________________________________________________________________________

I must confess that I am obsessed with the use of numbers in the scripture. There is seldom a month that goes by that I do not study the use of a particular number in the Bible. I am convinced that God did not choose the numbers mentioned in scripture by accident, but that all numbers mentioned in God's Word are a result of a divine plan of God. The Psalmist asked God to "order his steps," and I believe that God does nothing by accident!

Any student of the Bible knows of the significance of the number 7 in scripture. It is the number of God's perfect work. It signifies the complete plan of God. Bible scholars still have not discovered all of the sevens in the Bible and I could spend an hour just naming some of them to you starting with the 7 days of creation and ending with the 7 churches of Asia, 7 prophetic trumpets and seals, and 7 vials of God's Wrath found in Revelation. The scriptures in between are full of sevens such as the seven days of marching around the walls of Jericho or the seven times the leper Namaan dipped in the waters of the Jordan river to be healed. Literally occurring thousands of times in scripture, the number 7 always represents God's perfect work of completion.

Another number which you probably have noticed occurs in scripture quite a bit is the number 12. Twelve always represents God's perfection of human rule or government. There were twelve sons of Jacob which became the 12 tribes of Israel. When Jesus came, He appointed 12 disciples to be the leadership of the church. Solomon, who was the riches and wisest ruler that Israel ever had, built a temple to God and the vast majority of the measurements of the temple are multiples of 12! When God gives man the New Jerusalem from which the church will rule the world, that golden city will have 12 foundations and 12 gates made of 12 pearls. The measurements of the New Jerusalem city will be 12,000 furlongs square (about 1,500 miles) and the walls will be 144 (12x12) cubits wide (about 216 feet across).

There are many other times that the number 12 is mentioned in scripture but I will only mention a couple of non-obvious ones to complete my point. Jesus told Peter when he had taken off the ear of one of the servants of the Pharisees in the Garden of Gethsemane, to "put away the sword" for if He wanted He could call down "more than 12 legions of angels!" Also to the Jewish people, a boy became a man at the age of 12. That is why Jesus' first recorded words occurred when He was 12 years old. Another fascinating "12" in the scripture is that the individual anointings of 12 men are recorded in scripture. They are Aaron and his four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar; King Saul, King David, Abasalom, Solomon, Jehu, Joash, and Jehoahaz. In that list of men it is interesting to note that 5 are priests (5 is always associated with grace), and 7 are kings. The 6th one was Saul who was chosen by the people and the 7th was King David who was a man "after God's own heart!"

What do those neat facts about numbers have to do with you and I? Because we have the ability to choose who will "order our steps" and "direct our paths." Many things in life are beyond our control, and there will always be someone or something else that affects the direction of our life. You are not in control of your own life as you think. You could find out tomorrow that you are terminally ill or could lose everything that you have within the hour. The events on September 11th proved that God can shut down this entire great nation at any moment that He chooses. There are two words shouting forth about what is the acceptable way to live our lives: God's Word and the sinful World! If you choose to obey the laws of sin and a sinful lifestyle then you are allowing the world to order your steps. You are at the mercy of a merciless devil. You have no hope to really ever be victorious over sin or it's effects in this life and absolutely no hope for eternal life in the world to come. As for me, I will choose to live according to the Word of God! I'll let the Master Creator of the universe "order my steps." I do not have to fear the future or what might happen, because I serve and submit myself to the One who holds the future! I don't know about you, but I get excited when I realize how precise and exact God's perfect plan went forth in this book because I realize that the same God is orchestrating my life! That's why I willingly take time out of my life to come to church and praise Him! That's why I willingly read His Word! That's why I willingly lay down my opinions and choose to live by His Word! I'm choosing to let God, the same awesome God of glory which hung the stars in perfect balance with one another, to order my steps! I'm allowing Him to choose my path! I'm allowing Him to choose my destiny!

I do not want sin's destiny so I refuse to obey it's commands. The wages of sin or result of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life! Whichever set of rules that you choose to live by is also the destiny that you will have! The appeal of sin doesn't look so good when you realize the eternal hell which it's lifestyle leads! As for me, I'm going to that perfect, size "12," New Jerusalem! I'm choosing right now to one day walk on streets of gold! And that is why I'll submit myself to the Word of the Lord and do whatever He says ... because I'm choosing eternal life for my destiny!

You listen to this preacher: If the number "12" represents the perfection of what God wants humanity to be and achieve, then I refuse to sell myself short! If God wants my spiritual life and commitment to be at "12" then I refuse to stop at "11!" I'm hungry with a "righteous greed" today! I know that the world will never satisfy my longing! I'm hungry for everything that God has for me! Whatever commitment that I have to take. Whatever sin I have to repent of and stop. Whatever I must do I will not stop short of where God wants me to go!

________________________________________________________________________

Let me clarify my point so that you can better understand. In our first text, we read a somewhat obscure portion of scripture in Deuteronomy. You probably did not realize the significance of the verse because you do not live in the Middle East in Moses time:

The book of Deuteronomy was Moses' farewell speech before He died. After his death, Joshua was going to lead the children of Israel into the promised Land. Deuteronomy comes after the book of Numbers in the Bible which records the 40 years of wandering around in the wilderness. God never intended for the events of the book of Numbers to be written.

When God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, He parted the Red Sea and all of the Egyptian army drown! God worked that mighty deliverance so that He could bring His people out of Egypt and slavery and take them to a promised land flowing with milk and honey! Before He could take them into the promised land, though, God had to make a covenant agreement with Israel and give them the laws which taught them how to properly worship and approach Him! Most of us are probably familiar with the giving of the 10 commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. After God gave them the law, then He intended to IMMEDIATELY take the children of Israel into the promised land! The children of Israel then traveled from the area of Mt. Sinai called Horeb, to the area of Kadesh-barnea which was only a day's journey into the promised land. From Kadesh-barnea the 12 spies were sent in to spy out the land and 10 of them came back with a negative report: "it is a beautiful land, and everything that God promised us that it would be! But there are giants in the land! We were as grasshoppers in our eyes! We don't think that we can win the fight!" But 2 of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, said "We trust the Lord! He will help us fight! He delivered us from the Egyptian army and He will deliver us from these giants! Come on, let's go forward and take the land that the Lord God has given us!"

I'll never understand why, but the children of Israel chose to believe the 10 spies report of unbelief. They chose doubt and fear over faith and trusting in God! Because of this, God said that everybody over 20 years old at that time, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, must die before they could enter into the promised place that God had for them! And so the children of Israel left the town of Kadesh-barnea and began to walk around in the wilderness for 40 years, simply waiting for all of those who had chosen unbelief to die off!

We can learn about our own walk with God from these stories! Paul said that they were "examples" to us. When they came out of Egypt, the scripture says that they were baptized in the sea and in the cloud! When we come out of sin, we must be baptized with water in the name of Jesus and with the Spirit of God! They then had to learn how to properly live and worship God! We too must have the Word of God written on our hearts! And then, just like the Israelites, we begin a journey from the place where we learned how to worship Him, to a promised place. I do not believe that the promised land represents heaven, because the Bible says that the land was filled with idolaters and giants who would fight the people of God. When you get to heaven, there will be no idolaters and giants fighting you any more! So what then does the promised land represent? It represents a promised place that God wants to take us in His Spirit! It represents a place of great anointing and blessing that God wants to give us! Oh, we might have to kill some of the giants in our life in order to get it! We might have to fight some battles and trust the Lord completely in order to get to that promised place, but God has said that we are going to make it!

Don't make the mistake of the children of Israel and the 10 spies. They traveled from Mt. Sinai and they traveled to Kadesh-barnea which our text says was an 11 day journey. When they stood at Kadesh-barnea, they were only 1 day's journey from the promised land that God wanted to give them! The 12th day would have taken them into the land of "milk and honey." The 12th day would have taken them into the promised place of God's power and anointing! But they chose unbelief instead of faith on the 11th day. The journey toward the promised place stopped on the 11th day. Because they refused to go beyond the 11th day of the journey, they died in the wilderness and never entered in to what God had for them! A whole generation lost out with God because they stopped at 11.

I challenge you in the Holy Ghost! Do not let disbelief set in and cause you to miss out on the anointing and the promises that were the reason in the first place that God delivered you out of sin! Don't sell yourself short! Do not stop at 11! Do not allow unbelief to steal your ability to enter into the promised places of God!

I'm going to be like Joshua! I'm going to be like Caleb! They looked at the children of Israel and they realized, "we are only one more day away from what God has for us!" "God will be with us! Let's do it!" The closer that you get to the breakthrough that you need and the promised places in God, the harder the devil begins to fight with discouragement and fear! When you are feeling discouraged and like you do not have the faith to make it in living for God, you need to be encouraged and begin to praise God! Why? Because you've reached the 11th day of the journey! You've only got one more day until you get to the promised place in God! You are closer now than you have ever been before! Don't let the devil steal a last minute victory through discouragement! Don't die in the wilderness but enter into His promises! Enter in and experience what it is like to enjoy the many promises and blessings of God! Enter in your promised place and fight for what God has given you! Don't stop short! You must not stop at the 11th day! Whatever is happening on your journey with God, IT MUST NOT STOP AT 11!

________________________________________________________________________

I want you to picture yourself with the disciples when they got the news of what Judas Iscariot had done! The scriptures say that they did not realize that Judas was leaving the Last Supper to betray the Lord! It was not until the Garden of Gethsemane that they began to even get a hint at what Judas was doing. It was not until after the fateful events of that night that they full realized the whole story! Can you imagine what it felt like to have just lost your Messiah to death and then find out that it was someone who was just to close to Jesus as you were that betrayed Him? Can you imagine the sick feeling in Peter's stomach when he found out that Judas Iscariot had denied Jesus and not been able to forgive himself? To find out that Judas had hung himself from a cliff and his body had fallen and broken itself upon the rocks below?

In Acts chapter 2, we find that the 11 disciples are sitting in the upper room waiting for their promise, the Holy Ghost, to fall. Peter mentions that Judas Iscariot has killed himself and taken himself out of the will of God. But I do not find depression or fear over the 11. In fact we find that they picked a replacement for Judas Iscariot! And it was not until AFTER they picked a 12th disciple that the Holy Ghost fell! Coincidence? I don't think so! They had to make up their mind, that one of us may have fallen, but we are still going to have revival! We may have been hurt, but we are still going to reach our world! They were telling God! We refuse to stop at 11! We will have Your perfect will done in our lives! We will reach this world with your message!

You may be discouraged this morning. You may feel like giving in, but let me tell you something: End-time Apostolic revival awaits those who will refuse to settle for stopping short of the promised place that God wants to give! Don't give up! Don't give place to discouragement! We must press on into the promise! We cannot stop at 11!

________________________________________________________________________

The two brothers whose actions shaped and changed the face of God's history: Esau and Jacob. Esau, the rough tough, eldest who despised the things of God and yet was born with the birthright of God's blessing and Jacob, the deceiver, who nonetheless was more sensitive and caring about God's ways and blessing. You know the story how that Jacob deceived Esau out of the birthright for a bowl of beans. How that Jacob had to run for his life from the wrath of his brother Esau when the truth came out. How that God began to work on Jacob and took 14 years getting the deceptive nature out of Jacob and turning him into a man whom God could bless and trust. Aren't you glad that God sees not what we are when we come to Him, but our potential and keeps working on us!?!

The end of the story is this: Esau gave birth to a nation called the "Edomites." They did not serve God but worshipped Idols. They settled in the land on the west border of the promised land. They did not inherit God's promised place. In Genesis 36:40-43, we find the list of the "dukes" or leaders of the tribes that came from Esau. Guess how many dukes and thus tribes came from Esau? You probably guessed it: 11.

But God blessed Jacob with many sons. In fact after the last two, Joseph and Benjamin, were born, Jacob's sons numbered 12 altogether! Unlike the Edomites that came from Esau, Jacob's sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. They became the people who went into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua! They entered into the promises and blessings of God! They entered into everything that God had for them!

Oh, there was a time that Joseph's brothers allowed their jealousy to cause them to try to kill Joseph. But instead God made a way for Joseph's life to be spared and for him to be sold into slavery instead. Why? Because He wanted them to later have an opportunity to get beyond 11!

You know the story how that God favored Joseph in the house of Potiphar and then he was wrongly put in jail! But Joseph did not give up! He did not get discouraged! He was trusting in God! And God brought him up out of the jail to the ruler of Egypt! Meanwhile, God brought a famine onto the land of Canaan where Jacob and the 11 brothers were living. You see every time that we find someone willing to stop and live at 11, we find wilderness, heartbreak, and famine!

The brothers had to go into Egypt to find food. You probably know the story. Joseph was the one who was over all of the food distribution in Egypt! As the brothers came to ask for food, Joseph recognized them and accused them of being spies so that he could find out about how their family. The conversation went like this:

They did not know it but the 12 brother was the one standing in front of them! Joseph could have gotten revenge and had all of them killed! But He chose to forgive them. He chose to make things right! He chose to restore himself as the 12th brother! You see Joseph refused to stop at 11! He knew that to receive God's blessing, he would have to go on into God's promises! He refused to allow ill will and bitterness to cause him to miss out on the will of God!

Maybe you have been mistreated. Maybe you have been abused. Maybe there is bitterness in your spirit today. Let me tell you that if you do not deal with it and release it, the unforgiveness and bitterness will cause you to miss out on the blessings of God! It will cause you to lose out on the promised place that God had for you! Do not sell yourself short! Do not stop at 11! Be like Joseph and make things right and complete the family!

________________________________________________________________________

The Old Testament was written in the language of Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet contains 22 letters which is 11 twice. As I began to think about that while preparing for this sermon, I got to thinking about if that was coincidence or not. I called my dad and asked him to look up in his Greek study books how many letters are in the Greek alphabet. Greek is the language in which the New Testament was written. My Dad quoted the alphabet to me in Greek while I counted. Guess how many letters there are? 24 or 12 twice! Coincidence? I don't think so!

If God would have stopped working among men after the Old Testament, then there would have been no Calvary, and no Jesus, and no blood, and no forgiveness! God couldn't stop at the Old Testament. He couldn't stop with the books that were written with the alphabet that has 22 letters (11 twice), but He went on to write the history of redemption and to die on Calvary and to rise again and to give His precious Spirit! And the language in which He chose to record it was Greek which has 24 letters (12 twice)! God allowed the entire Bible to be written to tell you that you can't stop at 11! God did not and so not we cannot! Do not sell yourself short but get everything that God has for you!

________________________________________________________________________

I could go on in great detail about people stopping at 11 and thus removing themselves from the blessings and promises of God, but I would like to close this message by returning to our other text and focusing on the parable of Jesus:

Jesus taught his disciples that the kingdom of God was like a man who owned a vineyard and who went to the marketplace each morning to hire "day laborers" to work in his vineyard. In those days, many people who did not have steady jobs would hang out at a certain place in the market and those who needed workers could hire their services for the day.

I could preach a sermon just on the Jewish day. They do not count like we do from midnight. The Jewish day begins at sunrise which is around 6 am and ends at 6 pm at sunset. That is the Jewish day is a 12 hour period. Their hours start at sunrise in that the first hour of day light is called "the first hour." 9am to us would be the third hour of the day to the Jewish people and so on. As you are probably starting to realize, it is no accident that the Jewish workday is 12 hours. If you quit at the 11th hour, then you did not finish up the day's work. It was not until the 12th hour that the hirer would pay the laborers. If you quit at the 11th hour, then -- despite any work that you had done -- you did not receive your reward! Even the Jewish day testifies that we must not stop at 11! I've been through too many trials and ordeals to quit now! I've got too much invested in the kingdom of God to stop without receiving my eternal reward! Every trial just makes me more determined that I WILL NOT stop at the 11th hour. I'm going to make it to quitting time.

In the parable, Jesus said that the owner of the vineyard went and hired laborers at the first hour of the day, that is at sunrise. They would be paid "a penny a day." That does not sound like much to us, but was actually the amount of money that was given in that day for an average days work. Whatever the current minimum wage is multiplied by 12 would be a close approximation of the value of the "penny." ($5.65 times 12 = $67.80 as of 2003)

At the third hour of the day, or 9 am, the master of the vineyard went back and hired more laborers and told them that at the end of the day they would be paid "what is right." The same thing happened at the sixth hour (12 noon) and the ninth hour (3 pm). Finally at the eleventh hour, the master of the vineyard came back and hired laborers one hour before closing time telling them that they would receive "what is right." When the end of the day came, the master of the vineyard paid EVERYBODY, no matter what hour of the day that they had been hired the same wage: a penny a day! The ones who were hired in the first hour got upset, but the master of the vineyard, rebuked them saying:

The meaning of this parable becomes very clear when you realize that the scriptures time and again refer to the "vineyard" as representing the people of God and the work of God. Many times God is referred to as the "keeper of the vineyard." Remember what I said about nothing happening in scripture by accident? The meaning of the parable becomes even clearer when we compare the times of the day mentioned.

For instance, it was right at the sunrise on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost fell into the upper room on the 120 and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance:

It was at the third hour of the day when 3,000 Jewish people received the Holy Ghost after Peter's sermon:

So the laborers hired at the first hour represent the 120 filled with the Holy Ghost first on the Day of Pentecost and the laborers hired at the third hour represent the 3,000 Jewish people who received the Holy Ghost.

It was at the sixth hour of the day when Jesus had gone to Samaria and taught the woman at the well:

In Acts chapter 8, the Samaritans received the Holy Ghost so the laborers hired at the sixth hour represent the Samaritans (half Jewish, half Gentiles) receiving the Holy Ghost! God set up a pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Gentiles by answering Cornelius' prayer at the ninth hour:

So the ninth hour laborers represents the Gentiles that received the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts! But if that is so, then who were the laborers hired at the eleventh hour, just before quitting time? Those laborers represent you and I who have received the Holy Ghost today! We are the 11th hour church! We are the ones who are alive to work in the vineyard today! Don't tell me that people cannot receive the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues today as the Spirit of God gave the utterance! God is still hiring people in the 11th hour! It's almost quitting time, and the Day of the Lord is at hand! Jesus said:

We are the generation of the 11th hour! We are almost at quitting time! The night is coming when all the work of God will cease!

Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of fame of faith. It tells about the great men and women that served God through the first 11 hours. We like to read about the great men of God like Noah, and Enoch, and Abraham, and the saints of the early church. But I do not want to stop with chapter 11. Let's go on to chapter 12:

When we think about all of those who have worked in the kingdom of God, we tend to think of them as being greater than us! But we are the church that God has chosen to give the Holy Ghost at the 11th hour! We must run OUR RACE! We must be willing to lay aside every weight and sin and do the will of God for our lives!

This Holy Ghost started with a bang! The disciples saw thousands of people receive the Holy Ghost and many miracles and signs and wonders! And there is an element of the world today that says that the Holy Ghost stuff and speaking in tongues and miracles, and healings and great moves of God was for that day! That was just for the apostles or the Early Church! But I've got news for you today! Those hired on at the 11th hour received the SAME WAGES as those who hired on at the first hour! The miracles of the early church that we read about in Acts is for today! The Holy Ghost outpouring is for today! Speaking in other tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance is for us today! It was for the first hour and the third, sixth, and ninth hours. It MUST NOT STOP AT THE 11th!

God wants to fill thousands of people with the Holy Ghost today! He wants to win your family today! He wants to heal you and perform miracles through you and I today! Don't believe the lie that the miracles and the outpouring have stopped in the 11th hour for we get the same wages!

Can't you see Peter stepping forward to Jesus and saying "It's not fair, God." We were crucified and served you for many years and established this church and they have wasted the majority of their life in sin and only recently come to you, and yet you are giving them the same anointing, the same Holy Ghost, and the same miracles that you gave us!" And God says: "Be quiet, Peter! I'm paying them a penny a day!" "Did I not give you what I had promised!" "Now let me bless this generation!"

Now is the time to step forward in faith and claim our God-given authority and anointings! The Apostolic message and anointing must not stop at the 11th hour!

________________________________________________________________________

Samson the mighty man for whom God had mighty plans played into the hands of Delilah and lost his eyesight because he played with sin. I was reading over the story of Samson this week and noticed something very interesting: Samson was sold out for 1100 pieces of silver. Coincidence? I don't think so.

But the story of Samson did not end with him just grinding at the Philistines mill stone blind and weak. His hair started growing back and He asked God to forgive him. The Philistines brought Samson out at a party to make fun of him and the scriptures say that Samson asked to be put against two of the main pillars holding the deck of the party. With a quiet prayer and a mighty display of the power of God, Samson literally brought down the house and killed more Philistines in his death than he did in living!

You may have messed up and feel like you have lost out on your walk with God! You may feel like that you have had your spiritual sight plucked out and your spiritual strength sapped and that you have been sold out for 1100 pieces of silver! But don't you dare let it end at the 11! Don't you dare stop trying! You get up and ask forgiveness! Find the pillars of sin in your life and topple them over and see if God won't give you victory!

You may never be crucified on a cross. You may never be boiled in oil like John was. You may never be beaten and thrown into prison like Paul and Silas, but you be faithful in your life. You run YOUR RACE! You stand up for truth in YOUR circumstances! No matter how easy or hard it may be: You be faithful in your situation! Make up your mind that the outpouring and working of the Holy Ghost is not going to stop at the 11th hour! And when you stand before Jesus Christ at the end of the "day." You will receive the same reward that Paul, Silas, Peter, John, and James received! God pays a penny a day no matter what time you hired on! But you must hold out and be faithful until the end! You must not faint and quit at the 11th hour! You must stay true to the working of the Holy Ghost and this Apostolic doctrine. It MUST NOT END AT THE 11th hour!