I want you to turn in your Bibles
this morning back to the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers,
chapter 13. And if you would this morning,
you pray for me as I attempt to preach. I, this morning, have
attempted, by the grace of God, to find that passage of Scripture
that the Lord would have me to speak on. It's not been an easy
thing to do today, but you pray for me that the Lord might be
pleased to use what is said here this morning. I thought about
Jeremiah when I was preparing this message, Jeremiah the weeping
prophet of the Old Testament, very possibly one of the greatest
or the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. Now that's my
own opinion. Jeremiah was a man who had a
burden from the Lord. The Lord gave him many, many
times a very unpopular message. It was a message from God, and
the people knew that Jeremiah was indeed a prophet sent of
God. And they often looked to him
for a word from the Lord. And the saying was, is there
a word today from the Lord? And Jeremiah was supposed to
have a word from the Lord for the people. Many times he delivered
that message, and when he delivered the message faithfully, it was
not accepted, it was not received, and it was not looked upon as
being that which the people wanted at that time to hear from the
Lord. And so Jeremiah suffered greatly
at the hands of the people. But Jeremiah, he was not an optimist,
He was not a pessimist, even though many people would probably
think that he was. Jeremiah was a realist. He was
a realist. He didn't look at things through
rose-tinted glasses. He didn't put a face on them
that they ought not wear. He just simply stated the truth
and believed the truth. He presented it to the people,
and whatever they did with it, then that was in the hands of
the Lord between them and the Lord. Now, if there is any reward
for a preacher, if there is, That reward will not be administered
in proportion to how the people received what he had to say. Now I want you to remember that
statement. I want you to remember that. If there is any reward
for a preacher of the gospel, for a prophet of God, That reward
will not be based upon the proportion of the message he preached being
received by the people. It will be determined by the
faithfulness of his declaration, whether he preached what God
laid on his heart. whether he was truthful to the
people, whether he said what God told him to say. Now, and
that's how Jeremiah felt about it. He said, the word of the
Lord's in me, and it's like a fire in my bones, and I have to declare
the burden of the Lord. I must declare the burden of
the Lord. And so therefore, I thought about,
oh Jeremiah, sometimes it's difficult, to deal with certain passages
of Scripture in the Bible, and sometimes you're not sure just
how certain people are going to take it, how they're going
to look at what you've got to say. But I gave up a long time
ago and attempted just to find the mind of the Lord the best
I could and to present that. So if you've got any argument
this morning, Please don't argue with me. Don't argue with me.
Just listen to what the Word of God says and attempt this
morning to get something for your own soul out of what we
have to say. Now here in the 13th chapter
of the book of Numbers, if you turn there, and maybe I didn't
announce the chapter, but if you would look in the 13th chapter,
let me just read a few selected verses out of the 13th chapter,
and then some more out of chapter 14. We begin with verse 1, and
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may
search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel,
of every tribe of their fathers, shall ye send a man, everyone
a ruler among them. And Moses, by the commandment
of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those
men were heads of the children of Israel. Now look up, if you
will, in verse 17. And Moses sent them to spy out
the land of Canaan. and said unto them, Get you up
this way southward, and go up into the mountain, and see the
land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether
they may be strong or weak, few or many, and what the land is
that they dwell in, whether it be a good or bad, and what cities
they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strongholds,
and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there
be wood therein or not. And be you of good courage, and
bring the fruit of the land." And then let's skip down here
a little bit further to verse 25. And they return from searching
of the land after forty days. They got this great bundle of
grapes, cluster of grapes, and they brought it back, and they
returned after 40 days. Now, 40 days is significant,
and you'll find that out a little bit later. But they returned,
and when they came to Moses and to Aaron, and to all the congregation
of the children of Israel, and to the wilderness of Paran, to
Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation,
and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him,
and said, We came into the land whither thou sent us, and surely
it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it."
Speaking of the cluster of grapes. Nevertheless, the people be strong
that dwell on the land, and the cities are walled, and very great,
and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites
dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites and the Jebusites
and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites
dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled
the people before Moses and said, now listen to this, and Caleb
stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once
and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. But the
man that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against
the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up
an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children
of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search
it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all
the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants,
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers, And so we were in their sight. Now then, let's look down into
the 14th chapter. And all the congregation lifted
up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And
all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron,
and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we
had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this
wilderness. And wherefore hath the Lord brought
us unto this land to fall by the sword, that our wives, our
children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to
return into Egypt? And they said one to another,
Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on
their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children
of Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and
Caleb, The son of Jephunneh were of them that searched the land,
rent their clothes. And they spake unto all the company
of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through
to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight
in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to
us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not
ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land,
for they are bred for us, their defense is departed from them,
and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. But all the congregation bade,
stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke
me? And how long will it be ere they
believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them? And then the Lord began to speak
to Moses about how that he had brought the people up. and how
he had delivered them and how he had forgiven them so many,
many times. And then the Lord pronounced
judgment upon these unbelieving people among the Israelites and
told them that he would not take them in, but he would take their
children into this good land. The children that they were afraid
would fall prey to the giants in the land and to the wilderness
of the land. And the Lord also told them that
as the spies were out there spying out the land for 40 days, that
that's how many years that the people would wander around, all
these rebels, these unbelievers would wander around in that wilderness. And then finally, their carcasses
would fall in that wilderness. because of their unbelief and
because of their rebellion. Now this is a great chapter,
these two chapters, the story is one that is powerful and we
see that among the professed people of God that mistrust and
unbelief is much more prevalent than faith. Now, beloved, we
should ask ourselves this morning, is it more prevalent among us? Is mistrust and unbelief, is
it more prevalent among us than faith? Now, the children of Israel,
they were prone to unbelief, and God forgave them over and
over and over again from the time he brought them out of Egypt
until the day when he pronounced upon them this judgment. God
had forgiven. It wasn't that they had never
provoked him before. It wasn't that they, this was
the first time that they had ever turned back in unbelief.
No, that's not the case, because these people, they were one day
they would bow before an idol, and the next day they would murmur
against God. Their life was according to the
flesh, and they listened only to what they wanted to hear,
and they only would obey that which was pleasing to them. Now, the moment that these people
were in want, or in difficulty, and they saw no way out, they
saw no supply, they saw no relief, when they got up against a hard
situation, and when they said, we can't go into the land, they
said, well, now Moses and Aaron, you've led us out here, and it
would be better for us to go back to Egypt. Let's point us
a captain, and let's go back into Egypt. Now God had brought
them out of Egyptian bondage, God had brought them out with
a strong right arm, and they got to the Red Sea, and God had
opened up the Red Sea, and they had passed through. They saw
the salvation of God. Now, beloved, there's one thing
that the people of God need to understand in every generation. And that is that God leads His
people, and He means that they follow Him, and He means that
they obey His leading. You remember that God gave the
children of Israel the pillar of fire by night. And he gave
them the pillar of cloud by day. And God said to them, he said,
now when I move, you move. And when I lead, you follow me. Now that's all they had to do.
God knows the way through the wilderness, and all you have
to do is follow the little song says. God knows the way. And
all you have to do is follow. The Word of God says in the 8th
chapter of the Book of Romans, it says, They that are led by
the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Now what that means is
that they that are led by God's Spirit, those in whom the Spirit
of God dwells, and every believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit. Everybody that has the Holy Spirit
will be led by the Holy Spirit, be directed by the Spirit, guided
by the Spirit in their lives, and they will be led in the way
that God would have them to go. We often read in the Bible where
we're to walk with God, we're to follow and imitate God. Well, to walk with God implies
progress. It implies moving. It implies
that you're going forward in the ways of God. And so beloved,
I say to you this morning that believers in every generation
need to believe that God is leading them on. Now I'm not saying that
there's never a time when we ought to wait and when we ought
to sit and when we ought to just be satisfied just to wait on
the Lord. Because the Bible teaches it
over and over again that we must wait upon the Lord and be patient
and submit ourselves to God even in times when the cloud doesn't
move. when the cloud doesn't move,
or when the pillar of fire doesn't appear before us and move, that
there's times when we must wait upon the Lord. But generally
speaking, God's people are on the move. They are being moved
upon by the Spirit of God to go forward in the things of God,
and to progress in the things of the Spirit. But these people,
they begin to cry out because they were not willing when God
said, this is my will. And when the faithful prophets
of God, Caleb and Joshua, these men who were of a different spirit. They were of the spirit of faith.
They were the spirit of confidence in God. They said, we can well
go ahead. They said, we can do it. And
they did not want to rebel against God. And Caleb said that if the
Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land. If the
Lord is with us, then whatever God has asked us to do, we can
do it. Now, they had many objections
as to not wanting to go in. They said, well, you know, the
land consumes everybody, and there's giants there, and we're
just like grasshoppers in their sight. And they had many, many
objections. But the Lord put His, as it were,
and I'm just speaking here, I'm speaking as a man, the Lord put
His finger right on the problem in verse 11 and said, the problem
is not the giants in the land. The problem is not the obstacles
that you're talking about or that you're bringing up. That
is not the problem. The problem is, as he very plainly
says, is your unbelief. How long will these people provoke
me and how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs
which I've showed among them." How long is it going to be before
you're going to believe Him? Now, beloved, if you're going
to believe God and trust God, you're not obligated to do anything
other than what you know that God wants you to do. But whenever
God makes it clear to you what you must do and ought to do,
then you must do it. You must obey the Lord. You cannot
go back. You cannot sit still. It's not
the same after God speaks and says, there's the land. Go spy
it out. And then God says, you can well
take it. You can go in and I'm with you. Then, beloved, you can't sit
back and say, we're not going to do it. We can't do it. There's
no way we can do it. And then begin to raise all kinds
of objections as to why you cannot do it. You can't do that. It's
not the same anymore when the Lord said, I'm with you, fear
not, go forward, you must go forward. And God says the problem
is not, the problem is not the land. The problem is not the
giants in the land. The problem is not the people
in the land. The problem is not all of that. The problem is that you don't
believe me. Now, beloved, let me tell you
something here this morning, that if you believe in the omnipotence
of God, if you believe that the God of the Bible is a sovereign,
if you believe that He can do whatever He will do, and He will
do whatever He purposes to do, if you believe that, then you
gotta give up your unbelief, and you gotta quit looking at
second causes, and you gotta believe that whatever God asks
us to do, we can do it in the name of the Lord, we can do it
by the grace of God, we can do it if God puts strength in us,
and we can do it as we lean on the Lord and as we follow the
Lord. We're able to do that. Now, beloved,
listen, I feel in my own soul that I do not and cannot continue
to believe something in my own heart and then not speak and
lead this church. God has placed me in the responsibility,
this position of responsibility. God has given me this church
and the oversight of this church. And I have an obligation before
God and to you. And I will not, I will not, I
will not be turned back from telling you that to sit after
God leads you and directs you, that is absolute folly and it
will bring down the judgment of God in some way or another
upon us. And we will experience Dry times
if we don't follow the Lord and the leading of the Lord. How
long will this people provoke me? How long? Now listen brethren,
there's a lot of things that God tolerates. I know that the
Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy. He forgives iniquity
and transgression, and by no means, the scripture says here
in verse 18 of chapter 14, the guilty, he sometimes visits the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation. And Moses said, pardon, being
you this kind of a god, he said, pardon I beseech thee the iniquity
of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and
as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. Now
God is merciful, and God does forgive His people. He does forgive His people. And
if the Lord was to mark iniquity and unbelief, I wouldn't be here
today. I'll tell you that. And if God
was to judge His people every time, that they had some rebellion
in their heart, I certainly would have been judged and sent to
hell before now. And I'm not implying that something
terrible and awful is going to happen to you if you don't do
what I think you ought to do. I'm just simply telling you that
you're going to have to deal with, before God, Faith, you're
going to have to deal with your unbelief, you're going to have
to deal with the fact that if you don't go and move when God
tells you to, that you're going to be provoking the Lord. And
I want you to understand here this morning that this story
here is in the Bible for some reason. This story is in the
Bible for some reason. We know the scripture says in
the Book of Romans that this is an example to us. The Old Testament Scriptures
that we might know and learn, and also in 1 Corinthians, Paul,
he spelled it out about the children of Israel when they struck the
rock and the water flowed out, and how that rock was a type
of Christ, and all that. These stories are to teach us
something about the walk of faith. Now, we know that not all of
the Israelites were true believers, and many of these that fell by
the wayside, I'm sure, were not converted in the sense that we
talk about men and women being converted. But beloved, listen,
we know, and having dealt with, as we have, unbelief, and I've
dealt with it a great deal in my life. I certainly, but then
there have been times when the Lord has spelled out to me what
I must do, and I practically fainted because I didn't feel
that I was able to do it. And I felt trembling and felt
like, well, I just don't know. Maybe I better talk with somebody.
And maybe I better try to get some counsel here as to whether
I should do this or whether I shouldn't do it. And you feel all kinds
of things come over you whenever you believe that God wants you
to do something. Now, I want you to know that
this was indeed to the side of the eye, looking at these giants,
looking at this land. Beloved, it was, I have to give
these people here, you know, some credit. I mean, they certainly
had good eyes and they saw reality. They saw reality. But beloved,
listen, when we're talking about spiritual things, and we're talking
about doing God's business in God's way, in God's time, you
gotta, you gotta sometime or other quit looking at things
as they appear materially and fleshly, and start believing
that God is able to enable you to do what He asked you to do.
And there's another thing I want you to know, is that God is not
in the habit. of asking his people to do things
that they can do. He is not in the habit of asking
any man to do anything that he can do in his own strength, with
his own ability, and with his own might. God is not in the
habit of doing that. If you read the Word of God,
you will find that God, when he asks somebody to do something,
only as they leaned on Him, only as they trusted Him, only as
they relied upon Him, only as He put grace and strength in
them, only as He provided for them could they do what He asked
them to do. And I don't think this church
here has been favored of God. This church has been favored
of God. This church has heard more gospel truth than any church
in the city of Great Falls. This church has heard more about
the sovereignty of God, the omnipotence of God, and the grace of God
than any people in the state of Montana. And God is not about
to ask you people Even though He loves you and has favored
you, He's not about to ask you to do something that you can
do in your own strength. He's not going to do it. I'm
going to tell you that right now. Somebody said, well, you
know, if we just had a pile of money, if we just had a bunch
of money, well, listen to me, God ain't going to do His business
that way. I'm sorry, but He's not going to do His business
that way. God is going to move you out
to do what He wants you to do and then He'll provide for you
step by step. Day by day the manna fell. Oh,
to learn that lesson well. And you've got to move. And if
you don't move out, then you're not going to see the Lord's blessing
upon you in this way. God providing for you. God directing
you. God giving you what it is that
you've got to have in able to do that which He wants you to
do. And so, beloved, this, I think, it was the sin of these people. The sin of this people was they
just didn't believe that God was going to be with them and
that God was going to provide for them, that God was going
to help them, that God was going to lead them in and enable them
to take of the land. Well, I want you to turn over. I'm not going to keep you long.
I just made up my mind that, you know, I had other things
that I wanted to preach, but I felt like with a great burden
that this was the thing that I had to speak to you about this
morning. I want you to turn to the first chapter of the book
of Joshua. The first chapter of the book
of Joshua. And I want to read a few things
here because this chapter here is where when Moses passed away,
when God took Moses out of the picture, Then Joshua, this man
who had believed God, this faithful man, became the leader of the
children of Israel. Joshua. Jesus is the name. And he's the leader. Moses couldn't
lead the people in. Moses, he died an unbelief too.
Moses was a man who sinned by striking the rock twice, you
remember. And because of his impatience,
he was not able to take the people on in to the land of Canaan,
but died outside. He looked over and saw the land,
but he was not able to go in. And in the first verse, it says,
now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came
to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Moses, my servant,
is dead. Moses is dead, and he can't do
anything anymore. I've removed Moses. He's out
of the way. Moses is dead. Now, therefore,
Now therefore, he said, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and
all this people unto the land which I do give to them, even
to the children of Israel, and every place that the sole of
your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said
unto Moses, from the wilderness of Lebanon, and so on, even to
the river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites,
and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, The land
of the Hittites and the great sea toward the going down of
the sun shall be your coast. There shall not any man, listen
to this, be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. If I might pause right here,
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said this is one of the plaques that
he had on his desk, that he looked at every morning when he went
to his desk. He said these words, I will not
fail thee, nor forsake thee. I won't fail you, I won't forsake
you. Be strong and of a good courage,
for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the
land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be
thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee.
Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou
mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. And then in verse
9, Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage,
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God
is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. Then Joshua commanded
the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the holes, command
the people, saying, Prepare your vittles, for within three days
you shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land
where the Lord your God giveth you to possess it." Now, beloved,
that's the words here of the Lord to Joshua who would lead
the people in. after Moses was taken out. I
do not in any way, shape, or form, I don't want anybody to
even think that I'm a Moses or I'm a Joshua either one. I am
neither one. I am neither one. I am God's
servant and I have been placed here in this position of responsibility
by the hand of God and have been sustained here by the hand of
God all these many years. And I believe that it's my obligation
always to set before you what I believe God gives me. Now,
if in your mind, and you're thinking this morning, maybe you question
this, then you forgive me, and you somehow or other, if you
can, say, well, the preacher kind of got a little bit off
this morning, but we believe what the Word of God says at
least. And you at least believe what the Word of God says. and
let us make up our minds that if we know that if we know and
believe you me the children of Israel did know when that pillar
of cloud moved and when that pillar of fire moved they knew
and they knew when to take them tents down and they knew when
to pack up and they knew when to hit the trail because God
moved in front of them and I will tell you this Don't provoke the
Lord if you know in your heart what the Lord would have you
to do. Don't provoke the Lord by not doing it. Believe God
and however awesome the task looks before you, you step out
and God will go with you and God's blessing will be upon you
and God will never forsake you. God will never leave you. God
will undertake for you. But if you sit And if you sit,
and if you sit, and you will not move because you're comfortable,
because you feel, well, everything's okay just like it is. Well, who
are we, who are we to make the judgment that everything's okay
the way it is? Maybe it's just fine the way
it is, but that does not mean that God don't have a purpose
for this church and that he will leave this church off. of dead
sinner or wherever we find ourself today and lead us on in another
direction. We've got to be willing to move
if God is in it. And we cannot provoke the Lord
with our unbelief and say, well, I think it's just all right and
fine just the way it is. Well, you know, if that's the
case, then it's fine the way it is, if that's the case, if
the Lord hadn't said anything. But if He has, Or if he ever
does, my friend, you'd be willing to move, wouldn't you? Wouldn't
you be willing to move? Don't you want to be a Caleb
or a Joshua? Wouldn't you rather be a Caleb
and a Joshua than to be one of these rebels who said, let's
just go on back to Egypt? Let's just sit. We can't do anything. Listen, if you want to have rest,
if you want to have peace, trust God. Believe on Him. Trust the
Lord. Just believe that whatever God
asks you to do, you can do it by His grace, by His strength.
Not without trial, not without test, not without discouragement,
not without some time or other feeling like maybe that you're
on ground that maybe you shouldn't even be on. But if God leads
you, you step out, you go forward, you do as God leads you to do.
Now, you may think, well, this is out of character, preacher.
This sermon that you're preaching today is out of character. Well,
maybe it is out of character, but maybe it's because I have
never heard from God in these things before. Maybe it's because
God hadn't said anything to me about this before. Maybe it's
because the Lord hadn't laid these things on my heart before,
like He has now. And I'm telling you that the
people of God are to be a people willing to move when their God
tells them to. So you wait on the Lord, you
find the mind of God. I've never asked you to do anything
that you don't feel you ought to do. I would not ask you to
do it. But my friend, you've got to become very serious about
this thing and you've got to recognize that God could very
well, God could very well, now listen to me, there was an old
preacher that made some statements one time that I thought was very
good. And I just want to leave this
with you. Old Brother Barnard, he was talking to a church one
time who was getting ready to vote on something. They were
getting ready to vote. What they was going to do, make
a decision, big decision, about voting on something. Now, some
of you are aware of the fact that there's different forms
of government in churches. Some churches have a ruling body
of elders. They have maybe four or six men
who have the same qualifications as a preacher, and they make
the decisions. They exercise the rule in the
church. The church chooses them, and
then they rule the body. And the preacher is the head
of that ruling body of elders. They call them elders. And then
other churches, and most Baptist churches, they have what they
call a form of democracy. They vote, and the majority rules
in a Baptist church. Now, Brother Barnard made this
statement. I thought it was a very good
statement. He said if you pray, now listen
to me, he said if you pray, you won't have to vote. If you pray,
you won't have to vote. He said if you vote, you probably
won't pray. Now, I think that is a true statement. I believe he's right. And what
I'm trying to say to you this morning is this, that there is,
and this, listen to me now. I want you to listen to me. It
isn't going to change. I'm going to be 63 years old
in June. It isn't going to change anything
to any degree. All it's going to do, if this
church builds a church building, if it does anything other than
just sit right here, all it's going to do, it's going to be
more work for me, and it's going to be some trials that we all
got to face together, and much prayer. It's going to have to
go up to God. It's going to be a task. And it's not going to be an easy
thing to do from the flesh standpoint. And not only that, but everybody
here knows that we're not going to build any kind of a building
that's going to give anybody in this church a name. It's not
going to give us no name. It's going to be just a plain,
simple meeting house if God ever enables us to build it. And it's
not going to be something that anybody can glory in after the
flesh. It will be a decent, clean place
for us to meet. And that's what it will be. But
it's not somebody trying to make a name for themselves. I don't
have time to do that. I don't have time. My dad died
when he was 66. His dad died when he was 66. And then my grandfather's
dad passed away when he was 73. and that's as far back as I know
exactly how old my ancestors were. So I don't know how much
time I've got. I may not even have that much
time. But I'm not here trying to make a name for myself. I'm
not here trying to lead you to do something for me. I am not. I want you people to pray. I
want you to pray. I want you to be honest. I want
you to seek the Lord. I want you to ask God to direct
your minds and your hearts as to what you ought to do. I want
you to be submissive to the Lord. That's what I want you to do.
I want you to do that. Every one of you. And I want
you to pledge to me, before God, in all honesty, I want you to
pledge to the members of this church, your brothers and sisters
in Christ, I want you to pledge to them that you will seek the
Lord about this. That you will pray and ask God
to direct your mind and your heart as a member of this body,
as a member of this church, that you will ask God to lead you
so that you will be able to fit into His purpose and His will.
And if there is something that we're not seeing here, if there's
something we don't know that we ought to know about this situation,
May you pray that God will open all of our eyes to it so that
we will see and know what He wants us to do. And I don't think
there is anybody here, and I want to make this clear to you. I
want you to know how I feel. I don't think there is anybody
here in this assembly that don't want to do what the Lord wants
them to do. Now I want to make that clear
to you because that's the way I feel about every one of you.
I know you want to do what the Lord wants you to do. And I want
us to pray until we know the mind of the Lord and know which
direction He wants us to go. And I hope that we don't have
to vote. I hope we don't have to vote. I don't want to. And I think that the words of
Brother Barnard, that they have great meaning here this morning. And so, let us be praying, let
us be honest, seek the Lord, attempt to find his mind about
this situation. Well, Let's have a word of prayer
this morning that we've had this privilege of opening your word
and I do ask that you will bless this message today and the reading
of the word and the comments, Lord, that have been made to
the edification of this people and to all of our instruction
and how it rebukes my heart When I think of the many times when,
Lord, the spirit of laxness and laziness and indifference, how
it creeps into our hearts, and how when it seems like something
would somewhere or another conflict with our little plans and our
lives, Our scheme of things that we
just hesitate and just would not want to do anything that
would in any way create any inconveniences for us. And I know how that feels
because I've been there so many times. But Lord, do undertake
for us. and lead us as a people. Help
us each one to earnestly, fervently, honestly, with judgment-day honesty,
seek Your face and to seek Your mind. May this be a time when
this church matures greatly in faith and greatly in discernment
of the mind of God. Help us, we pray, in Jesus' name,
Amen.