Speaker 1: I want to before I get into the message.
Speaker 1: As we were down here, we were just worshiping and praying and Alyssa stepped up and just encouraged us and she stepped out of their comfort zone and lead us.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, as we were down there, the Lord just kind of highlighted in my spirit that as we were leading, the people that were leading us in worship with Pastor Caleb were all Gen Z people this morning.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's amazing and here's why.
Speaker 1: Here's why I believe that.
Speaker 1: Really, two things.
Speaker 1: I believe that the next generation, gen Z, gen Alpha, is not just the next leaders, they're the now leaders.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And I saw this week I was reading in a study that said that Gen Z they just did the largest study of Gen Z on them and their characteristics and what they're all about really in light of religion, and this research said that they were more open to the gospel than any other generation that has ever come behind them, any other.
Speaker 1: They polled 50,000 Gen Zers and asked them where they were at in terms of religion and they said they were more open than any other.
Speaker 1: They pulled 50,000 Gen Zers and asked them where they were at in terms of religion and they said they were more open than any other.
Speaker 1: How many know we need to lean in to the next gen, the Gen Z, the Gen Alpha, all of them in our church?
Speaker 1: How many all believe that?
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Will you do this?
Speaker 1: Will you stand with me this morning?
Speaker 1: Will you stand with me for God's word?
Speaker 1: Pastor Jeremy has labeled 2025 as the year of.
Speaker 1: Come on, say it louder the year of.
Speaker 1: We're gonna continue that thought this morning.
Speaker 1: We've been looking at different keys as we are crossing over into the thing that God has for you in 2025.
Speaker 1: Let me just ask you this how many are believing for great things in 2025?
Speaker 1: How many are believing for some promises in 2025?
Speaker 1: We're going to look this morning.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a moment.
Speaker 1: We're going to continue in the book of Joshua that we've been looking at.
Speaker 1: We're going to go to Joshua, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: If you've got your Bible, go to Joshua, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: We're going to get into God's word today.
Speaker 1: Joshua chapter 14, just to kind of give you a little bit of context before I read this, we're going to read for just a moment.
Speaker 1: Joshua 14 is a conversation between Joshua and Caleb.
Speaker 1: Everybody say Caleb, caleb, and what is happening in this conversation in Joshua chapter 14 is Joshua and Caleb are kind of looking back at what God has done.
Speaker 1: I want to know it's important for times in our life that we stop and we look back at what God has done.
Speaker 1: But it's also a conversation in Joshua chapter 14 about what God is going to do.
Speaker 1: So they're taking a moment here and they're looking back at what God has done, but they're also taking a moment to look forward to what God will do.
Speaker 1: And here's in Joshua chapter 14, we're going to start in verse six, joshua chapter 14, verse six, and it says now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal and Caleb said to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and the Kenizzite said to him you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, at Kadesh Barnea, about you and me.
Speaker 1: So Caleb's talking to Joshua in this moment about what happened when Moses commissioned them out.
Speaker 1: He says I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land and I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear.
Speaker 1: I, however, followed the Lord, my God, wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: I followed the Lord, my God, wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: In verse 9,.
Speaker 1: So on that day, moses swore to me the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed me, the Lord, my God, wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: Now then, just as the Lord promised wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years, since the time he said this to Moses and while Israel moved about in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: So here I am today and I want you to catch this 85 years old Caleb's saying God gave me the promise.
Speaker 1: And I'm standing here at 85, still believing the promise.
Speaker 1: Verse 11,.
Speaker 1: I want you to hear this.
Speaker 1: He says this is Caleb talking.
Speaker 1: I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out, as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.
Speaker 1: Can I read that again?
Speaker 1: I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.
Speaker 1: I'm just as vigorous to go to battle.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: Give me this hill country.
Speaker 1: Other translations say give me this mountain.
Speaker 1: The Lord promised me that day.
Speaker 1: You yourself heard that the Antichites were there.
Speaker 1: Their cities were large and they were fortified, but the Lord helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said, verse 13,.
Speaker 1: Then Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.
Speaker 1: In this series, we've been looking at different keys to crossing over.
Speaker 1: We've looked at patience, we've looked at habits, we've looked at worship, and today we're going to look at the key of faith.
Speaker 1: Everybody say faith, but not just any type of faith.
Speaker 1: I want to look at faith from a little bit of a different perspective.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to look at faith for the long haul, faith for the long haul.
Speaker 1: I want you to turn to one person around you and I want you to tell them you need faith for the long haul.
Speaker 1: You need faith for the long haul.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all said that with a little bit of sass in your voice.
Speaker 1: Let me pray, father.
Speaker 1: We thank you today for who you are in our life.
Speaker 1: Father, we give you praise.
Speaker 1: We thank you today, god, that your presence is here, it's speaking, your word is alive, it's active, god, and I pray, father.
Speaker 1: God, as we leave here today, god, you'd renew our faith.
Speaker 1: God, you'd put a spirit of endurance, father, for us to continue going.
Speaker 1: We ask all this in Jesus' mighty name.
Speaker 1: Amen and amen.
Speaker 1: You may be seated.
Speaker 1: Let me just ask you a question have you ever started something that you did not want to finish?
Speaker 1: Come on, just raise your hand.
Speaker 1: Have you ever started something?
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a lot of hands.
Speaker 1: Okay, started something.
Speaker 1: All the men I saw all y'all's hands.
Speaker 1: Y'all starting projects.
Speaker 1: Y'all ain't finishing around the house.
Speaker 1: We've all started things that we did not want to finish.
Speaker 1: In 2019, I did something that I thought was very goal-driven at the time.
Speaker 1: It turns out it was just really stupid.
Speaker 1: In 2019, I ran a half marathon and, yeah, some of you know my pain and I had set it as a goal that year that I was going to run a half marathon, and it was in June of 2019 that I ran it.
Speaker 1: What you need to know is that I had just started running in May of 2019.
Speaker 1: That's how I felt too, and I had kind of run off and on, but I had really gotten serious there in May of 2019.
Speaker 1: And you need a little bit more of a lead up to run a half marathon than just a month.
Speaker 1: But I was driven.
Speaker 1: I put it in my goals.
Speaker 1: I had waited late to kind of get in shape.
Speaker 1: Spring had hit.
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, great, let's run.
Speaker 1: So I signed up for a half marathon.
Speaker 1: Honestly, to be 100% honest with you, I don't even fully, didn't even know how long a half marathon even was.
Speaker 1: I just said it.
Speaker 1: I'd heard people talk.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, it sounds great, it sounds cool, let's do it.
Speaker 1: And so I get there to the day to run this half marathon and again I you know, I'm so green have no clue what I'm doing, not in shape at all, and and so we get to the half marathon and everybody's all excited.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that the fast people go to the front and the slow people go to the back.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that the slow people go to the back.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I know that now.
Speaker 1: So I'm all excited, I go to the front and I'm ready to go, and the gun goes off and I just see everybody's running a whole lot faster than me, like alarmingly faster than me, and so I'm just giving it everything I got, just giving it everything I got, everything I have for three miles and I get to the third mile and I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: I remember my life flashing before my eyes.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had one of those moments where you're like this is the stupidest thing I've ever done?
Speaker 1: I have no clue why I'm doing this and I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: I hit mile three and at mile three there was this little water station and I'm bent over as everybody's passing me and I don't know, I don't know what to do and I'll never forget this sweet old lady.
Speaker 1: She comes up to me and she's tapping me on the back and she's just giving me water and Gatorade.
Speaker 1: And then she gave me some pickle juice.
Speaker 1: I don't even I still.
Speaker 1: I'm still kind of confused about the pickle juice.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to help with muscles or something.
Speaker 1: And so she just taps me on the back and she goes, son, she says keep going.
Speaker 1: She says you got 10 more to go.
Speaker 1: It's like, boy, this is gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: And and every water station I stopped and I just had to keep going and I am happy to report that I finished it.
Speaker 1: Okay, I finished it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I finished it in a half a day, but it was great.
Speaker 1: And I got home and in my phone I have just a note section in my phone that I'm just putting life lessons in, just things that I'm learning, things that I'm drawing from, and the Lord reminded me of something that I put, and it was just kind of a raw thought that I put in my note section when I got home that day, because I learned so much, I learned so many lessons from it.
Speaker 1: As I was, you know, once I caught my breath and I could you day, because I learned so much, I learned so many lessons from it is I was, you know, once I caught my breath and I could, you know, regain composure, I just simply put into my notes section.
Speaker 1: Just, it was kind of a raw thought, but it was just this.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't what I could do for three miles, it was what I needed to do for 13 miles.
Speaker 1: It was what I needed to do for 13 miles.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about what I could do for a mile or three or five, it was what I had to do.
Speaker 1: It was what I needed to do for 13 miles.
Speaker 1: Right, and I want to just kind of speak to that this morning, because God has called us to run this race of faith and it's a test of endurance.
Speaker 1: Can I just say that that faith for the long haul that we see in the life of Caleb is a test of endurance, because God is not really interested in what we can do for a week or six months or following him for two years and then burn out.
Speaker 1: God's interested in us serving him decade after decade after decade.
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen right there?
Speaker 1: So it's not necessarily what we can do for a short period of time, for a few months or a few days or even a couple years.
Speaker 1: It's about having a faith for the long haul.
Speaker 1: Everybody say long haul.
Speaker 1: It's about endurance.
Speaker 1: So faith for the long haul, it's trusting God's promises when the journey feels long.
Speaker 1: Has the journey ever felt long?
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: Faith for the long haul is about keep going when the road seems incredibly hard.
Speaker 1: Faith for the long haul is about trusting the promises of God when they feel delayed.
Speaker 1: It's about trusting the promises of God when they feel delayed.
Speaker 1: It's about trusting the promises of God when they feel delayed in your life.
Speaker 1: And so this morning we're gonna take some time and we're gonna look at the life of Caleb, and this week, as I've been studying him and just looking at his life, there's so many things that we could cover.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna have time, but his life is a life of faith over decades, and I want you just to write this statement down this morning because it really helps us to kind of give some thought to the life of Caleb, and it's this is that Caleb's life was defined by unwavering faith in God's promises over decades.
Speaker 1: Okay, caleb's life was defined by an unwavering faith, not for four years, not for 10 years, not for 15.
Speaker 1: His life was defined by someone who believed God's promises for over 40 years.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, I want that kind of faith in my life.
Speaker 1: I want that kind of faith to believe that God can do what he has promised he will do.
Speaker 1: How many of y'all believed that this morning?
Speaker 1: So that is how God's, that is how Caleb's life is defined.
Speaker 1: And I want to just take a moment and I want to give you some background on both the life of Caleb and the Israelites, because I think this will kind of help to give some context as we look at the life of Caleb this morning.
Speaker 1: In Exodus, chapter one, we see that the Israelite people are in slavery, they're in bondage to the people of Egypt.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they're in slavery.
Speaker 1: And then, in Exodus chapter three, we get to this moment Many of you know it as the burning bush moment where God comes to Moses and he says my people are in slavery and you're going to be the one that's going to help to deliver them.
Speaker 1: But not only are you going to help them get out of this, you're also going to help take them into this place that I'm promising them, called the promised land.
Speaker 1: So God speaks to them and Moses, and it's just this miraculous moment, and God says you're going to be the guy to do it, but you're also going to take them into this place called the promised land.
Speaker 1: And so we see then in Exodus, chapter 14, that in this moment there is this incredible delivery of God's people, its power.
Speaker 1: It's just an incredible moment where God supernaturally delivers his people.
Speaker 1: We continue going and you can read the rest of the book of Exodus of all that God does.
Speaker 1: And then we fast forward to Numbers, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: Numbers, chapter 13, is when Moses pulls together 12 people, commissioned by the Lord, and he tells them guys, we're gonna go and we're gonna inspect the land that God has called us to possess.
Speaker 1: He brings everybody together and he says there's an area, there's a land, there's this place that God's called us as the Israelite people to have, and we're going to go check it out.
Speaker 1: So they go and 10 go and spy out this land in Numbers, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: 10 say there's absolutely no way we can do it, absolutely no way that we can take the land.
Speaker 1: It's full of giants, it's fortified, their walls are high.
Speaker 1: There's absolutely no way we could ever take this land.
Speaker 1: So tens say that.
Speaker 1: But then there's two that come back with a good report Joshua, but mainly Caleb and Caleb comes back and he tells Moses he says we absolutely should go take the land.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the other 10 are talking about.
Speaker 1: They're crazy.
Speaker 1: We should go take it.
Speaker 1: And so here's what happens.
Speaker 1: So he tells them all of these things and what ends up happening is that the words of the 10 spread faster than the words of Caleb and they end up wandering in the desert for 40 years.
Speaker 1: They're standing there looking at what God could do, but the words of the 10 spread faster than the positive words of Caleb and Joshua.
Speaker 1: Okay, now here's what I want you to see in Numbers, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: Go with me to Numbers, chapter 14, because we see God and Moses commissioned them out to spy out this land in Numbers 13.
Speaker 1: But then I want you to see a promise in Numbers, chapter 14 that God spoke over Caleb, because it has significance for our life this morning.
Speaker 1: And here's what God says, and I want you just to almost receive this as your own this morning.
Speaker 1: This is in Numbers, chapter 14, verse 24.
Speaker 1: But because my servant has had a different spirit everybody say different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, everybody say wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to.
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring him into that land and his descendants will inherit it.
Speaker 1: Can I just pause right here for just a moment?
Speaker 1: One of the characteristics of Caleb and I didn't have time to get into this was two things.
Speaker 1: Is that God said he had a different spirit, and six times the Bible says that he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of different people through my life, just people that I've been able to be around that have followed God for the long haul.
Speaker 1: They've believed God for decades, whether it's a promise, a miracle, something they're believing for.
Speaker 1: And all of those people had these two characteristics they had a different spirit and they followed God wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: And can I just tell you this morning, I think those are two things the Lord is calling us as believers to possess that Caleb had, that we should follow God not only wholeheartedly, but we should also have a different spirit.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: We should carry something different around than what the world carries around.
Speaker 1: Amen, and God said there's something different about this Caleb guy.
Speaker 1: He's got a different spirit.
Speaker 1: He follows me wholeheartedly and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was just praying through that this week, just personally, and I was praying that over you, that God would give you that Amen, that whatever you're believing for this year, in 2025, that God would give you a different spirit than those you're surrounded by, but that you would also find it in your heart to follow him wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: How many of y'all believe that this morning?
Speaker 1: So he calls him and he tells them this Caleb guy's different.
Speaker 1: So God gives him this promise and I want you to see this, because I want us for just a second.
Speaker 1: I want us to kind of camp out here for just a moment, because this is where the faith for the long haul comes into play.
Speaker 1: Because in Numbers 13, he tells the people we should go take the land.
Speaker 1: The next chapter.
Speaker 1: God says I'm going to give you.
Speaker 1: He tells Caleb he says I'm going to give you.
Speaker 1: He tells Caleb he says I'm going to give you that because you came back with a good report.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So numbers 14,.
Speaker 1: God says I'm going to give you the promised land.
Speaker 1: And then I want you to see what happens.
Speaker 1: I don't have it in here, but three verses later is when it tells us that they began to walk around in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: So he receives the.
Speaker 1: Caleb receives the promise I'm gonna give you the land.
Speaker 1: A few verses later is when they begin to walk around the wilderness for 40 years, after he had just received the promise.
Speaker 1: But I want you to know that deep inside of Caleb, as he was walking around the wilderness, he was holding on to the promise that God had given him that he would possess the land, that he would possess the land.
Speaker 1: Now, here's why I'm so interested in the life of Caleb.
Speaker 1: It's because he held on to a promise that God gave him for 40 years and his faith did not waver.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about this church.
Speaker 1: He held on to a promise that the Lord gave him for 40 years and his faith didn't weaken, his faith did not falter.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, but it gives me hope to believe that if Caleb could do it for 40 years, I can do it for a few weeks, a few months, or even a few years, to believe what God has promised.
Speaker 1: How many of you believe?
Speaker 1: How many God has promised you something this year?
Speaker 1: Come on, just raise your hand.
Speaker 1: How many of you are believing for something?
Speaker 1: Well, this message is for you this morning.
Speaker 1: So Caleb receives the promise and then he begins walking around the wilderness, and I want to show you this on the map because I think it will.
Speaker 1: It is going to give you just a little bit of a perspective for what happened.
Speaker 1: We see, up here, at number one.
Speaker 1: We see this is where the exodus begins and they go around.
Speaker 1: Number eight down with Mount Sinai.
Speaker 1: They go up.
Speaker 1: Well, kadesh Barnea is where he receives, where Caleb receives the promise from the Lord.
Speaker 1: Okay, he receives the promise there, at number 12.
Speaker 1: And then from there, historians and scholars would argue exactly where the route is of the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Here's one thing we know for sure is they just walked in circles.
Speaker 1: We know that we can theologically say they just walked in circles for a while.
Speaker 1: Okay, and here's why I show you this, because at number 12, kadesh Barnea, caleb receives the promise from the Lord, but then from there, moses, joshua and Caleb all walk through the wilderness for 40 years.
Speaker 1: For 40 years, he's walking through, holding true to the promise that God gave him that one day I'm going to possess the land.
Speaker 1: Now, the land that he's going to ultimately go and possess is Hebron, up there at the very top.
Speaker 1: So he's walking circles, he goes all the way around, way up there, and we'll walk through that journey here in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But I wanted you to visualize this because I think it shows us wanted you to visualize this because I think it shows us how far and how long Caleb had to believe the promise that God spoke into his life, that he had to believe God for the long haul, that he had to hope and trust that God was doing what he had promised.
Speaker 1: Now here's what I want to do for just the next few moments.
Speaker 1: I want to take just a few minutes and I want to give you what I'm calling three keys from the life of Caleb for the long haul.
Speaker 1: Three things that we find in the life of Caleb that will really position us to be able to possess the promise that God has given us, because there's, like I said, there's so many things from the life of Caleb that we can learn, and here's the first one.
Speaker 1: I think this is so important that if we're going to have faith for the long haul, number one, we need to have the right words.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the right words, the right words.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the right words.
Speaker 1: The right words and we know this as you look at the life of Caleb is that Caleb had the right words, caleb said the right things.
Speaker 1: Caleb's heart was postured in the right way to have faith for the long haul, in the right way to have faith for the long haul.
Speaker 1: Now, recent statistics show us that as Americans, we talk a lot.
Speaker 1: We talk a lot as Americans.
Speaker 1: There used to be an old statistic when it came to men and women and it said that women spoke 20,000 words a day and men spoke 7,000 words a day.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not trying to cause a fight up here, okay, but there is now there's recent research that was done that kind of debunked some of that, and here's what it found.
Speaker 1: It found that women spoke approximately 16,200 words per day.
Speaker 1: Okay, but men it shows that men spoke approximately 15,500 words per day, okay.
Speaker 1: Now let me ask you this Kind of gets you married people fighting a little bit, husbands how many of you think that your wife would speak more than 16,000 words per day.
Speaker 1: Okay, some of them, hands in the back popped up really fast.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, wives, how many of you think your husband speaks less than 15,000 words per day?
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm just trying to get you fighting before marriage night on Friday.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's all I'm trying to do Get you fighting so we can work it out.
Speaker 1: Now here's what it comes down to.
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 1: That's an average of 930 words per hour.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of words, y'all.
Speaker 1: 930 words per hour.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of words, y'all.
Speaker 1: 930 words per hour.
Speaker 1: And can I just kind of put it into context of what we're talking about today?
Speaker 1: That's 930 chances an hour for our words to be full of faith.
Speaker 1: 930 chances for our words to build up instead of tear down.
Speaker 1: 930 chances for what we say to be full of life, to be full of faith instead of doubt.
Speaker 1: 930 chances for us to speak the words of God over the people in our life.
Speaker 1: 930 chances.
Speaker 1: Now here's what we need to know and I want you to get this, this one, I want you just to write this statement down Is that the words you speak shape your God-given destiny.
Speaker 1: I need this to get into your heart.
Speaker 1: We're going to see this from the life of Caleb in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But the words that you're currently speaking, they are shaping your God-given destiny and I just want to tell you this everybody in this room has a God-given destiny.
Speaker 1: Everybody in your family has a God-given destiny.
Speaker 1: Everybody you work with, the people you like and the people you don't have a God-given destiny, and what we're saying over those people and yourself are shaping their lives.
Speaker 1: That's how powerful what we say are.
Speaker 1: So we've got to have the right words In Joshua, chapter 14, I want us to go back to that for just a moment, to verse 11 and 12, because I want you to see the words of Joshua I'm sorry, the words of Caleb for just a moment.
Speaker 1: They're so powerful in how he says it.
Speaker 1: He says I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.
Speaker 1: I'm just as vigorous.
Speaker 1: Then he makes the statement now give me this hill country.
Speaker 1: You yourself heard that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the Lord helping me, I will drive them out.
Speaker 1: I want to give you for just a second.
Speaker 1: I want to give you just three characteristics of Caleb's words, real quick.
Speaker 1: Just three characteristics of Caleb's words.
Speaker 1: Number one his words were full of faith.
Speaker 1: His words were full of faith.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a huge difference in someone's words that are full of doubt and full of faith.
Speaker 1: You can feel it, right, when someone is full of faith and they speak it.
Speaker 1: You can feel it in your heart.
Speaker 1: But when someone speaks words of doubt, it's like a blanket of despair over your life.
Speaker 1: Right, you can sense it, you can feel it.
Speaker 1: But Caleb was someone who spoke words of faith.
Speaker 1: And here's what he says.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna have them on the screen, but I just kind of bullet pointed them in my notes because they're so strong and they're so full of faith.
Speaker 1: He says I'm still as strong I love that.
Speaker 1: I'm still as strong as I'm standing here at 85, but I'm still as strong as I once was, I'm just as vigorous as I once was.
Speaker 1: And then he proclaims give me this mountain, give me this hill country.
Speaker 1: And then he also speaks I will drive them out, as God said, I just want.
Speaker 1: Those are words of faith, not words of doubt.
Speaker 1: Those are words of hope, those are words of life.
Speaker 1: Here's the second characteristic of Caleb's words not just full of faith, but they were also consistent.
Speaker 1: His words were consistent.
Speaker 1: I want you to see this in Numbers 13, which is where they go and they spy out the land, and then Joshua 14.
Speaker 1: I want you to see this for a moment because it's so interesting.
Speaker 1: Caleb's words here's what he says in Numbers 13, 30.
Speaker 1: He says Caleb silenced the people before Moses and he said we should go up and take possession of the land.
Speaker 1: For we can certainly do it.
Speaker 1: It's words of faith, okay.
Speaker 1: And then I want you to see what he says in Joshua 14, what we just read.
Speaker 1: He then says now give me this mountain, now give me this hill country.
Speaker 1: Here's what that says to me is that Caleb was saying the same thing at 85 that he was saying at 40.
Speaker 1: Think about this for a moment.
Speaker 1: Caleb was speaking the same thing as he's standing there about to cross into Hebron at 85, as he was when he was standing there with Joshua at the age of 40.
Speaker 1: So for 40 plus years his words were consistent.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you.
Speaker 1: I want to be known as someone who just has consistent faith and consistent speech.
Speaker 1: I think one of the most underrated values in life is consistency.
Speaker 1: It's just showing up every day.
Speaker 1: It's just doing the same things God's called you to do every day in the mundaneness of life.
Speaker 1: This is why we push you as best we can to be in God's word every day, whether it's a chapter, whether it's a few verses, whatever you're reading every day.
Speaker 1: Because I've learned this in my life is that consistency compounds.
Speaker 1: So it may not be necessarily that there's this huge revelation that God speaks through the word right here today, but it compounds over time.
Speaker 1: And if you're consistent in what God's called you to do, you started here, you end up here and you look back on your life and you say, my gracious, how far has God brought me.
Speaker 1: But it was only because you were consistent in what God called you to do.
Speaker 1: Consistency and the words that we speak should go hand in hand.
Speaker 1: He spoke positive words.
Speaker 1: He spoke words of faith.
Speaker 1: Parents, can I just encourage you be consistent with the words that you speak over your kids Say godly things full of life.
Speaker 1: The other day, my little boy's about to be seven and he has quickly gotten into that.
Speaker 1: I'm too cool for school age, or he doesn't really want me to hug him and all of that and um, and so the other day we had done something I don't remember what it was and he was running off and I said Judah, come back.
Speaker 1: And he didn't want to come back and he's all squirmy and he's awkward.
Speaker 1: And so he came in and just I hugged him and I grabbed his face and I looked at him.
Speaker 1: Of course he's doing this number.
Speaker 1: Just hold your head still for 10 seconds.
Speaker 1: This is not going to hurt 10 seconds.
Speaker 1: And I just said I love you, buddy, and I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1: And he did not respond back to me Father, I love you so much, Thank you for all of the blessings that you have bestowed upon my life.
Speaker 1: That was what I wanted.
Speaker 1: That is not what I got.
Speaker 1: You know what he told me.
Speaker 1: He said Dad, he said you told me that yesterday.
Speaker 1: He said you're sleeping outside tonight.
Speaker 1: But I found that just speaking things consistently shapes people's lives.
Speaker 1: The people, if you're a boss, the people that you oversee how you speak into their life consistently Parents, coworkers, whatever it may be, consistency matters.
Speaker 1: Everybody say consistency.
Speaker 1: And then here's the last one, with Caleb.
Speaker 1: He was full of faith, he was consistent, but his words also revealed his heart.
Speaker 1: His words revealed his heart.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been in a moment where maybe things got heated and you said something?
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a word that you shouldn't have said?
Speaker 1: And you then said I don't know where that came from Some of y'all too holy in here.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened, then the next statement comes out.
Speaker 1: I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 1: Well, it came from the heart.
Speaker 1: It came from the heart.
Speaker 1: Caleb's words revealed what was in his heart, and I just want to ask you this this morning, maybe a question for you just to process is what words are you speaking over your situation right now?
Speaker 1: What words are you speaking over your situation right now?
Speaker 1: Are you speaking life, faith, doubt?
Speaker 1: Are they consistent?
Speaker 1: What words are you speaking?
Speaker 1: Number two things that we're learning from the life of Caleb on how to have faith for the long haul is you've got to have the right words.
Speaker 1: But number two, you've got to have the right people.
Speaker 1: You've got to have the right people, and I just want to say this that if you're going to have faith for the long haul and you're going to believe the things that God has called you to believe, you're going to have to have the right people in your life.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the right people make a difference.
Speaker 1: The right people make a difference.
Speaker 1: So in Numbers 13, they're sent out, and I want you to see the beginning part of this.
Speaker 1: In Numbers 13, 26, it says they came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh and there they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is talking about the ten.
Speaker 1: They gave Moses this account.
Speaker 1: We went into the land to which you sent us and it does flow with milk and honey.
Speaker 1: What you said is there, it is the promised land.
Speaker 1: Here's the fruit.
Speaker 1: Then in verse 28, but the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and they're very large and we even saw descendants of Anak there.
Speaker 1: Amen, so the 10 are coming back and this is the report that they're giving.
Speaker 1: And then verse 30 is what we read earlier of Caleb silencing the crowd and telling them.
Speaker 1: I know what they said, but we should surely go take it.
Speaker 1: This is what we have.
Speaker 1: You really have two different groups of people in Numbers, chapter 13 and Numbers 14, and really throughout their journey Numbers, chapter 13 and Numbers 14 and really throughout their journey is you have Caleb and Joshua, and then you have all the rest of the Israelites, who were really just murmurs, not murderers.
Speaker 1: Murmurs, okay, they're just kind of talking.
Speaker 1: They're just kind of talking, they're just kind of speaking things that are just.
Speaker 1: Some may be true, some may not be true.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: And it gives us Numbers.
Speaker 1: 13 gives us this incredible picture of two types of people that you can have in your life, because you can either have a Caleb and be surrounded by a Caleb, or you can have murmurers who fill your life with nothing full of doubt.
Speaker 1: You can have one or the other, and I want you to see this because Caleb represents a voice in your life of faith, trust and belief, trust and belief.
Speaker 1: Caleb is a voice in your life that you need that speaks faith.
Speaker 1: How many of you need people in your life that speak faith?
Speaker 1: There are also people that trust God for you when you can't trust God yourself, because there's times when maybe God's called you to take possession of something, maybe you're believing for a miracle, whatever it may be, and your trust level is low.
Speaker 1: So you need someone that can step in bridge the gap and trust God.
Speaker 1: For you, that's a Caleb, but not only are they full of faith and trust, but they also help you believe that God can do what he's called you to do.
Speaker 1: It's a person in your life that helps you focus on God's promises.
Speaker 1: But then you also have the murmurers in your life and this is the other side of the equation that we see in Numbers 13.
Speaker 1: And those are people in your life that they.
Speaker 1: It's a voice of doubt, it's a voice of fear, it's a voice of helplessness and hopelessness.
Speaker 1: It's a voice of somebody that may ask more questions and bring more negativity than they do positive in your life.
Speaker 1: And these type of people will drive you to the other side.
Speaker 1: And here's what I found and this is why we got to be so careful is because both faith and negativity are contagious.
Speaker 1: They're both extremely contagious in your life.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been around a person that's full of faith, that, just like man let's just, let's just go, I don't know where we're going, let's just go.
Speaker 1: They're they are a Caleb let's take the mountain type of person.
Speaker 1: And when you're around those people, guess what you want to do.
Speaker 1: You, you want to go, take the mountain.
Speaker 1: You're like I don't know where he's going, I'm going with him.
Speaker 1: They're full of faith, they're full of trust, they're full of belief.
Speaker 1: You just feel God when you're around them.
Speaker 1: And then you get around murmurers and you're like boy, can we take the mountain?
Speaker 1: Should we go?
Speaker 1: Did God?
Speaker 1: Did he really say that that was ours to possess?
Speaker 1: And so for 40 years, caleb walks around with those people in his life, while holding true to what was in his heart.
Speaker 1: And I just want to encourage you.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you Be around the right people.
Speaker 1: Be around the right people.
Speaker 1: It's why we do groups here.
Speaker 1: We don't do groups because we need more programming.
Speaker 1: It's because we want you to be surrounded by Caleb's and not murmurers.
Speaker 1: We want you to do life and rub shoulders with voices in your life that are full of faith, hope, trust and belief, not people that are full of doubt and hopelessness.
Speaker 1: That's why we want you connected with each other and connected in community.
Speaker 1: And then in Numbers 13, verses 31,.
Speaker 1: Here's how it spreads.
Speaker 1: But the men who had gone up to him.
Speaker 1: He says we can't attack these people.
Speaker 1: They're stronger than we are.
Speaker 1: And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had explored.
Speaker 1: That one report from those 10 people spread like wildfire, because both faith and negativity they're contagious.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, but I want to be a person this year that spreads faith more than anything else, that spreads what God can do instead of what God can't do.
Speaker 1: So number three, keys to having faith for the long haul We've got to have the right words, we've got to have the right people.
Speaker 1: And then number three, and we're closing with this Number three you've got to have the right fight.
Speaker 1: I just want to remind us this morning that faith and the journey of faith in your life, it is a fight.
Speaker 1: It's a fight and we see this in the life of Joshua and Caleb that everything that they did when they stepped into the promised land After the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, they had to fight for everything that God did in their life.
Speaker 1: And I was just writing this message this week, just processing and praying.
Speaker 1: It really kind of took me back to a moment and just the journey the Lord has had me on to a moment, and just the journey the Lord has had me on Everything God, everything great that God has done in my life.
Speaker 1: There's always been a significant fight right before it Every time.
Speaker 1: And I just want to encourage you maybe this is discouraging for you is that the faith I mean the fight of faith, doesn't stop.
Speaker 1: So even when Joshua and Caleb came into the promised land, they didn't stop fighting.
Speaker 1: They still had to cross over the Jordan, they still had to go to Jericho, they still had to go to Ai.
Speaker 1: There were multiple battles along the way that they had to go to AI.
Speaker 1: There were multiple battles along the way that they had to continue to fight.
Speaker 1: And so it's, if we're gonna have faith for the long haul, we're gonna keep believing for what God has called us.
Speaker 1: It's not just about right words and right people, it's also that we have to have the right spirit of faith inside of us that says I'm gonna continue fighting and contending for what God wants to give me.
Speaker 1: So the fight it just the fight of faith it never stops.
Speaker 1: So Caleb wanders for 40 years, finally gets into the wilderness I mean it finally gets into the promised land.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that he actually continued fighting five more years Caleb did before Joshua gave him the permission to go and take Hebron.
Speaker 1: So it took him to 85 years old, and I don't know about you, but that communicates to me that you got to keep fighting.
Speaker 1: You got to keep believing, like you never get to the place in faith where you just kick it into neutral and you just said God, just do whatever you're going to do.
Speaker 1: If we're going to have the breakthrough that God's called you to have, you're going to have to keep fighting.
Speaker 1: If you want the kids to come back to the Lord, you're going to have to keep fighting.
Speaker 1: If you really want him to do what you're praying for and you laid before him on those 21 days, you're going to have to keep fighting.
Speaker 1: But not only are you going to have to keep fighting, I also want you to know that the fight of faith is bigger than you.
Speaker 1: The things that you're wrestling for and you're believing God for are bigger than you, because God is a generational God.
Speaker 1: Let us never forget that he is a generational God.
Speaker 1: He says this in Joshua 14, in verse nine, and I want you to see this because if you, if you can just miss it and skip over it, he says the land on which your feet have walked.
Speaker 1: He says it's going to be your inheritance.
Speaker 1: But it's not just your inheritance, but it's not just your inheritance, it's that of your children's.
Speaker 1: So, kayla, what you're fighting for and what you're about to fight for as you enter into this new land, it's not just about you, it's about the ones behind you, it's about the kids behind you, it's about the next generation, it's about the people that are going to inherit what you're currently fighting for.
Speaker 1: And I just want to speak that over your life, because some of you have fault things and you've said God, why am I still fighting this?
Speaker 1: And I think the Lord would just speak over us this morning, because the fight isn't as much about you as you think it is.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's about your kids, maybe it's about the ones who are coming behind you.
Speaker 1: So he says you're going to have the land because God is a generational God it's Abraham, it's Isaac and it's Jacob.
Speaker 1: What was on Moses was on Moses, and then it passed down to Joshua.
Speaker 1: And then what was on Joshua passed on down to Caleb, so that Caleb could take possession of the land.
Speaker 1: But then even what Caleb took possession of wasn't even necessarily just about him, because 400 years later, god had a plan for the area that he would take over, because the land Hebron that he would take over this small little guy in the Bible named David would be crowned king in that city one day.
Speaker 1: So the land that he conquered, god was still using 400 years later.
Speaker 1: The fight of faith that never stops, but also wants you to know that it's bigger than you and I.
Speaker 1: Will.
Speaker 1: You stand with me this morning.