Howard C. Wilkinson - "The Grasshopper Attitude" (September 4, 1966)
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Transcript
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- | To assist us with our congregational singing | 0:18 |
on these two Sundays, | 0:21 | |
we use the piano instead of the Oregon. | 0:22 | |
And we are grateful to Mrs. RG Dunnigan | 0:25 | |
for serving as our pianist today. | 0:27 | |
Those of you who saw the Sessile Beat and Mill movie, | 0:33 | |
"The 10 Commandments" | 0:37 | |
will remember that | 0:40 | |
at the end of this very long movie, | 0:41 | |
the plight of the children of Israel | 0:45 | |
from Egypt through the wilderness | 0:49 | |
and up to the promised land is depicted. | 0:52 | |
And Moses is having to remain | 0:56 | |
on the Eastern side of the River Jordan, | 0:58 | |
as the children of Israel, | 1:01 | |
under the leadership of new men | 1:04 | |
who have not been their leaders primarily before | 1:06 | |
contemplate going in to take the land, | 1:10 | |
which they believe almighty God has promised them to take, | 1:13 | |
promised that they should have, | 1:18 | |
promised would be their inheritance | 1:20 | |
and their rightful possession. | 1:22 | |
Now I not only saw the movie, I read the book. | 1:26 | |
And so I know of what happened after this part in the movie. | 1:32 | |
That is where the movie left off. | 1:36 | |
When Joshua | 1:40 | |
and Caleb | 1:42 | |
and other new leaders who were coming to the front | 1:43 | |
and the children of Israel found themselves | 1:47 | |
looking at the river Jordan | 1:50 | |
and the promised land across it to the west. | 1:51 | |
Instead of simply moving on | 1:55 | |
across the river, into the promised land, | 1:58 | |
they did something which sounds very American, very modern. | 2:00 | |
They first sat down and appointed a committee | 2:05 | |
and they sent the committee ahead to spy out the land. | 2:09 | |
There were 12 tribes, as you will recall in Israel. | 2:15 | |
And so they picked one of the top leaders of each tribe | 2:18 | |
and put them all together into a committee of 12 | 2:23 | |
and sent them over to see what the land was like. | 2:27 | |
As you will recall from Mike Shasbi's reading | 2:31 | |
of this passage in Numbers, | 2:34 | |
these 12 men spent some time in the promised land, | 2:37 | |
the land which was supposed to be theirs. | 2:42 | |
Seeing what kind of fruits were there, what kind of animals, | 2:45 | |
what kind of people, | 2:48 | |
kind of spying out the terrain. | 2:50 | |
And after they had surveyed the situation, | 2:53 | |
they came back across the river, Jordan | 2:56 | |
into the Israelite camp and made their report. | 2:58 | |
There were two things on which all 12 of the spies agreed. | 3:02 | |
And then there was a point of disagreement. | 3:06 | |
All of the spies | 3:10 | |
agreed | 3:12 | |
that | 3:13 | |
it was a good land. | 3:14 | |
It was a desirable place. | 3:15 | |
It was a | 3:17 | |
section of the world that they would like to live in. | 3:19 | |
A land flowing with milk and honey. | 3:22 | |
Now, secondly, | 3:26 | |
all 12 of the spies agreed | 3:27 | |
that there were difficulties to be encountered, | 3:30 | |
problems to be solved. hurdles to be jumped | 3:33 | |
if they were indeed to come into possession of the land. | 3:36 | |
The land was already occupied in other words. | 3:39 | |
There were people living there, | 3:41 | |
signs of Anak | 3:43 | |
who were | 3:45 | |
formidable looking people. | 3:47 | |
There was no disagreement about that. | 3:49 | |
There were problems to be faced. | 3:52 | |
But now the third point | 3:53 | |
is one on which they did not all agree. | 3:55 | |
10 of the 12 said, | 3:59 | |
"The people who are there are too big for us. | 4:02 | |
"They are too strong. | 4:06 | |
"They're too vicious. | 4:07 | |
"Why they even devour the land | 4:09 | |
"and we cannot go up successfully against them. | 4:12 | |
"We are, as we look at them in our own sight, grasshoppers, | 4:16 | |
"and we were, as they looked at us grasshoppers." | 4:22 | |
But Caleb and Joshua | 4:27 | |
not denying the fact that there were difficulties, | 4:30 | |
not denying the strength of the inhabitants of the land | 4:33 | |
said, "We can take the land. | 4:35 | |
"It's ours. | 4:38 | |
"If we go in and, | 4:39 | |
"do what we can do | 4:43 | |
"by the strength of God, | 4:45 | |
"claim the land." | 4:47 | |
Now we have the benefit today of hindsight | 4:51 | |
in this situation, | 4:55 | |
we do not have to guess what the outcome of the matter was | 4:57 | |
because we had the record. | 5:02 | |
Actually, | 5:05 | |
the children of Israel could have taken the land | 5:06 | |
if they had gone in | 5:10 | |
as is proven by the fact that a generation later, | 5:12 | |
they did go in and take the land | 5:15 | |
with those same inhabitants and their sons being there, | 5:16 | |
even more numerous than they were | 5:20 | |
at the time this report came in | 5:23 | |
and was accepted by the children of Israel. | 5:25 | |
But we also know from hindsight that they voted not to do it | 5:29 | |
when they heard the report of the majority of 10 | 5:33 | |
and the minority report of two, | 5:37 | |
they'd be in Caleb and Joshua, | 5:39 | |
they voted to accept the majority report, | 5:40 | |
which was a discouraging report, a defeatist report. | 5:44 | |
It was a report that said, | 5:48 | |
"We'd better just sit still where we are, | 5:50 | |
"or else go back to slavery in Egypt. | 5:53 | |
"Because though we have come all the way | 5:57 | |
"through the desert, the wilderness | 6:00 | |
"for the purpose of coming into this land, | 6:03 | |
"which God has promised for us, | 6:05 | |
"we can't take it. | 6:08 | |
"We'll have to go back or sit still." | 6:09 | |
So with the kind of indecisive decision, | 6:13 | |
they sat still for a generation. | 6:17 | |
Until all 10 of the leaders of those 10 tribes | 6:19 | |
who had brought in this majority report | 6:23 | |
that led them to a discouraging decision, had died. | 6:25 | |
And then they made the decision | 6:30 | |
to cross over the river Jordan, | 6:32 | |
go into the promised land and possess their inheritance. | 6:34 | |
Now, as I say, | 6:40 | |
we have the benefit of hindsight | 6:41 | |
and we know that had they gone in | 6:43 | |
under the leadership of Caleb and Joshua at that time, | 6:45 | |
they could have taken the land, but they did not. | 6:47 | |
They sat where they were. | 6:51 | |
They did nothing. | 6:52 | |
Now try to imagine | 6:54 | |
if you can, | 6:56 | |
the situation. | 6:57 | |
Suppose that you and I | 6:58 | |
had been members of the camp of the Israelites at that time. | 6:59 | |
I think it would help us a little bit | 7:04 | |
to understand the situation. | 7:05 | |
If we should assume | 7:07 | |
that Coach Harp would send three of these coaches | 7:08 | |
up to West Virginia | 7:10 | |
to see what kind of football players, | 7:12 | |
the University of West Virginia has. | 7:15 | |
Suppose, let's say he sent Coach Sam Timer, | 7:18 | |
Coach Howard McElhaney and Coach Stan Christon up there | 7:20 | |
to find out what this West Virginia team was like. | 7:23 | |
Suppose that Timer and McElhaney came back and said, | 7:28 | |
"These are the sons of Anak. | 7:31 | |
"And as we looked at them, | 7:33 | |
"we were grasshoppers in our sight. | 7:35 | |
"And as they looked at us, | 7:37 | |
"we were grasshoppers in their sight. | 7:38 | |
"And so we don't have a prayer of a chance | 7:41 | |
"of winning a football game | 7:45 | |
"against the University of West Virginia." | 7:46 | |
And suppose then there was a squad meeting | 7:49 | |
and Stan Christon said, | 7:51 | |
"I do not deny the statistics about the team. | 7:52 | |
"They are heavy, they're big, they're strong, | 7:55 | |
"they're well prepared, | 7:57 | |
"but I believe that we can take them." | 7:58 | |
And the squad lesson to the majority report | 8:00 | |
and the minority report in the squad said, | 8:03 | |
"Well, in view of the fact that | 8:05 | |
"these are the sons of Anak | 8:06 | |
"and that we are as grasshoppers in our side | 8:08 | |
"and as grasshoppers in their side, | 8:10 | |
"there's no need to play these fellows | 8:12 | |
"we'll stay here in Durham." | 8:13 | |
And on Saturday afternoon, a couple of weeks from now, | 8:15 | |
there'll be no contest. | 8:18 | |
Now that is just about the situation that existed | 8:21 | |
only a little more existentially | 8:24 | |
on the day that the report | 8:27 | |
of the 10 spies was adopted | 8:29 | |
by the children of Israel. | 8:33 | |
And as I say, we're in a very fortunate position here, | 8:37 | |
as we look at this situation, | 8:40 | |
because we know what history tells us | 8:42 | |
about the outcome of this whole business | 8:46 | |
and therefore, I believe this can serve for us | 8:47 | |
and our Christian life as a very profitable incident, | 8:51 | |
to examine a little more carefully, | 8:55 | |
to see what lessons we can learn from it. | 8:57 | |
I think it can be said without any question that | 9:03 | |
if the children of Israel on that occasion | 9:09 | |
had made up their minds to go into the promised land, | 9:13 | |
they could have taken the land. | 9:17 | |
If they had followed Caleb and Joshua | 9:21 | |
with the courage of Caleb and Joshua | 9:24 | |
and in the spirit of Caleb and Joshua, | 9:27 | |
they could have taken the land. | 9:29 | |
This was established by the fact that a generation later, | 9:32 | |
they did it with no better resources. | 9:35 | |
In fact, with an inferior comparative position, | 9:37 | |
than the one that they had at the time | 9:41 | |
that Caleb and Joshua wanted them to move in. | 9:43 | |
They could have taken it, | 9:46 | |
but they did not. | 9:48 | |
It's an interesting thing how, | 9:51 | |
when God gives us something as an inheritance, | 9:53 | |
we still have to take initiative ourselves | 9:56 | |
in order to possess it. | 9:59 | |
God has given us a mind, | 10:02 | |
but a person who has inherited the mind | 10:04 | |
does not always possess a mind. | 10:07 | |
The mind has to be improved. | 10:10 | |
It has to be used. | 10:12 | |
It has to be disciplined. | 10:13 | |
Practically all of us | 10:15 | |
have inherited some kind of a normal body. | 10:17 | |
But a great many of us do not possess a strong body | 10:20 | |
because an inheritance that is not possessed | 10:24 | |
does not reach its full possibilities. | 10:28 | |
There's been a debate in recent years | 10:34 | |
as to who it was that discovered America. | 10:36 | |
Did the Vikings discover America first, or was it Columbus? | 10:40 | |
Or historians at Yale university who tell us today that | 10:45 | |
the Vikings clearly were the ones | 10:48 | |
who first discovered America, | 10:51 | |
because there are maps to prove the fact that | 10:53 | |
someone knew what the coastline of the Northern part | 10:56 | |
of the north American continent looked like. | 11:00 | |
I have read as not as you have | 11:03 | |
with a great deal of interest, | 11:05 | |
the revelations of our modern historians, | 11:07 | |
about what history has to say about this. | 11:11 | |
Having read all this, | 11:15 | |
I still found it rather interesting to read | 11:16 | |
Harry Golden's word on this whole controversy. | 11:22 | |
He said that, | 11:26 | |
"It really doesn't matter who first saw America. | 11:27 | |
"It was really Columbus who discovered America | 11:31 | |
"because the Vikings came over and looked | 11:35 | |
"and they did nothing to initiate an expedition of settlers | 11:38 | |
"to come to this country. | 11:43 | |
"They did nothing to organize an expedition | 11:45 | |
"to come and possess this land. | 11:48 | |
"And it was only Columbus | 11:52 | |
"and those who were associated with him | 11:53 | |
"who took the initiative | 11:54 | |
"to come over and take possession of America. | 11:56 | |
"Therefore, he said, | 11:59 | |
"historians will be an error. | 12:01 | |
"If they say | 12:03 | |
"that the Vikings really were the ones | 12:04 | |
"who discovered America, | 12:06 | |
"it was Columbus because action | 12:08 | |
is always the important thing | 12:10 | |
"in any situation." | 12:12 | |
Well, the children of Israel on this day | 12:15 | |
looked over at the promised land. | 12:18 | |
They saw it, but they did not then possess. | 12:19 | |
And this is the important thing. | 12:24 | |
All right, now let's move on to the second observation, | 12:26 | |
which we would make about the situation before us. | 12:29 | |
And that is | 12:32 | |
that if the children of Israel | 12:34 | |
had moved across the River Jordan into the promised land, | 12:36 | |
but had done so | 12:41 | |
in the spirit of the 10 spies | 12:43 | |
who were filled with discouragement, | 12:47 | |
they could not have taken the land. | 12:48 | |
There does not seem to be any question about that. | 12:51 | |
And if that wasn't the spirit, which they had, | 12:55 | |
it really was quite unnecessary for them. | 12:57 | |
And indeed foolish would have been | 13:00 | |
for them to have moved ahead. | 13:02 | |
They would have been defeated. | 13:05 | |
They would not have occupied the land. | 13:07 | |
The sons of Anak would have been too much for them. | 13:09 | |
And they would have met total defeat. | 13:12 | |
Now, why do we say this? | 13:15 | |
We say this on the basis of the fact that the spies | 13:17 | |
whose report was adopted | 13:21 | |
and thus became the attitude of the children of Israel, | 13:22 | |
felt that they were in their own sight as grasshoppers. | 13:26 | |
They had a grasshopper attitude. | 13:31 | |
We're adjusted grasshopperS. | 13:34 | |
What can we do? | 13:35 | |
While in comparison with the obstacle to which we face, | 13:37 | |
we're nobodies. | 13:40 | |
They were a men of fear. | 13:44 | |
They were a men of anxiety. | 13:47 | |
They were not men of faith. | 13:49 | |
They saw the sons of Anak | 13:51 | |
much more clearly than they saw God. | 13:52 | |
They saw their problems, | 13:56 | |
but they could not fix and focus their | 13:58 | |
vision upon their strength | 14:01 | |
and upon the promises, which were theirs. | 14:04 | |
It took counsel of their fears rather than of their faith. | 14:07 | |
You recall the incident which Jesus gave of the man | 14:11 | |
in the new Testament, who was given a talent. | 14:14 | |
And he said, | 14:18 | |
"Well, I only have one other people have two, three, four. | 14:19 | |
"I know that my Lord said to me, | 14:24 | |
"to take this talent out into the world | 14:26 | |
"and gain more by means of the use of this. | 14:28 | |
"But I'd better be careful. | 14:32 | |
"I'd better play it safe. | 14:34 | |
"The best thing for me to do is to be sure | 14:36 | |
"that this talent is here when my Lord returns. | 14:38 | |
"And so I'll bury it | 14:41 | |
"and I'll hold onto it and I'll sit on it | 14:44 | |
"I'll see that it is not diminished." | 14:45 | |
He was a man who did not have, | 14:49 | |
did not have courage | 14:51 | |
who was not willing to enterprise, | 14:53 | |
who could see all the problems, | 14:55 | |
but could not seem to see any solutions. | 14:57 | |
Therefore, | 15:00 | |
he accomplished nothing | 15:01 | |
except to earn the condemnation of his employer | 15:03 | |
when his employer returned | 15:06 | |
and that which he had was taken away from him | 15:09 | |
because he would not use it. | 15:12 | |
So if the children of Israel on that occasion | 15:15 | |
had gone across the River Jordan, | 15:19 | |
they would have been unsuccessful for the reason | 15:20 | |
that they were in their own sight as grasshoppers. | 15:24 | |
Now, there is a second reason | 15:30 | |
why they would not have been successful. | 15:31 | |
And that is. | 15:33 | |
that they were as grasshoppers | 15:35 | |
in the side of their opponents. | 15:37 | |
Well, of course, | 15:40 | |
what else would you expect? | 15:42 | |
If I am a grasshopper in my side, | 15:45 | |
I'm going to be a grasshopper in your side as well. | 15:47 | |
Our enemies, our opponents tend to look upon us | 15:52 | |
and pretty much the same thing | 15:56 | |
as we look upon ourselves at this point, | 15:57 | |
if we say that we're in whole bodies, | 15:59 | |
they're going to decide that we are too | 16:02 | |
and govern themselves according. | 16:05 | |
I recall some years ago when my family lived in Asheville | 16:09 | |
and I was pastor of a church in that city, | 16:14 | |
we bought a dog, | 16:17 | |
we got it down at the seed store. | 16:20 | |
And it was just a little puppy, | 16:22 | |
the cocker spaniel | 16:24 | |
Had floppy ears, | 16:25 | |
long hair, | 16:27 | |
quite innocent. | 16:29 | |
And we thought very highly | 16:31 | |
of this little Cocker spaniel puppy, | 16:33 | |
but we never thought of it as a watchdog | 16:35 | |
or as anything ferocious. | 16:38 | |
We never thought of this dog as something that would | 16:40 | |
dominate the neighborhood with ferocity. | 16:45 | |
But one day we were driving around out in the mountains, | 16:49 | |
several miles outside the city of Asheville. | 16:52 | |
And we had this dog in the back seat. | 16:54 | |
We saw a clear, cool mountain stream on this hot day, | 16:58 | |
we decided that we would like to stop the car and get out | 17:03 | |
and walk in this stream | 17:06 | |
and enjoy the beauty and grandeur of the open air country. | 17:08 | |
Dog got out, | 17:14 | |
came over into the stream, | 17:15 | |
a little cocker spaniel puppy that she was. | 17:18 | |
While we were looking at the water | 17:21 | |
and the rocks in the stream, | 17:23 | |
the dog came up on the other side of the stream | 17:25 | |
and surveyed the meadow that was just beyond the string, | 17:29 | |
about a 10 acre pasture there. | 17:34 | |
And in this pasture was a lone cow, a huge cow, | 17:37 | |
eight or 900 pound animal. | 17:42 | |
And simply out of curiosity, | 17:45 | |
nothing more dangerous than that. | 17:48 | |
The dog moved toward the cow. | 17:51 | |
And before we realized what had happened | 17:55 | |
or what was taking place, | 17:59 | |
the cow saw the dog coming | 18:01 | |
and turned and ran rapidly in the opposite direction. | 18:04 | |
Well, now this presented a completely new situation | 18:10 | |
to this cocker spaniel pup. | 18:13 | |
Here was a mighty animal fleeing obviously from her. | 18:15 | |
And all of a sudden she decided | 18:21 | |
that she was indeed a great raging lion | 18:23 | |
and she gave pursuit to this cow. | 18:26 | |
The cow ran all over the pasture | 18:28 | |
and we did everything we could to call the dog off | 18:31 | |
and to spare the farmer's cow, | 18:33 | |
but nothing would stop that ferocious animal | 18:37 | |
that was pursuing this enormous cow | 18:40 | |
and this small floppy cocker spaniel puppy | 18:43 | |
in her own eyes became a mighty giant. | 18:47 | |
And this cow was nothing but a grasshopper | 18:51 | |
because did not the cow fleet from the dog. | 18:53 | |
And it was two or three years after that incident, | 18:58 | |
before this dog ever came to field, | 19:01 | |
that she was not the master of any animal | 19:04 | |
that walked the earth. | 19:06 | |
While a dog four or five times her size | 19:08 | |
was still not nearly so big as that cow. | 19:10 | |
And she would bark and growl at this much larger dog | 19:13 | |
and the dog would turn and run. | 19:16 | |
A lot of this went on and | 19:19 | |
this dog felt that she was invincible | 19:21 | |
until one day a dog just about her own size, | 19:23 | |
took her measure and conquered her. | 19:26 | |
And from then on, she ran from everything. | 19:28 | |
But at first she felt | 19:33 | |
that the cow was as it were a grasshopper | 19:36 | |
because the cow felt that she was a grasshopper. | 19:39 | |
Now, therefore I believe we would see from this, | 19:44 | |
that both we ourselves and those who oppose us tend to | 19:47 | |
be influenced by the attitude | 19:53 | |
which we have with regard to our obstacles. | 19:55 | |
Now, what are some of the people who possessed the land | 19:59 | |
in the world today that have been promised to us? | 20:02 | |
Jesus Christ has said to his church | 20:07 | |
that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. | 20:10 | |
Jesus Christ has said that the whole earth | 20:14 | |
is fair territory for Christian people. | 20:18 | |
And that we are to go and possess the land. | 20:23 | |
Who are some of the people that occupy the land | 20:26 | |
that belongs to us? | 20:30 | |
Well, there is a great movement in the world today | 20:33 | |
that is called communism, | 20:36 | |
which is possessing the hearts, | 20:38 | |
millions and millions of people. | 20:40 | |
The hearts that belong to God, | 20:43 | |
hearts of people of the allegiance and loyalty of people | 20:46 | |
who were made by God and were destined | 20:50 | |
for citizenship in his kingdom, | 20:52 | |
for membership in his family. | 20:54 | |
But the sons of Anak | 20:57 | |
possessed that land, | 21:01 | |
but God has asked us to move in and take it. | 21:04 | |
Now unfortunately, there are a great many people | 21:08 | |
who call themselves Christians | 21:10 | |
and who are members of Christian churches | 21:12 | |
who feel that before the communists, | 21:14 | |
the Christian Church is simply a grasshopper. | 21:17 | |
That the Christian Church does not have the power | 21:21 | |
to claim this ground. | 21:23 | |
The hearts and minds, the allegiance of mankind. | 21:25 | |
And that the only resort we have therefore, | 21:30 | |
is to kill off these people who are communist. | 21:33 | |
That is the only way we can reclaim the land, | 21:35 | |
the hearts, the loyalty, and the allegiance | 21:39 | |
that had been promised to the Christian Church. | 21:42 | |
We feel therefore that the communists are giants. | 21:46 | |
And as they survey the attitude of these people, | 21:52 | |
they decide themselves | 21:56 | |
that they have a better answer than Christian faith. | 21:58 | |
And there are some communists in the world today | 22:02 | |
who have gotten this attitude | 22:04 | |
from some people who are Christians. | 22:05 | |
They feel therefore that | 22:09 | |
if they keep preaching their | 22:10 | |
gospel of hate, | 22:12 | |
of division, | 22:14 | |
of murder, | 22:16 | |
of slaughter, | 22:17 | |
of domination, | 22:19 | |
that we have no answer for this, | 22:22 | |
except the answer | 22:24 | |
simply to kill off all the people like this. | 22:25 | |
I do not believe | 22:29 | |
that we need to adopt any such attitude as this. | 22:30 | |
I do not believe that the people of the world today | 22:33 | |
want to get what they need by the root of communism. | 22:36 | |
I did not believe that | 22:41 | |
the people of the world prefer hatred over love, | 22:42 | |
that they prefer violence | 22:47 | |
over the democratic processes of consent. | 22:49 | |
I do not believe that the people of the world | 22:52 | |
want to be upset, divided, suspicious, | 22:55 | |
and always | 22:59 | |
working against each other. | 23:02 | |
After the communist pattern, | 23:04 | |
I believe that really deep down in their hearts, | 23:07 | |
the people of the world today would like to have truth | 23:10 | |
instead of lies, | 23:12 | |
love instead of hate, | 23:13 | |
brotherhood instead of division. | 23:15 | |
But that is a land | 23:20 | |
which the Christian Church must move in and poses | 23:22 | |
by our efforts with the grace of God helping us. | 23:27 | |
And which, if we do not thus us move in and possess, | 23:32 | |
we will never have. | 23:36 | |
There will always be an elusive inheritance, | 23:38 | |
which will not be ours, | 23:42 | |
but God is calling today to move in and possess that land. | 23:44 | |
We will not do it with any view | 23:49 | |
that Christianity does not have the answer, | 23:50 | |
that communism really has the answer that man wants to buy. | 23:53 | |
And that the only way therefore to eliminate communism | 23:57 | |
is to eliminate communists by killing them. | 24:01 | |
I believe that an intelligent Christian philosophy of life | 24:06 | |
is the answer to every man's longings and every man's needs. | 24:11 | |
We need to move in and possess that land. | 24:15 | |
There is a second force, | 24:20 | |
which occupies land | 24:22 | |
that has been promised to the Christian Church. | 24:23 | |
That force is secularism. | 24:27 | |
It is a rampant force in the world today. | 24:30 | |
It is one which is trying not only to hold the ground, | 24:34 | |
which it has, but to gain new ground. | 24:38 | |
The essence of secularism is | 24:41 | |
that if there is a God it doesn't matter | 24:44 | |
whether he is alive or dead is irrelevant. | 24:48 | |
Whether he ever was or was not, | 24:51 | |
it doesn't make any difference. | 24:55 | |
As long as | 24:56 | |
when we begin to make plans, | 24:58 | |
we make plans without reference to God. | 25:00 | |
When we make decisions, | 25:04 | |
we make them without reference to God. | 25:06 | |
When we adopt a philosophy of life and a way of living, | 25:10 | |
we do it as though there were no God, | 25:13 | |
or if there is a God, | 25:16 | |
he doesn't really matter | 25:18 | |
in the practical affairs of human life. | 25:19 | |
This is what secularism is. | 25:22 | |
And there are forces in our country today, | 25:25 | |
which are very strong, which are very active, | 25:29 | |
which want to plant this philosophy of life | 25:32 | |
in every public school, in every public institution, | 25:35 | |
in all of the educational centers of our country | 25:40 | |
and every other place in American life, where they can. | 25:46 | |
We operate our schools as though there were no God. | 25:50 | |
We operate our government | 25:55 | |
as though religion were irrelevant to it. | 25:57 | |
This is the philosophy of secularism, | 26:01 | |
and it is claiming the hearts and the allegiance | 26:03 | |
of an alarming number of people in the world today. | 26:06 | |
Now the hearts and allegiance of the people in America today | 26:10 | |
that are under the stranglehold of secularism | 26:15 | |
have been promised to us. | 26:19 | |
God has given us that as an inheritance, | 26:22 | |
but it isn't an inheritance that has to be possessed | 26:25 | |
and it will not be possessed by a grasshopper attitude. | 26:28 | |
Well, as long as I can | 26:33 | |
go into my closet, | 26:36 | |
shut the door and have a private prayer to God. | 26:37 | |
It doesn't matter | 26:41 | |
if I make no witness Christian faith outside the classroom. | 26:41 | |
Religion as a private matter. | 26:47 | |
And as long as God knows that I love him in my heart. | 26:49 | |
It doesn't make any difference | 26:52 | |
whether my relationships to my fellow, man, | 26:53 | |
it doesn't make any difference whether the outer creed | 26:58 | |
and practice of my life reflects the Christian faith or not. | 27:02 | |
To take such an attitude as that | 27:08 | |
is to take the grasshopper attitude, | 27:10 | |
which will convince the secularist | 27:13 | |
also that we are grasshoppers. | 27:15 | |
And I believe that the attitude of Caleb and Joshua | 27:20 | |
is the one which the Christian Church should have today. | 27:22 | |
Say that the hearts and minds of mankind | 27:26 | |
were made by God and | 27:30 | |
will be restless until they find their rest in him. | 27:33 | |
Jesus Christ is the Lord of all life. | 27:38 | |
And it is not the will of God | 27:42 | |
that any individual in this world | 27:44 | |
should live in a stranger environment. | 27:46 | |
We, as Christians should move in and possess the land. | 27:49 | |
There will be difficulties of course, | 27:53 | |
there will always be the report of those | 27:56 | |
who say it can't be done, | 27:58 | |
who say that the giants, | 28:01 | |
the sons of Anak are too much for us, | 28:03 | |
but there will also, | 28:06 | |
I believe the, those like Caleb and Joshua who will say | 28:07 | |
that we can do it, | 28:12 | |
or the Lord of hosts is with us. | 28:14 | |
We can do it because God loves these people. | 28:17 | |
And he wants us to claim the land, not for ourselves, | 28:21 | |
but for him, | 28:24 | |
the gospel of Jesus Christ is what this world needs, | 28:27 | |
what we as individuals need and what the | 28:31 | |
difficult and complicated political | 28:35 | |
and social and economic relationships with mankind need. | 28:37 | |
There is no other workable substitute, | 28:41 | |
and we need to take the faith and courage, | 28:46 | |
Caleb and Joshua | 28:49 | |
and move in and possess the land. | 28:52 | |
Let us pray. | 28:54 | |
Almighty God our heavenly father | 28:56 | |
deliver us from the grasshopper attitude, | 28:58 | |
help us place ourselves in thy hands, | 29:02 | |
not count the cost, | 29:05 | |
but simply asked for thy grace | 29:07 | |
that we may be faithful to thee in our time, | 29:09 | |
In the place which thou has given to us | 29:12 | |
through Christ our Lord. | 29:16 | |
Amen. | 29:19 | |
Let us know then and sing the hymn, | 29:27 | |
God, our helping ages past. | 29:30 | |
(bright orchestral music) | 29:34 |