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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 The first page of the bible, god god declares something that gives us the capacity for vision. I don't know if you know how science works concerning vision, but you're not actually seeing me. What's0:25 happening is you're having light rays bounce off of the sources of these lights onto my body, and then that goes into your eye through the cornea, and it gets interpreted through your brain, these0:37 light waves, these signals that give you the ability to see me. Now think about this. That's the technical well, somewhat technical definition of how we see,0:49 and it's all rooted in light. On the first page of the bible, when God goes to work to create, the scripture says that the earth was formless and empty and darkness was hovered over the surface of the1:01 deep. That's the second verse of the bible. The third verse of the bible says that God said, and what did he say? Does anybody know? Let there be light. The first thing that God gave was the capacity for people1:13 to catch a vision. Think about that. That's how we see, through light refracted and reflected off of objects into our corneas. So think about this, and I want you to write this down. God is light, and where there's1:24 light, there's vision. God is light, and where there's light, there's vision. The scripture says that not only is God light, but there's no darkness in him at all. He's a God of a perpetual eternal1:36 light. Now I think that if you have God in your life, you're gonna have vision in your life. Amen. I need a better amen than that. Amen. You're gonna have God in your life. He wants you to believe for better things.1:48 He wants you to believe that your future is bright. I I I I understand that the end times is gonna be dark. It's gonna be trouble. There's a tribulation coming. But I think that is gonna give the church2:00 a glorious opportunity to shine. I know I know some of you think we're getting out of here before then. I don't think that. I hate to say it, hate to break the news to some of you, but I believe we're gonna be here. If2:11 it happens, it happens, and the Lord is gonna give us the strength and the anointing of the Holy Spirit to stand in the midst of darkness. You can believe the other way.2:23 I don't mind that. I actually hope you're right. I hope we get out of here first. That's fine. We can disagree about that. But what we don't disagree about is God wants us to be people of2:35 vision, seeing your future as better than your past. I hope that as you embrace vision today with our church, you embrace vision2:46 today for your life. How about this for your marriage? You might be in a rough patch in your marriage life right now. Now you have 2 choices. You can believe that it's all over.2:58 Only gonna get worse, and we don't see eye to eye, and we might as well get divorced. Or you can say, wait a second. Let's ask god for light. Let's ask god for vision. Let's ask god for better3:10 days ahead than behind. You might have a child that you're wrestling with. You might have a job that you don't like. You got 2 choices. You can believe for the worst or you believe for God's best. I3:22 wanna believe for God's best. Now if there is a passage in the Bible oh, and when I talk about the best, I'm talking about for our church. Here's the vision. Waters Academy going upstairs,3:34 building out that 16000 square feet as a seed to something far bigger. Don't think for a second that I'm interested in just a elementary school. No. No. No. No. No. We're gonna go to high school. Beyond3:46 high school, we're gonna go to Waters University someday. By God's grace, we want we wanna build the church. We wanna start new locations in Greenville, South Carolina, Orlando, Florida. Wanna build out the locations in3:56 Woonsocket, in Apollo Beach. Wanna build out parking up there. Big thanks. Really big thanks. But we serve a really big God. And today, I hope I can talk you through how we have to be people of4:08 vision for when there is no vision, the scripture says, the people perish. That passage, if you don't know, comes from the book of Proverbs. Proverbs4:19 29 18. Let me quickly change to the King James version because that's where it comes from. It says, where there is no vision, the people perish. Now you've maybe have heard that line before. That's where that line4:31 comes from. Okay. I'm gonna give you a pro tip for personal bible study. How many of you wanna study the bible better personally? I got a pro tip for you. This this is gold. Okay?4:44 Study try this sometime. Study 1 verse in different translations. You know, there's whole bunch of translations, and we are allowed on this TV, 1, 2, 3,4:56 4, 5 of them. And I use the ESV. That's the English standard version. The King James version is on the screen now. We got the New King James version, which says something different. Here's what the New King James version5:05 says. The same verse, where there is no revelation. So think about this. The King James version calls it vision. The New King James calls it revelation, which is, in my opinion, is a5:17 cool word because it means that any vision that God gives you is a revelation. A revelation, think about the root of that word, is revealed from heaven.5:29 Now it says, if you don't got a revelation from God, people cast off restraint. Means they go crazy. Think about how important it is to have vision. If you5:41 don't have vision for your life, you will do a bunch of stuff that doesn't matter. You will go and endure and embrace a bunch of ideologies that don't matter. There's another translation I5:53 got up here on the screen, and these are the ones that we are allowed to have on the TV. I don't know. There's all kinds of copyright rules about this, but let's go to the new new international version. Where there is no6:02 revelation, people cast off restraint. Think about that. How about the New Living Translation? When people do not accept divine guidance. So now we got another definition of what vision is. Vision6:14 is a revelation, and vision is divine guidance. God wants to tell you where to go. God wants to tell you, listen to this 1,6:26 where not to go. How many of you listen wished you listened a little bit more often to that 1? When you don't have divine guidance, the scripture says people6:38 run wild, and everybody with a teenager in their home said, oh, that's why. Back to the ESV. This is what God wants. And then I love this translation, where6:50 there is no prophetic vision. In other words, it's it's a it's a prophecy of your life. God's guidance, God's revelation, God's7:01 divine leading in your life gives you a prophetic sense about walking some of you gotta get this. You gotta start walking in the prophetic.7:14 Walking in the prophetic means I am walking in the goodness of the Lord into my future. I am walking in spite of the shadows around me in in the light of God's glory within me.7:25 Come on, somebody. What a powerful testimony. And it says that when you don't have that, you cast off restraint. Now look. I've just done 5 translations, and notice how deep this7:37 1 verse has become to us. Pro personal bible tip. Okay? 1 verse, several translations, God can start to speak to you in a7:49 multiple, multiplicity of ways. Isn't that cool? That was for free. I got a couple other translations. The New Century version. NCV says, where there is no word from God,8:01 people are uncontrolled. And I love the message translation, MSG. This is not just a food additive. It's the message translation written by Eugene Peterson. And by the way,8:14 maybe I'm talking to some people. Although you're the 12, I don't know if there's many of these people here today at the 12. They usually show up at the early services. What I'm talking about is you're the8:26 you're not the kind that I I don't have to get here, but there are people out there that say, there's only 1 good translation of the Bible. And every other translation is from the dead. You know, they do that. We don't8:38 do that here. I I've studied this enough to understand that by and large, you can trust the other translations of the Bible. There's a lot of school, a lot of thought8:50 about it. Now you have to understand the spectrum of the translations. The spectrum goes like this. Way over here on the left is the word for word literal translation. The9:01 NASB, the New King James, I would put the ESV there. That's why I preach from the ESV. I want you to get what it says word for word translation from the Greek and Hebrew original text. Amen? Okay. In the middle is the9:13 thought for thought. That would be the NIV, the New Living Translation, what I just put up there, the New Century Version. So word for word, thought for thought, and then way over here is called the9:24 paraphrase, which means that someone or a group of people decided, let's put this as in in the simplest, most modern vernacular so that people can understand it. Now, again, I don't have a problem with this9:36 because anybody that's in the business of helping everybody understand more of what God says is on my team. I can't stand these people who wanna fight9:48 within the church about my you know, secondary stuff. We gotta stop fighting each other and start fighting together. Come on. Amen. So the paraphrase10:00 says this. Look at the paraphrase. Message I can't put that on the screen. We're not allowed. It says this. If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. So here's the question. What10:12 is God doing? Underline that in your notes. What is God doing? What God is doing. Okay. What God is doing right now is saving people. We are in a revival. Ain't10:24 that good? It's a mighty sweep of the holy spirit across this nation. Bible sales up. Bible app downloads way up. Searches10:36 on Spotify for worship music going way up. I don't know if anybody's seen. Jelly roll is saved. Come on. Thank you so much. You heard10:47 me, and you can follow it. Alright. Thank you. The lord is moving in a powerful way, and we, this church let me tell you what god is doing. Revival is here. I wanna show you a video of10:59 the revival that we are experiencing right now. Check this out.11:59 I didn't have a true relationship with Jesus. I fell into worldly ways and my life turned bad pretty quickly. It got to the point where I didn't want to live anymore. I just drank12:11 my pain away, it it it didn't work. It brought me to my knees, and Jesus saved me.12:17 I was born out of rape. I grew up witnessing violence, moved around a lot, been homeless a couple times in my life. I just felt like I was unworthy to be here, alive, breathing, so that12:29 kinda led me to be suicidal. Funny enough, it was through my brother. Once he gave his life to Christ, he started speaking the gospel to me. The first time I actually prayed to God, directly to God, and12:41 asked for his help, that I need his help, I need him. And from there, my life's been transformed. He's also shown me that I'm worthy, that I'm meant to be alive according to his will.12:51 Yeah. I was scrolling on TikTok cause I I had nothing to do. I saw this video. It was a gospel video, and it said that, like, give your life to Christ before it's too late. And there was, like, a fire in me, like,13:02 telling me that I should really do that and that God is, like, real and that he could come at any time. He could come today, tomorrow, in a couple of seconds. I really, like, care about a lot of people. And if I have a13:13 friend, I always like to pray for them. And I share the gospel more every everywhere I go. I tell somebody that, hey, God loves you and that you need to, like, give your life to him. And that he is13:25 very, he can do something special in your life.13:27 Since following Christ and, realizing that he had died for my sins, I am cancer free. I have a relationship with Jesus. I have a prayer life. I have a small group, and I have a community in waters.13:37 I was battling a stomach illness, then it finally got to the point where I just started putting it all on God. And since then, I just I haven't felt sick. I haven't felt anxious. It's just been a true breakthrough for13:49 me.13:49 I've stopped drinking, so I'm almost 30 days sober.13:52 I'm also no longer depressed. My life's turned around. I feel like I'm in physical, and spiritual shape of my life. And we've been coming to Waters Church for14:04 48 years.14:05 The teachings in this church especially has always inspired me and Rich to be bolder in our sharing the gospel. I think it's taken it to a new level in 20 25.14:24 God is saving. Revival is here. Now let me be a wet blanket for a few seconds. Revival does not last.14:36 And every study of revival in history shows us this, and we would be foolish to believe that this is a permanent status for the church. Now I'm hoping that it lasts for a good couple of14:48 years because America needs Jesus. Amen. Yes. Politics can't fix us. Only he can. But I have seen a cycle of revival in the old no.15:00 Sorry. In well, yeah, in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament and throughout church history. And I wanna explain that to you for a moment. Write this down. This is what happens in the cycle of15:12 revival. First, God saves. God saves a lot of people. 330 plus baptisms.15:23 1600 salvations. Let's never get tired of celebrating that. We gave heaven 1600 reasons to celebrate15:35 so far in this year. And what happens? Okay. So a lot of people start coming in. Now sometimes people come in revival because not15:47 that they want the Lord, but because everybody else is doing it. And this happens in every season of revival, so don't feel bad if you see it happen again. Which brings me to number 2, God15:58 sifts. He separates the real from the phonies. He he makes sure that his children get rooted and the devil's children get16:10 routed. We see this in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 4, there's a great revival, and 5000 people come into the church.16:22 But Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira start deceiving the church, trying to make themselves look better. The holy spirit kills them. The holy spirit says, don't don't mess with that now. I'm doing something special.16:33 Great fear comes upon the church, and the scripture says that the Lord still added, but the church was sifted. And then in chapter 7, Stephen, the first evangelist, is murdered, killed,16:44 assassinated. Sound familiar? But the church gets scattered out of Jerusalem, and it goes everywhere preaching the gospel. So what happens? Saves, God saves, God16:56 sifts, and then here's number 3, God sends. Out of the sifting, you get left the true believers, and those believers get sent17:09 with the gospel because God has a great vision for his church. It's in acts chapter 1. Verse 8, you will receive power when the17:21 holy spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses where? In Jerusalem, that's the city where they were. In Judea, that was the county. In Samaria, that's where the people they didn't like lived. And17:33 to the end of the earth, that's Massachusetts, Florida, Rhode Island, South Carolina. Praise God. Yeah. So this is god's vision. Now17:45 it happens that they come to these 2 places, interestingly enough, because they were ready. They they heard Jesus say this, but they were like, no. We we we just wanna stay here and and enjoy the revival. God didn't let17:56 them. God didn't let them because check this out. In the book of Acts chapter 8, the scripture says Saul approved of Stephen's execution, and there18:08 arose on that day a great what? Against who? In Jerusalem where they're all like, I just love what God is doing here and the holy spirit, and I love the preaching here. You know,18:20 Peter was the sermon Peter was the preacher. You don't get much better than than Peter. They're like, no. We love it. No. The persecution came. Saul is gonna be big in that in just a18:32 moment. And they were all what? Scattered where, though? Throughout the regions of today's marriage. Sometimes God's gotta scatter us for us to18:43 realize that he's actually sent us. Because it says, they were scattered, and Saul is rave ravaging the church and entering house and dragging off men and women. But those who were18:55 scattered went about preaching the word. Whoo. The devil might scatter you. God says, no. No. No. No. No. I've sent you.19:06 Oh, I shoulda had a better amen than that. Whatever the devil means for evil, God uses for good. So here's the question. Will you19:18 be not just in the movement of God saving, but surviving the sifting to be a part of the sending.19:30 Now don't say yes out loud here for your own sake. You need you need humility. Remember all disciples said, we'll never deny you, Lord. How'd that work out? Not19:42 good. Live it. Don't talk it. So I wanna show you how you make sure that you endure the sifting. 3 agents by which god sifts19:54 his church. Number 1, pain, persecution, people hating you. Some of you just came to Christ, you're trying to tell your friends and neighbors, and they're like, get out of here.20:06 Don't don't be pushing your beliefs on me. Who are you? I miss the old you. Let's go let's go to the bar. Let's have a drink. Right? Or maybe20:18 and this is happening more and more, especially in states like Massachusetts, you'll you'll get hated on by your boss because you're a Christian. And I'm not talking about 1 of those casual20:29 nominal Christians. I'm talking about a real Christian with convictions, and your boss will hate you. I think about that family in Massachusetts that can't foster anymore because they won't sign on the20:41 dotted line that they will embrace whatever gender identity their foster children might have. The state of Massachusetts just came and revoked their ability to foster children because they are Christians.20:54 Pain. This is what's happening right now in our world. Might get worse. I don't know. But the true Christian will survive and thrive21:06 through the pain. How about this 1? Pressure. Pressure to, I don't know, get your bills paid, and you wonder, how can I go to church when I need to make more money?21:18 Or how about this 1, young people? Peer pressure. Just, you know, do it. Fit in with us. Come on, everybody. Like, this is what you do at this age. And if you're not careful, you will compromise what21:30 God has put in you for the temporary pleasures the world can offer you. And how about this 1? The price. True Christianity also always comes with a price. You you get saved21:41 for free. You get saved for free. God gives you salvation at no cost. But to follow Jesus, there is a great cost.21:54 Jesus even said, count the cost. You wanna follow me? Count the cost because it is gonna cost you some things. Here's the cost. Everything. You22:06 wanna follow Jesus, you don't get to hold on to areas of your life. God now takes ownership of all of it. That's right. Is it you say, tithing is giving 10 percent. No. It's not. It's bringing 10 percent22:18 because God already owns it. It's his. My money is his. I'm bringing back to him what's his. Giving, that's no problem because it's it's his. I can it's not mine. I'm how about this 1? This22:29 body is not mine. My body, my choice is a worldly mantra, not a heavenly mantra. It is in your body.22:41 It isn't your right. It is God's, and you belong to him. And the body within your body is also God's.22:52 I know this is not politically correct according to Massachusetts standards, but it's biblically correct according to God the Holy Spirit. And frankly, we need more pastors23:04 to stand up and say things like this. Because there is confusion in the pews because there's compromise in the pulpits. Now you23:15 gotta know that sifting will come. God will put some pains on you or allow pains to come on you. God will put some pressure on you, and God will23:27 expect a price out of you as you follow him. And that if you know it going in, it helps because when you hit those moments, you're gonna say, oh, yeah. Pastor Tim said something about this. Because23:39 here's what here's what we go back to in in in Proverbs 29 18. And look with me again on your notes right there, the message translation. If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble.23:52 So my prayer for you is that you will get a hold of what God is doing. And to teach this, I need to go to a place in the study of our which we have been talking24:04 about, Israel coming out of Egypt and into the promised land in this influence series because there was a moment in Numbers 13 where they stopped seeing what God24:16 was doing. Alright. Now now let me see if you've following along, and you've already written down things down. So let me see if you can track with me. Ready? When God brings them out of Egypt, that was God doing24:28 what? God was saving them. Then 2 years in the wilderness where he he has to put some of them to death because they still wanna go back to Egypt. They start disobeying, and they start cursing God, they start breaking his24:40 commandment. And God does number 2. He assists them. And now oh, you're right with me now. This is the 12. You're because you're awake. That's why. Number 13. Check this out.24:52 And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, what? Send men into the land of Canaan, which I've given the people of Israel. From their fathers, you shall send a man. So here we are.25:04 We've moved from saving through shifting to sending. Now I don't know how familiar you are with this story in numbers 13, but what happens is they get25:15 12 guys. These are the spies, 12 spies. They send them into the land. They're on the they're on the precipice of going into the land. They send these spies into the land. The spies go search it out. How many25:27 know what happens? These guys come back, and does anybody remember what happens? 10 of the 12 say we can't do it. And 225:39 out of the 12 say, of course, we can. God said to do it. Joshua and Caleb. Right? So this is a bad moment because it's so bad that the nation25:51 listens to the negative 10 spies, and they forfeit God's vision for their life. Cause they listen to the voices of26:02 negativity. And you and I will do the same if we don't learn from their mistakes. So I wanna give you 3 problems, 3 things they did that led26:14 to the forfeiture of their vision, and let this not be our church. Number 1, write this down. They get too much information. They get too much information. So26:25 numbers 13 says that the lord says, you know, go and spy out the land. Send a man from all the tribes, 12 men, so they do it. And then they go into the land. Verse 21,26:41 they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, that was in the southernmost tip of the land, to Rehob near Leboth Hamath, that's in the northern tip of the land. They went to the Negeb, that's the26:53 wilderness, Hebron. All these places are listed. They saw the the cities of Anak there. They came to the Valley of Eshcol. They cut some grapes down. It was so big. They had to carry it on a pole between 2 of27:04 them. They brought some pomegranates and figs. The place was called the Valley of Eshcol. And then it says, at the end of how many days? So they are in that town they are in that land for 40 days searching it out, and27:16 then they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and all the congregation, the 12 spies, and the people of Israel. And they brought word to them and to all the congregation, showed them the fruit of27:26 the land, and they told them, we came to the land where you sent us. It flows with milk and honey. This is his fruit. Let's stop there. Okay. 40 days, They covered 40, over 40 days,27:38 about 9000 square miles. Estimates are they traveled 500 miles in 40 days. And what I think they did, they made a a27:50 very common mistake. They got too much information about their future. A lot of Christians want too much28:01 information. A lot of times we want God to give us the details. God, tell me where I'm gonna be in a year and in 5 years and in 10 years.28:14 And I think that that can actually become a very negative thing for you. Now they covered 500 miles in 40 days, which means that they walked. By the way, the nation of Israel, the land of Canaan is about the size of New28:26 Jersey. Now with modern technology and cars, we can drive through New Jersey in 2 hours. But imagine walking through New Jersey for 40 days and it not28:37 being inhabited by modern technology, just your enemies. And so here's what I think what happened was, the first couple of days, they were gung ho. The next couple of weeks, they were like, ugh. And, you know, after28:48 walking 13 miles a day for 40 days, I don't care who you are, eventually, you're just worn out. Oh, wait. Can we just go back? I'm tired. Look. Another big land. Another big nation.29:00 Another giant people. Another big fortress. Another we can't it's too much. They got too much information. Now let me help somebody today. Don't ask God for details.29:12 Don't ask God for exact specifications of your future. You ever you ever watch these time travel movies? You ever notice something? The bad guy always29:24 wants to know the future. Biff Tannen, anyone? Thanos, anyone? Because they want to control the29:36 future. And I think sometimes that's us. We want God to give us step by step instructions. God, who should I marry? Should I marry him or him? Should I marry her or29:48 her? Which 1, Lord? You tell me, and I will like, Lord, which job should I take? This 1 or that 1. Lord, what house should we buy? This 1 or that 1. And we want detailed instructions. Sometimes I think30:00 that there's a nefarious purpose underneath the detailed instructions we want from God because what we wanna be able to do is blame him when things don't go right. And what I found from God30:11 is that he does not give detailed step by step instructions. Do you know what he does? He gives wisdom. Wisdom so that you can make the decision.30:24 Because sometimes you're choosing between 2 very good alternatives. Like, let's not fall into Greek mythology, young people. I know young adults come to the 12, so listen to me.30:37 Young adults, you are more Greek mythology than Christian if you believe that God has put only 1 other potential spouse on this planet for you, and said spouse is your soul30:48 mate. And I what I gotta do is I gotta find them. I gotta look for them. Are you my soul mate? That is Greek30:59 mythology. That that's what Zeus they believe Zeus split people in heaven into 2 and put them male, female on the earth, and it was their job to find each other. That's Greek myth that's not31:11 Christianity. Christianity is find someone who loves Jesus. Of the opposite sex, there's only 2.31:23 That's great. That's it. So, you know, my and and use wisdom to make the choice based on scriptural wisdom, the holy spirit leading, maybe31:35 some mentors in the faith who have been there, done that, and they can give you some guidance, and then you choose. See, I think that if we knew everything that God was going to do in our future,31:47 some of us would check out before it even got started. Because we'd be like, no. Thanks. I don't wanna go through that season, and I don't wanna challenge take take on that challenge, and I don't wanna go through that.31:58 No. No. No. I'm out. So write this down. I don't need to know everything God is gonna give me. I only need to trust that God is with me. I can't tell you where your life is gonna be32:10 2 years from now. I can't tell you where I'm gonna be 2 years from now. By God's grace, I'll still be pastoring this church and leading us. I don't know I don't know how, when, where. I know what we've gotta do. We gotta32:21 reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, plant churches, and get the schools up and running so that we can change a generation. Now some of you will say to me because you are astute bible readers, and I love32:33 these people. You're sitting there saying, but pastor Tim, you already showed us in verse 1 and 2 of numbers 13, it said that the32:44 Lord told them to send men to spy out the land. So how can they be blamed for what god told them to do? You32:58 didn't think I'd actually walk you into that trap without having the answer, do you? Numbers is also interpreted by the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy, which is,33:10 Moses' last 5 sermons to the people of Israel. So that's what Deuteronomy is. That's it's a collection of sermons that that Moses speaks to the people of Israel before33:21 they go into the land of Canaan. And in chapter 1 verse 22, Moses gives us more details about the numbers 13 moment. He says well, verse 21. Let's33:33 back up. Moses said, see the Lord has set the land before you. Go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. In other words, I said to you, let's go.33:46 Do not fear. Do not be dismayed. Now look at this. This is Moses again telling us what really happened. Then all of you came near me and said, let us send33:58 men before us that they may explore the land for us and bring us to word. Again, of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come. And verse 23, the thing seemed34:10 good to me. And I took 12 men from you, and I sent you forward. Scripture interprets scripture. So what really went down in numbers 13 was, God said go. They34:22 said, woah. Let's check it out and find out if we should go. Now friends, if God says go, there's no reason to check it out to see if you should go.34:35 But34:36 they told God, we want more information. And can you believe it? The more information led them to start rejecting God. Here's a34:48 here's another life lesson for someone. Someone's gotta hear this tonight. Sometimes, you will ask God for things that you shouldn't ask him for.35:00 And in order to teach you a lesson, God will give it to you, which is exactly what happens in numbers 13. And I don't say that to shame you. I say that to help you. Because sometimes,35:12 you know, we would in our lack of wisdom, we'll ask for things that we never should have had. And it's just amazing to me that what they wanted from God led to them denying God.35:24 Ouch. So it leads me to number 2. When they get all that information, 500 miles traveling for 40 days, exhausted, they come back with a bad report. 10 spies come back with a bad report.35:36 Number 2, they exaggerate their challenges. Now exhaustion will do this to you. Walking 500 miles in 40 days will do this to you.35:48 Married people, when you get into an argument and you fight late into the night. And the reason why you don't go to bed is because you heard in revel in Ephesians 4, it says, don't let the sun go down on your anger. So36:00 you were under the impression that you should just fight it out until you're done, and then you can go to sleep. Nonsense. Go to bed. Go to bed hating each other, wake up, and kiss.36:12 You probably just need to rest, honestly. Exhaustion causes us to exaggerate our problems, and that's exactly what happens with the spies. So they come back. And by the way,36:25 they come back with a bad report. And and how many of them out of the 12? How many of them out of the 12 come back with a bad report? 10 out of the36:37 12. Hear me. In many times in your life, the majority will be wrong. The committee will36:49 undermine God's call. You know that we don't have committees in this church? You know that? Well, who's the building committee? We don't have 1. Well well, who's the women's ministry committee? We don't have37:01 1. Right? Then there's no committees. Here here here's somebody wants to find a committee as a group of people who individually can do nothing and collectively decide nothing can be done.37:13 I have a friend who's a pastor. This is not a joke. This is absolutely true. He's a pastor of a a 30 person church with 15 committees. I'm not kidding you. I wish I was37:25 joking. And and the church is not going anywhere because you don't get led by committees. You let you get led by god given leaders. Anyway, they go through the37:37 land. They got the grapes on the pole. They're so impressed. They're so excited. It flows with milk and honey. Verse 28, however. Watch out for the howevers in your life. The people who dwell in the land are strong. The37:48 cities are fortified and very large. Besides, we saw we saw we we saw the descendants of Anak there. And the Amalekites, verse 29 oh, circle that. We're gonna come back to them in just a moment. Put a pin in it. They37:58 dwell in the land of the Nagob, and then the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites are all in the hill country. The Canaanites dwelled by the38:10 sea along the Jordan. But Caleb's like, Caleb, 1 of the 2. Faithful. No. No. No. We can do it. We can do it. Let's go up and occupy it for we are able. Guys, God already said to go. There's no discussion. It's just38:22 go. Then the men, the 10 who had gone up with them said, we are not able to go up against the people. Okay. 10 negative, 238:34 positive. Most times in life, the negative far outnumber the positive. Get yourself some positive friends. Please,38:46 I'm begging you. Life is too short to hang out with the Debbie Downers and the negative Norahs and the stop at Sam's38:57 and the just forget it Justins. Okay? Get yourself some positive friends. You say, I don't know any positive people. It might be because you're negative39:09 and all the positive people run from you. So ask God to change that about you. You become a positive person, and then you get around positive people and believe in each other. Right.Show more
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