Why Are Christians So Afraid?

0:00 You know, sometimes I, there's this whole thing with repetition. I don't know what you're like, but you know how we each have our own little idiosyncrasies? I don't like repetition. You know, like I won't watch a movie twice. That's just silly to me. You know, some of you guys have watched something over and over again because you liked it so much. And so I tend to not repeat myself a whole lot even from this stage. You know, if I teach something, I go, I just taught that eight years ago. You know, they'll remember. and yet that's so bad because in scriptures certain things are repeated over and over and over again and because of my issues I tend to not repeat them and yet this is something that I go you know what Lord yeah that's totally wrong I need to repeat something I need to say something over and over again at least this month I want to talk about courage and I know I just spoke about this not too long ago and I want to let you know that I'm going to be speaking about it more and more.

0:57 And the reason why is I see it throughout Scripture a lot. And I also want to repeat myself on this topic because I may be the one guy that keeps telling you to believe in the power that's in you, the Holy Spirit that's in you. We live in a world where everyone's telling you, you can't pull this off.

1:22 We live in a time when people even in the church don't believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and what he can do. Sometimes we just look at the scriptures and go, well, yeah, that was back then. And you guys, it's not about back then. It's about always. It's about ever since the beginning of this book and all the way to the end, the followers of God were filled with courage. There was a fearlessness in them. There was a confidence of my God will come through. We grew up with these stories. We really did. But some of us, we lost it in there somewhere to the point where you come to service. And now a lot of you are just scared. You're fearful. Even some of you moms here, you know, for Mother's Day, it's like, oh, can I really pull off this task of being a mom? Can I really do this well? Can I really be an example to my kids?

2:14 Can I get them there? Can I get it? You know, and there's fears. There's fears of us as dads and as parents. Parents are more afraid than ever. You know, well, if I tell my kid no, maybe he won't like me. Maybe she won't like me anymore. And so we've got these kids just running out of control, just doing whatever because we're scared of, well, I don't want to lose their friendship. What if I do this? So it's just easier to just say yes to everything and just let them have what they want because at least they still kind of like me. And there's just, I mean, it goes from there to our jobs and the economy. And then to go towards, to even think about doing great things for the Lord. it's like we lose all of that and yet from the beginning when I read these stories it's about people who say no I'm not afraid and all the way to the end all the way to the book of Revelation where it says you know what those who conquer those who make it through there it says in Revelation 21 6 those are the ones that I'm going to bring with me and I'm going to say I'm going to be their God they're going to be my children but the cowards the disbelieving and he goes on to describe the lake of fire. And it's like, no, okay, we got to be those bold people, those courageous people. And I just want to remind you week after week about how much power is in you, those who have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you. I mean, think about how many of you guys grew up in church? Like you went to Sunday school as a little kid. How many went to Sunday school as a little kid? Let me put it that way. Okay, okay, about half of you. About half of you. Okay, remember the stories that we'd hear in Sunday school. What were your favorite stories from Sunday school as a little kid?

3:50 Daniel. Daniel. Daniel in the lion's den. Good. David and Goliath. David and Goliath, right? Jonah. Esther. Esther. Noah. Noah. Exodus. Exodus. Yeah, the whole part in the Red Sea. Oh yeah, Jesus. They talked around. Wait, what did he do? I was trying to... Okay, well... What else? else? What other stories do you remember from Joshua? The prodigal son, yeah. Samson, Stephen, Joseph. Yeah, see, think about these stories, though. Man, it was weird. First service, when I said, what did you remember? It was like in unison. Everyone goes, David and Goliath. Like, that was, and I still remember, I always loved David and Goliath week. I mean, it seemed like every other week, it was David and Goliath, but I didn't care. I didn't care. I loved the story.

4:48 of this scrawny little guy with these rocks in his pocket and looking at this giant and going, man, I can take him down. I am going to take him down. I don't care how big he is. I'm going to take him down because I've got my God. You know, you mentioned Daniel and the lions. And didn't we love that story? It's like we watched how God would rescue him. You know, it's like he's going to be there and there's going to be lions everywhere. But you know what? God's going to shut the mouth of all the lions. And then there was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Remember them? and they're going, no, we're not going to bow to that idol. We will not bow down. I don't care if everyone else bows down. I'm not going to bow down. And they're like, well, then we're going to throw you in this big pit of fire, this fiery furnace. And remember what they say? They go, go ahead. God will rescue us. Our God can rescue us. I don't care if you throw me in a pit of fire. And so as a kid, you're hearing these things going, yeah. You know, and sure enough, they throw them in this pit of fire, this fiery furnace. And what happens? You know, like, wait, now there's four of them. How did that fourth guy get dead? Who is that? Who is that? And then they come out of the fire, and it says they didn't even smell like smoke, that nothing happened to them, and everyone's amazed, and we love that story. We love the story of the Exodus, someone mentioned, with Moses going, let my people go. Let them go. We're going to send a bunch of plagues on you.

6:01 Well, this last one's going to be terrible, and then you get to the Red Sea, and he just parts the Red Sea, and God's people go through, and these are the stories. Remember the story of Joseph, of, you know, soul into slavery, but just kept believing, kept believing, kept believing. We love the story of Elijah standing on Mount Carmel against 450 prophets of Baal, and he's just mocking them, mocking them, mocking them. He was fearless. He goes, man, oh my God is going to take you down. It doesn't matter. You can jump, sing all day long. Your God's not going to listen to you. He's not real. My God's the real God. And so these are the stories we grew up with, this courage. and don't you remember as a kid just having this faith like God can do anything through me and you just walked out with this courage and I was just even remembering back to when I was in high school and I first started believing for myself and it was real to me and and I really in my head thought you know what God could use me to reach my whole campus I bet you by the end of the year but in my senior year I think I can fill this whole gymnasium with people you know just as I believe that I I remember just going through the yearbook, calling people, and we were cutting class, telling people about Jesus.

7:11 It's, I believe, like, this is going to happen. No, I'm going to change this place, and on and on and on, all this belief. But then what happens is it seems like through the years, people calm you down. You know? And really, the older we get, and I know this isn't true across the board of everyone, but for the most part, we start to lose that courage. We get knocked down here and there and then people start telling you you can't pull it off and our faith and that risk and that courage just seems to subside and it's not right. It's not good. That's not how we want to live. and it's so rare that someone, even in church gatherings, it's so rare for someone to put their arm around you and remind you of how powerful you are, how powerful your God is who dwells inside of you and what you can do.

8:19 You know, we become more and more cowardly and we'll call it responsible, you know, so that we feel better about ourselves. We go, no, I'm just being responsible. I'm just being a good steward of my life, you know, because God wouldn't want me just kind of throwing it all away and, you know, I'm just being careful.

8:46 You know, people go, man, you spend a lot of time going and speaking to youth, speaking to college students, and why? And I go, they still believe. They still believe that God could do anything, like anything, and they live like it. And they're looking for 40-year-old guys with kids that'll still do crazy things. And they need to believe that God is still God, not just when we were little kids, but when we're 40, when we're 80. just go man I'm going to go for it God's done some amazing things throughout time and you can probably even think right now of times when your dreams were squashed times when you just felt oh God wants me to do this thing God wants me to do this thing and then feel things don't happen the way you thought they would and pretty soon people start talking you into being a little bit more responsible and then pretty soon because that's where your flesh wants to go anyways You just go, yeah, I can't do anything great.

9:51 See, sometimes in church, I know for me, man, I was going nuts when I was in high school and then junior college. But then I remember getting more educated and going off to Bible college. And pretty soon you meet these people that are more educated than you are. And you start to feel really dumb compared to them. And then you think, well, I don't want to say anything because that guy is so much smarter. Just listen to him. you know and then then then the more you learn the more you realize how much you don't know and there's always someone better than you and you think well I can't counsel that guy's got a PhD in counseling and you know he was a guest of Dr. Phil and you know and you start going going going and you just start believing like well what am I going to do I can't and you just you know what maybe maybe they'll just come to church and Francis will talk to him or or maybe this will happen or this will happen to the point where you just don't even believe that guy could do anything great through you anymore. Is that really how we want to live? It doesn't make sense.

10:52 We're children of God. There's a guy in our church who bench presses 1,150 pounds. You can't even fathom it. He's the strongest man in the world, ESPN. We baptized him a while ago. We had to turn them sideways. You know. I mean, you know, anyone who's bench-pressed is going, I don't even get that. That doesn't even make sense. That's not humanly possible. Are you sure he's a human? You know, 1,150 pounds, 1,150, world record.

11:35 Amazing. You know what's more amazing? His wife. Bench presses 405 pounds. A girl! 400? Are you kidding me? I will never even come close. Won't even try that. That would be hilarious to try to push 400 pounds up. They have kids. I don't know their kids. My guess?

12:16 They're not picked on a whole lot. It'd be weird if they were all scrawny. That would just look weird. You guys, and I guess what I'm saying is we're children of the most powerful being in existence. And it just looks weird when we're scared. It just does. from cover to cover. This is about one being who can do anything, who's confident, who just sits there and goes, look, I'm the only one who holds the keys to life and death and everything else. All about, you know, from beginning to end is to show off his power. And so when his children are weak and scared, it just doesn't make sense. It looks really strange, you know, when we've got such a powerful God, and maybe it's because we don't focus on him enough. And that's why the more I'm reading the scriptures, the more I'm just going, Lord, you know, I want to walk around like a child of God, a true child of God, who's fearless, who's courageous, because that's what they did. That's what followers of Yahweh have been marked by this power and this confidence of my God will come through. And we love those stories as kids. And my desire over the next few weeks is just to stir that back up in us again and go, you know what? Yeah, I'm further along in my years, but why don't I believe like I used to? As I grow in my knowledge, I want my courage and my boldness to grow with it, not the opposite. When's the last time you just went and did something that was just absolutely insane in the eyes of everyone else, but you had the confidence? You knew that was what God was calling you to do. I want to turn us to one passage in particular, one of my favorite Old Testament stories, and it's the story of Caleb.

14:12 Caleb and Joshua. Someone mentioned Joshua. But turn to the book of Numbers, chapter 13. And as you turn there, I want to throw a couple of quotes on the screen. First one is by Tertullian, who was one of the early believers, one of the early leaders in the church, lived around 180-ish A.D. It says, the Lord challenges us to suffer persecutions and to confess him. He wants those who belong to him to be brave and fearless. He himself shows how weakness of the flesh is overcome by courage of the spirit. This is the testimony of the apostles, and in particular of the representative, administrating, I'm sorry, and in particular of the representative, administrating spirit, a Christian is fearless. A.W. Tozer writes this, we may as well face it, the whole level of spirituality among us is low.

15:16 We've measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus and the things of the Spirit is all but gone. We've imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.

15:36 He says, you know, are we just doing what the world does? If we bring the most gifted people, you know, then we can muster up some sort of power or are we really about the power of the Holy Spirit? Are we really believing in the same crazy, insane power that we saw in Scripture and of all these great men and women of God? see in in numbers chapter 13 we have the story of that's that's when uh that's when uh god had just led the people of israel you know away from the egyptians he you know threw all the plagues on him you know it's it's the whole prince of egypt thing and then you know moses goes to the red sea and the army's chasing them and he divides the water they go through they're in the desert and god is going to take them to this promised land and god goes okay we're we're here we're here This is the promised land right in front of you. And so what happens in Numbers chapter 13 is they send some spies.

16:34 Remember that? I love this story of the spies. They said, you know what? Let's have some people scope out the land. And so they decide to send 12. They pick 12 guys that go, you know what? Let's send them in there and they'll spy it all out. And then in verse 25, they come back after spying out the land. Numbers 13 verse 25. It says,

18:17 So you've got these spies that come back, the 12 of them come back. And there's two of them. Joshua, and then here it mentions Caleb, who says, we can do this thing, let's go. You know, God already split the Red Sea, killed the firstborn of all of Egypt. I think he can pull this off. Let's go. But the other 10 looked around, they go, man, did you see how big those people were? And they come back and they stir the whole congregation of you. Hey, you guys, let's be good stewards of our lives. You know, if we die out there, you know, what's gonna happen to our kids? We're just being responsible. We can't win this thing. They're way too big. It's way too out there. Let's just calm down and, you know, we got this far. Let's just be glad that we're still alive. And all of the people followed those 10. They didn't listen to Caleb.

19:09 They didn't listen to Joshua. You got two people that are going, no, we can do this thing. You've got 10 that are saying, no, we can't. And suddenly everyone, everyone is discouraged. Everyone stops believing. And then you have in chapter 14, God's response to that. In Numbers chapter 14, verse 26, it says this.

21:21 So God was not pleased. He's never been pleased with cowardice. He's never been pleased with people who don't believe that he can come through and that he can do anything. I mean, don't you see it there? I mean, he says, you know what, here's what's going to happen. Because you guys fight it out for 40 days and you come back and you get all these people disbelieving that I can take them down. You know what? I'm going to make you wander around for 40 years. And he says to those people, everyone that's 20 and over, just guess what? You're never going to the promised land. You're all going to die here in the wilderness. And those 10 spies who convinced you of all that, they're going to die right now. I just put a plague on them.

22:03 Everyone's going to wander and die except for Joshua and Caleb because they believed in me. And then all the little kids. And they're going to build up a new generation. And we're going to take this land. my question to you is who do you resemble?

22:24 Do you resemble Joshua and Caleb? Or do you resemble everyone else who's looking at the problems in life, looking at God's calling for your life and things that he's asked you to do? And you just start listening to those voices telling you, you can't do this, you can't do anything great. You guys, the reason why I can talk about this so easily is because I've heard all those voices my whole life.

22:57 Man, I've heard everyone telling me, you can't do it. You can't change the world. You know, there's always gonna be poor people out there. You can't rescue every kid that's been trafficked by these sex offenders. You're not gonna save LA. You know, you can't help all those inner city poor. You can't do this. You can't do that. all the voices you got to be responsible you got to be this you got to be that and meanwhile in my soul I'm trying to fight for this faith I used to have when I was a little kid you know when I was younger and I just believed that God could do anything through me and there were things that I knew I knew God wanted me to say man I'll go in a place and I'll know God wants me to say something and I'll just get so scared because I know how people will I got I got scared this morning again even over dumb things dumb things even showing that video you know, I think, oh, this will just be fun, whatever. But then I hear these voices, people in the past that have said, Francis, why do you always feel like you have to be funny?

23:56 And he'll confront me. They confront me on anything. But it's just like, why do you have to be funny up there? I go, it's not like I even try. Funny comes out. It just is, blah. It's who I am. I can't, you know, I can't go up there and not be me. You know, it's just, ah, I'm hilarious. You know, it's just, see, it's just, but all of that, it gets in your head. You're is like, no, you know, don't be this. Don't be too, why do you have to be so convenient? Why do you have to be so hard? Why do you have to be this? Because we want to just calm everyone down and make them normal. We want to, because let's face it, we were all weird at one point, right? And everyone just kind of calms you down. And then even with our dreams before the Lord and things that he called us to do and to say, people mellowed us out and said, you can't do that. It's It's like a Christian Prozac. It's just, you know, no, don't go to those extremes.

24:49 You know, we want you right here. We just want to calm you down, mellow you out. We just, and it's like, is that what you see in scripture? No, scripture was always about, no, yeah, right on. Right on. You're courageous. You're insane. You believe when no one else believes. You stay that way. And I pray that your boldness will get even greater. That's what we talked about a few weeks ago. Remember when the people were amazed? They were astonished by the boldness of Peter and John. And so now here's the leaders astonished by their boldness. They come out of jail. And what do they do? They gather the believers together to pray for greater boldness. They didn't gather the believers together to put their arms around them and go, hey, calm down, calm down. You know what? You're going to die. Who's going to take care of your family? You know, calm down. Let's not do this. Let's not do this. I mean, you know, you don't have to preach that much. You know, I mean, they're after you. They're going to kill you.

25:41 And that's not what the believers prayed for. It was for boldness. It's like, wow, you believe like a little kid. You know, I'm gonna pray that you even get more bold. See, my favorite part of that story of the spies is it doesn't end there. My favorite part of this story is what happens 45 years later. 45 years later. I just love this passage. I was reading it during the first service and I just started welling up with tears because I love it so much. It's in Joshua. Here's 45 years later.

26:18 Joshua 14. Joshua 14, and what's happened here is it's 45 years later, and Caleb is still alive, just like God said. Everyone else is dead, but Joshua and Caleb are still alive. Okay, God predicted this, and God's been right every time so far. And he says, look, everyone's gonna die off. These guys will die of a plague. But these two guys, because they believed in me, they're gonna live and they're the only ones that are gonna walk into this promised land. And the little kids. And so here you have, I love this, okay? It's Joshua 14, verse seven. And here's Caleb speaking. Listen to his words.

28:24 Isn't that just beautiful? picture an 85 year old man getting up in front of a crowd and going 45 years ago no one believed and I was like let's do this thing 45 years ago because I remember 45 years ago just coming back and going no we can do this thing we can do this thing we can do this thing even though my brother's like no we can't no we can't I said I believe completely in the Lord and picture the 85 year old man now I love this he goes man it's been 45 years I'm 85 but you know what I'm just as strong as I was when I was 40 so let's go do this thing now because God promised it and so I can rush up that hill and I'll take down this army because it's never been about me yeah I probably look a lot different than I did 45 years ago but I'm just as strong because it's not about the flesh.

29:25 It's about God being with me. I think that story just hits me because I so want to be that. Don't you? Don't you want to be one of those two? Don't you want to be the 85-year-old that believes even more than you did when you were 40?

29:49 And I guess that's what concerns me as I think of my faith when I was a kid. and I think about my faith at 40, 41, but I'm just gonna pretend I'm still 40. And you know, I'm looking at a pattern and it's not leading me to where Caleb was at the end of his life.

30:13 I mean, if that's the direction of your faith and you just, and I understand it. You just, you hear it. People are telling you, you can't. You can't. And you had dreams. You had things you wanted to say. And you just didn't say it. You just didn't do it. Or a couple things failed and you thought, oh, okay, you know what? I'm just not gonna try anything great anymore. And our faith starts to die. And that's why this story means so much to me because I'm going, man, I wanna, if the Lord tarries and if he has me live that old, man, could I just be more on fire for the Lord when I'm 85? or am I going to keep listening to all of these voices that try to calm me down, mellow me out? Come on, no one lives that way anymore. That was for back then. But to read the book of Acts and go, man, I don't see that. To read Genesis and go, I don't see it. To see the book of Revelation and look at the end and go, man, no, I'm not going to be one of those cowards. I'm not going to be one of those 10. I want to be like Caleb to believe wholly, wholly on the Lord. That man, you know what he says if I seek his kingdom first everything's gonna be taken care of I I swear it'll happen oh no that's being irresponsible oh no not anymore not 21st century now we've got methods of of you know taking care of yourself and looking to the future back then they had to they had to use faith we don't have to now because we've set up other systems and well God gave that as provision to you so it's like no no I don't believe it I believe I'm supposed to live by faith and I believe the older I get, I should take bigger steps of faith and it's harder because once kids are involved, it's kind of like, that's a dumb illustration, but it just came to me, so maybe I'm supposed to.

32:03 You ever gamble? You shouldn't, but I don't anymore, but that used to be one thing, just to be honest with you, that I struggled with. I never lost anything real big, but just the excitement of winning, you know, and I remember, this is when I was younger, One time I got a ticket. I was heading to Utah to speak at a camp, and I got a ticket on the way there. So I thought, you know, halfway there, I thought, I know what I'll do. I'll stop in Vegas and win the money back to pay for the ticket because God would honor that, you know. And so I stop, and, you know, there's this thing called, oh, when you just let it ride. You know, I was, you know, it was really dumb. I was up all night and kept taking another 20 bucks, another 20 bucks. Really, really dumb.

32:56 Especially if you believe in the sovereignty of God. Gambling is ridiculous. You know, now it's like, well, what's God going to do? Bless me? You know, he's in control. He knows what card's coming next. But I just remember, you know, just letting it ride, letting it ride. And, you know, it started with two bucks and I just let it go. You know, so that was four bucks, eight bucks. pretty soon I had a hundred dollars sitting there and I thought this ticket's going to be 200 bucks and if I win this hand you know and I remember my my buddy next to me goes ah you don't have the guts to to let it ride I'm like oh yeah watch this you know and I get dealt a 10 and a 3 thought no what do I do what do I do I got a hundred bucks see it was easy to let it ride when it was two bucks It's easier, you know, about $100, and I already made the decision. It's like, okay, and a $10 comes out.

33:51 I'm like, no, you know. Oh, I lost everything. You know, it was easy, you know, when I was little. But now I had $100 on the table, and just let it ride and bet it all, and I lost it all. See, in a lot of ways, I know sinful illustration. I'm not saying good to gamble. I'm telling you sin, okay, so don't email. Okay, here's the thing. my point my point i probably won't use the other services so okay so you guys are lucky okay the point of this is when you're younger to risk for the sake of the kingdom it seems like the two bucks isn't it it's like well what am i gonna lose that's why you know even jesus says it's it's harder for the rich it just is they got more to lose you go to india go into some of these slums and you go, hey, you know what? Leave everything.

34:45 God's got a better life for you. Okay, great. You come to Simi Valley and go, hey, leave everything. Are you kidding me? You know how much I have? And the older you get, pretty soon it's like, wow, I don't know if I want to bet everything because now I've got a wife, I've got kids, I've got a home, I've got a life insurance, insurance. I got this, this, this, this. You're telling me to bet it all? Just believing that he's going to come through? So it gets harder, doesn't it? That the more you go in life, it just seems like, wow, it was easy to bet it all back then, but now I don't know. I got bigger, bigger responsibilities, and it gets harder and harder and harder. And so our faith and our risk and our courage, we just, I just want to play it safe. I just want to play it safe. Let me pull out $98, and I'll throw a couple back there.

35:41 I'll put two back down on the table. I'll bet that. I don't want to do that. I want to be 85 years old and bet it all. I want to be 85 and go, nothing's changed. God's still God. I want to be Caleb. And I know there's something in a lot of you that knows exactly what I'm talking about because you've let go of things. You stopped believing. And I just want to pray for you this morning. And I want you to pray for me because this is what I hunger for. I've got enough people telling me that I can't do it. Just every once in a while, it'd be nice to hear a voice that says, you know what? You have a mighty God. I just want to lay my hands on you and pray for you.

36:34 and that's what I want to do for you this morning. Some of you, like I said, some of you moms, Mother's Day, you're struggling with courage. I say this because we've gone through it as parents. You just, you start doubting yourself and you start going, man, I can't. You know the frustrating thing is you can't make your kids love Jesus no matter what you do. What are you going to do, force it on them? You think if you do everything right, then they're going to believe and follow him. Now I've seen some pretty awesome parents, godly men and women who've had kids that just went the opposite direction. You got no control and it's all in God's hands. And I'm just telling you, ladies, don't put all that pressure on yourself. Don't take yourself that seriously. The Holy Spirit comes into your child's life and you pray like crazy for that to happen.

37:27 And you model it in the home. Just be a woman of God. And don't believe the lie that all I'm supposed to do right now is just raise, yes, that's your priority, but God may be calling you to other great things too. There may be people in your neighborhood, crazy things God's called you to, and maybe people have told you, no, you can't do all that.

37:48 And some of you guys that are feeling like, man, I'm not even providing the economy and everything else, I just, I can't even focus. You're telling me to have visions of great things God's gonna do. I'm just trying to stay alive, and I'm going, man, that's no way to live. Where's the faith of when you were a kid that just believed? Some of you, some of you guys are in sin. You just are. You're in some major sin. And people have told you your whole life, well, you can't just, it doesn't happen that way. You don't just change overnight. But then you read the scriptures and go, well, it seems like some people did.

38:24 You know, and it's hard. and you go, man, it seems like it says here that the Spirit can put to death the deeds of the flesh. Like put it to death, kill it. And there's part of you that doesn't want to hear all these other voices and you just want to hear the voice of God that says, no, I can kill this sin. I know by the power of the Holy Spirit, he promised me I can kill it. And you want to believe in that, but no one else is encouraging you. They're going, no, no, no, you got to do this, you got to do this. And pretty soon you look like everyone else in the world with all these systems and there's no benefit to having the Holy Spirit in you?

39:00 I mean, some of you are in relationships and everyone's saying, no, you can't stay in that. You know, it's gonna hurt you too much, this or that. But you've heard the voice of God. You've read the voice of God that's knowing stay in and keep loving and keep fighting. And you're just worn out and you're going, man, no one can live through what I've lived through. And I just wanna say, yes, you can. You can stay in that relationship. Others of you are in sinful relationships and you need the courage to get out. you know it's not right before God, but you don't have the security. You don't have the courage. You don't believe that God would bring someone else. You don't believe that if God wanted this together, that even though you went apart for a while and got things right before him, that he could do, because you don't believe he can do anything great. And so you wanna take matters into your own hands. I just want you to believe again that God's a great God. Some of you have heard specifically from the Lord. you know of things that you were created for and just because no one else does it that way you've backed off isn't this book filled with people that were examples of no one else did it that way and everyone else was against them but they stood Caleb must have looked like a fool for believing and so did Joshua but 45 years later and I'm telling you right now whatever steps of faith God's calling you to take I promise you 45 years from now