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All right, the Lord has led me in
my heart to bring a message entitled Fighting
Battles for the Next Generation.
I want us to read in Numbers chapter
14 and verse 24.
You want to turn there with me?
But my servant Caleb, because he had another
spirit with him and hath followed me fully,
him will I bring into the land whereinto
he went, and his seed shall possess it.
I wonder this evening how many of you
are first-generation Christians.
Let me see your hands, if you parents.
First-generation Christians.
Very good.
How many of you are second-generation Christians,
but you would say you're crutching along pretty
much as a second-generation Christian?
Let me see your hands.
Okay.
Some time ago, I was meditating upon this
verse here, and Caleb is one of my
heroes, so I enjoy parking on these verses
in the Old Testament, Joshua and Caleb, as
they were the two men who stood the
test when they were sent into the promised
land.
But I was meditating upon this verse and
the life of Caleb, and it dawned on
me in the middle of my meditations what
God was saying about Caleb's children.
I knew that Caleb fought many battles to
take Mount Hebron.
In fact, Mount Hebron was covered with giants,
and Caleb fought many battles to take Mount
Hebron.
But I realized that his children would inherit
what he fought for, and immediately the connection
was made in my own heart and my
own mind.
Now, the land of Canaan is an Old
Testament type of the New Testament abundant Christian
life.
We know that the Christian life is full
of battles, victories, and peaceable fruit that come
after the battles and the victories.
As I think of all the things that
we have heard thus far this week, it
seems fitting to me to take a look
at the task ahead with an attitude of
faith and confidence and belief in God that
God surely will do for us exceedingly abundantly
what we would even ask or think.
I agree with David.
When he was about to slay the giant
for the glory of God, and some of
his brothers criticized him, he simply said these
words, Is there not a cause?
And this evening, my dear parents, I would
say the same words to you.
Is there not a cause to rise up
and fight the battles that lie ahead of
us for the sake of the next generation?
I believe there is a cause.
The children shall possess what the parents have
fought for in the Christian life.
I'll explain what that means as we move
through the message.
Looking again in Numbers, I want you to
notice this verse, we're breaking into the middle
of a conversation between Moses and God.
And Moses is trying to convince God to
not forsake the children of Israel, to pardon
them for the things that they've done wrong,
because they just fell in unbelief and didn't
go into the promised land.
In verse 17, we enter into the middle
of that conversation.
And Moses says to God, And now I
beseech thee, let the power of my Lord
be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy,
forgiving iniquity and transgressions, and by no means
clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation.
Pardon I beseech thee, because you do visit,
please pardon I beseech thee, the iniquity of
this thy people, according unto the greatness of
thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this
people from Egypt even until now.
And the Lord said, I have pardoned according
to thy word.
But as truly as I live, all the
earth shall be filled with the glory of
the Lord.
And you may wonder now, why did he
throw a verse like that in there, in
the middle of this conversation between God and
Moses?
I believe this is the reason.
God's heart came out there.
God's heart was, oh, that the whole earth
would be filled with my glory, with my
knowledge, oh, that my people would believe me,
that would go in and enjoy the blessings
that I provided for them.
I believe that's what God's heart is saying
here.
Because all those which have seen my glory
and my miracles, which I did in Egypt
and in the wilderness, and have tempted me
now these ten times, and have not hearkened
to my voice, surely they shall not see
the land which I swear unto their fathers,
neither shall they, any of them that provoke
me see it.
But my servant Caleb, and then we get
into the verse which we've read already.
I see in this verse a spirit of
faith and victory.
I see in this man Caleb the spirit
of a pioneer.
Caleb has a fighting spirit.
We'll read a little bit later, toward the
end of the message, what kind of a
hearted attitude he had.
I mean, when he spoke those words, those
famous words, that people have written songs about,
where he said, I want that mountain.
He was 85 years old when he said
those words.
He wasn't a spring chicken.
He wasn't a 25 year old enthusiast, dreaming
a bunch of dreams.
This is an old man, 85 years old,
and he was full of grit, and he
was full of the grace of God, when
he was 85 years old, and he said,
that mountain that I saw, that God promised
to Moses for me, I want it, and
I'm going to have it.
God said I'm going to have it, and
I'm going to have it.
Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, God said
you're going to have it, and if you'll
rise up and say, I'm going to have
it, you'll have it.
You will.
That's the word of the Lord.
God liked the heart of Caleb.
A heart that wholly followed God.
God still likes hearts like that too, by
the way.
You know, we have a choice to make,
with all that we've been listening to.
And I believe what God is saying to
us is that our hearts should rise up
in faith and seize the promises that God
has been giving to us, and with a
heart like Caleb's say, I see that mountain,
and I'm going to have it.
And guess what?
If you'll rise up and do that, your
children shall possess what you were willing to
fight for.
But my dear fathers and mothers, the other
is also true, that if we do not
fight for that piece of land, our children
probably won't get any.
If we drop in on Hebron in the
days of Caleb's possession, it's a very interesting
scene.
You'll find war on Mount Hebron in the
days of Caleb.
You'll hear the noise of battle.
You'll hear the strong cries of men crying
out to God and women crying out to
God.
You'll hear and see the strain of the
reality of a war that's going on.
You'll see giants all over the mountainside of
Mount Hebron.
But if you drop into Mount Hebron twenty
years after that, you will see a very,
very different scene.
You'll see houses.
You'll see vineyards.
You'll see sheep on the hillsides.
You'll see children running and playing by the
side of the house.
You'll see a garden over here, and mom
and the older children are working in it.
You'll see a field out there, and dad's
out there with the older boys, and he's
working in it.
There's fences up, there's olive trees growing, and
everything's beautiful.
And there's a house over here, and another
house over here.
And you can stand back and look at
it and say, my, this looks beautiful!
It's hard to imagine that somebody fought the
giants around here twenty years ago, but the
fact and the reality is exactly that.
Because Caleb was willing to rise up and
believe God, and believe God's promise, and go
after that mountain, and face the battles, and
face those giants, and deal with them the
way they needed to be dealt with, because
Caleb was willing to do that.
He wholly followed the Lord, and he wholly
believed the Lord.
There sits all of Caleb's children, there on
the mountainsides, in all these houses, and they
just simply inherited this beautiful mountain called Hebron
to live on.
They didn't have to fight a lick for
it.
See, Lord, there's something very stirring that goes
on inside of my heart when I begin
to think about fighting the battles for the
next generation.
Something challenging that stirs inside of me.
Something adventuresome.
You know, for first generation Christians, there's something
stirring about reading an account like this and
realizing that if I will, in fact, chart
a course, my children will inherit some things
that I never had.
All you first generation Christians, pay attention.
Now, Canaan is a picture of the abundant
Christian life.
And the abundant Christian life, dear brothers and
sisters, has meat on it.
It's not just a good feeling.
It has meat on it.
The abundant Christian life is a life of
victory.
The abundant Christian life is a life of
prosperity as we live by the principles of
the Word of God.
The abundant Christian life is a happy marriage.
The abundant Christian life is a joyful home.
The abundant Christian life is a life of
service for God.
The abundant Christian life is all of those
things and, yea, much more.
That is the land.
Mom and I, we started with nothing.
We are first generation Christians and we came
from the bottom of the barrel.
No teaching, no light, no understanding, no example
whatsoever, just a couple of hippies sitting on
the floor smoking marijuana.
But God had mercy upon us.
But 30 years ago, we didn't have very
much land, I'll tell you that.
But you know what we did 30 years
ago?
We stood together and we gazed out over
the land and we said, Oh, look at
that one over there.
Look at that nice hillside over there.
Wouldn't that be a blessing?
Oh, yes, we would like that.
A happy marriage.
Yes, we don't know what we're doing.
We don't know how to do this marriage
thing.
But do you see that beautiful piece of
land over there?
Let's go for that one, honey.
Let's go for that one.
We stood on the good side of the
River Jordan and gazed out over the land
and desired many beautiful plots.
And we started to move in that direction.
Now when we started, we were pretty insecure.
We were pretty ignorant.
I was pretty introverted.
But somehow, God stirred our hearts to believe
that even somebody like us could inherit some
of that land.
And you know, it took a few years
for us to get a grasp on the
reality that as we gained those pieces of
land, it would also fall upon our children
as a blessing that we never had.
And you know, though at times, you know,
it's a little difficult to see the children
enjoying the blessings that you never had, but
you know, I wouldn't change it not one
bit at all.
I wouldn't change it for my dear children
who are possessing things that we fought to
get.
We said to the Lord, O Lord, we
see some of it.
And God, we want these things.
Now when I say we had to fight
for everything we'd get, this is what I
mean by fight.
We had the fight of humility facing the
many needs which kept coming up again and
again and again in our uneducated Christian lives.
We had the fight of prayer and wrestling
on our knees over our failures and the
things that we wanted God to do in
our lives.
We had the fight of faith, of rising
up and believing that even God would do
such a thing for us in our lives.
We had the fight of not giving up
at times when things didn't go too well
and we were tempted to give up and
just throw the whole thing.
We fought our way through those things because
we saw a piece of land that we
wanted to have and we wanted our children
to enjoy it in ways that we never
did.
All you first generation Christians in this room,
that's where your attitude should be tonight.
I want that mountain, oh God, for my
children.
I want them to live in that nice
little house over there with a fence around
it.
And I'm not talking about a physical one,
bless God.
We had the fight of joining hands and
engaging the enemy as we realized this fellow
is set to destroy us in any way
he can.
We will not let him do it.
That's the fight I'm talking about.
We came into the Christian life very undisciplined
and lazy.
Marriage?
It didn't go too well.
Children?
We didn't do that very well.
We had a lot to learn.
Leadership?
I didn't know much about leadership.
I had Sergeant Denny kind of leadership mentality
in my mind when we entered into this
whole thing.
Fellowship?
Mama didn't understand very much about that.
Finances?
We struggled quite a long.
How long of a list do you want?
But we looked at all that and we
looked at the land and we said, that
land is for us.
God promised us that land and we're going
to go get it for our children.
That's what we said.
Think about it.
The children are literally possessing what we fought
for.
You think about it.
I was a lazy man.
When I got converted, I was lazy.
No doubt about it.
That was part of my character.
That's the way I was.
But I faced my laziness.
I went through the humiliation of facing my
laziness.
I sat in the office and let the
fellow at UPS sit me down and tell
me a thing or two and tell me
that if you don't straighten out, boy, you're
going to lose your job.
I suffered the humiliation of that.
I went through many things.
I wept tears.
I cried out to God.
I said, God, change me.
I don't want to be a lazy man.
Even the boss told me I'm lazy.
I don't want to be lazy.
It doesn't glorify You.
You've got to change me, Lord.
I don't want to be a lazy man.
Guess what?
I am not a lazy man.
Hallelujah!
God gave me victory.
Guess what?
My boys, they just inherited that piece of
land.
It's never been any big struggle to them.
They don't hardly know the difference between the
one or the other because they're around a
papa who's full of diligence and full of
energy and full of things to do.
And they just pick all of that up.
And it's an inheritance to them.
They don't have to work for it.
They don't have to fight for it.
I mean it's handed to them on a
silver platter because mom and dad fought for
it.
That's what I'm talking about tonight, dear fathers
and mothers.
Fighting battles that our children may inherit things
that we really had to fight for.
And they just get them.
See, that's not fair.
Oh, hang on a while.
It's worth it.
Before I got converted, I hated children.
Now, I love children.
And guess what?
All my children love children.
They never even passed their mind to hate
them.
Before I was converted, I hated old people.
Guess what?
Now, I love them and respect them.
And my children love and respect old people.
They never faced one little battle about old
folks one time in their life.
Hallelujah.
That's what I'm talking about.
Before I was converted, I was full of
insecurity.
And I was a very, very negative man.
Ah, when it rained, I wished the sun
was shining.
And when the sun was shining, I wished
it would rain.
My children dwell in an atmosphere of faith
and confidence in our house.
Why?
Because we were willing to face the issues
in our life before God and recognize that
part of the abundant Christian life, part of
a spirit-filled life, is for God, by
His grace, to come in and change us.
That's the sanctification process in the Christian life.
And God comes in and changes us.
And guess what?
The children just grow up in a totally
different atmosphere than what we had before them.
We fight for it, and they just possess
it.
Oh, Dad Caleb marched up that mountain and
dealt with those giants.
And after he passed off the scene, all
the children and the children's children of Caleb
just dwell peaceably on Mount Hebron as if
there was never a giant there before.
That's what I'm talking about.
Paul spoke of this very principle as he
was encouraging Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4.
He said these words, Let no man despise
thy youth, Timothy, but be thou an example
of the believers in word, conversation, in charity,
in spirit, in faith and in purity.
Until I come, give attendance to reading, to
exhortation and doctrine.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee
which was given thee by prophecy with the
laying on of my hands of the presbytery.
Meditate upon these things, Timothy.
Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting
or thy pioneer advance or every new piece
of ground that you gain may appear unto
all.
That's what Paul is saying to Timothy right
there.
That word, profiting, is the word of advancing
forward.
That word, profiting, is a positive word of
sanctification in the life of the believer.
And Paul was telling Timothy, Look, boy, you're
young.
You're not an old man yet.
Don't let him despise your youth.
Meditate on these things.
Give attendance to reading.
And every advance you make will appear unto
all.
They will see it and say, Look how
God is changing that man.
That's what we're talking about this evening.
We take all these things that God has
been doing, the things that He's been ministering
to us, the things that we're learning about
our home, the things that we're learning about
ourselves, and you know, it's a lot of
things to sit and listen to for a
whole week.
You know, you could give yourself over to
discouragement sitting here thinking, Wow!
This is way more than I can ever
handle.
I want to change the way you look
at it.
You look at it like a beautiful piece
of land sitting over here with green grass
on it.
And God is saying, That is you.
There's such a difference between that attitude and
the other one that says, Oh my, what
am I going to do?
How am I going to do all these
things?
I'm overwhelmed by all the things this guy
is telling me.
No, you're not looking at it right.
That's exactly the way the other ten spies
and all the rest of the children of
Israel looked at the land of Canaan.
They looked at it all and said, Oh,
the cities are big and the mountains are
big and the people are strong and the
giants are tall and there's too many things
going on in there.
It's too much for me.
Well, God says to them, Then just go
die in the wilderness if you want to.
But My servant Caleb, there was another spirit
in him.
He wholly followed the Lord.
Him, I'm going to let him have the
piece of land that I said he's going
to have, and his children will possess it
after him.
After he's gone, it will be theirs.
See, we're talking about changing our heritage.
All us first generation Christians.
Now, we all know what a pioneer is,
don't we?
There was a day when there were pioneers
in America.
The pioneers were the ones who said, being
on the east side of the United States,
I'm going west.
The pioneers were the first ones that went.
A pioneer, you know, they're the ones who
build the first raft so all the rest
of the wagons can float over that river
when they come to it.
That's what a pioneer is.
Picture Dad, Mom, and two little ones heading
out to go from the east side of
the United States to the west side of
the United States.
That's what God is calling us to do.
Not to go from the east side of
the United States to the west.
But God is saying, here you are in
a certain place.
Maybe you don't know very much.
Maybe there are lots of needs in your
life.
Maybe you feel overwhelmed by all the things
that you've heard all this week.
I want you to get in that wagon,
put your little ones in that wagon, and
set your sights on where you're going.
God is saying to us this evening, do
not despair, believe in Me.
Do not despair, believe My promises.
Do not go by the sight of your
eye, nor by some of the experiences that
you may face, but believe Me.
I want to give you the land that
I've been laying before you all this week.
I want to give you a godly home,
and I will give you one if you
will keep on going.
If you will believe Me.
If you will trust Me.
If you will take all the things that
I'm giving you, and rise up and believe
them with all of your heart, and chart
a new course for your family, you with
your wife, and those little ones will make
it over to the other side, into California.
That's what God is saying to us tonight.
Now some are going to make it, but
some are not going to make it.
Some are going to get discouraged.
Some are going to sit back and say,
it's too much for me, I can't handle
it.
Some may pitch their tent just on this
side of the Jordan River, and leave all
the land sit out there for somebody else.
And that's up to you, every single one
of us.
We all have those decisions we have to
make.
But I just want you to know tonight,
my brothers and sisters, you're making those decisions
before a holy God.
You're making them before a living God.
You're making them before a God that you
will stand before someday, and you'll have to
answer for the decisions that you make.
But God is saying to us tonight, God
is ministering to us tonight.
God is saying, have faith, believe in Me.
Look at that mountain, believe it.
I promise you, it is yours.
I will give it to you.
You can have it if you want it.
That's what God is saying tonight.
Fighting battles for the next generation.
The pioneer treads new ground.
He settles a new area.
He goes on before, before anyone else goes.
There's something stirring and adventuresome in me about
a pioneer.
There's something inside of me that stirs me
when I think those kind of thoughts.
And by the way, it stirred me thirty
years ago too.
Bless God, I looked at all and said,
Amen!
We're going to go for it, Mom.
We're not going to sit over here.
We're not going to live in this pup
tent on the edge of the Jordan River.
Look at that nice house sitting over there.
And I'm not talking about the house I'm
living in.
I'm talking about that spiritual house over there.
Look at that beautiful piece of land over
there.
See those cattle out there on the thousand
hills over there?
Let's go for that, Mama.
Let's do something that will affect our children
and bless our children after us.
Bless God, when we're dead and gone, they'll
have something that we never had before.
Let's do it, Mom.
Come on.
Get on this side of this old wagon.
Children, hop in the back.
We're going.
There's something very adventuresome about taking new ground
for the sake of the children.
Now, I think we ought to take it
just for the sake of the glory of
God.
But it's alright to have a few other
motivations in our lives.
Amen?
It's alright.
And there's something that stirs my heart to
take new ground for the children.
For the children's sake.
You know, some time ago, we had a
healthy exercise in family devotions.
I sat the family down and we had
a little devotion out of this verse.
And I opened it up for a family
discussion.
Then I said to the children, What do
you possess that you know that Mom and
Dad fought for?
Now, that was an interesting discussion.
As the children opened up and began to
share.
They went back.
And some of the older children, they went
back to struggles in the home that they
remembered that they were there.
But, oh, it was a beautiful exercise that
we had.
It opened up beautiful discussion.
Words of gratitude came forth out of the
children.
Words of support.
I mean, they fueled our fire and said,
Mom and Dad, the things that we have
because you were willing to fight.
Keep on going.
Just keep on going.
Don't stop where you are.
Words of encouragement and support came from the
children.
It was very inspiring.
And they encouraged us to keep on possessing
more of the beautiful land that God has
for us.
And guess what?
We don't plan to stop yet.
We're not done.
There's a whole lot more land to possess.
And we're not done.
There's many more things.
There are needs in our lives.
We want God to deal with those needs.
There's a piece of land over there that
I want.
And God's going to give it to me.
And I'm not going to slow down.
Bless God.
There's too many beautiful things out there.
Abundant things.
Beautiful things.
Fruitful things in the Christian life that I
want to possess yet.
And guess what?
My children, they will get it after me.
Very inspiring meditation we had.
Some of the observations that I noticed in
that discussion, I was intrigued.
The small children, they didn't know a lot.
Some of the discussions that we had, they
couldn't even relate to it.
They just live in a happy home.
And that's it.
You know?
What?
What are you talking about?
You mean mom and dad used to have
words with each other?
What are you talking about?
They just live in a happy home.
But the older children, they knew.
Yeah, there's been some struggles working through this
piece of land over here called a happy
marriage.
But the little children, what?
What are you talking about?
That's what they said.
And I looked at it and said, yeah,
there it is already.
They are possessing something.
They don't even have a clue how we
fought, what we did in order to obtain
that sweet and happy atmosphere in the home.
The older children, they were full of gratitude.
They remembered some of the battles for many
of the areas of land in our Christian
lives that we dealt with.
And they were full of gratitude as they
looked at it and realized, you humbled yourself.
You dealt with those issues.
You went through some humiliating experiences.
You didn't quit.
You got up again when things didn't go
right.
And now you have something.
And we just have it right here in
our own hands.
They were filled with gratitude.
I'm telling you, fathers and mothers, your children
will kiss you.
They will bless you.
They will love you.
They will respect you and honor you if
you will rise up by the grace of
God and take the bull by the horns
and deal with some of these issues in
your life and get through to God on
them.
Your children will rise up and bless you
for it.
I'm telling you, they will.
Because what you fight for, they shall receive
them so beautifully.
They shall be theirs.
They won't have anything to worry about.
It won't be a big deal to them
at all.
But they will look at it and realize,
Mom and Dad went through the fire for
these.
And they will rise up and they will
bless you for them.
Hallelujah!
Worthy of the land.
Another observation that I had as we were
discussing there and sharing and listening to the
children, this question came to my mind.
Have we stopped fighting for more land?
We don't want to stop fighting for the
land.
There's much more land to possess yet.
We're not going to give up that easy.
We're not going to settle down.
We're not going to say, OK, we've got
a few pieces of land.
Here, children, have a happy marriage.
Have this.
That's all we're going to have.
You go get the rest yourself.
We're done.
We decided we're not going to go that
way.
We're going to keep on moving forward.
Another observation that I found, which has blessed
my heart, the older children can join in
the fight with you for the new ground
that lies ahead.
The children, they rose up.
I mean, those older children, they just stood
beside us and blessed us for all the
land that we obtained.
And they encouraged us and said, go get
some more.
We're with you.
We'll help you.
We'll pray for you.
We'll stand with you.
We'll support you.
Go get some more.
God bless those older children for that.
Maybe some of you older children don't want
your mom and dad to go get some
more.
I would encourage you, don't resist your mom
and dad.
If they're gazing at another piece of land
over there, they're looking at something that God
wants them to have, because it's in this
book right here.
I don't know what that piece of land
may be, but I'm telling you, there's a
lot of lovely pieces of property there in
the land of Canaan for all who are
willing to fight and believe God and possess
them.
And the last observation that I had as
we had this discussion was this.
If you will grasp the vision that I'm
giving you right now, you can enlist your
whole family in this pursuit.
It doesn't have to just be a mom
and dad thing.
You can sit your family down and say,
OK, children, this is the next piece of
property that we are going to go after.
Let's all go get it together.
You can enlist your family to help you
in these things and join them in the
pursuit of more land in your life.
Listen to me now.
Just consider.
A happy marriage is worth fighting for.
I'm telling you, you don't know what you
do for your children if you can leave
for your children a happy marriage.
You don't know what you do for the
next generation, for the establishment of the homes
of your children if you can gain that
piece of land which is called a peaceable,
happy marriage in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a treasure it is for you.
If you don't have that, if you go
after it and get it, it's worth fighting
for, I'm telling you.
It's worth it.
If you're not there, I want to encourage
you, don't stop until you have a happy
marriage.
One of the greatest gifts that you can
give your children is a happy marriage.
An orderly, godly home.
Think about that one for a moment.
You bring all these things into place in
order the children grow up in the home.
What do they see?
It's nothing to them.
Dad's in his place.
Mom's in her place.
There's order.
There's love.
There's direction.
There's devotions.
Dad's the leader.
The boys pick up Dad's leadership.
Mom's a follower.
The girls pick up Mom's followership.
Everything is in order.
The children just grow up and they inherit
the whole thing.
All that beautiful order.
Oh, that's just normal life.
Dad leads.
Mom follows.
This, that.
Oh, that's just normal life.
That's the way it's supposed to be.
They just grow up in the midst of
all this beautiful order and that's just the
way it is.
And that's the only way they ever knew
it.
And that's the only way they're going to
have it.
And they start so far ahead of us.
You can't imagine.
Often I like to say it this way.
Okay, we took the ball and we started
running.
Maybe we only made it to seven.
But we passed the ball on to the
children.
Maybe the children will make it to nine
because we made it to seven and helped
them along the way.
That's what we're talking about.
It's worth fighting for.
A disciplined Christian life is something that is
very much worth fighting for.
You fight for it.
You bring that thing into your life.
You bring that into your home.
Ha!
The children.
That's the only way it ever was.
What's so hard about fasting?
Fasting, we've known that ever since we were
little.
Fasting's not a big deal.
How many days do you want to fast?
Three?
Five?
Seven?
No, it's no big deal.
Getting up in the morning.
Oh, that's not a big deal.
Getting up in the morning.
No big deal at all.
You just set the alarm.
You just get up.
That's all there is to it.
What's the big deal?
Why is it that way?
They inherited it.
They didn't have to fight for it.
That's just the way it always was.
And that is exactly the way God wants
it to be.
Say, so, what are they going to do
then?
Instead of taking 20 years to try to
get their life all figured out and straightened
out, guess what they're going to do?
They're going to go do damage to Satan's
kingdom.
They're going to blast some devils on the
other side of the world.
They're going to build the kingdom of God.
They're going to shoot their arrows into beautiful
places that'll do damage to Satan's kingdom and
glorify the Lord.
That's what they're going to do.
They don't have to mess around for 20
years trying to get the whole thing all
straightened out and figured out.
It's already straightened out and it's all figured
out, so they're going to go for the
gold.
That's what they can do.
And that's the will of God.
So you may look at it all and
say, well, I wanted to be a missionary
and I wanted to be this and I
wanted to be that, but it just took
us too long to get it all together.
Hey, you get it all together and your
children can fulfill some of those wannabes, some
of those dreams that you had, your children
can do for you.
Amen?
And they'll do them way out ahead of
you.
Ah, praise the Lord.
Just turn the page in Numbers 14 just
a little bit.
Hear the words of Caleb and Joshua this
evening, my dear parents.
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.
Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither
fear ye the people of the land, for
they are bred for us.
Their defense is departed from them, and the
Lord is with us.
Fear them not.
That's what Joshua and Caleb said to the
people as they tried to steal them.
Turn also over to Joshua 14, and starting
in verse 7.
Forty years old was I when Moses the
servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh
Barnea to spy out the land.
And I brought him word again as it
was in mine heart.
Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me
made the heart of the people melt.
But I wholly followed the Lord my God.
And Moses swore on that day saying, Surely,
the land whereupon thy feet have trodden shall
be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because
thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
Do you get that?
God just keeps saying those words, and I'm
telling you, the land which God is promising
you, it shall be inherited by your children
when you wholly follow the Lord your God.
It shall be yours.
Verse 11, he goes on to say, As
yet, I am as strong this day as
I was in the day that Moses sent
me.
As my strength was then, even so is
my strength now.
Ready for war, both to go out and
to come in.
Now therefore, give me this mountain whereof the
Lord spake in that day.
For thou heardest that in that day how
the Anakims are there and the cities are
great and fenced.
If so be the Lord will be with
me, then I shall be able to drive
them out as the Lord God said.
Dear brothers and sisters, these are the faith
-filled words of a man who believed God
and believed God's promises.
I believe this evening, we need to follow
His example with all the things that we've
been hearing.
And instead of thinking, oh my, this is
too much for me.
Instead, we need to rise up and say,
God, I believe You.
Your promises are sure.
These things are mine.
I will have them.
If You will walk in the spirit of
those very words, You shall have that, and
yea, much more than that You shall have.
Let's stand together in prayer.
O God, my Father, this evening we love
You, Lord.
My, You've been so good to us, God.
Through all these meetings, Lord, and all the
things that You've given us, such precious words
again and again, Lord.
God, I pray for family meetings all over
this room where a father and a mother
unite their hearts together and say, we shall
have it.
And we shall have it for our children.
I pray, dear God, for family meetings where
a dad and a mom gather the children
around and say, we're going to go for
it.
Will You go with us?
We're going to go for it.
Will You follow?
We're going to go for it.
Will You support?
We're going to go for it.
Do You want to go along?
O Father, I pray that You will bless
these little family meetings, Lord, whenever they take
place, tonight, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, or maybe
it's not until Monday or Tuesday when the
dad gathers his children around him at home
and says, this is what we're going to
do with all that we heard all week
long.
God, I pray that You will hover over
every one of those family meetings and breathe
Your Spirit, Your Spirit, dear God, of faith
and confidence and blessing and belief into their
hearts, God.
And I pray, rebuke every unbelieving spirit, Lord,
away from us tonight, dear God, that would
cause us not to believe that God would
do this for me.
O God, I pray, drive those unbelieving spirits
away from every family here tonight, God, and
replace it with faith and confidence in God.
Lord, I commit all these families to You,
all these dear parents to You, all these
men that were on their face at the
altar tonight, all these dear sisters that were
on their faces this morning.
God, I pray, make them a moving, believing,
fighting family unit, O God, and raise up
a seed that will do damage to Satan's
kingdom.
This I pray before You, Father, in Jesus
Christ's name I pray.
Amen.