the name of Jesus, the one that we have met to worship. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy. Old Testament scripture, yet I believe it's relevant for us today. Deuteronomy chapter 30. The title to the message is Vision, and I put a slash across it and the definition of vision is right behind it. Intelligent foresight. Intelligent foresight. My mind went to the children of Israel. I believe it's in 1 Chronicles chapter 12, I think, where it lists different groups of people and Some of these men were able to throw stones with their right hand or their left hand or shoot an arrow with both hands. Very good at it. Others were very good at fighting wars. Some of them had the faces like a lion and they were able to run over the mountains like a deer. And tucked in the middle of all that it says, the children of Issachar had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. Wouldn't that be nice? If we could understand the times and know what we should do? It's still possible today. Maybe not like we like to understand always, but when we follow God's will, He reveals to us His will. Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15 through verse 20. If you care to, you can stand as we read in reverence to the word. Deuteronomy 30 verse 15. See, I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil, in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply. And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land. whither thou passest over Jordan, to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life. that both thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob to give them. Thank you. You may be seated. for some reason at this time of year, we think about choices, we think about decisions we have to make, we think about commitment or maybe resolutions. And rightly so. I think it does us well to maybe evaluate where we are at with our life this time of year. Man is born with the ability to make choices. And we just read, we can choose between life and good or death and evil. We can love God and walk in His ways or we can turn our heart away and worship the God of self and the pleasures of this world. Life, death, blessing, cursing. Fairly distinct difference in the two. There's not much of a gray area between life and death or blessing and cursing. Should be a fairly easy choice to make. He even gives direction and a recommendation on what to choose. It says we should choose life. Why? That thou and thy seed may live. Well, that's reason enough to choose life. Choices, commitments, a fresh start with life. Maybe that's the way we look at it this time of the year. But why would we do that At the most dismal time of the year, today for instance, it is dreary, it's raining. It's the shortest day, almost at the shortest daytime of the year. Less light than normal. The earth is dormant. There's very little sign of life in nature. I assume we think about it because it's New Year's. It's the first of the year. We think about a fresh start at life. Maybe it's a good time to break old habits and form new ones. Or maybe to rededicate some part of our life that we have been slipping or backslidden in. Maybe we've become cold or lukewarm. But wouldn't it be better to move New Year's Day to April? When there's life coming forth from the earth, the trees start budding, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, the grass is green, it's warming up, the days are getting longer, there's more sunlight. It energizes us. Why couldn't we do our commitments, recommitments, our resolutions then? Let me tell you, the calendar shouldn't have very much to do with us making commitments and choices in our life. We should respond positively and obediently when the Spirit of God knocks on our heart, it doesn't matter, is it January or is it April. Make that positive choice. Make that change in your life. Make that resolution in your life, in your heart. It doesn't matter is it January 1st or is it April 1st. Heed the call of God on your life. As we enter this new year, if the Lord tarries, we're not quite there yet. But we're again reminded of the passing of time. You know, I had to think that not so long ago we heard the term COVID-19 for the first time. Can you believe that's five years ago? Time has a way of slipping right through our fingers like sand, like the songwriter tells us. And we're close to 2025 already. I remember when We were in 1999 and all the hype about 2000, I thought, well, we'll probably never see 2000. Here we are, 25 years later. Still serving the same God. You know, we measure time by minutes, by hours, by days and years. In eternity, time is not measured as we know it. In fact, what does our bulletin? One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. And we think about five years, ten years. What's a thousand years? When we've been there 10,000 years, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Well, none of us can really comprehend 10,000 years, much less eternity where there is no end. We won't be counting days or years. In 10,000 years of singing praises to God, we've no less time to do that than we had when we first started. That almost fries my imagination. Because we're used to measuring time. You're probably measuring mine and I better move on. Time is connected with the duration of the world. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And in Revelation it says the angels swear by Him Let me see how it goes here. In Revelation 10, verse 6. The angels swear by Him, which is God, that liveth forever and ever, that there should be time no longer. Talking about the end of the world. So, time has to do with the created world as we know it. The beginning and the end of time. Did you catch the phrase in that verse that said, by him that liveth forever? God did not begin when he created the earth. And he will not end when the earth is consumed. Our God is eternal. He has always been and will always be. Eternity includes all ages past and it reaches forth into all ages in the future. That's eternity. Time is just a little span alongside eternity. Time as we know it here on earth. A man's lifespan, the gift given to man from God, is the time that we have here on earth to prepare for that unending eternity. The little span that we call time. And in that span of time, we are called to make a choice. We read that we are to choose life or death. Why? That both thou and thy seed may live. Hmm. What is life? Well, we just read that God, He is thy life. God is life and He gives us life through faith, through repentance, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. Whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting what? Life. God gives us life through His Son. We have the ability to reason and to make that choice to choose life or death. God is glorified when we voluntarily choose life. Choose to serve Him. We don't have to. We can choose to serve God or we can choose not to serve God. It's within our ability to do that. But remember, God is in control of the consequences of the choices we make. He controls the outcome of the choice we make, whether we choose life or death. You know, at times, with our limited understanding, we sometimes make decisions and choices without considering or maybe realizing the outcome of that choice. But I believe, to the best of our ability, with the Lord's help, we need to develop a pattern of making right choices for our eternal good. Making right choices is part of our choosing life. Our daily decisions. Making right choices each and every time with the help of God is a part of us choosing life. Choosing what is right. Proverbs 14 verse 12 indicates that we cannot trust in our own wisdom. To make wise choices. There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is the way of death. That is sobering. We sometimes think we can make right choices. But when we depend on ourselves, our own carnal nature, it ends up leading us to death. That choice that we don't want to make. We're choosing between life and death. And when we trust in ourselves, The choice is automatic. I don't like to use the word automatically. The choice is that we end up where we don't want to go. Heaven, eternal life, is a choice. Aside from the innocency of a child, no one will get there without making that deliberate choice to follow God. to crucify self, and to follow and serve the living God. Verse 16 here says, Love the Lord God, walk in His ways, keep His commands, that ye may live. Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, in Matthew 22. Jesus narrows it down to an intense love. Nothing is done half-heartedly. It's with our entire being that we are to love the Lord God. Considering all the things that the world has to offer, technology, sports, pleasures of all descriptions, these are all bidding for our love. They're all trying to get our attention. So by that we realize, or we should realize, that it takes a deliberate action on our part to choose life. To say no to those things and move forward with God being our guide. The Bible says that we cannot serve both. We cannot serve two masters. Somehow we, by the grace of God, have to choose. We have to separate the two, God and mammon. We have to choose between one and the other. Which way we will turn our feet, our heart? Which kingdom do we fit into? Which kingdom do we want to be a part of? You know, daily we are choosing our kingdom. We make daily decisions that prove which kingdom we are of. Our lifestyle, our words, our thoughts prove what kingdom we're a part of. Choose life that ye may live. I like to look at the life of one of the men in the Old Testament who heard these words as Moses read them. Choose life that ye may live. His name is Caleb. He was one of two men among twelve who were sent to evaluate the land of Canaan. He was one of two men who dared to bring back to the children of Israel a good report. He was a man who trusted God. He had a vision, intelligent foresight. He was excited about what God had waiting for the children of Israel in the land of Canaan. I can just imagine him standing in front of the people and telling them, this land is flowing with milk and honey. There's lots of grass for our cattle. There's everything you could imagine. I mean, just look at this cluster of grapes. It's so big that one person couldn't carry it. The fruit of this country is incredible. Let's move right on in and possess it. God is on our side. He'll help us conquer it. But wait, there was 12 men all together that went to spy out this country. And 10 of them said, now wait a minute here, Caleb. There are 5 groups of people in this country that are bigger and stronger than we are. I mean, their cities are huge. And there's walls all the way around it. There's no way we can conquer this land. Plus, they said, there's giants in the country. And we're like grasshoppers. And I'd like to show you how tall these men were. I found somewhere that they were between nine and a half and 11 feet tall. If you want, you can stand and you watch for the red mark on my tape measure. see if I can do this. So I went for the middle that's 10 feet nine and a half to 11 feet tall and these men were afraid of these big people. Naturally, we would be too. If we had some, well it names three of them. If we had three men walk in here that were higher than that light, we would probably show some respect as well. Thank you. You may be seated. But these ten men said, There's no way that we can defeat these big cities and plus there's these tall men living in the mountain. They're just going to have us for a snack. Tell you what we're going to do, we're just going to appoint a captain and we'll head right back to Egypt. How disappointing for the people. It says they cried and they mourned all night. Moses and Aaron rent their clothes. Joshua and Caleb, I'm sorry, Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes. I think Moses and Aaron wept all night is what it says. They rent their clothes and they try it again. They said, it is a good land. If we follow God, he will give it to us. Does that sound like men of vision? Men of courage? Men of intelligent foresight? Realizing that God was good and God was going to give it to them. They said, don't rebel against the Lord. Don't fear the people. They're bred for us. In other words, we'll have some advantage to having these people in there. Remember how sometimes they kept all the spoil when they destroyed them? I don't know, is that what they had in mind? They also said their defense is gone. Remember how they captured Jericho? Pretty easy. These men had that in mind. The Lord is with us. Let's go. You know what the people did? They threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. The ten spies die of a plague. The rest of the people turn their back and they wander around in some forsaken wilderness for 40 years. Joshua and Caleb included. Eat the same food every day. Camp on the barren desert every night for 40 years. You think choices have consequences? Caleb still had a vision of hope. It may have been something like this. Without the Lord, we are weak and ineffective. But when we humbly acknowledge our weakness, the Lord takes our fears away and gives us strength to do what he asks us to do. I'm just imagining maybe that's what Caleb was thinking those 40 years. Without God, we cannot succeed. With Him, we cannot fail. The enemy is strong, the Lord is stronger. You think that's what Caleb might have been thinking? I like to read in Joshua 14, a few verses. They finally make it to Canaan. Joshua 14, verse 6. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me and thee in Kedash Barnea. And he's referring back to when they went into Canaan as spies. Forty years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kedash Barnea to espy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Verse 8, nevertheless my brethren, and he calls them brethren. He's talking about the spies. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. and now behold the Lord hath kept me alive as he said these forty and five years even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses which the children of Israel while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old, eighty-five years old, and yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day, for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced. And if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel." That is quite a story. Caleb from the tribe of Judah comes to Joshua. They're distributing the land to each tribe, each tribe a portion. Caleb walks up to Joshua. And he said, remember those cities, that mountain where those cities were, where the giants were? I'd like to have that mountain. What is this man thinking? That's the reason the children of Israel turned around and left. And now he's requesting the very mountain where these men are, that are so tall that make us look like grasshoppers, and you're saying, give me this mountain. Plus, he's 45 years older than he was. Didn't seem to bother him. He says, my strength is just like it was when I was 40. I wish I could say that and I'm not 85. But notice what he said, if the Lord is with me, I shall be able to drive them out. As the Lord said. The Lord had told him that 45 years earlier, that I'm going to be with thee. And you will be able to drive them out. He still remembered the Word of the Lord. Remember, now this man didn't want this beautiful mountain range because of the peaceful setting that he saw there. Thinking that I'll be able to set camp up and live in peace and my sheep and cattle will be able to graze on the mountains, find fresh grass. No, this mountain was covered with giants. Cities. Yet he said, give me this mountain. Remember how tall the men were? I don't know how tall the Israelites were. Maybe they were eight footers, I don't know. But to me, ten feet seems really tall. Yet it did not bother Caleb. What a courageous statement for him to make. Give me this mountain. And he was considered a grasshopper in these men's eyes. Do we have mountains in our lives? Giants in our lives? How big is your giant? How big is your mountain? You know, a mountain is something that hinders us in our Christian walk with the Lord. You know, we could say about some things that the problem is too big. I can't overcome it. And so I just wander around in the wilderness in defeat. Eating the same food every day, if you will. Or I could say with Caleb, give me this mountain. And with the power of God, the help of God, I'm going to conquer this mountain. I'm going to overcome it. It's going to make me a better person. It's going to draw me closer to God. Jesus said faith the size of a mustard seed is able to move mountains. Simply ask God to help you move that mountain. He helped Caleb drive out the people of the mountain and He will help us conquer our mountain as well. Nothing is too big or too hard for our God. All right, Caleb was a man of faith. Note the words he used when talking about driving out the giants. He said, as the Lord said. When God said something, Caleb believed it. His faith had been the same 40 years earlier. Somehow his faith and his vision remained strong through that wilderness experience. I believe he was one of those Old Testament saints that Hebrews talked about, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and obtained promises. He was one of those saints, I believe. And by faith we too can obtain the promises of God. And claim the victory that is ours as we surrender to Him. And trust Him to move our mountains of fear or whatever the giant may be in your life. Alright, Caleb was also a man of obedience. God said of Caleb in Numbers 14, My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him. What is another spirit? What spirit did Caleb have? I didn't research that, study it at all, but God said he had another spirit. Now that's interesting. He had a different spirit from the people around him, for the most part. Remember, he had faith in God. The children of Israel struggled with unbelief. I don't know, is that what this spirit here is talking about? But God said of his servant, he had another spirit. And has followed me fully. Has followed me fully. Is that talking about obedience? Him will I bring into the land, and his seed shall possess it. He not only believed what God said, he also followed and obeyed what God told him to do. There's five verses that mention him fully or wholly or entirely following the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe his faith and his obedience was directly tied to the courage that he had when he said, give me this mountain. He knew that God would not let him down. Third one, Caleb was a man of vision. He saw the mountain. He knew the giants were there. But since God had promised that he would conquer it or help him conquer it, he said, I want this mountain. Give it to me. In his experience, what God said, in other words, he took God at his word. Literally. If God said he will help me conquer it, I want the mountain. And he coupled that faith with obedience. It produced vision. He had a vision of wanting the mountain and of what he could do with it in the future. It says he could pass it on to his seed forever. Or to this day, maybe it says. You know, it is the same for us today as we We have God's Word. And if we have faith in what God said and live in obedience to it, it brings vision to our life. Intelligent foresight. It helps us to make right choices in life. You know, we need that foresight, that vision, that intelligent foresight, not only for ourselves, but for those who are following us. our children, our congregations, before we can accomplish anything worthwhile. When Caleb conquered his mountain, he drove out three giants, and I'm assuming their offspring, or the people that were with them, I'm not going to try to pronounce the names, but it specifically names three giants. What are some of the giants in our lives? Could we specifically name some giants that we're battling? Or maybe we're afraid of them. Maybe we just live with it because we don't We're afraid we don't know quite how to handle it or how to deal with it. Maybe it's pride, anger, lust, unbelief. What is the name of your giant? How are you dealing with your giant? Are you letting him dwell in the same mountain? Are you just co-inhabiting? with the giant? Or are you driving them out by the power of God? In Judges 1, we find an interesting contrast. It says that the Lord was with Judah, which was Caleb's tribe. They drove out the mountain men. The men from the mountain fled. They left. They cleansed the mountain from the people that were living there. But it says they couldn't drive out the men of the valley because they had chariots of iron was the excuse given. It says they gave Hebron, that's the name of the mountain that Caleb wanted. They gave Hebron to Caleb. And you know what it says? You know these ten spies made a big fuss about these huge giants that we can't defeat. They're going to eat us. We're going to be food for them. They're going to destroy us. We're going to turn around and head to Egypt. You know what it simply says about Caleb getting rid of these men? He expelled the three sons of Anak. How simple was that? You think faith in God made a difference? But why could the rest of the tribe not drive out the people of the valley? Cleanse the valley, get rid of these people. No, they said we can't do that. They have chariots of iron. Well, I'm wondering if maybe the rest of the people had a lack of faith. Unbelief. They could not drive out the Canaanites. So what did they do? They made a deal. They let them dwell there. They suppressed them. They tried to take advantage of them, maybe collect the taxes or whatever. You know what ended up happening? the children of Israel became like the Canaanites. The very thing that Moses had warned them about. Moses had told them, if you do not drive all of them out, the ones that remain shall be pricks in your eyes, thorns in your sides, and shall vex you. That's exactly what happened. They were satisfied with partial victory and it didn't work. They ended up intermarrying and getting into all kinds of ungodliness, worshipping idols and so forth. What happens today when we are satisfied with partial victory in our lives? Those sins that beset us, those things that we cannot get rid of, or we don't want to get rid of, they become pricks in our eyes, thorns in our side. They vex us. They rob us of our peace. They destroy us. Take us the wrong way. They take us away from this life that I've been talking about. They bring death to us. And we can no longer be fruitful. in the kingdom of God. We need victory, complete victory, for the glory of God and for our own spiritual welfare. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 15. In conclusion, choose life. Choose life. Make it a part of your daily Life. Always choose life. So that others could catch a vision of the power and the joy and the peace that comes from being surrendered to the Lord's will. Don't be overcome with discouragement or defeat like the ten spies. We can't do this. The mountain is too big. You know what, many times when we face a mountain, the hardest thing about the mountain is leading up to it. We worry and we fret and we wonder how we're going to get over the mountain. But once we're there, we find that God's grace is sufficient and looking back, the mountain is about half as tall as we made it in the first place. Don't be overcome by fear of the giants in your life. Claim the power of Jesus and defeat, conquer the giants. Stand with Caleb and say, give me this mountain. God is on my side, I'm going to defeat it. Conquer it. It's going to make me a better person. Live with a vision. Live with intelligent foresight. You know, it's not that complicated. Don't lose your way trying to figure out what your vision is. It's not that hard. Have faith in God. Walk with Him like Caleb did. Walk in obedience. Live with purpose. Be intentional when faced with decisions. Conquer the giants in your life by the power and blood of Jesus. That's vision. Be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Let's kneel and pray. Holy Father, we come to you at the close of the service. We thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your word to us. The teachings, the lessons we can learn from the Old Testament. God, we pray that you would help us to defeat the giants, the mountains in our life by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the blood. Cleanse us from all fear and doubt and discouragement. Fill us with love and peace and trust in you that you will help us to move the mountains in our life. Thank you for each one that is here. God, I pray a blessing on each one. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Give us a desire and a will to walk with you faithfully until you are done with us here on earth. We give you honor. We give you glory for the provisions you've made for us that we are able to choose life Eternal life, thank you for the preparation for our soul after we die from the earth here That we can be with you eternally in heaven forever We give you glory you alone are worthy in Jesus name we pray amen