Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12919
Date: 2025-05-07
Time: Wednesday 7:00 pm

 

P. Schaller –

Praise the Lord! Halleluiah! Halleluiah! Let’s praise the Lord. Halleluiah! Don’t sit down yet. Just give a good out
shout to Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord. I surrender all. Wow. All to Jesus I surrender. Wow. Isn’t
that beautiful. Praise you, God. Thank you, God. Shout out to God. Praise you, God. Halleluiah!
Praise you, Lord. Thank you, God. Praise you, Lord. (Prayer).

If it’s appropriate, take a little, the hands of the people around you. Hold hands like a little
group of three, five people and just have a good Halleluiah breakdown. Look at each other.
Love up each other. Yeah. Praise the Lord! Halleluiah! I love my brother. I love my sister. I love
the Lord. The Lord loves me. Halleluiah. Praise God. Praise God. Halleluiah. Jesus is good to us.
Halleluiah.

Oh, look at the young people over there shaking hands, having a good time. Praise the Lord!
Halleluiah! Shout out, the Lord. Halleluiah! Halleluiah! Praise you, Jesus. Halleluiah! Thank you,
Lord. We are saved, forgiven, washed, quickened, made alive, baptized into the Body. Seated in
heavenly places. Halleluiah! Wow! God is good. You may be seated.

P. Renaldo I think is going to come on up and do the offering. I had a meditation when we were
singing. I thought of Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate, and I thought about who he was. And
I thought about all the sins of the world coming on him. And I thought about one day in heaven
we will see it more clearly. Now, we see through a glass darkly but we will sing. We will sing.
Remember? We will shout. We will sing and say – what is it? Revelation 5, what verse is it? Is it vs. 11?
Can you put it up? That’s good. There we go.

That will work. Revelation 5:11-12, what kind of voice? Loud. Anybody here been to Niagara Falls? How loud is it? So, this is the sound of many waters. A loud pronouncement in heaven. What are they saying? Worthy is the Lamb and I’m going to put in there that stood before Pontius Pilate drenched with our sin, whether it happened then
but on the cross, all our sins of the whole world.

Now, how many people have lived in the world in history? We don’t really know. There’s 8.7
billion now. How many during the time of Noah? We don’t know. There could have been a
billion. If you do the numbers like through history before Noah, uh after Noah, and through
those 2,000 years from the Church Age, are we talking 50 billion, 100 billion?

How many sins went on Jesus Christ? How many sins? The sins of the whole world. Who was
Jesus Christ? He was God who paid for our sins. Bought us with his blood. He gave us heaven.
He gave us forgiveness. He gave us grace. He washed us clean. And we’re in heaven with a loud
noise saying what? Vs. 12. It’s going to be so clear to us. We’ll be shocked. We’ll be amazed. No, in this life we are amazed that God would do this for us. That he would save us from our sin.

That he would not only deal with all the negative, but he would go all the way to promoting us,
putting us on a throne, honoring us with his name, crowing us with glory and honor, putting his
Spirit in us, making us like the angels in heaven in Luke 19 or Luke 20. Wow! Not only did he
take our sin away and take away death and Hades, he has the keys to death and Hades which
will one day end up in the lake of fire. Christ has the authority.

And what did he do? He overcame. The tomb is empty. Turn to your neighbor and say, Knock it
off! The tomb is empty! Pick up your, hey! The tomb is empty. It’s over. He is risen! He is risen!
He is risen! Christ is risen! We are saved. We are forgiven. We are washed. We are called by a
new name. Our name is in the book of life. We have the Spirit of God. When we assemble
together we remember him. We talk about him. We honor him. We worship him. The worship
tonight was beautiful, Josh. It’s so good to be Spirit led in the worship. We honor him and talk
about him and think about him and open up his Word. And we read and know who the negative
is. That’s gone. It’s who are you? You can move a mountain with prayer.

Now, we got some bad news and good news. Let’s see. What’s the bad news? What? You didn’t
eat dinner tonight. The good news is what? I’m going to when I get home. Now, what, what’s
the bad? We’ve been running a deficit in our church. We’re running a deficit. The good news is
we can pray and God is going to answer us. We have a couple months to catch up with a debt of
$200,000 and God’s going to do it. Do you believe that? I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. We
have authority with God. And God has put us here and God has blessed us and God is with us.
Oh, good. This couple right here. Misha, good to see you. This couple from Pakistan. Wow.
Beautiful. Thank you. God bless you. Perfect timing. All right. So, we got – but God will answer
prayer. Bad news but then there’s the good news. There’s the challenge and then there’s the
answer. There’s faith.

Turn with me to Numbers 13, please. Just for another introductory thought. Yeah. Numbers 13.
Here we go. The spies go into the Promised Land and the Lord wants us to live by faith but in
the Promised Land, it’s not good. I mean it’s good. There’s oil and milk and honey in the
Promised Land. There’s large – it’s a fruitful land. The fruit, agricultural rich. Water running.
Green everywhere. Hills. Green hills. Vineyards. Fruit there. The Canaanites had it made. That
was a beautiful place to live.

Numbers 13:27-30, so we have a beautiful story here about the life of faith, living by faith. How I
think about life. How I relate to my trouble. How I relate to the challenge. How we live in faith.
How, what spirit are we of. The Spirit of God is in you. You don’t have to back off. You have the Spirit of God in faith in the life of faith. And Caleb had that spirit in Numbers 14. He had another
spirit. It says he was different.

Let’s look at that verse, Numbers 14:24, it’s beautiful. Follow God fully. Follow him with all your
heart. Follow him fully. He had a different spirit. Caleb had a different spirit. What about the
others? Well, there were ten that went in and they just got discouraged. They got discouraged
by different things. And that will happen to you whoever you are.

We’ll have this spirit of discouragement that happens and it’s reasonable. It’s all reason. It’s all
– our finances are not good or we failed again at something or I’m at the college level and it’s
all bad news that I get regarding school. Or maybe in my family. It’ll never happen. It’s not a
good story. It’s not good. Maybe my marriage, too. That could also be. I have a reason to say I
have discouragement in my heart. That happens to all of us at different times.

But be careful regarding what spirit you are of. Be aware that it’s not the circumstances in
themselves. It’s more how do I relate to them? How do I relate to the bad news? How do I
related to my trouble? How do I relate to the challenge.

And this is what Caleb had. Now, why did he have a different spirit? Because he wholly followed
the Lord. In other words, somehow Caleb could go before God, you know, in his heart and just
surrender and worship and believe. And he had the Spirit of God. Then when it came to talking,
what spirit was he of? When it came to like thinking about it, how did he look at it? He was able
to say, we can go up right now. We can go up right now and do it. Let’s go right now. No, no,
no. It’s not a good time. No, we can’t do it. No, it won’t happen. No, we can’t. So, that’s the
contest.

Now, go back to vs. 31. Chapter 13:31, now I got to, I want to, I want to make our point. I know
we can make the point but I want to dial it back a little bit and say I understand when
somebody says they are stronger than we, I don’t doubt it. They are better or they are stronger.
That I’m not saying. I’m not saying they’re not. I’m just saying I want to live by faith and I could
believe that God could take care of us. If God is with us, he could take care of us. They are
stronger than – okay. They’re stronger than us.

But that’s not my focus. My focus is that the Spirit of God is saying God is with us and God can
make things happen and God can answer. And if we live by faith, you never know what will
happen if we are encouraged in the Lord. You never know how this could turn around and be
an amazing plus. You never know how this can happen. And that’s what the Bible is about.

You see it again and again. It’s because of God. It’s because of God. And that’s the key. Okay.
So, vs. 32-33. You know how you see yourself. I might see myself in my sight, I’m a grasshopper.
Like that means like an insect, right? In my sight, I am a – and they are giants and they see us as
grasshoppers. So, how do I get, how do I see it that way?

It’s because it may be the reality is that maybe I am like just a grasshopper. But then, what
happens when we are coming before the Lord and just saying, Lord, I am like a grasshopper.
Here I am. But do you want me in the land? Do you want to bring us in the land? Is that your
will? I’m losing sight of myself. I’m not making myself the point. I’m making you the point. Are
you wanting that? Are you wanting this to happen? Are you going to do it?

We have a little Bible school in Maine. I mean, we had 22 people or something in the little Bible
college. And it’s like we’re grasshoppers. Who are we? But that’s not the point. It’s like we’re
before you, Lord. Do you want us to go into all the world? Do you want us to make disciples?
Do you want us to win souls? Do you want – are you going to be with us and what you’re
doing? Are you going to answer our prayer? Are you with us or not. Are you with us or not,
God?

What happens? Grasshopper thing isn’t in the mind. It’s more he is the issue. He is the issue.
Now, here we are at 6025 Moravia Park Drive. Is it God’s will. We are grasshoppers. We are
being defeated. We are this or we are that. It’s like, really? Okay. You can live like that but I
don’t want to do that. I want to go before God and God will say to you, he will say to you in
your heart, oh, we are able to take the land. We are able. It doesn’t matter if I’m a grasshopper
or an insect. It doesn’t matter. That’s who God uses. Doesn’t matter. Our place is faith. Our
place is the nature of God. Our place is looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And then, what happens? The doors open. The doors open.

The doors open. The thing – but let me say one last thing about this. Tithing. I just want you, I want to challenge. Think about it. “I can’t tithe. I mean, look at the numbers. I can’t tithe.” Like I’m a poor man. I can’t tithe. Okay.
So, now it’s the same thing. Lord, you said I can test you. Tithe and you open up the storehouse.
Will you? You said it, Malachi 3. Okay. I want to put that in my life. My wife and I have done it for
50 years. Wow. Why did we get that car? We bought a house. The most amazing deal in buying
a house. How come we got it? How come we got that place? How did that happen? I don’t
know. Maybe tithing.

Maybe I’ve been tithing and the police officer let me go when I was speeding. Maybe I got a
thing in the mail with a check. Maybe I got, you know, somebody gave me favor and handed me
a $100 bill. One of our people got $1,000 in cash stuck in their bag from nowhere. They have no idea where it came from. I don’t know how it works. I just know that if you live by sight, you
can’t take the land. You can’t tithe. You’re not going to have a good job. You’re gonna have
problems in your marriage.

I know if you live by sight, you’re going to be afraid of getting sick or getting a cancer or dying or
something like that. I know how it is to live by sight and reason. I know there are giants in the
land. I know that there are walled up cities. I know that we cannot do it. I know that we look
like insects in their eyes and in our own eyes. I know what all that is about.

But I also know that Caleb had a different spirit and so do you. We have the Spirit of God and
the Spirit of God is the one that uses us and he answers us and he helps us. I know he does that
and you know it, too. Let’s not draw back. Don’t draw back into unbelief. Don’t draw back into
skepticism and criticism and judging people. Don’t draw back into arrogance or self-
righteousness. Don’t draw back in your flesh but walk in humility and in faith before God and he
will answer.

And by the way, when you get hurt in life, when something hurts you, when you get hurt,
deeply wounded in your heart, when you get into unbelief or some bad thing that happens in
your like job, it’s like don’t back off. Draw near. Trust him. Have the right spirit. Have the Holy
Spirit in your life and God will heal the wound. God will take care of you. He will wash you. He
will clean you. he says in James 4, “Draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you.” Don’t
draw back when you get hurt. Don’t draw back when there’s giants in the land. Don’t draw back
when you get into trouble.

But the trial of your faith is more precious than gold that perishes. Amen. Well, P. Renaldo,
what do you think? We just took the offering, okay. I was going to have him do the offering but
I think we said enough about it. All right. Would you pray with me. (Prayer).
Okay. What is, what is this? If I’m a man and I’m feeling this, like I’m walking along, what do you
think this is? It’s a wall. Okay. It’s actually Noah’s ark. Yeah. I’m outside of the ark. I’m on the
outside of Noah’s ark and I’m walking along and I feel the ark and I’m on the outside. And
what’s going to happen and how do I think about it? And also, where is the whole thing going?
What’s going to happen? How do I, what is God doing? What is God doing? How long did it take
to build the ark? One hundred twenty years. Okay. So, what is it? Why is it there? What is Noah
talking about? Is he preaching? First question. Noah. It says and he is preaching and what is he saying? God is righteous.

The world is unrighteous. And he’s preaching the nature of God. And people are drawing back. People are departing. They are, they are mocking in some cases. But they draw back and the same thing
happens with you and me. We see the work but we don’t know what it is and we don’t know
what it means to me. I’m not, it’s not clear to me. And it’s easy to ignore it. Walk away form it. I
can feel it. I can touch it. I get that close to it that I could feel it and touch it but still it’s not in
my life. It’s not in my life. I might say, I don’t care about it. It’s not real. It doesn’t mean
anything. It’s just, you know, I’m busy. I’m buying and selling, marrying and getting marrying
and getting married and doing funerals and or being there at them doing my business and the
whole thing.

But I’m missing the whole message. And that’s in Heb. 3. So, I’m going to, we’ll read these
verses and say a few things about them. Turn to Hebrews 3:7, when do I have to hear his voice?
Today. Not tomorrow. Today if you will hear his voice. How about feeling Noah’s ark? Today,
you will hear his voice. He will tell you something. He will lead you. He will guide you.
And by the way, many people – and I’m that way, too – I plan my life. I plan my weeks, my
months. I order my steps. But Jeremiah 10:13 says it’s not in man to order his steps. That’s another
message. But if I really believe that I’m not ordering my steps. I really believe that God is. And
God can shut something. God can open something. God can put something in my heart. God
can take something out of my heart. God can put it in the mind. He can take it out of the mind.
It's like amazing thing.

So, trust God. Don’t lean on your own understanding. Don’t lean on your own professionalism.
Don’t lean on your own career, your management style, your authority in life. Do not lean.
You’d be surprised. You wake up and say, How did this happen? It is not in man to do it. He
needs God. God is our Shepherd, our pastor, our teacher. He is the vine. We are the branches.
He has a spiritual reality that is present here tonight. Halleluiah. We have a spiritual reality in
our life. Wow. Our culture denies it but your spirit embraces it.

You are here tonight by faith. You came by faith. Church attendance is an issue of faith. You
come by faith. I don’t know about you, but I know how I live through these decades by faith. I
go to the church by faith. The end game is amazing. God orders our steps. He directs our life.
There’s blessing in it. There’s many things that we could say, but there are those that don’t hear
what the Holy Spirit says in vs. 7. What does he say? Harden not your hearts.

They got three things to say about hardened hearts. Judging people. Judging people is a
common thing with people. People judge people. Stop judging people. Matthew 7:1. Do not judge
people. Let it alone. Let it be. You are not a judge. You are not a judge. You and I are not here in
the world to judge. Jesus said, I don’t judge anybody but my Word will judge in the last day, John 12:47. It’s same with us. Let God judge people. Vengeance is mine. Let the blind lead the
blind. Let it, let it go. Do not be a judge. Get focused on your life in learning love, living in the
Spirit, and giving out a lot of grace.

A lot of grace given to people. Okay. Look at vs. 8. Harden not your hearts. #2. Judging people. And then a hard heart is coming from guilt. I harden because of guilt. That’s a hardening of my heart. Difficult. #3. Difficult times in
life harden the heart. My heart gets hard. I get angry and I get upset. Hardening my heart. God
brought us out of Egypt. But look at what we’ve got. A desert. We have no food. We have no
water. It’s very hard out here. Hot and hard. My heart is hard.

Vs. 8. It says in the provocation. That’s the wilderness period. Vs. 9. And they were not humble.
They were just, they were just tempting me. Where’s the water? Where’s the food? You call
this food? Are you kidding me? We were in Egypt. We were eating melons and cucumbers and
onions. Remember the fried onions, mom? Remember? What do we got here? We’re not
satisfied. We don’t like it. We’re in a wilderness. You brought us out to destroy us. This is a
cemetery. You brought us into a cemetery to bury us here.

The Lord is angry because when you feel the work of God, you need more. You’re just feeling
the ark but you need more. You need to understand God. We need to understand the ways of
God. We need the thoughts of God. Cuz we can’t see what it is. We don’t know where it’s
going.

So, we come out of Egypt. Did you see the Red Sea split? Yes. He brought us out. He brought us
out. Now what? Let’s be careful. What is he doing? And let’s draw near. Let’s come close to God
in the Spirit. Let’s come to God and listen to God.
Vs. 10. Meaning I can get it wrong. I can err in my heart. And they have not known my ways. So,
here we go. I feel the ark. I get, I hear Noah saying, you know, talking and preaching and
everything and I err. I can’t get it because in my heart I don’t know the ways of God. I can’t
understand what is happening.

But this is his will. Yeah, it’s like church life. It may not always be pretty but I can see in my
heart. I understand I need to get in the ark. That’s the will of God. I got to get inside the ark.
The animals got in. They know more than I do. The elephants and giraffes and they get in.
But the human heart always errs and can’t see what God is doing. I can’t see what God is doing
on the earth in my lifetime. I don’t understand it. I hear the Gospel but I don’t understand it. I
do. I get saved and then I don’t know how to live in the Spirit. I don’t know how to walk in the Spirit. I haven’t learned how to pray yet.

I haven’t learned to attend church services and have a heart that is hearing and listening and absorbing and embracing and believing and worshipping and finding the reality of his plan in this lifetime. And that we would bear this amazing fruit to the glory of God by faith.

Lastly, vs. 11-13. They won’t enter into my rest, but they’ll live a life. They’ll have a life but they
won’t have what I have for them. They won’t have what I have for them. They’ll live but they
will not enter into the Promised Land into my rest. Vs. 12. That means take care. Be aware,
brothers. He’s talking to Jewish people in Jerusalem that were part of the crucifixion of Christ
and bore witness to the resurrection and were born again. And now, they’re backing off.
They’re under pressure. They’re in Jerusalem where there is persecution. They’re under
pressure. It’s not popular to be a Christian.

It’s not a safe thing to be a Christian. They’re living in Jerusalem where Christ was crucified and they might be, also. And now, they’re backing off. They can’t hear what God is doing. They cannot see what God is doing and they’re not awake and embracing God. That’s what God does for us.
You know when we moved to Finland years ago, I remember I like it in the beginning. But then
after six months, I didn’t like it. And I kind of wanted to move back here. And then, I caught
myself. I knew I love Finland. That was a lot of fun. That was great and I want to come back
here. And then, if I came back here, I’d be here for a couple, a little while and then I go I wish I’d
go back there. Then after I went back there, I go back. I want to go back to Egypt. And then
after I’m in Egypt, I want to get out of here. And then I want to go back there.

You know that you are crazy like me? Do you know that you are crazy like me? Do you know
that you don’t know how to, how to do this? You and I don’t know how. That’s why we need
each other. And when we feel or see this is the work of God, it may not be so clear to us, but he
will reveal to us his covenant to his friends, Psalm 25:9. He will reveal to us his way. He will show
us.

Thank you for the teachers at GGCA. That they sacrifice and they live for kids and teaching and
they have like little income and they do the best they can. Dawn over here. Thank you, Dawn
and so many. P. Barry, he’s my hero. Man, P. Barry. Wow. And P. Barry could feel along that ark
and he could say I could pick this up and carry it. No, he could feel along and say it might not
look – I don’t know what’s going on but I’m leaning in. I’m drawing near. I want to know God’s
way. I want to know God’s work. I want to follow God in my heart. I want to draw near.

Let’s finish. Look at vs. 12. Go ahead. Leave the living God. You can. Go ahead as a Christian. Go
ahead. It’s too much. I don’t want to do it. I leave the living God. Okay. What do you got over
there? What do you got? You got your lawnmower in your garage. You got your career. You got
a bank account. You got, you got 70 years left of life or 30 or 10 or what do you got? What do
you got? I mean some are satisfied where it’s just you know living that way but you’d be
surprised how much trouble you can find yourself in. You’d be surprised how empty you can be.
You can be surprised how bad your habits become. You’d be surprised where your life could
end up and where it could end up.

You and I – all of us – we could be amazed at how bad my life could become cuz you’re saved.
When you’re saved, you’re like in trouble. If you got God as your father and God is going to say
I’m not going to have you waste your life. I’m going to wake you up. I’m in your life. My
lovingkindness, my tenderness, my gentleness will make you great. I will speak to you. I will
draw you to myself. I want you in my plan. Draw near. Do not draw away and depart from the
living God in vs. 13. That’s what we’re doing tonight. We’re exhorting, loving, encouraging one
another. Come on. Let’s go. Let’s go.

Have you ever climbed a mountain and I remember we were doing mountain climbing in
Austria one time and it was like four hours to the top. And going up, you know, it’s like, Come
on! Let’s go! Let’s go! Like don’t stop. Just look at your feet. Keep going. We’re tired and thirsty
and everything but don’t – come on! Let’s go. As a team, it’s easier when you’re a team. So
much happens. When you’re on a team, it’s a beautiful thing.

And God has put us on his team with each other. And we exhort one another. We might even
shout a little bit. Might even just kind of pull and tug a little bit. Come on! Let’s go! Come on!
We have no option. Let’s go! It’s called today lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin. Okay. Amen. All right. (Prayer).

 

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