The Trigger for Something Bigger - Unwavering Faith in an Unraveling World

I think you know that um we are living in some well let's say a lot has changed since we were together last year, those of us who are here, hasn't it?

Has our world changed?

Woo!

Has uh has our country changed?

Good night.

And um was it Brad who said you can't even I have to get the kids or the grandkids out of the room when the news is on?

Because it's extra R rated these days?

Um The uh the What was it 25 years ago right now?

Do you know what's going on in San Francisco?

I mean I know there's a World Series going on now, Kansas City fans here.

Come on, you can make some little noise.

It's over you've waited so long, for heaven's sake.

Um kind of the Cinderella team.

Any Giants fans here?

I don't know if they're the San Francisco Giants fans.

You guys are sitting next to each other.

There's a wideness in God's mercy.

That's wonderful.

But I would just um uh remind you that about 25 years ago the World Series, San Francisco was in a World Series back then too.

Did you know that What was going on on the third night?

Earthquake.

Yeah.

All of a sudden, Al Michaels is going, the whole place is shaking.

The cameras start shaking.

And uh whole all that part of California started shaking, and there was a major quake during the World Series.

Terry Kennedy happened to be the catcher catcher for the San Francisco Giants back then And uh interestingly enough, as the stadium suddenly, I mean, who cares if there's a World Series?

We got it, we're in a we're in an earthquake, and even the players didn't much care.

They're like, let us out of here.

And Terry Kennedy is running out of that stadium looking for people he loves, and on his way out, some reporter, they're always there, says, Terry, Terry, what do you think?

And he just he turned to him and blurted out the first thing he could say.

He said Sure does change your priorities, doesn't it?

You know when everything is shaking, that is what happens.

When your family's shaking When your finances are shaking, when your health is shaking, when our country is shaking, when there's a whole lot more uncertainty than there's ever been, things that have never moved are moving.

Sure does change the priorities, doesn't it?

And the two lists of life, the things that really matter and the things that really don't matter, tend to get back in alignment, in alignment.

Because a lot of times the things don't really matter end up mattering a lot to us.

And the things that really matter don't matter a lot to us, and to get all back in the list when when everything is quaking.

Now I saw some earthquake drills on the news in Southern California after the recent quake that they had.

And I wish I hadn't seen that because it brought back memories of our family. um our weird family um because of all the time they spent with their mother of course but what happened was uh we we were out uh in southern California and they were telling us about earthquakes.

We didn't know about that on the East Coast and they were telling us about earthquakes And now if you're from Oklahoma, you're an expert on earthquakes.

Hard to believe.

Things are changing.

But um and um uh we asked them what the quakes were like and they said, well you we get we do earthquake drills out here.

And one of the things they said was If there's an earthquake, one of the things you're supposed to do is hang on to something heavy.

Well, we started, we're just nuts enough that we started doing earthquake drills in our family when we got back.

We don't need earthquake drills in New Jersey, but we were having them.

Which simply meant I would just go, hang on to something heavy.

Doug's probably about four.

Lisa's probably about six, our oldest.

And he'd run over to his sister and he'd grab her and I'd say Doug, what are you doing?

He'd say, Dad, you told us to hang on to something heavy.

Because lucky he lived to be five.

I mean, it's like, you don't say that, dear big sister.

I'm sorry.

But that is actually good advice.

When everything is shaken, you want to make sure you're hanging on to something heavy.

You really do.

Two words that have changed the psyche of our country.

Ebola?

ISIS.

Isn't it true?

I mean, uh, there's more people are watching the news, more people people who don't care about the news, care about it all of a sudden.

Listen to this uh article uh that I read recently from the Washington Post about Ebola.

Ebola started as a faraway thing and that was scary enough.

Then it jumped to a Dallas hospital where one man died, two nurses were infected.

On Wednesday, Ebola took a different kind of leap.

A psychological one, as concerned, spiked nationally about how the threat of the virus might interfere with commerce, health, and even daily routines.

Ebola moved closer to becoming the next great American panic.

Across the country, workers and travelers took symbolic safety steps wearing sanitary masks, lathering with hand sanitizer.

Airline stocks fell as investors bet on a slowdown in travel due to Ebola concerns.

Children living near Washington Dulas Airport took a psych uh told a psychologist about their fears of getting the disease.

It's crazy.

Um, just a little more here.

Let me read you the next page.

It says, two-thirds of Americans are worried about an Ebola epidemic in the United States more than four and ten or buried or somewhat worried that they or a close family member might catch the virus.

This one guy, 22-year-old fellow, said, my fear is the holy bola situation.

It can get anywhere.

It got from Liberia to Texas.

It's traveling quick.

It could be in one of those planes.

These are Times when we feel like our world is unraveling.

And our leaders, honestly, not making a political statement, leaders around the world are behind the curve.

It's like they're moving fast and we're moving slow and we can't seem to catch up with them.

We got two uh in fact here's what the um the head of the UN High Commission on uh human rights said just a couple days ago He called the Ebola outbreak and the ISIS rampage twin plagues.

Two monumental crises Listen to his words.

ISIS implements a diabolical, potentially genocidal movement that is a product of a perverse and lethal marriage.

Of a new form of nihilism and the digital age.

It's a scary and deadly combination.

But it's not just that.

I mean uh the economy world economy is so unstable.

Um Russia, we kne we thought we're forgetting Russia's on the move.

That's are we gonna be doing that again?

Didn't we do that once?

And it doesn't look like they're planning to stop.

They they want Mother Russia back and they want the Soviet Union back and nobody seems to be able to stand up to them.

Israel, Israel, you realize more and more regimes in the Middle East are becoming radicalized, Islamic regimes, and so they're being surrounded by more and more people who will do anything to destroy them.

Israel's in the worst situation they've ever been in.

Since they've had a nation.

A nuclear Iran?

Nobody's been paying any attention to them, have they?

We've been all concerned about ISIS and Syria.

And a nuclear Iran is uh taking the world's most uh most destructive weapons and putting them in the hands of some of our worst sworn enemies.

Even in our own country, even before all this jazz, safe places aren't safe places anymore.

People get shot in theaters and workplaces, they get shot at church, they get shot in the mall, they get shot all over the place.

Schools aren't safe anymore.

John McCain.

By the way, you say, I'm really glad I came.

I'm gonna go get my antidepressants now.

Stick with me.

We're not done yet.

We're just getting started.

As if I had to prove to you that we are living in a in a you know unraveling world.

But I'm uh maybe I'm not supposed to quote John McCain because he's not with me right now, but he said these are the most dangerous times he's ever lived in, said the Vietnam War veteran.

Uh and isn't it amazing how our leaders who always are trying to calm everybody down?

The Secretary of Defense, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are making these apocalyptic statements that are like, whoo, they're even they're saying that They don't usually say that.

Then they have to back down the next day, but you can tell what they really feel.

We're living in unsettling times A lot seems out of control.

That's why we are going to look at a biblical picture this weekend of unwavering faith.

In an unraveling world.

I want to take you for just a minute, not to the book we're going to go to, but I want to take you to Psalm 46.

I owe you this after painting this realistic, but not particularly let's all stand and cheer picture.

Listen to this.

God is our refuge.

God is our strength.

He is an ever present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way.

That hasn't happened recently The mountains fall into the heart of the sea we will not fear, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Think of that, Sila.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within her.

She will not fall.

God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall, he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Selah, think of that.

So be still.

Turn off the news.

Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob, is our fortress.

Think of that.

Think of that.

Selah.

Well, if you plant your if you're going to plant your feet in the headlines, you're going to plant your feet uh in um in your feelings or your fears, then you're going down.

But if you decide to plant both your feet on the promises of Almighty God, which have never failed, you're going to be unsinkable in the middle of this.

And the worst of it.

Now, where are we going?

We are going to go to the book of Exodus.

Where I have been spending months on end.

In fact, the joke around our headquarters is Ron can't get out of Exodus.

Now there's something wrong with that picture, because it's the book is about getting out, and I can't exit Exodus for the life of me.

I think I might have just finally gotten to the end of it. kept looking for another chapter when I was done and uh maybe just go back through again.

Then I went into numbers in Deuteronomy because there's sort of the rest of the story.

What a book And I see in there, through negative and positive examples, a lot of flesh and blood stuff, not theory, not theology, real flesh and blood, you can see it, what it looks like in action.

Unwavering faith.

Sometimes we're going to learn from wavering faith, but unwavering faith in an unraveling world.

One of the things that attracted me to the book of Exodus for our time together is that their times were times in many ways like our own.

You might remember that the book of Exodus opens.

Joseph had been taken down to Egypt by slave traders many years before, and he had 400 years before the book of Exodus dawns on us.

And um he is um uh eventually becomes the second most powerful man after starting in a pit.

He ends up on the pyramids through this incredible providence of God story, and uh he ends up Inviting and his family to come down because of the famine, you know the story.

His brothers came with their families, and he had the chance to get even with the people that had had uh ruined his life or tried to ruin his life and instead he forgives them and they decide to settle down there.

Jacob and all the boys and their families settle down there.

Joseph makes a prophecy.

You can look it up at the end of Genesis and says, now you're gonna live in that nation, but you won't stay in that nation, and years from now God's gonna deliver you from it.

It takes 400 years for Joseph's uh end of his life prediction to take place.

Enter the book of Exodus.

Now, what's happened is that there was a dynasty of pharaohs in Egypt who themselves were foreigners to Egypt.

So they were more sympathetic to foreigners like Jews living there.

They didn't mind that Jews were there and that the Jews were having lots of babies They were going fast.

But a new dynasty came in who were pure Egyptian and they their their pharaoh they he didn't remember Joseph at all.

He didn't care about all of that, Jewish guy that was here.

So he sees the Egyptians growing and he goes, man, they're overtaking us.

We're not gonna be able to control this.

They're our they're our major labor force, but there's g when there's more of them, then there's more of us.

How do we run this place?

So he says, I want the babies killed.

That was his solution.

He tried to get the Jewish midwives to work with him and abort the babies at birth.

They stand up to him and they keep going and he says, what did you do?

You didn't do what I said the word I said the Jewish woman had babies real fast.

We just couldn't get there in time to keep the babies there by the time we get there They usually stand up to power with awesome courage.

So he just says, he sends out his people and says, I want every, every baby boy killed.

So we have got senseless violence, brutal violence going on against babies.

Genocide, ethnic cleansing.

Sounds like some of our headlines today.

Can you imagine the parental fears if you're a Jewish parent and you've got a boy?

And you don't know how far this this ongoing massacre, will it stop with the baby boys?

And will we have a Jew will we have Jews left if a whole generation of baby boys are destroyed?

So you got parents who are very fearful of what the future is going to hold.

Oh, and their future, instead of getting better, gets worse.

I'm going to go over to the book of Exodus real quick, and uh we won't we don't have this on a slide, but and uh let me uh Get my um uh Bible expander here with my glasses.

Um oh it's much bigger now.

What do you know And and uh and in chapter one we read about the order to get rid of the get rid of the babies and then um let me just find uh find my verses here.

Chapter 1 verses 12 to 14 um He says it says the more they were oppressed, because they're building the pyramids, they're building, they're the labor force doing all this work.

The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.

So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly Made their lives bitter with hard labor.

They had been co-citizens there.

Suddenly they are being brutally treated.

Their lives are bitter, hard labor, brick and mortar, all kinds of work in the fields.

And again it says, the Egyptians use them ruthlessly.

By the way, some interesting parallels between the Egyptians or the Jews of that time and the Native Americans of our time.

Who are so much a part of our heart and in our ministry.

Years of oppression.

A tribal people.

And later God will talk about their slave masters the Jews have.

I've never seen so many young people so enslaved.

Because all they know is addiction and depression and hopelessness and suicide.

And all they know is a life that's all about dying all around them and until they want to.

So it's reminiscent to me of Native Americans.

And you see here a growing hostility toward God's people in Egypt?

Does that sound familiar?

A growing hostility toward God's people?

Are you feeling a little lonelier as a Christian?

If you're living for Christ and you're standing for what he stands for, you probably are.

This used to be a culture that welcomed the Jews.

Now it is a culture that's turning on them.

America used to be a place that was a culture that welcomed Christians.

It is increasingly considering us the intolerant enemies.

But there's more than that, just parallels to our time.

This is the epic story of Earth's miracle nation.

How do you get 70 nomads to turn into the most central nation on earth?

Everybody, everything revolves around this little piece of real estate in the Middle East has for all these centuries from 70 nomads who go down to Egypt, Jacob's little band.

So here's what we're going to take a look at.

While in our journey, we'll be looking at a book that tells us about a butane bush , a stuttering murderer who becomes the deliverer of a people.

There's a calf of gold and a stick that becomes a snake There's a mountain that's on fire.

There's meals from heaven.

This is not meals on wheels.

This is meals on wings.

You're gonna have rocks that are filled with water enough to supply a nation in the wilderness.

Oh, and an 11-day journey that took 40 years Welcome to the book of Exodus.

Pretty interesting, huh?

There's a lot there.

But above all, here's why it's so important for us.

Above all, it is a picture of us.

1 Corinthians chapter 10.

You'll see it in your notes.

1 Corinthians chapter 10.

I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud.

Where was the pillar of cloud?

What book of the Bible is that in?

Anybody know?

Oh, Exodus.

And that they all passed through the sea.

What book of the Bible is that in?

Oh, that would be in Exodus.

That's right.

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Where's Moses?

Oh yes right, he's an Exodus.

They all ate the same spiritual food.

Uh well talking about man, uh that that would be an Exodus, yeah.

They drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock.

Oh wait, drinking from a rock, that would be Yeah, that's an Exodus that accompanied them.

Well, look at this.

No, no, don't go too fast.

Go back a minute.

That rock was Christ.

Hello.

Jesus is walking around the wilderness with them.

Before he comes to earth is Jesus, the Son of God.

He's there.

Nevertheless, God was now pleased with most of them.

Their bodies were scattered over the desert.

Now, I want you to read this out loud with me.

Now, these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

Let's fast forward to uh what is it, verse 10?

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

We're supposed to B, and we're we're supposed to see examples, and really you can.

Um How many of you uh were the baby of the family?

Or probably still are?

Yeah, okay, but no.

Uh if you were, you are.

Um and and you probably had this experience then.

Your parents took a thousand pictures of the firstborn.

You going with me there now?

And let's say they had three kids like we did.

The second one they had maybe four or five hundred pictures and There are ten of you.

Because you weren't new.

We did this before.

You know, there weren't they're just like the baby, you know, I mean you've got to love the baby.

We know that, but you don't necessarily have to take pictures of them Now you know how everybody they are everybody nobody admits it but everybody wants to look they look they get pictures back from the you we don't get pictures back from developing anymore we have them on our camera our phone But when we used to get them back from uh went to a drugstore and get them back, you'd look and you'd go through them and go, honestly, you'd look for the ones you're in.

You know that.

Then you complain about how ugly you are.

Oh, look at my hair.

I can't believe if you have hair, don't complain.

So there's there 's, you know, you go through all this and and you you really want to see yourself.

Well, that happened to our firstborn, our third born, who was Brad.

Bless his heart.

You know, we used to take Super 8 movies.

And if you if if you're old enough to remember Super Eight movies You maybe should be in bed.

But I remember the Super 8 movies, and now we've had them converted to DVDs, thankfully, so they don't disintegrate.

But Uh and and it's interesting because every Christmas we'd get them all out, we'd start to show them.

And uh Brad Brad would come in the room and he'd go, am I in it yet?

No, no, Brad, not not yet, no, no.

So he'd he'd leave and then you know he'd come back an hour later.

Am I am I am I in it yet?

No, Brad, no, no, no.

There's only one.

Uh we'll let you know.

Uh so Uh so you know he's always but that this kind of uh I I we used to I used to work with a high school football team for about eight years and took a lot of pictures of them and and used that to help reach them and And uh they would guess what they'd want to know?

They're like heavenly and me?

I want to.

Of course, egos, you know, athletes.

Where's my where's my pictures of me?

Well, let me tell you something.

When you come to the book of Exodus, you are in it.

You are in the book of Exodus and the Bible expects this to be.

So prepare.

In fact, I'm going to insist that you find yourself there, because you've got to be there somewhere.

I know where we're going.

And I know we all are in there somewhere.

You'll find yourself in the book of Exodus, maybe more than once We were um some friends invited us to uh stay for uh uh time off at a condo in uh Naples, Florida.

And uh it was beautiful.

You could see the ocean from there.

It was a wonderful time.

And the thing that was crazy about it is there were mirrors everywhere.

It was just like just these people were mirror crazy.

And I remember, I think I was our first morning.

It must have been our first morning.

I think we got there at night, and the next morning I'm in the kitchen, and I am I'm um starting to Fixed breakfast or something and I and I reached across the kitchen table and all of a sudden I see a hand reaching for me.

Man, I swung around.

I was gonna do my missed piggy.

Hiya!

I mean I was ready to totally defend myself.

I it was me reaching for me There were mirrors everywhere.

It was my own reflection.

Karen got up.

I felt like such an idiot.

Not because she got up.

I said, honey, I said, I can't believe this.

I said, I I just, I thought I was reaching for me.

She said, don't feel so stupid.

She said, I already had that experience.

I reached for, I saw someone reaching for me too.

Everywhere I went in that condo, I kept running into myself.

Everywhere I've gone in the book of Exodus I keep running into myself.

I keep looking in the mirror.

And uh so we're there, and so you will find me at several points during the weekend stopping and asking you this.

Just you and God have to know the answer.

Are you in this picture?

There's a lot of pictures of humans here.

Interacting with God, doing it right, doing it wrong.

I'll keep asking, are you now is this you?

Are you in this picture?

I'm not going to tell you which ones I'm in.

You don't have to tell me which ones you're in.

But be prepared for the Lord to take you on this journey through Exodus and stop at some pictures of you.

Because it's not just a book of the Bible, it's a mirror.

Now, what we're going to try to get done is six secrets of living unafraid, no matter what the news No matter what the doctor says, no matter what the headlines say, no matter what the government says, no matter what Wall Street says, living unafraid.

Living unafraid.

Secret number one.

Let's tackle it right now.

Expect the supernatural.

Expect the supernatural.

Now, while this is a detour from the book of Exodus, we'll get into Exodus in just a minute.

Let me take you to a psalmist, David's summary of how of God's dealings.

This is really a kind of a later review of the book of Exodus.

He says, we're not going to hide from our children that what God has done.

We will tell the next generation the praise worthy deeds of the Lord, his powers, the wonders he has done.

He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel.

By the way, what book of the Bible is that?

I'd be in Exodus, yeah.

Which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children.

So the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God.

Boy, if they if they heard what kind of God He is, they'll put their trust in Him.

They wouldn't forget His deeds.

They'd keep His commands.

He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt.

I'm not even going to go there, what book of the Bible, in the region of Zoan.

He divided the sea, led them through, he made the water stand firm like a wall.

Man.

He guided them with the cloud by day, guided them with the light from the fire all night.

He split the rocks in the desert, gave them water as abundant as the seas.

When he struck the rock, water gushed out.

What a God this is.

He could do anything, and streams flowed abundantly But can he also give us food?

Can he supply meat for his people?

He rained down manna for the people to eat.

He gave them the grain of heaven Men ate the bread of angels.

He sent them all the food they could eat in spite of all this.

Now wait a minute.

So many reasons to trust him.

So many reasons to expect the supernatural from this God.

Food from heaven, water from rocks, Red Sea parted Overnight deliverance from the most powerful empire on earth, the drowning of the most powerful army in the world.

Is this a God you can trust?

In spite of all this , they kept on sinning.

In spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

So they ended their days in futility and their years in terror.

But he brought his people out like a flock, he led them like sheep through the desert.

He guided them safely so they weren't afraid.

The sea engulfed their enemies.

Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, keeping his promise.

I'll get you there, to the hill country his right hand had taken.

But They put God to the test.

And by the way, that crossroads we're about to go to right now.

Because some of us might be in that picture.

And they rebelled against the Most High.

They did not keep his statutes.

Like their fathers, they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.

Well, Here is a God who gives you every reason to trust him, guards you, provides for you, makes ways for you.

We used to go for rides on Sunday afternoon.

Living in the New York area, it's nice to go see some mu cows.

And we had them just about an hour away.

We'd go up to Sussex County, New Jersey, and or uh places like that and kind of get away from everything and the craziness of the suburbs and there was one of our children who shall not I I he shall remain nameless, Doug.

But But when we get in the car, he would go, I I never knew anybody who could interrogate a parent like this boy.

Who are we good?

Dad, where are we going?

How long are we gonna be there?

What are we gonna do there?

Where are we gonna eat?

How many times are we gonna eat there?

Is it any good?

What do we do for fun while we're there?

What time will you be back?

Can I take a friend?

We got the Inquisition before we leave.

I said we're going on a mystery trip That was just a reason to ask a thousand questions.

Use the word mystery trip.

Brad, thank you for trusting me.

But And I would just turn around, man, and I would go, two words.

What two words did I say?

Trust me.

Trust me.

I tried to never let them down.

How many times has God taken you on a mystery trip and he might be right now?

There's some unanswered questions about the future.

He says, We're going on a mystery trip, my son, my daughter.

Ready to go on a mystery trip?

Well dad I got some questions.

Can we uh what about the how long what's it gonna be like?

What am I gonna trust me?

I'm a supernatural doer God You remember my history with you?

Will I not be for you there?

Would I have been for you here?

Trust me.

So he took his ancient people on a mystery trip and they came to a place called Kideshfarnia.

Kadesh Barnea, you might be interested, is right on the border of the Promised Land.

They have actually been out of Egypt now about two years.

It's not that long a trip.

But they spent some time at Mount Sinai.

They needed to.

I mean, they were a pretty ragtag bunch.

You probably got a couple million people.

We ain't talking about, you know, a little group of 70 like went down before.

No, you got the you might have as many as two million people going.

And so they stopped at Mount Sinai to understand what God's expectations were.

We'll get to that.

As God gave them the boundaries for his blessing called the Ten Commandments.

And how they were supposed to live and reflect his holiness to this planet and be his face?

And they had to get organized.

And so they had to get their whole how do we get the and we do it by tribes and who's gonna be the leaders and how we're gonna how are we gonna travel and how we're gonna set everything up.

So they they they but uh after about two years Bible students think They get to Kadesh Barneya.

Now I want to tell you what Kadesh Barnea means.

You have it in your notes.

It's very, very significant what those words mean.

Kadesh means holiness.

Barnea means the desert of wandering.

And that was their choice at Kadesh Barnea.

Shall we take God's road?

The road to holiness?

Or shall we wander in a desert?

Anytime God brings you to a crossroads of faith, that is your choice.

The alternative to taking the step, trusting a God of the supernatural.

It's wilderness and wandering.

Welcome to Kedar Sparneo.

Let's take a look at the three deciding factors in whether or not you're going to have God-sized outcomes in the future.

In your family, in your health.

Your finances, your personal life, in the next season of your life Here's the three deciding factors.

As we go to the book of Numbers, which actually, because the book of Exodus ends at the border of the Promised Land.

Numbers kind of picks up the story.

Numbers chapter 13, and we're going to go take a look at that because the first deciding factor is what I call the yabuts.

That's not a word, okay?

The yebats.

Yeah, but the yebats of fear.

The yebats of fear.

Numbers 13 He has sent, Moses has sent scouts into the uh into the promised land.

He says, I got a few questions for you.

I want you to check it out.

Get back to me.

See if uh see what it's like?

We went into the land which you sent us.

It does flow with milk and honey.

And they brought back the grapes.

I never saw these at Walmart produced They brought back grapes like a big stick carrying one bunch of grapes.

Like how huge were these grapes?

Like one as a meal.

It does flow with milk and funny.

Look, look, look at its fruit.

Everything God said it is.

He kept his promise.

Oh, but, oh, that's the word.

But, well, yeah, but It really is as good as God said.

People who live there are powerful.

The cities are fortified and very large.

We even saw big guys there.

These were like giants, not New York Giants, not San Francisco.

These are the big guys.

We saw descendants of ANAC there.

Well, Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it.

We are well able to conquer it.

But his fellow scouts said, we are not able to go up against the people of Canaan, for they are stronger than we are.

That's the Yabutz of fear.

This is I call the Kadesh Crossroads.

There's a geography to these choices.

And there is a constant clash between Let's go back.

Can we go back on that scripture?

I want to show you two sentences.

Verse 30 says, Caleb says, we should.

The men who had gone up with him said, we can't.

That's the crisis when you are at a crossroads of faith.

We should, we should.

We can't.

We should.

We can't.

We should.

We can't.

Faith says we should.

Fear says we can't You know, we really should trust God, honey, instead of put getting into more debt.

How if we just trust to God so we're not we are going to get out of debt instead of getting any deeper in debt?

We really should, but Yeah, but we can't.

Here's the reasons.

You might be single at this point.

I know I really should let God wait on God.

You know, I've been waiting a while, but I should let God bring me somebody of his choosing, but Yeah, but I can't because of all these reasons.

God's calling on me to step up.

I feel the sense that he wants me to step up in the next season of my life to do something for him that I'm a little afraid of.

It looks the giants look a little big, the land looks a little intimidating.

It's beyond my capability, beyond my I I think I should, but I I I I I can't.

Um You know we really we really should get help for our marriage.

We really should get help for our family situation right now?

We should, but what will people think?

Blah blah blah blah.

We can't.

We we can't.

You know, in times like these, it just seems like we're getting a wake-up call from God.

Our world is giving us a wake-up call.

We really, honey, we should be spending less on us and more on the kingdom of God and more on God's work on earth in times like these, but yeah, but We really ought to make that change.

Yeah, we should, but we can't.

I want you to think for just a minute about a crossroads moment you have had in your past.

Well you really had to choose between I should and I can't.

Doesn't matter which one you choose, chose.

But a moment you had.

A choice you had to make that required risk and faith.

Think about that for just a minute.

I might have a couple of you share it.

Now, here's how fear logic works.

Fear's perspective.

Numbers 13, 32.

Let's go to there They spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they'd explored.

They said, the land we explored devours.

Boy, they're getting there.

He's laying it on here.

It's getting worse and worse.

It devours those living in it.

All the people we saw there are of great size.

Everybody looks that way to me.

We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak.

We seemed like grasshoppers.

Any of you ever stepped into uh many of you are in the grass where there's grasshoppers and they just start jumping immediately?

I mean all you have to do is start to move within a few feet of them and you see a whole field come to life, the grasshoppers, they're like, we just, we just we're scared like we seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and I know we look the same to them That's the logic of fear.

That's the perspective of fear.

Here's what it is.

You do make your decision based on the size of the giants compared to the size of you.

The obstacles, the barriers, the dangers are so much bigger than what I could handle.

So you make your decision based on you compared to them.

So this guy's out fishing and he sees this other guy in the next boat fishing, and the other guy throws about every other fish back And he's like, when he's catching so many, finally he gets the best of him.

He says, you're supposed to talk a lot, but he goes up, he says, what what are you doing throwing all those fish back in?

I said, I can't I can't keep some of them.

I've only got an eight-inch pan.

He wasn't expecting much, and so if they're bigger than eight inches, I can't have them Some of us go to God with an eight-inch pan.

When he has a whole lot more he wants to do for us.

We have a life this big, he wants a life this big.

But we got an eight-inch pan we're coming to them width.

Because we're comparing the size of the challenge to the size of me.

Here's faith 's perspective.

Caleb and Joshua, God bless them, the only guys who live to see the promised land.

Let's go to uh chapter 14 in numbers.

They said to the entire Israelite assembly, the land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.

If the Lord is pleased with us, he'll lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

He will give it to us.

He said he would.

Only please.

Do not rebel against the Lord.

Do not be afraid of the people.

Do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid of the people.

Forget your yabbaths.

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

Their protection is gone.

They don't stand a chance.

The Lord is with us.

Do now here he goes again.

Do not be afraid of them.

Here's what faith does.

You decide based on the size of the giants compared to the size of your God.

You don't compare the giant that is making you say Yabut. to the size of you.

You compare it to the size of your God.

This past summer was challenging for on Eagle's wings.

Um we usually have um some special um help in What is a very significant amount of money that it takes to go to nine reservations and field an army of Native Americans who really can't raise their own support from where they're from and have the Warrior Leadership Summit Conference where Man, it costs about $500 for them.

They pay $25 and many of them have a hard time coming up with that.

So it's a big deal.

And this summer because of of just some things didn't materialize when we left.

We needed still a very significant percentage.

What are we going to do?

Tell the reservations we're not coming?

We tell kids go don't come to Warrior Leadership Summit?

No.

No, we went ahead and the third reservation was one that was very special to my heart.

It's the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

Those of you who get our reports know I can't use the real names for several reasons in my reports, but the Mescalero Apache Reservation, see the first native kids I ever met, I didn't meet any in Chicago or New York.

No, the first native kids I ever met, after then a lifetime in cross-cultural youth ministry, was at a camp in Colorado back in the 1970s, and they were Mescalero Apaches, and they never got out of my heart.

God had never opened the door for us to be on that reservation until this summer, 22 years into our eagle's wings.

So it's very special to me.

Let me just show you our video report from there, and then I will tell you at this point some more money had come in, but We were getting later into the summer and there's still a pretty significant need.

But we were fighting for the kids at Mescalero Apache.

I'll tell you the nature of suicide there. 15-year-old boys testified before the United States Senate about all the kids dying, killing themselves there.

At our book table, one of our team was showing a father.

My book on ten time bombs, teenage youth issues, and He said there's chapters on this and this, and here's one on suicide and depression called Living Is Always Better, or it's called The Tomorrow Robber, I think.

And the dad said, oh, he said, I wish my daughter could have read that She was part of a suicide pack, too, with four other girls.

She's the only one who went through with it.

But I hope you can save some of these other kids.

This was our report from that reservation.

It is coward in the name of Jesus.

It is coward in the name of Jesus.

Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus Break every chain, break every chain, break every chain.

Well this night on this reservation has been so powerful, but it's been a long time in coming.

You know, back in the 1970s I had never met a Native American young person.

I spoke in a camp in the Rockies back in the early 1970s.

First native young people I ever met were from this reservation.

They touched my heart so deeply.

That seed that was planted these many years ago that helped spawn on eagle's wings.

Tonight came full circle.

Tonight is a night of spiritual celebration.

The first one that wanna to make the declaration to say I made Jesus my my savior tonight.

I have made a stand saying that Jesus is my Lord, my savior.

That same kid I got to talking to him and uh after I got done talking to him he was like and I prayed with him, you know, but he said this tremendous weight I've been lifting off his shoulders.

Oh man.

Jesus showed up here tonight.

No.

I just I see a lot of happy people, their faces look different.

Like so much joy here tonight.

I don't know, it was really fulfilling 'cause they just felt like all this relief, like all this hard work it that just happened tonight everyone came and I don't know it's just crazy.

I I've never been so happy in my life.

Wow and how many girls were you able to be there for who came to Christ tonight?

Five.

So many have crossed over as Jesus said from death to life. on this basketball court.

So as the battle continues tonight and then on to other reservations this summer, please go with us.

And be a part of perhaps one of the most miraculous summers of hope I've ever seen.

And to see a place where the seed came from that became on eagle's wings.

Tonight, see, this kind of response has left me speechless.

I can 't reach.

Well, my friends, um, I was a mess.

Because you see, the man who brought the Mescalero kids to that camp year after year told me they were so touched they sang Jesus songs all the way back.

Till they got to the border of the reservation.

And they never sang another Jesus song when they got home.

Because they couldn't take Jesus.

Not back to Mescalero.

But I was watching them give themselves to Jesus in the center of their reservation, taking a public stand.

Scores of them.

And at the moment they were going forward, my cell phone starts buzzing.

I didn't want to look at it.

But I did.

And it was a text from a brother who said, Can you tell me what the rest of the need is for this summer?

I did.

And he responded and said, we'll take care of it.

And that night of the breakthrough at Mescalero, the need was met.

Or were we afraid?

I have to say sometimes, I'm like, this is a lot of money.

And we're in the thick of it.

But I will tell you that if you decide compare the size of the giant to the size of your God, he will not leave you stranded in the middle of following him into the supernatural Deuteronomy chapter 1 gives three reasons why he gave the the early his early people why they should not be afraid.

Same for you.

The Lord your God who is going before you will fight for you as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes.

Notice three things.

You saw the Lord your God carried you as a father carries his son all the way you went until you reached this place.

In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God.

There's a little more, I think.

Got any more?

He goes ahead and he says, I went ahead of you and he said, I found I found places for you to stay.

I led you to the with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire to the places you would stay.

You never didn't know where to go.

Three reasons to be afraid.

Do you know what battles I will have if I take this step at Kedusparnia?

God says, I fight for you.

That's all you need to know.

I will fight this for you.

Yeah, but Lord, you don't know my weakness.

He says, I don't care about your weakness.

I'm going to carry you.

When you carry a little kid, does their strength matter?

It's your strength that's getting them there.

He says, I carry you.

I fight for you Well Lord, I am clueless.

I really, this is an unknown to me.

I don't know where I'm going.

He goes, I will lead you.

Now the pillar of fire is in you, call my Holy Spirit.

I'll get you.

You'll always know where to go.

Let's go together.

All those are the reasons not to be afraid.

Would you start making decisions based on his resources instead of yours?

The size of your God instead of the size of your need and the size of your challenge.

Now my question to you is this are you in this picture?

Maybe this is one of the places where you're in the picture.

Supposed to be examples for us, remember?

You see, you would be in the picture if right now you're hesitating at the edge of a very big obedience Are you?

Because our fears turn our faith into unbelief And you miss the wonderful.

And you get the wilderness.

Because Kedashparni is either holiness or wandering in the desert.

That's the only alternative.

We've let our fears win enough.

I was at a an event, a wonderful event for business people many years ago, and Doug had just gone to the Hopi Reservation and had kind of gone into um taken a huge risk, just left Wheaton College and and uh was um sleeping on a table and um literally a broken engagement just before he was going to get married Because of his calling, was alone in a very hostile environment.

Where Deer and uh Joe and Erica, who you're gonna meet if you haven't already, are directing the work that God used Doug to start years ago.

But it was a hard beginning.

It was harsh there, very harsh.

And um It's interesting because um uh uh I told that story that night and how Doug had called us.

After two months there, and very early in the morning said, Mom, Dad, I just want to tell you I don't have any money, I don't have any friends, it's kind of lonely here.

It's really hard getting the you don't really want Christians here.

We're like, we're parents.

We're like, oh son.

He said, but don't worry about me.

He said, I've never had so much peace in my life.

Because I'm where I was born to be, doing what I was born to do.

I told that story that night.

The man who had chaired that meeting put together this event. 30 years, a very expected realtor in the area, had his own real estate agency.

He said, Ron, I got to talk to you.

He said, 30 years ago, God said to me, I want you to go to an Indian reservation in the southwest and serve me there.

I talked to my wife about it.

She said, Well, that's scary.

We'd have to sell our house.

They said, well let's do this.

Let's try to sell our house what if we sell our house in one weekend without a realtor?

Could we go?

Shall we go?

Yes, we should.

We should They sold the house on the weekend.

But you said we didn't go.

The abatts of fear He said, seven years later we were divorced.

He said, I'm very successful in this community and very well thought of.

But he said, for 30 years I have known.

I have missed the plan of God.

When you get to Kadesh, do the should of faith, not the can't of fear.

Just very quickly, um, so you can actually sleep tonight, um, especially people from the East Coast.

You're an hour later than I am.

I said I said that we would just look and I so I'm gonna do a lick and a promise and drive this the compulsive people crazy because we won't fill in all the blanks.

You're gonna go, oh no.

You talk about I can't sleep.

The deciding factors, the yabots of fear.

Let's take a look at the verbs of faith.

The verbs of faith.

I gotta have you look at the faith of Moses' parents.

You know how we know what kind of faith they had?

Because Hebrews 11, the hall of faith, tells us.

Look at his parents.

Before we get to Moses, Moses already had a legacy of faith before he was ever born.

Moses' parents hit him for three months after he was born.

Because they saw he was no ordinary child.

They were not afraid of the king's edict.

They had faith with this child.

You know how I know they had faith?

Because if you read the story, it won't take time to go to the scripture.

But if you read the story, mama knew she could not hang on to her child.

She could only hide him so long.

After three months, she couldn't hide him anymore.

How do you hide a three-month-old?

They're starting to make noise at that point.

She puts a basket together.

She prepares that basket with and the same words are the words that are used of the ark, the preparation of the ark, so it will be waterproof.

And I'm gonna I have to put this river is a river of death for Jewish boys.

This is where Jewish boys are drowned.

I'm gonna have to put my son in the river of death.

But I can't hide him forever.

So I'm gonna do everything I can to prepare him to be safe in the river of death And by faith, she launches him in that basket.

You know what I learned from that example of faith?

Here is a parent who realizes you cannot hide your children from the hostile world forever.

Some parents are trying to.

You cannot hide them forever.

Your job is not to isolate them from the world.

It is to insulate them To make all the preparations you can to send them out into what may be a river of death for many kids in our world today.

It is dangerous out there.

You say, well, how do you insulate them?

How do you prepare them?

Like the honored in the faith chapter, the honored mother of Moses did.

Jacobed was her name.

How do you do that?

Here are some things.

First of all, you give them shoulds with hows.

You never give you should read your Bible.

You should pray.

You should witness.

You should do God's will.

How?

Never give a should without a how.

You just frustrate them.

Number two, never give a rule without a reason.

Show them the reasons why God is against that or for that.

He's everything he's against because of something he's for.

There's a good reason for every one of those.

And make it all about Jesus and not about church or religion.

Make it all about Jesus.

When you sin, it's Jesus you hurt, not us.

When you walk away, it's not walking away from your church's beliefs.

You're walking away from Jesus.

When you do something for the Lord, it is for Jesus.

It is not for us.

It is not for the church.

It is Jesus you please, Jesus you hurt, Jesus you serve, Jesus you give to, Jesus you rebel against.

It's all about the man who died on the cross for you.

Make it all about Jesus and nothing else.

Well, anyway, that's a great example of faith.

And by the way, here's an interesting thing about his dad.

You say, where's his dad in here anywhere?

Yeah, Abraham was his name, and he was a priest.

Look at chapter 3, verse 6.

Just this really struck me.

This is just a little detail.

When God is talking to Moses to the burning bush, he says, I am the God of your father The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

Wait a minute.

Every time God introduces himself, he says, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Who's this other guy?

He has just made it in with the great fathers of the faith.

He said, like your dad, Moses, like your daddy.

Apparently his dad had a contagious faith.

As did his mother.

What a legacy of faith.

I wonder if God would name some of the greats of faith and say, and by the way, say to one of your kids.

Like your dad.

Like your dad's God.

You know your dad's God.

Greatest compliment a guy can get.

For to God to put them in that lineup.

Okay, now let's talk about the faith of Moses.

I want to show you the verbs of faith.

Can't talk any faster.

Karen with the other day was getting a uh uh was apparently getting a text with some surprise in it and she just said I my head was totally in this stuff She goes, golly Moses.

I said, thank you, honey.

That'll be a good title for this series.

Thank you very much.

That's really what I'm sort of looking at golly Moses right here.

I say that when I look at his faith.

Here's the verbs of faith.

Look, see how you're doing with these By faith, by faith.

Moses, when he grew up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Stop for a minute.

First of all, faith refuses what looks good right now.

Faith says, I know I could have this right now.

But to be he or he is as a as in the in the the royal court of the most powerful people on earth and Pharaoh's daughter, she was there at just the right time to adopt him.

And he says, I am turning my back on that, I refuse it.

I wish Esau had refused a pot of stew.

Given up for have a need met tonight, lose your birthright for your life.

I wish David.

So did David wish that he had refused to do what looked good right then.

All the opportunity with this hot chick Bathsheba, betraying his loyal soldier.

And committing adultery after God had sojured the man off my own heart.

I wish Samson had not I had made the same kind of choice Moses did and not did what looked good right then.

I wish Judas.

And that sold Jesus out because it looked like the right thing to do at the time.

Faith refuses, well, it looks good right now.

Maybe you're supposed to do that.

Faith, secondly, looks, go on.

Then it says, he chose to be mistreated.

Listen to this choice.

I'll be mistreated along with the people of God rather than be at the parties In Egypt, the pleasures of sin first season.

Secondly, faith makes choices.

Faith chooses the hard road with the big payoff later. over the easy road that runs out soon.

Tony Evans of the Urban Alternative, I heard on the radio the other day and he said that When he was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, he had to work at night and he worked all night at the Greyhound Depot.

And he said, This is not a great job.

And he said, the guys here told him the first night on, they said, now Tony, you need to know the rules here.

See, we um we have to punch a time clock here, but he said, uh, we kind of cheat on the time clock.

We usually all take off a couple hours, go do what we want to do. punch each other's time clocks and all that.

So you'll just want to play that game or you'll be alone out sleeping all night.

He said, you know, I I I'm not going to be able to do that.

Because of my commitment to Christ.

He said, really?

He said every night I got to sweep alone.

I got to do all the dirty work alone.

They abandoned me.

He chose the hard road.

Six months he went that way, and six months later his boss called him in, the supervisor, and said, We've sent in some people kind of undercover here for the last couple of weeks.

And we see the game is being played.

There's one guy here who doesn't play it, you.

You're the new supervisor here.

Well, you see, Hebrews 11 6 says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Faith chooses the hard road with the big payoff later over the easy road that runs out soon.

Faith, next, let's go.

Then it says faith, here's the next thing that happens with Moses He regarded this grace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt.

What?

Wait, I'll take I'll take being looked down upon and rejected because I'm a Jewish guy, then I'm taking all the treasures of Egypt.

Because he was looking beyond that.

He was looking ahead of his reward.

Faith values things based on their long-term benefit. rather than their short-term price tag.

So in other words, how's this decision going to look 10 years from now?

Now how's it going to feel good in a month?

Kick your shop the rest of your life?

No.

You value things based on the long term.

Oh, then it says this.

Here's another.

He left Egypt.

He left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger.

Faith leaves the darkness, no matter what it costs.

I, if it involves darkness, I will leave it.

Here's a great quote I heard from my pastor last week, and I think he got it somewhere else.

I don't know where he got it, but I thought it was great.

He said you can tell the passion of an organization by what they say yes to.

You can tell the integrity of an organization.

You want to finish it?

By what they say no to.

You can tell the passion of a person, of you, by what you say yes to.

We can tell your integrity by what you say no to.

Faith leaves the darkness no matter what the cost.

Then it says he persevered.

You see that next part of that verse said that he persevered And uh and stuck with Emuno, people were a mess that he was leading, but it says he persevered because he saw him who was invisible Faith perseveres because you keep your eyes on your God, not on the problems that are developed.

And last of all, faith risks everything on the Word of God.

Faith risks everything on what God has said.

Hebrews 11. 1 tells us what faith is.

It says faith is the substance of things hoped for, or being sure of what we hope for.

I'm certain of what we do not see.

More certain than what I can see is what God has promised.

Expecting the supernatural.

Doug told me how our little grandson, our miracle heart patient boy, Taylor, who's gonna be how old?

Nine?

Holy moly Our nine-year-old miracle boy, nine years of miracles, even recently.

He told me how he prays.

Doug said, Dad, you know how Taylor prays?

He prays like this.

Dear Jesus, before he goes to bed tonight, he says, thank you for um , he might be sick.

He says, thank you for making me well.

He's not, he's sick.

He says, thank you for making me well Thank you for me having good dreams tonight.

He hasn't had any dreams yet tonight.

Thank you for making another member of the family well.

And Doug said, I was just about to talk to him and kind of teach him how to pray, and then he thought, oh my goodness, that's how we all ought to pray.

Like it's done Doug posted that on Facebook and the people started lining up behind Taylor on that one, baby.

That's Beautiful faith.

So let me ask you, are you in this picture?

Are you making are you giving up the easy thing for the hard thing that is more important and more valuable that last?

Are you valuing what will look good down the road?

Are you leaving the darkness?

I hope that's where you are in this picture.

One last thing, and this will be quick, the surprises of God.

This is the third, the third part of this whole mosaic of expecting the supernatural.

The surprises of God.

I call it the Red Sea Rescue.

You know the story.

I'm not going to take a lot of time.

But here's here's here's the you can see the references.

You can look it up yourself.

Here's what happened.

Moses comes back and says the Jews you're going free.

They go, great, when are we going?

Ten plagues later We're gonna have some lice.

We're gonna have some frogs in the bed.

We're gonna have some dust.

We're gonna have blood all over the place from the Nile River being turned to blood.

We're they're like it's like are we When are we getting out of here?

Oh, it's gonna get worse before it gets better, honey.

We're gonna go through a bunch of plagues.

He doesn't even tell them that.

It just happens It's like we're never getting out of here.

Pharaoh either says no or says yes and says no the next day.

We're not getting out of here.

I give up So and then finally one night God says listen he said don't put yeast in your bread won't have time to rise when you go to bed tonight don't wear your jammies Stay stay in your clothes and keep your robe tucked in because you're gonna need to run fast when it's time.

Boom!

Overnight they're out of there.

God delivers a nation in the night after all of this long wait And then when we're up against the Red Sea, it can't get any worse.

The Red Sea behind us, the chariots, the fully mobilized chariots of the Egyptian wrath coming at us.

The sea, the soldiers, the sea, the soldiers, we're doomed.

Bam at the last second, water's part.

I love this.

God is the God of the 11th hour.

He does 11th hour miracles.

They're part of his surprises.

Look at what it says.

You cannot guess the outcome of your situation by how much time is left.

We're out of time.

There's no time for a solution.

Oh, really?

God who delivers a nation in a night and saves the world in three days, he doesn't have enough time left to get take care of your thing.

Come on.

Or the length of the weight.

You can't see Elisha's army.

He says to his servant, hey boy, look at look at all the army with us.

He's like, I I count too.

How do you make you count?

How'd you do in math, Elisha?

He 's obviously there's more of them than there are of us.

There's more of ours than there are of them.

Can't see the invisible army.

Can't feed 5,000 people from one lunch 11th hour miracles.

Can I tell you something like Goddess Like Ketchup?

Do you know that?

Are you aware that God is like ketchup?

I was gonna bring a bottle of ketchup tonight so you'd never forget it.

Pretend I have one.

Yeah, because well I heard a poem about ketchup one time.

It says when I hit my ketchup bottle First, none will come.

And then a lot will.

For a long time nothing comes.

At the eleventh hour, boom, a lotle.

Remember, you serve the God who delivered a nation in a night.

Don't you say there's not enough time and it's too late in the game for him to do something supernatural.

You expect the supernatural.

Secondly, is the inconceivable rescue.

The story, again, uh in Exodus 14, read it again for yourself.

No way this is going to happen.

God says, watch this.

In fact, it says in Isaiah 43, and I won't read it to you.

But it says that when all Pharaoh and all his army and reinforcements and chariots came, it said he snuffed them out like a wick.

Here's what God thinks of the might of Egypt.

And they're gone.

Like blowing out a.

It's as hard for God to bury the mightiest army on earth as it is for you to blow out a candle.

The inconceivable rescues.

Don't you ever say no way.

And the amazing provisions.

You know the water from the rock.

But you know what it says?

Did the water just start coming out of the rock?

They walked up to it and said, well, when's the water coming?

What had to happen?

Anybody know?

There was a directive given to Moses.

Three words.

Strike the rock.

Would the water have come if he didn't strike the rock?

I don't think so.

See, Jesus always wants you to do something, not to make it happen, but he brings you into the miracle.

He says to the guys at Lazarus' tomb, you roll away the stone.

Did Jesus need the stone rolled away?

If he can raise the dead, he can pulverize the stone, for heaven's sake.

He says to the guys at the wedding, go get the water pots, fill them with water.

He says to the disciples, what are we going to do?

Philip, the accountant.

Philip goes, Lord Howie, we need eight months' wages to feed these people.

We better send them home.

Quit ministering to them.

We got to get them out of here.

We can't meet the need.

He says, well, why don't you guys go find them a lunch?

Five thousand lunches plus the women and children.

They find one.

Um We find out that when it's put in Jesus' hands, it can go so much farther.

But their question is, what is this among so many?

God expected them to go find the lunch.

God expected Moses to strike the rock.

God expects you to act and then God acts.

Not because your action will make it happen.

But because faith, write this down, is the trigger of the supernatural.

Faith is the trigger.

It pulls the trigger that makes God do the supernatural.

You can't do the supernatural.

But he won't if you don't act.

And you know what prayer is?

I want to cook an English muffin in the morning in my microwave I need power to do that.

There's this big transformer outside.

There's wires outside the house.

Millions of volts.

That will not only fry my Turn to toast my muffin, it will turn me to toast.

That million watts of volts of power is useless to me, except for the transformer.

That brings it down.

And runs a microwave or a toaster oven.

Isn't that amazing?

Now here's how it works.

Prayer is the transformer that takes the million bolts of the power of God that parts seas and sends manna and multiplies lunches and raises the dead and takes all of that power and it brings it down. to your situation and the so prayer is the transformer and faith is the trigger Remember that.

Of the supernatural.

And right now God has got somebody here where he is asking you. to do something that will only be activated and only obeyed by someone who expects the supernatural.

But why shouldn't you, based on his track record in your life?

And I uh I want to just wrap up by reading you a wonderful thing from uh comes out of my utmost for his highest, because it describes where somebody is tonight.

Will you expect the supernatural?

Please listen to this.

Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point A great crossroads in our life.

From that point, we either go toward a more and more lazy and useless Christian life.

Barnia.

Or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for his highest, and our best, for his glory.

Welcome to the crossroads.

Welcome to the crossroads.

Lord, like your ancient children, you have given us every reason to trust you.

And the next step in our life in you is calling on us to say no to the can't of fear and yes to the should of faith.

May we take the Kadesh road to holiness and turn our back on the Barnia road to wandering in the desert.

And may we march boldly and unafraid and confidently into an unknown future. with an all-powerful ocean parting, army drowning, dead raising God.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.