Go with me in your Bibles. Anybody still love the Word of God in the Tab Church? Well, we're going to continue in this seventh month as we've crossed over into the second half of this year. We gave up a long time ago—when I say we, I gave up—on growing a big church. My goal, as you've heard me say repetitively, is about growing big people and about us maturing, because sometimes big doesn't always mean healthy. You can have a whole load of people, but there's no maturation taking place.

And so we opened up 2022 talking about "Here We Grow," and we continue as we cross over into the second half of the year, trying to remind ourselves about growth, about spiritual development, life development and maturity, maturation. In fact, God will allow you to go through some stuff if it matures you, and that's kind of the general thing we're talking about today as we push forward. Because as I've told you before, hey Christians, shout back: your journey in Christ is more about endurance than avoidance. Endurance produces inside of you really and truly what God's trying to develop in you.

I've already given you the whole message really in that statement there concerning today, but we want to take the scenic route and learn some things. I'm going to look at a particular passage of Scripture in a minute, but before I do that, I think it's important we remember what's going on in the world today. Today, in case you didn't know, is Global Energy Independence Day. This is a theme running around the world—this whole thing to do with how we can find fuel for the future, fuel for the future.

It's interesting: today is the 10th of July, and I know at least one of our members drives one, but today is Nikola Tesla's birthday. Tesla—you heard of the car, but you didn't know that the company was really named after an inventor who lived over 100 years ago. Everybody knows about Edison when it comes to electricity and the light bulb, but people don't realize that there were others around who some argue ideas were actually stolen from, like this Serbian American inventor who helped us when it came to AC power. Over 120 years ago he wrote about the fact that we will need future fuel. That's a phrase worth writing down, because that's what I'm talking about today. That's my theme: Future Fuel—fuel for your future.

It's interesting, they tell us that when it comes to Global Energy Independence Day, their real goal is to raise our awareness and to try and wake us up, because many of us are asleep to the fact that the need for non-fossil fuels is more desperate now than it's ever been because of what's happening to the planet. Pastor, is that why you wore green today? No coincidence, guys. Being green is a principle that we have to really wake up to, and it's a reality when we see what it's doing to other nations who are less fortunate than us in terms of their geographical location and how the world is changing—the temperatures are rising.

As we hunt, we look—and these are key words I'm using now because they're going to come up in a little while—as we have to have a vision and a focus, a focus and a vision for future fuel. They tell us we've got to realize how much energy each one of us uses. I found out some nerdy stuff. They said we measure distance by inches, meters, centimeters, yards, feet, miles, kilometers—that's the measurement for distance. But when it comes to the energy we consume, it's called British Thermal Units, BTUs. Some of you work in those areas so you'll know more than me about this, but I didn't realize that each individual uses—when it comes to your mobile phone, when it comes to your car, and even if you don't have a car and you're getting on the bus and the train, they need fuel too—everyone on average uses around 78 million British Thermal Units. 78 million. You want to look at me like, "Wow, but what does that mean?" Well, the striking of a match produces energy—one BTU is the striking of a match. So all of us individually are responsible for at least 78 million matches being struck, and the carbon that's released and all of the energy associated with that, to put it into some perspective.

But we all need fuel. There ain't no point in us talking about just cutting back and not flying as much and driving as much, because we've got places to go. Why are you talking about that, Pastor? Because so it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. In life, we are all—I hope we're all—on our way somewhere. And I'm not just talking about heaven; I'm talking about your destiny that God's designed for you. Sometimes you feel like you're running low on fuel. Anybody ever been there? I know it's summer now and the sun's out and it kind of helps energize you and revitalize you, but the sun's only in England for five and a half minutes, truth be told. We all go through stages where we feel like we're running low on fuel. We all need fuel for our future, for where you're trying to get to.

You want to be around people who fuel you up. You want to go to a church that fuels you up. I told you last week, this place is a restoration station. After you go through all the hell that you go through Monday to Friday, and then Saturday you start thinking about what you're doing in the house, and then you're getting ready for church on Sunday, you need to come to a place where you don't waste your time. I wonder if I can find 150 people in here who will shout back at me: after you leave here, you feel like you can slay Goliath, like you're ready to keep walking, keep championing your goal, keep going towards the destiny that God's outlaid for you.

I wish I had somebody who would be real and say, "Look, sometimes I do run out of fuel." I know you're bad and bougie and you look fantastic and you're all glammed up, but the truth be told, we decorate empty tanks. We often decorate empty tanks. And then it's only when we communicate with people and they bark back at you, you realize, "Oh, you're running out of fuel."

Based on that kind of context and background and metaphor, I want to take you to a Scripture that everybody's familiar with. I've preached on this Scripture maybe 150 times. I love this Scripture. But we want to draw some things out of it as a backdrop and then go straight forward into our future. So go with me to Numbers chapter 13, and then we're going to look at Numbers chapter 14.

It says here: "Then Caleb quieted the people..." (13:30-33). There's noise going on, there's a crowd, there's a shout, there's a ruckus. Why? What's happened, Pastor? Well, you've got to understand that the children of Israel, the Hebrew Israelites, have more or less just left Egypt. They were in 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and of course they're on their way to—somebody shout—the promised land. If you've never been in a church like this before, we are talk-back church; don't get freaked out by it.

It's important that you understand the context. They're on their way to the promised land, the land that God had promised them. That's why it's the promised land. They're going to a land that's going to be rich, it's going to be fertile, they're going to have their own home. There's people living there currently in the text—these people are the Hittites, the Jebusites, or all of the negative nations that fall under the realm of the Canaanites, because the land is called Canaan. Canaan is the promised land. The problem is God is about to evict the people who currently live in the land, because God will serve an eviction if you're not responsible for what you're in.

I know we love the nighty Jesus who wears the long white nighty and the blusher—that's not the Jesus of the Bible. That's the ones our Catholic brothers and sisters painted to try and deceive us. Facts. Because God—understand this—God wants you to be responsible for what He gives you.

So these people are living in the land, but if you want to understand—in this offended generation, everybody gets offended by everything. You can't say nothing to anybody anymore. You can't correct anybody. You can't really speak a little wisdom to somebody in a sharp tone. You should do it in love, and everybody's got their issues, but the truth be told, understand that God will talk to you harsh sometimes. Because I found out that love doesn't only protect—love corrects.

So these people in this nation were doing in Canaan all kinds of nasty stuff. When you want to know what they were doing, all you've got to do is read Leviticus 18. Those of you who love your Bible, check out Leviticus 18 in your own time, and you find out why God served an eviction notice. They were sacrificing babies to false gods, these idol-worshipping people. They were sleeping with animals. They were sleeping with each other's family members—inside of the same family. All kinds of crazy stuff was going on, and God looked at it as though their sins, their mess, was polluting the land. So God says, "Sinners, you can't look after this because I'm the landlord. You're not looking after what I placed you in." Because God wants you to walk worthy and look after, respond in a blessed way, in a responsible way, to what He gives you.

So God's going to evict them, and He's going to move His nation in. They're on the way to the promised land. Now, they get over there, and God's going to talk about how they got the land. What we've got here is some spies have gone out, sent by God, instructed to their leader Moses. God instructed Moses saying, "Make sure you send some spies into the land to check the land out, because you're going to have to fight for the land." I can't wait to preach on that—you're going to have to fight for the land.

The spies come back—you'll know the story if you've been in church at least two years—about the 12 spies, because one spy was sent from every tribe. Moses selected one spy to go out and spy out the land so every tribe would have their own representative come back and feed back what was going on. Out of the 12 that came back, only two came back with a positive report. Only two came back with a faith-filled report. The ten, the crowd, the majority, didn't come back with a faithful report—only two: a guy called Caleb and a guy called Joshua.

They all gathered—the whole nation—at this tent called the tabernacle, this tent which was like their church edifice, their worship center where all the news came out. It was like the town hall also. And so the spies come and they're about to report what happened. This is where we really pick up in Numbers chapter 13 verse 30.

The Bible says: "Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, 'Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.' And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. It's too big for us, it's too much for us, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.'"

Let's go down to chapter 14, verses 6-9: "But Joshua and Caleb, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes." That's the equivalent of sucking your teeth. That's the real Middle Eastern, ancient antiquity expression of emotion—tearing your clothes. You see this constantly throughout the Old Testament; they rent their garments in the King James Version. "And they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel: 'The land we passed through to spy is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us'—we know He does—'then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.'" Milk and honey is their phraseology for a fertile land. I know you will not need no milk and honey; look at your neighbor: "I need milk and money." Tell the truth. "Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection is departed from them, and the Lord is with us."

Let me tell you, when you know God is with you—where's my faith people? You get a confidence when you walk into a job interview and you know God is with you. Has anybody ever been there where everybody was trying to intimidate you, but you knew that God is with you?

I told you that story recently. I was in an environment where there was a whole load of spiritualists—they called themselves spiritualists—and people who practiced in the occult and witchcraft. I didn't even realize who was going to be there; I thought I was being invited just to talk into an environment. But they invited me, and when I got there, they started showing me around the room and telling me who's who. They introduced me to one guy—I could see he was very bold because he knew who was with him—and he walked up to me and said, "How are you doing?" And they said, "This is Pastor Michael, he's a Christian minister." And he said, "Oh well, I'm a medium." And I said, "I'm a large." Because sometimes you've got to know who's with you. When you know who's with you, no weapon formed against you shall prosper.

I wish I had some church people in here who knew who was with you. Too many of you are afraid of curses and witches and demons and people putting this on you and that on you. In the name of Jesus, every knee has to bow. I'm not arrogant; I'm just confident, because I know who's with me.

So it's important for us to recognize these things going on here. Caleb and Joshua speak up. In a generation today, I think many Christians need to take a leaf out of Caleb and Joshua's book and speak up, because Christians tend to be quiet now because we don't want to offend anybody, and we want everybody to love us. But the truth be told, I can love you and still disagree. There is such a thing as I call healthy diversity. We can all sit around the table, have different opinions, and we don't need to start fighting each other and hating. "I just disagree with that, but hey, pass me the ketchup."

Caleb and Joshua speak up in spite of all that's going on around them. If you keep reading, you find that they get in trouble, because sometimes you have to be prepared for trouble when you speak up. But here is what's interesting: the Scripture actually is giving us, if you look deep enough into it, the metaphors and the things I want to pull out today, is really to do with food or fuel—fuel or food—and focus. Because for you to kill, to win, to really beat all of the negativity that will come against you as you walk through into the second half of this year, you're going to have to have focus and you're going to have to have fuel.

Look at your neighbor to your left and say "focus." Somebody on screen, type it: focus. And look at your neighbor to the right and say "fuel." You're gonna need extras to really win by the end of 2022. I declare over your lives that 2022 is the year for you. It's the year for you—if you believe it, lift your hands and shout back, "Amen!" But I'm gonna need focus, and I'm gonna need fuel.

What we find ourselves encountering inside of the text, number one, is the fact that you've got to really be prepared to have a different mindset as you walk into this second half of the year. Number one: notice in the text, Joshua and Caleb are before the whole nation of Israel along with the other 10 spies. There's 12 all told. Joshua and Caleb are the two, and in front of the whole nation they've got to be holding on to their faith and their belief in the fact that God—if God said this land is for us, then this land is for us. Let's go in, because we are well able. They had the ability. They recognized there was ability that God had placed inside of them to go and get the land.

In other words, they had to—write this down—resist the crowd. Resist the crowd. Who's the crowd? The crowd interestingly are obviously not just the ten, but who the ten are influencing. We've always been taught it was the ten against the two. It was actually far more than the ten. The ten had corrupted the crowd, and so now it's the crowd against the two.

But I found out throughout Scripture, crowds never get the blessing. If you don't believe me, I can even take you to the New Testament. After Jesus rose from the dead, at least 500 of His followers saw Him, recognized He'd risen from the dead. But yet only 120 have enough faith to hold out to the upper room. My God, crowds don't mean nothing. You've got to be prepared to do stuff regardless of what the crowd's doing.

If you don't believe me, ask the woman with the issue of blood. Do you remember her in the New Testament? The crowd were around Jesus, and all the crowd were pressing against Jesus. Jesus comes to her town, and she's had a hemorrhaging in her menstrual cycle for years upon years. It's making her weak, it's making her anemic. Everybody in the religious sector knows also they should not be anywhere near her. Yet this woman, in spite of the fact that the crowds were there, she decides, "I need my healing from Jesus." She touches the hem of His cloak, and because she touches the hem of His coat, Jesus stops. Now remember, the crowd was thronging Him. Jesus—He's front cover of Jewish Time Magazine, He's famous Jesus by now. Everybody wants Jesus. Everybody's trying to follow Him. Everybody's trying to friend Him. Everybody wants a piece of Jesus. All of them are touching Him and getting nothing. She touches Him and gets fully healed.

Why? Because crowds have contact, but when you've got faith, you have connection. And there's a whole difference with connection and contact. When I come to church, I don't want contact with God—I want a connection. When you see me lifting my hands, I'm looking to pick up the signal, because I want a connection. I want to be able to get my faith fueled up. I want to be able to walk into my future. I want to walk out stronger than when I came.

Crowd folk wait for the team to sing their favorite song. You can tell the crowd—crowd want the team to sing their favorite song. Crowd are like, "Why is the team singing so long?" Crowd is like, "Oh look, I wish they'd just get on with it." That's crowd mentality. But those people who are like, "Look, I need a connection, I don't care what the crowd is doing, I'm here to lift up my hands"—when you see me lifting my hands, it's my aerial looking for a signal. I'm trying to get a connection. Sometimes when I'm on my mobile phone, I have to move. If I've not got the right signal, I have to move. Some of you can stay there stiff during praise and worship, but during praise and worship I'm gonna move, because I need to get my signal, because I need a download from God for my future.

So it's crowd resistance. In a generation where social media is king, everybody wants crowds. We want to get as many followers as possible. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it can be bad when it becomes obsessive—when we want the crowd, the crowd, the crowd—because crowds don't always get breakthrough. Crowd is not always the best place to be. Crowd is always loud. And that's why the Bible introduces us in the periphery of the text and says Joshua quieted the crowd. Because sometimes in order to hear from God and to be able to know where you're supposed to go, you have to get away from the negative noise.

This is part of what we do when we fast and pray as a church. The end of this month, we're coming up to our big major special time of consecration, dedication, spiritual intensive, where we fast and we pray. We quiet the crowd. Some of you—God's been trying to tell you some stuff about who you've been dating. God's trying to tell you some stuff about what business deal you need to go for. God's been trying to tell you some stuff about who to connect with and who to disconnect from. And the problem is, there's so much noise. God's already provided an answer, but because of the noise—if the crowd is so loud, you can't hear the Lord. He quiets the crowd.

I want you this year to have crowd resistance energy. It's not about the crowd. I'll come to church whether there's a whole load of people there or not. I heard somebody the other day—I was on the phone and they were telling me, "Yeah, that place is this, that and the other, but they ain't got nobody there." And I'm like, don't judge that, because crowds don't always get the blessing.

The other thing I want you to understand is they needed fuel for the fight. Fuel for the fight. But let me show you something here. Notice, God had promised them the land, but that didn't preclude them, it didn't exclude them, it didn't push them away from having to be involved in gaining the land. God promises you stuff, but then wants...