SPEAKER_01: And then the third ward strong partner, David Hill, who's the pastor of Restoration Community Church priest a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And so we know and love him.
SPEAKER_01: And if you fill out the connect card, then we're going to add to what we already do to partner with them by donating to what they're doing financially.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can get involved in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: This is a fun time of the year for us because not only do we think about this little transition that's happening, our little nomadic church, we're moving from spot to spot, but we're also getting ready for the launch of another loop group year.
SPEAKER_01: And so loot groups are our co-ed small groups that meet during the week.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a QR.
SPEAKER_01: If you're already in a loop group, like you've been in a loop group, then your loop group leader will be contacting you and asking whether or not you want to continue for this next term, which is August to May.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're not, this is a great chance to jump into one.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can scan that QR code to find out about the groups that are available.
SPEAKER_01: And that way we can get you connected into one that you want to be a part of.
SPEAKER_01: So they're very good, good way to really experience a deepening of the transformation that happens as we are all exploring what G what life with Jesus looks like.
SPEAKER_01: So I am excited to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Sunday morning is so special, and I've not been here the last two weeks, and some of my friends have preached and they've done a great job.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be honest, like I've missed being here.
SPEAKER_01: I've missed being with you all.
SPEAKER_01: I love this church and I love you as a people.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say thank you that I get to be your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say that on behalf of the seven pastors that are entrusted with the responsibility of shepherding this congregation.
SPEAKER_01: And the last two Sundays that I've not been here, honestly, I've been bombed because I love being here.
SPEAKER_01: I love coming to church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a bit of a church nerd myself.
SPEAKER_01: And we're we're we love Sundays because as we gather, we think about Sunday as setting the direction for the week.
SPEAKER_01: And the the question as we open God's word is typically, how will I follow Jesus this week?
SPEAKER_01: But today in Joshua chapter 14, what I want to do is zoom out and consider the question what will keep us following Jesus for the rest of our lives?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot working against that for each of us.
SPEAKER_01: We face hardship, we experience disappointment, we grow discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we just get bored.
SPEAKER_01: There are unanswered prayers, there's seasons where God feels distant, there's moments when following Jesus costs more than what we expect.
SPEAKER_01: And there are so many things competing for our attention in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Success catches our eye, comfort catches our eye.
SPEAKER_01: Competing ideologies appear attractive in seasons of our life.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand that nobody drifts into a life of lifelong faithfulness with God.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody does.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we most naturally drift in the other direction.
SPEAKER_01: We drift away from God for not intentional.
SPEAKER_01: I just wonder how many of us are going to grow into the final years with a love for Jesus that's stronger than it is today.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us will become more joyful and more gracious and more dependent upon God?
SPEAKER_01: More courageous in our witness?
SPEAKER_01: How many of us are going to reach the end of our lives still captivated by the goodness of God?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to merely have a good experience on Sunday morning in this hour, though I hope you will.
SPEAKER_01: They're still telling people about the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's my vision for you.
SPEAKER_01: The main idea for my talk as we begin to get into Joshua chapter 14 is this lifelong faithfulness is sustained by wholehearted trust in God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: That's the big idea.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're new to Neartown this morning, this entire summer, we've been walking through the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: So the story is that after being rescued from slavery, Israel is led through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: God brings them into as we're beginning the book of Joshua, God has brought them through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: They've crossed the Jordan River and they're beginning to enter into this promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And the promised land, an actual geographic area, represents the promised life.
SPEAKER_01: And in that story, in those early parts of Bless You, Joshua, God brought them through things like the Jericho walls falling.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you remember that, enemy kings being defeated.
SPEAKER_01: And Israel is beginning to learn in the book of Joshua that the great blessing is not even about the land itself, it's the presence of God with them.
SPEAKER_01: That's the promised life.
SPEAKER_01: The presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the land that God has promised them.
SPEAKER_01: And in the story, Joshua is beginning to divide up the parcels of land among the tribes, which are like the smaller groups within the larger group of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting if you'll read from Joshua chapter 13 and into 14, there's like this screeching halt that happens in chapter 14, and the story focuses not on Israel, not on a tribe, but on a man by the name of Caleb.
SPEAKER_01: So we meet Caleb for the first time many years before.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll remember when Moses was with Israel shortly after the Exodus, God sends 12 people into this land that they're going to conquer to scout it out.
SPEAKER_01: And Joshua and Caleb were two of the twelve that went.
SPEAKER_01: And of these twelve spies, only Caleb and Joshua believed that Israel should move forward into the land and trust God in his promise.
SPEAKER_01: The other ten did not believe, and they were fearful, and they refused to go.
SPEAKER_01: So as a result of this, God said, Okay, because of your doubt of my promise, you're going to wander the land for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: So Caleb has been a part of what God's been doing in the people of Israel for some time.
SPEAKER_01: And when we pick up in Joshua chapter 14, he is 85 years old.
SPEAKER_01: 45 years have passed since God has promised to these people a promised life in the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: An entire generation has died wandering in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Moses, their fearless leader, is gone.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua is now leading.
SPEAKER_01: He's done a very good job, learned lessons along the way.
SPEAKER_01: And Caleb at 85 years old has every reason to doubt God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: But what we'll see in Joshua chapter 14 is that his faith has not grown weaker, it's only grown stronger.
SPEAKER_00: His passion for God has not faded.
SPEAKER_00: It has only been deepened.
SPEAKER_01: The question is for you and for me in this moment, as we begin to look at Joshua chapter 14, how will we remain faithful to God for an entire lifetime?
SPEAKER_01: That is a real question.
SPEAKER_01: There are people in this church or that were in this church that are not in it now because they've drifted and they've decided that following God is not as important as it once was.
SPEAKER_01: How will you remain faithful for an entire lifetime?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the opening words of Joshua chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: None of these verses are going to be on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to open your Bible if you have one or look on your phone as long as I want to distract you.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua chapter 14, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Now, these are the areas the Israelites received as an inheritance in the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: So we're getting here at the beginning a little context for the story that's going to introduce Caleb.
SPEAKER_01: So they're talking about like the areas, the parcels of land.
SPEAKER_01: These are the areas the Israelites received as an inheritance in the land of Canaan, which Elizar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel allotted to them.
SPEAKER_01: Their inheritance was assigned by Lot to the nine and a half tribes as the Lord had to command it through Moses.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua is not distributing, he's not choosing who gets what parcel of land.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they're casting lots, which is sort of like drawing straws or drawing names from a hat.
SPEAKER_01: And this is an important part of the story.
SPEAKER_01: So by doing this, what they're doing is surrendering themselves to God's authority, his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: They believed, as it says in Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lat, but its every decision is from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So by drawing straws or pulling names from a hat, what they're believing is that God is sovereignly orchestrating who gets what section of land.
SPEAKER_01: We get to verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: So the Israelites divided the land just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
SPEAKER_01: So no tribe can manipulate the results, no tribe can negotiate for a more desirable location.
SPEAKER_01: This inheritance of the land ultimately came from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then in these next few verses, what we see is that before Joshua begins to tell the tribe of Judah and Ephraim and Benjamin, what land is there according to the casting of these lots, Caleb steps forward.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens next models three practices that God will use in your life and mine to sustain lifelong faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Again, that's the question.
SPEAKER_01: How will we remain faithful for a lifetime?
SPEAKER_01: Three things.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what God has said, remember what God has done for you, and then choose to trust God with what comes next.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the three things that we must do.
SPEAKER_01: So the first one, remember what God has said.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal.
SPEAKER_01: So Caleb is a part of the tribe of Judah.
SPEAKER_01: And Caleb, son of Jephunah, the Keneshite, said to him, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me.
SPEAKER_01: And then look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses swore on that day.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God said to Caleb many years earlier, promised Caleb through Moses.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: Caleb is reminding Joshua of the promise of God to him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, forty-five years have passed since this moment.
SPEAKER_01: A lot has happened.
SPEAKER_01: Generations have died.
SPEAKER_01: People that Caleb has known and loved have died.
SPEAKER_01: They faced difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: They faced war.
SPEAKER_01: Caleb does not come to Joshua and say, Do you know how hard I've had it for these last four decades?
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember those people who doubted us when we wanted to go into the land and they doubted us, so we didn't get to go into the land.
SPEAKER_01: So we struggled, we suffered.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say to Joshua, Do you remember everything that I have sacrificed, all that I've done for God?
SPEAKER_01: God owes me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know how unfair it would be if I don't get this particular piece of land?
SPEAKER_01: What is happening here is Caleb is not doing any of that.
SPEAKER_01: He's not focusing on the difficulty of his own story.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he's setting his mind on the promise of God to him many years earlier.
SPEAKER_01: He begins with the faithfulness of God rather than rehearsing the difficulties he's faced or the failures of others.
SPEAKER_01: This is so important.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever met someone who used to be passionate about following Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And some of you in here are going to enter a season of your life, or this is going to be a great temptation for you.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever met somebody who used to be passionate about following Jesus, but somewhere along the way they drifted?
SPEAKER_01: If you ask them what happens, and I have these conversations weekly, they'll often point to a disappointment in their life, a prayer that did not go answered, a suffering that they didn't expect, a relationship that fell apart, or some kind of hurt that they experienced in the context of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And over time, what they begin to do is rehearse everything that didn't happen like they hoped it would happen.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually their disappointments drown out God's promises, and their faith slowly fades.
SPEAKER_01: This is a warning to us.
SPEAKER_01: If you all rehearse life's disappointments, it will become very difficult to remain faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And you know this already to be true.
SPEAKER_01: But there is nothing you can do, no management skill that you have that's going to keep you from difficulty in life.
SPEAKER_01: That's a very disorienting reality for a lot of people who think that if I get just the right job, just the right spouse, get just the right education, if I live in just the right city and just the right house, that my life will all of a sudden become filled with ease.
SPEAKER_01: And as soon as you get those things, you're stunned by the reality that life is messy, life is hard.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're the kind of person that's going to begin to choose to rehearse all the things about your life that are not good, rather than focusing on the promises of God to you, then your faith will fade.
SPEAKER_01: So let me just pause here and put before you something.
SPEAKER_01: So we're thinking about the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: And we've heard the promise of God to Caleb about a specific section of land.
SPEAKER_01: But let's just talk for a moment about what are the promises of God to those that follow Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And not all of you are in here and are Christ's followers.
SPEAKER_01: You've not crossed the line of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to be tender towards you as you're considering the claims of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: But this is what's promised to all those that are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: These are the things that we fix our minds on, we remind ourselves of when life gets difficult so that we'll remain faithful.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised forgiveness, 1 John 1.9.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised adoption, Romans 8.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised God's presence, Hebrews 13.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised in the book of Romans 8 that nothing is going to separate us from God's love.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised that God works through all things for good for those that love Him, Romans 8 also.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised a resurrection when we die into a new eternal life with Christ for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: We're promised an eternal inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the promises of God to you that you can set your mind on when life gets difficult for you to remain faithful for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Again, what will it be like?
SPEAKER_01: I hope that I grow old with some of you, and we're near the end of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And we can look back and we can say, Do you remember how hard it was in that period where we lost people that we loved?
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember how life got so complicated when I thought it was just going to get easier?
SPEAKER_01: But we remembered we held close to our hearts the promises of God for a forgiveness and adoption and his presence and that nothing is going to separate us from his love, even though we don't always feel the feelings of being loved by God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're not going to forget.
SPEAKER_01: I just hope that someday we can grow old and we're smoking a cigar on the front porch of the house that you've just bought in the mountains of Colorado that you invite your pastor and his wife to regularly.
SPEAKER_01: And we're just talking about how Jesus is worth it all.
SPEAKER_01: Caleb in Joshua 14 chooses to hold in his heart the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: 45 years later.
SPEAKER_01: And this mindset wasn't wasn't casual or half-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: Three times in the chapter, we read about Caleb's wholehearted confidence in God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: What Bryler was saying is he was leading worship.
SPEAKER_01: He is he and I did not talk about my sermon, but what he said fits perfectly with what I'm about to read to you.
SPEAKER_01: That describes Caleb's devotion to God.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua 14, 8.
SPEAKER_01: I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua 14 9, Moses says this about Caleb the land in which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord your God wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua 14, 14.
SPEAKER_01: So Hebron has belonged to Caleb's son, Jeffany the Kizanite, ever since because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_01: This is the defining characteristic of Caleb's life, a wholehearted commitment to trust God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: Wholehearted doesn't mean Caleb never had a reason to question or doubt.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure he did.
SPEAKER_01: But it means that when his circumstances gave him reason to doubt, and some of you are living that right now, you've got something going on in your life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a strained relationship, a difficulty at work, a financial stress, something that is giving you reason to doubt God.
SPEAKER_01: And no doubt Caleb had moments where he wondered, is God going to fulfill his promise?
SPEAKER_01: The wholehearted trust doesn't mean you never wrestle with doubt, it means you refuse to let your doubts have the final word over what God has said.
SPEAKER_01: Caleb interpreted his entire life through the lens of God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said, the Lord has kept me, the Lord is helping me.
SPEAKER_01: Year after year, this is how it's done.
SPEAKER_01: He keeps bringing his heart, his whole heart back to God, setting his mind on the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what sustained his wholehearted devotion.
SPEAKER_01: This is what enabled him at 85 years old to stand in front of Joshua and say, God has given me a promise, and I'm going to step into that promise.
SPEAKER_01: I do think one of the greatest dangers facing the church today is not an outright rejection of Jesus, but it's a half-hearted devotion to him.
SPEAKER_01: We want enough of Jesus to be saved, but not enough of Jesus to surrender every area of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And it shows up when things like church attendance becomes optional, when giving to the mission becomes negotiable, and when our public faith looks different than our private lives.
SPEAKER_01: Not Caleb.
SPEAKER_01: He was whole-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: People who finish well keep returning their whole heart to the faithfulness of God until over years and decades their love for him becomes deeper than weaker.
SPEAKER_01: And I get it, the wholeheartedness is not always easy.
SPEAKER_01: I certainly walk through seasons where it's, if I'm honest, I'm not wholehearted in my commitment and devotion to God and trust of his promises.
SPEAKER_01: I do, and I don't know, maybe probably you do too.
SPEAKER_01: It becomes especially difficult when we look out to the future and we see some giants in.
SPEAKER_01: The land.
SPEAKER_01: We see some difficulties coming down.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard for us to see that preferable future unfold.
SPEAKER_01: And so we struggle to be devoted to God with our whole hearts.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what Caleb does?
SPEAKER_01: We see it right here in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Caleb calls to mind the way in which God has worked in his past.
SPEAKER_01: And what it does is it sets his heart, his whole heart on God's promise in the present.
SPEAKER_01: This is point number two.
SPEAKER_01: We remember what God has done for you.
SPEAKER_01: How do you stay faithful till the end?
SPEAKER_01: You remember what God has done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Now then, just as the Lord promised, Caleb's speaking here, he has kept me alive for 45 years.
SPEAKER_01: What has God done?
SPEAKER_01: He's kept me alive.
SPEAKER_01: As he's promised.
SPEAKER_01: So here I am today.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder how many of you have that story.
SPEAKER_01: Like you think back on your life and some moments of complexity and difficulty where you were struggling and you didn't know you were going to make it through, but you chose in the moment to trust God and He led you through.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe the line for you today in this moment, if you're giving witness to that, is here I am today.
SPEAKER_01: 85 years old, Caleb says he is.
SPEAKER_01: I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want that to be true about you when you're 85?
SPEAKER_01: I am as strong or stronger today than I was 45 years ago, and I am ready for battle.
SPEAKER_01: When we doubt in the face of an uncertain future, we're all tempted to wonder whether or not God's going to keep his promises.
SPEAKER_01: Caleb is responding differently in this moment, and before he looks ahead to the giants in the land that is his to possess, he looks back to the 45 years of God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: He remembers that God has kept him then.
SPEAKER_01: The same God who's kept him then is the one who's going to keep him now.
SPEAKER_01: And this is true for us.
SPEAKER_01: When our future feels uncertain, and some of you are facing an uncertain future.
SPEAKER_01: Those of you that have young kids, I mean, it's difficult now.
SPEAKER_01: And you're looking out and talking to your friends that have teenagers, and you're like, I don't know if we're going to make it.
SPEAKER_01: That's very normal.
SPEAKER_01: You look out on an uncertain future in your career.
SPEAKER_01: And for most people, the instinct is to panic and to worry and to wonder whether or not God is going to come through.
SPEAKER_01: But Caleb teaches us another way.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of fixating on what could happen and go wrong, we look back and remember what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: We go, oh yes, I can trust God today because he was faithful yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: We look back on the way he sustained us and provided for us and carried us through into these seasons that we never thought we would survive.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to tell you a story of my own life.
SPEAKER_01: So Jeannie and I on August 21st of this month, we're going to celebrate 27 years of marriage.
SPEAKER_01: 27 years.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you, we love each other a lot.
SPEAKER_01: If there's ever an instance where I have to leave during the morning and I'll be like, baby, I can't wait to see you later in the day.
SPEAKER_01: We love each other a lot and we love our kids, they're fine, but they're going to get out of the house, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: We love each other a lot.
SPEAKER_01: 27 years ago, a little over 27 years ago, in January of 1999, we'd been dating for about a year, and I knew that I was going to marry this girl.
SPEAKER_01: I made, as an intern at a church,$7,000 a year.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't a lot of money back then.
SPEAKER_01: It's certainly not a lot of money today.
SPEAKER_01: It might get you lunch at Jason's Delhi, but I knew I wanted to marry her, and I remembered that God had promised to take care of me and the needs.
SPEAKER_01: So I needed an engagement ring.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have enough, I had saved up a little money.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have a whole lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: But I I thought, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna step.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a jeweler in the church where I worked at at the time, and she had a little shop in her house, and she said, Why don't you come over and look at some rings?
SPEAKER_01: And so I went over there and I found the one, you know, the one that I was like, this is the one I want her to wear our entire marriage.
SPEAKER_01: $7,200 is what it cost.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have$7,200.
SPEAKER_01: I fell short of that, and I had saved up some money for a ring and a honeymoon, and I left honestly feeling discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: I can remember it like it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: I felt discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: But on the way home, I just remembered the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: Russell, I'm gonna take care of you.
SPEAKER_01: I've taken care of you up to this point.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take care of you.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, God, I don't know how you're gonna do it, but I I just I am choosing to trust you because I'm gonna marry this woman.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna make the biggest decisions of my life based on how much money I have in the checking account.
SPEAKER_01: Tuck that one away.
SPEAKER_01: The next day, no kidding, less than 24 hours later, I got a call from a mentor who said that there was a family in the church that wanted to buy, they had heard about this little thing going on with me wanting to marry Jeannie.
SPEAKER_01: They knew about Jeannie and I.
SPEAKER_01: And they decided that they were gonna pay for the ring that I was going to give to Jeannie to propose marriage.
SPEAKER_01: That actually happened.
SPEAKER_01: That's a real story.
SPEAKER_01: On August 21st, when Jeannie and I stood on that stage.
SPEAKER_01: And since then, every time I see that ring, I'm reminded of something much bigger than a piece of jewelry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reminded that God has faithful to keep his promises.
SPEAKER_01: I look back on that story as I over the years, with each child that we've had, and we've not had quite enough money, and just said, God, you provided before.
SPEAKER_01: I want to trust that you're gonna provide right now, and he has.
SPEAKER_01: I look back on a story like that and so many others.
SPEAKER_01: And when we launched out to plant this church a little over 15 years ago, we had very little money in the bank.
SPEAKER_01: I said, God, you provided then.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're gonna provide now, and he has.
SPEAKER_01: I think about that story as I look into the next chapter of this church's life as we go back to the council and take on some more financial responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: I go, you know what, God, you've provided for this church for 15 years.
SPEAKER_01: You provided for us as we built our family for 22 years, you you provided for our marriage for 27 years.
SPEAKER_01: You've done it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking back, and so I want to believe your promise today that you're gonna take care of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's how it's done.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've remained faithful to Jesus because I'm unusually optimistic or I'm super spiritually strong.
SPEAKER_01: I think a reason that I remained faithful, and I hope to do so for the rest of my life, is that I keep looking back at the ways that God has fulfilled his promise, and you can too.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Caleb's doing.
SPEAKER_01: 45 years later, he's not living off yesterday's experience, much of which was he's not focusing on the difficulties yesterday's experience.
SPEAKER_01: He's he's thinking about how God has been faithful and that knows that even as he faces some giants out ahead, that God has taken care of them before, he'll do it again.
SPEAKER_01: And those memories become fuel for today's faith.
SPEAKER_01: And now in the story, he's ready to trust God with the next chapter.
SPEAKER_01: This land that has been promised to him by God through Moses, this land Hebron, is still filled with enemies and giants.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, for a life of faithfulness, we trust God with what comes next, even though we don't know how it's all going to play out.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to his words in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.
SPEAKER_01: You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, everybody here knows, Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: As I, Caleb, step into this promise.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody here knows that the future is uncertain.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to these words, the Lord is helping me, and I choose to believe it.
SPEAKER_01: I'll drive them out just as God said.
SPEAKER_01: He asked for Hebron, the very region that maybe he shouldn't have, but he knew God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: This was his land.
SPEAKER_01: This place, this location that had become a symbol of Israel's unbelief now becomes the place where Caleb's wholehearted faith in God's promise is put on display.
SPEAKER_01: What a witness.
SPEAKER_01: How do we remain faithful until the end?
SPEAKER_01: We remember God's promises, we look back on how God has worked, and then we choose today to trust for what's next.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you one-a story about a woman in the history of this church.
SPEAKER_01: Her name is Mary Miller.
SPEAKER_01: You might most of you don't know Mary Miller.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you that were here at that time would know her.
SPEAKER_01: You might know her son, who's a very well-known business consultant.
SPEAKER_01: His name's Donald Miller.
SPEAKER_01: He also was an author, wrote a bunch of books, Blue Light Jazz, if you're familiar with that book, kind of what put him on the map.
SPEAKER_01: So when we were starting this church, Mary was the oldest person that committed to help us.
SPEAKER_01: And I still remember her saying, I don't know if you want an old lady, but I feel like I'm supposed to help you start this church.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we we wanted her.
SPEAKER_01: Well, of course we did.
SPEAKER_01: And she didn't just cheer from the sidelines, she showed up week after week.
SPEAKER_01: She helped set up chairs, she greeted new people, she served with our kids, and occasionally, whether or not I asked for it, she gave me feedback on my sermon.
SPEAKER_01: From our very first Sunday in January 2011, Mary was a part of the church, and then for the next four years until her death in September of 2015, she just kept showing up faithful, finishing well.
SPEAKER_01: The day before Mary died, I was with her in the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: She laid in that hospital bed.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody knew it was coming to an end.
SPEAKER_01: She was unresponsive.
SPEAKER_01: But I held her hand.
SPEAKER_01: And I just sang hymns to her.
SPEAKER_01: Which I just want to go on record.
SPEAKER_01: Do not request that I come sing songs for you when you die.
SPEAKER_01: Because I think actually it's one thing that accelerated her death.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so I held her hand and I sang to her.
SPEAKER_01: And at one point, as I'm leaning over and I'm just holding her hand and I'm just singing amazing grace.
SPEAKER_01: How sweet the sound.
SPEAKER_01: Saved a wretch like me.
SPEAKER_01: I say, I say, Mary, has God been faithful to you till the end?
SPEAKER_01: And she squeezed my hand.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Mary, has God been faithful to you to fulfill his promises?
SPEAKER_00: Squeeze my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Her body with almost no strength left.
SPEAKER_01: She couldn't set up another chair or work with the kids or greet the guests.
SPEAKER_01: She couldn't even answer with words, but she was still testifying to the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: She's approaching the uncertain future of inevitable death and still giving witness to the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want for you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to grow old so wholeheartedly trusting God's promise that when you reach the end of your life, you can trust Him with what comes next, even death itself.
SPEAKER_01: This is Caleb, 85 years old, still giants in front of him, 45 years of experiencing difficulty, remaining faithful and just declaring the Lord is helping me.
SPEAKER_01: And so the story goes that Joshua blesses Caleb, gives him his inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: God fulfills his promise.
SPEAKER_01: He does exactly what he said he would do.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, here's the thing about Joshua 14 the story is not about Caleb.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about me.
SPEAKER_01: It's about God.
SPEAKER_01: God is the hero.
SPEAKER_01: God will do what he says he will do.
SPEAKER_01: What we get to choose to do is to trust his promises, to hold close to our heart the times in which God has been faithful to us, to in the periods where the future seems uncertain, to choose to believe that God is capable and faithful to carry us through.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's interesting is this story begins to come to an end, and we think about the inheritance of this land.
SPEAKER_01: This land is actually, as an inheritance, a foreshadow of a greater inheritance that's available to you, to me.
SPEAKER_01: The same God who gave Caleb this land that he promised him has fulfilled a promise made to us through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we can spend a lifetime trusting him.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we remain faithful for decades?
SPEAKER_01: How do we grow old with a deeper love for Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: How do we continue trusting him when life is hard, when prayers seem unanswered, when we grow weary or distracted or discouraged, we do as Caleb did, we keep returning and choosing to trust that God will fulfill his promise.
SPEAKER_01: He is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Every day we get to remind ourselves that because of Jesus, our greatest inheritance, not a place of land, not a parcel of land, our greatest inheritance, which is eternity with God because of Christ, is secured through his perfect life, his death on the cross, and his resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has purchased for us forgiveness, adopted us into God's family, guaranteeing an inheritance that can never perish for spoil or fade.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is not sustained by trying harder, it's sustained by trusting deeper the promises of God through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Day after day, year after year, decade after decade, we remember what the Lord has said.
SPEAKER_01: We remember how the Lord has kept us.
SPEAKER_01: We depend on the Lord for what comes next.
SPEAKER_01: And one day, if God gives us more years, our bodies will become weaker, our pace may become slower.
SPEAKER_01: But by God's grace, our confidence in Christ will be stronger than ever.
SPEAKER_01: Church, that is my prayer for every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: Decades from now, when someone asks, How have you remained faithful all those years?
SPEAKER_01: Our answer sounds remarkably like Caleb's.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what the Lord said.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what the Lord has done.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you how I'm trusting God for what's next.
SPEAKER_01: Because the people who finish well never get over the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together and think about these things.
SPEAKER_01: Just with your head bowed, would you consider for a moment where you might be doubting God?
SPEAKER_01: My call to action to you is will you choose to trust him even though the future is uncertain?
SPEAKER_01: Even though you feel some discouragement, will you make a decision today, in this moment, to trust God with your whole heart?
SPEAKER_01: For those of you that are here that have never trusted Christ for salvation, you could simply say to God, God, I have sinned against you.
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I want to follow Jesus for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And if you say that from your heart, then there's a mysterious exchange where your sin goes to Jesus and it's paid for on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: His righteousness is given to you so that God looks at you and no longer sees enemy but sees friend.
SPEAKER_01: You can be made at peace with God today.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's a decision that you made that we want to know, so we can encourage you along the way, you can use that Connect card to communicate that to us.
SPEAKER_01: For all of us.
SPEAKER_01: May we be the kind of people, may we be the kind of church filled with people whose story is trusting God with our whole hearts, believing in his promise, not just for this week, but for months and years and decades to come until the very end.
SPEAKER_01: May our love for Jesus grow and grow.
SPEAKER_01: May our witness become so strong and compelling to those that live without hope.
SPEAKER_01: God Almighty, your word has come into my heart like a roaring line this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that it would come into this church in the same way.
SPEAKER_01: God, may we be the kind of people who choose to trust you even when our present is bringing with it some discouragement, even when our future is uncertain.
SPEAKER_01: God, we will trust you.
SPEAKER_01: And God, even as our church steps into a new chapter next week in a new location that we gather on Sunday mornings, God, we trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't exactly know how it's gonna work out, but we trust you.
SPEAKER_01: God, what I do believe that a church filled with people, faithful people, is the witness that this city needs.
SPEAKER_01: So may we be one of those churches in this city.
SPEAKER_01: For your glory and for our good.
SPEAKER_01: And in the name of Jesus, our Savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.