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The following program is sponsored in part by friends and partners of jensen franklin media ministries. Thank you for joining us today. It's our prayer and our deep desire that we speak a message that touches your life today as you view this program, and I agree with you that you're going to find God's will and God's next step for your life. Listen to this message and let it speak to you today.
[Music] [Music] Huh [Music] Time [Music] So [Music] And [Music] Foreign [Music] Um.
You may be seated. Numbers chapter 13. That's where I want to go. Numbers chapter 13, verse 28. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified, very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of giants there. And they go on and say, and the land just eats people up. Caleb quieted the people, verse 30, and said, let us go up and take possession, for we're well able to overcome it.
And now, quickly, I want you to look at one verse of scripture in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3, and the last verse says, so we see they could not enter in because of unbelief. I want to talk to you for just a few moments, something very strongly the Lord laid on my heart. I've never shared this message, but it's for you. And I want to teach you today three secrets to possessing your possessions or entering into your promised land. God has one for you, a land of promises that He has made concerning you and yours.
I was thinking about how that the night that God called me to preach was such an encounter that I had with the Lord in that room where I was, that I heard the Lord say these words to me, "If you will go, I will go with you. If you will go, I will go with you, and I'll show you things that you never dreamed." And all I had was that word from the Lord, but I had been given a promised land, and I knew that God had spoken it to my spirit. And there are many of you here this morning or this afternoon who need to understand the importance of your faith.
I want you to notice what happened in this story. The Bible said that the ten spies came back. Twelve of them came back. Two of them had a good report, but ten came back and they said, listen, there's grapes there the size of of watermelons, there's there's incredible productivity in the land. But then they started bringing up these excuses. The people are strong people. They gave four excuses, four reasons why they could not enter. Said, "The people that are against us are very strong." And then they said, "And not only that, they have a superhuman army backing the strong people." That they are, their sons of Anak are sons of giants. They're giants in the land. Also, not just that the people are strong, but they've got super warriors that are even stronger than the strong people. They're giants. And then they said, "There are walled cities. They're thick walls around their cities." And then they said, "And the land that they inhabit eats people up."
I want you to notice what they're focusing on, on what they saw, not what God said. We need to be reminded and refreshed and renew our minds on what God has said more than what we see. God said in Deuteronomy 6:23, "I brought you out to take you in to a land, a promise flowing with milk and honey." God didn't bring you out to wander in the wilderness. God did not bring you out to become stagnant, to become intimidated, to become frustrated, to become without direction, but He brought you out to bring you in. If He saved you and brought you out of sin, He didn't just bring you out, but He has something He wants to bring you into. And my question to you this afternoon is, what's keeping you out?
Well, they said, "The walls, the walls are keeping us out. The giants are keeping us out. The strong opposition of the people that are coming against us are keeping us out. And the the territory, the terrain is too, too difficult to overcome." That's what's keeping us out. And you know, the more they hashed and rehashed the walls and the giants and the strength of their enemy and the and the difficulty of the terrain, the the thicker the walls got, the taller the giants got, the the more difficult the terrain got, and the people got stronger. But God said, "I'm going." You've heard man's appraisal of why they're not entering in. They blame it on giants, they blame it on walls, they blame it on strong people who are against them, they blame it on the terrain or natural circumstances that they can't overcome because they're not big and strong enough to do it physically. But God said, "You want my appraisal of the situation? Here's one answer." One answer. Hebrews chapter 3, the verse that I started with. And He said, "They could not enter in because of unbelief."
God's observation said it's because of their unbelief. The walls did not stop them. The giants didn't have anything to do with them not going in. The giants didn't stop them, according to God. The walls didn't stop them. The strong people inhabiting the land did not stop them. The terrain did not stop them. God said, "All you had to do was believe Me." Now, you, you're giving excuses, and all of us do this. We all do this. But the truth is, if we don't enter into the promised land for our families and our children and our children's children and the destiny that God has for all of us, it will not be because the giants were too mighty or the walls were too thick or they were too big for our God to triumph and overcome. There's only one reason, and He said it's because you don't believe what I told you.
R.W. Schambach, who preached in this church and put me on TV, he was an evangelist and a Pentecostal evangelist, and he took up an offering back in the old, old church on a Sunday night. And we didn't have, you know, a few hundred people back then. It wasn't a big, massive church that it is now. And he took, got up and said, "The Lord told me this boy's supposed to be," and I was a boy then, "he's supposed to be on TV." And he took up an offering and got a hundred and forty-something thousand dollars cash, and we bought TV equipment, the TV equipment that we needed. But he used to say, "You don't have no problems, all you've got is faith in God." Never forgot that saying. What's keeping you out of your promised land? Number one, unbelief will keep you out. If God said it, it's time to stand up and believe it. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. But my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. Has anybody made up your mind that the lies and the giants and the walls of resistance are not going to stop you from inheriting those promises? If so, give God a praise right now. Unbelief must be conquered.
I'm hurrying to get to the thing I really feel I'm supposed to get to. The second thing that kept them out was intimidation. Intimidation. The Bible said that two of the spies said, "We can do it," and we all know their names, Joshua and Caleb. But ten said, "We can't," and nobody knows their names. You don't know why? Because nobody wants to remember people who tell us what we can't do. If you want to be remembered, you better tell people what they can do. Tell your family what they can do. Tell your children what they can do. Don't just be a "can't be," be a "can." I, I honestly, I couldn't tell you the times that God shoved me out because He knew I was too intimidated to step out and obey Him. And I got shoved. It's like that little story I tell sometimes about the multi-millionaire in Texas. Had a massive Olympic-sized swimming pool behind his mansion. Having a barbecue, invited all of his friends over. They went down to the swimming pool, and it was full of alligators, full of them. And they said, "Why is your, why is your pool full of alligators?" He said, "Well, the number one quality that I admire above all others is courage." And he said, "It's known around these parts that anyone who's willing to jump in one end of my pool and swim to the other through the alligators, I will write on the spot a million-dollar check." They turned around and started walking back up, and all of a sudden they heard splash. They turned around and they watched a man swimming like an Olympic swimmer, and almost walking on the water, somehow he came out. They were chomping, and somehow he came out alive. And the millionaire went running, and he said, "Oh my God, I've never seen courage on display like that in all my life. That was amazing. But here, who do you want me to make the check to?" He said, "I just want to know who pushed me in." Sometimes you got to be shoved. Sometimes you got to be pushed. I can't tell you the times when I didn't want to do it. I was scared to death. They didn't know if they knew how intimidated I was, they would say, "Poor pitiful thing." But God has a way of taking people who His hand is on and shoving you out there. And when you get out there, the gift will make room for you. The gift will start opening doors no man can shut. The gift will pay the bills. The gift will save your family. And the Lord says, "Get ready for a shove." Women, you're about to have God push you out into where He's called you to go. Everybody take a praise break, and I'll keep moving.
This is the last point. I mean, when you understand that intimidation and unbelief kept them out of their promised land, not giants, not walls, not terrain, not strong enemies, that haters that can't keep you out. The only thing that can keep you out is unbelief, intimidation. And here's the last one: a grasshopper complex. You know, they said, "We are as grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we are in their sight," talking about their enemy. "We are and were as grasshoppers in our sight, and so we were in their sight." How you see yourself, and how the enemy determines how the enemy sees you. And if you have poor self-image of yourself, the enemy is going to agree with you. We saw ourselves as grasshoppers, and they agreed. "When we said, 'We're grasshoppers, aren't we?'" And and they said, "Yes, you are." But here's what got me that I've never seen this, I've never heard this, I've never seen this. This messed me up. This is the whole sermon that I've been hurrying to get to. Here it is. They said, "We were in our plural, we plural, in our sight as grasshoppers." The problem was not only how I see me, but it's how I see you. It's how I see you. Not just me, that can determine whether or not I get into the promised land. It's how if I see you, and you, and you, and you, and you, as grasshoppers. Grasshoppers. That she's not important. She's not important. She's not important. Well, she doesn't have that much money, and she's not that, she's not this, she doesn't have the right kind of red bottom shoes. She, and you, and you, and you, and you. And when you start seeing others that God has called you to be grouped with as insignificant, they had an improper respect for each other. The grasshopper is just the little insect that you step on. It makes no difference. There's nothing special about a, a grasshopper. And God said, "The reason they can't go in is because they see each other as grasshoppers. They see their children as grasshoppers." You might be talking to the next president of the United States. You might be changing the diaper of the next, of the next senator from Georgia. Quit seeing those whom God has put in your life as grasshoppers, because your children and your children's children are part of the plan of God's destiny for you and your life.
[Applause]
I'm telling you, I'm so glad when I came to this church 30-something years ago and stood in that pulpit. When I got up, I made crazy statements like, "One of these days, we're going to preach the gospel to the whole world from these red hill clay, these red clay hills of Northeast Georgia." And maybe 300 people. Did he say the whole world? But I didn't see those people as grasshoppers. Oh, I feel like shouting. When you hear your little child in there having piano lessons, don't see them as a grasshopper. They may be the next songwriter that brings a song that touches the world. When you see that child, and we need God to show us who we are and who we have around us. There's not a grasshopper in this building this afternoon, because here's the deal. They didn't make it in, not because of the giants and the walls, but because of unbelief, because of intimidation, and because they saw themselves and the others around them. There were people in this church who God would give me messages, and I would preach them like I believed it. And I, I knew it was going to take millions and millions of dollars to do everything God's called us to do. And so I knew there wasn't enough money in that building right there to get it done. So I had to stop seeing those people as grasshoppers. I'm not praising myself, but God gave me lenses of faith, and I would see them as some of them as multi-millionaires. Well, well, well. Oh yeah. I don't believe that that would happen. That's why grasshopper. Why don't you get a new revelation and say, "You know what? If that's part of God's plan, and I can't shake it, I might as well just get under the blessing and say, God is no respecter of persons, and He doesn't just have to have me. Maybe the next trillionaire ought to be a woman of God, full of the Holy Ghost." Why don't we stop seeing ourselves as grasshoppers? You don't need a man. You got a man. His name is Jesus, and He'll supply all you need. And then get a man. I dare you to reach over and grab a woman and link up with her and say, "Let's march into the promised land together." I'm not asking, "Are you a grasshopper?" because I'm not one, and I don't want to link up with no little pitiful, poor me, pitiful me, woe is me. He left me. Who gives a rip? Jesus said, "I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you." Grab hold of a sister and say, "Let's do this. We can do this. We can raise families in a demonic time. We can raise champions for the glory. We can see our sons and daughters prophesy."
[Music] Let's do this. [Music]
I believe today while you're viewing this program, the Holy Spirit has been speaking to you, and it's time for you today to invite Him and His great presence into your life. Just repeat this prayer after me. Say, "Lord Jesus, cleanse me, heal me, help me. I can't help myself. I can't, I can't get myself free. I need a deliverer. I need a Savior. I need You, Lord Jesus. I bow to You. I give You my life today. Heal me, help me, lift me, forgive me, cleanse me. In Jesus' name, I ask. I speak healing over every household today. I speak the power of God into every situation, every person stressed, every person who feels like you're at the end of your hope, every person listening to me that you just feel like you're out of options and you don't know where to turn. It's not by chance you're watching this program. He's still the answer. His name is Jesus. Speak that name, and peace comes wherever that name is invoked. In Jesus' name, I speak help and healing and comfort and the angels of God around your life. In Jesus' name."
And I want to welcome you to the family of God. I can't tell you how excited we are that you just made the major decision, the most important decision in your life, to follow Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Fill out our salvation form. You can go there, and we'll send you free a 21-day devotional to help you in your new relationship with Jesus. You don't have to walk alone. And we've got online church and online campus, all of that, and it'll feed your soul.
And as many of you know, God has led us to work closely with the nation and the people of Israel, the border of the Gaza Strip, in an area called Ashkelon. They're constantly under attack. That's why this ministry has been building fortified buildings for the families of this region of Israel. In fact, during a recent escalation on the border of Israel, these bomb shelters were used to keep families, women, and children safe. Will you help me today bring comfort to the people of Israel? When you give to this ministry, our pledge to you is we do three things with the resources. We unashamedly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to 200 nations, just like you've heard on this telecast today. Secondly, we produce inspirational resources. We put out all kinds of material that encourage people in their walk with God. And thirdly, we go above and beyond to support projects just like this one in the nations of the world that need it the most. So today, do your part, and I know God will bless you. Thank you, and we'll see you next time, right here.
This program has been sponsored by friends and partners of jensen franklin media ministries. We hope you've enjoyed this teaching by jensen franklin, and thank you for your continued support of this ministry.