We're going to jump in. I've got three things, like I had this morning, just three. Less passages of Scripture. I'm just going to show you some basic elements of evidence for each of these. looking at this thought. We've been for weeks now, several weeks, dealing with the thought or the focus of dying in the wilderness. Sounds real encouraging, I know. But the whole focus there is dealing with why, with the children of Israel, there has to be, since everything has cause and effect, and we talked about that some this morning, everything has cause and effect. Whatever you're facing in life, Somewhere along the line, there's something that you can go back to that has brought about, through the cause, has brought about the effect, whether for negative or for positive. It's not always just bad. Consequence is not a horrible word. We often see it as a complete negative, but consequence is not a horrible word. Because if you do that which is right, the consequence is positive. The result of what comes about by the things you have done is consequence. And so therefore, it's like parents tell kids all the time, if you'll do right, you'll get good. You get the blessings. What is a blessing? When it comes to, especially with the Lord, or when it comes to a parent, to a child, what is the ability to provide the blessing? If you're doing it scripturally, when you are able to provide the blessings, it is in direct result of the fact that the child has opened the door of opportunity by not causing you to have to remove the blessing. Are y'all with me yet? So the choices we make bring about consequences. The wrong choices bring about negative consequences. The right choices bring about positive consequences. Each of those things are a reflection of the choice. And so in life, we have different things we face due to the choices that we make. And we talked about the children of Israel. Why did they spend 40 years Dying in the wilderness now not every one of them died. We've mentioned that those that were 19 years old and younger Did not necessarily die in the wilderness now. I I do want to correct one Form of thought some people think that those 20 and older died, but those 19 and younger lived Not necessarily true Because those 19 and younger, y'all do recall if you've read about the children of Israel in the wandering timeframes in the wilderness, there were times where they murmured and complained and at one point, fiery serpents were sent throughout the land, throughout the camp of the Israelites. Not everybody was 20 and older that died. Very possible, some of them were 19 and younger that would have died. So just because you were not 20 and older when you chose not to go in the promised land did not guarantee you safe 40 years of passage through the wilderness with an opportunity to go into the promised land. The 40 years in the wilderness, as those young people became adults, they still were given the responsibility from God himself to follow and obey him. or else 40 years in the wilderness, they would have found opportunities as they became adults. And you think about it, 40 years, anybody born since, or put it this way, anybody alive when they went in, even if they were only one year old or less than a year old, in 40 years has time to become an adult. So at some point in that 40 years, if 20 years old is the age line of being seen as an adult that makes choices and decisions for themselves, then 20 years from the moment they chose not to go in, it would have guaranteed that every single person alive in the children of Israel, all the way to the youngest of them, when they chose not to go in, 20 years later, just halfway through, every one of them would have been old enough to be guilty of whether or not they were gonna serve God themselves. Now, are y'all with me or did I confuse you? All right, so even halfway through the 40 year wanderings, even the children now had to be the ones to follow by their own heart and decisions or they would die in the wilderness as well and never get their chance. And so it was no rubber stamping of, well, you were under the age when they chose not to go in the first time, so I'm gonna protect you completely. The only two that were given the actual guarantee that they would one day get to go in was Joshua and Caleb. Now get this, you say, but Moses and Aaron, they did right as well. Don't forget about Moses when he struck the rock the second time. Understand, I went back and I was reading it just the other day. When Moses struck the rock the second time, he didn't just tell Moses, you're not gonna go in. He told Moses and Aaron, neither one of them would go in because both of them, he struck the rock, but both of them were held accountable before God. because Moses was the physical leader, and Aaron was the spiritual leader, and Moses did the physical striking, but Aaron didn't stand in his way and say, whoa, hold on, stop. Somewhere along the line, those two were in cahoots about, man, just show these people what it is, strike that rock out of frustration. Now watch. Moses and Aaron both die without going in. Aaron is first. His son, Eleazar, takes over as high priest. Joshua is anointed the head in Moses' place, but not by Aaron, it was by Eleazar, the high priest, the son of Aaron. So Aaron dies and then Moses is not allowed to go in either. The only two guaranteed that they would go into the land 40 years later was Joshua and Caleb. Everyone else Those that were 20 and above would definitely die in the wilderness because they rejected God. Those that were from newborn to 19 years old would spend all that time making sure they would have to choose to follow God to have a chance to say, we will go in with Him. Now, that's just a whole bunch of background historical scenario, but why did so many die in the wilderness? We've looked at several different aspects of it. This morning we began to look at the power of influence. It's another one of the aspects of what played a part, a heavy role in the children of Israel rebelling against God and not going in to the promised land, which led to God saying, the consequence of your rebellion is now 40 years wandering in the wilderness, and those of you 20 and older will die just like you said it would have been better to do. He said, it would have been better that we died in the wilderness than to be facing what we're facing right now with the giants in the land. And God said, you get your wish. So we looked this morning at the negative side, the power of influence. There were influences in the lives of the children of Israel that caused them to rebel against God over and over again, but especially the most famous rebellion is the one of not going in to the promised land the first time around. And I'll just give you, I'm not gonna rehearse every bit of it, but just give you these highlights in case you didn't get it this morning. But we said circumstances. Again, these things apply to us as well. God's people face these same things, whether it's the children of Israel back then or it's us today. The circumstances of your life can influence you in a very negative way if you allow it. Circumstances can cause you to have a stinking attitude. towards what's happening and therefore make a fleshly reaction to life. The children of Israel did that several times. But not only the circumstances, you mix that in with the second element and that is emotions. Their emotions highly influenced their attitude. And we said this morning, they were up and down from enormous highs to extreme lows in their life. God blessed and they were super excited. And then God didn't do what they wanted and they hit the bottom. They were up and down, up and down. And as we said this morning, they were living the life of an emotional basket case. And that is not what God intends for his people. And we said that if a child of God is living like an emotional basket case, that something is missing. We all struggle, we all have hard times, we all have our moments. But moments is a far cry from living day in and day out all over the place. And therefore, it is an evidence that something in the life of the child of God is missing when we don't have a steady, when we don't have a consistency, or better yet, there is not just that evidence of, I trust the Lord. If something's missing, it'll be evident many times in our emotions. Then we said that there are people. There were people throughout the Children of Israel's timeframe, whether a single individual or multiple individuals. There was either a person who was leading them in a wrong mentality, or there was a group of people who would lead the majority in a wrong mentality. We saw that rebellion at Mount Sinai. We saw the rebellion at Jordan. the mixed multitude that went lusting and the children of Israel followed their lead. We saw Korah, Dathan, and Abiram stand up against and go against Moses and Aaron as the leaders. And they encouraged many others to follow them. By the way, I remind you we preached on that already, but they encouraged many others of the prominent society. the people that the children of Israel looked up to. These were your upstanding citizens within the children of Israel, and they were encouraged to follow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in their rebellion against Moses and Aaron. And God brought great judgment on them for it. And so circumstances, emotions, and people were all part of the influences that led to a very bad attitude over and over and over again, which honestly led to their rebellion when it came to the children of Israel. And this didn't happen just prior to going in or possibility of going into the promised land. It happened all throughout the 40 years of wandering. And by the way, you'll find the habit is formed. And even once they go into the promised land, the remaining history you read about the children of Israel going in the promised land, you find it with several different people. Even King Saul, you see it throughout King Saul's life. There are influences, and there are things that happen, and he consistently allows, whether it's circumstances, or it's emotions, or it's people, he constantly, he allowed things to influence his life in a negative way. But here is the positive side, because there is two sides to this coin as well. Influence can go one of two ways. It can go negative, or it can go positive. You can have wrong influence, but you can also have powerful right influences. What we choose to put ourselves around is what we are going to eventually be affected by. And it may not always be immediate. I'll just remind you, and let me read this, and then I'll pray, and we'll jump in to these three very quick things. We start off in Galatians where Paul was talking to the church at Galatia and he said in Galatians 5, 7 through 9, he said, you did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion, the act of persuading somebody is the act of influencing and convincing somebody of a particular way of thinking. And he says, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. And then here's the statement Paul makes to remind them that don't misthink in the area of those things which you must be consistently guarded against. We often guard against the big problems. We guard against the big attacks. We guard against the obvious things. But we miss the lesser things, thinking that that's not a big deal. Paul says, though, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. You say, well, we said something a little bit this morning, but it's not really that much. Well, I don't really watch it that much. I don't really listen to it that much. Well, I don't really hear them, hear what they have to say that much. I'll put it this way. There are some preachers, there are some speakers, there are some individuals out there that, just be honest with you, every one of us would do best by just staying completely away from everything they teach. It's heretical. It will start you thinking down a path that will cause you to start questioning this book. Well, you know, we wanna be open-minded. No, you don't. There are times when being open-minded is okay and there are places where you need to know where you stand and you need to close off, shut the gates up, board up the doors and say, no. Not moving. Ain't happening. Why? Because of the way you feel? No, it's because of what God said. There are plenty of things that God said that I don't feel all that great about. But He still said it. And therefore, I'm still accountable for it. But there are some, listen, I've listened to some of those teachers out there just because I never heard of them, or I had somebody say, you ever heard of this person? I'm like, no, but I'll go check it out. There have been a couple of them I've listened to, I'm like, yeah, that's not too bad. I mean, we're not gonna agree on everything, but it's not a horrible. And then there are some, I'm like, listen, whatever you do, stay away from that junk. It sounds innocent, it sounds small boy, everything sounds really good, but I'm telling you, the spirit within me, which is a spirit of God, because I'm a child of God, does not agree with the spirit I'm getting from him. There is a discernment there, and when you listen to what they teach and listen, you say, well, give us some examples. No, because, and you'll go look them up. So there are things that we should not get around. It's gonna come your way. You're gonna have opportunities. There are some people out there, and I'm not trying to be ugly, but there are some people out there that you possibly even know, that you've maybe met, and they're not awful people, but the things they are promoting will encourage you in everything but Scripture. Self-help books. I've had some people that I know, and thank the Lord that some of that has kind of drifted off and they're not as much into it right now, but the people that I know and I'm close with, not here, but folks I've known for years, seen them start promoting and pushing, oh, you gotta read this book, oh, you gotta read this, oh, you gotta read that, and then I go back and I look at the person who wrote those books and I'm like, That person's not just a heretic, that person is not even saved. Everything they're promoting is all about self-glorification. By the way, don't get mad at me, but if you read anything by Joel Osteen, Lord help you, all right? But he says some good stuff. No, it's trash. It's trash. And there are others out there as well. Oh gracious, I will call some of these names. You say, well, should we really call it? Paul did. I'll just tell you. It's in the Bible, he does it. But again, it's not to be mean towards anybody, but there are some times when I can clearly say they are well known, everybody knows about them, you've heard from them, but I'm telling you, watch out. Because it's not Bible, it's not godly, and it's gonna lead you to focusing on you and not on him. Danger, danger, as my preacher used to always say, bridge out! Don't go that way, all right? So, let me switch over, switch gears. It's so natural to go to the negative side for me, y'all know that. I can pull out another 15 points if we want to, but I'm gonna get off of that. We're gonna go to the positive. Because everything, when it comes to influence, the most natural thing we find is negative influence. It's everywhere, it's all around you. And you can get hit by it when you're not even looking for it. I mean, by the way, your adversary loves to bring those things to you, and a lot of it seems very innocent, but the effect it has on you is very powerful. but there's also positive influence. The children of Israel had some positive influences. They actually had some good things take place. They actually got behind some very good causes such as giving for the building of the tabernacle and giving up not only their money but giving up their time. There were several battles they would face in the future and all those battles into the promised land. There were several times when someone stood up and said, let's go. And everybody said, I'm with you. Okay, there are plenty of times to see the children of Israel influenced in positive ways. And I'm just gonna give you a couple of cases here to back this up. But understand, in everything, the little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Whether it's a negative side or a little bit of the right influence can encourage you the right direction. What you're feeding on is going to affect you. And is that not true in physical aspects as well as spiritual? What you feed on affects you. You eat the wrong stuff physically and guess what? If you're allergic to something you eat, you're gonna feel the effects pretty quick. But you don't have to be allergic to it. If you just eat too much of it, Over time, now initially you're gonna feel pretty bad too, but you do get past that. But over time, you keep eating and eating and eating like you shouldn't, and you eat the wrong stuff. It may not be the first time they get you, but after a while, you can end up having heart problems all because of eating the wrong stuff for too long. But I just ate it in small portions, yeah, over 30 years. It gets you now, okay? But the positive side is the same way. It works the same way and it can affect us just as strongly as the negative if we will allow that which is right to have a chance. So, why do we read your Bible? Because if you're in it, God can talk to you. If you're not in it, don't be surprised when you're like, Lord, I just never heard from you in a long time. When was the last time you actually went to where he speaks to you? Well, I pray all the time. You understand, I'm getting off topic, I know. I'm chasing a rabbit. I'm shooting him down, okay. I gotta bring my little gun up here. But here's the thing. Prayer is your communication to God. His word is his communication to you. Now here's what's unique about God's word. It's a living book that always stays relevant and applies to every single day I live, even though it was written 2,000 years plus. That's what's amazing about it. It's as current and as actively viable today as it was when it was first being penned. and it's been that way for every generation. I talk to God about my needs today and he answers about my needs today from the book that never dies. It keeps living and it keeps applying. So I go to the word. I walk with him. I get around his people. I get around the preaching of His Word. I get around the leading of the Holy Spirit through all that is done, and it's amazing the influence that constantly feeds in my life in positive ways. Let me give you the children of Israel and three influences that you find with them. Over, and then don't turn to this one, I'm gonna get you to go to Joshua with me in just a minute, but in Exodus 17, we've already been there before, but in Exodus 17, you have the timeframe when Amalek attacks the children of Israel. And we've already dealt with that attack, we've already talked about it in a previous message, so I'm not gonna rehearse everything with that. But during that attack, what we see in a positive aspect is the children of Israel in their first major battle with an enemy that was not honest about the attack. They attacked him from behind, they attacked the weakest of them. Moses finally said, enough! And they turned around and faced him and went to battle. Moses tells Joshua, go pick you out men and bring them up. We're gonna go to battle, you're gonna lead in the battle. I'm going up to the top over here, to the mountaintop over here, and at the top of this hill, top of this area, I'm gonna be there, and her's gonna be with me, and we're gonna be overlooking, and we're gonna be basically, by the way, that is a picture of the shepherding over. the battlefield of life. It can't even go to all that, okay? But it's a picture of, we have one to look to, where our influence and encouragement can come from. But what I wanna get to is this, during that entire scenario, what you find that is a positive influence on the child of God, even today, and it was for the children of Israel, is unity. Every single person involved in that scenario was unified behind the same purpose and the same cause. They were not all doing the same job, but they were all seeking for the same victory and the same purpose of accomplishment. Joshua and the men were on the battlefield fighting. Moses was on that hilltop, that mountaintop area, and he was holding up the rod of God and holding up and stretching out his hands for victory. And when he could no longer sustain that by himself, by the way, the weight of holding up for victory by those in the leadership gets very heavy and very hard, but yet, He had two that had gone with him. They were not on the field fighting, but they were just as much involved in the battle as anybody else. You had Aaron on one side and Hur on the other side. And the two of them not only gathered and brought two great stones to help with, but then they also not only set Moses' arms up, but then they stood and they held his arms in place. every single person doing a different job with the same purpose. They were unified in their cause. They were unified in their desire. They were unified in the purpose for which they had turned to face the enemy. And through that unity, it influenced everyone involved. Joshua, leading the men into battle, got courage from seeing Moses and got courage from watching the men around him. The soldiers gathered courage from Joshua as a leader on the battlefield, and those around them, they also could look and see Moses with his hands up. You had Moses looking down on those who were fighting, and boy, the encouragement it had to have been to see them giving it their all and not running from the battlefield. Then you had Aaron and Hur and the encouragement they were to Moses, holding up his arms and helping to steady him for the battle. But you also had the encouragement that they saw, listen, these guys are fighting, Moses is struggling, he's fighting with every, least we can do is do our part. Every one of them were influenced by everyone else doing their part in a unified cause. The unity of God's people working together influenced the encouragement to fight, fight, fight. See victory through. Don't quit. Don't run from the field. Don't let down your arms. Don't walk away from helping. Get the job done. The unity, working together, seeing everybody do their, listen, there is nothing more discouraging than being in there and sticking with it yourself and then looking around and where'd everybody go? Where's all the people that said they were gonna be there? Where's all the people that said they were gonna help? Where's all the people that said that, hey, you can count on me? Where are they at? By the way, if the only time people can count on you is when it's convenient, they can't count on you. The one time you know you can be counted on is when nobody doubts whether it's convenient or not, you're gonna be present. It wasn't convenient to be on the battlefield, but they were there. It wasn't convenient to be upholding the rod, but he was there. It wasn't convenient to stick by him and try to help him in that moment, but Aaron and Hur were there. Convenience should not be the leading directive of whether or not a child of God is faithful. Unity together. will bring about a positive influence. Why do I keep going? Because I'm not alone. I know I got God with me. Listen, don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. You always got God on your side. You always have the Lord with you. But there are times when you need to see a skin face, as Brother Jerry Patel, most of y'all have met him. He is wild. He's got more energy even at 80 plus years old than I ever hoped to have. The man literally makes me nervous, I get around him. But as he put it, you need a skin face. You need a skin face for accountability because unfortunately we don't seem to keep God as prominent in our minds that he knows it all and we think that nobody else knows what's going on and we got away with it and God never has missed it. You need a skin face for accountability. May I say, there are times even though we know we got God with us, there's nothing more encouraging than when you're in the battle trying to serve the Lord, trying to be faithful, there's nothing more encouraging than to see other people around, people, people around you saying, we're here, we're with you, what you need? There's nothing more encouraging. I don't know if I can do it this time. I don't know if I can keep going. Next thing you know, you got 15 people. Hey, we're gonna be there, we're gonna help. Let's get her done. There's nothing more encouraging and more influencing than knowing that you're not doing it alone. And there's nothing more discouraging and influencing in a negative way than to feel like you are alone. If there's a greater reason for burnout than feeling like you're doing it all by yourself, I don't know what it is. More people that have had a zeal to serve God have lost their zeal because over time there were fewer and fewer and fewer present serving God with them, and they put everything they had into it, but eventually they just, they fueled out. because there was nothing to refill with positive influence of let's do it together, let's go. Listen, nobody in the battle against Amalek was gonna do it by themselves. Joshua, as brave as he was, was not gonna go out there and fight the battle and win by himself. Moses could have stood on that top all by himself and held up that rod all day long, but the battle was not gonna be won if nobody went and fought. It takes everyone sticking together, seeing each other, united together, backing each other up, influencing each other through that unity. The children of Israel experienced that several times, and by the way, every time they had it, there was victory. It was only when there was division that things fell apart. Then we have this, faith. I'm trying to move quickly. Go to Joshua 2. Joshua 2, when you see the story here of the first time. Now, we're seeing the children of Israel. They have the chance to go in the second time around, and they're getting ready to go in. And matter of fact, I'm at this point, we just got through with chapter two. It's funny, it really is funny. It's not coincidence, but it is funny how we're on these things. And I had no plans of this, but I'm teaching it to the eighth graders while we're doing it. And so there's things that have come up. I'm like, oh man, that's good. Okay, so Joshua chapter two. What are, here are the other two areas that you'll find as good examples of positive influence and the power behind it for the children of Israel. Not only do you have unity that can influence with a very powerful, positive way, but you have faith. I know it seems small, but faith. Faith can influence people in a powerful way. Was it, oh gracious, y'all help me, my brain just died. I had this thought, but I have a hard time putting the right passages together. Was it James, or who knows? Who was it that said, show me your faith, faith in God? James, yeah, thank you. I was right, hey. Show me your faith without works, I'll show you my faith by my works. What was that? Was he saying that faith and salvation is by works? No, he's saying what I have will be produced by something I do as an evidence that it's real. And he said, listen, you claim to have faith without showing anything. Fine, you go ahead and say your piece. You go ahead and claim your claims. But I'm just telling you this. I'm gonna show you my faith by my works. I'm gonna put some feet behind my mouth. And I'm gonna say, I trust in Christ, I follow Christ, and you're gonna see it by that which I do. What is he saying? I want my faith to be lived out in a way that it influences others. I want people to see, not because of me, and not for my benefit, but I want for their benefit, I want people to see that what I claim to have is real enough to be visible in everything I do. so that they can see my faith and it can influence what they believe about God. Is he real? Is he worth following? Is he a true and faithful God? Well, let me show you how I live out the faith I claim to have in him so you can see the evidence and be influenced thereby. That's what James was saying. And what you see at the very beginning here, there is faith that comes from a very unusual source. Faith that comes not from within the children of Israel, but from one who is already in the land and part of the heathen nations, who is in the city of Jericho, and she has faith that even challenges the children of Israel. I've preached on her before, so I'm not gonna go into great detail on this. But do notice, though, in Joshua 2, verse 9 through 11, we're gonna look, I'm gonna read that here in just a moment. So if you're in Joshua 2, hold on to verse number 9 to verse number 11 with me while I give you this little tidbit. Here's something I noticed that I find very interesting. There are some things that stick out to me. The first time the children of Israel come to the brink of Jordan and they're looking to go into the promised land, what did they send into the land first? Spies, right? That's just a smart military strategy. How many did they send in? Twelve. How many had a positive outlook to how many had a negative? 10, the second time they come to the Jordan and they're gonna go in, how many spies does Joshua send? Two, we ain't taking any chances this time. We're only gonna send two because we can't trust 12. So, and you say, is that the reason why? I don't know, it just sounds really good to me because I find it interesting that when they first went in, Joshua and Caleb were the only two that came back. Joshua now has the chance to say how many are going in. He said, I'm just sending two of you. Two of you is good enough, that's all we need. Two actually have a chance of seeing what God wants to do. And when you send in more than is needed, you end up with a whole bunch of people with a whole bunch of ideas that typically will go away from God's plan. So we're gonna send in two so they can stay focused. I just find that interesting. That's my personal opinion, and I will say openly that is decorology, okay? But as a whole, they send in two spies. These spies go in, they go directly, I don't have time to go into all of it, but they go directly to the most natural place that would not be considered an odd area for strangers to walk into, Rahab the harlot's house. It was nothing unusual for strange men to go in and out of that house. She had a testimony, she had a history, and they weren't dumb. But at the same time, they didn't go there to be wicked. They went there as the best strategy to not be recognized. However, they were recognized already. And by the way, when the soldiers come to Rahab's house, she lies to them, sends them on a wild goose chase. Very, very clever woman, very clever. But there's a reason for her clever actions, and there's a reason behind everything she did, and she declares that reason to the spies. Look at verse number nine through verse number 11 very quickly. Here's what she says with her intents. She says this, and the Bible says, there's something different about this God they worship. Now she goes on and explains more. But that the Lord hath given you the land. Now isn't that interesting? The children of Israel couldn't believe it, but she did. The children of Israel struggled as to whether or not God really was gonna give them the land. And here's somebody living in the land and said, I believe it. He's already, I know he has given you the land. And then she goes on and she says this, she reveals to them the reality of what's really taking place. By the way, this could have been what happened the first time. This could have been the reality the first time, but they never had a chance to find out because they took tail and ran instead of obeying God. But she tells them, and that the terror, that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. It's not just Jordan that's afraid, it's Jericho that's afraid. It's the entire land. They all are afraid and faint because of the Israelites. But watch. She goes on and says, It's a whole other story. that were on the other side, Jordan, by the way, that is in the 40 years of wandering, and Sion and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. The children of Israel had no clue about that. They didn't know until they're now being told. But then she expresses not just the way she feels about things or what others think, she now expresses what she has decided. It says, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. She makes an open declaration. Here she is, she's of the heathen nation. She has not been raised with this. She has not been taught this. She has only learned what everyone else has learned. But instead of deciding that she is going to resist them, even though she's afraid of them, she decides, I'm just gonna go ahead and believe in the God they believe in because he's evidently the one true God. Hmm. It's funny how sometimes the strongest influence of faith can come from the most unusual sources. We tend to think that the biggest and the golden trophy Christians are the ones that are gonna teach everybody faith. No, can I be honest with you? Sometimes it's the ones that people would think really don't have much to teach. I mean, nobody really sees them. They're not in front of everybody. Nobody really hears from them. They're not a Sunday school teacher or preacher or evangelist. They're not on TV. And sometimes it's that person that nobody would have thought that could actually be one of the strongest influences of faith. I believe when we get to heaven, there's gonna be several individuals that no one really heard of that the Lord's gonna say, oh, if you only knew. Biggest prayer warriors right there. The only reason you accomplished what you were able to accomplish because that person right there kept you before the throne of God. Biggest soul winner right there. No name in lights. No one knew about them, but they had an influence on people that no one ever knew about. Because they were faithful and they were a witness. Better yet, they did nothing of great, magnificent status. But their consistent faithfulness impacted so many lives because everyone that watched them saw they never changed. They never wavered. They never fell out. They just stayed faithful. Nobody really notices them that much. They're always there. By the way, you ever notice, most people don't notice the ones who are never missing. They only notice the ones that start missing. but God notices every single person who remains faithful. God knows, and by the way, there are more people who are influenced by individuals that are always present, always there, always faithful, always serving. They don't do much, they don't get talked about much, they don't get promoted hardly at all, but they're just there. The impact they have by their living out of their faith is more powerful than we could ever possibly imagine. this woman Rahab, her faith, by the way, I'll say this and we're gonna move the last one, her faith was displayed. They said, when we come into the land, I've preached on this already before, but when we come into the land, you bind this scarlet cord outside your window so we can see, remember which house you were. I mean, they weren't there that long, so I mean, they need something to help them. So you bind that out, that's gonna be the evidence and anybody that's inside the walls of your house will be safe. according to our oath before God, or it's our lives. The Bible says when she sent them away to the mountains to stay three days there until the party that's searching for them returns, and then they go, and then there's a whole bunch of things that happen. Bible says as soon as she sent them away, she bound that scarlet line and hung it out the window. I preached a whole message on feeling like God left you hung to dry. But she displayed her faith from the get-go and didn't take it out, didn't remove it. You say, well how in the world she not get caught? I think it's a testimony to the fact that God can protect His own. He can blind those who need to be blinded to what's going on around them so that they don't catch on. He can protect in ways that don't make sense. But listen, if you will be faithful and you will follow and you will be consistent and you'll let your faith influence others, God can put that hedge of protection about your life in a way that you cannot protect yourself. And no one else can protect you either. God can do what no one else can do, not even you. The last thing is this, what is a positive influence? Obedience. The spies go back, and I'm not gonna, well, Joshua, Joshua 22, you're already there, look at the last two verses. No, yeah, verse number 23, 24. What you have is the spies. They've stayed three days in the mountains. They've now come out. It's safe. They get across Jordan. They go back to Joshua and they give a report. Two spies come back. And wouldn't you know it, two spies come back with a good report. Just like last time. And so Joshua now hears the report. And these two spies returned with a bold and confident declaration that the Lord will do what he said. This confidence undoubtedly stirred an even greater desire in Joshua to proceed forward without delay. There was an influence to, hey, I knew it, let's go! And let's read what they said. So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them. And they said unto Joshua, it's just like before. They're big, they're bad, they're ugly, and we're gonna lose. No. They said to Joshua, truly, the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land, for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. Now understand, I get it, you would say, well, hold on a second. Anybody hearing what they heard from Rahab would think, oh yeah, we got this, it's in the bag. Okay, yeah, we're gonna take the land. If they would have had the same desire and the same attitude and the same heart, it would not have mattered what they heard. They would have reinterpreted whatever it was they were feeling, and they would have said, oh, yeah, yeah, it looks good, but I'm telling you, we're probably gonna lose anyways. They're afraid of us, but there's so many of them, okay? You say, how do you know? Well, I'm fairly confident in the fact that if they had had the wrong attitude, if they didn't have a heart of obedience, that they would have twisted what they heard to still turn it out negative like the ones did before. Because the other ones came back with clusters of grapes. and great stories of wonderful experience for 40 days in the land. And then they turned it to the negative and said, oh, but there are giants in there. They had all the positives to show God had kept his promise to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey, and they turned their backs on him. This time, what is the reveal of the promise? God said, I will give you, the land is yours. I will deliver the land into your hands. What did they hear? God has given you the land. We are all falling apart over here. Every single soldier is so afraid. We don't even want to face you. Our hearts are melted like wax. And that could have easily been interpreted with a negative twist, except those two spies had a different attitude. And they had the same attitude Joshua and Caleb had the first time. We don't know the names of these two spies. All we know is they hear, they believe. And they say, let's go. Their obedience to return and say God is true. Our God has kept His promise. He has shown us through the most unlikely source that He has already melted their hearts. There's no courage left in them. He has already prepared the victory for us. All we gotta do is go in and claim it. Let's go, Joshua. Let's do this. And I guarantee at that moment, Joshua's like, I'm with you. I knew it's what we're gonna hear. I knew it's what we're gonna get. Hey, y'all get ready, because the very next chapter he says, y'all get ready, we're crossing over right now. and he gives them the instructions of when the feet go in, the water pours, y'all get ready, we're falling across, we're getting across the Jordan and we're entering into the land of promise. We're not gonna hesitate another moment. What influenced that fast and quick move? Obedience. The two spies came back with the right message and the right heart desire and Joshua said, all right, then we're unified and by faith, We're going to obey. And all these things became the driving influence for a new generation to say, we're not making the same mistake twice. Let's go in. It's not gonna be easy. It's not gonna be simple. It's not gonna be a piece of cake walking in just saying, all right, we're here, bye-bye. That's not the way it's gonna go. But we're going. and we're gonna follow God. Now, did they fail at times? Yes. Unfortunately, we got one more aspect in the series before we're done in this month. We got one more thing that we're gonna look at, so I'm not gonna give it all away. But as a whole, they go in the land, they do face some issues because it is a picture of the possibility of the victorious Christian life. How do you have victory in this Christian life? You have to consistently obey the leading of the Lord. And when you don't, even when you're in the land of promise, if you don't consistently obey, you will face defeat. And they do. But then they get back up. They find out where they went wrong. They correct it and get their eyes back on the Lord and next thing you know, victory, victory, victory. There is great power in influence. What do you allow to influence your life? From the negative side of the coin or positive side? What influences you? Because the influences that you allow in are the ones that are going to direct your attitude. And your attitude is going to direct your outlook. And your outlook is gonna direct your actions. Be careful about the power of influence. Be picky, be choosy. and make sure only the right influences have access to your mind and to your heart, which belong to the Lord. Heavenly Father, we again thank you this evening for the truth.