeral.

It was a 40 year long

funeral.

He kept them

in the wilderness

wandering in there

until they

completely died out

with the exception,

listen to this,

of Caleb and Joshua.

Because Caleb and

Joshua are 40,

Joshua might be a little

younger than that.

Caleb's 40,

but they survived.

Why?

Because they actually

had faith in God.

And this is why

Hebrews 3 tells us

that they could not

enter in,

listen to this,

because of unbelief.

So, here's

the choice

that you have

to make, my friends.

You're saved,

excellent.

You're saved,

that's great.

But God wants

you to go into

the promised land too.

If you don't want

to go,

okay, then you

would just die

in the wilderness.

You just die

in the wilderness.

Because you lack

faith in God.

Then God will

just kill you off

in the wilderness.

And you know what?

That happens

all the time,

where people just

decide to get out of church,

they stop serving God,

they stop

exercising their faith

in the Lord,

they stop reading their

Bible,

they stop leading

people to Christ.

You know what God says?

Okay, you know,

if you don't want

to inherit the blessings

that I have for you,

the provision,

the blessings,

the blessing of

just raising a family

in church,

the blessing of

leading people to Christ,

the blessing of

having a Godly marriage,

if you want to just

disobey because of

your lack of faith,

then die in the wilderness.

You won't get

that message in Sunday

school class.

It's not going to happen

because it's too harsh.

But you know what?

That's the reality,

my friends.

If you don't think

that's the God of the Bible,

then you're missing out

on 40 years right here.

Because that's exactly

what he did for 40 years.

And I don't even have

time to chronicle

all of the devastating

things that happen

throughout those 40 years.

Where God is just punishing them,

left and right,

killing them,

left and right.

I mean it's

not just like

natural occurrences,

supernatural occurrences,

serpents biting them,

the earth opening up

and swallowing

the dissenter's hole,

going straight into hell.

I mean there's a lot

of crazy stuff that happened

in the wilderness.

I think I'd rather

just go into the promise land.

I think that's better.

You know,

reading down like,

now I'll take on the giant.

I don't want to live

in the wilderness for 40 years

and just miss out on this.

And here's the funny thing

about this, okay?

Because keep in mind,

they're afraid,

listen to me,

they're afraid of the

sons of Anac,

they're afraid of the

Canaanites, right?

Like they're

morbidly afraid of them.

What they don't realize,

listen to me,

what they don't realize

is the Canaanites

are more scared of them.

So how do you know?

Because when they finally,

after 40 years,

go into Canaan land,

you know,

Rahab the harlot was just like,

we've heard about you guys

and our hearts have melted

since we heard you

come out of Egypt.

So that means literally

for those 80 years,

the Canaanites

just been terrified

of the children of Israel.

But they're over here

scared of them.

And that's a lesson

for us to learn

that the enemies of the Lord

are often more scared

of us

than we are of them.

You can't allow

your fear to impede you

from serving God

because God did not

give us a spirit of fear

but of power, love,

and a sound mind.

And you know what?

You need to grow in your love

because perfect love

casts us out of fear.

Grow in your love for the Lord.

The love of Christ

constrains us.

You know what?

Everyone is afraid

of serving God at one time

or another.

But here's the difference

if you decide to obey God

despite the fact that

you're afraid.

There's people who are afraid

and that causes them

to disobey God.

There's other people

who are afraid

and they're like,

I'm just going to do it anyways.

I'm going to fight

the sons of Aeneac anyways.

I'm just going to go

up the walled cities.

I'm going to fight

even though I'm afraid.

And that's what God

wants us to do.

So they end up

wandering the wilderness,

skip down to verse number

22.

It says,

because all those men

which have seen my glory

and my miracles

which I did in Egypt

and in the wilderness

and have tempted me now

these 10 times

and have not harkened

to my voice,

surely they shall not

see the land

which I swear unto their fathers,

neither shall any of them

that provoked me see it.

Isn't that interesting?

That he says here

that they provoked them 10 times

and it was 10 people

who were responsible

for causing others to fear, right?

But then he says

in verse 24,

but my serving Caleb

because he hath another spirit

with him

and has followed me fully

him will I bring into the land

wherein to he went

and his seed shall possess it.

So he says,

Caleb, he's different.

He has another spirit.

Now, we can interpret this

two ways.

He has another spirit

like he has a spirit of God

which is 100% true.

But he has another spirit

because spirit in the Bible

is often used interchangeably

with our attitude.

You know, you need both.

You need to be filled with the spirit

and you need to change

your attitude as well.

Save people can have bad attitudes.

Save people can have

carnal attitudes.

Save people can be feminine.

Save people can be feminist.

Save people can live carnal lives.

They can have bad ideologies.

And you know what?

You're not going to inherit

the blessings

if you're not like Caleb

and have another spirit.

Be transformed by the renewing

of your mind.

That's what the Bible says.

But you have not so alone in Christ

if so be it.

You have heard him

and have been taught by him

as the truth is in Jesus

that he put off the old man

which is corrupt

according to the deceitful lust

and be renewed

in the spirit of your mind

as we're referring to your attitude.

You're like, man, I have such a hard time

serving the Lord,

living the Christian life.

It's because of your attitude though.

You just have a bad attitude.

You have a corrupted attitude.

Change your attitude.

Like I know what the truth is.

I believe in the Bible.

I believe these things.

Yeah, but it's your attitude though.

And it might be

that you're just hanging around people

who have bad attitudes

towards the things of God

and it's influencing you

to have a bad attitude.

It's influencing you

to lack faith.

He that walked with a wise man

shall be wise

but a companion of fools

shall be destroyed.

And so it sounds like

you might need to spend

a little more time in the Bible

and if you don't have the discipline,

listen to me,

if you don't have the discipline

to read the Bible

every single day,

which you should,

then here's a good way

to supplement that temporarily.

Just be at every church service

because in every church service

we're going to go over

like 50 scriptures

which is more than

what you're reading

on your own

and that'll help you

to renew your mind.

Change your mind.

Change your attitude.

Be someone who

has a different spirit

who's following God wholly

and you won't fall

into the same hands

of consequences

that others are falling into.

Now let's go to Joshua 14,

if you will,

Joshua 14.

So what happens after this?

Well, God is like

you're all going to die.

You're going to die

in the wilderness

and that one guy

who just turned 20 that day,

he's like

it was like his birthday that day

and he's like, dang.

He's like, yep,

you're going to die.

You will never see the promised land

ever again.

A million people

that had to be someone

whose birthday was on that day.

So then,

they begin to do,

they decide to do

what they shouldn't have done

or what they should have

decided to do long ago.

They're like, okay, never mind.

We'll go into the promised land.

Never mind.

We're just kidding.

We'll go.

We'll go into the promised land.

Say no more.

We'll go.

And then Moses is like, don't go.

They're like, no, no, no,

we're going to go.

He's like, if you go,

God's not with you

and you're going to be destroyed.

Because guess what?

That ship has sailed.

That train has departed.

The opportunity

for you to serve God

and inherit the blessings

is no longer available

to you at this time.

Now you've got to suffer

the consequences of your actions.

Oh, no, no, no.

No, I'll change.

I'll change.

We'll go right now.

We'll go.

It's just like, all right.

You know what happened?

They went and the Amalekites

destroyed them, killed them

because God wasn't with them.

You know what the principle is there?

Serve God today.

Serve God today.

Don't make excuses.

Don't allow your fear

to cause you to provoke you

to disobey God

because you're going to have

what's called regret later on.

And regret is just like,

you know what?

I changed my mind.

I'm going to serve God.

Okay, you could try.

But we don't know

if that ship has sailed for you.

Just don't know.

You don't know

if those opportunities

are still available to you.

Again, salvation is always there.

Never lose it.

Amen.

But certain opportunities have gone.

You know, I think of Saul

who disobeyed God

beyond recognition

to the point

where he said that the kingdom of God

shall be taken from you

and given to someone

who's better than you.

Who wants to hear that?

I'm going to give it to someone

who's better than you.

Someone who's of a higher quality

than you.

And you know what?

He could have done

everything humanly possible

to retain his title

as the king.

It's not going to happen.

Because he crossed the line.

And so they crossed the line.

They ended up going

down into Canaan.

You know, the Amalekites

smote them, disconfited them,

destroyed them.

And that was the end of that.

So you're in Joshua chapter 14.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

Let me go there real quick.

Joshua chapter 14.

Joshua 14 · chapter mention

So at this point,

you know, they've gone

through the 40 years of wilderness.

So we have Caleb

who's the spy.

He is, has wholly gone after the Lord.

He's filled with the Spirit.

He's considered a dissenter

by the 10.

But he is a man of faith.

He believes in the Lord.

And unfortunately,

he's suffering the consequences

of his nation.

You know, you and I

were going to suffer

the consequences of this nation, too.

That's how it is.

We make bad decisions.

We get to suffer the consequences

because of it.

So you better make sure

you're just following the Lord.

Amen?

Better make sure

you're wholly following the Lord.

Better make sure

you're of another Spirit.

You better make sure

you're sure.

Now's the best time

to start serving God.

Because you just don't know

what's going to happen.

So he wanders for 40 years.

God, you know, protects him.

And now he's like 85 years old.

Okay?

He's beyond Ankh at this point.

He was an Ankh at 40.

But now, what's after Ankh?

Some of you, Jen, what is?

Oh, Gramps.

Gramps?

Yeah, he's a Gramps, apparently.

So he's really old.

And, you know,

now they get to go into the land.

So now they're inheriting the land

and now Joshua is going to

distribute the different plots

and the different possessions

of the land to the various tribes.

And you know what?

Caleb, he's 85, but he's not like,

no, that time has passed for me.

You know, those were the glory days

from back in the day.

Now skip down to verse number six.

Then the children of Judah

came into Joshua

and Gilgal and Caleb, the son of Japhunah,

the Kennesite,

sentenced him.

Thou knowest the thing that the Lord

sentenced Moses, the man of God,

concerning me and thee

in Catechparnia.

So he's like, hey, I didn't forget

what happened 40 years ago.

You remember what God said?

All right?

I haven't forgotten.

He says in verse seven,

40 years old was I when Moses,

the servant of the Lord,

sent me from Catechparnia

to spy out the land.

And I brought him word again

as it was in my heart.

Nevertheless, my brethren

that went up with me

made the heart of the people melt.

But I wholly follow the Lord, my God.

This is a patient man.

As I just want to remind you,

I wasn't one of those guys.

I follow the Lord.

I obey the commandments.

I was there to give a good report.

God was with me.

Verse nine.

And Moses swear on that day,

saying, Surely the land wherein

thou feet have trodden

shall be thine inheritance,

and thy children's forever.

Because thou hast wholly followed the Lord, my God.

And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive.

As he said, these 40 and five years.

Ever since the Lord spake this word into Moses,

while the children of Israel

wandered in the wilderness,

and now lo, I am this day

forescore and five years old.

So what does this show us?

It shows us that Caleb

is a very patient man.

Because the promise was given 40 years ago.

He didn't quit.

He wasn't like, you know what?

He probably forgot about this.

You know, I don't even want to do this anymore.

No, he waited until the very end.

And let me say this, folks.

There are certain promises that God gives us.

And you're all frustrated

because you haven't gotten that fulfillment

a week after you prayed for it.

Okay?

Take that away from her.

This is my daughter by the way.

You know, you're all frustrated

because it hasn't happened in a month.

Try 40 years.

Try 45 years.

And it's not like Gramps, you know,

which Caleb, he's a Chad more than anything else.

Okay?

You're going to see right now that he is a Chad.

You know, he's not like,

what was that one thing that Moses said

that I can have?

He's like, hey, hey, hey.

I got the receipts right here.

Okay?

You know, and just like read it out to him.

He has not forgotten.

That's a man of great endurance.

You need to endure.

Oh man, my marriage hasn't been, you know,

it's just not what it needs to be.

How long are you willing to wait?

Yeah, but you don't know how tough it's been.

Has it been like a wilderness though?

You think you went to the same thing

that Caleb went through in the wilderness?

You think, have you seen tons of people die around you?

Rebelliousness?

Have you experienced the 45,

the 40 years of just wandering the wilderness,

just being a complete nomad,

seeing people die left and right

and still have this attitude like,

oh no, I still believe that God's going to fulfill his promise.

You know why?

Because what God has promised,

he's able also to perform.

He's fully persuaded.

He's a man of great faith.

This is why I believe Caleb's awesome.

Because 40 years afterwards,

he's still talking about this

as though it was like four days ago.

This means that he doesn't care how much time has passed.

He has faith that God will fulfill his promise

even though he's 85 years old.

Can I challenge you?

Can you have a little bit of endurance?

Can you have some endurance,

have some persistence about yourself

and not quit on your marriage

and not quit on your husband,

not quit on your wife,

not quit on your children,

not quit on church,

not quit on this day and the other.

Why don't you wait a while?

And look, Caleb was an awesome guy 40 years ago,

but I'm telling you right now,

he's even more awesome now though.

Because all things work together for good.

So he just came out of the wilderness

just that much better.

He's like, I'm 85 years old.

Look at verse 11.

As yet I am as strong this day

as I was in the day that Moses sent me.

He's like, I'm still built.

I can still deadlift.

I can still do my squat.

I'm still strong.

Now, you're going to see why this is significant

in just a bit, okay?

But you think, oh man, you're 85.

You've got to be careful.

You might break your hip.

Caleb's not breaking anything.

He's still ready to go to war.

Look what it says.

He says, as my strength was then,

even so is my strength now.

To get out of bed, to get off the toilet.

No, he's like, for war,

both to go out and to come in.

So he's telling Josh, he's like,

I just want to let you know

I'm going to inherit this land.

God promised it to me.

And I'm still strong.

And I'm not saying strong as in,

I'm going to encourage you.

I'm talking about strong.

I'm ready to fight.

I'm ready to throw down.

I'm ready to conquer land.

This is 85 years of age here.

Verse 12,

now therefore,

give me this mountain.

Now, I love that statement.

It's a very base statement.

It's awesome to hear him say that.

But when you actually understand

the ramifications of this,

he's actually asking

for the most difficult territory.

So he's not like, yeah,

I could go to war.

Now just give me that little

place right there, you know what I mean?

All the nice little fruit there.

He's like, just give me the hardest part.

Give me the mountain where all the

giants are.

Give me the challenge.

And I'll take it on.

That's awesome.

Give me this mountain where

the Lord spake in that day.

From thou hurtest in that day

how the Anakims were there

and that the cities were great in fence.

If so be that the Lord be with me.