The story of Joshua is a story of courage and conquest. It is a story of victory and not defeat. It is a story of a man who did wonderful and mighty acts in the name of his God. The story of Joshua is a story of a man who knew his God. But more than that, the story of Joshua is a story of the wonderful and mighty acts of God. It is the power of God that is on display in the life of Joshua. It wasn't Joshua, but the Captain of the LORD's army that conquered and disposed of the enemy. It was God who went before Joshua and delivered the victory. And the God of Joshua is not yet finished. As He commissioned Joshua, He has commissioned us. As He promised to go with Joshua, God has promised to go with us. Like Joshua, we only need to trust and obey to be used by God to do wonderful and mighty things.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31. What are you doing with your life? What do you want out of your life? What are you thinking to accomplish with your life? Are you seeking great things to do great things with your life?

Are you just trying to make it every day. And you don't have anything bigger scheduled, anything bigger in your mind, anything bigger that you would like to dedicate your life to than just trying to live wholly in the small things of life, which is a wonderful thing to do. But you don't have anything bigger than that. You have to realize that God has given you and I a mission, a commission. It's called the Great commission and we know it's given to the church but we have to understand that we are a part of the church we're to be committed to the church and being a part of the church is part of the Great Commission being dedicated to the church is part of the Great Commission and part of that is to reproduce other churches around the world.

To spread the word of God, the knowledge of God, the glory of God, beyond the home. The desire should not be, let's retreat and Isolate ourselves and go into the woods get off the grid So I am my wife and my children can live this holy little life outside of the world so we can be holy and eat our rations that we can live a a holy life separated from the rest of the world We're not told to retreat. Shame on us if we're retreating. We've been commissioned to go. We've been commissioned to storm the gates of hell.

And you have a role in that. The Great Commission is not just for some big umbrella church out there that we don't play a role in. Maybe it's us that needs to go. Maybe we need to be headed over to China, or headed to Turkey, or headed to Latin America. Maybe if that's not our calling, Maybe we need to support those who are going.

Maybe we should do all that we can and give our life, dedicate our resources and our energies and our efforts to the local church and spreading the word of God around the world. When we do our monthly budgeting, are we considering the Great Commission? Are we doing great things with our lives, with our resources, or are we taking what God has given us and we bury it into the sand. We've been given much. And much is required of us and I believe we can do great things.

You can do great things for your God. As we think about the Great Commission, we look at Joshua who did great things for God. And Joshua was given the great commission of the old covenant. In our passage in chapter 31 of Deuteronomy, starting in verse 1, we see the great convention of the Old Testament. And we see similar language as we find in Matthew 28 Starting at verse 1 it says So Moses continued to speak these words to all of Israel and he said to them.

I am 120 years old today. I'm no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, you shall not go over this Jordan. The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you so that you shall dispose them and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has spoken and the Lord will do to them as he's done to Shion and Og the king of the Amorites and to their land when he destroyed them and the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you.

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or beat in dread of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you, He will not leave you or forsake you. Then verse 7, then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all of Israel, be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them and you shall put them in possession of it it is the Lord who goes before you he will be with you He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

The commission of the old covenant was to take the land, to go into enemy territory and de-possess the people of the land, the natives, because of their great iniquity to go and destroy them and conquer the land that was promised to Abraham. They were to go into the enemy, into the gates of hell, and they were to conquer. And we are too in the New Covenant. Though we're not looking for an earthly land, We're not worried about conquering political nations any longer. But we too are called to go into the world, into enemy territory, to go through the gates of hell.

Not seeking to de-possess people of their land, but we're seeking to win people for the Lord. We're seeking to save souls from Satan. And just as God had promised Israel and promised Joshua, whoa, I'll go with you. Be not afraid. Be not scared.

Be not dismayed. For I am with you. I'll go before you. I'll go behind you. I surround you.

I will fight for you. Just go. I'm with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. We have been given a command, a commission, but we've also been given a promise.

Lo, I am with you To the end of the age. I will go with you This is what I want you to do now go and do it be obedient and Do it and I will do it on your behalf. I will do it for you. Joshua, unlike Moses, was able to go into the promised land and That generation coming out after the worst generation of Israel that first generation all of them died in unbelief There was just a remnant member Caleb and Joshua They wanted to go in the land 40 years prior and said we can do it There's Giants in the land, but if the Lord is pleased with us this will be easy but the rest of them feared the rest of them were in dismay about the going into such a hostile environment so they wanted to stay in the desert retreat and not fight because of their unbelief they died in the wilderness Joshua was commissioned by Moses by God God commissioned Moses to commission Joshua to go into the land and he did he was eager he waited 40 years for this day and by faith he conquered the land how did he do it where if we're gonna obey God and do great things for our God, we have to do it exactly the way Joshua did it.

There's three things that Joshua did that we must do. Three things if we want to do great things for our God. First, we need to know God. Second, we need to believe God. Third, we need to obey.

It's really simple. It's not complicated. If you wanna do great things for God, you first have to know them, you have to trust them, you have to obey them. Let's look at how Joshua knew his God. Joshua knew God in three ways.

First of all, we see in our text that he was commissioned by Moses to go into the land. He received this commission, not at this time by a direct audible voice he received this through the Word of God as it was given to Moses and these very words became Bible Joshua had the objective word of God in his hands. It wasn't just reliant upon some subjective emotional feeling. Sometimes you wonder what I'm gonna do with my life and you're going back and forth, should I start this ministry or should I do this? And we go back and forth and we wonder if this is the right thing to do or if God's behind this and so many people's ministries work like this I'm going to start this ministry then after it gets started I'm going to ask God to come behind it and help me And the whole life is bit about raising support and getting people to get behind it and it's hard and difficult because God's not in it.

We shouldn't try to invent our ministries. We need to have a word from God, some objective commission, something we can know, this is what God has told me to do. And Joshua had that. He was certain that this is his mission. He had heard it from the voice of God as it was given to him through Moses.

But it wasn't just some academic intellectual understanding of God that was gotten if you would from just hearing the Word of God. Joshua knew God through experience. Think about the ten plagues he watched take place or the water coming out of that rock or the water of the Red Sea dividing. He was there. He had already seen God work.

He had already seen God do mighty and amazing things in the life of his people. And after experiencing God in such a way, 40 years earlier we already talked about how he wanted to go and take the land. He says if the Lord delights in us he will bring us into this land and give it to us a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land for they are bred for us. They're made for us.

Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. Let's go. But not just that. Joshua knew God through a personal encounter with the Lord.

Before he goes and conquers any portion of the land of promise, Before he marches around Jericho seven times. It was important that he met with the Lord. It is reported in Joshua, chapter five, that he runs into a man holding a sword and he doesn't recognize him. Who are you? Are you for us?

Are you against us? And what did the man say? I'm neither. I'm not who you think I am. I am the captain of the Lord's army.

And when he met God, had a personal encounter with God, it changed everything for Joshua. He learned several things. He learned first in Joshua five verse 13 that it's not he that is the captain. He's not the one that gives the orders. He's under submission.

He learned that it is the Lord God himself who is the captain and Joshua went to him and said to him are you for us or for our adversaries and he said no but I'm the camera I'm the commander of the army of the Lord We have to recognize before we do anything for God who we are and who God is We're following instructions, we're not giving instructions to he learned that God himself is the one who would fight for Israel verse 14 says and he said no but I am the commander of the army of the Lord and now I have come Now we will go to Jericho that is up to this time. I have been not here for 40 years You've been wandering around in the desert and I never showed up I'm not ready to fight because of your unbelief, but now I am here. Let's go You don't go before God you go behind him You're not leading God God leads us Remember as the Lord who says I will build my church Now we will be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. We have a role to play in this construction of the church, but it is Christ who is the Lord of the army.

He is the one who will build the church, not us. Third, Joshua learned that he was merely a servant. In verse 14, it says, Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? You see, he learned that he was to follow orders. And the first order before he did anything else, we see in verse 15 was to worship.

The commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandals from your feet for the place where your standing is holy. And Joshua did so. You can't go to others, teaching all that Christ has commanded until we first have bowed the knee, until we first have encountered God. Knowing God truly is impossible without knowing God experientially. This is not a speculative or philosophical intellectual knowledge that we have.

What will drive us into the furthest part of the world with the good news is not the fact that we just learn academically about the gospel. You have to know God. You have to experience God. God has to be real to your life before you're willing to die for this God and go and fight for this God You see to know God is to have an encounter with God. And this changed everything for Joshua.

It changed the way he viewed God, it changed the way he viewed himself, and it changed the way he viewed everyone else. First, It realized, he realized that God is indeed real. That he is the almighty God. He's the one who brought water out of a rock. How crazy is that?

You say, well, where's the miracles today? Well, look at your own soul. He took a rock and turned it into flesh. He brought you who had no interest and no love for God and he brought you into submission. What greater miracle do you need to remember to know that God can do the impossible?

He knew that God was sovereign and he's Lord and he can dispose Kings. Who is man? If you understand who God is. You understood that God was Lord. But it's not until you really understand who God is that you can understand who you are.

You see, Joshua needed to know who the captain of the army of the Lord was so that Joshua could know who he was Up to this time. He was the leader of Israel. He was the he was the chief man. He replaced Moses Everybody was looking at him But rather than getting high and lifted up in his own estimation and think look everybody's looking at me I'm a great leader. He had to come to fact that he is not who he thinks he is It is God who's the great leader?

It is God who's in charge and merely Joshua was a servant. He's merely just to take commands and obey. And this changed the way he viewed everyone else. Only when you know who God is, only when you fear God, do you not have to fear anything else? Who is man?

Who are the Canaanites? What about these giants in the land? Who are they compared to the almighty God? Can they divide the red sea? Can they turn the gods of Egypt into rubbish can they do that who are the Canaanites who are the Amorites who are the Chinese who are the Russians the Ukrainians Those in Ecuador and all over Latin America.

What are these governments that oppose the living God? Who are they to say we cannot go or no trespassing do not bring the gospel here who are they to say that to us? You see we cannot truly see others rightly ourself rightly until we see God rightly. Knowing God changes everything. Remember before he commissions Peter, he asked Peter, before I tell you who you are, you need to know who I am.

Who do you say that I am? Well, others say that you're John the Baptist or a prophet. I'm not interested in what they say. Who do you say that I am? Well, you're the Christ.

You're the son of the living God. Blessed are thou Simon. Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you. You know me, you know who I am. Now let me tell you who you are.

You're not Simon, you're Peter. And I will build my church, but I'm going to use you to build it. I Will build my church, but I'm going to do it through ministers and servants and missionaries evangelists Through children who spread the gospel through mothers and wives who preach the truth to those who will listen. And by so will we open up the Gospel, we open up heaven. To know who God is, we know who we are.

You see, we must know the objective word of God before we go out and do anything. I struggled when we started our seminary, is this really something God has in mind? A couple of years ago, 10, 12 years ago, the publishing company was started. It's like, is this something I'm doing or is this something God is doing? It's hard to know.

Sometimes you just want to launch out and do something and Pray that maybe God will bless it later or come behind you and just bless it. I Don't want to live like that. I Don't want to just hope that God comes behind me and blesses my ministry Those type of ministries are often to build up the man and not God. I wanna know what God's doing and what God has commissioned and get behind that. To know that this is fulfilling something God has commanded us to do.

To take that what has been given to us and train and give it to those who are faithful underneath us. To know that this is a part of a greater work. But you've got to know God before you will go out before God. Twenty-five years ago, I was laying on the floor with a gun about to kill myself. All those lost for me.

I was living in despair for months. I was suicidal for months. I could not have hope that anything would get better. I was miserable. I was in pain.

It was midnight. In pain It was midnight And I called my dad to say goodbye. And he knew something was wrong. And he said, Jeff, there's only one thing you can do. And I thought he's going to tell me, go ahead and do it.

You have my permission. I understand you're hurting. You need to be put out of your misery. But he didn't tell me that. He said, you have to go to God.

That's the only one that's gonna save you. That's the only hope you have. You have no other hope left. And God granted me, all of a sudden I was worried about this, I was worried about that, I was miserable about everything under the sun. But all of a sudden after three hours of praying, it finally dawned on me I am in no shape to meet God and God revealed supernaturally my my sins and showed them to me and I was like oh God what have I done and within the next 20 minutes the sins rolled through my mind and I'll confess them and confess them and confess them and to all my sins were forgiven and I was as light as a feather.

I was safe. I knew my sins were forgiven. I met the Living God and With one week. I knew I had to be a preacher I had to share what God had done for me we don't do great things because we don't know a great God You got to know the living Lord and before you go go spend time with God know him This is why the verse for this conference the people who know their God shall be strong And carry out great exploits You see this is the first thing we have to do if we're going to do great things. We must must know the Living God But more than that We have to believe God trust God Joshua knew God because he had faith in God.

Joshua believed the promises in our text over and over. It gives all these amazing promises. Verse three, the Lord your God himself will go over before you verse three he will destroy those nations before you verse five the Lord will give them over to you verse six it is the Lord who goes with you verse six again he will not leave you or forsake you in chapter 1 of Joshua no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I was with Moses so I will be with you I will not leave you or forsake you be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous verse 9 be strong and courageous do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go those are promises sometimes we cripple ourselves so we would we're gonna plant churches and we got to send out missionaries and we need to support these. We cripple ourselves. We cripple our churches because we're all frightened about making some little small missteps.

But here Joshua said, wherever you go, if you fight over here, I'm going to be with you. If you fight over there, I'm going to go with you. You just go do this Well, I don't know exactly just go I am with you I'll be with you if you go to China. Well, I don't know if it's China or Turkey. Well, it doesn't matter he will go with you.

He believed us. Joshua believed it. It's amazing, right? God is not a man that he should lie or son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will you not do it?

Or has he spoken, he will not fulfill it. Here's his promises, victory. Already, I mean, He's promised victory. I want to go ahead and tell you, God has promised us victory too. The gates of hell will not prevail.

We'll be successful. What other mission statement do we have that we can be successful for? We even start. We have God's word. The Bible says over and over, those who put their trust in God shall not be disappointed.

Just don't be afraid. We aim too short because we're scared. We hope as a church we send out one missionary in the next 10 years. Why not save 50 missionaries in the next 10 years? God told Joshua, don't be afraid.

Over and over, Be strong and courageous. Do not fear. Do not dread them for the Lord goes with you. It is the Lord who goes before you. Joshua 10 verse eight and the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear them for I've given them over into your hands not a man shall stand before you chapter 11 verse 6 and the Lord said to Joshua do not be afraid of them for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them you shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.

And we learned that Joshua wasn't afraid. Just as 40 years earlier, he was ready to storm the gates of hell, he's ready to go. And so Joshua is not scared, he tells the nation of Israel. He say, hey, let's not be afraid. The Lord is with us.

Chapter 14, verse 9. Do not fear them. Chapter 10, verse 25. And Joshua said to them, do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous, for the Lord will do to all our enemies who we fight.

What does it say in chapter 11 of Hebrews by faith by faith the walls of Jericho fell down? You see there is this relationship between the great commission and what God will do he will build his church he will fight for Israel he will bring down the walls of Jericho but it wouldn't have happened without faith the walls of Jericho would not have fallen without Joshua believing the promise You have to understand that God has arranged this great commission to cooperate with our believing it We will storm the gates of hell and carry out the great commission but we must do so in faith it is Christ not us who builds the church but he's the one who says I'm with you until the end of the age He will supply every need we fight. He will take care of the supply chain. There's a story of this poor woman, older lady in a church that was so poor that everybody felt sorry for her because she would wear to church her old clothes and it became winter time and she had this old ragged jacket. So somebody felt sorry for her, gave her a couple of hundred dollars to get a new jacket.

The next week she's still wearing the jacket And so someone else gives her some more money for that. And every week people just giving her money because they feel sorry for her, but she took every bit of that money and gave it to missions. And so more and more people would just start giving her money, more money flew out until finally people started buying her clothes and giving her money. And after, I don't know how long it was, but a period of time, missionary after missionary kept on coming and visiting the church. I want to meet that old lady.

Why do you want me? Everybody wants to meet her wife. The church had no clue, but she living off nothing over the last several years was supporting multiple missionaries, thousands of thousands of dollars. Because she took what she had and God replenished it that she could, she could do great and mighty things for the Lord. Don't buy in the promise you have to be rich to do great things for God trust God with a $10 the $20 know that God will not allow you to go without by seeking to believe his word that he will take care of you.

You have to believe. There's something in scriptures that puts the work of God in accordance to our faith. Remember the man who says, have mercy upon us son of David. And Jesus said to the man, do you believe that I'm able to do this? He says, yes.

And Jesus said, according to your faith, let it be done you. Charles Spurgeon says, Jesus would certainly go as far as ever the man faith could go But the rule of the kingdom is this according to the faith? So it be unto thee the man's unbelief would hamper the Lord in his working And This is why in some places the Bible says the Lord could not do mighty works there because of their unbelief. You see, faith is the key to victory. Jesus said it this way, all things are possible for the one who believes.

Why cannot we cast out this demon? We're not able to. And Jesus rebukes his disciple. He says, because of your little faith. You have not because you ask not.

The reason we're not doing more mighty things as a Christian and as churches is because literally because we just don't believe God. The reason the Israelites wondered in the wilderness for 40 years is because of their unbelief. The Lord put it this way, therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. When you ask, James 1 says, you must believe and not doubt. Matthew 21, 22, if you believe you will receive whatever you ask in prayer.

I mean there's certain things that you can have if you want it. If you lack wisdom, that's yours. And the reason you don't have it, you just don't believe God. That's one promise you know He will give you. If you lack wisdom, let Him, Anyone who lacks wisdom, ask the God and he'll give generously.

He'll give you more than you're asking. But when you do ask, just believe and know that God's going to answer that one. Or what about the prayer, the promise of this one? You being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give you the spirit if you ask? I mean that's an open-ended promise.

The reason you're not living in the spirit and abounding in the spirit is simply you don't believe God if you believe you would just ask But you don't ask because you don't trust you don't know he will really do this But you see Joshua believed God and he went around the walls of Jericho and he did not say to himself, this is stupid. This is not gonna work. We can march around this till the stars come out of the sky and it's not gonna fall. I mean, that would be rationalism, wouldn't it? You know, churches can look at their bank accounts.

We just can't do this It's just not impossible. It's just we just can't do this You first got to know is this what God wants you to do? And once you know that this is commanded, do it. And this leads me to my last thing we must do. If we're going to do great things, we must know God.

We must believe God. It comes down to obeying God. Thirdly, we must obey God. You see, Joshua knew what God had commissioned for him and the people of Israel to do. And Joshua knew God's role, that God would bring down the walls.

He would conquer the people, but he also knew his role. He must March. He must go. It'll be Christ who builds his church, but we must go and either send out missionaries. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, but how shall they believe if they've not heard and how shall they go with, they're not sent.

So you see, there's a role of God in this great commission. And there is our role. This can be seen in the conquest of the Amorites and Joshua chapter 10 verse eight. We see both God working and Joshua and the Israelites working. And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands.

Not a man of them shall stand before you. So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal, And the Lord threw them into a panic before the Israel who struck them with a great blow Gibeon the Lord threw them down threw down large stones from heaven on them There were more who died because of the hell stones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword now that's showing you that God is actually Doing the work Verse 12 it says at that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the days when the Lord gave the Amorites over the sons of Israel And he said in the sight of the Israel son stand still at Gibeon and Moon And the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nations took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not what is written in the book of Jehoshua? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has not been a bent nor a day like it before or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.

This is how much faith Joshua had. He was certain that God had promised them victory. And when the sun was going down, there was running out of time. He had the faith to look up to heaven and say, God, hold the sun still. That's faith.

That's faith. When you know that God has given you a promise and you can take that promise and live off of it. So much so that you could even pray, pray in faith and God heeds your voice. Chapter 10 verse 42 says, and Joshua Captured all these kings in their land at one time because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel is Joshua who captured them It's the Lord who fought for Israel. You see both things are happening He said we'll just wait on the Lord What if God wants to reach These people he will send someone or he'll go and speak on his own behalf.

No, we must go because we've already been commissioned to do So we don't have to wait on another voice We don't need another voice coming to us from heaven say hey Jeff. I need you to go do this I need you to support these missionaries. I need you to put your effort. I need you to be dedicated and put your effort into doing this. No, we already have that mission, let's do it.

You see Joshua obey God. He did not fear or become dismayed. Rather he stormed the gates of hell. Did God disappoint Joshua? Now I know some of you are out there and you're already going, Jeff, Jeff, you're over pushing this, aren't you?

You sound like a faith and health and wealth prosperity preacher up there. I'm not saying we make our promises and God's bound to keep our promises. No, we believe that his promises, we don't make commands. We obey commands and if we're certain that this is commanded of us from God We can be certain that God will go with us. God kept his promises, every one of them.

Chapter 11, verse 23, Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord has spoken to Moses. Chapter 21, 43, the Lord God gave to Israel, all the land that he swore to give to their fathers and they took possession of it and they settled there and the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he sworn to the father not one of all their enemies with had withstood them for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel have failed. All came to pass chapter 23 a long time afterwards when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies And Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Joshua saw all of Israel, its elders and heads, its judges, officials, and said to them, I am now old and well advanced in years.

And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you for the Lord has driven out before you the great and strong nations and as for you no man has been able to stand before you to this day one man of you puts the flight a thousand since it's the Lord your God who fights for you just as he promised you now I'm about to go to the way of the all the earth and you know in your hearts and souls all of you that not one word has failed all the good things that the Lord your God has promised concerning you all has come to pass for you not one of them has failed God has promised us that he will reach every tribe and every nation He will accomplish His promise. Let's go. Let's reach people for Christ. Let's reach our children, our grandchildren. Let's reach our neighbors.

Let's reach those around us. Let's not be afraid to share the gospel. You do not have to fear your coworkers, your boss. You don't have to worry about getting fired because God has given you a promise and he will take care of you if you are fired. Don't be scared anymore.

Let me close with some application. We do need to know indeed, be certain that we know God. We must worship God before we seek to have others worship God. As Joshua took off his shoes and worshiped the commander of the Lord's army. May that be our chief priority.

Worship the living God. No God. We need to know what he's commanded us. We're not commanded to build ministries for our own namesake. Let those ministries fall apart.

We don't need to launch out in front of God only to ask God afterwards to bless our labors. We need to know that God has gone before us and be convinced that this is of the Lord. And when we do go, we need to be certain that we don't have to lack fear, lack of resources. I think we don't go too often or we don't send because we're scared. We're scared.

There are various things that would frighten us. Maybe it's too difficult to reach those people. They're too remote. There's too many obstacles. Maybe that's God's telling us not to go, right?

Maybe that's his way of saying that's just not what we should do. The giants are really big there. What country do we not have permission by our savior and our Lord, the God of the universe to go to. Furthermore, he told us that our job is to fight on the front lines is his job to supply us the resources. No one has to who fights have to worry about making sure he has food and clothing and the finances to support his fighting.

It's our job to seek first the kingdom of God. It's God's job to take care of our daily needs. We have to believe God. I know our church was a small church for a long, long time. I've pastored 15 people for 15 years, essentially.

And it got very difficult for me to, as the church was growing and come very difficult for me to be able to do bivocational work. And I think the church was scared, it's scared to support me. It was, there was nervous, like, can we actually do this? And finally, A few men said, we've got to do this. God's commanded us to take care of those who take care of us.

We're to take care of them financially who've taken care of our souls spiritually. This is a matter of not of can we afford it's a matter of obedience. So they decided to launch out and to support me financially when there wasn't a lot of money to do so. You know what the offering was the next Sunday? No joke, zero.

Now that will test you. You know what the offering was the next week? 20, 000. We didn't have it, but we obey God. God supplied us what we needed.

Not once has our church, I can testify this, not once has our church ever gone without what we needed when we needed it? The church, we was meeting in this chapel facility for free because God provided us a place to meet because we outgrew the single wide mobile home that we bed in to begin with. And so we met in this chapel facility and they gave us after five years and someone told me, they'll only let you stay there for six months long. Once they learn the reform, they'll kick you out. But after five years, they said, it's time for you to leave.

And we're like, Where do we go? We've grown to about 75 people. We're like, what do we do now? We can't go back to the mobile home and we don't have the money to actually buy something. And they gave a six month notice and towards the end, Someone calls me up and say, listen, I have a building I want to give you.

That's been God taking care of us. He takes care of his people. This is his work. I'll, I'll, I'll promise you this. He cares more about his glory than you.

He cares more about missions than we do. He cares more about this great work of the local church and planting local church and raising up new local churches than we could ever do. So let's dedicate our lives to this mission. And God will go for us and with us and we will reap a harvest if we faint not. We've been given certain victory.

Spurgeon says, you hear of exploits with holy men that have done for Jesus, what they have enjoyed of him, how much they have been like him, how they have been able to endure great persecutions for his sake. And you say, ah, as for me, I'm but a worm. I can never obtain to this, but there's nothing which one saint was that you may not be. There is no elevation of grace, no attainment of spirituality, no clearness of assurance, no post of duty, which is not open to you. If you have but the power to believe.

Lay aside your sackcloth and ashes and rise to the dignity of your true position. You are little in Israel because you would be so, not because there's not any necessity for it. All things are possible for him who believes. You see, The Bible tells us the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. He's looking for someone to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards you.

You can't overcome that sin. You can live a victorious life over that issue or this problem. You must know God. You must believe God. You must obey God.

I'll end with the words of William Carey, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. Thank you.