Face Your Mountain
by Kevin Allen
August 17, 2025 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Joshua 14, Joshua 14:6-12, Matthew 6:34, Romans 8:26-28, Psalms 27:1, Psalms 50:15, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 61:1, Joshua 14:12, Matthew 21:21, James 4:7, Zechariah 4:6-7, Genesis 22

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--face-your-mountain
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Joshua 14 going to read a familiar passage of scripture and want to unpack today. We give sermons titles not because it's mandated in scripture. I don't know that Paul ever titled a sermon Peter. I have no no reference in the scripture for that. But we do it. And I feel like the reason we do that is it kind of gives us a handle to hang on to. You know, you may not remember everything that I say, but you remember the title of the message, which usually goes to the principle that is there. So today, I titled this message face your mountain. Joshua 14, I'm going to read of a conversation that's taking place and then I'll unpack it a little bit with the Lord's help today. says this in verse number six. Then the children of Judah came into Joshua and Gilgal and Caleb the son of Junifah the Kenzite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me in Kadesh Barnea. 40 years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to aspy out the land and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt. But I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land where on thy feet have trotten shall be thine inheritance, and thy childrens forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these 40 and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, lo, I am this day four score and 5 years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in. Now therefore, give me this mountain whereof the Lord spake in the day. For thou hearest in that day, how the Anakans were there, and the cities were great and fenced. If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord has said. Sometimes in life, you just have to face your mountain. Will you help me pray one more time that God will be with us today? Jesus, your word is anointed. That is true. But God, I pray today that our hearts and our minds would also be anointed to receive it. God, help us grab a hold of what it is you have for us today. I pray Lord that every person in this room would be sensitive to what it is you're trying to say to us that we could apply it in our lives and draw closer to you. In Jesus name we pray and amen. Before I really dive into the story of Caleb and where he is on his mountain, I'd like to get down into the valley with all the real people. Many of us in the room today, especially those who may have grown up in and around the church, this story is somewhat familiar. But I'm quite sure that there are a few in the room today that you don't know the context of the story. That's okay. If you'll give me just a minute, I'll give you at least enough background context that you should be able to grab a hold of what's going on in this moment. The children of Israel had become a nation while they had been in Egypt some 430 years of time has passed from a simple family going in to be rescued from a drought that was causing starvation. And God had proven himself to be faithful over that family's life with some promises and some covenants that had been kept that we find that as the process of time went on, they began to have children and the family grew into it grew into a nation. Estimates put it in the millions of people that were living after 430 years of time. We're not really given the context from how it happened, but somewhere along the way, the children of Israel had become enslaved. It'd be great maybe to know the context, but we're not given it. We just know that it happened. There was a Pharaoh that come about that didn't know them and the relationship somehow diminished to the point that they became enslaved. And then they begin to cry out because they didn't like like the enslavement. They were treated poorly. And as they begin to cry out, God heard their cries and he sends a man named Moses in to be their deliverer that to take them out to be the one to point the way. Moses comes in and faces Pharaoh and that's where the 10 plagues come in that are very familiar. Basically, God was proving himself to be God. And then they ended up leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. The entire time God had been telling them that, "Hey, I have a land that this is for you. It's a promised land. It's a gift that I want to give you because I want to be your God and I want you to be my people. And these are things I'm going to do. I I'll deliver you from Egypt and I won't just deliver you I won't just take you out but I'll take you to a place a land as the Bible says that flows with milk and honey. It was a good land and there'll be houses that they would inherit that they didn't build and they would inherit vineyards they didn't plan. It was it was a great deal for them in the process of them leaving Egypt and getting out. I would love to tell you that everything went perfectly as planned. But as often times happened, man has a way of messing things up. Have you noticed that? Even the best of us at times have made mistakes. Anybody in here mistake free? Raise your hand if you're mistake free. Cuz I'm going to invite you to come on down to the altar immediately and ask God to forgive you for lying. No, none of us are mistake free. They made some mistakes. They their relationship with God was a little bit volatile. They were still having trust issues. And it's easy for you and I to read the scriptures and see what God has done from the comfort and convenience of our life and to rain down judgment on them and what they should have done. But let's be honest, God's done a lot for us. And there's been times that we have been less than thankful and been less than obedient in our lives through some bad decisions. is they ended up having this broken relationship, especially when it come up to the very edge of the land that God promised to give them, the promised land that they come up there and God looks at Moses and says, "Hey, I want you to choose some leaders out from among the tribes and I want you, here's the assignment to go and check out the land that I'm giving you, whether it's a good land or a bad land. go see what's there and come back and give a report about what you're gaining. The frustrating part is there was only two who understood the assignment. There was 12 men that were sent, one from each of the tribes. Two men understood the assignment. Two men understood that, hey, God's given us this. Let's go check out the good things that God's given us. The other 10 went in and somehow forgot the assignment. Somehow they worked it up in their minds what they were going to have to do in order to gain the land. They missed the part that God said, "I'm giving it to you." They worked up in their mind, "There's no way that we can get this because the people that are there are too big." They even used the language and say, "We're like ants in our own sight when we look at how big these men are." The assignment was failed because God never said that I'm expecting you to give it, but that I'm going to give it to you. You would think they could look backwards in their life and draw from that wealth of knowledge where God had intervened, where God had delivered them from Egypt, where God had parted the Red Sea, where God had crashed the Red Sea on Pharaoh's army, where God had given them provision and all the things that God had done, God had proven himself to be one who keeps his word. Yet somewhere along the assignment path, they lost sight of that. They didn't remember. And they come back and as we pick up in this story, it's been 45 years later. that Caleb and Joshua were the only two who understood what they were supposed to do. It was Caleb and Joshua said, "Let us go up at once and take it." It was Caleb and Joshua saying, "Look at the size of these grapes. They're like basketballs." I'm sure they knew what basketballs were. It was the 10 who said, "Who cares about the size of the grapes? Did you see the giants that are in the there's no way we can win that fight again? It's not your fight. It's God's fight. God said he was going to give it, but they miss. And because of that, God becomes very frustrated and upset with them because of their lack of faith in him. And he says, "You know what? Except for Caleb and Joshua. Everybody else who's 40 and above, I'm going to wipe them out except Caleb and Joshua." So 45 years, God wanders them around the desert until that generation of unbelief dies off. And he brings their children because God still says, "It's an inheritance. I'm going to give them since you didn't want it. I'll give it to your kids except for Joshua and Caleb." So this the story again a very condensed version to get to where I read to you today this passage of scripture. Now Caleb who's 45 years older than he was says now I'm ready for my inheritance. Now I'm ready to take on what God has given me. Now he gave me a promise. And I love the language in there. Look at me. I'm just as strong and fit as I was then. Who says that? Who lets 45 years pass and says, "I'm as good a shape as I was 45 years ago, but Caleb did." So, this story is a story of overcoming something that's too hard to imagine. Now, here's what I know. Here's where we are today in 2025 in Middle Tennessee on a Sunday morning here at Center Point Apostolic Church. Here we are listening to this story and we know this that life is difficult and then you die. Anybody argue with that? Yeah, that's a true statement. Things are bad and getting worse. Woe is me. It's like sometimes I feel like we followers of Jesus Christ seem to identify more with Cain and his murder or Abraham and his lying or David and his adultery or Ahab and his theory or Peter and his denial or Judas and his betrayal or Jacob and his deceitfulness or Samson and his unfaithfulness or Saul in his pride or Mary Magdalene her and her harlotry than we do with anything else. Isn't it true? The old saying goes, misery loves company. So just sit down right here and sympathize with us today. Pastor Kevin, I am glad you understand how hard it is to make it these days. And I like realistic preaching. I don't want any of that pie in the sky stuff. Just talk about real hard, difficult life it is following Jesus Christ. That's what some like. I'm so encouraged to know how discouraging it is. Why is it our natural tendency to dwell in the negative? Why is it always our default setting? It's to drift over to the negative. Why is it that's what our society has understood as marketable? The bad, the negative. How that they can capitalize on our inner on our attention span is always drawn over to the bad or the ugly or the sensational that is there. There's no doubt there's plenty to see. Obviously, there are miserable sides of life all around. It doesn't take long. I mean, you can walk out these doors and walk across the street and just about go any direction you want to and you can see something that's not pleasant. Something that's miserable. Something where life is less than some way that you can be discouraged. If that's what you want, you can find it. You can you can walk right out of these doors from the presence of God. From where you felt him close and near, you can walk right out there. And if you choose to seek after the miserable, you'll find it every time. Have you noticed that? We can count all the job losses and the sickness and the political unrest and all the stuff that's going on, the drug drug problems and the family brokenness. That's all there. But here's my question for you. Why do we do that? Why I can't make the night any darker? I can't make the sin be painted any blacker. And I can't make our adversary any meter. No matter how long I preach on those subjects, it is what it is. We see Jesus telling us this great parallel wisdom in Matthew 6:34. So don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. Amen. Hallelujah. Take up an offering. Let's go home. It's bad. That's a true statement. There's brokenness everywhere I look. I don't even have to be looking for it. It's just there. I can choose to identify those things if I want. I can choose to allow myself to be caught up and captivated by those things. I can choose to let my mind only dwell on those things. But for what reason? What's the outcome? Don't make it any worse by barring tomorrow's troubles is what Jesus was saying. If you're here today and you've buried yourself in your troubles, in your trials, if you have majored in self-deeat and self-loathing misery, you're not doing yourself any favors by staying in that same frame of mind. When you ingest and digest and regurgitate trouble, you dig a hole that's so deep it's hard to ever see the light of day. It's easy for you to say, "Pastor Kevin, right, it's easy for me. My life has just been great and grand and I've never had a trouble or an issue or a problem or a struggle my entire life." No, that's a lie. No, I'm a human being just like you. But here's what I come to say today. It is time for us to understand that this Bible, my Bible and your Bible is not a doom and gloom book. It is a book of faith. It is a book of faith. So yes, I can focus on the negative or I can choose to stop being distracted by all of that and focus on the positive that God has given us. He's given us. Do you understand how privileged you and you and I are to live in a country and a nation where we have access to this? I don't have to worry about carrying it around. Oh, people may make fun of me. They may call me names, but they can't take it away from me. At least not yet. It's still there. I still have access to it. I still have the ability to choose to read what thus sayaith the word of God. I have that option. And this is a book of faith. There's stuff in here that we need to hang on to. We have this opportunity as spiritfilled children of God to allow that spirit to work for us. Let me let me show you something in the scriptures. Let me let me show you a truth in Romans chapter 8 26. Likewise, the spirit, everybody say the spirit. Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Woo. It's like he knows us. Paul writing to the church at Rome. Who's he writing to? Yeah. Who wasn't writing to sinners? Who's he writing to? Church. Sometimes we forget this. He's writing to the church, which lets me know, hey, he said infirmities. That means people in the church got infirmities. Bunch of hypocrites. What's wrong with them? They ought to be cleaned up and perfect. Right? That's what church people are. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We're all just a bunch of sinners being saved by grace. The spirit also helpeth our affirmies. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit, everybody say, the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be under. Sometimes my circumstances are so bad I don't even know how to pray. But I'm so thankful that it isn't about my knowledge of how to pray that sometimes the spirit will take over. Sometimes the spirit says, "Hey, let me borrow your vocal cords for a minute. I know you don't know what to say, but I will use your vocal cords." Well, that was a really weak response in an apostolic church. Do we believe in being spiritfilled? Do we believe in being spiritfilled? Do we like when the spirit fills us? Do we like when we speak in tongues? Do we like that? Sometimes I don't know what I'm praying for. this noises start coming out because the spirit says, "Hey, I know you're in such a dark place right now and you're overwhelmed by your circumstances, but I don't want you to be focused on those things. So, I will pray for you. The spirit makes intercession for us with groanings." Verse 27, "And he that searchth the heart knoweth what is in the mind of the spirit." Everybody say, "Spirit." Because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together. Oh, here's our candy stick verse, right? All things work together for good, but them love God. Those who are called according to his purpose, but do you believe that? You don't always act like it. You don't always act like it. We like that verse when life's good, when the bank account has money in it, and my body doesn't hurt and my marriage is good and my kids are acting good and everything's going according to my plan. All things work together for good. him to call according to his purpose. But what about when life doesn't go the way you want it to? We don't always like quoting that verse, Sister Sue, that all things work together for good. I love the reality of that verse inside the context in which Paul wrote it. How that the spirit makes intercessors with groanings when I don't know how to pray. that when I'm facing dark nights and I'm dealing with the reality of my bad choices, when I'm dealing with the circumstances of brokenness around me, when I'm living in a fallen state and I haven't done everything I'm supposed to do, I love the fact that when I finally cry out to God that the spirit will make intercession for me. Even when I'm so broken, I can't hardly pray, the spirit starts making intercession and then all things work together for good. What? Even in my despair and in my dark time, says, "You know what? We'll reroute." Do you ever notice that on your GPS when you make a wrong turn? I know none of you guys have ever done that, but I do that frequently or I drift off course sometimes. Sometimes I get caught up on a phone call. Sometimes I'm just distracted in thoughts and then it says what? Rerouting, rerouting, rerout. That's what the spirit's doing. Sometimes we don't make good choices. Sometimes we get distracted. Sometimes things happen to us beyond our Sometimes we drift off course. But I'm so thankful that the spirit says intercession. He'll pray for you. What's he he's rerouting you. He's re all things work together. He'll take your bad choices and weave that back into the narrative and the story for his kingdom purpose and plan. So stop looking like you're a failure and you're never going to amount to anything. Stop it. Stop it. God will reroute. Now you may still deal with some consequences for your bad decision, but it does not mean that God is done with you. It does not mean that God is done with you. That is a lie from the pit of hell. There is still a plan and a purpose for your life. Allow the spirit to work inside of you, rerouting you back into his purpose for the kingdom. There's hope. There's always hope. There's always hope. There's always hope. Why? Because my God loves me and he loves you. Therefore, there's always hope. It doesn't matter how dark it's been in your life. There is always hope of tomorrow. All things work. The spirit. Everybody say the spirit. It's working me back where I'm supposed to be. Psalms 27:1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? Who you have that guarantee right there for you that the Lord, it's not about you and your strength. It's about knowing where to go to when things don't go right. What I want to do today is to get us in the mindset of start identifying with the heroes in the Bible. The heroes that are there. It's time for you to start speaking out loud what you desire for God to do in your life. But you can't speak it out if you don't know what it is. So, what is it you need from God? What is it you need from God? I want you to stop for just a minute right now and ask yourself that question. What do I need from God? What do you need? I wonder if there'll be a boldness come over you right now. That the spirit all of a sudden will identify inside you what it is you really need. Not not the excuses for why it's not there. All right, stop that. Stop it. Quit making excuses. What do you need? What do you need from God? What do you need right now? What do you need, center point? What do you need child of God? What do you need person sitting in this in this auditorium? What do you need from God? And are you willing to stand up and speak it out? Is there any faith in the house today? Is there any boldness in the house today? I'm looking for somebody to stand up and just start speaking out loud what you need from God. You need deliverance to stand up and say right now, I need to be delivered. If you need a healing right now, why don't you stand up and say, I need I rebuke every bit of those denials and every bit of that doubt that's in this room in Jesus. I'm looking for some child of the king to stand up right now and say, "I know that my God can hear me and my God is more than able in this. I'm willing to say it. What do you Speak it. Speak it. Right now is your moment. Say it out loud. What do you need? Claim it. It's time for us to start identifying for who we really are. I don't belong to myself. My God bought me a long time ago and he wants to take care of me. Even though I may fall, even though I may fail, even though I may I may make may bad choices, make bad choices, my God knows where I am and what I face in my life. It's time to identify. It's time for some Calebs to stand up in the room. It's time for somebody to stand up and say, "I'm ready to get my mountain." Anybody want to do a little mountain climbing today? What about a little mountain climbing today? Yes, sir. Now, let's think about this. Have a seat for just a second. 45 years have passed. That's a long time. Everybody say long time. Long time. Sometimes we don't know. We don't even like 45 minutes. 45 years. 45 since God gave that promise. But I want you to know God keeps his word. Time is not important to him. It's important to us, right? We're stuck in it. We're always looking to see what time it is, checking it out, looking at the clock, wondering God, where you at. Moses had been dead for over five years. He led the people out of Israel and out of slavery in Egypt through the wilderness for 40 years. After Moses' death, his successor Joshua, who had led the people into the promised land by crossing the Jordan River. So now they're into the promised land when the story takes place. I left that little detail out. They're already in their land. But Caleb wasn't satisfied just being in the land. He wanted to go to what God said belonged to him. Remember he said, "Everywhere your foot trods, I'm going to give to you." And you know what Caleb was doing? He was keeping good record. I know what you said. He's coming to collect. He was willing to participate. He was willing to be a part of the service that was there. He was willing to be a part of the army. He's willing to do the fighting. He didn't go in immediately, but he understood, "Hey, there's something bigger at play here." Until the time was right. Until the time was right. And then after he had already helped his brothers and sisters cuz he wasn't about himself. But after he done all that, he finally then he comes up and says, "Hey, we've got everybody settled. We've conquered. There's stuff that's happened now. Now I'm here. It's time. The Lord has kept me. This 45 years I've hung on to this promise. Is there a mama hanging on to a promise today? Is anybody in this room hanging on to a promise today? Is time passed? Anybody hang on? I'm not Look, you may think this is preacher hype. I'm trying to recall back things in your mind that you know God has done for you. Has anybody got a promise that God has not yet done? See, God, let your faith rise in this place today. Lord, help us see that it's bigger than just the moment we're in. Jesus. Jesus. See, here's the deal. Caleb knew what he wanted. That's why I had you claim it a while ago. And everyone of you who claimed it, God's doing something special. Listen to me. Caleb knew what he wanted. He walked straight in there and said, "Hey, give me my mountain. Give me my mountain." Caleb was seeking to claim what belonged to him by virtue of God's promise. It was not an illegitimate request. It was not something he dreamed up on his own. But God has spoke this into his life. Anybody here and God spoke something over your life? Raise your hand right now. Keep it up for just a second. God spoke something over you. All right? I'm speaking to you. I'm preaching to you right now. He asserted his right to this particular inheritance in Canaa for himself and his family. He was not asking for a favor. He was only asking for what belonged to him. You have the right to what belongs to you. Do you know what God has promised you? Do you know what is it? What is it? I want you hanging on to that today just like Caleb. Hey, give me my mountain. God, you said it was mine. I'm not asking for my neighbors. I'm not asking for my brothers. I'm not asking for what somebody I'm asking only for what you said you were going to do and what you were going to give me. And I come today to ask you, Lord, give me what belongs to me. We have promises. We have promises in the book. And you've heard me talk about those promises and how we got to have those if then promises and we got to do our part. But I need to remind somebody today. Psalms 15:15 says, "And call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver." We have a delivering God. But you got to believe it. Do you believe it? Isaiah 58 says, "Every yoke will be broken." He's a He's a yoke breaking God. He's a deliverer and he'll break the yoke. I don't know what what yolks are in this place today. I don't know what kind of bondage you guys are on. I don't know what kind of prisons Isaiah 61 says that that the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings under the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and open in the prisons to them that are bound. He's here. If you're brokenhearted in this place, he's here. He's here to take care of that. If you need freedom in your life, God is here. If you've been captive and held in a prison, God is here to set you free today. But it's more than just me preaching it. It's you believing it at some point. It's more than just me rallying the cry behind you. I'm trying to activate the faith that I know has been lying dormant in this place today to say, "Stand up and claim what God's given you." He's not into blessing laziness and weakness and fear or surrender. He's not. He's not. He's not into blessing those things. God will not bless invasive or pass the buck or non-committal kind of spirit. It's going to take faith. Faith that a God can do anything he says he going to do. So, I'm here to activate. Where's those promises in the room? Where's those promises for your children to come back to God? I feel it in my spirit right now. Somebody has. Now, there there's a lynch pin moment going to happen in this service today when somebody gets bold enough to stand up and say, "You know what? I don't care what anybody thinks about me. I don't care what they say. I'm tired of my family being lost. I'm tired of my marriage being broken. I'm tired of my body being the way it is. just somebody to stand up and say, "Hey, I'm not even looking for who it is. I'm just I know right now there's a moment to take place here." And somebody would stand up and say, "Hey, I'm not going to be embarrassed. I'm tired of my kids being lost. I'm tired of my marriage member. I'm tired. Who's willing to stand up and say, I'm willing to activate. You gave me a promise years ago. And I'm just like Caleb. I'm here. My want my mountain. I want my children. I want my marriage. I want my health. Anybody want to face the mountain today? Let's look exactly what Caleb told Joshua. I'm reading from the New Living Translation today just to bring some clarity for us. He says this in verse number 12. So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anch living there in great wall towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land. Just as the Lord said, Caleb acknowledged the truth. This isn't about my strength. It's not about my ability. I have a promise and if the Lord will be with me, I'll reclaim everything that he said I would get. And it's not about him. I'm trying to give somebody some courage today. It's not about your might or your power. If the Lord is God's plans for you to face your mountain and if he's planned for you to face your mountain, he will help you conquer it. So the question is not whether or not you're planning to let are you are you going to let him help you? Are you going to let God help you today? Well, for the two people that said amen, God's going to help you. I begin to think about Caleb's mountain. I remember what Jesus said about the mountain in Matthew 21. He said this in verse 21, "Verily I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also you shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast in the sea, and it shall be done, and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believe, and you shall receive." Now, people don't realize this was not a literal mountain that Jesus was talking about, let me ask the question. Besides it being kind of cool to see, what's the point of a mountain being thrown into the sea? What's the point? So, is that what he was saying that there would ever be a moment in life when you would look at a physical rock mountain and say, "You know what mountain?" No, he was saying that if you have faith, you can look at the mountains that will stand in your way that'll come into your life and you can say, "Mountain, be thou removed." Just like when the fig tree was withered, the mountains in your life don't stand a chance. If you have the faith to say to the mountain, "Be thou removed." When Caleb said, "Give me this mountain," he was saying, "God, give me the adversity and the struggle." The mountain may be bigger than me, but it's not bigger than you. Too many of you are being intimidated by the mountain. You're being intimidated by the circumstances. You're being intimidated because you can't see a way out. You're being intimidated because it keeps getting worse, not better. You can't see a way out of it. And all of a sudden, you're standing in the shadow of a mountain and you're letting the mountain speak to you. But I'm here to tell you, God never said, "Listen to the mountain." He said, "Speak to the mountain." You need to remind the mountain who the mountain is. I don't bow to you, mountain. Mountain, you're not going to define me. Some people are so worried about the process, they forget about the outcome. Don't let the mountain talk to you. You talk to the mountain. May God give us a generation of people who will stand up to adversity and not wither when they face it. Too many times our approach to the mountain as if we're atheist. That's right. Do you believe God is God? Do you believe his word is true? Do you believe his word is true? Then why aren't you standing at the mountain and proclaiming what the word said? Mountain, I'm tired of being in your shadow. Get out of my way. The problem is we don't always figure God into the equation. We don't figure him in. Time and time again, scripture says that Caleb wholeheartedly served the Lord. He wasn't passive about it. He wasn't casual with his relationship, but he wholeheartedly. You cannot be half-heartedly committed to doing God's will and then face a whole mountain of challenge. There are no half-hearted mountains. That doesn't Caleb's eulogy. He followed the Lord, God of Israel, wholeheartedly. He faithfully obeyed the Lord. He wholly followed the Lord time and time again. His reference was that he was committed. He was in. He had bought in. He wasn't being distracted. Others were dying off all around him. He didn't let that negativity bother him. If you think about how many funerals they were having every day over 40 years, that's a lot of funerals. And he didn't get caught up in the negativity. You know how hard that is? Somebody's dying literally every day. Multiple somebody's are dying. There's fallen bodies falling in the desert and you're wandering around because of somebody else's disbelief because of what somebody else did. You're suffering. Who am I speaking to somebody? It wasn't Caleb's fault. Caleb did everything right. He did everything what just exactly like he was supposed to do. He wasn't the one who who had doubt. He wasn't the one who who didn't didn't didn't understand the assignment. He had it all together. But yet he still had to go another 45 years before he got the promise. But he didn't let it change his attitude. He didn't have a poor downcast. Woe is me. You know what I mean? All these other people out here, bunch of idiots, and because of them, I got to wander around all this time. No, he didn't. He kept a good attitude. He kept the right spirit. Why? Because he was he was living for something bigger than a moment. Stop being caught up in the moment. Stop allowing your emotions to cause you to be sidetracked and derailed. I'm telling you, if God gave you a promise, God keeps his promise. It may not come in the moment you want it, but I promise you, it always shows up right on time. Right on time. You can't convince me. The reason he was able to stand there 45 years later and say, "Hey, look at me. I'm just as strong now as I was then, because he kept the right attitude and perspective for 45 years marching around the desert. He never lost sight of the fact that God is good and God is faithful and God gave me a promise. He brought me out of Egypt. We crossed the Red Sea. I heard him speak on the mountain. I felt his presence. My God, I don't like the desert. I don't want to be in the desert, but I'm not living for the desert. I'm living to climb my mountain. Anybody living for your mountain moment? Anybody living for that mountain? Anybody want to climb it today in this place? He's still a good and faithful God. He wasn't worried about what people said about him. He was going to be obedient because obedience means when the Lord, our master and king, ask us to do something, there's no question. We may question the why, but not the obedience. What mattered most was not his bravery, but his daily walk with God. I cannot underscore and emphasize and highlight and star and circle enough how important it is that you have a daily walk with God. Ladies and gentlemen, life brings us difficult situations. It's a part of life. Life with God is better than life without God. But life with God still brings trials and struggles and it still brings hardships and heartache and pain. But at least I'm not by myself in this walk. He walks with me. He walks with me. He takes me through. He encourages me. He picks me up some days when I can't walk by myself. And he reminds me of how good and faithful he is. I'm telling you, life with him is better than life without him. But it's not a worry-free life. But I can't allow the worries to be what causes me to be obedient. I have to determine in my mind that God, I'm living for you no matter what comes my way. Oh God, it's easy to live for you on the mountain tops when everything's good and my bank account has money and my body feels good. But hey, he's still God and he's still good. them the days I have a headache and I'm broke and people make fun of me. Just because people don't treat me good doesn't mean God's still not good. He's still good. He's still on the throne. He's still alive. He's still Hey, I'm not hanging on to the promises that a man makes. I'm hanging on the promises that God has given me in my life. I'm hanging on to something that never changes. It may not happen this year. It may not happen next year, but hey, my God's given me some promises. And if he promised it, will come to pass every time. This church has been on an upward climb for years. We've set the course. We're proclaiming to be the church. It's a given that adversity will come, but I refuse to give into adversity. I refuse to give up when I have a promise. We will overcome, we will gain victory, but time will require us to resist the enemy. But James said, "If we submit yourselves, therefore, to God." James 4:7. Did you catch that part? James 4:7. A lot of us want to do a lot of resisting, but we're not submitted. Come on. Come on. You can't do that. Is that verse up there? Throw that verse up there. James 4:7. It'll mess with you if you try to do it without. It's in your Bible. It says, "Submit yourself therefore to God, comma. Resist the devil and he will flee." A lot of you are wondering why the devil keeps whooping you. Well, it's cuz you're not submitted. Yeah, that's right. You're not submitted. You know what submission is? Can I get real with you? Y'all okay if I get real? You okay if I step on your toes a little bit? Yeah. I'll put mine out there, too. The problem is it's like, it's like we want to go, we want to box the devil, right? We want to get in the ring with him. I want to fight him. I want to fight you, devil. I want to punch him in the mouth. I know you do. I got a lot to punch him for, and I know you do, too. I want to hit him. I want to hit him hard. But the problem is I didn't do my training. You know where my training is? It's submitting every day to God. We don't want to do the training. Now, let's be honest. Nobody that's honest in the church of God is a place to be honest. Nobody that's honest in here is happy when you first start training. Anybody like getting in shape? No, we don't. I know what you're saying. Well, round is a shape. I'm in shape. Max, let's be honest. We don't we don't like exercising. Nobody does. Nobody. Nobody at first. You know why? Cuz it hurts. You go for a run and you stop and you're like, "Why am I doing this? This is crazy." You get shin splints. Your joints hurt, your knees hurt, back hurts, and you're like, "You know what? It's a whole lot easier for me to be out of shape. You know, I never I never I never got a cramp eating a piece of cake. Yeah. It's never happened. Big old cheeseburger never left me with shin splints. But after you do it for a while, you start feeling better. You get stronger. See, it's the resistance that makes you stronger. So, walking with God every day that I have to resist myself, my flesh, my urges, my emotions, my desires, and I have to bring them into submission to him. It's training me so that when the day comes and I do have to stand and fight, I'm ready. I've been submitted to God. I can resist the devil. I don't have to fall in. Why? because I've been submitted to God. It wasn't wasn't just a one-time submission, but it's an everyday submission. It's every day getting up saying, "You're Lord of my life today." It's every day making a decision that I'm going to live for you today and not for myself. It's a it's an every day. You don't wake up in a default setting of serving God. You don't you wake in a default setting of serving you. That's what you want. Every day you want to serve you. It's about you. But you got to remind yourself every morning as your eyeballs open, this is not me. Today is not about me. Today is not about me. Even on your birthday, it's not about you. It's always about him. And then that submission, it gives you the ability to resist. Gives me the power to do. It guarantees me that I can resist the devil. It means you don't serve the mountain, you serve the God of the mountains. Prophet Zachchariah says verse number six of chapter 4, then he answered and spake unto me saying, this is the word of the Lord in Zerubel, saying, not by might nor by power, but by spirit, sayith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, oh great mountain? We sing that song. Who are you, oh great mountain? That you should not bow down. Are you saying that to your mountain? Are you saying that mountain? Who are you? Who are you to say you're not going to bow to my God? I'm not saying bow to me, but I bow to the God that I serve, the God that I'm committed to, the God that I'm submitted to. You have no right to stand in my way, mountain. I'm talking to a group of people needs to learn to have some boldness to stand up and point your finger at your mountain and say, "Mountain, you don't own me. You don't own me. I don't belong to you. I belong to God. And my God says that I can speak to you and I can cast you out into the sea. I don't have to put up with you anymore. I don't have to put up with your distractions. I don't have to put up with your limitations. My God says bow." When you embrace your mountain, you'll find that God is there. Let's get ready to bring this to a close today. In Genesis 22, Abraham, he's up on the mountain. He's up on the mountain with his promise, his son Isaac. Abraham, who had spent the majority of his life working towards a promise, his name was Abram. when he first started talking with God. And God says, I want you to get up out of Earl of the Caldes. I want you to leave your family. I want you to go to a place that I'm going to give you. Abram was obedient. Along the way, he ended up changing his name from Abram to Abraham, meaning father of many. I can't imagine, you've heard me say that before as he introduced himself. Hey, what's your name? My name is Abraham. My name is father of many. Oh, that's awesome. How many kids you got? None. It's kind of a weird name you got there, Father Minnie. It is. But I got a promise. I got a promise. That promise didn't happen overnight. It took years before his promise. In fact, he tried to him and his wife got into this little little debate one day like maybe maybe God is looking for us to take matters into our own hand. I'm going to tell you right now, you're going to get in trouble anytime that God's given you a word and you decide you need to help God out with that word. It'll birth rebellion every time. But he finally gets his boy. He gets Isaac. He gets his son, his only son. And then he gets a word from God. I want you to take your promise. I feel the Holy Ghost right now. I'm getting ready to close. Listen to me. I want you to take your promise. I want you to go up on that mountain. God, I don't want to go on a mountain. I faced a mountain before and I finally got my promise. I know. I know you did. I know you did, Abraham. But I want you to take that promise. I want you to go back up another mountain. I don't like mountains, God. But hey, I want to do something with you. Take your promise up on the mountain. And when you get up there on that mountain, I want you to put that promise on an altar, and I want you to give it back to me. But that's my promise, God. That's my promise. Like you said, I was going to be the father of many nations. And you know, I know I'm not the smartest, but the only way that goes on is I got to have an heir. And you're telling me to take the only heir I got and go up there and to kill it? You want me to take the very thing I've worked my whole life? The thing that I've held on to all these years, the thing that's kept me through the dark nights. It's the promise that you gave me. Is that what you want, God? I don't understand. Like, why would you ask this of me? Why would you ask? Listen, Abraham, take the promise. Go up the mountain and sacrifice it to me. So, he and the lad go up the mountain. The boy's around 12 years old. He's smart enough to know, "Hey, we're going to go sacrifice." And he says to his dad, as only a teenager could, "Hey, Dad, I see we got wood. I see we got fire. In my version of the Bible, he's like, "I see you got that big knife. Where's the sacrifice, son?" God will provide himself a sacrifice. He gets him up there and I can't imagine I can't imagine the emotional toll he took as he lays his son down on that altar and he dies him down. Dad, what are you doing? Son, just trust me. It's okay. I can't imagine. I can't imagine what's going on. how he's wrecked inside as he's taken the very thing he's finally got the promise. It's finally come to him. And now the thing he's waited on most of his life, God's asking him, I want you to I want you to kill it to me. Like what's going how's he how does he process that? He goes through, he gets that knife, he's about to plunge it into his son's chest. When in that moment, God stops him and says, "Now I know that you're not living for me only for the promise." He looks up and he sees a ram and thinking, "Sister Bran, it's that day he became Jehovah Gyra." Not only that, please listen to me this moment. He's not the only one who heard that voice. He's not the only one who understood Jehovah Gyra. But Isaac, that boy, he now hears the God of his father. And he understands that God will provide if he will be obedient. And I don't know who I'm speaking to today about a promise. I had a whole another sermon that I was going to preach and this has been a busy weekend. This is the third time I've spoke today. So, in my efficient may like I don't like it when God interrupts my plans. But I kept coming back to this. Somebody's here today and I'm trying to resurrect a promise that God spoke over you. I'm trying to tell somebody, "Come down today. Bring that promise to God. You will meet Jehovah Gyra here in this place today. I don't know who it is. You know who you are. You know who I'm speaking to today. God changed everything I had working to preach this word to someone here today. Will you close your eyes and bow your head? Are you facing a mountain today? Is it talking to you? Is it threatening you and daring you? I'm here to tell you, don't stand in the shadow of that mountain. Claim it. Claim it. The God who provides is in this place today. This altar is open. I pray for faith to rise up. For somebody to step out, speak to that mountain today. Mountain, you don't tell me what to do. My God said to stop listening to you and to speak and I speak to you. You will not control me anymore. I will not be limited by you anymore. I will not be distracted by you anymore. But I'm claiming what belongs