[0:00] Do that now. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Be seated and turn in your Bibles to Joshua.! Verse 13 and read through 19.
[0:32] So we'll start at Joshua 14, 6 through the end of the chapter. And these are the words of eternal life. They're the words that revive the soul.
[0:45] They're the words that bring hope. They're the words that make us wise. They're the words that endure forever. Amen. Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses.
[1:51] While Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, 85 years old. I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out.
[2:02] I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified.
[2:20] But the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said. Then Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and gave him Hebron for his inheritance.
[2:31] So Hebron has belonged to Caleb, son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, ever since because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba, after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.
[2:48] Then the land had rest from war. And now over to chapter 15, verse 13. In accordance with the Lord's command to him, Joshua gave to Caleb, son of Jephunneh, a portion in Judah, Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron.
[3:05] Arba was the forefather of Anak. From Hebron, Caleb drove out the three Anakites, Shishai, Ahimon, and Talmai, descendants of Anak.
[3:17] From there he marched against the people living in Debir, formerly called Kiriath Sefer. And Caleb said, I will give my daughter Aska in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sefer.
[3:31] Othniel, son of Kenaz, Caleb's brother, took it. So Caleb gave his daughter Aska to him in marriage. One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field.
[3:45] When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, What can I do for you? She replied, Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water.
[3:59] So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs. Let's hear the word preached. Well, don't you like Caleb?
[4:19] He seems like one of those old, crusty men that has war stories to tell and who still wouldn't mind getting into it one more time.
[4:30] He had been loving God for a long time. Remember the children's song. Twelve spies went into Canaan.
[4:41] Ten were bad and two were good. What do you think they saw in Canaan? Some saw giants great and tall. Some saw grapes and clusters fall.
[4:53] Some saw God was in it all. Ten were bad and two were good. When we started this series on Joshua, we saw the first spy.
[5:03] We saw Joshua. And we saw what he was like. And so tonight it's Caleb's turn to take the center stage and to find out what happened to Caleb. What happened to Caleb?
[5:15] All the big major battles are now over. The land is mostly taken. It's time for the land to get divvied up. And so who shows up first?
[5:28] Well, it's the leaders of Judah. They're the biggest tribe or at least the predominant one, the prominent one. And they're the first dogs to the kill.
[5:40] And they're ready to take what is theirs. And in front of all of the leaders of Judah is the old man himself, Caleb, who's now 85 years old.
[5:52] He's the oldest man in Judah. I don't know if he was the oldest man, but Joshua is right there with him. And at 85, he's still raring to go as ever.
[6:05] And so can you imagine this meeting between Joshua and Caleb? They're brothers, brothers in spirit, brothers in faith, brothers in courage.
[6:17] They stood against a nation 45 years ago. All the other spies were saying, no, this is too much. We can't do this. God's brought us in here to destroy us. And they stood against that nation.
[6:30] They stood against Israel. They stood against their own countrymen side by side. They risked their lives to say, God will give us this land. And they were almost stoned for it.
[6:40] But now, how have things turned out? How have things turned out? Well, it was a million, verse 2.
[6:52] And the million were wrong. And the two were right. The million are dead in the desert. And now here are the other two.
[7:04] These two old men. They're on the other side. The other side of the desert. The other side of the Jordan. The other side of all the great big battles. They're on the other side of the promise. They were brothers in faith.
[7:18] And now they're brothers in sight. One day we're all going to be that. We're brothers and sisters in faith. But one day we're going to be brothers and sisters in sight. And so, just like with Joshua, we want to give a pause and look at Caleb tonight.
[7:34] And find out what happened to him. And we see that Caleb is this man of faith. He's this man of faith. He's an example of what God calls us to do. What God calls us to be.
[7:45] And he was an example for his own people. He's an example of what faith looks like in action. Because, make no mistake about it, Caleb had this big engine in his soul.
[8:01] It was a big engine. It was a V12. It was a diesel. It was a Dodge Ram 3500 engine in his soul. And that's what kept him going.
[8:15] And it was his faith. Caleb wasn't bigger. He wasn't smarter. He wasn't richer. He wasn't better. He just had a big faith and a big God. And so, when everyone else said, No, we can't do this.
[8:26] He said, Yes, we can. And so, tonight, we're just going to pop the hood on Caleb's heart. And we're going to look at what we can see of his faith in this passage. Because it's written all over Joshua 14 and 15.
[8:39] And so, he was an example to Israel in his day. Because in this period, they have to really get down to business of finishing up, taking up, and actually taking possession of the land. The major nations that were in charge of the country at this time had been broken and scattered.
[8:55] And yet, there were still pockets of resistance. And so, it was left up to each tribe and each family to actually go in and finish clearing out the land and taking possession of it.
[9:08] And Caleb is showing Israel, this is how you do it. This is how you really take a hold of what God has promised. And so, he's an example, an inspiration for us and for them.
[9:19] And so, we want to look at his faith. Because that's what's really driving all of this. And we're going to look at it under five headings. And first, we see the devotion of his faith.
[9:30] The devotion of his faith. Faith is about who has your heart. And who had Caleb's heart. Well, the Lord did.
[9:40] Caleb, remembering those first days of spying out the land and those reports and how everyone was afraid.
[9:52] He says, verse 8, the second half, I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. Everyone else was doing something different.
[10:02] But I, however, followed the Lord wholeheartedly. In verse 9, in response to Caleb's faith back then, Moses says, You're going to have that land that you walked on because you followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.
[10:16] And I think in verse 12, we see it again. Or not verse 12. I can't find it.
[10:26] But it says it a third time. He followed the Lord wholeheartedly. Three times. And three times in this passage, it says that Caleb followed. He followed the Lord.
[10:40] He followed him. Mary had a little lamb. His fleece was white as snow. Wherever Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
[10:50] It followed her to school one day. The Lord had a little lamb that followed him everywhere he went. It was Caleb. And that little lamb had a sword. And he was ready to take what was his.
[11:02] But he was following. So Mary had a little lamb. The fourth verse of that little song goes like this. Why does the lamb love Mary so? The eager children cry.
[11:13] Why Mary loves the lamb, you know. The teacher did reply. Caleb followed the Lord because he loved him. And why did Caleb love the Lord so much?
[11:25] It was because the Lord had loved Caleb so much. God had found Caleb down in Egypt. A slave. No hope.
[11:38] No future. This was going to be his life. And the Lord said, follow me. And Caleb said, okay, I'm following you. And so he followed him through the Red Sea. And he followed him through battles.
[11:49] And he followed him right into the promised land. It's the devotion of faith. It's what God calls each of us to do. To love the Lord our God with all of our hearts.
[12:01] And so where the Lord leads, we follow. We have this dogged determination that says, I'm sticking with him. I'm trusting him. And when everyone else was afraid, Caleb said, let's fight.
[12:12] And when everyone else's heart melted, Caleb said, I'm not afraid of any giants. His devotion of his faith led to the isolation of his faith.
[12:25] Because wholehearted following means you're going to stand alone sometimes. At the end tonight, we're going to be singing, dare to be a Daniel.
[12:36] Dare to stand alone. And that's what faith does. That's what a wholehearted faith does. It says, whatever the case might be, I'm going to stay with the Lord.
[12:48] I'm following him. And I don't care what other people are doing. And so faith takes a stand when the boss tells us to break some one of God's laws.
[13:01] We say no. We suffer the consequences. Faith takes a stand even against our own family when they say either it's God's way or it's our way. You can stay in God's good graces or our good graces.
[13:14] Now, of course, they don't put it in those terms, but that's what it boils down to. And I want to say some of you are making those choices. Some of you are Caleb's and you are to be commended.
[13:25] And God blessed you. Don't get discouraged. You're standing in good company. You might not be on their side, but you're on Caleb's side. You're on Joshua's side.
[13:36] You're on Jesus' side. You're sticking with him. That's wholehearted devotion. And how Caleb teaches us to pray, give me an undivided heart. Give me an undivided heart that I would follow after you.
[13:51] And so we should be praying, make me like a young Caleb who stood against my family, my brothers. Stood against his generation.
[14:01] Or make me like an old Caleb who said, those mountains and those giants and those fortified cities, they're mine. I'm going to take them. So that's his wholehearted faith.
[14:14] Now, second, let's look at the anchor of his faith. The anchor. What was it anchored to? One way to anchor the house, a house to the foundation, is you use anchor bolts.
[14:30] And they go right down into the concrete of the foundation. And so anchor bolts do exactly that. They anchor all the wood and all the superstructure that you see.
[14:40] They anchor it to the foundation. Because if it's not anchored to the foundation, then the foundation doesn't do any good. And the house is extremely weak. And so what was Caleb's faith anchored to?
[14:53] What was it attached to? What was it resting on and hooked into and connected to? Well, the answer is God's word. God's promise. Did you see that in the passage as we read it?
[15:05] How many times Caleb is thinking, this is what God said. This is what Moses, the prophet of God, said. And God commanded me to do this. And this is what I'm going to do.
[15:15] And this is what he said. And so I believed it. Verse 9, he's talking to Joshua. And he said, Moses swore to me. Moses, speaking for God, swore to Caleb.
[15:26] The land you will walk on will be your inheritance. Now think about. Just think. How long ago was that? How long ago did that promise happen?
[15:38] Well, it was 45 years ago. So what had kept Caleb going all that time? What kept Caleb going for 45 years?
[15:52] Going forward. Going forward. Living in the desert for most of that time. Year after year through the conquest. Well, it was God's promise.
[16:04] He was always thinking, this is what God had said. And so when he woke up 25 years into the desert journey, not going anywhere hot. And there's man on the ground.
[16:16] There was that promise. I'm going to have that land. God's going to give it to me. And those grapes that I saw, I'm going to eat them. And those springs that I saw, I'm going to have them.
[16:29] The Lord has promised me. God said it. Verse 10. Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive. So here I am today, 85 years old. And as strong as the day Moses sent me out.
[16:41] Here I am 45 years later, ready to take the promise. What accounts? What accounts for Caleb's strength? Why is Caleb so strong?
[16:54] Why is he so vigorous? Why is he, this 85 year old, which I think is older than everyone here. Why is he saying, I want to go? I want to go up those hills.
[17:04] I want to fight those giants. Why is he so ready to go? What accounts for it? Well, is it a good diet or exercise? It's none of those things.
[17:15] It was the promise of God. The promise of God. Caleb was kept alive. God kept Caleb alive and fit and raring to go because God had promised him, you're going to have that land.
[17:28] And so Caleb needed to be in a condition to have the land and he needed to live to have the land. So God's promise. That's what he was thinking about. That's what he's living on. He knew it and he cherished it.
[17:40] He counted on it and he acted upon it. He acted upon it. He thought he was so sure of it that he based his life on it.
[17:52] He based his actions on it. He didn't just give it word service, lip service. There used to be bumper stickers that said, God said it.
[18:06] I believe it. That settles it. And let me say, those are three good things. They're just a bit out of order. Because my believing it doesn't have anything to do with settling it.
[18:21] It should be God said it. That settles it. And I believe it. And that was Caleb 45 years earlier. God said he was going to give us this land.
[18:34] That settles it. And now I'm believing it. Everyone else said, well, God said it. But I guess it's not true. There was some hill country that Caleb wanted and God promised him.
[18:47] But who was in that land now? Anakites. Giants. And it was hill country. In other words, the enemy had the high ground.
[19:01] It's always harder to take the high ground. It's always harder to be on the offensive. But here, but God said it. So Caleb says, I'm going to take that land with God helping me.
[19:13] Let me at him. Now, what about us? What about us? What is our faith anchor to? Isn't it anchored to the very same promises, the very same word of God, the character of God that he has spoken to us?
[19:29] God has said about us, I'm an heir of the kingdom of God. I'm an heir of a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
[19:41] Where there's no mourning or crying or pain or death. All the old order has passed away. That's what he said. And so because of that promise, I live for heaven and not for earth.
[19:54] I don't get discouraged with how things are going here in such a way that I just give up because I'm looking forward to a better country. And God said, I'll be with you in fire and in the water.
[20:06] And so in the trial, in the furnace. We look and we see another one. Walking in the fire with us.
[20:18] One like the son of man. And so I take heart. God is with me. I see it by faith. I know it because God has said it.
[20:29] God said, I'll build my church. Jesus said, I'll build my church. And we can say, but Christians are persecuted. The gospel is unpopular. There's a rise in evil.
[20:43] There's a rise in our culture of opposition and hatred for the gospel. And men everywhere pervert the gospel for their own ends. And if I have to see one more article or editorial from a so-called Christian.
[20:58] And when they talk about the world and sin, just toe the world's line. No different. And how those news people love to say, see, this is Christians.
[21:14] It's okay to think this. It's right. This is what Christians are doing now. How they love that. If I have to see one more article like that. Probably throw up. But why aren't we discouraged?
[21:28] Despite what we see out there, why aren't we discouraged? Why haven't we given up? Well, why do we have this Kayla blood flowing in our veins? This holy violence.
[21:39] This I'm still ready to go. I still have. I still think this is going to happen. Well, because because Christ said, I'll build my church. He's greater than anything. We saw that this morning. He gets the first say.
[21:50] He gets the final say in Lamentations 3.37. He's decreed this. So it doesn't matter what any man says. So faith doesn't rest on what's going on out there.
[22:02] Faith doesn't rest on how I feel. Faith rests on God's promises. And God said, I'll forgive you all of your sins. And you could say, but I'm a big sinner.
[22:13] A great sinner. And I do things I don't want to do. And the things I want to do, those I don't do. And I should have learned a lot by now. But I'm a slow learner. But we don't lose heart.
[22:27] We don't lose heart in this battle against sin. Because God's promise is forgiveness. God's promise is grace in Jesus Christ. And so I take a hold of that grace.
[22:39] And I live on it. And I count it as true. Spurgeon called the promises of God. Faith's checkbook. So do you know the promises of God?
[22:54] How good are you at getting to them? And what I mean by is, in the moment that you need it, it's there. It's here. How good are you at getting at those checks?
[23:07] How many checks do you have stowed away? Do you only have one or two? And there's some vague idea about what they say. Well, the Bible is full of checks to be claimed, to be cashed in, to be lived upon.
[23:20] That's faith's anchor. That's faith's anchor. So now, third, let's look at the cycle of faith. The cycle of faith.
[23:33] And here I have in mind, how does faith work? Faith has a certain self-perpetuating power. It's like a self-powering cycle.
[23:46] It's like the water cycle. So kids, if you remember the water cycle, you know how this is. And adults, we probably need a refresher. But the water starts in the clouds, and it rains on the earth, and it goes into the streams, and the streams go to the oceans.
[24:01] And then out of the oceans, the water evaporates and turns into clouds again, and the clouds move over the land and rain. And it goes around and around. The self-powering, self-perpetuating cycle of faith.
[24:16] And that's what you see in Caleb. Why was Caleb so ready? Now he's 85 years old. And now he's ready to go. Why is he as young and vigorous as he ever was?
[24:28] Because going inside of him was the self-perpetuating cycle, this power of faith. He was looking to the past. And as he looked out of the past, he pulled out of the past.
[24:41] He saw what God had done. He had seen God's past faithfulness. Verse 10, he says, he's kept me alive for 45 years. He's saying, for 45 years, God has sustained me according to his promise.
[24:55] And it's as if Caleb is saying to Joshua, you remember all those sneers. You remember what they said. Now look at us.
[25:08] Now look how things are. Think of what Caleb had to draw on. He had the Red Sea. He had big battles. He had years and years of faithfulness.
[25:20] He had the Jordan River. He had Jericho falling down. And he could say, you know what? All anyone ever was talking about way back then, Kadesh Barnea, 45 years ago, was how the giants were so big and strong.
[25:35] And how the people and the kings and all the nations, they were so strong. And how big the cities were. Well, look at them now. Look at them now. Look at what God did to them.
[25:46] And that's the cycle of faith. It draws on the past. And now, because it's drawing on God's past faithfulness, it's ready to enact new faith.
[25:57] It's ready to do something new. Faith looks back. It looks back to God's faithfulness and his power. And it says, what God did is what God is going to do again.
[26:07] Because our God doesn't change. So faith feeds on the past as it deals with the present. So present problems, present obstacles, look very different when we call the past to mind.
[26:29] So, do you have such a short-term memory that you can't think of what God did for you last month? Jeremiah in Lamentations says, Yet this I call to mind.
[26:47] And therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. For his compassions never fail. They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
[26:59] Jeremiah had seen God's faithfulness in hard times. Day after day. And he had seen those compassions and that mercy show up every morning.
[27:10] And he was drawing on that. Now that he is in the city and it's destroyed. And his people are destroyed. And he is heartbroken. And yet, he calls this to mind.
[27:22] And he has hope. That's faith. That's the cycle of faith. And so Caleb's faith is feeding on the past. And now here he is, standing, so to speak, at the bottom of this mountain.
[27:34] And the giants are up there in their big city. And he says, you know what? God's going to show up for us then. He's going to help us. And so he went.
[27:47] And so we go from grace to grace. So is your faith weakening as you look? Are you facing some obstacle? Maybe it's big or maybe it's little.
[27:58] A good thing to do is to sit down with a pad of paper and begin to brainstorm. How has the Lord helped me in the past?
[28:11] What promises have I seen him? What have I seen him do? How many times has his mercy shown up? And you start listing out the faithfulness of God and his past victories and his past help and how he got you through that situation and how his word came true in your life.
[28:32] And watch what happens to faith. It powers up. It's ready to go. And the past will help you now. That's the cycle of faith.
[28:43] And you see it in Caleb. Past victories and past faithfulness is leading to new, new victories, new life. Now, fourth, the optimism of faith.
[28:54] The optimism of faith. And you see that in verse 12. Now, give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard that the Anakites were there and the cities were large and fortified.
[29:07] But the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said. With the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.
[29:17] But that's the optimism of faith. Because faith is this expectant thing. It really is an expectant thing. I really think God is going to come through for me.
[29:29] He's going to do what he said. Maybe I don't know how. Maybe I don't know exactly the mechanism of how that's going to happen. But I believe God is going to show up for me.
[29:40] That's the optimism of faith. Now, way back then, Israel was, they were definitely pessimists. Maybe some would say, just looking at things, they're these realists.
[29:53] You know, we're not a trained army. They weren't. We're going to be on the offensive. It's always harder in war to be on the offensive than on the defensive. There are giants.
[30:05] There are cities, well-fortified cities. It's probably not a good idea that we go in and try to take their land. Probably not going to work.
[30:16] It won't work. Too much is standing against us. But faith is optimistic. All that thinking left God out of the picture, didn't it?
[30:27] All that thinking left God out of the picture. It left out what he would do. But Caleb was, and in our passage here, is exuding, is just spilling forth optimism.
[30:44] With the Lord's help, I'll drive them out. John Piper calls it faith and future grace.
[30:56] And what he means by that. And what he means by that is, it's believing that God has grace. It's that the Lord has grace. It's that the Lord has grace. The Lord has help. It hasn't shown up yet on my doorstep.
[31:07] But it's going to show up for me. It's not here yet. I don't have my hands on it yet. But it's going to be there. God is going to come through. There's going to be this future grace.
[31:18] It's in front of me. And I'm going to it. And Caleb saw future grace as he stood there. He said, with the Lord helping me. The Lord's going to help me do this. So looking at your future, looking at what you can do, how are you measuring what's in front of you?
[31:37] How are you measuring the obstacles? How are you measuring what's going to happen? By future grace? By the fact that God is going to show up.
[31:49] God's so good. He showed up for me in the past. And he's going to do it again tomorrow. And so I see this hard conversation. Or this hard transition. Or this hard job.
[31:59] Or this hard thing that he has called me to do. And I see it coming. And it's out there. Caleb saw more than that. He saw God.
[32:11] He saw God showing up. He saw God's help going to be there for him. And he wasn't going to be facing the Anakites on his own. He's going to be facing them with God helping him.
[32:24] And so worry. Worry takes God out of the future. And all your worries, you never factor in God.
[32:35] But optimistic faith keeps him right where he is going to be. He's going to be there. He's always been there.
[32:46] He's always been there for us. And he's going to be there for us again. And so what do you need to stop worrying and start trusting God for? Just think of what you're worried about.
[32:58] And if you're worried about that, what I want you to do is bring in God into the situation. Because he's going to be there. He's going to be there. He's going to help you. Well, that's the optimism of faith.
[33:12] And now, last, the success of faith. And we go here into chapter 15. And what happened? Well, Caleb and his family, they took the land.
[33:25] That's simply what happened. And they drove out these three giants and Kiriath Arba. And then they moved to Kiriath Sefer. And Caleb's nephew, I believe, took the land.
[33:40] Or took the city. And then you have this last little bit here about Caleb's daughter shows up. And she asks for these springs of water. And he says yes to them.
[33:52] Probably as a wedding present. Now, why is this last little bit here? Why is this just finishing up? Saying, yep, this is what happened.
[34:03] Caleb took the land. And then he gave it to his daughter. Some of it to his daughter. It's there to say, God kept his word to Caleb.
[34:17] God kept his word to Caleb. And now here Caleb is, living in the land. And he's doling it out and divvying it out to his children. Caleb's faith gave him courage to stand alone.
[34:33] And Caleb's faith gave him patience to wait for years and years. But at long last, God came through.
[34:43] God had sustained him that whole time. But now Caleb's faith gave him the victory. Until he's doling out portions to his family.
[35:01] God proved that Caleb's faith was well placed. When a million people were saying we can't trust him. And only two were saying we can. Caleb and Joshua proved.
[35:16] That no one who trusts in the Lord is ever put to shame. They're never disappointed. No one is ever poorer for trusting the Lord.
[35:27] And no one is ever worse off for trusting the Lord. No one ever gets to the point and say, man, I really wish I hadn't believed. I really wish I hadn't counted on him.
[35:40] Because he didn't come through for me. It doesn't happen. It's never happened to me. And you know what? It's never happened to you.
[35:51] And it won't happen to anyone here. For those who trust. And I think I want to say one last thing.
[36:04] And it's this. Do you see how contagious Caleb's faith was? Now what you see here in this passage is Othniel, his nephew. His brother's son.
[36:17] And his daughter. They are there now believing in the Lord too. Do you guys, do you know anything about Othniel?
[36:30] Caleb's nephew. Walk a few pages forward into Judges. And Judges chapter 3.
[36:48] And you see in verse 7. Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and they forgot the Lord their God and they served the Baals and the Asherahs.
[37:02] How soon after? Well, Othniel is the judge that God called to save them. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan, Rishbuniam, king of Aram Nahiram, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.
[37:23] But when they cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a deliverer, a judge. Othniel, son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother who saved them. And the spirit of the Lord came upon him so that he became Israel's judge and went to war.
[37:37] What I'm saying is, is there was Othniel, Caleb's nephew, and he was looking at Uncle Caleb. And when it seemed like the whole generation was going one way, Othniel was staying true.
[37:56] His uncle had painted such a beautiful picture of this is our God. He is worth serving. He is worth sticking with.
[38:08] Caleb had presented such a beautiful picture, had proven to now his descendants, the Lord is worth serving. The Lord is worth believing. Othniel saw that.
[38:22] And he was faithful when so many others weren't. And I want to say that as an encouragement to you as parents. I think maybe what your children could use from you more than anything is a Caleb-like faith.
[38:42] This attractive, dogged, optimistic faith that isn't always worried and afraid of what's going to happen. But a faith that says, you know what?
[38:52] The Lord has helped me and let me tell you how. And the Lord is going to help me. Look at what he said. Give to your children what Caleb gave to his. This faith in God.
[39:05] Or this picture of this faith in God. And so Othniel believed. And God was proven to be worth trusting again.
[39:15] And so here Caleb is. This picture of faith. And he's saying to every one of us here. It's worth it to trust in the Lord. If you have to wait a long time.
[39:28] It's worth it. He'll come through for you. He'll be faithful to you. He's worth following with all of your heart. Trust him. I followed him wholeheartedly. And I was never disappointed. And so God's promise to the lost here is salvation.
[39:45] Forgiveness in Jesus Christ. If you believe in Jesus. God says, this is the promise. That the cross is enough. You don't have to add any of your labors. Tomorrow is a labor day.
[39:57] It's a day to rest from your work. You know what? That's exactly what salvation is. It's resting from your work. And it's resting in Jesus Christ. And God says, I promise you.
[40:08] Jesus is enough. When you come to judgment. When you come with all of your sin. Just plead Jesus. Just plead his blood and righteousness. And it will be enough.
[40:19] That's his promise. And you know what faith does? It takes him at his word. It says, you said it. That settles it. I believe it. But.
[40:31] Well, Caleb followed the Lord with all of his heart. Caleb is saying to us, he's worth it. And you know what? So many of us here would say, it's true. It's true.
[40:42] I wouldn't give it up for anything. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father. We thank you for this picture of Caleb.
[40:56] We thank you that. He points us forward to Jesus Christ. The ultimate man of faith. Who trusted you to the very end.
[41:10] And that you were faithful to him. And raising him from the dead. And so even death. Is not stronger than your promise.
[41:23] And if you have to raise the dead. To do what you said. You will raise the dead. And so we thank you that you are so faithful. And so powerful. And I pray for us.
[41:33] That you would work this faith in us. A more optimistic. Hopeful. Powerful faith. That draws on the past. And has great hope. And expectation for the future.
[41:45] We don't want to be the kind of people. That stay at the bottom of the hill. When there are giants and cities to take.
[41:57] We want to be the kind of people. Like Caleb. And charge up the hill. We want to be the kind of people. That shows how beautiful. And wonderful. You are.
[42:08] By our faith in you. So we pray that we would be those. Bright lights. In our family. And in our places of work. And in our neighborhoods.
[42:20] That others would see that we are different. We're not bound by the same chains as they are. We're not hampered by the same. Worries that enslave them.
[42:32] But our faith. In you. Gives us grace to live a different kind of life. Thank you Lord. That this is what you do in our hearts. That you give life. And you empower us.
[42:43] And now I pray that you would sanctify us. Please save. It's in the heart of every sinner here.
[42:54] To think that I have to work. And I have to do. And it's all up to me. And yet the gospel is pointing away to Jesus Christ. And I pray that you would draw their attention to you.
[43:06] And that you would save this day. This weekend. In Jesus name. Amen.