A reading from Joshua chapter 15, beginning at verse 13. Now to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a share among the children of Judah according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, namely, Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron. Arba was the father of Anak. Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there, Sheshai, Ahimon, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Then he went up from there to the inhabitants of Dabir. Formerly, the name of Dabir was Kirjathsephir. And Caleb said, he who attacks Kirjathsephir and takes it, to him I will give Aksa, my daughter, as wife. So Othniel, the son of Kanaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Aksa, his daughter, as wife. Now it was so, when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. So she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you wish? She answered, Give me a blessing, since you have given me land in the south, give me also springs of water. So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Amen. Father, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that as I give an exposition, you would keep me from error and enable us to all grow as we look at the examples of these three people. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, in today's sermon, we're going to begin to look at three cameos that illustrate what it means to walk by faith. Now, obviously, all Christians begin their journey by trusting Christ alone for their salvation and completely relinquishing any confidence in themselves. But hey, the Bible commands us to walk by faith every day, then just begin our Christian journey. We are to depend upon His Spirit every hour of every day. And a lot of people are mystified by this. They say, really? Are we supposed to be driving semis in the power of the Spirit? Are we supposed to be changing diapers? Are we supposed to be doing our carpentry? And the answer really is yes, because the Bible says we're supposed to, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God. And it really takes the Holy Spirit to give that conscious awareness of His presence. Romans 4, verse 23 says that whatever is not of faith is sin, so it all needs to be done in faith, and it all needs to be done by the power of the Spirit so that we can do it in a way that is pleasing to God. I was reading a book this past week by Scott Brown. It's his newest. Actually, he's been writing a whole bunch of books, but this was a preview copy of his book on marriage. And I really liked that book a lot. It shows how everything we do in marriage either reflects the relationship of Christ and the church, or it fails to do so. And he mentions our need for the Holy Spirit in this as well. Let me just give a brief quote. He says, the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, in Ephesians 5.18, is a present imperative. It indicates continuous spiritual activity in the moments of life. This means that family life is spiritual life in the now moments. There is an ever-flowing stream of the fullness of the life of God coursing through you as you teach, change diapers, deal with sin, and mediate conflict. It saturates vacation, work, sorrow, joy, poverty, abundance, and everything else in between. This is your life. This is how your role as a husband and wife works. This is spiritual activity which reflects the fragrance of Christ. So I want to ask, does your life every hour reflect the fragrance of Christ? If you're walking by faith, it does. Now, it's true you have not been called to conquer a specific area of Canaan like Caleb and Othniel were, but God has indeed called you to trust his power to conquer your carnal desires, your fleshly habits, your laziness, your inability to love the unlovable, to trust God to transform even your most boring of tasks into labors that are pleasing to God. It all takes faith, and for many of us, we can go for days on a row without walking by faith. And so I hope we're going to be challenged as we look at these three cameos of faith for what it means to walk by faith. Now, I wished I could take all three cameos today, but the more I meditated on, there's just no way I could do justice to all of them. So I'm going to mainly be looking at Caleb today, and then we'll finish up the passage next week. Now, we already saw in chapter 14 that Caleb was a man whom God had endowed with great faith, a faith that took on the impossible giants of the land. Almost everybody recognizes that. You know, for him to have his ragtag team take on these giants in the land, almost everybody recognized this was an impossibility, and God worked through him. Because God had promised it, he believed that he could achieve it. By the way, I should mention before we go on, speaking of taking steps, never think of faith as being passive. Too many people think faith just receives something. I read about a Scotsman who ferried people from a ship, I think this was in the 1600s, he ferried people from a ship to shore in his rowboat, and one of the passengers wrote about this and mentioned that he was so curious as to why this rowman had one of the oars labeled faith and the other oar was labeled works, and he asked him, what does that mean? And the guy says, let me show you. And so he dropped one oar, and he's just rowing with one oar of works, and it went around in circles. And he dropped that, and he rowed on the one that was faith, and it went around in circles the other way. And then he took both oars, and he quickly rowed them to shore. And he said this. You see, that is the way it is in the Christian life. Dead works without faith are useless, and faith without works is dead also, getting you nowhere. But faith and works pulling together make for safety, progress, and blessing. And I thought that was pretty cool. And to bring it down from theory into practice, let me give an example from my own life. If I just passively prayed to God to restore the section of my brain that deals with languages that was lost when I got encephalitis, that would be, and I did nothing, that would be faith without works. Say, Lord, could you restore this? On the other hand, if I studied Hebrew and Greek and German and French and the other languages that I knew, But I'm not depending upon the Lord to miraculously come through on my behalf. That would be works without faith. Every day during this past year, I have seen the Lord coming through in other areas as well, as I have trusted Him to do the impossible through me, and then I did my duty. And it was in the doing of both that I have seen the Lord come through repeatedly. Well, let's see how faith in God's enabling changed Caleb's actions from merely ordinary actions to actions of faith that really were blessed by God. First, faith enabled Caleb to not be held captive by the past. And there was plenty in his past that could have chained him down and probably would have chained an ordinary Christian down. For example, he had been a slave for most of his lifetime when they left Egypt. And yet he did not manifest a slave mentality at all. That was not true of the other people in his generation. Most of his previous generation, they had to wander in the wilderness because they refused to let go of their slave mentality. But that was not the case for Joshua, I mean, for Caleb. He refused to be chained by the past. Likewise, we saw that his ancestry was Gentile. It was not Jewish. He was a convert to Judaism, or his ancestors, or somebody was a convert to Judaism, and yet he laid claim to his position in Judah by faith. According to many commentators, his name, Caleb, means dog, D-O-G. Who in the world would name his kid Dog? But they say that's what his name was. And we're going to be seeing next week that Othniel and Caleb had different fathers. There are different theories of how that happened. Some people say that Caleb was actually a much younger brother of Othniel. of… I mean, yeah, Caleb was… that Othniel was a much younger brother of Caleb from the same mother, a different father. But I think that the best theory which follows the Hebrew order of the words much more closely is that Othniel was the son of Canaz, and Canaz was the younger brother of Caleb. In other words, he was a nephew, and that's the way some actually translate that. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. Where was I? not being chained by the past. He's 85 years old. It'd be very easy for him to say, you know what, I've put in my time, it's time to coast, and just to slow down. One commentary says, it is sad when believers allow old age to make complainers out of them when they ought, like Caleb, to be conquerors. So, brothers and sisters, I would encourage you, don't let your past, even your immediate past, dictate defeat for today. Every day, move in. There's a new day, a new chapter. Every day, move into God's will for your life, and by faith, receive from Him everything that you need for life and godliness, and ask Him to help you to do your endeavors in a way that would be pleasing and make a difference in His kingdom. Second, Caleb's faith was based on God's word. Taking on this impossible city was not a reckless act of presumption. And I think many definitions of faith that people give today are actually presumption. They're not true faith. Take a look at verse 13. Now to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a share among the children of Judah according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua. God had given a command to Joshua to give Caleb this land, and so Caleb says, I can claim it. God gave the command. So when God commands you to do something, that is just as much a basis for faith as if God promises that you will be able to do it. In fact, that's exactly what Caleb had said 40 years earlier. He had begged the people, he says, since God has commanded us to take this good land, then we need and we ought to be pursuing it in faith. So, it's not just the promises that are the basis for faith, even God's commands. are the basis. So anyway, he was living by faith. After 40 years, well, the whole time he's wandering in the wilderness, he's trusting God for his words, his actions, his attitudes. After 40 years, in Joshua 14, 12, he asks Joshua, give me this mountain. That was the very mountain that the spies had said was impossible to take. But impossible or not, Caleb was determined to conquer the land because God had commanded it. And the same word is the basis for our faith today. When God commands us to conquer our fleshly lusts, we must not give up in despair. We must fight valiantly with the belief we're going to eventually win this battle. God never commands something that He does not also enable us to do if we will approach Him in faith. When God promises that faithful parents can pass on the faith, That we should not despair when our children do not immediately embrace that faith, do not latch onto it. We must persevere in investing in our children, praying for our children, disciplining our children. In many ways, investing in their lives with a belief that they will eventually embrace the things that we have shared in faith. Now, sometimes God makes us wait for a long time because he tests our faith, right? but claim both the commands and the promises of Scripture as the basis for your prayers. Now, that assumes, of course, you've studied the Scripture. You're reading it, right? And it's probably a good idea to read through the Bible on a regular basis. Third, Caleb trusted God with the stewardship that he had been given. What kind of a stewardship was it? Verse 13 says, namely, Kerjoth Arba, which is Hebron, Arba was the father of Anak. Now, if you look at Hebron and Israel, it was a place that's good for grape vines and olive trees and the sheep and goats, but not much else. It's not very good for other kinds of farming. It was a strategic place for defense. We'll see that the very reason that Israel could have had such a tough time taking it on was that It was almost an impregnable place. That's the very reason why Israel could defend it better once they got it. It was 2,050 feet above sea level on the spine of the Judean hill country and very difficult for people to conquer for two reasons. One, geography. The other, it was a stronghold of the giants. It wasn't the lush pastures that Manasseh got. It wasn't the teeming waters of Galilee. It wasn't the rich farmland that some areas of Israel were. In fact, we're gonna see in a little bit that that word for south is Negev. Commentators point out that a part of his land, at least, was desert-like. It was wilderness. It was arid. It did not have water. And yet, it was a gift of God, and Caleb used it to God's glory in the book of Judges. He made the most of his land. And you might wish that you had a better allotment than God has given to you. Maybe God has given you a smaller house and a lower salary, and in other ways you don't have some of the benefits that other people have, but take your allotment with joy and make the most of it. God frequently will give us more when we're faithful with a little that we have. Anyway, Caleb turned his allotment into an incredible asset in the first chapter of Judges. So the point is, faith thrives wherever God places us. In our devotions, I've been reading through the story of Joseph. Everywhere he went, he thrived, right? By faith, even in the prison. Fourth, faith often has to reconquer what we had previously gained the victory on. Now this might take a little bit of explaining for you to understand where in the world am I getting this from. Let's read verses 14 through 15 first. It says, Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there, Sheshai, Ahimon, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Then he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. Formerly the name of Debir was Kirjas Sefer. Now, liberals who really don't believe the Word of God, they like to say that verses 14 through 16 are a blatant contradiction of chapter 10, because chapter 10 says that Joshua took Hebron and Dabir, and he did it before this. And so what's going on here? Well, what is going on is verses 14 and following show that Hebron and Dabir had to be reconquered after the death of Joshua. And the reason we know for a fact that it had to be after the death of Joshua is Judges 1 repeats this exact story, including the marriage of Ophniel to Aksa, and says, chapter 1, verse 1, it was after the death of Joshua. So a lot of commentaries point out that Joshua is not always chronological. There will be these different snapshots, and to fill out the snapshots, it will take things from previous or behind. And so putting all of the data together, commentators point out that Joshua did indeed take Hebron and Dabir, But as Andrew Bolling words it, sometime after Israel's devastating sweep through the south, remnants of the Anakite population reestablished themselves and had to be reconquered in this later campaign by Caleb. So that's the background. That's the meaning of the passage. What's the application? Well, all of us have similar discouragements, don't we? Maybe you have fought and fought and gained the victory over pornography or over anger or over some attitude or other thing that you've been dealing with, and you're on top of the world. You're praising the Lord. You're a victor. You're a conqueror. And all of a sudden, you find yourself falling into the same sins you had fallen into before. And it's very easy to despair when that happens. But faith trusts God in even those circumstances and immediately dusts itself off, gets up, gets back into the battle, and fights with an expectation that God will once again give the victory. So brothers and sisters, never give up. Faith perseveres even when the enemy comes sweeping in once again. Now the next thing that I love about Caleb is that he trusts God against all odds. And this is a point that a lot of people do bring up. They had previously driven the giants out, and those giants had to flee to other cities, especially Philistine cities. But now three giant Anakim have retaken Hebron and Dabir with their armies. And I believe this was while the Israelite armies had moved north to fight other battles. They had come swinging back in again, and now they are determined to live there. And since Caleb knew it was God's will to dispossess them, he is not satisfied to live side by side with the enemy. Now, in future chapters, we're going to see there are other Israelites who are quite content. They're saying, we're not going to battle anymore. They were content to allow the enemy to remain when it was not God's will, not Caleb. Verse 14 says, Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there, Sheshai, Ahimon, and Talmai, the children of Anak. I'm sure a lot of the giants died in the battle, but we know from later Scripture that these three and a lot of other Anakim fled to Philistine cities like Gaza, Gath, Ashdod, and perhaps other areas. They will once again become a menace in the future, and at least now, though, they are no longer a menace to the Calebites or the Othniolites. Judges shows that these families faithfully protected their territory. But the point is, this was a daunting war. Hebron was a tough place to conquer in the first place, as I've mentioned, because of geography. Doubly tough because it was occupied with fierce Anakim. But when God commanded him to battle them, Caleb does so, not worrying about the odds. And you may have your own besetting impossibilities. I believe, personally, God makes every Christian face at least some impossibilities in their life so that they can conquer by faith. It can encourage their faith. It may be an unbelieving relative whom you have witnessed to for decades, and you have gotten nowhere. Well, don't give up. Don't give up. or it may be a habit you're trying to break, or an attitude you're trying to conquer. If God has given His word, have faith to act upon that word and to believe God for the victory. Don't just use one oar, use both oars of faith and works, or a working faith. The sixth thing Caleb illustrates is a willingness to possess all his possessions. And again, not all of the Israelites did this, but certainly Caleb did. He didn't stop with Hebron. Verse 15 says, Formerly the name of Debir was Kirjoth Sefer. Now we'll look at the significance of the name change later next week because I think it illustrates Othniel's faith, not Caleb's faith. But let's apply the rest of the verse to ourselves. Many times Christians are satisfied with the victories they've already made and they think they deserve a bake. And so they want to coast for a while. They want to relax for a while. But let me assure you, if you are not pressing forward there is a tendency that you're going to be drifting backwards. It's just the way life works. Let me read you Philippians 3, 12 through 16. This is the testimony of Paul, and hey, if there was any person who might have been able to coast for a while and rest for a while, it would be the Apostle Paul, who worked probably harder than anybody else in serving the Lord. He was just a phenomenal success. You would think maybe he could rest for a while and relax, but no, listen to his testimony. Philippians 3, 12 through 16. Not that I have already attained or am already perfected. I find that encouraging. Even the Apostle Paul had not already attained. But I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. That's an important reminder. We keep getting discouraged by remembering the wrong things. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind." In other words, he's saying just as he has kept striving to press into God's will for his life, he calls all of the mature people to keep possessing their possessions. What do I mean by that? Well, the Bible says that you're complete in Christ. And yet, how many Christians act as if they're anything but complete in Christ? When they have failures, they act as if it's not my fault, as if, you know, there's something out there. Maybe God didn't providentially give me adequate things, or He didn't give me adequate grace. They're acting as if they are not complete. Another example, 1 John 5, 4 says, everyone who is born of God, no exceptions, everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And yet, how many Christians act as victims rather than as victors? The scripture is not adjusting their perspective. So how many of you have possessed the joy of the Lord, which God says should be your strength every day? How many of you have possessed the peace of God which passes all understanding? I recently have been going through Romans chapter 12. Man, I challenge you, pray through every word of that chapter. You're going to have plenty of room to grow. I have. Plenty of room. In fact, the book on marriage that I read this past week has made me commit myself in this year to strive to be a better husband, to reflect the love of Christ more fully to my wife. Point is, faith keeps possessing more and more of what Christ has purchased for us. Now, the seventh thing that I see in Caleb is that his faith in grooming leaders spurred those leaders to be men of faith as well. And this point may take a bit of explaining, but let's read verse 16 first. Caleb said, He who attacks Kirjash Sefer and takes it, to him I will give Aksa, my daughter, as wife. Now you ought to read the cynical comments that some commentators make about this verse. People accuse Caleb of being insensitive to his daughter, chauvinistic, demeaning of women, violating contract law by forcing her to marry, against her will. No, no, no. We're going to be seeing she did not marry against her will. She's not the kind of woman that could be forced to do anything, believe me. We'll see that. But anyway, these liberals also accuse Othniel of being greedy, opportunistic, and being manipulative. They accuse Ox of being manipulative, a feminist, and an angry, petulant woman. Sometimes they even contradict themselves on these accusations. For example, Amy Cottrill says, this verse proves that women were simply treated as personal property that could be bartered or disposed of at will. But all of these accusations completely miss the point of the passage and miss the repeated statement that Caleb fully followed the Lord with all of his heart. Fully followed the Lord. That's repeated five times. God is really emphasizing he fully followed the Lord. And since the Lord had commanded marriages to be freely entered into as covenants, Caleb could not have been said to have fully followed the Lord if Amy Cottrell is correct. No way. When we look at the cameo of Aqsa, we'll see that she willingly and fully enters into this marriage covenant in faith. But she valued her dad's judgment. So let me try to paint a picture of what I think was going on. And we need some background material to be able to do this. And I'll start with numbers 13 through 14. In Numbers 13 through 14, Caleb had seen that it's not enough to have good leadership skills. Every one of those 12 spies probably had good leadership skills. They would not have been selected otherwise. They were leaders. But 10 of those spies had major character issues, and it's not surprising since God says that they lacked faith. Caleb saw firsthand the incredible damage that leadership can produce when the leaders lack faith. Because God had emphasized this so many times, that they did not follow God with their whole hearts, and they did not fully follow Him, they did not have faith, Caleb was not about to elevate anyone to leadership who did not have those qualities and spades. And thus, as Elan Dallaire points out, Caleb had spent the previous 40 years grooming faithful leaders underneath him. And you can look at her commentary to see the proof of that. But it makes sense. Since like produces like, he no doubt mentored leaders to be sold out to the Lord, to live by faith, to have mature character qualities. So my first observation is that all of the leadership team that Caleb was speaking to in verse 16 were men like Caleb. He's not giving his daughter to just anybody who was out there that can win a battle. No, these were quality men who had proved themselves in years of battle and testing. My second observation is that if this is true, If all of the leadership team consisted of men who fully followed the Lord, lived by faith, had mature character, had been tested, then it's also safe to say that Caleb considered any of his leadership team to be men who were worthy of his daughter. So which one to pick? you know, among equally qualified candidates. Third, given the respect that Caleb and his daughter exhibit for each other in the remaining verses of this pericope, and we'll look at that next week, it is safe to say that they had had conversations many times on who might be a worthy husband. In obedience to the Lord, Caleb had faithfully raised up children to be sold out to the Lord. And they had no doubt talked about this a lot. Perhaps they'd even discussed a test that might show God's will on whom to marry. In any case, since God says five times that Caleb wholly followed the Lord, it's safe to say that he would want her freely to enter into this covenant, just as the law dictates. She trusted her dad's judgment, but more importantly, she trusted God's guidance. And when we look at her, we'll see she was indeed a woman of faith. Fourth, Kerjoth Sefer would have been a tough place to conquer. And I should have included a map of the archeological dig of Kerjoth Sefer. It's really interesting. Maybe we'll deal with that next week. They've uncovered the foundations. The walls were 13 feet wide. We don't know how tall they were, but there's a lot of indications that this was a pretty impregnable place. And so it was a tough city to conquer, and anyone who led the charge on that city must have considered Aksah, Caleb's daughter, to be a bride worth sacrificing for. Now, Caleb could have done this himself. Because Hebron was tougher to conquer than Kerjof Sefer. He could have done it himself, but he seems to have been led to allow someone else to do so. Why? I think it was a fleece. And Othniel obviously desired to marry her, so by taking this challenge, Othniel was clearly making a free choice to enter into the covenant of marriage. Now scholars are divided, as I said, on whether he's a younger half-brother, or whether he's a nephew. I'm 100% convinced he was a nephew, the son of Kanaaz. In other words, on the second theory, Othniel was a relative that would have been hanging around considerably And either way, though, the evidence indicates that Othniel would have been close enough to Caleb's family to have noticed Auxa for a long time. He's not entering into this blind, nor was Auxa. They both knew what they were getting into. But more importantly, this was likely a test of faith, just as Caleb knew that the only reason he was able to conquer Hebron is God led him to do so, and God enabled him to do so. If anybody's able to conquer Kerjah Sefer, it shows God's hand with him, because it's going to be a miraculous win to be able to do so. Now, you can argue with me on this point, but I do not think that this was a bargaining chip, trading his daughter for favors. As I say, he could have done it himself. I think this was a fleece before the Lord, and the Lord was giving his green light to marriage by giving Othniel a miraculous victory. Now, the eighth major point is that Caleb's faith was passed on to his daughter. Now, I wanted to do that today, but we're going to have to leave her faith till next time. But I do want to point out that God many times used parents of faith to raise up children of faith. Just as God used Caleb's passionate zeal for the Lord to raise up faithful leaders like Othniel, he no doubt used Caleb's zeal for the Lord to raise up one daughter and three sons. And yes, there were three other children. 1 Chronicles 4.15 talks about three sons. So we call this covenant succession. And in your outlines, I gave a couple scriptures. God promised covenant succession two times, once in Deuteronomy 136, once in Numbers 1424, in both places where God promises to bless His children. And here's the thing. Covenant succession does not happen automatically, even when God has promised covenant succession. It does not happen automatically. It takes both oars of faith and works in the hands of parents in order to achieve it. Making great sacrifices on behalf of your children is a wonderful thing, but if it's just the oar of works, it's not going to get you anywhere, nor will faith by itself get you anywhere. It takes investing in our children with a firm faith that God will bless those investments. Again, both oars are always at work where genuine faith is present. Now the last thing that I see in Caleb is that his faith did not automatically appear when some huge need arose. It was because he had been continually living by faith on the smaller issues over the previous 40 years that he had the faith to take on Hebron and trust God in getting his daughter well married. I'll just read one of the scriptures in your outline. Numbers 14.24 says, Now that passage mentions three things that accompanied and illustrated faith. The first was a different spirit. Different than what? Well, different than the 10 spies, okay? The 10 spies were thinking like the world and only obeyed God when it was easy to obey God. What made Caleb's spirit different? Well, I believe he had been fertilizing His Spirit with the Word of God, watering it with grace, exercising His Spirit with faith, working faith. Those things expel the world's ways from our heart. A worldly spirit cannot coexist with those things. In contrast, when we fertilize our spirits with worldly entertainment, worldly reading, worldly studies and conversations and friendships and political thinking and customs, don't be surprised when it seems really strange to be living by His grace every moment of every day. It does seem strange to people when they think like that. Likewise, if you've been watering the spirits of your children with self-help, self-affirmation, self-worth, and all of the other graces of the world, and I call them graces of the world because the self-esteem movement is a counterfeit of God's grace. So you've been investing all of that in your children. Well, you should not be surprised when your children don't see the need for God's grace 24-7. Make sure that your spirit and the spirit of your children is different from the 10 spies. It's not enough to be outwardly Christian. All 12 spies were outwardly Christian, right? All 12 of them. So their spirits though, the 10 spies, were not different from the world. So the first thing that accompanied Caleb's faith was that his spirit was different from the compromised Christians around him. He did not care that they thought he was way, way, way too radical. You read Numbers, oh wow, yeah, they thought he was way too extreme, way too radical. In fact, they were willing to stone him because they thought he was too extreme. Maybe they felt judged by him, who knows. But Caleb's spirit was set apart to the Lord and what the Lord thought and what the Lord wanted. The second thing that accompanied his faith in those verses was a servant heart. God calls him my servant Caleb. The 10 spies were self-serving and self-saving. They didn't want to take risks for the Lord. They didn't want to make too many sacrifices for the Lord. In fact, as I mentioned, they were ready to stone Caleb for being too radical. Being self-serving is the opposite of being a servant of the Lord. So, brothers and sisters, commit yourself to delighting in serving the Lord rather than being self-serving. God says the third thing that accompanied his faith was that he has followed me fully. It was not a half-hearted Christianity. So if you want to be a man or a woman of faith, make sure that you are sold out to the Lord and committed to following him fully. Don't pick and choose which things in the Bible you're willing to follow. That's a sure way to kill faith, and without faith it's impossible to please God. I wish I could have taken all three cameos today. I think you're glad I didn't. way too much to say, so I'll save those two cameos for next time. But let's imitate Caleb by using both auras throughout the day, every hour of the day, the aura of faith and the aura of works. Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for your word, which continually challenges us to grow in you, and I pray that we would not be discouraged with the challenges that your word brings, but that we would be driven to realize that you supply everything that we need. Even though we can do nothing without Christ, may we all realize we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And so bless this, your people, with the confidence and the faith to trust you and to act upon that trust. In Jesus' name, amen.