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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – The Secret: An Attitude ... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Now I would like to read for you one of
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Speaker 1: my all time favorite sections of scripture, and we've come
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Speaker 1: upon it in our study of changing wanderers into worshippers,
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Speaker 1: going from Exodus to coming into the Land of Canaan.
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Speaker 1: Joshua chapter fourteen. It is about a man that some
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Speaker 1: of you have named your sons after. Maybe didn't know
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Speaker 1: where he was found in the scriptures. So I'm happy
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Speaker 1: to show you today. Joshua fourteen is about Caleb. You'll
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Speaker 1: see why so many of us appreciat him when I
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Speaker 1: read these verses to you. Let's begin in verse six
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Speaker 1: of Joshua fourteen. Then the sons of Judah drew near
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Speaker 1: to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jeff
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Speaker 1: un know the Kennzite, said to him, you know the
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Speaker 1: word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God,
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Speaker 1: concerning you me in Kadysh Barnea. I was forty years
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Speaker 1: old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me
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Speaker 1: from Katysh Barnea to spy out the land, and I
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Speaker 1: brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: my brethren who went up with me, made the heart
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Speaker 1: of the people melt with fear. But I followed the
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Speaker 1: Lord my god fully. So Moses swore on that day, saying,
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Speaker 1: surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall
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Speaker 1: be an inheritance to you and to your children forever,
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Speaker 1: because you have followed the Lord, my god fully. Now behold,
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Speaker 1: the Lord has let me live just as he spoke
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Speaker 1: these forty five years from the time that the Lord
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Speaker 1: spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness.
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Speaker 1: And now behold, I am eighty five years old today.
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Speaker 1: I am still as strong today as I was in
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Speaker 1: the day Moses sent me. As my strength was then,
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Speaker 1: So my strength is now for war and for going
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Speaker 1: out and coming in. Now, then give me this hill country.
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Speaker 1: Kind of makes a Texan's heart beat faster when you
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Speaker 1: read that, doesn't it. Now, then give me this hill
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Speaker 1: country about which the Lord spoke on that day. For
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Speaker 1: you heard on that day that Anachem were there with
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Speaker 1: great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me,
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Speaker 1: and I shall drive them out, as the Lord has spoken.
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Speaker 1: So Joshua blessed him and gave hebron to Caleb, the
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Speaker 1: son of Jeffinah for an inheritance Therefore Hebron became the
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Speaker 1: inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jeffinah, the Kennzite until
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Speaker 1: this day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel. Fully,
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Speaker 1: isn't that good? Isn't that a great story? And isn't
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Speaker 1: it good to come into his presence? Let's bow? Lord?
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Speaker 1: On several occasions, even this morning, we have sung of
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Speaker 1: passing through the waters and going through the fire, and
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Speaker 1: the waters will not be over our heads, and the
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Speaker 1: fire will not burn us. These symbolic pictures of testing
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Speaker 1: and trials, and some sitting in this very room today
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Speaker 1: have the scars to prove they've been through the fire,
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Speaker 1: and the vivid memories of the waters that almost overwhelmed them.
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Speaker 1: How faithful you are, Lord, to meet us at every
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Speaker 1: one of life's contingencies, How carrying an accepting, How full
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Speaker 1: of grace and mercy it is of your mercies that
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Speaker 1: we are not consumed because your compassions fail not they
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Speaker 1: are fresh and new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, Lord,
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Speaker 1: Minister to us as a congregation, soften the soil of
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Speaker 1: our souls as we walk through this upcoming weekend of dedication,
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Speaker 1: Make us again and again grateful as you bring tears
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Speaker 1: of remembrance to those of us who have been with
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Speaker 1: this ministry since its beginning, so many of us thank
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Speaker 1: you for or all you have done to raise up
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Speaker 1: this statement of testimony on this piece of land in
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Speaker 1: the heart of this growing community. Lord, in a very
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Speaker 1: special way, guard us from all the things that encroach
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Speaker 1: upon authenticity and freshness of worship and meaningful, deep relationships.
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Speaker 1: Free us from stupid religious habits and acts of hypocrisy
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Speaker 1: that we perfect the longer we get away with them.
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Speaker 1: Keep us real. Use us not only in these walls,
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Speaker 1: but even more significantly outside this place, in a world
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Speaker 1: that's lost its way, in a culture that's long since
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Speaker 1: determined its future. Thank you for the timelessness and ageless
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Speaker 1: quality of a life well lived. I pray to day
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Speaker 1: that you will speak to us through this remarkable man
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Speaker 1: who faithfully served you in his forties, stayed faithful through
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Speaker 1: the forty five years that followed without the limelight or
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Speaker 1: the attention that was given to Joshua or Moses, and
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Speaker 1: even when he came to his eighty fifth birthday, stood
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Speaker 1: tall and spoke the truth when he said, I have
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Speaker 1: followed the Lord my god fully now give me this mountain.
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Speaker 1: Though there are giants and well fortified cities, I stand
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Speaker 1: ready to take them in his strength. Today, our Father,
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Speaker 1: we accept of where we are in life, and we
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Speaker 1: know that you have sovereignly arranged the events and affairs
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Speaker 1: of our lives, so that we come to this day
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Speaker 1: the recipients of your good hand upon us. May the
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Speaker 1: life of Caleb be relived again and afresh, and give
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Speaker 1: us the courage to think of ourselves in his sandals,
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Speaker 1: so that he is no longer print on a page,
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Speaker 1: but again alive in his spirit in us.
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Speaker 2: Li.
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Speaker 1: If the hearts of the aging, those who are disturbed
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Speaker 1: over some issue, the anxious, the oppressed, the burdened, may
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Speaker 1: we feel again the fresh enthusiasm of a man who
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Speaker 1: fully followed the Lord, his God. Now, Lord, may this
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Speaker 1: offering be generous and be given in hilarity, Because we
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Speaker 1: are so abundantly blessed, we are privileged to give, and
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Speaker 1: we do so in the name of Jesus, in whose
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Speaker 1: name we express these thoughts. And everyone said, Amen. Satchel
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Speaker 1: Page is a name that's familiar to all baseball fans.
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Speaker 1: He lived longer than you're supposed to live on the
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Speaker 1: baseball field. In fact, he was still pitching into his forties,
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Speaker 1: and some wonder if not into his fifties, though he
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Speaker 1: never revealed his age. In fact, he had a great
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Speaker 1: philosophy about age. He said, it's really a question of
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Speaker 1: mind over matter, or if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
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Speaker 1: Lucille Ball, the entertainer, had this philosophy about aging. She said,
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Speaker 1: the secret of staying young is to live honestly, to
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Speaker 1: eat slowly, and lie about your age. Interestingly, those who
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Speaker 1: lie about their age, I find, don't really enjoy life
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Speaker 1: as much as those who just tell what the age
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Speaker 1: is and go right on. Thomas Edison addressed the issue
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Speaker 1: of aging in an interesting way. He said, rather simply,
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Speaker 1: I fully expect to live to be only about one hundred.
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Speaker 1: I think that's a great line. Sometime when you live
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Speaker 1: that long, you get a little weird. However, a pastor
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Speaker 1: found that out. He was visiting in the home of
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Speaker 1: one of his aging parishioners, and she and he were talking,
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Speaker 1: and he noticed on his right a bowl of peanuts,
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Speaker 1: and happened to be his weakness. So he reached over
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Speaker 1: and picked up handful and enjoyed them. As they were
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Speaker 1: talking and not being able to stay away, he got
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Speaker 1: another handful and ate those. And a little bit of
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Speaker 1: time she got up to get the coffee she had
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Speaker 1: percolated for them to drink together, and while she was gone,
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Speaker 1: he just dived in and he just ate him by
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Speaker 1: the handsfull and realized when she came back he had
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Speaker 1: pretty well finished him off, and apologized profusely. He said,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I've just about eaten all your peanuts. He said, Oh,
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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter at my age, she says, I can't
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Speaker 1: eat the peanuts. I just suck off the chocolate. And sometime,
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Speaker 1: to be seventy or eighty years young is not nearly
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Speaker 1: as bad as being thirty five or forty years old.
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Speaker 1: I know some who are that old and you wouldn't
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Speaker 1: know it. And I know some who are forty and
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Speaker 1: can't wait to be sixty. They've been old forever, it seems.
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Speaker 1: Henry Thurreau's comment is a wonderful one. None are so
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Speaker 1: old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. It isn't the
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Speaker 1: age that bothers us. It's the lack of enthusiasm regarding
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Speaker 1: life that grieves us, especially when we see it in
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Speaker 1: our parents or perhaps our peers and friends. As matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, I've observed the aging enough to say that
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Speaker 1: there are probably three or four common attitudinal enemies that
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Speaker 1: attack as you grow older. One of the attitude that
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Speaker 1: I would call an enemy is uselessness. Of it says
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Speaker 1: I'm over the hill, I get in the way, I'm
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Speaker 1: no longer important to anyone. That's demoralizing. Akin to that
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Speaker 1: is the attitude of self pity, which is sort of
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Speaker 1: the woe is me and drone. If you only knew
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Speaker 1: how bad I have it, you'd understand better why I'm
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Speaker 1: like this. That leads to blame and bitterness. And then
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Speaker 1: there's the attitude of fear, which is a constant fight
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Speaker 1: as people get up in years, and every presidential candidate
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Speaker 1: knows that. That's why he plays on the fears of
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Speaker 1: the aging, economical fears and health fears, and fear of
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Speaker 1: what tomorrow may bring, the losing of one's mind or
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Speaker 1: the losing of one's mate. I read somewhere there are
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Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty different kinds of fears. I've met
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Speaker 1: some people who embrace most of them, and often they
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Speaker 1: are the ones getting up in years. Perhaps the worst
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Speaker 1: of all of the enemies would be guilt, just plain guilt.
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Speaker 1: What a killer I blew it looking back, If only,
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Speaker 1: if only this is like a raw attitude that works
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Speaker 1: against motivation to go on, They create internal anchors that
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Speaker 1: drag us down and hold us back. Like the little
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Speaker 1: bit of verse I have quoted for years, across the
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Speaker 1: fields of yesterday. He sometimes comes to me, a little lad,
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Speaker 1: just back from play the boy I used to be.
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Speaker 1: He smiles at me so wistfully, when once he's crept within.
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Speaker 1: It is as though he had hoped to see the
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Speaker 1: man I might have been. But tragic words, What a
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Speaker 1: need we have to counteract those kind of feelings that
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Speaker 1: slam us to the mat and make us surrender. And
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Speaker 1: in many ways, how unfair, how wrong to finish life
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Speaker 1: like that. I personally think that Timothy struggled some with
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Speaker 1: timidity and some of the fears of life. More than once,
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Speaker 1: the apostle said to his dear friend younger than he,
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Speaker 1: stir up the gift, stir up the gift, Timothy, God
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Speaker 1: has not given us a spirit of fear. The word
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Speaker 1: means timidity, reluctance, resistance. God hasn't given us a spirit
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Speaker 1: of fear. That's an important statement two Timothy one seven says,
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Speaker 1: if you're fearful, God didn't give it to you being
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Speaker 1: afraid of stepping out and walking on. That's not from God.
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Speaker 1: He loves it when you step out and walk ahead.
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Speaker 1: He loves it when you risk trusting him for the journey.
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Speaker 1: God hasn't given us a spirit of timidity, but of
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Speaker 1: power and of love and discipline. What great words for
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Speaker 1: all of us at whatever age. Timothy's problem, I believe,
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Speaker 1: without trying to sound harsh, is that he was a
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Speaker 1: little cowardly. He was in a role of leadership and
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Speaker 1: it should have taken the role of leadership by the throat,
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Speaker 1: and he held back for whatever reason, maybe his upbringing,
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Speaker 1: maybe a scar from something that happened in his teenage
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Speaker 1: years or early young adult years. Whatever. Paul was always saying,
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Speaker 1: get with it, son, get with it. No one ever
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Speaker 1: had to say that to Caleb. And every time I
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Speaker 1: read through his life story, which is really comprised in
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Speaker 1: verses six through fourteen of chapter fourteen of Joshua, every
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Speaker 1: time I read through it, I realize again what a
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Speaker 1: grand man he was. I mean, he's giving his testimony
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Speaker 1: at age eighty five. Eighty five can I say it
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Speaker 1: one more time? The man at eighty five is just
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Speaker 1: ready to take on a whole new direction in life.
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Speaker 1: He's been with the Hebrews when they have come out
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Speaker 1: of out of Egypt. He has been with the Hebrews
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Speaker 1: through the forty years of wandering, having spied out the
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Speaker 1: land and given a positive report. He's been with them
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Speaker 1: as they have invaded the land. They've lost a battle
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Speaker 1: at Ai, and then shortly thereafter, when ridding themselves of
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Speaker 1: Aiken in the camp, they have won the battle over Ai.
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Speaker 1: And now they've invaded north, south, and central regions, and
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Speaker 1: they have conquered the land at least almost to the
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Speaker 1: point where they are dividing the land. And now it's
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Speaker 1: his time to stand and to speak, and speak he does.
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Speaker 1: In fact, if you have been with us on this journey,
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Speaker 1: you know that they finally come to the place where
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Speaker 1: there's a little bit of peace that's surrounding them. The
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Speaker 1: fight not fully over, but almost. In the last few
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Speaker 1: verses of chapter fourteen and verse five, they divided the land.
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Speaker 1: So they have come to the place where the land
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Speaker 1: is theirs, and they are parceling the land out to
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Speaker 1: those in various tribes among the Hebrews. And Joshua gets
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Speaker 1: to Judah, the tribe of Judah, and he meets the
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Speaker 1: one who represents the tribe in verse six, named Caleb,
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Speaker 1: and he talks with Caleb about this responsibility, the opportunity
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Speaker 1: to get the land. And Caleb's answer is set forth
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Speaker 1: in verses six through fourteen. And that's what attracts our attention.
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Speaker 1: If you like outlines, I have a simple one to offer.
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Speaker 1: In Verses six through nine, it's Caleb in his younger years.
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Speaker 1: In verses ten through eleven, it's Caleb in his middle years.
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Speaker 1: Notice I'm calling eighty five his middle years. And then
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Speaker 1: verses twelve to fourteen is Caleb in his older years
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Speaker 1: or later years. Let's look at his younger years. He's
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Speaker 1: looking back at eighty five. He's reflecting back to when
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Speaker 1: he was forty, and he reminds Joshua of what life
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Speaker 1: was like then and in light of that, what he
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Speaker 1: wants to do now with the rest of his life.
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Speaker 1: And he says to Joshua, you know the word which
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Speaker 1: the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God, concerning
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Speaker 1: you and me In Katysh Barnea, I was forteen years
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Speaker 1: old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me
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Speaker 1: from Kaysh to spy out the land, and I brought
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Speaker 1: word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: and now he refers to the ten spies who brought
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Speaker 1: back the negative report. My brethren who went up with
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Speaker 1: me made the heart of the people melt with fear.
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Speaker 1: But I follow the Lord my god fully. So Moses
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Speaker 1: swore on that day, saying, the land on which your
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Speaker 1: foot has trodden surely shall be your inheritance to you
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Speaker 1: and to your children forever, because you have followed the
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Speaker 1: Lord my god Fully. I want you to hold your
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Speaker 1: place here. Just put your finger there and go back
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Speaker 1: to numbers. Chapter thirteen familiar territory for us. But I
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Speaker 1: just want to review a few scenes so you'll remember
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Speaker 1: what Caleb remembers as he goes back with Joshua to
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Speaker 1: those those earlier years. Look at numbers thirteen oh. Verse
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Speaker 1: six will identify Caleb from the tribe of Jewe. Caleb
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Speaker 1: was chosen. He's one of the tribes Moses sent them
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Speaker 1: out verse seventeen to spy out the land of Canaan.
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Speaker 1: Remember that go up into the Negev and go up
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Speaker 1: into the hill country and see what the land is like.
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Speaker 1: And so they went. They stayed forty days, and then
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Speaker 1: verse twenty five numbers thirteen twenty five they returned. They
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Speaker 1: returned from spying out the land. At the end of
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Speaker 1: forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses, into Aaron
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Speaker 1: and all the congregation. Verse twenty seven, well twenty six
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Speaker 1: concludes they brought back word to them and to all
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Speaker 1: the congregation, and showed them the fruit from the land.
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Speaker 1: Must have been a great moment. People who've been eating
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Speaker 1: manna so long they could gag are now looking at wonderful, fresh,
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Speaker 1: luscious fruit. Must have been wonderful. And they told them
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Speaker 1: as they stood there with the fruit, we went into
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Speaker 1: the land. Verse twenty seven does flow with milk and honey.
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Speaker 1: This is its fruit that is marvelous. That is a
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Speaker 1: great moment. If they had just stopped there, or if
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Speaker 1: they'd just said, Caleb, what do you think we ought
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Speaker 1: to do? But they didn't. The next verse tells us
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Speaker 1: that they were afraid. Nevertheless, the people who live in
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Speaker 1: the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and
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Speaker 1: very large. And moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
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Speaker 1: You may not know it. But the people of Anak
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Speaker 1: were the we would call them giants extra large. They
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Speaker 1: were well fifty six long when they got their suits.
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Speaker 1: They were big guys, and they were warriors, and they
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Speaker 1: were tough, and they were rugged, and they were intimidating.
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Speaker 1: And the ten Spies looked at these and checked out
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Speaker 1: their size, looked at themselves and felt like grasshoppers. They
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Speaker 1: looked at their fortified cities, and they remembered their tents,
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Speaker 1: and suddenly they discounted every everything that God said, and
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Speaker 1: they realized only what their innards were saying. It's impossible.
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Speaker 1: Verse twenty nine. Amelek is living in the land of
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Speaker 1: the Negave, and the Hittites and jb Sites, the Amorites,
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Speaker 1: they're all living in the hill country. The Canaanites are
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Speaker 1: living by the sea. And I mean, we are just outnumbered.
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Speaker 1: They're just too many. Caleb said, stop, by the way,
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Speaker 1: where's Joshua. I never heard anybody talk about that. Joshua
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Speaker 1: is the one who gets chosen to be Moses a successor.
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Speaker 1: But Caleb speaks when Joshua stays quiet. I mean, if
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Speaker 1: it had been both of them together, it would have
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Speaker 1: said Joshua and Caleb would have even named Joshua first.
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Speaker 1: But Caleb all by himself quieted the people before Moses
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Speaker 1: and said, we should, by all means go up and
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Speaker 1: take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.
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Speaker 1: Don't you love board members like that? I mean, you
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Speaker 1: and I have been in board meetings until we could
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Speaker 1: scream and usual there are a couple in there with
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Speaker 1: green Visor mentalities I call it. They come with the
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Speaker 1: budget in their arms and the facts before us, and
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Speaker 1: they point out all the things that cannot be done.
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Speaker 1: Not all are like that. Many it just runs with
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Speaker 1: the Green Visor group. And ten of these are Greenvisor folks.
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Speaker 1: And you got to see the facts. Look at these people,
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Speaker 1: size them up, look at us, take them, you know,
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Speaker 1: do the math. Look at the cities. Look how fortified
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Speaker 1: compared to what we're used to. Look at the weapons,
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Speaker 1: look at ours. I mean, it's impossible. We can't do it.
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Speaker 1: Caleb said, stop, stop, we can do it. How big
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Speaker 1: is God? And you know when you say that to
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Speaker 1: Greenvisor people, they usually do this. Haven't you read the budget?
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Speaker 1: Haven't you seen the figures? Don't do the God stuff.
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Speaker 1: Let's just deal with the facts. These ten people are
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Speaker 1: focused on the facts forgotten the god of the territory.
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Speaker 1: Caleb was focused on God. He knew the facts. I mean,
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Speaker 1: they couldn't take Jericho to say nothing of whip all
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Speaker 1: the people in the land of Canaan. They knew that
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Speaker 1: Caleb knew it. But verse thirty one continues the men
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Speaker 1: who had gone up with him said, we are not
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Speaker 1: able to go up against the people, for they are
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Speaker 1: too strong for us. Caleb is going, Oh, brother, we
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Speaker 1: know that we knew that coming in. Obviously they're too strong.
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Speaker 1: So verse thirty two says they gave out to the
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Speaker 1: sons of Israel a bad report. Look at it, that's
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Speaker 1: what it says, a bad report. And they said, we
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Speaker 1: go into the land and they'll devour us because they
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Speaker 1: are people of great size. Verse thirty two inns and
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Speaker 1: oh we saw the Nephelem, the sons of Anak, and
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Speaker 1: they we are like grasshoppers. Oh. Next chapter. Then all
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Speaker 1: the board members lifted up their voices and they fell
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Speaker 1: down at their chairs. Whoa is us? We'll never make it.
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Speaker 1: And the sons of Israel grumbled against the Moses and
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Speaker 1: error and the whole congregation wood that we had died
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Speaker 1: in the land of Egypt, or would that we had
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Speaker 1: died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us
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Speaker 1: into this land? Retreat? That's the secret. Let's go back
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Speaker 1: to Egypt. Isn't that a great thought? Let's go back
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Speaker 1: to Egypt. Verse four. So they said to one another,
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Speaker 1: let's appoint another pastor, ah, another another leader, and let's
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Speaker 1: return to Egypt. Let's go back. Let's go back. Finally,
25:51
Speaker 1: verse six, Joshua gets the courage along with Caleb, and
25:57
Speaker 1: they tear their clothes and they speak to the people, saying,
26:00
Speaker 1: the land which we passed through this by it is
26:02
Speaker 1: a good land. Look at verse e. Look at the
26:04
Speaker 1: focus the Lord. If he's pleased with us, he will
26:08
Speaker 1: bring us into the land and give it to us.
26:11
Speaker 1: Verse nine. Don't rebel verse nine. Don't fear into verse nine.
26:16
Speaker 1: The Lord is with us, don't fear them. It concludes.
26:22
Speaker 1: That's Caleb age forty back to Joshua, chapter fourteen. That's
26:27
Speaker 1: what he's remembering. He's looking back to when he stood
26:30
Speaker 1: alone and then when Joshua stood with him. Back then,
26:35
Speaker 1: he was saying, if the cities are fortified, then we
26:38
Speaker 1: need an attitude to match the challenge. We need an
26:42
Speaker 1: attitude of fortitude. Caleb shows himself a man of conviction
26:48
Speaker 1: where he stood alone, a man of motivation, where he said,
26:51
Speaker 1: let's go in and possess it, in a man of expectation.
26:55
Speaker 1: Surely we'll be able to overcome it. That's back when
26:59
Speaker 1: he was forty years old and the giants were small
27:01
Speaker 1: to him because his God was large. Great moment for
27:05
Speaker 1: me to pause, and you know where I'm going. Every
27:08
Speaker 1: one of us faces a set of giants. They're all
27:12
Speaker 1: larger than we. That's why they're called giants. We can't
27:16
Speaker 1: fight them in our own strength or on our own
27:18
Speaker 1: If we could, they wouldn't be giants. They're designed to
27:22
Speaker 1: be bigger. They force us to drop to our knees
27:27
Speaker 1: and turn the situation over to our God. Caleb had
27:30
Speaker 1: done that. It's a settled issue. He's not going back
27:34
Speaker 1: there again. He's simply saying, that's the way it was then,
27:38
Speaker 1: and that's what I knew God could do. And by
27:40
Speaker 1: the way the people listened to the ten spies, you
27:45
Speaker 1: know the result. God judged him and said the older
27:48
Speaker 1: generation will die off. And for every day you were
27:52
Speaker 1: away looking into the land and spying it out, forty
27:55
Speaker 1: days I'll make you wander a year. So for forty
27:58
Speaker 1: years they wandered in the wilderness. Imagine that's older than
28:02
Speaker 1: many of you. Forty years, four decades. The main thing
28:09
Speaker 1: they did was hold funeral services. One person after another
28:14
Speaker 1: died off. Every daddy died off, every mother died off,
28:21
Speaker 1: every older warrior died off, every marker along the old trail,
28:28
Speaker 1: here lies so and so part of the old generation. Caleb, however,
28:36
Speaker 1: stayed true for forty years and more. He'll tell us
28:40
Speaker 1: forty five. By the time they come into the land
28:42
Speaker 1: and do all the sweeping through the land, it's five
28:45
Speaker 1: more years. So far, forty five years. He's been a
28:48
Speaker 1: man of cooperation. Well, there's a sermon to preach right there.
28:54
Speaker 1: Same obstacles, same problems, same concerns, except two people saw
29:00
Speaker 1: the Lord so clearly that it didn't even phase them.
29:04
Speaker 1: How many people, or even how large they were, or
29:08
Speaker 1: how fortified the city. Hey, if it takes a fortified city,
29:11
Speaker 1: we need a fortified courage, a fortified attitude. Maybe this
29:16
Speaker 1: strikes right at the heart of where you are. You
29:20
Speaker 1: know you've been reading the newspaper too much. I mean,
29:23
Speaker 1: after all, you have your devotions in the headlines, and
29:26
Speaker 1: then you spend time in the obituary. See if you're there,
29:30
Speaker 1: you're not there, and you know what should be in
29:34
Speaker 1: light of all the things I've been through. Oh, it's terrible.
29:41
Speaker 1: And you know what, I'm going to tell you something.
29:43
Speaker 1: If you're if you're getting there, your kids are really
29:46
Speaker 1: getting sick of hearing it. I'll just tell you for them,
29:50
Speaker 1: since you won't listen to them. If you're if you're
29:53
Speaker 1: one of those people that can focus only on the negatives,
29:57
Speaker 1: we're really tired of you, and we are really weary
30:03
Speaker 1: of hearing what can't be done. Let's don't go there.
30:07
Speaker 1: Let's don't go there. Interesting isn't it that none of
30:11
Speaker 1: the ten Spies are ever written up later on as
30:15
Speaker 1: being men of reality. They knew the truth. You know
30:23
Speaker 1: what happened to those guys, Well, they dropped like a
30:27
Speaker 1: sack of assault in the wilderness. Every one of them
30:30
Speaker 1: died when the Lord judged them because they didn't have
30:34
Speaker 1: the faith to walk into the impossibilities. When will we
30:39
Speaker 1: learn We'll learn from Caleb Joshua fourteen. Caleb says, back
30:44
Speaker 1: when I was forty years old, those giants were so little.
30:49
Speaker 1: My God was so big. And by the way, look
30:53
Speaker 1: at verse ten. Now behold, the Lord has let me
30:58
Speaker 1: live these forty five I have more years, so forty
31:02
Speaker 1: years of wandering, one year for every day they were
31:04
Speaker 1: spying out the land while they bury all of the
31:07
Speaker 1: old guys and gals, and all the old generation dies off,
31:12
Speaker 1: and now the new generation comes in. And Caleb remembers
31:16
Speaker 1: back and he says, you know, the Lord was right
31:18
Speaker 1: there with me the whole time. You ever stop to
31:20
Speaker 1: think when Moses died, the Lord picked who to be
31:26
Speaker 1: the successor. Joshua never picked Caleb. And you never find
31:31
Speaker 1: Caleb going, well, how's that? I mean, I mean, that's
31:38
Speaker 1: the thanks I get. I mean I was faithful and
31:41
Speaker 1: now they're picking a replacement and then pick me. He
31:46
Speaker 1: didn't do that. All the way through, he continues to
31:50
Speaker 1: walk with his God. He continues to trust him. By
31:53
Speaker 1: the way, this says a great moment for me to
31:55
Speaker 1: say to any one of you who has been overlooked
31:58
Speaker 1: for now, relax, get a life. Those people picking know
32:05
Speaker 1: what they're doing. You're not qualified or you're not the choice.
32:13
Speaker 1: Why you weren't chosen. It's okay. God isn't dead. There
32:19
Speaker 1: is tomorrow and there will be another time. There will
32:22
Speaker 1: be your moment. You may be eighty five, but that's
32:26
Speaker 1: God's choosing. That's how he does it. It's great. I mean,
32:31
Speaker 1: it's either that or God is almost sovereign. It's one
32:35
Speaker 1: of the few mistakes he's made is when they overlook
32:37
Speaker 1: me for the job I should have had. Relax. Learn
32:43
Speaker 1: from Caleb. Jene gets right how easy it is to
32:48
Speaker 1: become jealous and resentful when other Christians receive more attention
32:52
Speaker 1: than we do, especially when we feel we deserve it
32:55
Speaker 1: as much as they. To be faithful behind the scenes
32:59
Speaker 1: is difficult, but it's the true true test of character.
33:02
Speaker 1: Some of you are behind the scenes. And let's face it,
33:05
Speaker 1: you're mature enough to be in front, but you're not.
33:10
Speaker 1: You're not for a reason. God knows the reason. He
33:16
Speaker 1: has you where. He's got you, fully aware that you're
33:20
Speaker 1: capable of doing more. But it's all part of your preparation.
33:25
Speaker 1: It's all part of it. Prove yourself a faithful woman
33:29
Speaker 1: or man of God, just like Caleb, and follow him fully.
33:34
Speaker 1: Now it gets exciting. I love verses ten, eleven and twelve.
33:39
Speaker 1: Here's an eighty five year old guy talking about the future.
33:47
Speaker 1: Now the Lord has let me live just as he
33:52
Speaker 1: spoke these forty five more years from the time the
33:54
Speaker 1: Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked into wilderness.
33:57
Speaker 1: Now behold, I am eighty five years old. Today. May
34:01
Speaker 1: have been his birthday, may have been the very day
34:05
Speaker 1: he turned eighty five. I'm still as strong today as
34:10
Speaker 1: I was the day Moses sent me. As my strength
34:13
Speaker 1: was then, So my strength is now for war, for
34:17
Speaker 1: going out, for coming in. It's a colloquialism for fighting,
34:21
Speaker 1: for being involved in life, and for coming in to
34:24
Speaker 1: take counsel. It's the give and take of life. I'm
34:26
Speaker 1: just as alert as I was forty five years ago.
34:30
Speaker 1: And this is great. Now give me this hill country,
34:35
Speaker 1: oh man. Texans love versus like verse twelve. This hill country. Now.
34:41
Speaker 1: It's funny when you talk to Texans they talk about
34:43
Speaker 1: the mountains. Look, folks, we don't have any Let's just
34:53
Speaker 1: face it. This is mountain. This is mountain, he says,
35:10
Speaker 1: I'm ready for whatever. There's giants there, I'll take the giants.
35:14
Speaker 1: There's fortified cities. I'll take the fortified cities. When's the
35:17
Speaker 1: last time you said anything near that? Say, well, chuck,
35:20
Speaker 1: if you knew the life I've had to live. I
35:21
Speaker 1: don't care. You know, nobody, nobody cares. Okay, we don't care.
35:28
Speaker 1: What we care about is you're making everybody else miserable,
35:30
Speaker 1: because all you can do is lick the wounds of
35:32
Speaker 1: how bad you've had it, Cry me a river, get
35:35
Speaker 1: past it. Let's get on with life. I said, Cynthia,
35:40
Speaker 1: I've tried to find a story that would really tell
35:43
Speaker 1: it well, and I came across this great biography of
35:46
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt. It's called A Carry a Big Stick by
35:51
Speaker 1: George Grant. I'll tell you it'll put lead your pencil.
35:56
Speaker 1: I mean, it is terrific. Listen to some of these things.
36:00
Speaker 1: Roosevelt's passion for life was infectious. Everything about him tingled
36:05
Speaker 1: with zest and vitality. He approached every circumstance and situation
36:10
Speaker 1: with consummate gusto and enthusiasm. As a result, children loved him.
36:15
Speaker 1: He had a flare for the dramatic and the heroic.
36:18
Speaker 1: He lived life in perpetual motion. Adults were often struck
36:24
Speaker 1: utterly speechless in his presence. His energies were often incomprehensible
36:29
Speaker 1: and always irrepressible. When he was president, he took visiting
36:34
Speaker 1: dignitaries on his point to point rambles and romps through
36:38
Speaker 1: Rock Creek Park, setting a blistering pace. He would cut
36:42
Speaker 1: a beeline course, climbing over, wading, through, cutting under, swimming
36:48
Speaker 1: across whatever crossed his path. This is the President of
36:51
Speaker 1: the United States. I love it. Washington observers were always
36:55
Speaker 1: amused by the sight of the great man charging ahead
36:58
Speaker 1: while his guests were desperately he's struggling to keep up
37:01
Speaker 1: with him. Once, while hiking and climbing in the Adirondacks,
37:04
Speaker 1: he had a Secret Service agent lower him with a
37:07
Speaker 1: rope around his ankles into a wide gorge so he
37:11
Speaker 1: could take a close up photograph of a bird's nest.
37:17
Speaker 1: But when the agent tried to pull the president back
37:20
Speaker 1: up the cliff, he was unable to manage. Impatient, Roosevelt
37:24
Speaker 1: yelled to the man, just cut the rope. Horrified, the
37:31
Speaker 1: agent refused. There was a thirty foot drop between the
37:35
Speaker 1: president and the rushing water below. Cut the rope, Roosevelt screamed.
37:40
Speaker 1: By this time, the agent was panic stricken. He could
37:43
Speaker 1: think of nothing to do, so the President took matters
37:45
Speaker 1: into his own hands and cut the rope himself, he
37:50
Speaker 1: plunged into the icy waters below. Terrified, the agent scrambled
37:54
Speaker 1: down a trail to the bottom of the gorse and
37:56
Speaker 1: discover the President lying at the water's edge, half conscious,
38:00
Speaker 1: cut bruised, soaked to the bone. Laughing hysterically. The great
38:07
Speaker 1: Man looked up at him, smiled a big toothy grin,
38:10
Speaker 1: and said, My, wasn't that just bully? On another place,
38:21
Speaker 1: a man named Jacob Rehes visited Roosevelt at the Governor's
38:26
Speaker 1: residence in Albany. He was taken to the basement where
38:29
Speaker 1: the Great Man was getting a shaven a haircut. In
38:33
Speaker 1: order to keep busy. He was straddling a lap desk
38:36
Speaker 1: across his knees so he could catch up on his
38:38
Speaker 1: correspondence while getting a haircut. Simultaneously, he had three secretaries
38:44
Speaker 1: around him, to whom he was dictating in alternating paragraphs.
38:49
Speaker 1: To one, he was composing the final chapters of his
38:52
Speaker 1: biography on Oliver Cromwell. To the other, he was outlining
38:56
Speaker 1: portions of his upcoming legislative agenda. He was drafting a
39:01
Speaker 1: speech he would deliver later that afternoon, all while writing
39:05
Speaker 1: on his lap and receiving a shave and a haircut.
39:08
Speaker 1: His guest could hardly believe his eyes, so he asked
39:10
Speaker 1: him how he could possibly do so much at once.
39:13
Speaker 1: Roosevelt shrugged and responded he was simply trying to make
39:16
Speaker 1: the most of his time. Are you somewhere in that
39:21
Speaker 1: story or are you light years away? What are you
39:25
Speaker 1: doing with the rest of your life? What are you
39:29
Speaker 1: doing worried about age when everybody else retires. I went
39:36
Speaker 1: to my library and I found a great book on
39:39
Speaker 1: How to Reach a hundred by George Burns, and I
39:43
Speaker 1: thumbed through it and didn't find anything I could use
39:45
Speaker 1: in the pulpit that would be appropriate for this moment.
39:53
Speaker 1: So I read a portion of it to Cynthia, and
39:55
Speaker 1: she said, don't you dare use that? Don't you dare
39:58
Speaker 1: use that? So I don't dare use that. But it's
40:02
Speaker 1: a hilarious book if you ever want to read it.
40:08
Speaker 1: So I chose rather. Douglas MacArthur at age seventy five,
40:13
Speaker 1: when he turned seventy five on his birthday. This was
40:16
Speaker 1: his philosophy on aging. In the central place of every heart,
40:20
Speaker 1: there is a recording chamber, so long as it receives
40:24
Speaker 1: messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage. So long are
40:27
Speaker 1: you young. But when the wires are all down and
40:31
Speaker 1: your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and
40:34
Speaker 1: the ice of cynicism, then and only then, have you
40:38
Speaker 1: grown old. It is this man's ability to climb that mountain.
40:44
Speaker 1: It's this man's ability to hang from the rope. It's
40:47
Speaker 1: this man's ability to do several things at one time.
40:49
Speaker 1: His brain kept functioning because he didn't put it in
40:52
Speaker 1: retired gear. Am I against retirement only if it makes
40:57
Speaker 1: you lazy and old? I mean, you're gonna say to
41:01
Speaker 1: your wife several times, well I'm available. What are you doing.
41:04
Speaker 1: She's gonna say, I'm going to play bridge. I don't
41:06
Speaker 1: know what you're gonna do, but I've had about enough
41:08
Speaker 1: of you. I don't know how many wives write me saying,
41:10
Speaker 1: get my husband. Busies driving me crazy? Why they're hanging out?
41:16
Speaker 1: They don't know what to do. They're getting old. There's
41:20
Speaker 1: no need. Maybe you don't have to be employed. That's great,
41:24
Speaker 1: it's wonderful. But be engaged. Do that which is productive,
41:30
Speaker 1: and you will find life turning a corner and age
41:34
Speaker 1: not mattering at all. The problem with some of us
41:39
Speaker 1: who are aging is not that we're growing old is
41:42
Speaker 1: that we haven't grown up. We haven't faced the truth
41:47
Speaker 1: about how God still wants to use our lives. We
41:50
Speaker 1: bought into the lie regarding the blandness of retirement. You
41:57
Speaker 1: can retire, that's fine, just don't stop living. Just don't
42:02
Speaker 1: check it to us. Don't talk about having paid your dues.
42:07
Speaker 1: Where is that in the Bible? I cannot find I
42:10
Speaker 1: paid my dues anywhere in this book. You haven't got
42:14
Speaker 1: any dues to pay. You're living with the grace of God.
42:18
Speaker 1: I mean, these are your most effective years now that
42:21
Speaker 1: you've got the time to invest them in mentoring and
42:24
Speaker 1: encouraging and dreaming fresh dreams and living like a Caleb
42:31
Speaker 1: who comes to these later years in his life. Give
42:34
Speaker 1: me the mountain where the giants are. We haven't driven
42:39
Speaker 1: them out yet. We've been at it long enough. Let
42:42
Speaker 1: me have the giants. And Joshua goes, oh, you can
42:46
Speaker 1: have it, man, it's all yours. That's exactly what he does.
42:51
Speaker 1: He blessed him, but you love it. Go ahead, God
42:54
Speaker 1: bless you, Caleb. You take all those giants, and you
42:58
Speaker 1: know what, that's exactly what he did. I am as
43:02
Speaker 1: strong now as I was then. I'm ready to live
43:05
Speaker 1: through life like I never lived before. I love j
43:09
Speaker 1: Oswalsander's statement in youth he stood alone. In middle age,
43:13
Speaker 1: he walked alone. At eighty five, he climbed alone. What
43:19
Speaker 1: are you waiting for? You may be the one who
43:24
Speaker 1: will do the climbing, and then the others will follow.
43:28
Speaker 1: Don't expect a partner to come up with the same dream.
43:31
Speaker 1: It's your dream, JOI should have never climbed with Caleb.
43:36
Speaker 1: Perhaps his family did. Perhaps those he had mentored in
43:40
Speaker 1: the last forty five years were a part of the team.
43:44
Speaker 1: He's older than any of them. Age had nothing to
43:48
Speaker 1: do with he said, I shall drive them out. Yeah,
43:52
Speaker 1: I mean what enthusiasm? What determination? Ralph Waldo Emerson said
43:56
Speaker 1: nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. I get letters
44:02
Speaker 1: from churches as I'm serving the seminary these days, and
44:07
Speaker 1: they want a possible pastor. But they say, please send
44:14
Speaker 1: us one that'll keep us awake. What they're saying is
44:18
Speaker 1: send us one that has the training, with enthusiasm, the
44:22
Speaker 1: person who can come regardless of age. They don't mention age,
44:27
Speaker 1: not concerned about his age. Give us someone who will
44:30
Speaker 1: believe in us and believe in God and go together
44:33
Speaker 1: with us. Age isn't important. It's the enthusiasm. It's the
44:38
Speaker 1: one who doesn't believe in impossibilities came across this piece.
44:45
Speaker 1: According to the theory of aerodynamics, as may be readily
44:49
Speaker 1: demonstrated through wind tunnel experiments, the bumblebee cannot fly. It
44:58
Speaker 1: is unable to do so. This is because the size, weight,
45:02
Speaker 1: and shape of its body in relation to the total
45:05
Speaker 1: wingspread make flying impossible for the bumblebee. But the bumblebee
45:13
Speaker 1: does not know that, and being ignorant of these scientific facts,
45:20
Speaker 1: it goes ahead and flies anyway and makes a little
45:23
Speaker 1: honey every day. Great, who told you you can't fly?
45:31
Speaker 1: Who told you your best years are past? Who told
45:36
Speaker 1: you you have to be this miserable just to make
45:39
Speaker 1: it through life? Which has become such a burden. Really,
45:45
Speaker 1: it's the burden you're giving us more than you're living with.
45:51
Speaker 1: Oh did I fail to mention something important? I did
45:57
Speaker 1: three things? Or three times? It says the same. Verse
46:00
Speaker 1: eight concludes I follow the Lord, my God fully. Verse
46:06
Speaker 1: nine he followed the Lord my God fully. Verse fourteen
46:11
Speaker 1: concludes you followed the Lord God of Israel fully. Get
46:17
Speaker 1: that this isn't just grab your bootstraps and jerk on him.
46:22
Speaker 1: Now that you're underway, at this age in life, this
46:25
Speaker 1: isn't about what you do. This is following the Lord fully.
46:28
Speaker 1: This is thinking the Lord's thoughts after him. This is
46:32
Speaker 1: doing the kind of thing the Lord's plan for you
46:33
Speaker 1: to do. He's not out on some lark trying to
46:36
Speaker 1: prove he's he's twenty five. Again, everybody knows he's not
46:40
Speaker 1: twenty five. Those old nobby knees and that old wrinkled face,
46:44
Speaker 1: they can tell he's eighty five. Nobody's worried about that.
46:49
Speaker 1: What they're concerned about is his attitude, which is superb, superb.
46:54
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave three thoughts with you, and every
46:57
Speaker 1: one of us needs the three thoughts every one of us.
47:01
Speaker 1: First thought, forget your age. Promise yourself and promise me
47:07
Speaker 1: right now you'll never mention your age again. First, nobody cares.
47:14
Speaker 1: Once again, we don't care. So you have my permission
47:18
Speaker 1: to keep the candles off the cake. You have to
47:23
Speaker 1: redo the smoke alarm for some of us if you
47:25
Speaker 1: have to put candles on the cake. So don't do
47:27
Speaker 1: any candles anymore. Don't talk about how old you Forget
47:30
Speaker 1: your age, age is not important. Ted Williams, at age
47:35
Speaker 1: forty two, slammed a home run in his last official
47:38
Speaker 1: time at bat. Mickey Mantle, at age twenty, hit twenty
47:42
Speaker 1: three home runs his first full year in the major leagues.
47:46
Speaker 1: Gold of My Ear was seventy one when she became
47:48
Speaker 1: Prime Minister of Israel. William Pitt the Second was twenty
47:52
Speaker 1: four when he became Prime Minister of Great Britain. Mozart
47:56
Speaker 1: was just seven when his first composition was published. How
48:01
Speaker 1: about Benjamin Franklin. It was a newspaper columnist at sixteen,
48:05
Speaker 1: a framer of the United States Constitution when he was
48:08
Speaker 1: eighty one. You're never too young, You're never too old.
48:13
Speaker 1: If you got talent, nobody cares what your age is.
48:18
Speaker 1: Forget it by the way. That crawls against our culture,
48:26
Speaker 1: because the entertainment industry is all hung up on if
48:29
Speaker 1: you're past thirty five. Duh. The best stuff I ever
48:33
Speaker 1: saw was done by people past thirty five. Now you
48:36
Speaker 1: can't get a job there, then go somewhere else, hanging
48:40
Speaker 1: on their beak. They don't want you, you don't want them.
48:44
Speaker 1: Don't give up. Age means nothing. Why am I yelling?
48:50
Speaker 1: Number two? Number two? Focus on your goals. Focus on
48:58
Speaker 1: your goals. What is your particular hill country, what is
49:05
Speaker 1: your mountain? Go there. I can't give it to you.
49:10
Speaker 1: Nobody gave me my mountain. God did, and nobody could
49:14
Speaker 1: give you a mountain. They can't write in a note
49:17
Speaker 1: and say, dear Frank, here is your mountain, because they'll
49:22
Speaker 1: be wrong. C. H. Nash, who founded the Melbourne Bible Institute,
49:27
Speaker 1: trained a thousand young men and women for Christian service.
49:30
Speaker 1: He retired from the principalship at age seventy. At age eighty,
49:35
Speaker 1: he received assurance from the Lord that further ministry lay ahead.
49:39
Speaker 1: During the years that were before him, he taught small
49:42
Speaker 1: Bible study groups, some of the most fruitful years of
49:44
Speaker 1: his life. He later said, when he was ninety years old,
49:49
Speaker 1: one man testified he found him finishing the sixth volume
49:52
Speaker 1: of Arnold Toynbee's Monumental History as a mental exercise, just
49:57
Speaker 1: to stay alert, as he put it. Mister Benjamin Ryriy,
50:02
Speaker 1: retired missionary of the China Inland Mission at age eighty,
50:06
Speaker 1: decided to learn New Testament Greek. Soon became proficient in
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Speaker 1: reading the Greek New Testament, and at age ninety attended
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Speaker 1: a refresh your Course in New Testament Greek at Toronto
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Speaker 1: Theological Seminary when he was one hundred. He was present
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Speaker 1: at a meeting where there were great statesmen who were speaking,
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Speaker 1: and one who knew him discovered mister Riri had in
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Speaker 1: his pocket a Greek pocket lexicon, which he used in
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Speaker 1: his travels. In his words, to stay up on the language.
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Speaker 1: What new thing have you started now that you've turned
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Speaker 1: this age? What new beginning? Don't answer, I'm trying to
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Speaker 1: take it easy, take it? What is this an era
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Speaker 1: to take it easy? Easy? For what some selfish desire?
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Speaker 1: Forgive me. There's a lot of conceit in that you
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Speaker 1: hang and don't disturb on your doorknob. You're hanging quiet. Please,
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Speaker 1: I'm trying to nap. For all you know, the very
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Speaker 1: best events of your life are just ahead of you.
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Speaker 1: If you could just get an attitude of fortitude and
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Speaker 1: get out of your own self. Seventeenth century prayer, Lord,
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Speaker 1: thou knowest better than I know myself, that I am
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Speaker 1: growing older and will be someday very old. Keep me
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Speaker 1: from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something
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Speaker 1: on every subject on every occasion. Release me from craving
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Speaker 1: to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody,
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Speaker 1: helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom,
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Speaker 1: it seems such a pity not to use it all.
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Speaker 1: But thou knowest Lord, that I that I want a
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Speaker 1: few friends at the end of my life. Keep my
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Speaker 1: mind free from the recital of endless details. Give me
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Speaker 1: wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on
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Speaker 1: the aches and pains of my life. They are increasing,
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Speaker 1: and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as
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Speaker 1: the years go by. I dare not ask for grace
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Speaker 1: enough to enjoy the tales of others pains, But help
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Speaker 1: me to endure them with patience. Keep me reasonably sweet.
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Speaker 1: I do not want to be a saint, some of
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Speaker 1: them are so hard to live with. But a sour
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Speaker 1: old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.
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Speaker 1: Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places,
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Speaker 1: and talents and unexpected people, and old Lord, give me
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Speaker 1: the grace to tell them. So. Forget your age, focus
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Speaker 1: on your goal. Follow your Lord fully, follow him fully
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Speaker 1: wherever he may lead you, however he may use you,
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Speaker 1: however amount of money he may entrust to you, and
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Speaker 1: I hope it's multi billions. It's not a concern. What
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Speaker 1: you make. A concern to the Lord is what you give.
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Speaker 1: So I hope you make gobs and give most of
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Speaker 1: it the Stone Bar Community Church or Insight for Living
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Speaker 1: if you'd like to give there, But follow him fully.
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Speaker 1: Don't let anything and your older years cause you to
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Speaker 1: sort of strike out on your own. After all, look
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Speaker 1: how wise you become. He can cut you right out,
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Speaker 1: just cut it right out from under you at any moment.
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Speaker 1: Is there anything worse than a carnal old man or
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Speaker 1: a wicked old woman? Is there anything more exciting than
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Speaker 1: a spirit filled aging man? A woman? Cynthia and I
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Speaker 1: had a lady in our home church for years and
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Speaker 1: years who was our prayer faithful prayer warrior. When we'd
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Speaker 1: come back to our home church after being at seminary,
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Speaker 1: she would say, what's the Lord doing in your life?
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Speaker 1: She was all I was digging through Hebrew and Greek
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Speaker 1: and I had to dig around to find something that
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Speaker 1: the Lord was doing in my life. And she said,
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Speaker 1: I'm so excited for you. I have I have visions
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Speaker 1: for you that just blow you away. This lady in
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Speaker 1: her seventies, as I recall, she's on the edge of
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Speaker 1: her seat. Want to know what the Lord doing? I
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Speaker 1: said to her one day. Why do you ask me that?
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Speaker 1: She said, because every day I pray for you. It's
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Speaker 1: part of how I stay young. Who do you pray
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Speaker 1: for every day that'll keep you young? If you haven't
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Speaker 1: the visions for yourself, maybe you know some who are
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Speaker 1: talented beyond your own skills and gifts. Maybe they belong
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Speaker 1: on your prayer list, so that you pray for them
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Speaker 1: daily and that keeps you young. Maybe you dream dreams
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Speaker 1: for them and ask God to make it happen. Our goal,
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Speaker 1: of course, is the Lord Jesus, who only had thirty
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Speaker 1: three years, and he said when he finished him, I've
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Speaker 1: done what you sent me to do. It is finished,
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Speaker 1: and he gave up the ghost. I'd like us to
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Speaker 1: bow our heads and like us to close our eyes.
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Speaker 1: Let's be lost in our own thoughts for a few moments. Okay,
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Speaker 1: just quietly sit there and mull over something that stands
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Speaker 1: out in your mind. So many of these things, these illustrations,
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Speaker 1: whether it's throw or Roosevelt or MacArthur, or the writer
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Speaker 1: of some piece of verse doesn't matter. These things have
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Speaker 1: your name written all over them. This is about life,
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Speaker 1: your life, which is not to be lived unto yourself.
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Speaker 1: It is to be lived for others, for the glory
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Speaker 1: of God. And you know, you may be sitting there
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Speaker 1: with your eyes closed, thinking, you know what, I just
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Speaker 1: can't get unstuck. Well, it just might be that you've
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Speaker 1: never even come into a kind of relationship with God.
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Speaker 1: That's possible. You've been religious, and you've gone to church,
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Speaker 1: and you've been a good American, and you've you know,
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Speaker 1: fulfilled your responsibilities along those lines, but you've never you've
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Speaker 1: never really trusted Jesus Christ. That is crucial for the
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Speaker 1: whole equation, crucial love for you to do that right now.
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Speaker 1: I'd love for you to just acknowledge that the most important,
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Speaker 1: the wisest decision you could make at this point in
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Speaker 1: your life is to turn the controls over to him.
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Speaker 1: Let him take your life and all of the stuff
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Speaker 1: that's wrapped up in your guilt and fear and self
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Speaker 1: pity and all those things that you've been hiding behind,
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Speaker 1: and let him pay the price. Right now, let him
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Speaker 1: make it clear to you he's paid the price for
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Speaker 1: your sins, and you receive him personally. Now, Lord, do
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Speaker 1: a work deep within our hearts. Help us to come
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Speaker 1: to terms with attitudes that have been anchors. Forgive us
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Speaker 1: for the sour responses that we have been participating in
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Speaker 1: and encouraging in others. Give us eyes of faith to
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Speaker 1: see beyond the facts and figures. Open us to a
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Speaker 1: whole world of possibilities, because you are the God of
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Speaker 1: the impossible. Encourage us, Father with thoughts that would send
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Speaker 1: us into a future that could be altogether different from
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Speaker 1: our past, and may we become, for at least one
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Speaker 1: other person contagious. Thank you, Father for the encouragement of
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Speaker 1: our time of worship. Be honored now, and go with
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Speaker 1: us in a special way as we depart from this
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Speaker 1: place or move to our fellowship one with another. In
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Speaker 1: the name of the Lord Jesus, I asked this, everyone said,
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Speaker 1: hey man.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, The Secret and Attitude of Fortitude, was
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Speaker 2: copyrighted in two thousand and one, two thousand and two,
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Speaker 2: and twenty nineteen, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: twenty nineteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are
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Speaker 2: reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is
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Speaker 2: strictly prohibited.