Good morning. I have a confession to make and a test, and I want to testify when I confess. All right. When I sing that song softly and tenderly, and I've done this for years, and maybe there might be somebody out there that would say, yeah, that's me too. I sing that song. I said, that doesn't apply to me. Uh, if you remember that song is, is a song. If some of you go way back, you remember many, uh, services were closed with that. the end of the service was closed with that hymn as an invitation for people to come to consider coming to Jesus. And in our churches today, you rarely ever see those types of services anymore, where you have an invitation for lost people to come to Jesus. And so I've sang that over the years and thought, well, that doesn't really apply to me. But the testimony is, yes, it does. Yes, it does, because I'm glad I'm not one of those individuals that has to consider that I've already done it, amen? I've already considered Jesus, I've already taken a look at him, and what he had to offer me was forgiveness through his shed blood, and I am in. And so that's my testimony. I'm just glad that I can sing that song now and truly understand, and it's only come recently I think so often, I know I do, I tend to take things for granted, you just sing the song, you know, and you hear the words, you know what they mean, but to apply them sometimes can be a challenge, and I'm so glad that I can testify to that. I have another confession. Maybe we'll just make this confession morning, right? Have another confession, and we had game night, Friday night, and I must say that it did not go as well as most of us had planned at our table. It was a nice crowd, wasn't it? It was really a lot of people, and we had numerous tables, and thank you, I'm sure, Andrea, you were involved in that, thank you, and many others were involved in setting that up, so thank you, it was fun. It was loud, and you had to say huh a lot at your table, at least we did. We had the heart of hearing table, I think. And so we did a lot of that, but it was so much fun. We did a lot of laughing at our table, as I'm sure a lot of other tables, you could hear them as well. And we just had a lot of fun. It was a good time. I'm grateful for that. The confession is that someone at the table and at our table was, let's see, Charlotte and Mary and Christine and Anita, where are you Anita? Is she not here? Oh, that's why. She knew I was gonna do this evidently and didn't want to be a part of it. Basically, the confession is that our table was really bad. It was game night and someone chose, and the confession is, someone chose, was it Bible categories? And you know, you think, well, I got that down. That's not gonna be a problem. And we played it. Now, the confession is, I think I can confess for all of us. Right, guys? We did really bad. I mean, I'm not gonna tell you, I mean, I know that you think you could do better, but when you get in there, the pressure is immense. To remember all those, and then when you get home, here's what happens. You remember those. They come to you, but at the time, they just don't. In honor of that, we're going to do another game this morning, and those that were at our table will probably appreciate this more than the rest of you do, but maybe you'll get it. We're going to play a really simple game, so Charlotte, Mary, Christine, and Anita, wherever you are listening, hopefully you'll hear this later. You will get a chuckle out of this. and enjoy it. We're going to make it really much more simple than we had at our table Friday night. I'm going to give you two choices, right? It couldn't be more simple than this. You do not have to answer because there's not a wrong or right answer. Those are the games that I like. Okay, so here we go. You don't have to answer out loud, just answer this. Red or blue? Thanksgiving or Christmas? I always want to be a game show host. I don't think I would do very well, but spring or fall? A car or truck? You're not supposed to answer. You can if you want to. Cheeseburger, pizza? I already know Mary's answer. Coke or Pepsi? Chocolate or vanilla? Or neither? There you go. I heard somebody say that. Now, this may not apply. We can do so many of these, but we can do as many of these as we want. Burger King. Some of you are saying neither. A book, a good book, or a good movie? A good comedy or a good drama? I told you this would be fun. I'm having more fun with this than Not that I didn't have fun Friday night, but I think I'd get more of these right than I did the other night. Ah, here it is. Old Testament or New Testament? Old Testament or New Testament? A lot of choices in life. You know, we make choices every day and most of them we're not even aware of. It's good to have fun, good to play games, good to see how much you know. But life really is full of choices and we make them every day. We eat those foods, go to those places, watch those things without saying I have this choice or I have that choice. And I think life is like that. I think generally life is like that. I think the Christian life is like that. When we come to know the Lord, we live our lives and we make choices. And a lot of times we do that. I think most of the time we do that without even thinking. When these two options were presented to you, and there are probably thousands in our life that are like that, this or that, when these two options are presented, every one of you are probably, with the few seconds that you have, could give a reason for that choice. And if you choose the New Testament over the Old Testament, and I know that we do, that is presented to you and you're gonna pick one immediately, and there's gonna be a reason for you choosing that. If you're one of those individuals that chooses the New Testament, I get it. It flows a lot easier, It's a lot shorter and definitely a lot easier. If you're gonna read the Bible to start there, you'll probably get through it a lot faster than you will the Old Testament. And the New Testament is so positive, isn't it? We have so much to look forward to in the New Testament. You have the birth of Christ. What could be more glorious than that? And I know that all the things that are connected with that are a challenge sometimes to comprehend, but they're not that far out. And you just flow when you see Jesus coming on the scene later in the Gospels and healing people and people coming to Him. And then you get the book of Acts and thousands and thousands of people are saved and the church has started. And then Paul comes along and he just continues that and teaches and churches are started worldwide. Wow, and you follow that through and see all of Paul's teachings, and we don't always understand all of it, but it doesn't seem like it just flows, and you get to the very end, you read the book of Revelation, although we don't understand a lot of it, but we get the gist of it, don't we? That Jesus is coming, and he's gonna set up rain, and we're gonna be a part of that, and it ends like that. And then we go back in the Old Testament, and if you were one of the few that probably chose that, We have some stories, right? I mean, creation, come on now. I don't know where we would put that, but when you read that from the very beginning of the Old Testament, but it seems like after that, it sort of goes downhill, doesn't it? I mean, and then it's just, And we would go through there and we couldn't even list all of those things, but there's a lot of stories in the Old Testament, right? We love those stories. I mean, Daniel and the lions then and Joshua, Jericho and the walls falling down. And there's a lot of that type of stuff in the Old Testament. But as a whole, it seems like the Old Testament, other than the stories, a few of the stories that are in there, we find it difficult to choose that one. And if we were to choose it because we like the stories, when we get to the really difficult parts of it, what do we want to do with it? We're tempted to just skip it, right? I mean, when we arrive at certain parts in the Old Testament, I feel bogged down sometimes, and at times lost in it. And I know you power through it, right? That's what we're told to do. It'll come to you. And by the way, it will, not all of it, but it will, because the Spirit of God is the one that teaches us the scriptures, not just our reading. If we depended on that, I know I wouldn't make it. But we arrive at certain parts. How about those genealogies? You like those? Is that something you wake up in the morning, say, I gotta do my daily Bible reading in the Old Testament. I can't wait to get to those genealogies, man, those are awesome. Or we get to those laws and rules, say, in Leviticus, and Numbers has them, Deuteronomy has a bunch of them too that are listed, and you go, whew, wow, that's a lot. That's a lot to take in, and I just don't understand it. And then how about this way? You get to the different priestly offerings, which I'm not gonna name. I'd bore you, and I'd lose you now, and you would never hear anything I said. There's too many of them. But you know what I'm saying. You've been there. You've read that in the Old Testament. And just all of those types of things in the Old Testament. And then we get, there's a passage in Deuteronomy 28 verses 15 through 19. And you read that and it goes on further and we're gonna get to this story in just a moment. And there was read so many things in the Old Testament and we come to the conclusion, why would God allow so many bad things to happen to his people? And when we get to the parts where he actually allowed them to either die or kill them, whoo, Does your head spin like mine and try to grab hold of that spinning idea and concept and principle? And so when we make a choice to go there, it's rather a difficult choice to do. I believe today, I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 14. I believe it's one of these stories. And what we're going to do is we're going to do things a little bit different. We're going to sort of take Joshua chapter 14 and work backwards. I like that because I'm left-handed. Any left-handers? I know there's a few. I've seen you. Ah, yes. Do you work this way? Do you put your left shoe on first? those types of things. So you work from the middle to the left. I always tell people, I don't think it's because I'm left-handed, but I always work that way, it seems in my mind, in my life. The glass is usually half empty. For me, it's not half full. And so I'll work from there to the full glass. And I think this is the way that I think, and maybe you do too. I believe today, one of these stories we're gonna look at and scratch our head and go, wow, I get it. So where's the principle? I mean, how in the world does that apply to me? So we're gonna work backwards to accomplish that. In Joshua chapter 14, verse six, we're not gonna start at verse one, we'll touch on it briefly here in a moment. Chapter 14 of Joshua, verse six says, then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua and Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Genizite, said to him, you know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God concerning you and to me, in Cadiz, Bernina. You read that verse and you go, so what? What does that mean? Like I said, we're gonna work backwards, we're gonna find out we get to this point here and what it all means. And we're also gonna find out what Caleb teaches us about having victory in our lives when we make choices, particularly to do right, to do righteousness. First of all, you're gonna see, you have an outline probably in your bulletin, and I usually don't do this, but I'm gonna do this this morning. The first point on there is defeats of others need not make losers out of us. I know on the surface when I make that statement, or it's a bullet point in the outline, that it may not mean much to you, or maybe it does. Maybe you hear that and you go, ah, yeah, I've been there before where people drag you down. And that's not really where we're going. We're going to focus a lot on Caleb this one, one individual. that made choices to do right and how that affected his life, even at the age of 85. Don't think we have anybody here that's 85. We've got a couple that are close. I know Myron is. I don't think we do. But I don't want to name any other names. I can get by naming Myron. He won't get mad at me. But 85 is getting up there, I think, in my opinion. I mean, that's a good long life. And when we take a look at Caleb and how he got to that point in his life, it's all based on choices that he made to follow the Lord. Now, if we're old at 80 or 75 or whatever old is to you, and I realize it's all relative because the older you are, everything before you is that young. But whatever that means to you and whatever old means to you or older, It's hard to go back. You don't recapture those years. So what do you do? You start from here and move forward, amen? That's what you do. And however long the Lord has given you to live these next few years, you do it in honor to him and make the choices that are pleasing to him. That's what Caleb did. And it looks like at a very, very young age, And he says this in verse seven, and it's gonna give us a clue as to what we're gonna talk about in a moment as we go backwards. He says in verse seven, I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Caesarea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. It's becoming a little bit more clear here that there was an incident in life or incidents in the life of Caleb and God's people, where not only did Caleb have choices, but lots of other people had choices as well. And it's gonna really open up and it's gonna become more visible to us that Caleb was one of the few that continually made the right choice in following God and doing what God wanted him to do. And now he's 85 years old and he's gonna get blessed by God. He's gonna receive what God promised him. After all of these years, because he says he's 85 years old here when he's talking here, And now he's gonna go back 45 years, and he's gonna pull us in to what happened in his life 45 years ago. And my guess is we don't have a lot of history on Caleb prior to him being 40 years of age, but we're gonna assume, and I know you can get in trouble doing that, we're gonna assume, though, that that's how he lived his life. But at least he lets us in into his life when he's 40 years old. And so he says, I brought back word to you just like you told us to do, I brought back word to you, what is he talking about? He reported according to his conviction somewhere along the line, and we're gonna pick up that story in just a second. He shared some facts when they were sent to spy out the land, and we'll go there in just a second, a few seconds. And he did it without siding with other people. He did it on his own. He made a choice to report what he saw and what he experienced. And he didn't look around at the circumstances and make a decision. But he said, I reported just what I saw with my own convictions, irregardless what everybody else was saying. And then he says this, nevertheless, and I highlighted that in my Bible, because I don't know, when I see that, it stands out to me. It's a word that stands out to me. Nevertheless, Caleb says, I reported this. Nevertheless, my brothers had a different report when they came back from spying out the land. Nevertheless, my brothers, in verse eight, went up with me, they made the heart of the people melt with fear. And then he says this, but I followed the Lord completely, wholly, with my whole heart. I look around and I can see this now, as we go backwards here in just a moment and we work back, I can see it now. I can see it now, there are two sides. Two choices, right? Red, blue, cheeseburger, pizza, right? Old Testament, New Testament. I can see that, and I can see that coming about here. There's gonna be a choice to be made, and there's gonna be only one of two choices. And you're gonna have sides, and Caleb is on one side, and his brothers are on the other side, but he says, That side, when they came back and gave their report of what they saw, and we both saw and experienced the same thing, they brought about discouragement to the people. They fostered terror in people. Their report caused the people to lose heart, and when you lose heart, by the way, you're just about done in. I want you to go back to Deuteronomy chapter one, and like I said, we're gonna work backwards, And we're gonna take a look at this, Deuteronomy chapter one. Now these are some of the fun parts of the Old Testament, right? The stories of Moses, particularly the life of Moses. A lot of fun to look at this, but verse one in chapter one, these are the words which Moses spoke to all the sons of Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, between these two towns, and Laban and these two individuals. It is 11 days in verse two, from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Cadiz Barnea and it came about in verse 3 in the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them. And after he had defeated Sion king of the Amorites. I always think this is fascinating all the things that happen in a verse. And we're certainly not going to stop and pause there. But you know he's recounting this. The scriptures are recounting the life of Moses and what's happening in the life of Moses. You know, he's moving and all these things are happening in his life, right? All these battles and victories and crossing these seas and all this stuff is happening. Verse five, across the Jordan and the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expand this law saying, the Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb saying, you have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors He lists a few of those in the hill country in the low land and Negev and by the sea coast and all that stuff. And he says, see, I have placed the land before you, go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to them and their descendants. And he shares this with the people. And here's this history of what's going on as they have now been delivered from the land of Egypt. And now, by the way, can you imagine that? Being settled in a country that initially you didn't like if you were alive then, which most of the people, none of them were. But just, you're just born and raised there, but you're not from there. And now you're gonna be delivered from, I mean, that's your home. And now you're gonna be delivered from that. I think back on those people and I think, delivered from what? I sort of have a pretty cushy here. I have a pretty good life here. I mean, I might be a slave, but I've got three meals a day, I've got a home, I've got a place to live, I've got, my family is here, and now God is gonna deliver us. So some of the things that are said later on is understandable. I mean, there's gonna be some things that will cause you to shake your head that we're gonna see here that happen, but you can understand that somewhat. when you see that these people were yanked out of the place that they call home under the guise that they're being delivered. And to them, maybe they weren't seeing it as being delivered. And that's why later on, and I don't want to get ahead of myself, they say later on, hey, we'd been better off being back in Egypt. This is awful, what we're going through here. But without getting ahead of myself, this is where we are. This is where they are as well. And they're traveling and going through all these experiences in life that they're going through with Moses as their leader. And he begins to develop. I mean, there's a lot of people here, right? And he was the judge and jury with everybody. When there was an issue, he helped judge that and solve it if he could among the people. Well, he can't do that anymore. There's too many people. And so he breaks all this down in the next few verses, verses nine through down verse 18, he develops a hierarchy of leadership. And he picks certain people from certain tribes and they become the leaders of those and it breaks it down. And you can see just like in our government today, that's what he does. And he does this and so they're moving forward and they get into verse 19, they move forward into the land of the Amorites And I always say, in the Old Testament, if you see an ite after the name of a nation or a country, the chances are that they were enemies of the people of Israel and the people of God. And the Amorites were one of those, one of their greatest enemies. And they have challenges with these people. And in verse 19, they set out and go in that direction to where they are, because that's the direction that the Lord told them to go. They've got this land that God said, that's gonna be your land, and you're gonna take that land. Well, you know, it's easy to, when we have direction, especially from the Lord, and we don't know all the details, it's easy to say, I'll do it. But if you could foresee everything in your future, it would be a little bit more difficult to say, yes, Lord, I'll do it. But they're gonna go, right? But they're gonna have a lot of challenges that lie before them. And so, in verse 19, he says, like, he's telling this story, we set out from Horeb, in verse 19 of Deuteronomy 1, through all that great and terrible wilderness. Isn't that awesome to read that? Because remember, they're gonna wander around in it. They're gonna wander around in it for a long time. And I never really saw that before, that phrase about the wilderness. But there it is, brighter than day. It was not a pleasant experience for years. They live like that. But anyway, here they are, they're on their journey, and they're in this wilderness. And on the way, the hill country, the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us, were doing what he told us to do. They're headed in the direction that the Lord told them to go. And I said to you, you have come to the hill country, it's probably Moses speaking here, the Amorites, which the Lord our God is about to give us. Going in that direction, this is what he wants us to have. He's going to give us that land. That's gonna be our land. By the way, and I don't know all of this, but if you look in our world today, that's what, in the Middle East, what they're still fighting over. And I wouldn't begin to even assume that I'm a historian and can break all of that down, but in essence, they're still fighting over this. And we read this story and see God's people, and the Old Testament would probably not be our choice if we had Old Testament, New Testament. When you start getting into these stories, though, they're not just complicated, hard to understand stories. These are people's lives, and they're being challenged to follow the Lord, and they do, and then tough times come. And those choices get squeezed down and there's not much wiggle room to make the right choice. Always easier to make the other one. But here they are anyway, nonetheless. See the Lord our God in verse 21 has placed the land before you. Go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of our fathers has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Now, something sort of pivots a little bit here as they're traveling and as they're going toward this land to take the land that God has promised them. In verse 22, then all the congregation approached me and said, Moses, their leader, is saying, hey, let's go get what God has given us. It's ours. He said do this, right? They're on the way, and now they're getting closer to it, to making that final decision of whatever they have to do, and they go, whoa, wait a second here. I think these guys are pretty bad dudes. I think, I don't know if I, Well, and so they approach Moses. And they go, hey, we got an idea. And here's the idea. Let us send men, in verse 22, that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter. Okay, yeah. Right, Colin? So Moses, right, he's sitting over here with Colin sitting, he's going, yep, yep, it's a good idea. Wasn't the plan, but that's what they proposed to him. And the thing he says here, verse 23, yeah, great idea, pleases me. So I took 12 of your men. Now it seems like now it's not Moses talking. It seems like it's shifted some. It seems like now Caleb. talking, doesn't it? So, he says, I took 12 of your men, one man for each tribe. And whether this is Moses or Caleb, it's hard to decipher. But anyway, you get the idea. Good idea. Good plan. The leader says, okay, that's a good idea. And they turned in verse 24 and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied out the land. Like like the people suggested. Then they took some of the fruit in verse 25 of the land in their hands and they brought it down to us and brought us back a report and said, it is good. It's a good land, which the Lord our God is about to give us. And we're gonna end there. And if you end there, we're good. But it doesn't end there. Right? And isn't that life when you have choices to make, if it ended in a certain point, I know exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna choose the right one every single time. But it doesn't end there. Moses reminds the people in the very beginning of the promises of God, they move forward as he develops his hierarchy, as they move forward and they are a people united, but they move into here and they've got challenges. We need to go spy out the land, but hey, I'm not really sure we have a plan. Hey, here's a plan. Leader says, good, we're good to go. And the spies come back and they have a good report, but we've got a problem. We've got a problem in the ranks. I always say this, it is really easy when there's only one person involved in anything, things will probably go the way they should go. But then when you add a second person, it gets a little more complicated. And then three, and then five, and then 1,000, and then 10,000, and then a million, and then, right? How many times have we looked around in our country and said, what is the problem, people? It's people. Are you with me? It's people. You say, why can't they make the right choice? Why can't they create the right law? It's people. And Moses here is no different. Caleb is gonna experience the same thing, because he's gonna be one of those 12 spies, along with Joshua, which we'll go back in just a moment, and that's where we'll spend the rest of our time. But I wanna set the stage for you. And so the motivating factor here and what we're gonna see with this problem in the ranks is just an unwillingness, the scripture says, and a rebellion against God. And where does that come from? Not here, not here. It comes from the heart. They already have a problem with God. They already have a problem with God. And so if that is the issue, until that's resolved, Nothing is going to change in verse 26. Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command. That's a strong word. Anytime you see rebellion in any context, that's powerful. Yet you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you grumbled in your tents and said, now I want you to read this. Would you? I'm hoping you're with me in your Bibles, whether it's on your phone or your tablet or your written page. I want you to see this. I don't wanna just say this. I want you to hear what these people are saying. And if I repeat this from the scriptures, I'm afraid that some of us might miss this. Here's what the people are saying. They sort of stubbed up, and because they had a rebellious and unwilling spirit and heart, they said, no, we're not going to do this. What the Lord has commanded us, right? If we were to stop there and the spies came back and said, man, this is awesome. They went up and did what they were supposed to do. They would've got the land, just as God told them and said, no, we're not gonna do this. because they were rebellious. What does it say there in verse 27? The Lord, what? Hates us. Now, I just wanna ask one question. Where on God's earth did that come from? That's in the Old Testament. I mean, these are just people going, doing what the Lord has called them to. They've traveled all this distance And for the most part, they've done what God has told them to do. They've had a lot of experiences together. They've lived a lot of life together as a body. And then that's beautiful because the church is sort of like that too. You know what I'm saying? Especially if you've been in one for a while and you develop relationships with people, you experience a lot together, don't you? You have your children together. You have your struggles together. You have people that die in your families together. They had the same thing. And so they're living life and they're moving forward and they're doing what the Lord said do, but now we've got a problem with the people. And their attitude is, this is all happening to us because the Lord hates us and wants to destroy us. Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now, and I don't wanna take too long this morning, but hear me, brothers and sisters. When I go to the New Testament, I read, right, John 3, 16, right? I love that, right? You don't get a lot of that in the Old Testament. Now, if you go back to Genesis 12 in the first four verses, We could cuddle up to that, because that's where God reminds Abraham of how much he loves him, and how he's going to bless him, and he does. Abraham didn't always hit it right, and you don't either, and I don't either. But I can sort of relate to John 3.16 from Genesis 12, but there's not a whole lot in there like that. But especially in the Gospels, we're reminded over and over how much the Lord loves us, and at the end of the Gospels, We're really reminded, right, when he stretches out his arms and he's hung on a tree and he sheds his blood for us, we get that. But here are these people that have the concept that God doesn't love me. These are his people. And sadly to say, we're gonna get that in the world and we're also gonna get it in the church too. I know you don't like to hear that, but there are believers that can get to that point where you think that God is against you. I beg you, never get to that point. If there's a small degree of that that even enters your mind or crosses your brain waves somewhere, dismiss it. I would stand and shout on anything. I'll stand on a table, on a pulpit and say to you that Jesus loves you. Almighty God and Father in heaven loves you because he proved it when he sent his son. And he continued, if you know him, you know that that's true. And that'll never change. But here these people came to the point, and I'm not gonna diagnose them because I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist. I can only go based on what the scripture said, that they were unwilling and rebellious. And that comes from the heart. And here these people are, and that is why Caleb can testify with confidence when we go back to Joshua 14, verse six and seven and eight, but I wholly followed the Lord. I made the choices as we were moving, and by the way, it's not just one, there's many, right, in life. Almost every day, it might be subliminal, but you make a choice to follow Christ. Every day. I know we wanna look at it as, well, when I gave my heart to Christ, whenever that was, that was it. And it's a sort of generic kind of thing. I've committed my life to Christ. But really, when you think about it, it's every day. Sometimes you can break the day down, and it could be every few minutes. And so that's what these people were experiencing. And they'd come to the point where they had had enough with God because of their own stubbornness and rebellion and their unwillingness to follow the Lord. And so that's why he could say, if you flip back over to Joshua chapter 14, where he says at the end of verse six, but I brought back word, what was in my heart. Isn't that interesting? that he would say that? Because their rebellion, that's where that came from. And the 10 spies that come back, we'll see that in just a moment, that's where that came from. It came from their heart. And that's why he could say, you know, he says in verse seven, I was 40 years old when this happened. And by the way, now he's 85, and I didn't realize this, but he and Joshua are probably the only living members from those that wandered in the wilderness, because at a certain age, what was it, 20? They all died. So here he is speaking at 85 years old, and what he has to say means a lot. Has a great impact on us. And it did on him. And I think he doesn't know he's talking to us here at Bethel this morning. He doesn't have any clue, because you're talking many thousands of years ago that he experienced this. He speaks to us through God's word, and we hear him say these things. Irregardless of what other people did, I made a choice to do what was right in this situation. And so that's why he can say later on, I don't want to jump ahead here either. OK, now give me my land that I was promised. And he gets it. I look at that, and I wrote down, and then I crossed it out. I said, he gets rewarded. I guess so, but anyway, I don't want to jump ahead of myself because I want to go back a little bit more to Numbers, to Numbers chapter 14. Because we're going to pick it up a little bit more and really see what's going on here. We know that they don't want to move forward because they're a rebellious spirit and an unwillingness in their heart to do what God wants them to do because they think God is against them. But back in Numbers chapter 14, I want you to see what Caleb is experiencing here. He's living this, right? He's living Joshua 14 that we're looking at this morning. And so chapter 14 of Numbers, and as you can see, you probably already caught on, right? As we go backwards, this is being recounted from its original, from originally when it happened, and it's being told again. and rehearsed again and told again and the stories and it sort of becomes history by the time we get in Joshua 14. So it says in Numbers 14, then all the congregation lifted up their voices and they cried out and the people wept that night because right before that in chapter 13, we get the report of the spies going into the land and they come back and they give this report which I don't want to go through all this because we have more stuff to talk about. But if you read that, that's what that's about. And the people, the other 10 of the 12 spies, except Caleb and Joshua, they come back and they say, yep. We agree with Caleb and Joshua, man. Here's the, whatever they had, grapes on a pole or whatever they had. Here's some of the fruit. It's bountiful. It's amazing. It's exactly what God said it was. Land of milk and honey. I mean, it's an amazing place. That'd be a great place to live, but. But these guys that live here, man, are big. They got giants over there. I don't know. I don't know about this. These other 10 guys said, I don't know if this is a good idea. I mean, yeah, it'd be a wonderful place to live. And we'd have it made. We'd have all we needed to eat and wouldn't ever have to worry about living. But man, those guys are big. I don't know if we can cohabit with these people. We definitely can't do that. And I know we're supposed to drive them out and take the land. That's not going to happen, I don't think. And then in verse 30 of chapter 13, Caleb quietens the people before Moses and said, we should by all means go. And so in chapter 14, verse one, all the people as a result of that report, they just sort of lost it. They said, oh man. Now I don't know about you, but I think there's something about numbers. 10 against two is easy to believe. 11 against one is easier to believe. 12 against zero is even better, but they're not always right. And they weren't in this situation. Why were they not right? Because God said, do this. Now I'm not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting that I would be the first jumping up and down going, yeah, yeah, yeah, send me, I'll lead the charge. That's what God told him to do. Anything in life God's ever directed you to do and you say, yeah, I'll do it. And then you get in the middle of it and go, oh boy. I think the easy choice here is to bail out. And then maybe you develop an attitude toward God. See how easy that is to do. These people are no different than we are. Oh yeah, Old Testament's tough to understand in most of it. But here's one that's not, because I relate to this. Well, anyway, in verse two, all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses. Now, can you see where that attitude in Deuteronomy is coming from? Where in chapter one, verse 27, they say, the Lord hates us and he wants to destroy us. Now, as we go backwards and get into the actual of what happened, You can see where this all developed, and the whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt. Now, before we jump ahead, all they're saying is, hey, would that we had lived out our lives, our whole lives, and been buried there. They're not going, yeah, I wish somebody would have killed me while I was there, you know, put me out of my misery. That's not what they're saying. They're saying, hey, it would have been a lot better if we just lived out our lives and died there. They buried us there. Life would be over, and we would be happy. And so you can understand this. Would that we had died in the land of Egypt in verse two, or that we had died in the wilderness. Now that's a little bit different. Now there they are saying, hey, if we'd have died there, at least life would have been over and we wouldn't have had these choices to make of which we do not want to do. You get it? And why is the Lord in verse three bringing us and now they're gonna shift it. And that's what you get in chapter one of Deuteronomy verse 27. Why is it that the Lord is bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? Now think about that for just a moment. The logistics of that alone. That would be near impossible to go back, but that's the way we think as human beings when we're in a tough spot and have to make a decision to do the right thing. So they said to one another in verse four, let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. They already have a leader. I don't like this guy. Now that happens in churches too, by the way. At the end of the day, Pastor Appreciation Day? Is it Clergy Appreciation Day? It's on the calendar. And if it's on the calendar, it's an official day. But not all, everybody likes their pastor's leadership. I've experienced that. And any pastor that's been in the pastorate does, I don't think to the degree that this happened, but look at this. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces. They know they've got a problem in verse five. Joshua in verse six, the son of Nun, and Moses and Aaron, they're praying, man. They're coming before the Lord, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, these are the two guys we're gonna look at in just a moment, the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and they're in distress. And they spoke to all the congregation, the sons of Israel, saying, the land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us, there you go, there you get that again. He gets it. He gets it. There's never a time when the Lord doesn't love us and doesn't want good for us. There's never a time. Now you read the Old Testament, you might get that idea many times over that that's not the case, but that's never the case. If the Lord, in verse three, is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people. Don't fear the people of the land for they will be our prey. Their protection, in verse nine, has been removed from them and the Lord is with us. If I get nothing out of this, I want that. When I'm faced with a choice in life, and I wanna do the right thing, I want to remind myself that my Lord is with me. Because there are times in life where it doesn't feel like that. It just doesn't, but he is. And as I get older, I think it's more important to me to understand some of the principles in the scriptures, like this one. "'cause I need to be reminded of that." It seems like more and more and more. But not only does the Lord love me, he's with me, he lives in me. He's never gonna leave me. And we get in the New Testament, we get that, right? I will never leave you or forsake you. Isn't that a great verse? But you read a lot of the stuff in the Old Testament, you don't get that easily. It's not easy to pull that out. out of those stories, but it's right there. It's what Caleb, Caleb is gonna agree with the New Testament principle that the Lord will never leave us. He's not gonna do that. But, highlight that in your Bible too, please. There's nevertheless's and there's but's and this is another one of those. As long as you would listen to Caleb what Joshua and Caleb were saying about the Lord and about what he's called them to do and how faithful he's gonna be and how he's gonna bless you and how he loves you and all that stuff. If you could stop there, we could all again embrace that, couldn't we? But that's not the case. But all the congregation said, hey guys, today's Pastor Appreciation Day. Those guys are right. They wanna kill them. You don't like that, do you? I don't either. See, that's the kind of stuff we wanna skip. And God's response to this, we definitely wanna skip, right? We have a problem with, especially if we know the Lord and we wanna follow the Lord, with people treating people, they wanna kill their leaders. And again, we're not gonna diagnose this, don't need to, it's right there. Now here's what we really have a problem with. And the Lord says to Moses, he's seeing all of this, right? As he does our lives, he's seeing all this. And the Lord in verse seven says to Moses, how long will this people spurn me? You don't hear that word every day, right? How long will these people be stiff-necked and not listen to a word I'm saying? Has any parent ever said that about one of your children? You don't listen to a word I'm saying, do you? It goes through one ear and out the other. Are you guys not listening? The Lord is saying, how long are you gonna do this? That's what he's saying here. And he's frustrated. Now here's the issue too, we have a problem with, right? Is that God, how could you ever get angry or frustrated with your children? Now maybe I'm the only one that thinks this way, but I got a feeling I'm not. And that kind of stuff bothers me. And so I want to skip it. He says, how long are you gonna do this? And how long, in verse 11, will they not believe in me? I want, I underline that, underline it, highlight it, circle it. That's the problem. That's the problem in these people's hearts. And when we don't wanna move forward and do what the Lord says, and we wanna cut it off and then start blaming other people and start blaming God and start all this stuff, that's the problem. God knows it, Moses knows it, Caleb knows it, Joshua knows it, but the people don't know it. And that's why they are not going to move forward. Despite all the signs which I have performed in there, he says, I will smite them with pestilence. Whoa, man, this is getting too thick. I will kill them. You hear what I'm saying? Does that make you uncomfortable? It does me. When I read those things in the Bible, how bad things happen to what we would consider fairly good people, and maybe even sometimes God's people, that's a problem. So when I get to that point, I'll read the story, but in my mind, I'm tempted to just sort of skip it. But don't, because God has a plan, and that's what it's all about, is obeying him and doing what he tells you to do, irregardless of what anybody else does. But Moses has a conversation with God, I love this. I can't keep going here, we gotta end this eventually, but he has this conversation with Moses, Moses has this conversation with God. I can picture this, see if you can, just the two of them. And he says, God, please don't do this. God justified. Is God justified? Yes, absolutely. Do I like it? No. Is he justified? Yes. Do I like it? No. Wanna keep doing this? We can do this, because that's exactly how it works. God, please don't do this. If you do this, all the people, the heathen nations that have heard about the loving God, that loves his people, and has rescued his people, and saved his people, and all of this, gonna go down tubes. And they'll never believe in you. They'll never embrace you. They'll never accept you. If you do this, And we're not gonna look at all those verses, but in essence, what happens? Do not ask me to explain this. And do not ask me, does God change his mind? Because everybody wants to know that. Here, the Bible says he relents. Now, it's not the first time that he relents, wants to destroy people. and decides later on he doesn't. Is Moses talking God down off the ledge? We get to this stuff, man, that's hard stuff. That's not like the birth of Christ where we can read that and have a day on the calendar, right, to celebrate that. That's not one we're gonna put on there, not this one. And there's tons of those in there like this. This is just people living their lives and God trying to deal with them and them rebelling against God and God responding to that. And then somebody that has a spiritual level head going, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait a second. Let's keep you in mind, Lord. If you do this, your name, these other people are not gonna believe in you. So here we go. The Lord pardoned them in verse 20. And if you read all those other verses, which we're not gonna do right now, He pardons them. He's not happy about it, but he pardons them. And the people don't seem to be happy about it either. And really things don't change a whole lot. But in Numbers chapter 14, verse 24, God says this about Caleb. This is so special. And he says this in chapter 14, if you go all the way down to verse 24, But, and this is God speaking, but my servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land, bring into the land which he entered and his descendants and shall take possession of it. And that's what God wants for his children, right there. It's what he wanted from the very beginning and that's what he wants in the very end. It's just the in between stuff, right, that we have a little bit of challenge with. And that's why it's so important when faced with decisions in life that you always choose what the Lord wants, irregardless of what the rest of the world says, family says, church says, follow the Lord. Make the choice that God wants you to make. Well, Moses testifies. Let's go back. We want to spend pretty much the rest of time where we were, where we started out in Joshua chapter 14. Not only does God testify about Caleb, Joshua testifies about Caleb in verse nine. So Moses swore on that day, now we're back in Joshua, and we're hearing this story after it's already happened many decades ago. We're hearing this in the future. So Moses swore on that day saying, surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever because, and he's speaking directly to Caleb, because you have followed the Lord. And that's the only reason. Because you chose right. What a testimony. From Almighty God himself and from Moses, probably the greatest leader that the Jewish people have ever known. I want you to keep this in mind because living life, we can know these principles, right? But if you ever develop an attitude that God doesn't love me or he's not for me, we wouldn't be the first ones, by the way. You can lose in life psychologically before the victory is a reality. You'll never get to that point. You'll never get to be 85 or whatever the age is. Be in Caleb's shoes where God says, and then Moses says, that's a guy because he followed the Lord fully. Here you go, you have what's promised. We'll never get to that point. You can lose emotionally. You can talk yourself out of doing what's right psychologically and then emotionally before the victory is a certainty. And you can almost guarantee that you'll lose spiritually before the victory is a reality. That's for sure. And if we're not careful as believers, we can lose before we ever get started. And I'm going to guess a lot of those people did. Most of them died in the wilderness. Number two. That was a lot for number one. I promise I'm not gonna keep you, I know. And if I do, just wave and I'll end it. Declining years need not slow or stop our service for the Lord. In verse 10, he's 85 years old. 85 years old and he's been through a lot. The last 45 years of his life, 38 years of those were plagues in the desert. Now, we're not gonna go and look at that. If we did, it would be intriguing to say the least. Seven years of that 45 years were perils of war in Canaan. So he spent those last 45 years as a result, I mean, just fighting and struggling and, you know, they didn't get to land the milk and honey and have a perfect utopia. But he persevered. He's 85 years old and age after all these years has not slowed him down because in verse 10, he says, and now behold, I like that word too. The Lord has let me live. Why is that by the way? Why is that? Because he did what God told him to do. Now you might not live to be 85, but you can do what the Lord tells you to do fully and wholly ever how long you live, right? But he says, I know that. In verse 10, just as he spoke these 45 years from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses when Israel walked in the wilderness and now behold, I am 85 years old today. In verse 11, I love this, right? I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me. Now I know as human beings, we all gravitate to the physical side, right? And we said that is not possible. But physical side of life is not all there is to it, and you know that. There's the psychological side, there's emotional side, there's a lot of things that make us who we are. And you may be on a cane, you may be on a walker, you may be headed toward the hole in the ground, but you can still be strong for the Lord. And that's why he's saying, that's why he's saying, irregardless, even if your mind is not always there, you still got it. Part of it, some of it. And that's why he's saying, and that's such a beautiful testimony, isn't it? I am still, in verse 11, as strong as I ever was when I was at 40, as my strength was then, so my strength is now for war and for going out and coming in. I may not be able to physically fight, but I can strategize for the Lord, right? Some of you, I wanna say this, some of you are older, You can still pray. You can still encourage people. You can still pat somebody on the back. You can hug somebody. You can tell somebody I love you. You can tell somebody I'm with you. I can't go out and do what I used to do. Now, I've not been here for a long time, but there's some people I could point out, and I don't want to embarrass them. It'd be positive, but it'd still be embarrassing. You know, really, you've been such an encouragement to me, I mean, I'm not a youngster, but I'm not 80s like some of you are in late 70s, but you have been such an encouragement to me just as a believer in Christ. So you know what I'm talking about. That's what he's saying. Not gonna slow me down until I die. And when I do, I know what's waiting for me. I know what's waiting for me. That's what he's saying here. Isn't that beautiful? Caleb gets his reward. And you could go down through there if you wish and you could see, you know, he gets a longer life like God promised him. And I don't know what that means in types of, you know, years. I don't know. I mean, what's a long life? Some people live 40, have lived a long life. Some people 85, lived a long life. Some people 100, some people 60, right? It's not the number that he's referring to here, but he lives a longer life and he's got this strength, psychological and emotional and physical strength that God has given him that he can continue to do. what he wants to do. And then number three, and we'll close with this, decide to concentrate on the future and not the past. There's so much to look forward to as a believer. Guys, I wish we knew how long we had to live, but none of us do. You might feel in your body as you get up every morning, it won't be long. But we don't know that. We've got some younger folks here that are in their 20s, some that are teenagers, some that are children. You know, my brother was killed when he was five years old. Guess how long his entire life was, five years? He lived a full life. You're in your 80s, you're gonna die at 84, you've lived a full life. You're 20, you die, you've lived a full life. I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense, but in the whole grand scheme of things and how God looks at it, it does. So you sit here and you're a young, young person, you don't know. You're middle-aged, you don't know. You're old, you don't know. You might live to be 120. Now physically, I've said I don't want to, but Charlotte says don't say that because not only the Lord knows that, but in my brain, in my mind, I'm dwelling on this, that how much longer I have to live in this wicked world. But he trusted the Lord for the future. Let's close with this. Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke in verse 12 on that day. For you heard on that day that Anakim were there. Isn't that something he remembers all this 45 years later? He can recall that because he lived it. With great fortified cities there in verse 12, perhaps the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out. as the Lord has spoken to me. So he said, now I'm at my age in life, I'm ready to have my land, my promise that's been made to me. So Joshua blessed him and gave him the land. And I say, am I to say as Caleb did in verse 10, and now behold, the Lord has let me live for this purpose because I followed him. And I know I'm probably at the end of my life, I'm as strong now for the Lord as I ever have been. And to get the idea out of all of this, that living the truth is always honoring to God, because in verse 14, therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Knessite, until this day, because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully. Ever wonder why Jesus said in John 14, six, could you tell me what John 14, six says? I am the way, truth, and life. Dwell on that when you think about Caleb, and when you think about your own life, and we should be prepared to follow the Lord God in every circumstance. patiently waiting for him to fulfill his promises and ready to take action when the time is right. I think many times that this crosses our mind. And like I said, maybe even daily. And not that life is a matter of choices, although it probably is, but choosing the right one. when it comes to following the Lord is so important. And really it's all about honoring him, isn't it? And having a heart that is fully and completely his, irregardless of what anybody else is doing. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much. I know I went probably a little long, but thank you so much for your, your patience with us. I never would ever want to think that you would want to destroy me or do me harm because I choose to not do what you've told me to do. And I don't want to blindly follow you, and I think that there are probably a lot of us praying the same prayer, maybe in different ways, using different words, Nor do I want to blindly follow you because someone else told me I should do that. Because you've spelled out in your word why you are worthy to be followed and to be honored and to be obeyed. And that's what I want, no matter how long I have to live. And I'm going to guess that your people this morning are praying that same prayer. And so we pray that together in Jesus' name, amen.