Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Father, lay upon their hearts that yes, they can hear Chris.
Yes, they hear good messages, but Lord, Bible studying during the week with an hour
of questions and answers and digging in your truths, Lord.
And for many people say that, well, what's the Old Testament?
Father, you are alive, both in the old and the new.
And we covet in the name of Jesus for their attendance, for them to be blessed,
Lord, not for numbers, but for growth and strength in their life.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Okay.
So here we are, Caleb, wholehearted faith is rewarded.
I did some of my quick notes this morning for a Bible study that we have in our
retirement place, and I asked the question, how many remember Caleb's life?
And out of a dozen people, one said, well, yeah, I know something about it.
I thought, oh, I said, that's interesting, you know, about nobody knows about Caleb.
They know about Joshua very easily.
But Caleb, you know, he gets lost in the shuffle sometime.
So I want to spend some time tonight going over his life and the attributes that he can give us.
So Chapter 14, as I always do, I want to give a brief outline.
The verses one through five is a distribution of land now that's west of the Jordan.
Remember, there are two and a half tribes that already received theirs.
Now there's nine and a half tribes that need to get their allotment in proportion of what they are about.
And it just so happens that some of the elders and leaders, Eliezer, Joshua, and the tribal
leaders were apportioning the land and the land was assigned by lot, not lot the person,
but lot the function of, which we'll get back to.
As commanded by the Lord through Moses.
So these nine and a half tribes get their distribution and the Levites receive cities.
They don't have territory because they're a minister unto the Lord.
So as we progress down in verses six through 12, Jacob, I mean, Caleb approaches Joshua and
reminds him of the promise that Moses made to him about the land that he was going to
receive because he was such a servant of the Lord.
And he declares with boldness.
This is interesting.
I wholly have followed the Lord.
And we're going to come back to that expression.
So he declared that.
And at age 85, think about, okay, now, Ben and I were talking about the other side of life.
And here we are.
We were retired and we're thinking Caleb, 85, he's still going strong.
He wants to get the kingdom established in the land and the promise that was given him.
He wants so he can establish his heritage.
So Caleb still expresses the strength and readiness to do battle because the, again,
the Anakin, the Anakins, which were giants were in the land that he wanted.
So he requested this.
So that takes care of that area of verse.
And then Caleb receives his inheritance, verses 13 through 15.
Joshua blesses Caleb and he grants him Hebron.
Hebron becomes Caleb's inheritance because of his wholehearted devotion.
So an historical note here, parenthesis.
Hebron was formerly called Keneshabara, meaning that land of the giants or
Amakites, and then the chapter closes and the land had rest from war.
I want you to think about this area of Lot, just by way of comparison.
Think about this.
This was the way in which God's voice was communicated to the people.
From God and to God.
Casting lots was a way of seeking God's direction when human judgment alone was
insufficient.
So in Proverbs 16 33, it says this about lots, the lot is cast into the lap, but
it's very decision is from the Lord.
So that's how they communicate it.
And if you remember some of us when we were in the book of Exodus and then we
went through and there was laws, he gave the vestments of the priest to the
Levites and within that there was a pocket.
How many remember what was in the, was in that pocket?
The Urim and the Fumen.
So here's how it goes.
Think about this.
This is how you communicate it to God.
There was the Lot deal and then there was the Fumen and the Fumen.
And so Ken had a question where that question might be, you know, blah, blah,
blah, blah, and he comes to the priest.
So if I'm the priest, I go and I pray and I stick my hands in the pockets and
whatever stone comes up, which is a yes stone or a no stone, I tell him simply
that's the response.
The question had to be a yes or no answer.
So that's how they communicated.
That's kind of cold, isn't it?
When you think about it and now you contrast that to with, with what we have
as a privileged individual and assembly together that we can go and we can
pray, we can feel God, we can feel his presence, we read, we are strengthened
in his word, we get close to him.
The ability for us to be close depends upon us, not God.
And we're drawn to him by way of comparison to the Old Testament.
We are fortunate, ladies and gentlemen, to be able to live the life we live and have
the privilege that we have talking to the Lord.
I mean, that's just so wonderful.
All right.
So that's the comparison of the old and the new way in which to communicate.
Let me point out one other thing here in the scripture.
He was not tooting his horn, but Caleb said this, I wholly followed the Lord.
I think this is one of the strongest statements of faithfulness in the scriptures.
I will say because of his stature in the, in the tribes of Israel and who he was,
he was not a person to brag, but he declared what it was that he was.
I have followed the Lord wholly.
In other words, he didn't deviate right or left from the calling that he had.
Not a lot of us can say that because sometimes we stumble, sometimes we have
to regress and regroup and get together and think about, and then go on once
again, but he wholly followed the Lord and we will talk about that.
So here's a thumbnail sketch of Caleb's life.
He followed God despite any opposition.
Now think about this.
This is one man and there are millions of Israelites, both in the traveling
from Egypt to the promised land, going through the rivers, coming and doing
the battle and all the experiences that we have studied about the resistance,
the backbiting, the disgruntled men and all these things.
And then when most Israelites really doubted God because slavery had shaped
their thinking, and what did they say?
We wish that we were back in Egypt because this food's not good.
You know, and where's the water?
Ben, where's the water?
You know, so we have a contrast here, but he did, he did not flinch when
the giants filled the land.
It says in the, I forget where this specifically is.
It says we were in our own site as grasshoppers.
That's when the spies went in to the promised land and says, oh my gosh,
they're giants all over the place.
How are we going to do this?
We can't do it.
And of course, you know, the end result of that.
And then when the nation rebelled from following God, the golden calf thing,
we talked about that.
We studied that.
What was said, oh, the calf just came out of the fire.
Who made that?
I don't know.
You know, there was deniability everywhere, but yet he was faithful.
And then when he was now 45 years old, he started waiting and seeing, and
that seemed endless because at 40, now 45 is 85, there was 45 years of waiting.
How many have been waiting 45 years for answers?
Couple of us.
Long time, isn't it?
All right.
Okay.
Now Caleb trusted God more than the circumstances.
And sometimes we go along, we believe in faith and circumstances start to creep
in and bring doubt, but he did not do that.
So the giants were real.
He saw them because he was there.
He spied the land.
The four to five cities were real.
They said, the walls were so thick.
We can't get through those walls.
The danger was real.
He knew that.
And yet Caleb believed God was greater than any obstacle that could come up.
And I wish that I could say that for myself, but that is the testimony of Caleb.
Caleb was about 40.
We said that, and because of Israel refused to trust God, the nation
wandered around the wilderness for 40 years.
And then after entering Canaan, it took about five additional years to do battle.
And finally, at this point in time at 85, he's not ready to take his social
security, he wants to do battle to get his inheritance.
I don't think they had social security anyway, but anyway, so there we go.
So my question now, why do some people lose hope during long seasons of
waiting while others remain steadfast?
Why is that?
What observation can we make?
Why do some people hang on?
I was sharing this morning in this Bible study about, I pray for my wife at
night for healing, I believe she's going to be healed.
And I added a caveat.
I said, if not, if not in this life and the other life, because when I see her
in glory, she will have a whole body.
So she is going to be healed one way or the other.
So why don't some people grasp that?
What is the question here?
Okay.
The question is, why is it that they can't see through these things?
And again, not pointing the finger, just the process of thought.
I just remember that verse from a song that says, my only hope is Jesus.
Build on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
And if we take our eyes off of him, just like Peter, we will sink and fall.
Our anticipation level without him becomes too high.
We're pressured and we think, and all of a sudden our eyes are off him.
Yeah, it's the Lord, anything else.
I think some people just have different temperaments, like you can put a child
that spoiled in a room with a bunch of toys and they're going to find something
wrong or complain about something.
And then you can put another kid in a room with literal manure and the
kid's going to throw it around and smile.
And someone's going to ask him, why are you smiling?
Well, there's got to be a horse in here somewhere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Disposition.
Yeah.
Charlie.
Good to see you, by the way.
Thanks.
I was just thinking about the parable of the seeds and some seeds fall on
rocky ground and the birds come and they swoop and they pick up the seed.
And so it just doesn't sink into people.
And then other seeds get planted in the thorns and all life's
worries and anxieties and people, they choke out that faith.
So unless that seed falls in a nice deep soil, sometimes it doesn't grow.
I know in my own case, I've seen a lot of miracles in my life and even
being healed of cancer and that I believe that when it happened, I
believed it so strongly and I was on fire and then people came into my
life and they tell me, no, it was malpractice and that didn't happen.
And after a while, when you start hearing that, sometimes you fall away.
And I feel like I was just like these Israelites that saw the parting
of the Red Sea and all the miracles in the desert and just didn't believe.
So I can see how they could do it.
It's like we just have to block out all those other voices.
We're no better than that, right?
We're the same creation.
If you're staying busy, you know, doing the Lord's work, you know, it's like, it
happens when it happens.
You don't have to keep dwelling on what you don't have because there's
plenty to do while you're waiting.
So you're not really just sitting there waiting.
You're working and waiting, you know, and it's just, it takes your
mind off it and it's beneficial.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
You sure?
We'll give you the money.
Everyone.
So we have that thought process going around in our head about belief,
non-belief, circumstances, disgruntled, and our society is certainly, and
we expect immediate action.
The Lord is our servant, not the Lord is our King.
So that's some of the issues.
So now next question, how can opposition strengthen rather than weaken
our spiritual conviction?
How does that work?
So we have opposition and how can it strengthen us?
You want to take it?
Go ahead.
So when you're in the midst of a storm and you hold on to your faith and
trusting God, and he carries you through it, it strengthens your belief,
it strengthens your stance, and it also helps, excuse me, it also helps
with your day-to-day life.
I mean, I'm coming out of the midst of a storm because of prayer that's
been given to me from people here, from my faith, from my belief, from
staying steadfast in the Word.
I'm not completely out of it, but I know he has a purpose and he's going
to carry me through it and out of it.
So that's wonderful.
And that strength that you're talking about fortifies yourself for the
next set of circumstances.
So it's like pouring water in a cup.
Okay.
You got a little bit, you got a little bit in time, the cup overflows
and you can withstand the enemy.
You can withstand the context of those disbelievers yammering your ear,
like Charlie said.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's what life is all about.
Now, resistance often becomes the thing that refines our strength.
Like you said, reveals a new truth about the Word, because when we're
seeking, we're asking when things are good, how are you just coasting
along, but when you're seeking and searching, the scriptures become
more relevant to you and it solidifies commitment as Christianity
being the only way of life.
Think about that.
There's no other question.
It's the only way of life that is worth living.
Okay.
Let's take a look now at what waiting did in context.
Okay.
So let's look at time.
Time is a factor in this situation.
A long period of 45 years.
We said that represents significant patients, 45 year patients.
Oh my gosh, that's a long time.
Another one, the historical setting that we're looking at during
his lifetime events or changes that have occurred over this 45 year
span, we talked about the waywardness of the, of his brothers and
sisters, the other Israelite tribals issues reflects a persistence in
his life and then third, our visual is like this tree that we see up on
screen imagery, such as a growing tree symbolizes endurance and hope.
You don't go up to the tree every day and say, Oh, it grew.
You leave it, you come back.
Oh, maybe grew a little bit slowly, but slowly, but slowly that tree
grows in strength and stature.
So these are the things that we're going to talk about tonight.
These three things.
All right.
Number one, patience or time in the kingdom of God.
And how many confess that when you first came to the Lord, I want it now.
Yeah, I do that.
Okay.
I'll bite on that first.
God exists outside of time.
He is not looking at his watch one day.
As it's a thousand years, God is external to our schedules.
He's not bound by past president's future.
Cause we always refer to things with happened.
There were stories in the past and we have future goals and we have aspirations.
And here we are in the present.
And most people are dissatisfied with the present.
They're either thinking about what was or what is to come as a reward.
And second Peter three eight says this with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years time is a created framework that we live in because we only have a promise
of 70 years and some of us are above that.
Okay.
And we're blessed.
That's good.
But God stands above that time and sees everything all at once.
He sees the beginning from the end.
Fact is he goes to the end.
He sees the outcome and constructs it and works back from there to give us that
life that he promised us.
He makes all things new for us.
So God works within time for his purposes.
So he comes down like he did when he entered, when he entered the earth, Jesus
was here, he ministered.
So he came in the, in our schedule, in our time, and he enters our human
experience and acts at specific moments in time.
I mean, we could go around the room tonight and I would ask you for
testimonies and miracles.
Some of you could put dates on them.
Some of you couldn't, but you know that God has worked in your life.
In Galatians four, four, it says, when the fullness of time had come, there is
a period that God intervenes in time.
So now waiting, this is the subject here, being patient becomes one of the
main ways we relate to him.
If you didn't pray and believe and you weren't waiting and you weren't
hoping with a divine hope, well, I'm impatient Lord.
And, and I will admit, um, in, in my life, there were certain instances
in tonight's not the time to unburden myself with a couple of them, but
being impatient because I'm kind of like a now person.
I've become less than that recently slowing down.
I think my wife is finally balancing me out.
So that's a confession.
I think she's watching tonight.
Thank you, honey.
All right.
So, um, patience is not just killing time.
Come on, Lord.
Hurry up.
It's daily trusting God's perspective while living in this limited
timeline that we have.
It's a learned principle to be patient.
It doesn't come automatically in, in a meeting that we had at, um, 12
o'clock today and another venue was, um, I run a caregivers group for
people that have a spouse in need.
And, uh, the common theme through about 15 people was, gee, I don't
have enough patients, I need more patients.
You know, and I, I read a poem that I had before I prayed us out about 14
ways in which the individual, I wish I would have brought it experiences
what their caregiver sees don't exclude me from conversation.
I'm still here.
I may not be able to pronounce my words like I could, but be patient with me.
Don't speak for me, speak to me.
And so the idea of being patient is universal kingdom and out of kingdom.
But we have an advocate that brings us that peace, that tranquility,
as long as we trust him.
God is always working beyond what we see.
He's not silent.
He's not late.
He didn't forget about you.
He's always doing something, whether it's in our time schedule or not.
And we are called to remain being faithful within what we can see.
Oh Lord, only if one more, just a little bit, be patient.
And then let's take a look at this clock.
Waiting develops an alignment with God's timing and plans real quick.
We'll go through these things.
Waiting always stretches our faith.
Hallelujah for that.
Not many.
Amen's been.
All right.
What God completes outside of time.
We learned to trust through waiting.
We are seeing him and all of a sudden there is breakthrough.
We had a situation we had been praying for in this prayer meeting thing.
An individual, uh, that attends it has a son-in-law that had a very high paying job
and they moved out to Arizona to fulfill his contract.
And after he got out there for one year, they bought a brand new home.
They had this, they had that, and then they had a child and all of a sudden
his job was wiped out and Arizona is not a very good place to sell a home
presently, so we've been praying for him.
So then he kind of bit the bullet and he said, I'm going to work for this retail
agent and long story short, we just learned yesterday that he's got a full-time
job with better benefits than his contracting job for an aerospace company.
So we just thank the Lord for that waiting, waiting, seeing, and that was
about a year and a half that we, we believed for him waiting aligns
our will with his timing.
You know, are we anxious?
Are we aligning with his time and his schedule?
Are we yielding, you know, in mentoring people, there, there's certain key words
that come up when I talk with young men, one is yield and when you're
young, that's hard to do.
I want it, I want it now, and I want it my way yield, stop fighting.
Let God do what he needs to do.
Waiting allows us to become close to him.
How many have found if you allow God, he becomes closer to you in need
and time as you continue in this labyrinth of difficulty.
Remember the best times of learning are in the valley, not on the
hilltop as the expression goes.
God works beyond time, but we meet him through patience within the time
that we have, like I said, I mean, you know, I've been praying
for my wife for, I don't know how many years now to be whole.
So we're working on his schedule.
Waiting helps us to understand him in part, not the whole, we'll never
know completely who he is by his character until we get to the other side.
If you look back in your life, two, three years, five years, 10 years
for those people, 25 years, God in his relationship with you today
is certainly different than the relationship that you once had with him
because it was more oriented on me.
And as you grow older, you understand it is him.
And as you get a comfortable level in your relationship,
he begins to open things to you.
It's it's it's almost like the watch dealer on the corner
that used to hustle watches in a long trench coat.
OK, he opens the coat.
Yeah, look at the gold in there.
You know, and then he opens up another layer.
And God, you mean this is so wonderful and yet another one, it's ongoing.
How many have read the scripture in your devotions?
You left it a year later, you come back to it or two years or three years
and you read the same scripture that has a whole different, deeper meaning.
Yeah, I mean, that's where God's revelation comes through the word.
His goal isn't just outcomes, it's character formation.
That's what he wanted.
He wanted fellowship when he called the Israelites together,
began to school them, giving them the law,
giving them how to live differently than the rest of the warring tribes.
And as a result of that,
he worked with them and he labored with them in his own admission.
I would rather that they would die or kill them all.
He was impatient with them.
But the outcomes of the character of God is exemplified in periods of time.
And one other thought, patience is how we live faithfully
while God is working eternally.
That's a hard thing to get a hold of,
because when he doesn't live in the time and space that we have,
you know, all we're thinking of, OK, I got about 80 years here,
90 years or whatever it is, Lord, do your thing.
But he he doesn't deal with that patience is impassive.
It is active.
I think Chris said that very beautifully about still doing
the things you need to do to fortify your faith.
So question.
Why is patience necessary before entering greater spiritual
responsibility or blessing?
Why is that?
Gail.
Because if you've learned patience,
it means that you've learned more about God.
And learn to wait on him and gain patience through that.
Yeah, you know, you can't minister out if you're out of anything
but your own experience.
And if you don't have an experience and you and you aren't waiting,
God can't take you to that next level.
I mean, I've seen so many people in our relationships over the years.
They steam up to a plateau and then they just kind of stay there.
You know, and I in my life and my Christian life
that happened and in a particular situation,
it was about two and a half, three years of OK.
I burned all my theology books before the Internet.
I said never again.
I literally went out in the trash and threw them all away.
And you know what? I started buying them back years later.
I have I have one encyclopedia book that's four volumes.
And the print is like a number four.
It's thousands of pages.
But you know, when I need to get a subject handle,
I open that thing.
It's a dictionary and I'm reading 15 pages about the word vow,
you know, and it goes on and on and on.
So I got rid of that.
I burned it and I and I figured, gee, you know, when I started
to get back in the ministry, I could really use those books.
But I can't find them.
They were made in 1890 or 1910.
Long behold, I opened up the Internet and eBay.
I was searching through there and here were four books.
Exactly what I had.
I paid seventy dollars for them and the freight was one hundred
dollars because they were so happy.
But I mean, it was just like, oh, Lord, thank you.
It's so wonderful.
So what else, Jenny?
OK, I was reading Proverbs the other day and Solomon writes
that a man with no self control, which I equate to having patients.
I mean, if you don't have patients, you're more likely
to spout off.
But a man without self control is like a city without walls.
Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
You don't have that production. Yes.
Oh, I thought you had your hand up.
You were just scratching your shoulder.
No, no, no. Oh, OK. Go for it.
Well, I was just thinking of Hebrews five, verse three and four.
It says that suffering
creates perseverance, perseverance creates character
and character, hope.
And hope, in my way of thinking, is trust in God's promises.
So when we suffer and we're persistent,
we have perseverance and endurance that it builds character in us.
And that's what God's looking for.
And when we have hope, we're trusting in God.
And that's what that's what he wants us to.
So when things are bad, when we're suffering, that's when we grow.
That's when the fruit is grown, because we're trusting in God.
Sometimes when things are real good and we don't think about it
and we put God in the back burner and.
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.
Go for it.
I mean, the Bible says those that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength and they should mount up wings like eagles
and run and not be tired.
I prayed that prayer before I came over here.
I was dead tired.
I prayed and had a cup of coffee and I'm energized now.
OK, you know, it's funny.
Some of you are into health things and whatever.
And and I believe holy and olive oil.
So anyway, you take a swig of olive oil, yada, yada, yada up.
The normal olive oil you get from Italy, you have about a thousand.
What is it, Pali?
Pali, Pali phenols.
So I get this olive oil from Morocco.
It has a hundred thousand by units as opposed to a thousand.
And I looked up, I said, what about why?
Why Morocco, Morocco?
Now, going back, if you've ever seen films and videos of Italian soil,
it's dry and craggy and you wonder how things can grow.
So I fast forward.
I look at Morocco, it's even worse.
And so the tree knows that it is in a barren land.
So it provides through the olives a greater, a greater amount
of these things by a hundred thousand.
So I buy this and I think and, you know, so I take my first swig
and it almost knocks me down off the I mean, it's like pepper.
Yeah. But but I drink it with my meal, but it's just the idea
that you have an ability, even in a parched experience,
to have something yielding that much power and potential just like the Lord.
Yeah. By the way, if you're writing, it's Morocco, single source.
OK. I know Judy is a follower of this, too.
OK. So thoughts.
Greater responsibility requires deeper preparation.
And we know that for those that minister in the Sunday schools,
public ministry here, testimonies, evangelism,
there is preparation that is needed.
You don't go flying by the seat of your pants out the door.
You prepare and then patients develop spiritual maturity.
And I think Gail's the one that said that.
OK. Number two, persistence.
Again, remember Jacob, he was persistent
and his thoughts about where he was going, who he was,
what he was doing in the kingdom of God.
Persistence is not merely surviving time.
It is remaining faithful while circumstances,
maybe leadership, culture, personal challenges continually change
and ebb and flow back and forth.
There is a persistence as an entire generation rose and fell
amongst many and times over,
Caleb remade spiritually steadfast.
This is our example.
Many believers also face pressures from competing values,
discouraging voices.
We talked about that in your ear, skepticism, compromise.
It's tough to fight these things off.
So we must keep our spiritual vision alive.
How do we do that?
Many people lose their spiritual passion over disappointments,
routine, same thing, mundane, nothing happening.
Hardships that weaken their expectancy.
We cannot allow that to happen.
And we should continue by doing what?
Pursuing God's purpose.
And I don't know how many people have said, well, you know,
I don't know what my purpose is.
Well, how long have you been in the Lord?
Well, you know, 15 years.
We better find out what your purpose is.
He's given us an anointing.
He's given us giftings.
Here's a whole church that can provide service.
I mean, I tell you what, you ought to see when we go on our
picnics, how Ken cleans up and does everything.
And he's a janitor.
He's a he's a he's an artisan.
He's everything right to hands up.
Yeah, right.
OK. Pursuing God's purpose.
You know, janitorial service is in the church.
Starting to clean bathrooms.
Yeah, that's where you start at the bottom.
Growing spiritually.
How do you grow?
You feed on the word.
You allow that word to be saturated into your life.
Not once a week for five minutes.
Not once a day for two minutes.
For those of you that can, I appreciate that.
Hours of meditation and study and just being
before the Lord.
Serving faithfully in whatever you are asked to do.
I have a confession to make.
So when I came here, I pastored was an elder of two
different churches.
Did a lot of work independently also.
And I said when I came here, I was officially once again
going to retire.
No more. Nada.
And just sit in the seat.
And that was good for about a year.
And then this guy in the back row, he asked me to do
something, you know, and my and my objective always in
serving is never say no.
Because that's how God stretches you.
So I said yes, and I still continue to say yes.
But as you do that, God expands the capability of your
ministry and the influence in the circles that you
work in.
Whether it be a retirement community, whether it be a job,
whether it be a household that you're responsible for,
whether it is a ministry that's extended well beyond
even these four walls.
God really works in your life if you allow him to do that.
So being available is something experiencing what God
wants to work in your life.
So now we come to the third one, endurance and hope.
Christ endured suffering because he looked beyond the
pain toward the fulfillment of God's promise.
I mean, you know, you read, you have read the scriptures
in Gethsemane, so many words.
I don't want to do this, Lord.
Take this cup from me, oh God.
But yet he did, he looked beyond that.
And as the Lord ministered for three years and poured his
heart into people, his life into people, the principles,
his disciples, we've got to play that long game.
It's not the immediate, it's the long game that you're
looking for.
Be firmed and fixed in your life no matter how long you
live in this earth, no matter what you're called to do
that you will be a servant of God.
Fix that in your mind.
That helps you because then you don't get pulled
here and there.
I think I shared this, I was working for a,
in my college experience doing engineering work
and then lecturing across many countries.
We had a situation whereby we did a tech transfer
of naval state of the art programs from Indianapolis
to Philadelphia.
Long story short, they wanted me then to be the liaison
in the Indiana office.
So I took the job, I mean it was all part of my
college experience and at the end of about a year
and a half they said, well we want to hire you.
And I said, okay, what's that look like?
And they laid a plan out and it was a very nice plan,
it was lucrative and then I laid my plan on top of that.
What I got from the college and at that point in time
you wouldn't believe this but the college was giving you
13% contribution of your wages.
13%, that doesn't happen these days.
And then I laid on the vacation and I laid on this.
So they kind of worked it around
and made an attractive offer and then I thought of this.
I have a network of Christian brothers and sisters.
I have a relationship that I have built.
I have people I minister to, I have ministry that I receive
and there is this whole thing within the church
as a honeycomb of support and mechanisms
that if I would leave, I would have to recreate
that all again.
And I said, no, I said that's absolutely nothing.
I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it for a million dollars
because I knew that God was where we were at here.
And some of the kids said, well, we ought to do that.
I said, no, we're not doing that.
So they liked the idea of something new.
And here in Hebrews 12.2 it says,
who, meaning Christ, for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross.
He endured it.
He endured what?
He endured rejection by his own people,
right religious leaders, society, crowds.
The crowds wanted him and then they got dissatisfied with him.
John 11.1, he came unto his own
and his own received him not.
And yet he gave up all that and came down for us.
He had suffering, what's that look like?
Stones, emotional, mocking, being humiliated,
spiritual wounds, world sins that he took,
the temptation that was given him by Satan,
stone to bread, jumping from the temple.
He was offered kingdoms of the world
and yet he didn't take them.
He experienced betrayal by Judas, by Peter,
and all the 12 left after he was judged.
They denied knowing him, must have felt alone.
Disciples fled and the crowd chose Barabbas over Jesus.
The cross, physical agony, physical pain, public shame,
humiliated by stripping off his clothes.
I mean, you can't get much more basic than that.
And yet he loved us and he did that for us.
So we continue forward, not because life is easy,
but because God is faithful.
Jesus has overcome and his promises are certain.
So we now know that.
Now question is, what does it look like in your life
to believe God is working even when nothing seems
to be changing?
How do you anchor?
Well, you talked a little bit about that,
about those experiences.
Anybody else?
What's that look?
How do you anchor this?
How you don't drift and be influenced.
Yeah, and I'm coming to the back of the church,
so watch out.
Anyone?
Like in your life, we'll exclude Gail and Ginny.
They volunteer so beautifully.
I pay them to do that, of course, but I owe it to you.
Yes.
Simple answer, but just remembering what he has done
in my life previously and just, yeah.
That's pretty much it.
That's good.
I remember that, I put some feet on it.
I don't mean to, you know, dig down deep,
but what's that kind of look like?
You have visions, you have images, you have thoughts.
Do you read what kind of things do you do?
Usually highlights in my journal, my personal journal,
and also reaching out to my support,
like spiritual support system,
spiritual like inside floors or so on.
And they would, sometimes they can see that better
or like they can see God's work,
pretty much working my life better than sometimes
I can remember when I'm in the problem.
Yeah, right.
Brother, I have something to tell you.
Oh, what?
Anyone else?
All right, we got a last, oh, okay, Jill, go for it.
I'm gonna say, if God has spoken a word to you
or a verse and journaling, but writing that down
and going back to, no, it doesn't look this way,
but you said you would do this, you know,
and your promises, yeah.
Yeah, you put your feet on it, okay.
All right.
Yes, mercy.
I forgot, I forgot.
I'm trying to think, okay, so I guess just when you,
it was interesting because I was just thinking
about this the other day and you have a piece,
I think the Lord gives one a piece like, okay,
nothing's changing, but when you look around
at what others are doing, like I have several people
that I know, seems like their lives are progressing.
But yet, when I look at it, they have no,
not one of them seems to have a peaceful life
and the peace of God will come over you
when you're doing what he wants for your life.
Yes, peace that passes all understanding
and what has he promised us?
Righteousness, peace, and joy,
are you wanting to say yes to that?
Yes, so for me, what does it look like
in your life to believe God is working
even when nothing seems to be changing
as you continue to declare it?
Just keep declaring it, it will be.
Those declarations are empowering, not only to us,
but God partners with us and he asks us to pray
for the harvest, he asks us to pray.
I will give you the desires of your heart.
If you don't claim that and say, okay, well, whatever,
things don't really happen as you would think they would.
So now let's explore by definition of terms
these two things, endurance and hope.
Endurance is the strength to remain faithful
through tough times.
So we've all talked about that,
we've all experienced it, or are experiencing it.
Scripture repeatedly teaches us that we will face what?
Trials and tribulations.
And I define these things.
Difficult experiences, tests, pressures in life.
You know, you come home and you all of a sudden,
gee, I can't handle any more of this,
I'm just about ready to explode.
Peace be unto you.
Hardships, the challenge of a person's faith
and even their character.
What is your character made of?
Who are you?
You know, we get to keep asking ourselves these things.
Opposition will come.
That's resistance, it can be conflict,
it can be hostility directed against our beliefs,
that it's our purpose, against our action.
There's always somebody disagreeing
and in your face these days.
Waiting seasons, oh my gosh.
Think of Caleb 45 years.
Prayers appear to be unanswered.
Circumstances remain unchanged.
Guidance seems unclear, but yet it's working.
Spiritual battles.
Again, this is some of the areas that we enter into.
Struggles that involve unseen spiritual realities
and influences that seek to weaken our faith
and rob us of our salvation
and make us inoperative in the kingdom of God.
Disappointments, feelings of sadness, discouragement,
frustration when expectations are not fulfilled.
Suffering, experience pain, hardship, distress, loss,
affliction affecting a person's physically, mentally,
emotionally, spiritually.
Hope is then the confident assurance
that God is still working
and his promises will ultimately be fulfilled.
So our hope rests in what?
God's sovereignty and that simply is stated,
his supreme authority, his power and his rule
over all creations, nations, events and human lives.
Christ's victory, we know what that is.
His triumph over sin, death, Satan and the powers of evil
through the death, resurrection and exaltation of our Lord.
And the truth of scripture, we've talked about this.
Isn't it wonderful that we don't have to argue
about scripture and what it says?
And when I listened to a couple of commentaries
from Iran directly, they somehow they piped it in
and he was talking about Christianity
and how he compares that to the Muslim faith
and how they always take interpretations.
And he said, there are dozens of interpretations
for just one verse.
I think this or there's sex about it.
By and large, yes, there's things
that we don't agree on in Christendom.
But by and large, we believe these things
as we list them here.
There's no argument.
And then again, the certainty of eternal life.
Isn't that wonderful?
My gosh.
Again, the confidence assurance we possess
through our faith in Jesus Christ.
And the question, what does biblical endurance
and hope look like in your daily life?
What's that hope look like?
How do you anchor that?
We talked about holding and securing,
but how do you generate hope?
I'll give you an example.
I used to and I don't anymore
and I wish I did.
I still write things on my cell phone
about requests that people give me
and we have prayer lists
that I don't put the answers on.
And I used to do that.
And that was a great help for me
looking at when I was discouraged
just and I would have a date like 327 or 325 rather.
So that was the March of 25.
And look at the answer.
Just pages and pages and pages
and rehearsing those things
and you can't deny what God's done for you.
How often do we forget?
I mean, we forget our car keys
and here we forget what God done for us.
How he's transferred life into us.
How he got us out of situations financially,
emotionally and so forth.
So we have that.
Okay, we're gonna end up right on time.
So the question that we have
is taking Caleb's life and giving us a challenge.
Will I trust God when others compromise?
And you have to answer this yourself.
Will I remain faithful during long waiting periods?
Long waiting periods.
Will I continue following God when obedience is costly?
That hurts, because you wanna be liked.
You wanna be part of.
So sometimes we comply just to be part of.
That's our society.
Will my devotion endure through every stage of life?
And I think about that.
I think of how I endured in the ministry
and out of the ministry raising a family,
now being a caregiver for my wife,
now doing the things that I can do
and the involvement with no encumbrances,
not having a job anymore, retired.
And what I'm looking at is I wanna finish excellent.
Not to be proud, but I wanna finish
what God has asked me to do.
Amen?
Yeah.
And then Caleb understood that God's promises
are worth trusting, even when fulfillment
takes far longer than he expected.
Think about that.
It was 40 days from Egypt to the Promised Land.
And instead of that, it was 40 years going round and round.
I'm wondering if they didn't pass
some kind of a hill country in the desert.
Ah, yeah, that looks familiar.
And then you get 10 years older,
and that looks familiar.
And you go round and round and round.
You know, when's it coming to an end?
Well, you're an unbeliever.
You're not gonna make it in.
And then his story reminds us
that true faith is not measured
by how enthusiastically we begin,
but how faithfully we continue.
Still trusting for those things that are unanswered.
And here's the last statement,
not my own.
Like Caleb, we, you and I,
now have committed to this journey, right?
Committed to it?
All right, okay.
We have taken our place,
and we follow the Lord as faithfully as we know how.
We believe and hold fast to his word,
and that's where it starts the word.
And now we are awaiting all of us
in some degree or another
are waiting for the undeniable
fulfillment of God's promises in our life,
no matter what they may be.
So it's not a matter of if,
it's not a matter of being tired,
it's not a matter of maybe,
it's a matter of believing continually
for what you think God can do with you,
through you and for you.
Lord, we thank you for your blessing tonight.
We thank you that we could study
as a great example, our brother Caleb.
We thank you for his life that was exemplary to us,
how all the things that he did
were reflective of the covenant that we live in now,
and how he pursued.
And he believed at such an old age,
Lord, that you blessed him.
He gave him the best part of life,
his inheritance that he waited so long for.
And then he had to fight battles to win that Hebrew.
But Lord, we do thank you for him
and we thank you for every individual tonight
that's come, who have shared,
take this word and put it in our heart,
bring forth seed, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.