This Is Bigger Than Them

I'm glad you're here. If you're watching online, I'm so thankful the Lord saw it fit to put this message in your algorithm. Oh, it's not accidental. No, no, no, no, no. God is bigger than YouTube. God will make YouTube feed this sermon to you so that he can feed you. I just want to know right there in the comments where you're watching from, so if you're joining us, let us know. How many of you were here last week to hear my message last week? Only reason I ask that is because I want to keep going with it a little bit today. Turn in your Bible to Joshua chapter 14. You may remain standing as I read the Word of God. Joshua chapter 14, verses 6 through 13. By now, they're all over YouTube telling us where they're joining from. Do you all want to do a few shout-outs on YouTube as you find Scripture? You know you need an extra minute to find Joshua 14 anyway. I'm trying to hook you up, but let's see. Here we go. Here we go. Here they are. Watching from Rochester, New York, California, Montgomery, Alabama. See? All different countries. We got Palestine, Miami, New Mexico, Ontario, Montreal. Aren't you from Ontario, LJ? Do you know this person? Lil' Anne Boothreed, you know her. Oh, God knows. Waynesville, North Carolina.

Columbia, South Carolina. Now, you need to get to the Columbia campus, all right? You better have a cold or something this week. Watching online. Brazil. Let's give it up for our eFam all over the world. Thank you for joining. I listen to this Scripture, and then I'll fill in the background after I've read it to you. Now, the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh… This is one of those times where you're glad your dad didn't name you Junior. Caleb, son of Jephunneh. Jephunneh Junior would have been what he would have been called, so Caleb is a much better name. Everybody say, Caleb. Caleb is the character we want to talk about today. Caleb the Kenizzite, and said to him, "'You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, at Kadesh Barnea, about you and me. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land, and I brought him back a report according to my convictions.'" Not according to a committee, not a report according to the comments section, but a report according to my convictions. That's what he did. "'I brought him a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, "'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.' Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years, since

the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.'" You yourself heard then that the Antichrites were there and their cities were large and fortified. "'With the Lord helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said.'" Let's camp in verse 13 as I give you my message today. "'Then Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.'" I came with a reminder today. I want to remind you that this is bigger than them. This is bigger than them. Lord, thank you for your Word. We receive it before we even know what you say, because it comes from you. Speak, Lord. Your servants are listening. In Jesus' name, amen. Hit your neighbor on your way down and say, It's bigger than them. This is bigger than them. When I first opened this passage of Scripture, I thought the main point of the passage was about Caleb's age. He's 85. I thought maybe I shouldn't preach this, Lord, because my church has a diversity of ages. I'm not just speaking to people who are older in life who need to keep their motivation high. I'm preaching to people who are also inexperienced in life and are just getting started. But the Lord showed me something very powerful. If you give me a second to break it down, I'm going to tie it into what God has been speaking in our church the past few weeks.

This message isn't really about Caleb's age. It's a message about agency. Agency may be an unfamiliar word in church, but if you ever walk into a therapist's office, they will eventually talk to you about agency. When I went to Bible school, seminary, they taught me about sovereignty. The sovereignty of God means he's in charge. But I had to go to a counselor's office to learn the word agency, because agency means God is in charge, but I also get to choose. Agency means I am not merely a reflection of my environment but that my responses in life actually affect my environment. I guess you could say it's the opposite of a victim mentality. I have agency. What's amazing to me about Caleb's story in Joshua 14 is that he is a combination of understanding God's sovereignty and his agency. Now I'm not just trying to use the therapy word for the heck of it. I think that's an important thing for you to understand, that although you may have faith in God, you also need to own your ability to make decisions in your life. Some of you would think this is common sense, but sometimes we check our common sense when we become Christians, and we just confuse the fact that we have surrendered all to God and put the results in his hand with the idea that we still have responsibility as we live this life. Caleb stands as an example in the Scriptures as a man who was unwilling to allow his life and his path and the pin of his story to be in the hands of another person. Last week, the message I preached was called You Can Change the End. I don't know what you thought when you heard that title, but I think some of us maybe were a little resistant to that idea at first, You Can Change the End, because when I say you can change the end, you think about situations where you were not able to affect the outcome in the way you wanted. The first thing that came to my mind as I was preparing the message called You Can Change the End is how my dad's life ended.

He died of a sickness called ALS. He died of a sickness, but he also died surrounded by our family. The reason he died of a sickness I will never understand on this side of eternity, but the reason he died surrounded is because of my mom. My dad had completely lost his mind when he received his diagnosis, to the point that he became a danger to my mom, and for a season of his sickness, they had to live separated. It's a lot of details I won't get into right now, but you better believe that we were all praying, God heal him, God change him. God did not heal him, but that does not mean that God was not with him. I'm going to explain that in just a moment. My mom made a decision to forgive him and to bring him back, and for that reason, he died sick, but he died surrounded by his family. What I'm trying to say is that in any given situation of your life, you can't always change the result, but you can always choose to change the outcome. your response. That's what I'm saying. So when I said agency, what I mean is you get to choose. God is in charge, and I get to choose. God is in charge, and I get to choose whether or not I cooperate with God, collaborate with God, partner with God, align with God, bow to God, submit to God, or whether I spend all my energy fighting against God and then have no energy left to defend myself against the Devil. You get to choose. Last week, I gave you an illustration, and I want to hit it again real quick. I put two words on the board. It said, The End. Everybody say, The End. We were talking about the Israelites coming to the Red Sea. Their time in Egypt has ended, but their time in the Promised Land has not yet started. In order to get to where God is bringing them to, they have to leave where God is bringing them from, and they have to go through something they didn't expect. They begin to cry out to God, because they're like, We can't get across this. Behind them are chariots which represent the best technology Egypt has to make against a vagabond nation who has not yet even learned how to survive in a nomadic sense. So, the end is imminent. We talked about those seasons in our life where the Enemy says, It's the end. When the Enemy says, You can't recover from this… I'm going to preach it right to you. Where the Enemy says, You'll always be an addict. Where the Enemy says, No one will ever be able to love you. Where the Enemy says, You're not going to be

happy again. There's too much trauma. Where the Enemy says, It's over. The end. We talked about a very powerful word that comes after the end. When the Bible says… Watch this. Change it, Jared. Then Moses stretched his hand, and he stretched out his stick, and something as small as a stick split something as big as a sea, because we learned that big doors swing on little hinges. Do you remember? But it all hinges on the word then. Then Moses stretched his hand. If he had stayed planted in his fear, he would have died. We talked about the fact that God has given you the pen in your life right now to write your next then. One day you will be telling a story of this season, and you will say, And then I went back to church. And then I joined a recovery group. And then I prayed about it. And then I flushed the pills. And then I got some accountability. Then I decided I didn't need to be with that man if he was going to treat me that way. I'd rather be alone than be abused. Then I called somebody to help me who had a pickup truck. Then I moved out of the house. Then I made space for God to move. Then God sent me Jimmy, and Jimmy loved Jesus. Me and Jimmy and Jesus have been doing good for the last 30 years, but it all hinges on a then. You don't know a then when you're in it. Sometimes you don't know how close you are to a turning point in your life. So, if I were the Devil, I would get you to give up before you get to your then. I would convince you that it was the end so you would never get to then. I would try to kill you in your frustration. I would try to get you to walk away from God because he's not answering your questions. I would try to get you to confuse yourself so deeply about your identity in Christ that you give up on the fact that there is a God at all, because I wouldn't want you to get to then. Did you notice in the Bible when Caleb is coming to Joshua… He's coming to somebody who he has a relationship of 45 years with, maybe longer. They were the two spies. I don't know if you remember. They went into the promised land, and there were 10 spies. We're going to look at this in Numbers, chapters 13 and 14 in a minute, but this is 45 years later. Moses sent them in to see what the land was like so they could not only come out of Egypt but go into the promised land. Do you know how many people get delivered from something but never go to what God has given them? Seriously. Do you know how many people get delivered from their sin because they accept Jesus Christ and his death on the cross but they never learn to live forgiven so they stay shackled to shame? So, what good was it for Jesus to hang and die for me if I'm going to hang my head and not ever

receive who I am in him? It's amazing how many of us get delivered and then we don't. We don't ever get to then. We don't ever see the story unfold. I came over here for a reason. I wanted to tell you about the two spies, Joshua and Caleb. Joshua is the leader. The book, Joshua… Yeah, he did that. He didn't write it, but it's about his military campaign when he led them to explore the land. Now, Joshua has conquered the land for the last seven years. Caleb has been a part of that conquest, and Caleb, at age 85, comes to Joshua, who was his partner, and says, "'Hey, remember what Moses said I could have. It's my time.'" At first, I thought he sounded selfish. I thought he sounded greedy. I thought, well, now, Caleb, you should just be glad you're not in the wilderness anymore. But there was something about Caleb that, as I studied it over and over again, I saw it as an instruction that I want to break down into three points for you today. I want to talk to you about belief, I want to talk to you about bitterness, and I want to talk to you about blessing. Those three things. And then you can go get lunch. But before you do, I want to talk to you about belief, bitterness, and blessing. First, let's talk about belief. Did you notice that Caleb's speech started not with his preference but with God's promise? A lot of times, we are believing God to do things he never said he would do. One of these things is that God would give us blessings without battles. So let me give you a little pointer, a little tip. Stop expecting battleless blessings. Is battleless a word? I don't know if it's a word, but it's not a thing.

This is what the Lord showed me. There are battles that don't bring blessings, but there are no blessings that don't bring battles. Am I right? I mean, there are fights you can get yourself in that bring no fruit. They happen online. You never saw a fruitful Facebook argument, did you? Never once. Never once did a testimony start with, you know, I was going back and forth with a troll on Facebook, and the Lord just did something awesome. No, never, ever, ever. So there are battles that don't bring blessings, but there are no blessings that don't bring battles. So stop praying for blessings and being surprised by battles. Because every blessing you will ask God for will bring a battle with it. Every blessing. You're asking God for kids. Get ready to yell at them about everything. Am I right about it? Because when God wants to bring a blessing into your life, guess what he uses? A person. When the Enemy wants to block a blessing from your life, guess what he uses? A person. And isn't it interesting that the same thing God will use to bless you, a person, is the thing the Enemy will use to block you, a person. The reason I wanted to preach this message and call it This Is Bigger Than Them is because I believe some of us get right up to the point, like the children of Israel got up to the point where God was bringing them into a promise. You get right up to the point where God is doing something in your life. You get right up to the point where God is fulfilling what he has purpose concerning

you. You get right up to the point of then. It's not the end. It's then. And what stops you a lot of times… Watch this. I'm going to just change one letter. Change the letter. Them. So somebody in here has some relational conflict. Did you see how they said that? Whoa! That was like a six-note whoa run. Whoa! Because while we're shouting about then, it would be easy to get to then if it wasn't for them. Look at me as sanctimonious as you please, but there is a them in your life right now that you are asking God to change. My message last week was you can change the end, but my message is you can't change them. So it lets me know… Am I preaching good yet? It lets me know that when God brings me to a then moment in my life, when God is doing… a new thing in my life. When God is calling me to conquer, when God is calling me to go forth, when God is calling me to change, there will always be a them when I'm on the brink of a then. Now, let's get away from wordplay for just a moment and use an example. A few years ago, I was coming home from church, and my kids were in the backseat acting crazy. I've told you this story before. Let's see if you remember it. They were acting so crazy in the backseat of the car, and I'm telling you, at this exact moment, I was burned out. Back then, I used to preach three times every weekend, so it was just awful. When I would get done, I would feel like I had gargled razor blades as I was preaching. My throat was sore, my head was hurting, and the kids were

screaming in the backseat. Now, remember what I just told you. When God wants to bring a blessing into your life, he'll use a person. My kids are my greatest blessing, other than Holly, and then God used her to bring them, so it's all connected. But when God wants to bring a blessing into your life, he brings it through a person. When the Enemy wants to block a blessing in your life, he blocks it through a person. At that exact moment, those kids were blocking my blessing, and not only blocking my blessing but making me lose my absolute mind. I'm going to get back to Caleb in a minute, but let me tell you about me for a minute. Let me tell you how different I am from Caleb. Let me tell you how much I did not want to preach this passage, because I so often do the opposite. Last week, I told you about a fight I almost got in a movie parking lot. This week, I'm going to tell you about the time Holly was driving me home from church on Providence Road, and the kids were screaming so loud in the back. I was so through. I was so done. I was so capable of homicide at that moment. I was so afraid of what I was going to say next if they didn't shut up, because I asked them to shut up three times. I didn't ask them to be quiet. I didn't pray for them. I didn't read a Scripture to them. I said, "'Shut up' three times." They didn't shut up. I said, "'Holly, stop the car.'" I did the only reasonable thing I could think of to do. I got out of the car. Now here's the good part of the story. Are you ready? I'm walking down Providence Road, and we're still a mile and a half from the house. I didn't think this all the way through. Not only is the thought of what example this is setting for my kids, but I'm also wondering, what if people are driving home from church and they see me walking down the road right now looking like a hitchhiker? I'm walking thinking these things. I know you remember this. All of a sudden, I see Holly's car come back around. Now, she had already drove off. When I got out, she drove off, but then she came back. Now, she came back, and I'm still not ready yet. I'm still not ready to face them again. But when she turned the car around and I opened the door and I was getting ready to tell her, I can't get back in. I can't deal with this right now. I noticed that she was the only one in the car. It was just her. So, I got in, and she looked at me and said something I'll never forget. She said, You know, I drove off, but it didn't feel right. I got halfway to the house, and I had this thought. Wait a minute. You don't get out. They do. Isn't that good? Didn't I choose a good wife? Isn't that a Proverbs 31 woman? You don't get out. They do. I had this thing backwards. I bought the car. I put the gas in the car. I'm feeding y'all lunch. I'm the one who preached.

Y'all have contributed nothing. You can walk. Get some exercise. Call the cops. Call Child Protective Services. I don't care. Build your testimony. I stand by it. I'm getting back in. That's what Caleb said about those giants. That's my mountain. That's my land. I'm not leaving what God gave me. I'm not getting out. They are. God feel like preaching. Give me a full-band B3 shot. Give me a one. Give me a flat seven. Give me a four. Give me a one. Celebrate on the one. I have to get focused here, because Caleb said something so powerful. He said in verse 12, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said. Notice who he's talking about. He is talking about the giants, the fortified giants, the giants that were too big for the previous generation. but he understands in this moment that the promise God has made him is bigger than the inhabitants of the land that oppose him. I just came to remind you what Romans 8.31 says. If God is for us, if God is on our side, if God has purposed it, if God gave you a word, if God gave you an assignment, if God gave you something to do in the earth, if God promised this is bigger than them. Say it. This is bigger than them. This is bigger than them. That's what Holly realized. Wait. We're the adults here. We're the grownups here. They're the kids here. Here's what Caleb realizes in a very, very similar sense. He realizes if it's either me possessing what God has promised or the people that are there staying, God will help me drive them out. But I thought about that moment in the car, and I realized was the real issue who was in the car or was the real issue what was in me? Is it that they needed to get out or is there something that needed to get out of me that would keep my full 43-year-old self from getting out of a moving vehicle? The car wasn't even at a complete stop. I forgot to tell you that part. What was in me that made me? Everybody say, Made me. I'm talking about belief now. They made me. Notice what Caleb said when he's describing back to Joshua before he possesses the land. He said in verse 8, he said, The Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. This is the most practical thing I want to tell you about this message today. Be very careful of made-me language. This is bigger than them. I know my kids' behavior

was not a big enough reason for me to get out of a moving vehicle, so whatever I'm dealing with that made me get out of the car is not a 10-year-old. What made me behave that way? Their behavior? No, no, no. Be careful of made-me language. Now, Caleb here on one hand sounds cocky and self-righteous, but on the other hand, I just see a man who's choosing what chapter he wants to live in. Did you know you can choose what chapter you live in? You can. I know this flies in the face of everything we teach as faith, because when we teach faith, we teach that the results are in God's hand, and they are. He's sovereign, but the response is in my hand. So, Caleb shows it. Can I break it down? Why am I asking you for permission? Why don't I just do it? But my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people… That's them. They made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however… That's me…followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. The reason Caleb was able to receive what God had for him is because he realized this is bigger than them. He realized nobody can make me. God made me, and when God made me, he gave me the power to respond. How many of you have said something like this recently? They made me late. How many of you got behind a slow driver at some point this week? They're going to make me late. Okay. That is one way to see it. They're going to make you late. Another way to see it is that you did not build sufficient margin into your schedule to account for the fact that there is always a slow driver on some road somewhere on the way to work. So, before you say they made you, realize that made me is dangerous language. They made me late. Did they make you hit snooze seven times? Did they make you do that too? Did they take your finger and go, No, I don't think so. I know it's silly, but I'm trying to give you a picture. When you are using made me language, it is the opposite of agency. It is the opposite of being able to move according to God's purpose. Here's another one. Like me with the kids in the car, they made me so mad I got out of the car. They didn't make you so mad. You are so crazy. You were so burned out that their behavior triggered your exhausted emotional response. they triggered it doesn't mean you had to choose it. I'm going to preach until I lose every single amen, and then I'll know that this message is hitting home. When you say, "'They made me hate them.'" They didn't make you hate them. Here's what I learned. There will always be events in our life that we can't control, but within every event that

we can't control is a decision that we can. Within every event that I can't control is a decision that I can. My mom could not heal my dad. She could not pray him to better health, but she forgave him back into the home so that even though the result isn't what we wanted, the response was one we can be thankful for. That's what I'm trying to say. Somebody say, "'This is bigger than them.'" Everybody in here has a them right now. Just like Caleb, he said, "'I will drive them out.'" That represents the enemies. But before he could even deal with them, he had to believe that what God has spoken over his life is greater than what any person can prevent. I wrote it down this way in my office yesterday. No person can prevent what God has truly promised. People can definitely mess with your mind. People can definitely push your buttons, but they cannot prevent a promise. If people could prevent a promise, God would not have sent 10 plagues to tell Pharaoh, "'When I say, let my people go, when I stretch forth my mighty hand…' I came to preach to somebody today. It's bigger than them. The God you serve is bigger than them." You don't have to get in this blame game. More people have been blocked from blessings by blame than any other contributing factor I can name. In fact, at one point in my life, I was praying. I was saying, "'God, I need a breakthrough in this area. I need a breakthrough in this area. I need a breakthrough.'" But while I was praying for breakthrough, I was also blaming somebody. The Lord spoke so clearly to me. You cannot claim breakthrough if you cling to blame. Not at the same time. Think about it, church. Think about what Caleb could have said. Think about what Caleb would have said if he had not believed that God's purpose prevails, if he had not believed that God could still do it, if he had not believed that no weapon against me can prosper, that if he had not believed that God brought me to this point not to leave me… Look what he said. "'I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.'" Now, you can call it bragging if you want to, but when I heard Caleb say that, I saw something different. He said, verse 8, "'My fellow Israelites made the hearts of the people meld in fear. I, however, followed my God.'" That's agency. Did you see it? Okay. I'll try it another way. He's saying, in a sense, what I have been through can't stop God from blessing me, and what others didn't do can't stop God from blessing me. I'm going to tell you two things you can't control. The future and others. Neither one of those are in your control,

but your decision to live by conviction in this season of your life… Who am I talking to? Your decision to say, "'It is not going to get in me.'" If Caleb had lived through that wilderness experience, 38 years in the wilderness, seven years of conquest for the promised land… He said, "'I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me to explore the land, and I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but it died by committee.'" All of those spies died of a plague. All of those people over 20 died in the wilderness, but not Caleb. Look what he said. "'My fellow Israelites made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.'" That's powerful. Then verse 10. "'Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years.'" Thirty-eight in the wilderness. Eight of taking the promised land, or seven of taking the promised land, and still a mountain on his mind. I thought about calling the message. I have my mind on my mountain and my mountain on my mind, but I didn't want to confuse the authorship. But really, that would preach, wouldn't it? All the time he was moving through the wilderness, his mind was on his mountain. How do you keep your mountain on your mind when you are surrounded by wilderness conditions? How do you keep a better tomorrow on your mind when all you can feel is the pressure of today? I thought what Caleb said was cocky, but then I realized what he could have said. Now let's say he was like you and me sometimes, and he said, Now then, the Lord has made me wait for 45 years. He could have said that, but he didn't see it that way. What a perspective when a person just decides, that I trust that God is sovereign over my life. That includes the timing. That includes what he allows others to do. That includes what he allows others not to do. That includes who shows up in my life. That includes who leaves my life. That includes the skills I have, the skills I don't have. Stop being so insecure about it. God will keep you alive. God will bring you into your promise. God will bring you into your destiny. God will open a door no man can shut and shut doors nobody can open. Caleb said, God kept me alive. Now he could have complained. He could have been bitter about it. That's the second thing I want to talk to you about. I want to talk to you about bitterness. Imagine if Caleb had gone through the wilderness for 38 years, replaying all of the bad decisions others made that put him in this place. Imagine if Caleb

had gone through the wilderness just getting more and more bitter. He would have never been able to say what he said in verse 11. I'm still strong. See, the reason he was still strong enough for what God had next for him was because of what he said to himself when he was in the wilderness. Because he did not get bitter in the wilderness… I'm preaching to somebody today. You're getting bitter in the wilderness. You are allowing the isolation of this season to dominate your mind. I don't know who you are, but I see you just walking around the wilderness, and you keep blaming people, and you keep getting bitter about people. Every day that goes by, you're getting more and more mad about them. I wouldn't be in this dead if it wasn't for them. I wouldn't be in this dungeon if it wasn't for them. I wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for them. But I came with a reminder that this is bigger than them. I said, this is bigger than them. Three people giving praise. This is bigger than them. Thirty people giving praise. This is bigger than them. For every them you could blame, I know a him you could praise if you decided to today. The other way to say it is, he kept me alive 45 years. He kept me and led me through a very thirsty place. He kept me. High-five your neighbor and say, He kept me. He kept me. I went through some barren places, but he kept me. There was no water, but he made it come out of a rock. He kept me. There was no way, but he made a way. He kept me. I was walking through a wilderness, but my shoes never wore out. My clothes never wore out. He kept me. You keep focusing on who left you, but how about the God who kept you through the night, who kept you through the trial, who kept you through the adversity? I'm preaching too hard. I'm preaching to try to get you to see that if God is for you, who can be against you? This is bigger than them. But the biggest battle Caleb won was not against the enemies that inhabited Canaan. It was against the bitterness that could have inhabited him. It's the bitterness that blocks your blessing. It's the bitterness that blocks your creativity. It's feeling unappreciated. That wasn't… It might not be fair, but God has favor that is bigger than unfair, so the favor of God will cancel out what was unfair. This is bigger than them. This is bigger than what they could give you.

This is bigger than what you could predict. This is bigger than how you could map out your life. But if the bitterness had gotten into Caleb, the blessing would have never happened. So you have to choose now. Bitterness or blessing? Because the Bible says in verse 13, then Joshua blessed Caleb, and he gave him the mountain, and he gave him the inheritance, and it would not be investment-free, but it was his. We would never get to then, but the verse up, if he had become bitter because of them. There are seasons in your life where your insecurity has caused you to invent enemies that did not exist. That was the whole reason Moses never got to go into the promised land, because he was more focused on them than him. That is the whole reason you keep giving your purity away to some pervert that's beneath you, because your focus is on them, not him. Who cares what they say? They didn't make me. They don't have the final say. I will move it away from a temptation aspect and ask you the question, why do you keep inventing enemies? Because you will not deal with the insecurity. The whole reason Moses could not go into the promised land was because of his insecurity. Do you remember the first thing he said to God? Who am I that I should go? It doesn't matter who you are. It matters who he is and what he's given you to do. This is bigger than him. Everybody who's raising a child and you don't feel like you know what you're doing, wave at me. Okay. It's God's kid before it's your kid.

So this is bigger than them. This is bigger than them. This is bigger than you. This is bigger than both of you all put together. God wants you to trust him. How many of you are moving into a season of your life where you have never felt more uncertain about your own competence? Do not miss getting your grapes because you see yourself as a grasshopper. I take this reference directly from Numbers chapter 13. When the people of God could have gone into the land, they were carrying grapes on their shoulders. Big grapes. Cluster of grapes. It took two of them to carry one pole. I believe it was Joshua and Caleb. I believe that's why Caleb came back to his great-carrying partner when he said, "'It's time. It's time. I survived the wilderness, and it's time. I didn't die in the desert, and it's time. I'm still ready. I'm still strong. I didn't get bitter.'" Caleb comes to Joshua and says, "'It's time for me to be blessed.'" But you know, they could have had the same blessing a generation earlier. If they had seen themselves correctly, if they had seen themselves as blessed, they would have realized that there is no battle that is too big for God. But instead, they said in verse 31, we saw the Nephilim there, and we can't attack those people. We can't attack them.

They are stronger than we are. Go back one verse before, please. Oh, you're going to love this. Then Caleb silenced the people. Then, 45 years earlier, he silenced the people, and he said, "'We should go up and take possession of the land. We can certainly do it.' But the people said, "'We can't attack those people. They're stronger than we are.'" Next verse. "'And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "'The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there, they're big. They're of great size.'" Verse 33. We saw the Nephilim there. The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim. "'We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.'" But what you fail to realize, man, is this is bigger than them. God promised you that land. God promised you freedom. God promised you tomorrow. God promised you a hope and a future. God promised you to break the generation. curse. God promised you total freedom. God promised you righteousness. God promised you peace. God promised you joy in the Holy Spirit. I came with a reminder today that this is bigger than them. This is bigger than them. If you can make it through this wilderness season of your life and not get bitter and not be insecure about what you don't have, God can take somebody who feels like a grasshopper and feed them something that looks like a grape. Now, I'm telling you what I know about, because every time I've done something in this church

that seemed unusual, there was always somebody who said I couldn't do it, but it wasn't up to them, because it's bigger than them. This is bigger than them. Now, I'm coming up here for a reason, because there are so many people in this church who do not look alike. In fact, there are people in this church who, if they ever talk to one another, they get in a fistfight. That's all right. There are people in this church whose backgrounds are so different. Any educational background you want to mention is in this church. There are doctors in this church who hear every word I mispronounce. People with PhDs, and my grammar drives them crazy, but they come anyway. There are people in this church who can't even read, but they come to church, and God speaks to them anyway, because God is bigger than a reading disability. Now, I'm trying to tell you something. When I started this church, I said, I want to have a church that is nontraditional, but we preach the word. There was somebody who said you can't do both. You can't reach lost people and preach the word. I already preached half the Bible today, and I didn't see anybody walk out. There are some people in here who already know the story, and some people never heard it. But see, God is bigger than them. There have been people through the years who criticized us for being a church that would dare to not make political statements but be more oriented around the cross of Christ than by a cultural position that is already so prevalent that it's dividing this country right down the middle, but this is bigger than them, because God did not call me to reach one subset of people. That's what I'm trying to say. This is bigger than them. One pastor took me out to lunch when I was first getting started. I said, what would really be in my heart is to have a church that is incredibly diverse. He said, what do you mean diverse? Do you mean like black people and white people together? I said, yeah. He said, you'd better not go to Charlotte if you want to start a church like that, because Charlotte is too divided for a church like that. If you wanted a church that had black people and white people and people from all different backgrounds, there is no way you can break through racism in Charlotte. I don't care how good your heart is. I don't care how much you pray. I've tried it before. I've been a pastor for 30 years, and they were telling me it couldn't happen, but this is bigger than them, because if you look around you today, you will see very different types of people. I just want to remind you, if God puts something in your heart and they said it could never happen… You go on in, Caleb. You go on in, 85 years old. You go on in with a

cane. You go on in with a suspended driver's license. You go on in on your second marriage. You go on in and do what God called you to do, because this is bigger than them. I tell myself when I preach, these cameras are putting me out all over the world. Now I'm back where they don't have any cameras, but I'm telling you that this service is going out beyond this room, because when God speaks, it has no limit. When God speaks, it has no border. I don't care how they diagnose you. God's destiny does not consult man's diagnosis. This is bigger than them. This is bigger than fear. This is bigger than my past. This is bigger than shame. This is bigger than the naysayer. This is bigger than the critic. It's bigger than them. Stand up, I'm done. This is bigger than them. I dare you to let a person get in the way of what God promised you. This is bigger than them. God said to Caleb, "'Because you made a decision not to be defined by an event.'" Verse 9, Joshua 14. This land where you put your feet is bigger than you. It will be your inheritance and that of your children forever. I'm almost done, but when you are in the middle of a then, you don't know what's on the other side of it. There are no blessings that don't come with battles, but I promise you that this battle that you're fighting right now… There is a blessing on the other side of it. Jesus said, "'Pour you out a blessing that you won't have room enough to receive.'" What did he say? Press down, shaking together, and running over, because this is going to be bigger than your capacity. So you have to grow your faith right now. What if God meets the need another way? This is bigger than that. Father, as your Word has gone forth today, as your promise has been reinforced from the pages of your Scripture, as your Spirit has borne witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, I believe by faith that you have been doing an uprooting work in someone's

heart. I thank you that, like Caleb, you are capable of blessing us on the other side of our wilderness. Father, you instructed me before I even hit this pulpit today to pray for the person whose bitterness is blocking out their blessings. You showed me clearly that if they don't get rid of that, if they don't get it out of them, they're going to keep responding the wrong way and blaming you for the result. Father, today we come before you like Caleb came before Joshua. We thank you that you've kept us alive. We thank you that our inheritance is not dependent on our obedience but the obedience of Jesus. We thank you that he who gave his Son for us will also freely give us all good things as an inheritance. So now as an act of faith, we just want to take our hands and open them, just like this. Everybody in the house do it. Everybody watching online by yourself do it. Open them, and whoever disappointed you in your life, release them so that you can receive him, because this is bigger than them. This is bigger than them. God spoke to Abraham, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, all of these generations, all the way to Moses, all the way to Joshua, all the way to Caleb, all the way to you today. This is bigger than them. I thank you for the story you're writing in our lives, Lord, but I thank you also that the pen does not belong to the Enemy. I said I thank you that the pen does not belong to the Enemy.