I thought I'd give a sermon today, I'm going to give the same one I gave in Rome and I put a title on this and the title I've got is "Getting a Grip on Our Life."  Now all types of things are going to happen to you and me and our friends and so forth, say for the next, let's put a time frame here, for the next year.  I'll look back over the last year in our lives and there were very happy times, but times of great sorrow too.  You look at it and when you look at yourself, you forward, let's face it we don't know what is going to lie ahead for any of us for the next, whatever period of time you want to put forth, say a year or what not.  But what lies ahead for each of us is not nearly as important as what is inside us, what type of person we are and we all know that none of us come up to the stature of what we want to be totally, but what's inside of us is what God is really looking at.

I thought I'd begin by turning over to Numbers 13.  There's a set of scripture here that I think sets the tone of what I want to speak about and it begins in the very first verse of Numbers 13.  You all have heard the stories when Moses sent out the spies to spy out the land – the promised land –
that God was going to give to Israel. And God had said, “This is your land.”

Numbers 13:1  And the Lord spoke to Moses saying:

Verse 2:  "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan (The Promised Land) which I am giving to the children of Israel; (God was giving this land to the children of Israel) from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man (But not just any man) every one a leader among them." (So you've got these tribes of Israel, you've got Naphtali, Judah, Issachar, you name it.  God said pick a leader out, one of the men that has a good reputation and I want each of you to have those men to go and spy out the land and check out what I'm going to give you)

Verse 3:  So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.  (Now you can read each one, you can read right on down the list of where these men were from. Now let's drop down to verse 17 because here they spied out the land and they came back and here was their report and you know what they said, but I want to take a look at it here)

Verse 17:  So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them,  "Go up this way into the South and go up to the mountains,

Verse 18: (And here again he's telling them again what to do before they go) "and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in the land are strong or weak, few or many; (You know God knew exactly what this land was like.  God knew exactly what they were going to see, but here you have Moses telling them this:)

Verse 19:  "whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; (A lot of weapons and so forth)

Verse 20 "whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. (God knew exactly what they were going to see.  But then He said:) Be of good courage.  And bring some of the fruit of the land."  (Because God and Moses knewexactly what they were going to find and they knew it was a good land. They knew they were going to find something special) Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

Verse 21:  So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath.

Verse 22:  And they went through the South (And notice when they went through, they saw the descendants of Anak, who's that?  They were giants, they were big men, these descendants of Anak)

Verse 23:  And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. (This cluster of grapes was so big it took two of them to carry on a pole.  These were big grapes, huge grapes) They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.

Verse 24:  The place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.  

Verse 25:  And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. (Forty days they watched over this land and looked at it and they saw exactly what God knew what they were going to see and you and I know we told the story but let's look at some of the details here:)

Verse 26:  So they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.  (Everybody must have been impressed when they saw those grapes and when they heard those things)

Verse 27:  Then they told him and said:  "We went to the land (Talking to Moses here) where you sent us.  It truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. (They showed him the grapes I guess)

Verse 28:  Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; (Probably correct) the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. (The big guys, the scary guys)

Verse 29: "The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canannites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan."  (They were getting a little worried, but I'll take you to verse 30.  They were getting scared weren't they? They were beginning to worry)

Verse 30: Then Caleb (Caleb who was from the tribe of Judah) quieted the people (Caleb could see that the people were getting afraid and worried and concerned and didn't know if they were going to have the strength to do it) before Moses and said: "Let us go up at once and take possession for we are well able to overcome it." (We can take it, we can take this land and why and I jotted this down:  Why did Caleb feel like he knew he could do it?  Well, number one he knew the facts.  He knew God said it's going to be your land.  He knew the facts.  Number two He held his attitude in check.  He saw those giants, he saw those fortified walls.  He saw all the things the other men did, but he didn't let himself get worried and think well I can't do it because he knew God was behind it.  Number three of course he could have stated what he believed.  He said: "Let's go take it."  He knew God said it was their land so Caleb had the facts, the other men had the facts too, they just let it get out of control.  He held his attitude in check which the others began to not do and he stated clear what he believed.  Now, notice what was said by the other men.  Joshua was fine but the other men were not)

Verse 31:  But the men who had gone up with him said: "We are not able to go up against the people,  (So there goes the old attitude, but notice:) for they are stronger than we."  (They had seen the miracles God had done.  They had seen every single one, all the miracles for the last year or so or whatever period of time after they'd left Egypt.  They'd seen these miracles and yet they still said, we can't do this.  We don't have the strength to do this)

Verse 32:  And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying: "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, (Again, notice how they just, I started to say they didn't have any faith, they sure didn't.  They just didn't believe, did they?  Notice how the exaggerations, how it grows here) The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

Verse 33:  "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants) (But not every person was a giant.  But notice how they're loosing it) and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight,  (Do you really think they were that small compared to the men and women that they saw that worried and scared them and they didn't have the faith to go?) and so we were in their sight."  (See they saw giants in the land and in their mind they got to where they thought everybody was a giant.  There was nothing but giants, we have no hope.  These giants, what are we going to do is basically what was in their mind.  And again, they had seen all the things that God had told them and here's Caleb who tried to quiet them down because he saw it too, but then notice the very next verse:)

This should have been a happy time.  This was a time to go and receive the land. 

Numbers 14:1  Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night.

Verse 2:  And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. (It's all your fault Moses, it's all your fault Aaron) and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt!  (Now how stupid is that?  They were slaves in Egypt, and they said oh, if we could have just die in Egypt.  We wouldn't have gone through all this stuff. Then they said:) Or if only we had died in this wilderness!"  (They just lost it.  I guess you could say they completely lost it.  Everything was just blown out of proportion to the point that they just said oh, if only we could have died in Egypt. How stupid a comment.  Or why could we not have died out in the wilderness?  Guess what? They got to die in the wilderness because of this attitude.  They weren't finished)
Verse 3:  "Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims?   Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

Verse 4:  "So they said to one another, let us select a leader and return to Egypt."  (Here it is, God wanted to give it to them, God wanted to give them the land and they said can we just go back to Egypt.  Pretty sad isn't it?  They were paralyzed by what they thought might happen.  They were paralyzed by this fear of the unknown and not a one of these men and women had even seen the land except the spies.  But they were paralyzed by their own fear.   I don't know how to describe it)

God forgave them basically, but He knew they had to learn a lesson.

Verse 20:  Then the Lord said:  "I have pardoned, according to your word."  (Just ask for forgiveness)

Verse 21:  "But truly, as I live, (O.K., God was going to teach them a lesson for their own good) all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord

Verse 22:  because all these men who have seen My glory (They saw all the miracles) and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put Me to the test now these ten times (I remember giving a sermon on the ten times.  The ten times from when they left Egypt to this point which was a short period of time where they had just put God to the test and finally God said, you test Me ten times) and have not heeded My voice,

Verse 23:  they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.  (But then you have a caveat)

Verse 24:  But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went and his descendants shall inherit it.  (See Caleb had a different spirit.  Now there's a difference between victory and detail.  What am I saying here?  God  has told Christians, hey you're going to be in the Kingdom of God, you're going to be in the family of God if you don't forsake Me, you'll be in the Kingdom of God.  But along the way, there's all these details aren't there?  Everyone of us has a life we live, every person.  We don't know what's going to happen tonight let alone what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next year.  I notice Allen said I had a temporary assignment.  I didn't know it was temporary, but do you think I'm going to die that quick?  Well I might.  But, if I do I won't go in the hospital like this.  Well, maybe I will, who knows?  But the point of the matter is, we're all going to have things happen to us and some of them along the way aren't going to be what we want for any of us.  Some of us are going to go through bigger trials than others.  God said He would never put us through anything we're not able to handle because He will be there.  God has a victory for each Christian, but the details of the victory is often what trips us up.  So as we cross over in the next (whatever period of time) there are going to be giants out there in our way, aren't there?  God says He'll help us with those giants)

Now I've got 35 minutes here and I'm going to give you five points and I'll finish on time.  I feel pretty confident here don't I?  But there are five points on how to get a grip on life as a Christian that I jotted down and I thought about.

1. Whatever your problem or whatever my problem, start dealing with it now.  One of the biggest problems is putting things off, isn't it? 

Let's look at Judges 4 which is a good example of this.

You know what would happen, they would stand, they would pray and ask God for forgiveness and God would send them a Judge to save them; a physical man, one who would save them and here we go into verse 1.
 
Judges 4:1  When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 2:  So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.  The commander of his army was Sisera who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. 
Verse 3:  And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.  (They had done evil, they had been making all these mistakes, they cried out to the Lord and this is what I find very interesting.) for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron and for twenty years (20 years, those people in Harosheth aren't 20 years old yet) he harshly oppressed the children of Israel.

Basically it took Israel 20 years to get going.  They sinned, God allowed this king of Canaan to cause all these problems, it took them 20 years to get going, to really cry out to God properly for help and ask Him for help.  Now how long have you or I been dealing with whatever your giant is?  Or giants because most of us have more than one thing that's bothering us going.  The question is, it took Israel 20 years to get started.  It took Israel 20 years to repent before God where God could say well it's time for me to do something and quite frankly, probably we may not have 20 years even in our life, in some cases to deal with it.  We don't know, we don't know how much time we get, we don't know no matter how young or old we are, we don't know.  So bring in your Anak, your giant into vision and ask yourself what's holding you back?

I have a quote here by an author whose name is Debbie Wolf and I just saw the quote.  I actually never heard of her but I like the quote.  She said: "One important problem is the habit of putting off living to some fictional future date."  She says continuing: "In defining their lives to the future, they lose sight of the present and its golden opportunities for rich living."  She said and I'll read it again: "One important problem is the habit of putting off things to some future date way out there."  We don't even know what's going to be happening a year from now, 6 months from now, even a week from now.  The way things are happening in this world today, the way things happen so quick, if we say I'm even going to wait a week who even knows what's in store.  You hear all these dire predictions of what's going to happen if something is not settled by Tuesday on the debt crisis, but we don't know and they don't know either for sure.  Again, do we have 20 years, any of us to wait or do we have a year?  We don't know do we?  God says whatever the problem is, start dealing with it now for our own good.

II Peter 3, verses 1 through 4.  (Here's Peter writing.  This is the second epistle so he's written one earlier and this was late.  One of the last books probably more than likely written in the New Testament, probably I'm sure Revelation was probably written later and maybe first and second and third John and possibly one or so others, maybe second Timothy, we don't know for sure.  But it was written late, one of the last books written in the New Testament and Peter said:)
Verse 1:  Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (So he'd written what we have his first epistle) in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, (So he had told them these things before and he was telling them again)
Verse 2:  that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior, (So here was Peter an apostle telling us things.  Remember how Mr. Armstrong used to say:  "I'm telling you as a man who has been around a lot longer than you have in the church."  People sometimes would like, oh well.)
Verse 3:  knowing this first (Is what Peter said in this letter) that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
Verse 4:  and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?  For since the fathers fell asleep. all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."  (In other words, what's the big deal?  God, we don't know what's going on.  They'll tell you these things won't they?  Always waiting until tomorrow, always waiting until later.  There's a story I jotted down about a man that went to the doctor and the doctor said:  "I've got some good news and I've got some bad news.  Which do you want first?"  Thankfully that was not what my friend asked me yesterday, but he answered:  "Give me the good news first."  He said: "You've got 24 hours to live."  "What's the bad news?"  "I forgot to tell you yesterday."  It's funny but it wouldn't be funny if it were you, would it?  So if you knew if your time was almost up would you start facing your giants?  Would I start facing more seriously my giants?)

James 4:13  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend there, buy and sell and make a profit;"  (You hear it every day in life, don't you?  What all they're going to do)
Verse 14:  whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. (James said and we don't know either do we?) For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (That's what life is, just like these flowers.  Man, those flowers are so beautiful, but I don't know, are they real or not?  If they're real they'll vanish away up there.  If they're not real, well they'll stay looking like that for a long time.  But either way, they're not going to last forever, I need to know.  But anyway, I like them.  I better move on, I'm running out of time already)
Verse 15:  Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
Verse 16:  But now you boast in your arrogance. (And we see it all the time, on T.V. and around) All such boasting is evil. 
Verse 17:  Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.  (So whatever our problem is or a giant, God says start dealing with it now)

2. Whatever your problem is, stop blaming others.  I'm talking to all of us, but I'm talking to anyone that hears this at any time.  Whatever our problem is, stop blaming others. 

I Samuel chapter 30, verses 1 through 8.  I'm sitting here thinking I'm looking forward to that pot luck and I just ate 2-1/2 hours ago and I ate a lot of food.  That's bad, I can't help myself.

I Samuel 30:1  Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, (Bad news.)
Verse 2:  and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, (That's the good news) but carried them away and went their way.
Verse 3:  So David and his men came to the city and there it was burned with fire; and their wives, their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.(This was a sad, sad situation)
Verse 4:  Then David  and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. (They had every reason to feel this way because David as it said here, his two wives had also been taken captive)
Verse 6:  Then David was greatly distressed,  (Why?) for the people spoke of stoning him, (Like it was all David's fault.)
because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. (But what did David do?) David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
Verse 7:  Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, "Please bring the ephod here to me."   And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
Verse 8:  So David inquired of the Lord, saying. "Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?" (And God answered David, I'm not sure how it was especially done, but God answered David) And He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all."  (And he did because David didn't blame somebody else, he just asked God for help)

3. Whatever your problem is, stop blaming God. 

The reason I'm bringing this up is because often times when a person blames others for their problems and you see it in the world today constantly.  Just turn on the T.V., turn on the news, turn on for just a short period of time, everybody's got somebody to blame.  But how often is point two, blaming others in a sense is only a smoke screen for actually blaming God rather than taking personal responsibility for something that's wrong?  It's just like if you do something wrong, or if I do something wrong and we know we do something wrong and bad things happen and then we wonder why it happened, say it's God's fault.  Look at Judges chapter 6.  Here's part of the story about Gideon.

Judges 6:11  Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.  (So the Midianites were basically persecuting the Israelites and they were crying out to God again for help after they had done evil.  Look at verse 1 of this chapter) And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.  So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years.  Here's the case, God comes to Gideon)
Verse 12:  And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him: "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
(Here somehow the angel of God spoke to Gideon and said God's with you, you mighty man of valor)
Verse 13:  And Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? (It's all God's fault.  Yet really the problem was the Israelites, they did evil and Gideon said:) And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' (He asked that with a question.  He knows He did) But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."  (In other words as we see here, Gideon blamed God)

Let's look at Genesis 3, just one verse and you know this well, but I find it interesting, it's when Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and God went to Eve and then God went to Adam and God spoke to Adam.  Then the man Adam said after God called him out:
Genesis 3:12  Then the man said: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me the tree and I ate." (So in one verse, Adam blames the woman and God.  If you hadn't given me this woman, I wouldn't have eaten that apple or that fruit whatever the case may be.  Adam not only blamed Eve, but he also blamed God)

So do we ever blame God when things happen to us that really we just wish wouldn't have happened?  It's something that it's easy for us to do sometimes, isn't it? 

Let's go to Exodus 5.  Remember when God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and Moses, oh I can't do it, I can't do it and God told Moses to take Aaron.
Exodus 5:1  Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'"
Verse 2:  And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?  I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go." (It didn't go as well as they thought did it? Read verses 3 thru 19 but I'm sure Moses and Aaron thought things didn't go so well.  They thought we'd go and do what we wanted to do)
Verse 20:  Then as they came out from Pharaoh, and they met Moses and Aaron (A certain group of people) who stood there to meet them.
Verse 21:  And they said to them, (Here's what Moses and Aaron got from the people from going in there and wouldn't have the courage to before Pharaoh) "Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us."  (In other words they were all mad at Moses and Aaron for doing what God told them to do, but to make it a little further:  After they got mad at Moses)
Verse 22:  So Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Lord why have You brought this trouble on this people? (He wants to free them and they're out there like Moses is a man of God) Why is it You have sent me? (Now he didn't want to go in the first place and now he's unloading his anger at God)
Verse 23:  "For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You allowed Your people to go." 

Exodus 6:1  Then the Lord said to Moses, (God heard it and here's what God said to Moses after all this.  The people were all mad at Moses and now Moses is all mad at God) "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.  For with a strong hand he will let them go and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land."
Verse 2:  And God spoke to Moses and said to him:  "I am the Lord."  (I don't think He was whispering.  I think He was telling Moses quite frankly, get your act together Moses. Then God said:)
Verse 3:  "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I was not known to them.
Verse 4:   I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.
Verse 5:  And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered My covenant.
Verse 6:  Therefore say to the children of Israel: "I am the Lord"  (He told Moses to get back in there and do his job and quit blaming Him because God was trying to free them and the people got mad at Moses and Moses got mad at God and God said look, get in there and do your job)

If we trust God the bigger the problem, the bigger the miracle He can perform, but yet we all struggle, don't we because we're all human beings?  I'm sure you probably struggle and I know I do at times because we're human beings.

Whatever the problem, start working on number one, number two, quit blaming others and number three, don't blame God. 

4. Whatever the problem is, take it to God.  Don't blame God, take it to God.

Nearly 100 years ago there was an American Philosopher named Elbert Hubbard and Mr. Herbert Armstrong used to quote him.  I had a quote I wrote down here that I got somewhere from Elbert Hubbard.  It says: "It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great strength to decide what to do."  He said it's not that hard to do something if you can just decide to do it.  When Moses went before Pharaoh with his knees quaking and shaking, once he did it, I bet he thought man, I'm glad I got that over with.  I bet he stumbled and fumbled around trying to find every reason and we can read about it of why I'm not good enough to do it and God kept saying do it, do it.  Like Elbert Hubbard said, the problem what takes the strength, is to decide what to do.  Never feel you cannot reach out or go to God.  You and I can go to God for any problem.  No problem is too big for God.

One scripture on this point is Luke 5.  Here's Jesus Christ walking the earth.  There was a man who had leprosy.  There are two types of leprosy and we don't hear that much about leprosy today.  Go back to the book of Leviticus and  it describes the two types and how to deal with it and so forth.  One was just a bad skin rash, that was the small type.  There was another that was a more dangerous type and that was a disease that would eat away and basically consume a person's skin and even their bones if it wasn't dealt with properly and then they had special places and lepers were supposed to stay away from the rest of the people because it was contagious.  They wanted to keep those lepers away so others wouldn't get it.  Well here was this man that had leprosy and Jesus Christ was here on the earth.

Luke 5:12  And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold a man who was full of leprosy (He just didn't have a spot, he was full of leprosy) and he saw Jesus and he fell down on his face and implored Him, (My margin says he begged Him) saying, "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean."  (He knew this might be the only chance he would ever get to be among a man that he had heard was healing others and he got down on his knees and he begged Him to heal him.  Nobody wanted to be near a leper)
Verse 13:  Then Christ put out His hand and touched him (He touched a leper.  You never want to get near a leper because you could get it) saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  And immediately the leprosy left him.  (You know leprosy was this man's, you could say his giant.  He was dying of it, it was consuming him)

I jotted down four things Christ did for him that He could do for us when we go to Him.  He gave the man dignity.  You know no one wanted to be around a leper.  Jesus Christ went up to him.  He touched him.  Who would touch a leper?  He loved him because He said I'm cleaning you and his sins He forgave him.  So when we go to God He can give us dignity, He will touch us even if we feel untouchable because we know we're not as good as we want to be, He shows us His love by all the many things He does and of course He forgives us and how could there be a better example then the death of His Son on the stake, Jesus Christ.  So that's why we're here today and this is why we're in the Church of God because we have that kind of God; an understanding God who helps us to become what we want to be.

5. Whatever our problems, God can make everything all right and He will make everything all right if we rely on Him, if we claim the promise, it says God will honor us.

Now I mentioned this morning and I may not have all my facts exactly right, but I remember the movie, "Chariots of Fire."   I saw it years ago and I saw it again but I don't remember all the details but I do remember it was about this runner.  I don't remember if he was from England or Scotland, but he was from somewhere over there.  He was a great runner and he was running and he was so fast that he actually qualified for the Olympics.  He was in the Olympic games but he kept what he thought was the Sabbath.  It was Sunday to him but he thought he was honoring God by keeping the day holy and he was looking so forward to running this race and then when the schedule came out, of all things, his race was on the day he kept that he thought was the Sabbath.  He thought, I want to run but I can't run, but I want to run and back and forth he went.  Even the Prince of Wales even called him in this movie and spoke to him that God wants you to run for your country, God understands.  But he couldn't do it and he went and said he couldn't do it.  He couldn't break his conscience, he couldn't dishonor his God.  There was a guy in that movie, he was an American and I remember I guess he existed in real life, I think he did, this is supposedly a true story and he was in the movie.  He was kind of a cocky guy and you kind of didn't like him that much, but when he saw what happened, he wrote a note and he gave the note to the guy that was trying to make the decision on whether to run or not.  I remember exactly what the note said.  It said, "God honors those who honor Him."  The young man looked at that and he said I can't run on that day.  So he thought o.k. all is lost.  Well it turns out somehow, and I don't remember all the details, but he didn't get to run in that race.  But, there was a relay race that someone dropped out and allowed him to run and as I understand he won the gold medal.  So God honors us when we honor Him.

Over in Romans, chapter 8 and let's wrap this up with a couple more scriptures.  Here's Paul at the end of a sequence.

Romans 8:31  What then shall we say to these things?  (He's just been talking about the greatness of God and all that God does) If God is for us, who can be against us?  (He answers his own question) who can be against us?

Verse 32:  He who did not spare His own Son (If He didn't spare His own Son would He have to love you and me and all mankind?) but delivered Him up for us all, (All, not for just one person, but for all of us) how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (If we honor God, nothing is too hard for God is what it is saying)

A final scripture over in Psalms 18.

You know when you look at your life, when I look at my life, we see that we have a lot of things we need to improve on.  Nobody in here, that if they're honest with themselves, doesn't know in some ways, they can be considered a failure, but God doesn't see us as failures.  God sees us much more positive than we see ourselves sometimes and God doesn't see us as failures, He see us as conquerors, He sees anyone who loves Him and stands up for His way of life and truth as conquerors.  Yet, as human beings, it's hard to even see why God loves us as much as He does.  But He sees us even in a deeper way than we can ever see ourselves. 

Psalm 18:31  For who is God except the Lord? (You know there's only one God, all these other things that are called gods, they're not really God) And who is a rock, except our God?  (The real God, not all these fake gods that are out there.  It is God he says, he answers the question)
Verse 32:  It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.
Verse 33:  He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.
Verse 34:  He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend  bow of bronze.  (He lifted David up like He lifts all of us up, even to eternal life in the end)   
Verse 35:  You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; (David is praising God for all He does) Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great.  (His gentleness made David great)
Verse 36:  You enlarged my path under me; so the my feet did not slip.
Here it is, final verse.
Verse 37:  I have pursued my enemies (His giants, our giants) and overtaken them; neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed. (There are giants out there and God said I can handle them and I'll help you handle them)

Remember it was not that Caleb had a different challenge.  Caleb saw everything the other spies saw when he sat there looking, for those forty days.  It wasn't that Caleb had a different challenge, it was just that Caleb had a different spiritfrom the other spies.  Caleb saw this land that God wanted to give the Israelites and he trusted what He'd heard his parents and his family say that this is your land.  He wasn't afraid.

If we didn't have trials and sufferings and battles to fight, we simply in the end wouldn't really have a reason to grow.  I don't like trials and you don't like trials, but God said He would never give us a trial too big for us to bear, too big to overcome. 

So five points today like five fingers for each of us:  Start dealing with our problems today or your giant today.  Stop blaming others if you do (I'm not saying you do, but if you do).  Stop blaming God (I'm not saying you do, but if you do). Take our problems to God and remember don't blame God, take it to God and whatever our problem, God can make everything all right if we rely on Him.  If we claim the promise, God will honor us.