Who Has Your Ear? - September 12, 2021

[Music] [Applause] [Music] well good morning everyone welcome to first baptist today it's so good to see you would you stand with us we're gonna teach you a brand new song today that talks about the mightiness of our god we'll sing the first chorus and then ask you to sing with us let's worship together today sing with us the mighty god we serve [Applause] he is a mighty god and we say blessed be your name oh lord let's continue to sing today blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful where the streams of abundance flow blessed be your name [Music] blessed be your name when i'm found in the desert turn back to praise when the darkness closes in lord still i will say the name of the lord me lord bless me blessed be your name when the sun is shining down on me when the world's all as it should be blessed be your name [Music] bless it be your name on the road mark with suffering though there's pain in the offering blessed be your name but every blessing you pour out loud when the darkness closes still i will say the name of the lord still i will say your oh all blessed be the name of the lord today we continue to worship our great god today he's so faithful water you turned into wine you opened [Music] and in the darkness you shine and out of the ashes we rise awesome [Music] into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise is god you are higher than any other again is is is and not against us sing this how great is is this [Applause] is is is is is is [Applause] all giving praise this morning for his incredible greatness he's so faithful amen you may be seated oh how great is our god today give him praise today just give him praise today thank you for being here at this 10 30 lord's day service and we're especially glad to have our online viewers today but for anyone who may be here for the very first time in the room i wonder if you would mind um letting us know you're here by using your phone for a moment and i want you to text the word guest just type the word guest to this number and hit send and and as soon as we get that from you we send you a response and that's where we really ask you to complete uh the little questionnaire we have we want to know your name a little bit about you if you're comfortable sharing that with us and then we also want to make ourselves available to you if you would have any questions for us how you can get involved here or maybe something about your relationship with god so text guest and then you'll get a response and we really want you to fill that out at the end of today's service we have a an area behind the worship center called the overlook and all of our first-time guests we have a gift bag for you something we want you to take home as just a token of our gratitude that you were with us here at fba this sunday morning so i'll try to remind you that before the service ends but uh for now just know there's a gift with your name on it there at the overlook as soon as the service ends now many of you remember praying for stan cottrell when he started his run across the united states from los angeles to washington d.c he did it in 100 days and he and his wife carol have been part of fba since 1980 and he started this race the third of its kind on may the 7th which is the day he turned 78 years old and he wrapped up on august the 14th there in washington and he is really an inspiration to all of us and you heard from him a few weeks ago but we had begun producing a video here at fba that we wanted to feature more about his life and what we know is going to be a blessing to you so i'm going to ask you to turn your attention to the screens and then as soon as the video is over we'll be back and i'm going to ask him to come up and share a few more inspirational words that i know are going to bless you so let's let's watch the video together my early life began as a farm boy in kentucky dad would wake me up at five in the morning go fetch in the couch and i'd run them up to the barn it was over a mile to the school bus stop and dad would say if you can't get your chores done you better start hoofing it on to school now think about it i mean a little six-year-old boy running probably about six miles to school and i would do that three times a week i was 12 years old and we had the county fair and somebody said we need to have 100 yard dash instead if i could run in the race she said i don't see much good in it but have at it i roll my britches legs up to my knees lined up and ready set go and i won the blue ribbon and people came up to me and i think there was a social worker at that time and he came up and he said why you might just grow up be a champion someday and i said what's a champion i had no idea what he was talking about in 1980 i just set the world record for running across the united states i thought that was going to oh i just had visions of grandeur oh robert redford get out of town baby and god was allowing the death of a stand cultural because you can't run to god's own son until you've run out of yourself so i went to church well this big long-legged preacher walks out and he says are you in financial difficulties or things not just working out the way you want them to and i'm sitting there going in that just like a preacher if he knew my situation he couldn't stand up there and say those things and charles stanley walks out from behind the lectern and he says one of you are sitting here today saying to yourself good preacher if you knew my situation you couldn't stand up there and say that all of a sudden it was like the entire church emptied and there was still that last little bitty that last bastion on that little bitty tiny sprinkle of self left everything in me wanted to go forward and i held on and i got home and i went for a run i ran for about a mile and i couldn't take another step i literally crawled up into the woods and i started crying and i said dear lord i symbolically will rip open my chest cavity if that'll make it any easier for you to come in whatever you want in my life my answer is yes if you want me to run i'll run if you never want me to run another step that's fine with me i want you i have no idea what all this means except i'm trusting you from this day forward and you know what i haven't been able to stop shouting and god gave me back my running in a way that i never dreamed possible and that's i run all over the world [Music] when i was running across china i fell some 200 feet and i broke two vertebrae in my back the l4 and l5 and i broke a bone in my left foot and when i finished the run i was open about my faith and i took bibles with me and one time one big secret service man came up to me and i'd given somebody a bible and he looked at me and i thought oh boy this is it he said he spoke in chinese and he says can i have one too and when i start every run that i start i pray holy spirit fall fresh on me empower me with your spirit i run to promote the spirit of friendship and to tell about the love of jesus christ and being friends with people you break down those walls it's understanding and peace is the result when i ran this particular time this third time across the u.s the first 54 days of this run the low temperature was 102 and i'm shouting to the lord i can do all things through christ who strengthens me in three different times three different times all of a sudden there was this tailwind nobody knew what it was it was so powerful and it was just like god's angels just getting behind me and just giving me that additional push up that mountain [Applause] oh you've been praying for stan the running man and last night a pastor asked him to preach he did it so everywhere he goes he's sharing the gospel and i'll keep you updated from week to week on how he's doing dr george is preaching god's word and i'm telling you i am honored to learn from him i'm stan i'm stan cultural junior i run that's my sweet spot that's my passion i'm born to express god's love his love through me and all that i do to all that i meet [Applause] [Music] stan come on up here let's welcome stan back to the platform today [Music] god bless you stan thank you sir thank you so much that was a great video it really was he's going to give you this microphone thank you oh wow bless your hearts and i mean it bless your sweethearts dr anthony dr george he's my pastor he's dr george but he's my friend and brother a.g that's right that's what i want you to call me i cannot tell you the honor that it is to be standing on this this podium where the greats many of god's great people have stood right here and you saw the video i came from gobblers knob kentucky little old boy didn't know didn't know anything other than just life was tough and now i stand here and i've i've been running for 73 years for run across 40 countries 270 000 miles they told me i set a new world record that i broke the old world record of 241 000 miles in lifetime and 270 000 miles to god be the glory to god be the glory it's how wonderfully and marvelously the human body is made david talks about that how each one of us are marvelously made i have a word i'd like to share with you oh just a second i want to give you my book okay no mountain too high i'm just all over the place here and i love you and i want you to have that and that's it that's part of the theme of my life no mountain too high in my english teacher sure were surprised when i wrote that thing thank you thank you i want to share a word with you and then i want you to repeat it back to me now i'm going to count to three and the word goes like this this is the first thing i say every single morning yes now i'm gonna count to three and you can go home and you can say i spoke at first about this today anyway all right let's do it together one two three yes oh doesn't that sound wonderful and just think how good that sounds to god every morning when you wake up brand new a brand new day a brand new slate has been given to you there's never been any marks ever made on it nobody's ever lived today before it's brand spanking new and god's given it to us yes and i'm going to share with you and god told me a little while ago so it's okay you can share the prayer that basically every single morning 100 days running across the united states dear lord yes yes i submit right now to your sovereignty to your holiness to your authority dear lord holy spirit come upon me today fall fresh on me i want to be all you want me to be and you have your own way in me you be all you want to be through me today and may every person that i may feel your love flowing through me into their lives and and let them know i want to be a life-changing experience i don't want to just be somebody who's run down road high it means nothing no let them feel the love of christ coming through me i am here i am anointed by the holy spirit the same holy spirit that's in you hallelujah it's shouting time in heaven baby it's shouting time and if you aren't shouting babies i mean your your wick is wet your kindling is wet fire up fire up fire up the lord says be brave be courageous be bold 55 times he says fear not and he says 1186 times in the bible go that's a command that's a powerful command anyway [Laughter] i'm going to tell you i just rejoice and people say i mean i only allow myself two minutes a day to think negative because i'm a human being the rest of time is hoping the best believing the best expecting the best anticipating the best that i might give back to the world god's very best through me through these little old legs and whatever but every single day no mountain too high i'm running and here's one of my phrases maybe some other time i'll give you give you the reason why that i use this and it's five more minutes five more minutes and folks excuse me just a second five more minutes five more minutes whenever you think you can't go another step whenever all your reference points are gone there is nothing faith is an easy thing to talk about when you've got abs you still hanging on to something you've got to be run out and then you find faith faith and i pray that you come to those moments that it's you and god and you know that it's just you i'm telling you i've run so many times dear lord get me to the next telephone pole get me to the next telephone pole i thank god for your lives in here you prayed for me you prayed for me you prayed for me hallelujah [Applause] and i thank you every part of my heart soul liver gizzard thanks you every part of me hallelujah okay i won't i'll i'll be good you're great you're great you're great any any a hum dinger boy you just wait until you hear what he's going to talk about i had a sneak preview in the last service whoa get ready it's shouting time folks and i'm going to leave you with a little poem a little poem you can quote me on this and it goes like this three stanzas you ready go on go on go on go on into the first stanza second stanza go on go on go on go on yeah third stanza oh i hope i get it go on yes that's it go on go on go on go on my brothers and sisters in christ and let your prayer my prayer every day lord show me the truth about me no matter how wonderful it is we are the majestic ones god bless amen thank you thank you stan you're a blessing you are a blessing to us thank you now we ought to just go right into just as i am without one plea all who need jesus come to the front right we heard a sermon today and i and i want you to know what an inspiration he's in his 79th year of life and that his life is an encouragement to people of all ages to the young the middle age and the older folks in here and those watching online and i just pray that that message profound just go on keep going never give up stan thank you thank you for the book thank you for your life thank you for your testimony and carol i just wonder how do you keep up with him she says i don't oh we love you both and what a blessing to to be able to highlight your faith and your run well we're going to go to the lord in prayer and continue to worship god together we've got a just an awesome song i was told this is one of this is uh cc winan's latest release and our choir is going to be singing it so we're going to be blessed today father we love you thank you that with your strength we can go on and i pray that for someone here who came in the doors depleted on empty on fumes that just what they heard is just what they need to be reminded that you are for us not against us that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world and if you are for us who can be against us we praise you for your mighty power and we praise you for your perfect love we pray now that as we have paused yesterday to reflect on the 20th anniversary of these attacks on our country we continue to remember the mounting casualties and fatalities in our armed forces that more than twice that many have died since then in active duty and we want to thank you for every young man and young lady who answers the call who voluntarily puts on the uniform and father we know as gifted and as sacrificial and as worthy as they are of our acknowledgement our protection ultimately comes from you we know what we deserve but we're not asking for that we're asking that in your mercy you'll continue to protect us heavenly father we continue now to worship you in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] yes but they don't know you like we do there is power in your name we've heard that there is no way through we've heard the tide will never change they haven't seen what you can do there is power in your name so much [Music] we'll see a miracle [Music] [Applause] [Music] we know that hope is never lost [Music] for there is still an empty grave [Music] god we believe no matter what there is power in your name so much from the impossible god you are the way when there seems to be no way [Music] we trust [Applause] we trust in you break the unbreakable god we believe god we believe foreign foreign god we [Applause] [Music] [Applause] sing with me you are the way when there seems to be no way we trust we trust [Music] [Applause] [Music] from the god foreign we place [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] on june the 19th 2019 there was an article that appeared in the tampa bay times and the headline was are you missing an ear it may have been found on a manatee county beach the article says the holmes beach police department is looking for the owner of a prosthetic ear found on manatee public beach during this past weekend's world's strongest man competition it says police posted two photos of the ear on his facebook page seeking help from anyone who might know the owner the post elicited the usual puns you would expect in the online version in the comment section such as i'll keep an ear out for it or what an earful this is or how irresponsible and a handful of vincent van gogh and mike tyson memes van gogh cut his ear off tyson bit an ear off the article encouraged anyone who knows someone who's missing a prosthetic ear to call the holmes beach police department and i never saw any follow-up as to whether or not the ear was ever returned to its owner but the question that i have today is who has your ear and i want you to turn with me to numbers chapter 13. numbers chapter 13 in the old testament genesis exodus leviticus numbers and i want us to look at what for many views a familiar passage of scripture where we find the people of god the israelites they've been set free from egyptian captivity god had parted the red seas and now they're on the verge of going into the promised land called canaan and the land had been promised to their forefather abraham some 500 years before this moment that we're reading about and god gave moses the instruction to appoint a reconnaissance team consisting of 12 men one from each of the 12 tribes of israel they were to go out on a scouting expedition for 40 days and to bring back a report to the congregation of the israelites about what they witnessed and what they experienced and when they got back if you remember hearing this story out of the 12 10 were negative and two were positive 10 said we absolutely cannot take the land we'll be swallowed up and devoured and two said yes we can if god wants us to we can so the entire congregation listened to the ten naysayers and they devolved into a frenzy into a panic saying oh no moses has brought us out here to die we want to go back to egypt so in verse 30 of our chapter in numbers 13 caleb who was one of the two who was positive he quieted the people before moses and said let us go up at once and take possession of this land we are well able to overcome it but the men who'd gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people they are stronger than we and they gave the children of israel these ten a bad report of the land which they had spied out saying the land through which we've gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature i.e giants we saw the giants the descendants of anac they came from the giants and we were like grasshoppers when compared to them in our own site and we know we had to be in their sight they had to look like look at us and and laugh now here's what happened in the 14th chapter we're told that the israelites giving in to the report of these ten they took a vote it was akin to like a baptist church business meeting they took a vote and the congregation voted not to go in they listened to the ten members who had more doubt than faith and this was a vote of consequence why because it was a vote to invite the judgment of god they were sentenced by god to a period of 40 years of wandering god entire god allowed an entire generation to die off in the wilderness because of their lack of faith because of their disobedience so what i want to do is to draw from this passage some important truths for all of us to remember and the first one is this the majority is often wrong now you don't have to amend that i'll a minute amen the majority is often wrong no i'm just kidding but you know it's true the majority it's not just that the the majority is sometimes wrong the majority is frequently wrong and if there's one thing this account teaches us it is that consensus is not infallible the majority of the reconnaissance team recommended no we can't do it and then the majority of the israelites voted no we can't do it and there were two members of the team joshua and caleb who said yes with god we can they were aligned with the god of heaven and there are times when god will use consensus to confirm things in our lives to confirm his direction his will but there are more times than not when a consensus is nothing but a consensual rejection of truth honor and right the majority was wrong and majority ruled but the majority earned judgment for their sin and i've come this morning to encourage all of us including me to learn lessons from this passage and and there are series of things that we should never allow the majority to do we should never allow the majority to define our values never don't determine what your values are based on what a majority of people say is right and wrong the majority is often wrong not only that but never allow the majority to alter your convictions if you have been brought up believing in the bible or you as a new christian as an adult have been taught certain things about the bible and you are hearing more and more that the majority has changed its views on certain things do not allow the majority to alter your biblical convictions don't allow the majority to shape your decisions this goes back to when we were little children and we were trying to get a later curfew or we were trying to get permission to go on the overnight trip and what what was the ploy that we would use with our parents but all of my friends get to do it and your mom and your dad would say but all of your friends don't have me as your as their parent why is it that we never outgrow that well all my friends are we carry that into adulthood well everybody else thinks this is okay everybody else thinks this is acceptable never allow the majority to shape your decisions and i want to tell you something else never never allow the majority to overshadow god's perfect truth his holy word what i'm saying to you today is we glean from this passage of scripture this committee of 12 there were 10 who said no two who said yes but the two were right and the 10 were wrong unfortunately the congregation lent their ear to the voices of negativity and unbelief and they paid a heavy disastrous price and it teaches us today that right is always right no matter how few there are who adhere to it and wrong is always wrong no matter how many are affirming it the great russian novelist leo tolstoy said this wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it he was saying then that just because most people believe something that's wrong it does not cease to be wrong because most people believe it it remains wrong regardless how many people believe it and when i look around today and i see how more and more people including christians have been swept into the great abyss of deception being primed for the final world order we appear to be outnumbered by the masses of humanity as these mandates and executive orders and group think impose their tyranny of thought conformity i choose to stand firm and resolute the majority moves me not if i'm always outnumbered here i stand and that's what i'm praying your resolution is as well we must not be uh phased we must not be unsettled by the shifting tide even when it morphs into a tsunami we have to few in number as we are hold fast to what we believe and when i was in middle school and english class we had to read that classic harper lee novel to kill a mockingbird and lead character atticus finch has a classic line in that work and it is this the one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience is that not timeless i mean think about it what he said there or what she said through her character is that no matter where the majority heads and what the majority chooses to believe our individual consciences do not have to conform to majority rule i would amend that to say that the one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a christian's convictions our convictions never have to conform to majority rule but here's something else not only is this notion of the majority being wrong quite often but look at the power of a small group write this down a small group can influence multitudes now i want you to consider with me the very title of this book is numbers because god wanted the israelites to be numbered it's a it's a book about a census count the people and scholars tell us that if we believe that there were 600 000 men if you think about it most of them nearly all of them would have been married and they took literally the command to be fruitful and multiply those hebrews did and so we believe that to say there were 2 million would be a conservative estimate so this congregation of israelites is is is in excess of 2 million people and here we have 10 men who were able to convince over 2 million to vote a certain way and to deny the will of god and forfeit their advance into the promised land they were a small group but this lesson is accompanied by multiple lessons from history that a small group even a handful of people can shape destiny can influence the thinking of masses these ten did and what this proves to us is it doesn't matter how many of them or how few it's how loud their voices are and these ten had loud voices because the congregation lent them their ears it does not matter how many or how few it's how persuasive the arguments are that matters it does not matter how many or how few it's how good someone is at making their case and this is why there should have been a very intense analysis of what these ten men were saying the way i would put it is the the argument of these ten men we can't do it there are giants the land will swallow us up they're fortified cities surrounded by these massive walls we stand no chance the odds are too greatly stacked against us this argument should have been interrogated by critical thinking for instance where was someone who could have stood up besides joshua and caleb and said guys listen thank you for your service on the committee we appreciate you going out and scouting out canaanland for the past 40 days and we're grateful for your service but we just saw god protect our firstborn back there in egypt from the death angel and why would we question his ability to protect us from the dangers in front of us we saw what he could do nobody asked that question or how about guys thank you for your service on the committee but i have to ask for a point of personal order we just saw god drop ten plagues down on those egyptians and break the wheel of pharaoh and who are we to think that the people across this river over there in the land god's going to give us would be any match for a god who sent 10 plagues you know what where those 10 came from there's an 11th one a 12th one a 13th plague god can keep dropping plagues down if he so chooses nobody asks that question or how about somebody going to the microphone and saying gentlemen thank you for your service appreciate you going out 40 days sacrificing your time away from your livelihoods and your family and doing for the rest of us what you could only do but do you not remember we just watched god part the waters of the red sea if god parted the waters of the red sea don't you think he can take us over this little jordan river into the land he wants to give us and you know i have to step back and wonder where were the people who were scratching their heads and listening to these ten knotheads which is what they were listening to these ten knotheads and asking the question why are we going to let these 10 men determine our future and the future of our children nobody ask that question or why are we going to let these 10 men lead us into the judgment of god no they kept giving their ear or why would we allow these ten men to so influence us that the decision they're about to lead us to make is going to tarnish the history of the jewish people as long as there is history to be written am i right about that have we not been talking about them for all of these thousands of years that they did not get into the land that they did wander in the wilderness for 40 years we're talking about in 2021 why didn't someone register dissent other than joshua and caleb to say what they're going to do is going to put a cloud over our people for the rest of time but you see this is how small groups of philosophers and small groups of ideologues this is how they gain a foothold over the masses it's because people stop interrogating their philosophies they stop prosecuting ideas and they just willingly accept them and i want to tell you something what these guys use is what they're still using today fear tactics they were saying there are giants there's opposition there are plagues the land will swallow us up there are big fortified cities and it was fear and panic and it won over fear usually wins and that's exactly what happened to the israelites and they lost out they lost out and so for a moment i just want to give you some some suggestions on how to interrogate a philosophy you know now i'm going to be honest with you i am a crime tv junkie if you go up go home to my house and pull up my tivo it's all crime television courtroom television i don't know why because i feel like if i hadn't become a preacher i probably would have come become a lawyer because i've always been fascinated with arguments and logic i've always been fascinated with aristotle's principles of logic and socrates principles of of interrogating through questions and you see a lot of this in effective courtroom debate so it's always fun to watch the the one side put their witness on the stand but my favorite part is the cross when that when that witness gets cross-examined to point out the fallacies of the testimony or to discredit and in some way i'm fascinated by all those can you tell and so and and i'm what i'm what i'm wondering is why are we why are we so willing to believe philosophies and ideas without putting them on the stand and interrogating them asking questions such as here's how you interrogate a philosophy or an idea where did this originate where did this come from because do you believe with me that every philosophy has an origination point it's birthed somewhere or how about this interrogation question is this philosophy part of a broader agenda oh come on or how about this is this philosophy deceptive you see most effective philosophies they they peddle half truths because if they unveiled the the fullness of the deception most people would reject it but they they capitalize on legitimate issues and factors and they draw you in through the guise of legitimacy and you don't even realize you're being played like a fiddle through deception here's another question not just what road is this on but where does this philosophy lead and there are a lot of people who in the last several years have jumped on board philosophical movements and ideologically driven trends in the culture because for the moment it responded to a contemporary crisis but very few people had the foresight to ask not does it feel good now not does it does it soothe my conscience to jump in on it now but where does this take us it feels good to be on this airplane but where are we going down where is our destination point very few people interrogate contemporary ideas with logical destinations and outcomes but i want you to understand something all ideas have consequences and every philosophy takes you to a destination and then you know the most important question is is this philosophy biblical is there any more important question to ask about an idea of philosophy then does this comport with scripture is this compliant with scripture or is this fly in the face of god's written word so what i'm saying to you is there there was no one but joshua and caleb who were willing to interrogate the report of these 10 who were saying let's not trust god let's be afraid and can you believe this we're glossing over today they even said we need to replace moses i tell you the preacher always gets blamed all right we need to replace we need to replace moses and go back to egypt that's what they said we've been brought up here to die let's go back and be slaves it's tragic but i want to give you some good news just as a small group of people can influence millions for the bad a small group of godly people can influence people for the good and my favorite example of this are the 12 disciples of jesus oh yes they lost one but they replaced him with someone else and those 12 men shaped the world and continued to impact the world in fact i would argue with you they are the reason we're here today worshiping god and knowing about who jesus is they were small in number they were crusty-handed blue-collar fishermen they were nobodies in the world in which they lived but god used them as a small group to literally rock the world now for 2 000 years and one of my favorite verses about the early followers of jesus few in number in an ungodly roman empire is when paul and his disciples were there in thessalonica and they were leading people to christ paul and those on his missionary journey those who oppose the gospel said this about the early christians in acts 17 verse 6 those who have turned the world upside down have come here too i mean now think about it twelve men and their movement had spread because it was true it was the gospel of jesus christ and the enemy said they've turned the world what upside down that's why i'm encouraged today that our influence my influence your influence can literally impact millions as we share god's truth with one person at a time and my resolve is to do just that as long as god gives me breath but here's the last thing i want you to write down about this and that is you ready for this be careful about the voices you listen to be careful about the voices you listen to the question is what perspective do they have and you realize a perspective is a point of view how you look at something determines what you see when you look at it now i lived in florida for a lot of my life almost 20 years combined from teenage uh my teenage years in high school and the last 15 before moving here to georgia so i just want to make a confession to you yeah i got sand between these mississippi toes but i never learned to like to get out in salt water because i want to see what's swimming down there around me oh come on anybody i'm telling you what i just i've never i've never wanted to get out there and go swimming in the ocean and i i just i'm afraid of the undertow but i'm afraid of a shark toe that's what i'm afraid of i'm afraid that there's a shark out there it's the truth now i'm telling you and it happens it really does i want to be in a swimming pool i want to see everything that's around me i want to see the floor of the pool right okay so uh you know years ago you could only have aerial footage from a helicopter but now you can just go buy a drone and it's amazing to me how many people have posted drone footage from florida california australia where there are people out in the surf out there having fun in the in the ocean and the drone captures a school of shark nearby and several weeks ago i found a guy from new smyrna beach who had taken his wife his kids they were swimming around their new smyrna beach and he was on the shore running his little drone with the remote control and he saw from the aerial drone footage there was this massive shark swimming around where his family were and he screamed and he wrote about it posted it on instagram he screamed and they came running out of the water now here's the thing where they were they didn't know oh come on but where the drone was the drone had a different perspective oh yeah so you're listening now so you're listening you're thinking about that you feel that shark grabbing hold of you right now but but this is this is when i'm thinking about people whose voices i i lend my ear to my question is do they have the perspective of of being down there with the sharks or do they have god's perspective from the drone looking down and what i'm here to tell you is that many of the people we're lending our ears to it's not just that they're with the sharks they are the sharks but god listen amen they are the sharks but when you read this bible you're operating a drone i'm here to tell you you've got the aerial perspective you're looking down and god will show you where the dangers lurk and that's what we're seeing in this passage and in these uh these naysayers they they listen the ten saw the same thing that the two saw right the ten who said no saw the same exact thing that the two who said yes saul but their perspective was different and when your perspective is different your conclusions will be different they said in verse 27 we went to the land where you sent us it truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit you remember they had the fruit they had the clusters of grape draped across a beam of wood and it was so heavy because the the vegetation was so lush and that's the choicest piece of real estate on planet earth the promised land so they saw all the beauty in the bounty verse 28 nevertheless can you say nevertheless nevertheless the people who dwell over there so strong and the cities are fortified and very large and moreover we saw the descendants of enoch there those guys are giants and you know what their focus was on the obstacles not one time did they mention god not one time and all of us surround ourselves with people and voices that we allow to influence us we're giving them our ears i want to ask you a question are the people that you listen to who influence you are they negative people or positive people are they pessimistic or optimistic are they ungrateful in their attitude or are they deeply grateful for their blessings are the people with whom you've surrounded yourself characterized by doubt or are they driven by prevailing faith in a god who is able joshua and caleb were positive and optimistic and grateful and driven by faith and they mentioned god in their report because in the 14th chapter in verse 8 joshua and caleb said to these millions of israelites if the lord delights in us he will bring us into this land and give it to us a land which flows with milk and honey they were looking through the drone they were seeing it as god sees it and for them retreat was not an option despair was not an option fear was not an option i want you to listen to me today when i say that influence over your decisions is a privilege don't give that influence to people who don't deserve it your life is valuable your decisions matter no matter what anybody's ever told you in your life and to give people the privilege to sit in the cockpit where the decisions are made about navigating your life that is an awesome privilege to give someone be very very discriminating before you give someone the privilege of influencing your life we need to interrogate wrong thinking comes from wrong influences and i want to tell you this that a deceived mind in my mind crime junkie that i am a deceived mind is like a crime scene and if you dust the crime scene of a deceived mind you will find the fingerprints of wrong ideas everywhere things that are false things that are blatantly untrue and every one of those ideas came from somewhere came from somewhere and you know it's in the hard times that we go through the times when we're most vulnerable that's when it really matters who's speaking into your life when you're at a crossroads and you've got to make a decision you better make sure you listen to the right people because some decisions are irreversible some decisions you never get round two a redo a do-over their final and when bad things happen you need someone in your life pointing you to god these ten were pointing the people to doubt and despair and disobedience somebody in this room are listening online you're out of money i mean literally no money left and you don't know what you're gonna do you need someone in your life saying what can god do for you watch god work somebody here today is is going through a corporate downsizing where you work and you know it is inevitable that the pink slip could land on your desk or maybe it already has you need someone in your life saying i know this is terrible but let's see what god is going to do god can come to work on your behalf some of you are going through a family crisis right now and all hope seems gone you need someone around you reminding you god's not dead god hadn't fallen asleep god can still work in your family someone today is coping with some type of illness you need someone speaking into your life pulling on your ear and saying let's see what god can do through this illness you may be recovering from a tragedy battling with loneliness you may be very discouraged about our country and about the condition of our world but we need voices speaking into our ears and into our souls let's see what god can do with this because god can do what no man can do nothing is too difficult for god the late entrepreneur businessman who became a motivational speaker his name is jim rohn he made this statement i found it profound you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with why because the way they think rubs off on you the way they speak rubs off on you the way they react to situation rubs off on you their spiritual condition rubs off on you the five people that you're around the most you become the average right in the middle of their influence and so the question i ask myself i ask you today is am i listening to people who cling to the past are people who are pressing ahead for the future am i listening to people who just fixate on problems or am i listening to people who want to help find solutions in jesus name am i listening to people who are consumed with their selfish priorities or am i listening to people who are devoted to serving others am i listening to people who don't care about the will of god or am i listening to people who recognize that god's will is the most important thing any human being could ever pursue it matters who you're listening to see there were there were people speaking into jesus life you know that don't you one of my favorite examples of this is matthew 16 it says jesus began to show his disciples that he was going to have to go to jerusalem suffer things from the elders and the priests and the scribes be killed and be raised the third day he was telling them this but peter took him aside and said no lord lord let's talk about this he said far be it from you lord this shall not happen to you we can't let you die and jesus returned and said to peter get behind me satan ouch you're an offense to me because you're not mindful of the things of god but of the things of men the new american puts it this way he turned and said to peter get behind me satan you're a stumbling block to me you're not setting your mind on god's interests but on man's interests is that powerful or what and when we see jesus response he sets an example for us to to look around us and say are the people that that we listen to whose voices influence us and it may be people who are behind keyboard somewhere people who are who are behind productions of movies and videos and other things we may not even know their names but they are still voices that we give our ears to are they more mindful of the things of man or the things of god jesus said get behind me satan to someone he dearly loved i'll be honest with you when i you know had the opportunity to step into the role that i'm in now i was at a jordan river moment and i was among the 10 saying no can do no can do senior and not because i had the good sense to find people but i had people around me here people of faith people of optimism people of discernment and family members and my broader circle of friends who've been a part of my journey through the years and i'm so glad that the voices that i lent my ear to spoke into me the will of god spoke into me to trust god not doubt god and i'm so grateful for each and every one of them but it still remains a daunting task we've got a whole lot more people who've not come back than who have and we're still pressing forward and now i'm in such a a wonderful place in my faith and in my outlook and and i'm even though there are odds that are still stacked against us i'm committed to look this pandemic square in the eye and stare it down and not be intimidated by it we've got work to do we've got work to do someone said not too long ago i don't know if our church will ever be what it was but it'll be what god wants it to be that's what it'll be it'll be what god wants it to be we're rebuilding a staff team i mean we're rebuilding it we are investing so much in our media outreach program to help us get the gospel around the world in different kinds of ways and i want to tell you something else as i stand before you today i am not afraid of our government i'm not afraid of our government not one minute does not matter does not matter they can issue decrees and edicts and executive orders but you know what we must obey god rather than man we're going with god that's what we're going to do we're going with god if you want to get inspired go to youtube and listen to dr john mcarthur the pastor of grace community church they just have the thomas more society a legal firm that comes in and helps non-profits free of charge they dispatch all their attorneys to fight cases and on behalf of grace community they came against los angeles county and the county had stacked up fines and punishments and threats to to imprison dr macarthur and thomas moore society took him to court los angeles county settled out of court paid 800 000 to cover all the legal expenses because he held onto his bible in one hand and his first amendment of the constitution in the other and said the congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion you cannot make us close the doors of a church you cannot make us do it the early church did not have a government on their side but i'll tell you what they did have they had the holy spirit the gospel and a world full of broken people who needed to be saved and that was all they needed and that's what we have today we have the holy spirit we have the gospel and we have people who need jesus all over this world and we're going to share jesus with them so this is an exciting time to be a christian this is an exciting time to watch god work it's an exciting time to be at the first baptist church of atlanta georgia it's an exciting time oh yeah we've got to watch all these developments taking place and you know we do we watch everything that's happening but we must never allow those things happening around us to distract us from the one enthroned above us we must keep our eyes on jesus and god's working in his church he's working through his people he's working in every one of your lives today he's working in your life the only thing i'm asking you to do is listen to the right voices because it's one thing to accidentally leave your prosthetic ear on the beach it's another thing to take your ear off and handed to somebody who doesn't deserve to hold it be careful who you listen to lord we thank you for your mighty power and i want to thank you for i feel like i'm surrounded by a bunch of positive people in this house oh god i praise you we are we're worshiping together the god who is able the god who knows no retreat the god who's never waved a white flag dear god as we go forth send us out in power and victory and help us to reject the bad report and to go with those who say oh yes god can in jesus name amen amen amen praise the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: FirstBaptistAtlanta

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Length: 78min 54sec (4734 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021