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Fully Following God | Joshua 13-19 · Saint City Chapel

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Hey, it's good to see you guys today.
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If I don't know you, my name is Brandon.
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I get to serve as the lead pastor here.
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And St. City Chapel is a new church here
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in the heart of Tempe. We are about 9 months old and we
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have seen God at work here. We are just so ecstatic about
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who he is and what he has done. And we have seen him move and
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transform many, just even our short nine months.
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And we have a vision to see God be at work through his gospel,
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to have a movement for the city of Tempe, for the campus of ASU,
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and for the fame of none other than Jesus Christ.
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Amen. Amen.
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And while we're going to work toward that end and pray that
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that reality would be in our sights, we are on a mission
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hoping that we would gather ordinary people to take their
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next step with the God who is extraordinary.
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He is extraordinary. We just sung so much about why
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he's extraordinary. There's thousands upon thousands
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of reasons that our hearts could muster up that could confess how
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spectacular God is. And each and every Sunday we
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gather to worship him. So that you might take steps,
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that your friends might take steps, so your neighbors might
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take steps with that God. And another way of saying that
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is that we are here to help you fully follow God.
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Not partially, not a little bit follow God, but like in in
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totality that you would be a person who fully follows God.
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That's what a disciple of Jesus is.
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It's somebody who fully follows God across all spectrums of
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their life. This past week, I was getting a
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lunch with a friend and we were just catching up about what it's
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like to be the parents of young kids, to be husbands young in
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our marriage still, and to work and to have friendships and to
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be a part of our original home of origin still in some way,
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shape or form. We were just navigating this.
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And he just confessed to me. He said, hey, man, in this
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season, I realized that I have some peace in my life, but not
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total peace. That he has a sense of
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dissatisfaction, of disruption or disillusionment in his heart
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because what he said was I don't feel total peace, but only some
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peace because I was only following Jesus in some areas of
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my life. That as he was navigating being
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a husband or a father or an employee, what he realizes there
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was areas that he had pulled God out of the out of the equation.
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That he was fully following God, perhaps as a husband but not as
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a father. That at times he would change
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his attention and his focus to following God as a father.
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And then he would not measure up in the workplace.
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And this tension I'm sure you feel too, this idea and this
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concept of man. There's so much areas of my
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life, so much identities that I carry as a friend or as a
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student or as a mother or father or grandparent, that fully
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following God feels impossible. It feels like that's not
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something that can be said of somebody like us.
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Thankfully, we do have Jesus that followed God fully and
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totally and perfectly, who is our forerunner in the faith, who
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is the founder and perfector of it.
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We have Jesus as our substitute for us on the cross because we
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will not follow him perfectly. But listen to me, Fully
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following God is actually an invitation to you and I that
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there is a way that on our tombstone or as our reputation
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that we can be known as a person who fully follows God.
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It one way to think about this is in 16th and 17th century
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there was this group of men called the Puritans.
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Anybody heard of the Puritans before?
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If you've read them, that means you like to read boring stuff
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more than likely. And and not that the Puritans in
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and of themselves are boring, but they have the reputation as
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being boring that when you read them, they, they say big words
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and they, they write books that are very dense or it perhaps
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even like very thick. And you're like, that's a book
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that I won't read just because it's very thick.
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No thank you. But these guys, they were men,
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regular men, just like us. And they were actually known for
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their total devotion, for their full followership of Jesus.
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And there's four areas, more spaces before we get into the
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text today that I just want to highlight for you that was
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present in them. I think you'll be present in US
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and fully following Jesus. The first space that you might
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be compelled to grow in and fully following God is
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considering yourself a thinker. Here's what I mean by that.
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I mean that fully following God isn't just in your actions, it's
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in your thoughts that there's a way to go about your life,
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there's a way to go about your week.
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That God is something that you dwell on.
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You meditate on him, you think about his words deeply.
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And these men set aside time each and every week to focus on,
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to fixate upon, to obsess about God.
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I think some of us can grow and being a thinker about God this
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week, some of us can grow and being a worshiper for from him
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and through him and to him are all things.
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That there is a God out there who loves you, who died on a
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cross for you, who rose over death for you.
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And that when you think about who God is, guess what?
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It's going to pull worship out of your heart.
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It's going to pull affection and worthiness that you feel towards
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God. That the worshipper is somebody
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who goes about even their Monday morning thinking about how
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worthy God is of worship and they want to give him work.
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They want to give him value. It's a God who is holy and who
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hates sin and judges it. He is a God who rules and
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speaks. He is the God who in whom all
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reality lives and moves and exists.
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He is the God who's incomprehensible love for us
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died for us. That while we are still sinners,
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that some of us today need to move in worship of God, living
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unto him. Some of us need to grow in being
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a hopper. Now I don't really feel like
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that's an actual word, but it works.
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Hopers are people here on planet earth.
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Guess what? We live in a fallen world with
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suffering, with darkness. We live in a fallen existence
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where we feel the weight of Jesus not coming back to make
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all things right yet. And one of the ways we can grow
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and fully following God this week is being a better hoper in
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his return. More on that soon.
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Finally, another space to grow in that you can be thinking
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about fully following Jesus isn't just in your thoughts,
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isn't just your emotions of worship, isn't in just your
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dreams and anticipations of hope, but also finally, this one
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fourth one is being a warrior that your whole life could be
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accounted as warfare against the things God is against, sin,
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Satan, death. That some of us, what we're
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lacking is a warfare mentality that though we are at peace with
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God, we are not on peacetime on earth and we need to bring a
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battle mode into our brains. And Joshua helps us see that.
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Let me give you this definition of what I mean by fully
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following God in these areas. Fully following God means this,
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that you stop living halfway and start obeying Him completely.
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You stop living halfway. It's not just like going up a
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little bit, it's not coming up short, but you're saying, hey,
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I'm going to aggressively and totally give God my total
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devotion, my complete adoration, my thoughts, my heart, my hands.
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I'm giving them unto God because I want to be a person who
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doesn't live halfway, but obeys them completely in every
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compartment of my life. It is the idea that we forsake
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the hell of half heartedness and we embrace the gift of heaven,
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of wholesale wholeheartedness. We're not divided in our
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attention, not separated in our worship, but we are wholesale
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obedient unto God. And I think we're going to
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discover in Joshua this huge chunk we're going to walk
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through today is this big idea. Let me give it to you in a
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sentence. This, these 7 chapters I think
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can be summarized like this is that if you want to experience
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all God has for you, you have to fully follow him.
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You have to fully follow him, not just on Sunday mornings from
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10:50, not just on Tuesday night, small group, not just on
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your quiet time, but 24/7, 365 in every area of our life are
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all about how can I fully follow Jesus in this moment?
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Joshua is a book all about conquest.
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It's about the people of God, the people of Israel moving from
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exile, slavery, from Egypt through the wilderness 40 years
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now into moving into this land called Canaan in the Middle
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East. They're going from east to West
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trying to cross the Jordan River into this land God had promised
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them. And we've been marching through
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this book chapter by chapter, learning what God has for us on
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the other side of it, hundreds and upon hundreds of years
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later. Like what does Joshua mean for
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us? Because this is an old story,
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but it's a relevant story. And I think the relevant truth
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that is true for the Israelites here who would have been present
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in the story, but also true for us, it would be true for people
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across the world today, is that if we want to experience all God
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has for us, we have to fully follow him.
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So where is it we must fully follow God?
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Well, let's look at the text to discover together where we must
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fully follow God. We're in Joshua chapter 14, the
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big bold 14 in your Bible. If you don't have a Bible,
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there's one on the seat nearby. You can grab it, look at the
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table of contents, find the page for yourself, and you can keep
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it if you need it. But it's also on the screens.
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Joshua chapter 14 verse one says this.
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These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in
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the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua
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the son of Nun and the heads of the father's houses of the
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tribes of the people of Israel gave them to inherit.
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Their inheritance was by law, just as the Lord had commanded
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by the hand of Moses for the 9 1/2 tribes.
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Here's what that means for us. Let's just stop there for a
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second. Moses had given a couple of
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tribes on the east side of the Jordan River.
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He gave them their land. And now Joshua's finishing the
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job of saying, hey, there's some tribes of Israel.
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There's 12 in total that hey, they are still owed their
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allotment, their portion of the promised land.
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And so Joshua and this priest, over the next 7 chapters are
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about to give the people of Israel the land that they were
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promised, that the whole book of Joshua is the reality that not
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even one of God's promises has ever failed, including the exact
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land that these tribes are going to receive.
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So Joshua is going to do just as God commanded.
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He's going to do this with this priest, and they're going to
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give to the people of Israel that which they are owed.
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Now jump down to verse 6. Then the people of Judah came to
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Joshua, Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jefuna, and the Kennesite
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said to him, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of
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God, and Kadesh Barnea, concerning you and me.
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I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the Lord, sent me
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from the Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land.
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And I brought him word again, as it was in my heart.
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But my brothers who went up with me, made the heart of the people
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melt, underline this phrase. Yet I holy followed the Lord my
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God. Let's stop there.
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Where? Where is it that we must fully
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follow God? First?
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It's this. Jot this down if you'd like to
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take notes. Fully follow God.
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When fear tells you to retreat fully holy follow God like the
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example Caleb has given to us. When fear tells you retreat, let
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me explain who Caleb is for you. In case you're new to the Bible,
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I I know that some of you are have not studied the Old
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Testament at length and so you're a little lost right now.
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So let me locate us. In the story of Scripture, Caleb
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is one of the two spies originally sent by Moses 45
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years earlier. Moses was the leader of Israel
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out of Egypt through the wilderness.
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He was their leader, and before they went to the wilderness,
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Moses sent 12 spies to go spy out this land that they're about
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to give. Caleb and Joshua, the title
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character, and his friend Caleb were two of those 12 spies.
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Those spies go into the land and they spy it out and they go,
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guess what? We are terrified of the people
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that they're giants. They're going to crush us.
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Like to them, we're grasshoppers.
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We're little. We can't beat them.
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Even though God promised it to us.
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We are terrified. But Caleb and Joshua were the
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only two men who said no, no, no.
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If God said it, he's going to do it.
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We don't need to be scared of them.
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God said we could have the land, therefore we're going to go in
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and take it because of the other 10 spies disobedience.
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Look back at the Bible with me. It says my brothers who went up
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with me made the heart of the people melt.
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So Caleb and Joshua are saying, hey, guess what?
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No, we should go take this land 45 years ago.
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And there's ten other men who are saying no, no, no, we should
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be shaking in our boots. And the people of Israel heard
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these other ten men, and their hearts melted with fear.
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No, God isn't bigger than them. No, we're smaller than them.
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Well, we can't beat them. We can't fully follow God and do
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as he commanded. Yet I it says I holy follow the
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Lord my God. Caleb doesn't just report of
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what God has done. Caleb gets to experience the joy
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of not only surviving the wilderness but also seeing the
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promised land. Moses doesn't get to see this
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because he doesn't wholly follow God.
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Caleb and Josh were the only two people from that era of Israel
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who get to make it into the promised land.
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A whole generation dies out over 40 years in the desert.
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Now we have 5 years of battle and Caleb is an old man.
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He's 85 at this point and he still has God's ear, God's words
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ringing in his ears. God says to Moses in Numbers
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chapter 14. This is where you can read the
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story, by the way, if you want to go explore it for yourself.
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Numbers 14 is the cross reference.
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But God says to Moses about Caleb.
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He says this man has a different spirit and he wholly follows me
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45 years. He hung on to those words about
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who God said he was. He never forgot what God said
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about him and that's what helped him fully follow God, even when
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fear told him and others to retreat.
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There's a documentary out there called 100 Foot Wave.
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Any of you've seen it before? Nobody.
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OK, so I feel a lot explained to you that's helpful.
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It's 100 foot wave, so it's pretty self-explanatory.
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There's a spot in Portugal where people go surfing.
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It's got the biggest waves in the world.
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And these surfers when they are out there, they they have to
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commit to a wave that size. They have all kinds of like ski
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doos and like motor boats available for them.
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Because the wave, it gets literally the size of 100 feet
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tall. That is a big building.
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You all that's like three of these suckers stacked on top of
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each other. But it's a wave of water.
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Some people have a death wish, I've heard.
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But here's the thing, When you commit to a wave that size, you
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cannot hesitate. You cannot even blink for a
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moment that you have to go fully into it.
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You have to fully commit. Otherwise you are going to be
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wrecked. You're going to be tossed and
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turned. You're going to be upended,
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perhaps even drowning because you didn't commit to it because
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fear told you to stop. And in Joshua 13 through 19,
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what's going to happen is, is God's going to say over about 60
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times actually, like, hey, this tribe received their
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inheritance. This tribe received their
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inheritance, but he's going to tell Caleb, an individual,
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something amazing that he received his inheritance too.
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And we meet this man Caleb, and what we learn about him is he
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didn't hesitate even when fear told him to retreat.
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He wholly followed God. Even everybody around him did
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not. He said no, no, no, I don't care
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what you say. I know what God has said.
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I will not be afraid. I will be courageous, I will be
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strong. I will look to the Lord, and I
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will trust Him more than I trust your voices.
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Everybody else saw giants and pulled back, but Caleb lived
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with a conviction. Here's what God said.
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We must be a people who fully follow God, who don't live
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halfway in our obedience, but who fully follow Him.
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Caleb's going to serve as an example for us of what it looks
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like to receive the inheritance. He's going to provide for us
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what it looks like to fully follow God even when we're
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afraid, because there's times where we can be afraid, is there
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not? Like in parenting, there's often
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this moment of fear where you're like, man, how can I be
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faithfully a parent once again this morning?
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I don't know how to handle that bickering match.
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I don't know how to handle this emotional meltdown.
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I don't know how to handle the prodigal kid that is happening.
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Listen to me, parent. Listen closely.
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Fully follow God, trust him. Discipline your kids, love your
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kids, disciple your kids, teach your kids, fully follow Him in
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every area. When you're entering into a hard
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conversation, has the mat the words of Matthew 18 come in your
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ears? Has Jesus Sermon on the Mount
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influenced how you go after that hard conversation with a friend
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or a family member? Are you fully following God in
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conflict resolution? Are you fully following God into
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generosity that He's asked of us to be cheerful, generous,
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sacrificial givers? Are you fully following God, or
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are you partially or halfway following Him?
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Are you fully following God into your discipleship roles?
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I can imagine many of us feel fear as we step into leadership
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or into influence of others as we're on the mission of helping
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people take their next steps with God.
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But listen to me, St. City, you need not be afraid.
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If you've been invited to serve, If you've been invited to lead,
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trust us and trust the Lord, that fully following God even
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when you're afraid is what it looks like to be obedient.
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And some of you today need to hear this, that what's stopping
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you from fully following God is the idea of, hey, I don't even
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follow him at all. I'm still discovering whether
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he's trustworthy enough to be fully followed.
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Hear my words this morning. There is no one more worth
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following in your life than Jesus Christ.
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There's no one more gentle, more loving, more kind, more wise to
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the only wise God, to the only good God, to the only one
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trustworthy of giving your life to.
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It's Jesus, no matter where you are.
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And you're on the spectrum this morning following him.
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I just invite you into the wholesale, the great life, the
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good abounding, abounding life of Christ, that you could fully
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follow Him even when fear is hitting your life.
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And it wants to tells you retreat.
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Guess what, you can be courageous and holy.
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Follow Him in obedience no matter where He has you.
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We fully follow God even when fear tells us to retreat.
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But also the second thing is what we'll see in the text that
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we fully follow God when the promise is delayed.
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We don't just fully follow who in fear tells us to retreat.
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Caleb did that 45 years ago. Now we're in present day and
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he's not just acknowledging what happened in his past.
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He's like, hey, right now there's there's a little bit
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more in my past that I want to think about.
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And it's there was a moment for 40 years when I wandered the
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desert and the promise was delayed.
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And Caleb still followed him even in the desert, even in the
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wilderness. He waited 40 years for this
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inheritance. That is a long time.
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Some of you are like, I'm very aware of how long 40 years is.
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And some of you are like, what's 20 years, right?
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We're we're, we're all across the age range here.
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But I want you to notice something in the text.
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Look back at verse 9 and 10 with me.
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And Moses swore on that day saying, surely the land on which
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your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you, Caleb
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and your children forever. Because why?
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Look at that phrase again, Because you have wholly followed
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the Lord your God. He's going to receive the
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inheritance. He's going to receive the the
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promise because he gave his life fully and totally unto God.
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And verse 10 and now behold, the Lord, Caleb says has kept me
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alive. Who kept Caleb alive?
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The Lord. Who does he give the credit to
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that He experienced the promise? The Lord, Who does he give the
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attribution to that He gets the gift of the inheritance?
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God, because the Lord kept him alive, just as he said.
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These 45 years since the time that the Lord spoke this to
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Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness.
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And now this day I AM 85 years old, the Lord has kept Caleb
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alive through the mana days of the wilderness where food fell
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from heaven. And it was just, what is that
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like? They didn't even know what it
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was. That's why mana means.
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It just means, what is that mana and going through rivers and
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battles like Caleb has seen a lot.
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And the thing he calls upon for his mind to have the courage to
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holy follow him is those simple words.
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The Lord kept me alive. It's God's sovereignty, it's
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God's goodness, it's God's protection, it's God's power.
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If you're going to be a person who fully follows God, when
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you're awaiting his answer to your prayers, when you're
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waiting for the promise to be delivered, listen to me.
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You have to have a good grasp on who God is.
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He is the one who is keeping you alive.
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He is the one who is at work. He is the one moving.
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He is the one protecting you. He is the one who is good and
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loving. And if He has said no, he's got
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something better in mind. God is at work even when you
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can't see it. He doesn't see his life as
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something he worked his way into.
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He realized that God kept him alive for 40 years.
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Just to give some of you a grip on what 40 years feels like,
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let's just take a trip down memory lane. 1986 was 40 years
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ago. That's correct.
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And this is how people listen to music back then. 5 bucks to a
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college student can call what that is.
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I didn't hear a single college student say anything.
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OK, that is what we call a cassette tape.
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Y'all? That's a cassette tape.
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And cars used to have a spot for those to go into.
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It didn't used to be touchscreen.
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That's where they went. News came from a newspaper.
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There was no Internet, no cell phones. 1986 I'm thankful to be
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born in 1993. OK, Like I, I, I the 80s were
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cool, the music was great, but I, I think it was better. 1991
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Things are getting better. Michael Jordan's in the
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basketball world now. Things are getting better
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everywhere. 1991 This is what your desktop computer looked
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like. This is what was called program
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manager. Wow, we've gotten better with
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this. 1995 You have what's called AOL Mail.
24:44
This is what it looked like. I mean, we're not even 40 years
24:48
now. We're we're, you know, 30 years
24:50
at this point. And this is how far we've come
24:52
for e-mail nine. 2001 Now you have obviously the hallmark
24:59
moments of 911 in our country, but that is what Google started
25:03
to look like. You couldn't Google before this,
25:06
but now you can. It's this thing that you go,
25:08
wait a second, I have a question.
25:09
And you would ask Jeeves or you would ask Google and you would
25:12
keep going about your life. 2006 That is what's called a
25:17
BlackBerry. Your grandpa might have had one
25:20
college students or perhaps your dad, a BlackBerry was an
25:25
advisor. Now e-mail was going from what
25:27
it looked like to this. This is where you would access
25:29
it. And they had this great game
25:30
called Brick Breaker on it that I would take my dad's phone and
25:32
I would play regularly. 2011 You have, that's what Instagram
25:39
first looked like, y'all And it had these things called, it
25:43
introduced the idea of filters onto your phone.
25:45
And I felt like suddenly, man, I was a photographer like, and
25:50
every other photographer in the room was like, yeah, I hated
25:52
that. Like the, the, the people
25:54
thought they could do stuff and I would take pictures of food
25:57
because I want to be artsy, you know?
25:58
And I wanted girls to think that I was like, I don't know what I
26:02
wanted them to think. That's 2011.
26:07
That's Instagram when it started.
26:08
I mean, Facebook was just a totally different place that
26:10
ain't even bought it yet. 2016, we have this idea of like
26:14
streaming that Netflix is like, hey, guess what?
26:18
I don't know if you can, you probably can't see, but that
26:20
chart on the far right for you guys, the 114% of people hooked
26:24
up their computer to the TV to watch in 2016, only 10 years
26:29
ago. Like Netflix was just on your
26:31
computer. It was a website you logged into
26:33
or they mailed you DVDs. My fast time has gone.
26:39
That's 2016. 2021 COVID is obviously on the back burner for
26:49
all of America in the American mindset.
26:51
And you have these things called COVID birthday parties where
26:53
people would drive around and honk.
26:55
I don't know what states you lived in in 2021, but a lot of
26:58
us had different experiences depending on where you lived
27:01
during COVID in America 2026. Here we are in the advent of
27:08
artificial intelligence. Like so much has changed in 40
27:14
years. Life has shifted, technology has
27:19
adapted. Kayla went 45 years waiting for
27:25
God to fulfill the promise and that He would have this land.
27:29
Think of how much our country has changed.
27:32
Think of all the things that have happened.
27:34
But listen to me. One thing remained the same for
27:36
Caleb. He wholly followed God.
27:46
Man, I hope that's me. I hope that when I'm 80 years
27:51
old, when I'm 85, like Caleb, the thing that is said of me,
27:55
the reputation I have in this world is a man who wholly
28:00
followed God. And this is a man just like you
28:04
and I. He's before Jesus comes, who did
28:08
you have the Holy Spirit living inside of him.
28:11
He's just a man who says, you know what?
28:13
I'm going to listen to God because he knows best that I'm
28:16
going to take him at his word. I'm going to do what he says.
28:19
I'm going to seek and learn the areas of my life that I need to
28:22
grow and following him because I don't even know what to do there
28:24
with my money, with my marriage, with my friendships, with my
28:28
schooling, whatever the category is for you, listen to me.
28:30
God has something to say for you on how to fully follow him there
28:37
and I think what can happen over the course of 45 years, I think
28:40
some of you already experienced this is this question is ringing
28:44
in our ears to God forget about me.
28:52
Did he forget that I have been wholly following him because He
28:56
hasn't blessed me the way I thought he would?
28:58
He hasn't taken care of me the way I thought he should.
29:03
Did he forget about me? Waiting can be so hard when the
29:08
promise is delayed. But I want you to picture Jesus
29:11
a little bit carefully this morning that one of the
29:16
experiences you'll have in your life sometimes is for many of us
29:19
that is, is, is on your wedding day, you will be awaiting either
29:23
the bride will be awaiting to get to her groom or the groom
29:25
will be waiting for his bride. And there's I've always thought
29:30
of this picture with God, God calls the church his bride.
29:34
I thought of it from my perspective as a husband waiting
29:38
for his bride on the altar. And you're like waiting to see
29:40
her and all of her beauty in the white dress.
29:42
And it's, it's just a wonderful day.
29:44
You're waiting for it, for all the engagement planning, the
29:48
worst season, you're waiting for it, you're waiting for it,
29:52
You're waiting for you're at the altar now the day is gone on.
29:54
You're just waiting to see her because you haven't seen her all
29:56
day. We know something amazing about
30:01
Jesus's. Jesus lives every day like it's
30:07
his wedding day and his delight in you.
30:11
That every day while we live is his wedding day with us.
30:17
That the thoughts of communing with us, the thoughts of being
30:21
with you and I is His great delight.
30:24
He loves you and though we are waiting for whatever promise he
30:28
has for us, that there's a there's a peace, there is a rest
30:32
that comes to your soul when you realize that Jesus Christ is
30:37
waiting for you with a smile, that he is delighted and you and
30:44
I, he didn't forget about you. He knows exactly what's up in
30:50
front of the days ahead. Caleb and the Israelites waited
30:56
for their inheritance in the land.
30:58
But we have a better promised land to go toward, a better
31:04
promised land that we await. And it's heaven.
31:07
That's our great inheritance. It's heaven.
31:09
And heaven is a few things. First, know what we get in
31:12
heaven, what our inheritance is. It's God himself.
31:16
We get God himself that the Levites, one of the 12 tribes of
31:18
Israel, that's actually their inheritance, they don't get any
31:20
land, they get God himself and that is a picture.
31:24
It is a shadow of what we get to experience that heaven, we get
31:28
God and we get to enjoy him forever.
31:30
Like I can't wait to sit at the table with Jesus for real face
31:34
to face. I can't wait to see him.
31:38
It's going to be a great day. And heaven is a place for people
31:41
who love Jesus. If you don't love Jesus, you're
31:45
not going to enjoy heaven and you won't be there.
31:49
It's a place for people who love him in our inheritance.
31:52
The Bible says it's imperishable, it's undefiled,
31:54
it's unfading, kept in heaven for you.
31:56
That's first Peter also. It says that we as God's
32:00
children, we are heirs, that we are heirs of God and fellow
32:04
heirs with Christ. There is a real inheritance
32:07
awaiting us in heaven with crowns and with joy and with
32:10
splendor that we get God himself in heaven is going to be better
32:15
than you can imagine. We have to be better hopers in
32:20
that day. It's also a place with
32:23
immortality, no sickness, no death, immortality, eternal
32:30
life. It's also a place of glory that
32:34
you were saved by God and that on that day when you were in
32:38
glory with Him, guess what It means the parts of you that you
32:42
don't like won't be there anymore.
32:48
The sin that plagues you from fully following Jesus will be
32:52
gone. I can't wait for that day too.
32:57
We're going to fully follow Him. Even when we wait for the
32:59
promise, like Caleb. And finally, this third thing,
33:05
we fully follow God until the work is finished.
33:09
We're trying to wholly follow God and receive the inheritance.
33:12
These people, the Israelites, they received land.
33:14
We're going to receive heaven, and that's going to be a better
33:16
land. It's a better promise.
33:17
It's a better inheritance. I can't wait for that day, but
33:20
until the work is finished, we are going to fully follow God.
33:24
Look at how this chapter closes. It says Caleb says, hey, so give
33:29
me Joshua, this Hill Country of which the Lord spoke on that day
33:32
45 years ago for you heard on that day how the Anakin were
33:35
there with great four to five cities.
33:37
It may be that the Lord will be with me.
33:40
Listen to his confidence in the battle.
33:43
It's not in his old, it's not in his age or his skill set and I
33:47
shall drive them out. I actually missed verse 11
33:50
there. I think this is one of my
33:51
favorite parts. He says I am still as strong
33:53
today as I was in the day that Moses sent me.
33:56
So he's looking back at his, his 85 year old self is looking at
33:59
his 40 year old self. He's like, hey, I ain't as good
34:01
as I once was, but I am just as strong as I ever was.
34:06
If I'm still as strong 85 as I was at 40 like Caleb or as
34:09
confident as Caleb is, I think I'm in a good spot.
34:13
He's like, all right, Lord, I want to see this through.
34:15
I want to see the promise happen.
34:16
The job is not done. I am just as strong then as I
34:19
was now, my strength now as my strength and for war and for
34:23
going and coming. So give me the country, give me
34:25
the hill, and it may be that the Lord will with me.
34:27
And then verse 13, Joshua blesses him and he gave Hebron
34:31
to Caleb, the son of Jafuna for inherits just like God promised.
34:36
Therefore, He even became the inherits of Caleb to this day.
34:40
Look at it again. There it is in your Bible again.
34:42
Why? Because he wholly followed the
34:46
Lord, the God of Israel. He fully followed God.
34:54
That chapter 13 is just the recollection of who Moses gave
34:58
the land to in 14 and 15, the tribes of Judah get their
35:01
inheritance. In 16 and 17, the tribes of
35:04
Ephraim and Manasseh which are Joseph's kids and then 18
35:07
through 19 is the 7 remaining tribes that all in about 60
35:10
times you hear the phrase inheritance and allotment over
35:12
this chunk of Joshua. Also, you and I can see that God
35:15
keeps His promises until the work is finished.
35:18
And our job is to keep following him, keep following him, keep
35:22
following him and keep following him and keep following even when
35:25
we don't see the promise happen that one day the inheritance
35:27
will come. One day God will keep His
35:29
promise because there is not a single promise, not even 1 He
35:33
has ever made. He will not fulfill.
35:37
And then we get to Joshua. At the end of verse 19, we get
35:42
our title character once again. It's going to be on the screen
35:45
beside me, but it says this, that when Joshua had finished
35:50
distributing the several territories of the land as
35:52
inheritance, the people of Israel gave an inheritance among
35:54
them to Joshua, their leader, the son of Nun.
35:57
By command the of the Lord, the people of Israel gave him the
36:01
city that he asked Tim Nasira in the Hill Country of Ephraim, and
36:06
he rebuilt the city and settled it.
36:07
These are the inheritances that the priest and Joshua and the
36:11
heads of the father's House of the tribes of Israel distributed
36:13
by law at Shiloh before the Lord at the entrance of the tempt of
36:16
meeting. So they finished dividing the
36:19
land. Joshua and this priest just
36:21
follow God up until the work is finished.
36:24
Caleb wholly followed God, even through the finish line, whether
36:28
it was before the wilderness, in the wilderness, after the
36:30
wilderness, these men didn't matter what their age was,
36:32
didn't matter to the place. They were the same men who
36:35
finished strong, who followed God.
36:37
No matter what area, no matter what age, they were men who
36:41
followed God. Caleb drives out the remaining
36:45
people. In verse 12.
36:46
Joshua gives what God has said throughout the chapters.
36:50
Why? Because in verse 14 of chapter
36:54
14, it gives us our why? Once again, it says in verse 14
36:59
of chapter 14 because he wholly followed the Lord.
37:07
Their context did not determine their commitment to God.
37:11
The job wasn't done so they weren't done following Him yet.
37:16
In 2009, the Lakers were playing in the NBA Finals and they went
37:22
up two games to none. And Kobe Bryant was interviewed
37:25
after the game and they asked him, hey Kobe, why aren't you
37:28
smiling? Why aren't you happy?
37:30
Because he's got the Mamba mentality.
37:32
He's like, what's there to celebrate?
37:34
And he said these 3 words. Jobs not done.
37:40
I think often times what we'll find in our life is we'll think
37:44
the job is done in some area of following Jesus.
37:46
That just because we got it to one level that we'll start
37:48
neglecting that area of our life because we think it's holy
37:52
followed there. Listen to me, we can never let
37:54
our foot off the gas pedal of seeking the Lord with everything
37:57
we've got until we get to heaven.
38:01
Listen to me. There needs to be a human
38:03
responsibility underneath the sovereignty of God at work in
38:06
US, underneath the power of the Holy Spirit changing us.
38:09
There is a responsibility for us to fully follow him because one
38:15
of the most tempting things in life is to follow Jesus wholly
38:18
in some environments but not in others, that we get content in
38:25
some aspect of our spirituality. But I want to call us back to
38:29
this morning is holy following God and I'll call you back to
38:33
the attention of what we started with that some of you need to
38:35
grow and you know, seek God differently this week and this
38:39
season of your life as a thinker.
38:41
Read deeper books about God. Get into the Bible regularly
38:47
study who God is so you can love him more, so you can obey him
38:51
more accurately, more precisely, more even joyfully.
38:56
There's a joy in obeying God. That's one of the great gifts is
39:00
that it's not just duty, it's delight to follow Him as a
39:04
thinker, as a worshipper. Some of us need to wholly follow
39:09
God as a worshipper. That right now you've reduced
39:12
God and worship to right here in this moment that we worship Him
39:15
in a service and you're missing out on the total blessing it is
39:18
to worship God beyond this service.
39:21
You're not worship walking with Him throughout your week.
39:25
Listen to me. If you want to experience all
39:29
God has for you, you must. You have to fully follow Him.
39:34
Do things in your life. Spend time with God in a way
39:36
that pulls affection and love for you out of Him.
39:39
Worship Him as a hopper. Many of us have settled for the
39:44
trinkets of earth instead of the treasures of heaven.
39:47
We spend so much time thinking about Earth.
39:51
We spend so much time thinking about things that are going to
39:54
fade and going to falter and going to fail us.
39:58
When there is a hope that is an anchor for the soul, there is a
40:01
hope that is real that awaits us, that's going to last for
40:05
eternity. Don't get caught up in your bad
40:10
test score. Don't get so stuck on that fight
40:14
you had. Don't get so caught up in the
40:16
promotion you're chasing down at work.
40:21
Don't live for the treasures of earth, but lay up for yourselves
40:23
Treasures in heaven, hope in heaven.
40:25
And finally, Job's not done yet. So we're still warriors.
40:32
We have to fight sin. We still have to.
40:35
I can't wait for the day where I don't have to.
40:37
It's going to be great. We fight sin, we fight for
40:42
truth. We're warriors.
40:47
If we want to experience all God has for us, we have to fully
40:50
follow him. When fear tells us to retreat,
40:52
when the promise is delayed until the job is done, until the
40:55
work is finished, we must be men.
40:58
We must be women, St. City, who fully follow God.
41:04
I pray that you're compelled this morning to chase God with
41:06
everything you've got, because you will find him inexhaustible.
41:11
You will find the treasure of knowing Him unbelievable and you
41:16
will find out that's the greatest life there is.
41:19
Would you pray with me, Lord?