Bobby Bosler: This has been a difficult year. And I know that I don’t need to tell you that because you understand it. If you’ve gone to school, if you’re homeschooling, nothing has changed whatsoever.

But if you go to school, things have drastically changed as you probably shifted over to virtual education. And maybe you’re back in the classroom. Maybe you’re still doing virtual education.

I don’t know. But I know that things got majorly shaken up in all of our lives. Those of you that follow our ministry, I was down in Texas.

I had a full tour ahead of me. I was so excited about the guys that I had with me and about the prospects of reaching young people with the gospel. I was traveling, doing the war, and just very excited about it.

And then my family and I, we were on vacation. It was probably the first time we were able to go on a vacation in years and years and years. Like not a vacation where you just go spend time with family, but a vacation where it’s just you and your family.

And we were parked at a trailer park actually in Waco, Texas, and we were enjoying ourselves. It was a really neat scene. The trailer park right across the little river had a bunch of flocks of sheep, and we could go and just walk amongst the sheep, and we got to go see the Magnolia Silos, which I had never heard anything about.

All I know is there was sweet tea, and that sold me. So that was good for me, and I think my wife went inside the store, and it was a bunch of overpriced junk, so, you know, whatever. Chip and Joanna, if you’re watching, I’m sorry, but anyway.

And, you know, in the middle of our vacation, it was like the second week in March. All of a sudden, Our president declared a state of emergency in our country, and it was declared, the virus was declared to be a worldwide pandemic. And probably within hours of that declaration, I started getting phone calls from the churches we were supposed to go to.

Hey, brother, I’m not sure how this whole thing is going to shake out. Just so you know, we’re keeping you on for the moment, but I don’t know. Depending on how things go, we may have to cancel.

You know, an hour later, another news conference later, I get another call from another pastor. Hey, brother, we’re going to have to cancel. I’m sorry till a better time.

You know, but hey, you can come and park in our parking lot. And then another pastor, you know, hey, I don’t think I want you to come at all. And it’s like, OK, great.

And one after another, I went from a year full of meetings to and just understand as an evangelist, meetings are the way that God provides for our financial needs. Right. And so all of a sudden we go from having a wonderfully well-stocked year of meetings to nothing to do for the next nine, like the next four or five months.

And it was a difficult moment. I don’t necessarily expect you to boo-hoo and cry for me or anything like that, because you have your own story. You have your own set of difficulties that I’m sure you were facing here this year.

And I think regardless of whether it affected your employment, regardless of whether it affected your education, regardless of whether it affected just how you lived life and how you went about doing things, I do know one area that it affected all of our lives. And that is our ministry. To be honest with you, I went for months without knocking on a single door because, you know, you’re supposed to stay at home.

You’re not allowed to do that. I’ll be honest with you. I remember one time I was down in Texas in the drive-thru in an In-N-Out burger.

And I remember I had a gospel tract. God was working in my heart about just giving a gospel tract, right? Gospel tract right here.

I was driving up. I gave my order. You know, I made the payment.

And I’ll be honest with you, here’s what was going through my mind. You know, there’s this virus going all around. It could be on the tract, you know?

and what if this lady rejects the tract because, you know, the whole COVID thing? What if I infect? Because at that point in time, this was like the end of March, maybe the beginning of April, we just didn’t know how this whole thing was going to play out.

And I did not give out a gospel tract because I was afraid. You know, if you’ve ever had any victory in your ministry and service for God, I’m sure that you, like me, have taken a couple of steps backwards. I’ll just be totally honest with you.

This summer, thankfully, we were able to keep six of our COLA clashes, and I was very thankful for that. And, you know, the very first week, it was kind of scary, right? You know, because we’re going to run around all over town, and we’re going to find teenagers and invite them to come to this big public event, right?

where who knows if we all have COVID or not. And, you know, we’re going to invite these people from the community to come. And are they going to come?

And if they come, are they going to be in any frame of mind to actually throw themselves into the competition and to listen in the preaching to go back in the invitation? And I’m thankful to tell you, young people, they came and they competed and they got saved. And I was so thankful for that.

But, you know, even though week number one was under our belt, was like, amen, God’s still alive even during the pandemic. Every week was its own unique battle. The next week, we were in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, and just up the road on one side, there was Tomah, Wisconsin.

They’d had a big outbreak there. Just the other way down the road at the Wisconsin Dells, they’d had a big outbreak there, and we were smack dab in the middle. And it was kind of like, uh-oh, what’s going to happen?

You know what happened? People came out. They heard the gospel.

They got saved. That was really exciting. You know, it’s exciting just to see that the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation, even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

Well, the next week we were here, and here we had a gigantic worldview family extravaganza, and we did the Cola Clash outreach, and, you know, we found out that, you know, Germantown moms, they’re the ones that freak out about COVID. I don’t know. I mean, how many Falls moms don’t do it?

but something about germantown mobs nothing against anybody from germantown here but you know we got some calls from some people that were upset and you know it actually it was interesting things started out really easy but the further we progressed in the summer the more kickback we got we made a concession here we did everything in a tent outdoors up on the land where we’ve been we were competing this week and praise the lord we saw a number of people saved we had a great

crowd I think somewhere between 80 to 100 young people each night.

It was thrilling. And yet the battle was getting more and more intense. The next week, we went to Ohio, Dayton, Ohio area.

And we went out recruiting. And actually, I was thrilled. We got a bunch of recruits.

And we had a ton of people promise that they were going to come for that first night. Like I was thinking, praise the Lord. This is great.

This pandemic isn’t doing anything, right? And then hardly anybody showed up. And we shrunk every night.

Thankfully, we had young people saved, I believe, on every single night. And I rejoice at that. The week after that, our crowd got even smaller, actually.

And you know, to be honest with you, it was a challenging summer.

It was almost like the further we got into the summer, really the mass mandate was kind of what I feel like really started the fear to get intense in the public’s mind because there’s this visual reminder everywhere they went that you know we’re in the midst of this major worldwide health crisis and okay I’m just sharing my testimony here somewhat we finished up our summer tour we came back here and I was supposed to teach class the Class is, well, actually, let me back up

just a little bit.

We had a revival meeting scheduled down in Indianapolis. I was so excited for this for a number of different reasons. And four days before the revival meeting started, I started to have a headache.

And I started to get a scratchy throat. And I got a fever. And I started feeling really, really bad.

I never went and got a test, but I know what I had. I had it. I’m just being straight up with you.

I had it. My wife got it. She lost all her tastes and all of that stuff.

And coming up to the day before the revival meeting, my fever went away, and I called up the pastor, and I said, hey, I feel great. My wife still feels terrible, but I feel great. What do you want to do?

And he’s like, yeah, we’re going to have to cancel. That was a huge discouragement. I can’t tell you how discouraging it was as a preacher, as a preacher of the gospel, to literally be right on the cusp, but because of something beyond your control like that to have a meeting, which again is not only a means of income, but it’s a means of fulfilling God’s call on your life to all of a sudden be pulled out from under you.

And I’ll be honest with you, that whole week, you know, I’m quarantined in my trailer. I was incredibly discouraged. I don’t normally reach out to people when I’m discouraged, just to be honest with you.

I normally just kind of keep it to myself, but I even texted Pastor Van Gelder and I just said, pray for me. I am really, really discouraged right now. I know back in March, those of you that follow the TG Talks on YouTube, again, that was kind of my outlet or the podcast or whatever.

You know, you hear me talking about, you know, it’s time to open up for business. And you hear me talking about how, you know what, it’s time to go win the world to Christ. It’s time to not, to stop just hunkering down at home.

And we’ve got to go and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. People are dying and going to hell. I’m just saying this for all of you here to be transparent with you.

Sometimes I felt it and sometimes I didn’t. So right after the revival meeting, we waited the full amount of time, you know, for everything to be clear and had a class that I was co-teaching with Pastor Gilmore, Netcasters, soul winning training for our freshmen here at BCM. He and I, We co-teach that thing every year, and we teach young people how to win the world to Jesus Christ.

And I’ll be honest with you, since I’d been back, I hadn’t been out soul winning once. I hadn’t been out. I hadn’t knocked on any doors.

I may have handed out a tract or two. I don’t remember. But I had not intentionally gone out.

And for those of you freshmen, you may be shocked to hear that. I’m just being candid with you. Because honestly, I wasn’t sure how people were going to respond out there.

You know what I’m talking about. I wasn’t sure how they were going to react when I knocked on their doors I wasn’t sure if they were going to get mad at me For walking down the street without a mask on or whatever And I just felt like you know man I just I just don’t know and i’m frankly a little bit afraid Okay a lot afraid Do evangelists get afraid?

But you know what i’m teaching this class i can’t just teach the class and send them all out soul winning and then me not go so winning right cody i can’t do that actually it’s funny on the first day everybody else had their groups set and i wasn’t in one of the groups and i was kind of like okay i’ll just take it from the lord that i’m not supposed to go out here today and i don’t remember who it was was it you yeah

he was like oh i need to go out david greenwald right here he was like i need to go out i don’t have a partner pastor gilmore’s like oh mr boswell doesn’t have anybody to go with and i’m like okay all right i hear you lord i hear you and so we went out i believe we saw a young man saved and uh even over those next several days i just began to realize you know what young people as much as we see the obstacles.

And as much as in the midst of this crazy world we’re living in right now, it’s so easy in fear to hang back. It’s so easy to worry about what people will think. It’s so easy to inflate the obstacles.

That’s not what God has called us to do, young people. That’s not the right response. I asked you to turn with me to Numbers chapter 13.

And in Numbers chapter 13, this is a passage I touched on actually last year, but I want to speak a little bit more at length on this passage. In Numbers 13, we find a story of a group of individuals that had been called to go somewhere. Can I just say this?

God has called you not just to be surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. God has called each one of you not just to depend upon his power, but God has actually called you to go somewhere. I so appreciated Brother Prettyman’s message earlier on on just this concept of the cry of dependence that God delights to answer.

And when we are desperate, not only to get out of our scrape, but to get into the center of God’s will, God comes down. And young people, I want you to know that God wants your life to go somewhere. I don’t just mean metaphorically.

I mean, God has a place, a geographic location that he wants you to spend your time and effort and to spend your life. The children of Israel, God had a place he wanted them to go. As we heard earlier, they were in bondage themselves in the land of Egypt, and God showed up when they cried out to him.

And God not only delivered them through miracles, but God also took them out of the land of bondage. And every step was a miracle. From the first step out of the land of Egypt to the steps that crossed the Red Sea on dry ground to the steps throughout the wilderness, they’re on their way to the promised land.

Every step was a miracle. When you see what God did in providing for them, it was a miracle. When you saw how God provided water for them, it was a miracle.

When you saw God provide the manna, It was a miracle, and the journey to the place that God wants you to go is full of miracles. You won’t be able to make it without the miracles of God. But the children of Israel, they found themselves on the very edge of the promised land at a place called Kadesh Barnea.

Look at chapter 13 and verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou 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, each one a ruler among them.

And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran, that’s Kadesh Barnea there. All those men were heads of the children of Israel. Skip down to verse 17.

And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said 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 dwelleth 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 dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds.

And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

So they went up and searched the land. So Moses essentially told several spies to go into the land to take a look at it. Let’s get a report of what’s actually going on out there.

And so these men, they went out as journalists. They collected all of the data, right? They took samples.

They applied the scientific method to the real situation out there. And they came back with their report. I want you to notice what they said.

Verse number 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 Paran to Kadesh and brought back word unto them and unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey.

And this is the fruit of it. And really at this point they’re saying, hey, listen, the land is just as good as God said it is. It’s a land flowing with milk and honey.

This land is profitable. It’s fertile. This is a great land.

This is awesome. This is great. But verse number 28, nevertheless, the people be strong and dwell in that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and very great.

And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. Here at this point, they had been sent to assess the place that God was calling them to go.

Because remember, this was a group of people that was going somewhere. There was literally a place that they were called to go. And so they send people into the land to check it out, to see what was going on.

And they came back and said, well, you know, on the positive side of things, the fields sure are ripe out there. But. Oh boy, but the giants.

Oh boy, but the barriers. Oh boy, there’s a lot of people out there that really don’t like us. And that frankly, really don’t want us out there at all.

They would much prefer that we stay down here and hear the news report that they received. The word that showed up on their feed that day, if I can say it this way, was this. Stay where you are.

Don’t come over here. Don’t come to the place where God has called you to come. No, no, no, no.

You just, you just stay in that place of comfort. You just stay in that place where you can predict what’s going to happen. You just stay there.

Don’t come over here. They don’t want you to come. It’s hard over here.

It’s difficult. There are going to be some pretty nasty battles. Some of these people, they’re going to get angry with you for coming over here.

Do not come over here. And it’s interesting to me in verse 30, it says, and Caleb stilled the people before Moses. Evidently, and again, I don’t know exactly what the format was of how this whole meeting took place, kind of in my mind’s eye, I imagine that Israel was waiting for these men to come.

They were really excited because they wanted to hear about how good the land was, right? And so eventually they begin to hear word, oh, the spies, they’re back. Oh, somebody sees the spies.

There they are. They’re coming and the spies come up and the people are all gathered around like some of the leaders and their wives and the children. They’re all gathered around and they’re trying to lean in to hear the first word of the land and they hear the first part.

Oh, it’s great. It’s awesome. Grapes as big as your head, good stuff.

But then when they start talking about the children of Anak, the giants, when they start talking about the walls that are just so tall and all of these different scary things, I almost imagine that some children start crying. I almost imagine that some wives, they just recoil and you hear the audible gasp. And instantly, fear set in.

Instantly, the hype caused the bottoms to drop out of everyone’s stomach. Instantly, people went from optimistic to absolutely terrified. Instantly.

Caleb here is a voice of reason. We’ll come back to what he says a little bit later here. But if you look at verse 31, but the men that went up with him said, we be not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we.

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel saying, the land through which we have gone to search, it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.

And so we were in their sight. It’s like they’re saying, man, it’s like we were as big as a grasshopper. Actually, no, that is how big we were.

And what they’re doing here is they’re looking, they’re assessing the situation. frankly they’re assessing it factually aren’t they if you think about it were there really really tall people in there were there people that really really didn’t want them to come uh-huh were there walls that were very very tall you better believe they were there were were there battles that would be incredibly intense and exhausting you better believe there would be.

And yet here’s the thing about these people, these people, the spies, what they did is all they saw were the obstacles. All they saw were the giants. All they see were the impossibilities.

And young people, I want you to understand something and just make no mistake, please do not mistake what I’m saying here. I want you to get it and get it clearly. If all you see in your mind’s eye when you think about serving God is the impossibilities because of the virus, you’re only seeing half the picture.

You see, these people, the children of Israel, they looked into that land, they sent those men into that land, and when they came back, it was like all they could talk about were all the reasons why they shouldn’t. And you know, frankly, I don’t have any time these days. Listen, I understand.

I have felt the fear in my own eyes. That’s why I was trying to be transparent with you earlier. I don’t want you to think that I’m some guy that’s got it all figured out, that I’m some guy that never feels a moment of fear.

I have had fear in the process of this whole thing. And yet I’ve also recognized in my heart of hearts that there is so much more to consider when you consider obeying God and serving Him. See, if all you see are the obstacles and the impossibilities, you will not accomplish God’s plan for your life.

Any report that tells you not to obey God is an evil report. These people, they felt… Okay, God had a mission for them, right?

His mission was to get to a place. He had a place he wanted to go. These were people that were going somewhere.

And here they were. They show up. They send people in to scout it out.

The people come back and say, it’s rough out there. Oh, it’s tough out there. You wouldn’t believe the lady that wouldn’t even take a tract out of our hand.

She made us leave it on the ground. And then we had to step away. And then she came and she picked it up.

You wouldn’t believe that person that had cracked their door open just a little bit and then slammed it in our face. Oh, it’s rough out there. It’s bad out there.

See, here’s the thing. Let’s continue reading. In chapter 14 in verse 1, it says, And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried.

And the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this wilderness, 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?

Were not better for us to return into Egypt? They said to one another, Let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt.

there’s more that I’m going to read here but actually I do want to continue reading here 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 Jephunneh which were of them that searched the land rent their clothes and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel saying the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land if the

Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us a land which floweth with milk and honey.

Notice this next statement. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense has departed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Fear them not, but all the congregation bade stone them with stones. You know, the fact of the matter is, is that in our present day here in October, in the dreaded year 2020, the year of the murder hornets, right? The year of the lockdown, the year of the virus, the year of virtual education, whatever you might call it, here in this year, we have had very significant obstacles.

And how you see those obstacles is going to determine whether you succeed in overcoming them or whether you succumb in fear to them. Let me read the summary of what I think is going on here in this passage. They, the children of Israel, felt that their mission was canceled.

because of imposing giants and impenetrable walls. They assumed that impossible odds meant an impassable road. Their assessment led them to both fear and failure, which led them eventually to a wilderness of wandering, which led an entire generation to miss out on the amazing blessings of God.

You see, here in this passage and in the passages following this, We find that because they refused to step forward in faith, because they allowed the obstacles to cause them to chicken out, because they chose not to press forward, but they chose to draw back, because they stayed in lockdown and didn’t go out and go where God had called them to go, they ended up wandering in the wilderness for an entire generation. All of the people aged 20 and upward died in the wilderness.

and at the end of their lives, they were nothing but carcasses rotting in the wilderness, food for the vultures. You know what I’m afraid about, young people? I’m afraid that if you and I don’t overcome our fear and obey God, I’m fearing that this generation might be passed over by God as well.

I’m fearing that the damage done from a year spent in selfishness. The damage done from a year spent indulging in Netflix and Disney Plus instead of obeying Jesus. I fear that a year spent back at home depressed and addicted to pornography.

I’m afraid that a year spent focused on your projects instead of God’s mission. I fear that a year spent focusing on ourselves preserving our lives instead of accomplishing our mission is going to do far more damage than any of us could foresee. See, young people, it’s not like we can just put God’s plan on pause and pick it up later.

Either you are obeying Jesus or you’re not. Either you’re moving forward or you’re moving backwards. Either you’re succeeding and accomplishing mission for you or you are failing.

And young people, these folks here in this passage, they were so close. See, the very things that they saw that they thought meant this cannot be done were the very obstacles that God was going to overcome miraculously. But here’s the thing, and here’s one of the main points that I want to get across here.

When they were looking at the obstacles, they forgot to factor in one very important thing. God. You know, young people, when you don’t see any way forward, when you don’t see any pathway forward, you will never take the pathway forward.

When God is merely a theory in your mind, you will never bank your health or your safety on him. You know, when we headed out for those six weeks this summer, I had to very seriously assess in my own mind and heart whether I was willing for my family to get COVID and die. I did.

Because, you know, we were going to be in a very public ministry. we were going to be rubbing shoulders with teenagers who very likely could have COVID. And you know, while granted statistically, my age group and my children’s age group, it was not likely that we would have any major issues as a result if we got it.

I do remember the day when I had to think through in my mind, this could cost us a lot. But you know what? As I stepped forward, as we pressed forward anyway, I remember thinking, you know what?

if God can keep me out of hell, he can protect me in this situation. If I press forward and obey him, I believe that God will be my rear guard. I believe that God can take care of my health.

I believe that God can take care of my family. In other words, yes, in looking forward to the summer, in looking forward to those weeks, I thought I might get sick. I didn’t pretend like the obstacles weren’t there.

I wasn’t just wishfully pretending like they weren’t there. I took them into account, but I also took into account the fact that God is good, and the fact that God is all-powerful, and that God can take care of me and my family. And so in stepping forward, I was factoring in God.

You know, sometimes we wonder whether God can protect us. And I just want to say this, when we lack the faith to believe that God can, we will lack the will to step out and obey. Young people, I want to caution you.

Please do not say that you can’t when God says that you can. That was the problem with these folks that came back from Kadesh Barnea. They saw all the obstacles.

They saw all the challenges. They saw all the reasons why they shouldn’t. And they concluded and said, you know what?

We really can’t do this. Yeah, this really isn’t a good idea right now. No, no, no, no, not right now.

Let’s just go back to whatever we were doing before. Caleb got it right. He said, we are well able to overcome them.

Joshua got it right he said we can do this but I want to point out this when we refuse to believe God and when we refuse to step out and do what God has called us to do because of fear Joshua got it right he says rebel not ye against the Lord God calls that not weakness God calls that rebellion chapter 14 in verse 1 these folks They lifted up their voice. They cried. They wept all night.

And I want you to know rebellion is pathetic. I was out in New Jersey for an open week that we had this summer. And while we were out there, we wanted to find a place to go to church.

The church that my family goes to, they have a lot of old people on death’s door. And they requested that our team not come to attend the service, but they asked me to preach anyway. so I pre-recorded my sermons and they played them on the wall.

And so we tried to go to a couple of other places. There was a place over in Pennsylvania where they were having all the services just like normal. You know what?

Sunday school, everyone was in there. The morning service, everyone was in there. And I’ll be honest with you, that was refreshing.

Oh, that was great. Wasn’t it great the first time you got back to church? But you know, that evening, I didn’t want to go over to Pennsylvania.

I was right on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I tried to go somewhere for church on Sunday night. And I remember there was a place I’d gone to Christian school at when I was a child, and I pulled into the parking lot 15 minutes before the service, and nobody was there.

And I thought, oh, maybe people just show up real late, you know, something like that, or maybe they just show up right on time. And so we ran to the grocery store real quick. We came back.

It was like three minutes till nobody was still there. And so I sent a Facebook message to the church page, and I just said, hey, you all having services in person tonight? And he texted back, YouTube.

and I thought you know what I understand that New Jersey is a unique place I understand that there’s a lot of unique laws there but frankly in my heart the contrast from the morning was this is pathetic this is pathetic you know and there have been a variety of times again you can tell the folks that operating on fear.

You can tell the folks that are limp-wristed, weak, with no stomach for a battle, with no ability to just stand up and obey God, come what may, regardless of what other people think of them. You know, I’ve got great respect for some of these people. There’s a couple of churches in New Jersey.

There’s several churches out in California, places where they are directly told, do not meet. And I don’t want to get political here at all, but I’ve got great respect for folks who say we ought to obey God rather than men. God told us to assemble and we will.

I’ve got great respect for folks like that. But frankly, I don’t have a whole lot of respect for folks who are operating entirely out of fear. I don’t have a whole lot of respect because frankly, the fact of the matter when we rebel because of fear, it is pathetic.

You’re pathetic when you don’t step out and obey God, just like I was pathetic. I’m so thankful for David who helped me not be pathetic that day, okay? Rebellion is not only pathetic, rebellion complains.

Verse 2, the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we’re around people that are trying to help us press forward, right? Maybe you’re under a pastor.

I’d imagine you probably are, seeing as you were actually here in a public event, sitting that close to those people right now, okay? I would imagine that you’re here today because you’re under someone who has decided we are not going to allow the hype of this whole thing and fear to control us. I recognize that you might be under people who are perhaps encouraging you to obey God and go out soul winning.

And you know what’s really tempting to do? While you may be under a leader who’s believing God and under a leader who isn’t fearing, sometimes when you’re fearing and you’re under that leader, you can get a bad attitude towards them. And you can get upset and you can murmur against them because frankly, you don’t want them to push you.

And because of your fear and that conflict between your fear and that self-preservation instinct. And this person who frankly is thinking biblically, more biblically than you are, is encouraging, saying, listen, you can trust God. It’s okay.

You’ll be fine. Listen, I think we can trust God. Come on, let’s do this.

And you’re like, just like that. Okay. That may not be what’s on the outside of your face, but that’s certainly what’s on the inside, right?

Don’t push me, bub. Not bubs, but bub. Rebellion complains.

Rebellion mistrusts God. Verse 3, Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?

They’re in essence saying, listen, if we go into this land, I mean, it’s just going to happen. We did. We’re going to die.

Don’t you see the complete and utter lack of trust in God there? It’s like, does God exist or does he not? Is God alive or is he dead?

Listen, young people, I’ve learned this a long time ago. It’s not my job to take care of my own safety. It’s my job to obey Jesus.

and he will take care of my safety. My job is to do what God has called me to do. The rebellion in this way, this fear-based rebellion, it mistrusts God.

Verse 4, And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Rebellion bucks authority. Again, this is kind of related to one of the previous points, but rebellion basically says, listen, if this is where you’re going, that does not make me comfortable.

So I’m leaving. I’m going to go find somebody else who’s just as caught up in all of this hype, who will let me stay at home and binge watch my favorite shows, who will let me just prim and preen myself, who will let me just stay comfortable. Don’t push me out there to obey God.

leave me alone, and if you won’t leave me alone, see you later. And rebellion retaliates. Look down at verse 10.

This is right after Joshua said, don’t rebel against the Lord. God’s working. God’s doing something.

Verse 10, but all the congregation bade stone them with stones. So it’s like this. this person, Joshua, he was like, it’s okay.

You’ll be fine. You’ll be okay. You can trust God.

God’s moving like these people are scared to death. Okay. They’re wet in their tunics out there.

All right. We are going to be fine. Don’t you see what God is doing right now?

Don’t you realize that we are in the best possible place to do what God has called us to do, to go where God has called us to go. We’re going somewhere. God is on the move.

And instead of saying, you know what? You’re right. I need to trust God.

Instead of saying, you know what? Pray for me. I’m having a hard time with this right now, but I want to do what God wants me to do.

No, instead of that, they leaned down and they picked up rocks. You want a piece of meat? Don’t push me.

Don’t push me.

I’m serious listen I seriously doubt any of you have picked up rocks to stone your youth pastor but if you have you should not do that but you may have said some things to your friends about them you may have gotten online and said a few things made maybe a comment on a particular sermon or live stream or something like that or some private chat where you may not be physically throwing a rock at somebody, but you sure are throwing rocks at them, like shimmy eye.

Listen, young people, I want you to understand, I feel sorry for you if that’s where you’re at. I feel sorry for you who are living in fear. I feel sorry.

Listen, I understand I’ve been there, and there are moments where I still feel it. But listen, young people, I want you to know we are living on the cusp of what I believe could be one of the greatest opportunities anyone has ever witnessed in our lifetimes and in the lifetimes of our parents. God is doing something right now.

God is moving. I want you to look back at Caleb. Caleb and Joshua, however, were fearless in their faith and stubborn in their surrender.

They refused to let the hype of the latest news report cancel their mission or curtail their enthusiasm. They were fully convinced and fully prepared to storm the gates of their opponents, not because they knew they were able, but because they knew God was able. See, the latest news report said, you can’t do that.

But God said, yes, you can. And they believed God’s report more than the fake news. You know, I made an interesting observation.

I don’t know who I was talking to about it, but this year I felt like the news and by the news I’m talking about the news you know ABC CBS CNN Fox News etc it has had more direct application to my life than any other time that I remember living you know what I’m talking about and maybe you’ve not lived there but I remember when all of the mandates and the recommendations and the restrictions and all of those things were coming out, I had never

in my life looked to the news to determine what I was allowed to do that day like I did at that time.

You know what I’m talking about? Never in my life. You know, sure, sometimes prior to that, you know, there’s a news article about, you know, I don’t know, broccoli from Walmart will kill you or something like that.

I don’t know. And maybe that would kind of change. Okay, don’t get broccoli from Walmart.

In fact, let’s just play it safe and not get any broccoli at all, right? But, you know, every once in a while, there would be a news article or a newscast that would kind of, sort of, maybe in an indirect way affect me. But I don’t know about you, I have felt this year, it’s like, okay, that little statement that they just made literally ruined the next two months of my life.

Okay, I guess I won’t be going out to that store today. It’s closed on date nights. Yeah, we just can’t do that.

I mean, unless we go sit in the middle partition of the road and eat our dinner. I don’t know. I mean, just we can’t.

And then we’ll probably get locked up for doing that, right? And have to shove it under the mask or whatever. I don’t know.

But, you know, it’s so amazing how the news reports have determined what we can do and what we can’t do. But I want you to know the only thing that ought to determine what you can and can’t do is this book right here. Israel’s potential was not based on numbers, charts, studies, or popular opinions.

It was based on the faithful promise and unlimited power of God. If Israel would have lived in the realm of stats and probabilities, they would have never accomplished their master’s plan. If you want to know what’s possible in and through your life, don’t look at the news.

look at God’s promise and embrace his will. You’ll never know what’s possible through your life until you embrace what God has promised. God would much rather us march forward in faith than to cower in unbelief.

So how do we have, let’s look at Caleb’s response here, verse 30, back up in chapter 13, verse 30. Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. Can you just sense how excited Caleb was?

It was like he was saying, but don’t you get it? This is awesome. This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened.

Let’s do it right now. And all the other people are like, dude, what is wrong with you? But Caleb got it.

Caleb and Joshua, they got it. They had the perspective of faith. They weren’t looking to the news.

They weren’t looking to the obstacles. They were looking at God and his revealed will for us. And when he looked at God, he thought, oh, yeah, it’s time for them giants who come tumbling down.

It’s time for those walls to be demolished. It’s time to overcome. It’s time to win.

If you go back down to verse number seven, and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, This land which we pass through to search, it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us. Down in verse nine, Rebell not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us.

You think they’re going to eat you up? We’ll eat them up. They’re bread for us.

Their defense has departed from them. And here’s the key. The Lord is with us.

Fear them not. Caleb submitted to the will of God. He said, God said it, let’s do it.

You can say he was totally surrendered. He believed that God could do it. He said, we’re well able to overcome it.

And he, in his heart and mind, was ready to step out and to obey. When you look at the news reports, we ought to get excited because people realize that eternity is very close. They realize that life is not sure.

They realize that their life is fragile, that they could catch COVID and die. We have an amazing opportunity. Frankly, I’m so glad that David decided he had to go out soul winning that day because that day I got to lead a young man to Christ.

That day, I think we tried to stop over to a man I’d led to Christ several years ago, and I hadn’t been able to get a hold of him. And he wasn’t home, but his wife said she’d tell him that I was there. We came back the next day, and I think I left something for him.

And at one point, I think a day after that, I came back to his house and he finally there he was this man Alvin under his car and I looked at him and I said Alvin when are you gonna come to church it’s about time don’t you think and he said how about Sunday he showed up on Sunday raised his hand in the invitation said he didn’t know for sure he was on his way to heaven went over to his house I sat down with

him for about an hour and we looked over the promises of the gospel he realized that he had not made the right decision he trusted Christ as a savior.

That following Sunday, we got together, we looked at verses on assurance, and he looked at me and he said, this is the greatest thing in the world. I am so excited. Do you know what?

If I would have just stayed at home, duding around on my phone, if I would have just stayed at home organizing my pantry, not that I ever do that. My wife’s giving me a knowing look. If I was just to stay at home and not obey God, that opportunity wouldn’t be there, and I’m sure there are plenty more opportunities God wants to thrust me into, and I know there are a lot of opportunities that God wants to thrust you into as well.

You know, there was a group of young people in the year 1806, enclosing five college students from Massachusetts. These young men found themselves in an impossible situation they knew that God was calling them to reach the world with the gospel. But here’s the problem.

No one was really seriously interested in doing that. There were a lot of missionary organizations around, but none of them were focused on foreign missions. All of them were merely focused on pretty much just sustaining what they had.

And these college-age young people, they were burdened about it. Listen, they were told from all over, this cannot be done. Don’t waste your time.

But these young men, they gathered together in a field and they said, you know, we need to talk this through. We need to figure this out. We need to seek God’s face.

They began to talk about their plan. They began to pray. And a thunderstorm rolled in.

The thunderstorm came in so quickly, they didn’t realize it was there. They didn’t really have time to find good shelter. so they leaned themselves up against the side of a haystack.

They began to pray and they began to seek the face of God. God met with them during that time. They caught a glimpse of God.

They didn’t just see the obstacles. They saw God. After praying under the haystack that afternoon, the five students sang a hymn together.

It was then that Samuel Mills said loudly over the rain and the wind, we can do this if we will. Young people, I want you to know that I’ve got a variety of different places where some of you are at. Some of you are still stiff-arming God for one reason or another.

Maybe you’re afraid your parents will kill you if you unload the truck. Maybe you’re afraid that it’s just going to upend your life. Maybe, as Brother Sisk talked, you feel that tug in your heart to serve him full time, and you know that means that your life is going to be full of battles in the future, and frankly, you’re not interested in that kind of thing.

Maybe you’re here and you’re in the fight of your life, rebelling against God. Maybe you’ve been rebelling against obeying him and going out there and telling people about Jesus. There could be a number of ways that you’re rebelling here tonight, but I want you to know, regardless of where you’re at, God wants to take you somewhere.

God wants to use you. We’ve got to submit to his will. And we’ve got to depend on his power.

And I want you to know, young people, all of you here in this room, if we will surrender to him in spite of the obstacles, if we’ll factor in God and go in obedience, we can reach the world too. we can reach the entire world I am not speaking in glittering generalities let’s be back here