SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what happened to me when I was around turning 40.
SPEAKER_00: Um I was going through a that started like a three-year little bit of a midlife crisis for me.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really know what was happening at the time.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I didn't understand what that was.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't want to get a Corvette.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to go on a yacht.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: None of that was happening.
SPEAKER_00: And that's like what that's what you think of.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but really what had happened is I came to a point where wow, the things I thought that would happen by 40 have not happened yet.
SPEAKER_00: Now, forget about the fact that I've got the the awesomest, dopest wife and kids in the entire universe.
SPEAKER_00: Forget about the fact that I've got an excellent staff here at Fierce, forget about the fact that I've got like the best church ever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not thinking about all that awesome stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just thinking about the stuff in that moment that I didn't get to yet.
SPEAKER_00: And and there's, you know, we do this, we don't mean to, but we compare.
SPEAKER_00: And so I had to look at some of my pastor friends and like, well, I thought, I thought I'd have that by now.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't have it yet.
SPEAKER_00: There was even like God dreams that I feel like this is this is in me from God.
SPEAKER_00: This should be happening.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it wasn't happening yet.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt like that?
SPEAKER_00: Have you felt like somebody else is leveraging all kinds of opportunities and you're like, I don't even have those opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: Why is my dream not coming true?
SPEAKER_00: And we can lose the courage after a while to even keep believing.
SPEAKER_00: Because once you're disappointed, we realize, man, it's more painful to just uh get disappointed than to have never expected anything to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: That's a trick of the enemy, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: But we believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, I'm just not gonna, I'm not gonna trust for big things, I'm not gonna look for big things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say, hey, this is probably just the way it's supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I don't think if I was gonna have a great marriage, that would have happened by now.
SPEAKER_00: If I was gonna get pregnant, that would have happened by now.
SPEAKER_00: If we were gonna get the house, man, that would have happened by now.
SPEAKER_00: And it just didn't.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Forget about it.
SPEAKER_00: And we can get into a place of cynicism and cowardice.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that is, right?
SPEAKER_00: So cowardice just means we don't have the moral, it's really a virtue to step into something frightening when we should.
SPEAKER_00: It looks too scary, and so we just don't.
SPEAKER_00: Cynicism is a little different.
SPEAKER_00: Cynicism is a form of pride.
SPEAKER_00: Cynicism says, I already know what's gonna happen and it's not gonna be good, so forget about it.
SPEAKER_00: Cynical people see through everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they think.
SPEAKER_00: They think, I know how the world really is.
SPEAKER_00: I've been through stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I know how it is.
SPEAKER_00: This is all they they project motives onto people, like, well, you know, they're just a crook or they're just a whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I like this quote that I found from uh Sidney Harris.
SPEAKER_00: A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past.
SPEAKER_00: He is one who prematurely is disappointed in the future.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have any folks that honest man?
SPEAKER_00: If you're honest today, you are sometimes prematurely disappointed in the future.
SPEAKER_00: Good news for us.
SPEAKER_00: We've got some great models in scripture that are gonna teach us what to do when we're feeling a little bit of that cowardice or cynicism.
SPEAKER_00: And the call really is to know we need to dig in and believe and believe there's something beyond this, there's something greater that didn't have to happen already.
SPEAKER_00: We just have to stick to it.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, stick to it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to introduce you real quick to some friends that might even be your friends someday if you trusted Christ, Joshua and Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: These are the two of the 12 spies that went in to spy out the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: As the Israelites arrived at the promised land, Moses said, Hey, here's 12 people.
SPEAKER_00: You guys go in there and find out if it's good.
SPEAKER_00: Like it, we're we've heard from God, it's good, but go see what we need to be thinking about as we go in there.
SPEAKER_00: And there was, it did look great, but 10 of those spies came back and they're like, dude, we can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: There's giants in there.
SPEAKER_00: These are folks that they will slaughter us, man.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get the beat down.
SPEAKER_00: And so these 10 of the 12, they spread this gossip real quick.
SPEAKER_00: And you know how gossip spreads, it spreads like fire.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so now a million and a half people are like, oh my gosh, we're filled with fear.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: But there's two, Joshua and Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Did you see what happened when we just came out of Egypt and all the signs and wonders?
SPEAKER_00: God, did you not remember walking through the sea?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how can you think anybody can stand up to us if our God is with us?
SPEAKER_00: These are the two that really, in some ways, they stood up for God in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord, as a punishment to those who didn't believe, he said, fine, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You don't believe me, you don't trust me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's gonna happen: I'm gonna bring your kids into the promised land, and you're all gonna die off because you didn't trust me.
SPEAKER_00: They'll get to go in.
SPEAKER_00: So you get to wander around this desert for 40 years, and that's really what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you ever feel like you're wandering around a desert for 40 years?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, when are we getting there?
SPEAKER_00: And he promised Joshua and Caleb, you guys are good though.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're gonna live and you're gonna have this land someday because you trusted me.
SPEAKER_00: So now I want to introduce you to.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna meet now, cut 45 years into the future.
SPEAKER_00: Let's meet old man Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he looks like old man Logan.
SPEAKER_00: So just picture that.
SPEAKER_00: Picture Wolverine.
SPEAKER_00: That is in in when in his old form.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's what I think he looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is he's grizzled now.
SPEAKER_00: Like he was once a hero.
SPEAKER_00: He fought the battles of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's really been fighting, fighting the battles of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But we might look at him and be like, dude, you're, but you're old.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're just old, you're 85 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you think is gonna happen here?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think you're going to do?
SPEAKER_00: So Caleb, he's been with everybody all this time, 40 years, five years of fighting, cutting into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They're really getting to the end of the fighting now.
SPEAKER_00: And Caleb sees the land that he was once promised, and he's like, I think I want to go in and get that.
SPEAKER_00: I know those giants are still there.
SPEAKER_00: They're called the Amakim, but I think I could still take them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's listen.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 14, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb, son of Jephunah, the Kennesite, came to Joshua at Gilgal.
SPEAKER_00: Think of a spiritual headquarters.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Gilgal is.
SPEAKER_00: Caleb said to Joshua, Okay, these are the two.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, these are the buddies that like survived and had a great report.
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua, like, he became the leader of the entire nation.
SPEAKER_00: He was the Moses replacement.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're Caleb, sometimes you're looking at people and you're comparing, like, dude, I was one of the ones too, but how'd he get that?
SPEAKER_00: And so he says to Joshua, Remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh Barnea.
SPEAKER_00: This is the geographic place right before they went into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of God, sent me from Kadesh Barnia to explore the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: I returned and gave an honest report, meaning it would not only like that he believed this to be true, but it was a good report.
SPEAKER_00: It was like God is good, he's gonna take care of us.
SPEAKER_00: But my brothers who went with me frightened the people from entering the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: For my part, I wholeheartedly, somebody say wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as you can see, the Lord's kept me alive and well, and he promised for all these 45 years since Moses made this promise, even while Israel wandered in the wilderness, today I'm 85 years old.
SPEAKER_00: I'm as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey.
SPEAKER_00: I can still travel and fight as well as I could then.
SPEAKER_00: So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me.
SPEAKER_00: You'll remember that as scouts, we found the descendants of Anak living there in the great walled towns.
SPEAKER_00: But if the Lord is with me, I'll drive them out of the land.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the Lord said.
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephuna, and gave Hebron to him as his portion of land.
SPEAKER_00: So he went in and he took it.
SPEAKER_00: Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb, because he wholeheartedly followed the Lord God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: What I want us to get today, guys, is that we can do it.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful to his promises if we will wholeheartedly and courageously take them by faith, the ones that are really God, and keep moving forward, even if it requires long seasons of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Let's review number one, four reminders to those who want everything God has for them.
SPEAKER_00: Four reminders for those who want everything God has for them.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, God saves some dreams for much later.
SPEAKER_00: God saves some dreams for much later.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord kept me alive and well and promised for all these 45 years since Moses made this promise.
SPEAKER_00: God says, Caleb, I've got a promise to fulfill for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta know it doesn't matter how long it seems in coming.
SPEAKER_00: I know it seems like it's postponed, but there's stuff that I still want to do.
SPEAKER_00: You see, my friends, there's stuff I know it didn't happen by the time you were 20, and it didn't happen by the time that you were 30, and it didn't happen by the time that you were 40, and maybe it didn't happen by the time you were 55, and maybe it didn't happen until the time that you by the time that you were 65.
SPEAKER_00: And we just gotta go from God's word and say, there are things that God saves.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, it's for the final chapter.
SPEAKER_00: It's for the last lap.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's like, now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put this right in here.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that God saves some things for much later?
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, it's not that it's not gonna happen, it's not that it couldn't happen, it's just that it wasn't time for it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: This was really confusing to me as I started out, man, because it was right away that I began to feel called to be a pastor and to lead a church, right when I got when I came to the Lord at 18.
SPEAKER_00: And I had all these feelings in me, and people around me, like, yeah, yeah, that's what she should do.
SPEAKER_00: And so you've heard these stories before, but we planted a church, and then that church, after a year, fell apart, it split because I put somebody in charge that was just not a person of integrity, and he made a really big mistake, and so people didn't trust me, and the whole thing just fell apart.
SPEAKER_00: And I was wounded, and my wife and I were like, What the heck just happened?
SPEAKER_00: And then I got sick, and I was sick for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: And so all those years, I'm like, God, what the heck, man?
SPEAKER_00: I felt like you wanted me to do this thing, and now I can't even do it.
SPEAKER_00: And I kept hearing him say over and over, You're gonna be you're gonna lead a church, you're gonna do a church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, God, I'm working at this stupid factory and I'm delivering pizzas.
SPEAKER_00: I am not doing a church.
SPEAKER_00: What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And he it got to the point, you've heard me say this before, it got to the point where I was like, God, I don't want to hear about the church anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're just so wounded, we're so like discouraged, we say, I don't want to hear that promise because then I might believe it and then I might be disappointed again.
SPEAKER_00: But God dreamed, God saves some of his God-inspired dreams for much later, and it was 10 years later when we finally, God actually again talked me back into a little sternly um planting a church.
SPEAKER_00: At every stage of our lives, this is the truth that God wants us to believe.
SPEAKER_00: God can still move.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let me say that to your spirit because I don't think that you got it yet.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, wherever you really are right now, like think about your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Now, hear this.
SPEAKER_00: God can still move.
SPEAKER_00: God is not limited by anything.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that He's gonna be, He's not limited by your age, He's not limited by your qualifications.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us is a candidate for yet another blessing chapter.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to have the spirit of Caleb on us, dressed and ready, read to go.
SPEAKER_00: If it's 45 years later, here's number two.
SPEAKER_00: God preserves his promise for those who will believe forward when others are shrinking back.
SPEAKER_00: They'll believe forward while others are shrinking back.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what Caleb and Joshua did, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're believing forward.
SPEAKER_00: No, we can do this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that everyone else couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: And the and it says he followed God wholeheartedly.
SPEAKER_00: That means he's got, it doesn't mean he's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It means he's got complete loyalty and confidence and trust in.
SPEAKER_00: Now, like it's not that we can do it, but God could do it.
SPEAKER_00: If we'll just trust God, God can do it.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to jump back in time now.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna go back to that day when they had just gone in and you know, the report is spreading, hey, we can't do this because those guys are giants and they'll just slaughter us.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: This is back in Numbers.
SPEAKER_00: Two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua, son of Nan, and Caleb, son of Jephunnah, tore their clothing.
SPEAKER_00: They said to all the people of Israel, The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land.
SPEAKER_00: And if the Lord is pleased with us, he'll bring us safely into that land and give it to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's rich, it's a rich land flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: Do not rebel against the Lord and don't be afraid of the people of the land.
SPEAKER_00: They're only helpless prey to us.
SPEAKER_00: They have no protection, but the Lord is with us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of them.
SPEAKER_00: If you're afraid, you won't take any initiative.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say initiative.
SPEAKER_00: You won't take any initiative because if you're always looking backwards, if you're looking back at what happened and what or maybe what didn't happen, then it's easy to just wave the flag of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: I say, I give up.
SPEAKER_00: There's no use doing any of this.
SPEAKER_00: But if we're looking forward and our eyes are on our God, people will say, Hey man, don't do not do that.
SPEAKER_00: There's giants in that land.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know about the giants?
SPEAKER_00: See, when you really know your God, you're like, so what?
SPEAKER_00: So what, giants?
SPEAKER_00: You must not know my God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care about giants.
SPEAKER_00: I'm believing God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they say.
SPEAKER_00: They say, I'm believing God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going God's way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna trust that God is fine with giants.
SPEAKER_00: He can do anything he wants with them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna trust that just because it's hard ground doesn't mean it's the wrong ground.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Just because it's hard ground doesn't mean it's the wrong ground.
SPEAKER_00: God can, even when there's giants in the land, and God gets more glory when there's giants in the land.
SPEAKER_00: If we can't do it ourselves, and it must be God, then who gets who gets the credit?
SPEAKER_00: God does.
SPEAKER_00: Caleb had kingdom ambition, and that gave him initiative.
SPEAKER_00: He was like, dude, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't, the Lord has strengthened me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel young, so let's go do this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we all need this kingdom initiative, especially when it comes to spiritual matters.
SPEAKER_00: There was um years, years back, okay, so now we're going in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Now that church has split and crumbled, and now my wife and I are alone, we're a little bit jaded because we're like, when we loved all these people and they abandoned us, and and after a while, like it was great because we worked on our marriage, and like that was there was a lot of like great alone time together, great alone time with God.
SPEAKER_00: But we began to see, man, we are just where are the Christians, man?
SPEAKER_00: We are alone.
SPEAKER_00: Like we couldn't find a people to like stick with, we couldn't find folks that we felt like were our people.
SPEAKER_00: There's no one of like our age.
SPEAKER_00: And so we just kept looking and we found this sweet little poor couple.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, I would tell you, this is where the best you in community really like had to stick for us because we would have dinner with them.
SPEAKER_00: Like we we reached out to them really, not because there was anything we had in common.
SPEAKER_00: We reached out because we just know we're dopes if we don't get in community.
SPEAKER_00: So we just have to do this somehow.
SPEAKER_00: And we sit there and we have dinner together, and we'd be like, Well, I like to do this.
SPEAKER_00: What do you like to do?
SPEAKER_00: And they'd be like, I like to do the exact opposite of everything that you like to do.
SPEAKER_00: Like we just go round and around the table, man.
SPEAKER_00: Like we just couldn't connect on anything.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, yeah, gosh, this is hard, man.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there was something I think that God blessed.
SPEAKER_00: There was something that he said, hey, um, because you took the initiative, it's not even that he blessed that friendship because ultimately he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a blessing, it was blessing because it was a smart thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: I think he blessed it later because there was initiative to just know, I can't do this on my own.
SPEAKER_00: I need to go after it.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you are a younger person, teenager or young adult, and you're wrestling with this initiative thing, I just recommend a book called Start by John Acuff.
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of a Christian comedian-ish guy, but he's really funny.
SPEAKER_00: And but this book, it'll get you going, man.
SPEAKER_00: It'll get you stirred up to like, let's start this thing upright.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you have been praying for your school and nothing is changing yet.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, God, when is it gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have been studying the Bible and you're like, I thought by now I'd be hearing God every day, and I'd always feel the feels.
SPEAKER_00: It might not work quite like that, but you're getting discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: It might be that some of us right now, you have a God birthed dream in your heart, and it's just easy to just let that go.
SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, let it go down the river and don't look back.
SPEAKER_00: Because all that does is it makes me remember what hasn't happened and what I wished would have happened by now.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, it's hard to have emotional energy to have a conversation with our spouse because we're just gonna go around and around the same dumb problems and no one's gonna say anything, and we might even say something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So I just don't want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's scary to think about all those things because those are anakim in the land.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, Don't come in here, don't engage, don't keep going.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna say, no, in Jesus' name, I will not fear the giants, I will go right in.
SPEAKER_00: Here's number three: God strengthens people to do what he's asking them to do.
SPEAKER_00: He strengthens people to do what he's asking them to do.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised all these 45 years.
SPEAKER_00: God sustains what he commands and he fuels what he calls for.
SPEAKER_00: If it's really God, he'll give you the supernatural strength.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's important, like Caleb was strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: No, dude, nobody can just like be ready to go in a battle like that and be 85 unless God is supernaturally causing them to be healthy and have clarity and do all that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a miracle that God is doing this, but I just want us to know it wasn't like Caleb had an ambition to just like, I'm just an ambitious person, I just want to do this.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is what God promised him.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, his his initiative was based on God made this promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just that I'm ambitious.
SPEAKER_00: I have kingdom ambition, but God made the promise.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I step forward, and that's why I trust that he will strengthen me because God doesn't promise to strengthen us for just any old thing.
SPEAKER_00: He promises to strengthen the things that he called for.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what that means: that means in the the hard day when you're dealing with someone that's like, oh my gosh, I can't just I just can't deal with this.
SPEAKER_00: You're at work and it's just piling on.
SPEAKER_00: I just can't keep going.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we say, Lord, you promised me your strengths, and I'm asking for it.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you the first time this really like came clear to me, it's a little bit embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I was working at a Christian camp, I was probably 19, and I was on like the program team, which meant for the kids, we did all the shows and we did all the music.
SPEAKER_00: And so one day it's my job to be the California raisin.
SPEAKER_00: If we got that raisin picture, let's see that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I gotta put this thing on.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you see that, that's inside.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the real picture of me, but that was what exactly what it looked like.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's inside.
SPEAKER_00: I was in 90 degree weather wearing this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and I'm behind the stage and I'm starting to like feel woozy, like it's about I'm about I'm about to go out.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, gosh, I don't know if I can do this.
SPEAKER_00: Holy cow, I'm tired.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I decided right in that moment, let's see if God can keep his promise.
SPEAKER_00: Because he said um he would strengthen me in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He would provide all the strength that I need.
SPEAKER_00: Well, God, this is your vision.
SPEAKER_00: Like you want me, I guess, to be a raisin, but you really you want me to help these kids.
SPEAKER_00: I know that you can strengthen me, strengthen me now.
SPEAKER_00: Because I went out there and I felt as I went into it, I felt the strength of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's possible I probably also should have just drinking a lot of water.
SPEAKER_00: That was probably true too.
SPEAKER_00: And thank God I was young, so it it didn't matter too much.
SPEAKER_00: But that is an experience that we can all have.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not, it's not a one-time thing, it's not just the time that you're backstage about to go to do the thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a posture of life.
SPEAKER_00: It is always like, God, this is too much for me.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: And that's different than having confidence in ourselves to be able to pull it off.
SPEAKER_00: So when the work is piling up, when you've got a relational tension with somebody who's like, oh, I can't even deal with this today.
SPEAKER_00: When you've got one more thing that, oh, now I gotta go pick this up and now I gotta run this kid over there, and it's all just coming to the front that we say, God, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: Give me your strength.
SPEAKER_00: I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.
SPEAKER_00: God, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: But he wants us to admit that we can't do it before he empowers us by the Holy Spirit that he will do it.
SPEAKER_00: So when the bills are coming in this month, yo, and you don't have a backup plan, and there's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: When you're a single parent, and so that means you're kind of mom and dad a lot of the time, and you don't feel like you're doing either of them particularly well.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Jesus, I need your strength right now.
SPEAKER_00: When you are getting emotionally and almost out of control and you're gonna be anything but gentle, that's when Jesus, I need your strength right now because I'm about to misrepresent you.
SPEAKER_00: When you feel like you're the one who's carrying everybody else, and no one's really ever carrying you.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we say, Jesus, okay, help me not feel sorry for myself.
SPEAKER_00: Help me surrender to that, and in Jesus' name, strengthen me now.
SPEAKER_00: Help me, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Caleb is our model of.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to the fourth point.
SPEAKER_00: God rewards long-term faithfulness with fulfilled promises.
SPEAKER_00: He rewards long-term faithfulness with fulfilled promises.
SPEAKER_00: There's a pattern that we see in scripture, if you pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Happens to Abraham, happens to uh Joseph, happens to Moses, happens to David, it happens to like all the all the folks.
SPEAKER_00: There's a promise, a delay, and then the reward.
SPEAKER_00: There's a promise, hey, I'm God, you're gonna do this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's a delay, oh, it's not happening at all.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the opposite of happening is happening.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Moses and I have to flee Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Joseph and I get stuck in this dungeon.
SPEAKER_00: I'm uh David and I'm being chased by this king who's trying to murder me.
SPEAKER_00: And there's always this, there's this difficult, there's so what I'm saying is, guys, if you're if you're in the delay right now, if you're like, oh my gosh, this sucks.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is horrible.
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe I'm even in this.
SPEAKER_00: Consider that's a great place to be, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: Because you are in the company of the Hebrews 11 people.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Hebrews 11 is?
SPEAKER_00: It's the hall of faith, a lot of folks call it.
SPEAKER_00: The writer of Hebrews, he just goes through this Old Testament list, and then even some into the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, All these people, they were believing God, and they're like our heroes, but they didn't necessarily get everything that they were believing for, at least in their lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land, that God would give him as his inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: He went without knowing where he was going.
SPEAKER_00: Drop down to verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child.
SPEAKER_00: Though she was barren and was too old, she believed that God would keep his promise.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We patiently, wherever you are, if you're in the middle right there, if you are in the delay, we patiently keep moving forward.
SPEAKER_00: We recognize um my job is to obey what I know in the season that I'm in, and I'll trust God to work it out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes, I gotta be honest with you, it feels like nothing is happening at all.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where you have to, that's where we have to trust and believe.
SPEAKER_00: My obedience right now is paving the way to what's gonna go right later.
SPEAKER_00: My investment in people right now is what God is going to reward later on.
SPEAKER_00: My choice to do what everyone else says I'm nuts to do, but I feel like God really wants me to do it, that's gonna pave the way for much later.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he's the best pattern of this.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Think about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Think about is he sitting there, is he he's standing, he's as he's there being murdered.
SPEAKER_00: If you're watching this, if you're one of the disciples, you're like, wow, this whole thing didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: We sure trusted that this was he was gonna be the like the way and he was gonna usher in the kingdom of God, and now they're putting him to death, and he's not even doing anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're a little worried they're gonna kill us next.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking this did not work because it seems like a death.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the delay might feel like sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: It even might be a literal death, but in most cases, there's something that has to die, there's something that has to fall away in order for us to take the next step, in order for us to become who we're supposed to become.
SPEAKER_00: I've told the story, but just remember that not everyone's heard it, so it helps.
SPEAKER_00: There was a moment in my sickness, taking my daughter and my dog for a little walk.
SPEAKER_00: She was probably two years old, uh, and we're walking around the apartment complex.
SPEAKER_00: And I've just been sick and been sick, and I get probably three-fourths of the way back to the front door, and I just fall down and I can't get up.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just laying there.
SPEAKER_00: And that was a little bit of how it worked with me.
SPEAKER_00: Like I would just get really, really tired and just had to lay down.
SPEAKER_00: And and so I'm just laying there, and I felt like guys, something broke off of me.
SPEAKER_00: Like some something fell away.
SPEAKER_00: Like it was almost physical.
SPEAKER_00: And I just had this peace and excitement and acceptance in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God, I don't need anything.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to be a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to have my dreams come true.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I like just having my daughter and my dog right now.
SPEAKER_00: This is good.
SPEAKER_00: I will lay here on this sidewalk.
SPEAKER_00: If this is what you want, I'll lay here all day.
SPEAKER_00: If you want me to die here, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: There was something, there was some surrender that had happened after these four point two five years of me being sick.
SPEAKER_00: There's some surrender of like, oh, God doesn't need me at all.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't need me at all.
SPEAKER_00: Everything he gives me is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: That pattern repeated as the years went on.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning there was a death, there was a relationship we had to lose, there was a risk we had to take that might be super costly.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is for you, but it might be if and deaths hurt, dude.
SPEAKER_00: It might hurt really bad.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so sorry that it hurts.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just challenge you?
SPEAKER_00: Try not to run.
SPEAKER_00: Make it, make it through.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a resurrection on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's a resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And really, I mean, there's a resurrection on some levels for Caleb.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because when he was 40 and they tried to go into the promised land, it just didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Some some other folks messed it up, and now he doesn't get to go in.
SPEAKER_00: And so for 45 years, he gets to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a death to that dream at 40, but God fulfills that dream for him at 85.
SPEAKER_00: Because God always knew about it.
SPEAKER_00: God always knew it was coming.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Carter, well, what about if I've got some things that I really think are supposed to happen and they don't happen, and then I die?
SPEAKER_00: There's a gal in our church who asked me that while she was dying.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, you know, I don't know what happened.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I feel like God told me certain things were gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't see it happening.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm, I mean, she knew she's gonna die any day.
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like the Lord just laid on my heart for her.
SPEAKER_00: There are things, because we're we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and he really communicates to us.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're not just imagining things, he's really laying things on our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's true, he's the down payment on heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's here's a little, here's a little drop of God to stay with you on earth.
SPEAKER_00: You get the whole thing when you get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But because you have the drop, you're gonna get things sometimes of like, here's what God wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some great things that are up ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes those are things about the future that you invested in.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and they're gonna happen, but you get to watch it from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's great seats.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And there's others, I mean, I believe this.
SPEAKER_00: Think about heaven, think about what the Bible teaches us about heaven.
SPEAKER_00: In heaven, we have jobs, in heaven, we have responsibilities, we have relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It's earth just new and improved in the presence of God all the time.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God may be telling you about stuff that is gonna happen in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You only get a glimmer of it right now, but you're gonna be the same person when you cross over that line, it's just gonna all come in living color.
SPEAKER_00: And so don't be discouraged just because you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is this?
SPEAKER_00: Is God crazy?
SPEAKER_00: Am I crazy?
SPEAKER_00: No, you ain't crazy.
SPEAKER_00: God is being faithful to you, and he's so awesome.
SPEAKER_00: He wants He wants you to be the confidant of the Lord, and He's gonna share certain things with you, and you just gotta trust Him.
SPEAKER_00: It will happen the right way.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a hundred years after you're already gone and you don't know how that rippled down, or maybe it's a hundred years after you're There and there's some important thing that he wants you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is, but I know this no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human mind has conceived the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: We can't imagine it, dude.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be so, so, so, so good.
SPEAKER_00: So we got a choice today.
SPEAKER_00: Some dreams they're just for much later.
SPEAKER_00: But we know that God completes and brings to pass every promise, and on the way, he will strengthen us if we ask for it and lose confidence in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And like Caleb, he will reward it in perfect timing whenever that is.
SPEAKER_00: We've just got to decide today, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta keep going.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's giants in your land.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, you're God, He specializes in giants.
SPEAKER_00: He that's not a problem for him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to suggest to some is it possible there's a dream that needs to reawaken?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something that you were saying no to?
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I don't see how there's no way now.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm too old.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't too old.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't dead yet.
SPEAKER_00: There's still time.
SPEAKER_00: God can do stuff, God can flip the whole world upside down.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ask your permission, he'll just do it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what he's gonna do, but whatever he's gonna do, he's gonna do all things well and it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna want to be found trusting him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's something that needs redeemed, there's something that went wrong, and you're like, I really thought God was gonna fix this and he didn't fix it yet.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how he might fix it.
SPEAKER_00: But don't count God out.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: Keep going, keep believing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, for some, even healing.
SPEAKER_00: They're waiting on healing, and they're like, What?
SPEAKER_00: When is this?
SPEAKER_00: They don't even want to believe anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for that healing and I pray you'd sustain them and give them strength as they go.
SPEAKER_00: God, there's cries of people's hearts.
SPEAKER_00: There's gems that they feel like are from you and they're wondering what is up with this.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you bring perseverance?
SPEAKER_00: Would you bring discernment?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help them, everyone within the sound of my voice, help them know the next step.
SPEAKER_00: Not the whole plan, not the whole way, just the next step.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to admit together there's so many things we can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: We can't.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying, Lord, that you would remind us in those moments to stop, admit that we can't do it, and cry out to you, God, strengthen me now.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it.
SPEAKER_00: Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel.
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out.
SPEAKER_00: Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.