Amen.
Welcome to the Life of Caleb.
So, Caleb's a great man of God in the Bible.
And there in verse 11, the Bible's saying that out of all the children of Israel, there's going to be two people that get to make it into the Promised Land, Caleb and Joshua.
And so, it's a pretty elite thing to be one of two of the whole nation to get to go into the Promised Land.
And Caleb's a great man of God. I want to learn some lessons from his life tonight.
Number one, being that your ethnicity is not a barrier for doing great things for God.
Now, it's sad that in 2020, we even have to say this, since the news media is acting like we're living in the 1860s, that there's racism on every corner.
It's bizarre.
I've lived in the state of California, the state of Idaho, the state of Washington.
I live in the state of Oregon.
I've been to other states.
And I don't even, I can't even think of a time where I've seen racism with my own eyes in my life, okay?
And yet, the news wants to tell you that we're living in a time where everybody hates people of different ethnicities.
And we're living in a time where we're acting like people of different ethnicities are held back from doing great things in their life because of the color of their skin.
But you know what?
It's not that way when it comes to God.
Even if you perceive that there is a barrier in your life because of your ethnicity or your race or anything like that, well, guess what?
That barrier is not there with the Lord.
God is not a racist.
And guess what?
Caleb was a Kenizzite.
Let's read verse 12.
Save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.
Why is that important?
Go to Genesis chapter 15.
Genesis 15.
Look at verse number 18.
The Bible reads,
In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephraeims, and the Caiaphas, and the Caiaphas, and the Caiaphas, and the Caiaphas.
And there it talks about the Kenizzites, which Caleb's father, Jephunneh, was a Kenizzite.
Now, go back to Numbers 32, please.
Numbers 32.
Now, when you're looking at these genealogies, it's really easy to get confused.
There's a new genealogies.
There's a genealogies.
Now, it's really easy to get confused.
There's another Caleb that came from Judah.
By blood, he came from Judah through Tamar.
That's a completely different Caleb, but Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, his father is a Kenizzite.
I'll read for you Numbers 13, 6.
The Bible says, of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.
So, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he belongs to what tribe?
The tribe of Judah, right?
And in verse 12 of Numbers 32, it says, save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite,
and Joshua, the son of Nun, for they've wholly followed the Lord.
So, here's the thing.
Yes, Caleb was of the tribe of Judah, but the Bible says his father was a Kenizzite.
So, that makes me think that either his father or maybe Caleb himself at some point joined
the nation of Israel.
So, what does that prove?
Well, it proves that Caleb was a Gentile, and that's going to make the Zionist really upset.
But here's the thing.
Caleb was not of the stock of Israel.
He wasn't of the perfect bloodline of Israel because his father was a Kenizzite.
So, what does that mean?
It means God's not a respecter of persons.
God did not look down from heaven and say, who are the two men that I'm going to choose
to go into the Promised Land?
Let me make sure I check their blood type real quick.
Let me make sure I check their DNA real quick.
No, he looked at their hearts, and although Caleb was the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite,
he was one of the two that made it.
And guess what?
Your ethnicity is not a barrier to how far you go for the Lord.
Even if you perceive that it's a barrier for something in the United States or something
in your town or something in this world, it's not a barrier for the Lord.
And you can never, ever use that excuse.
Let's go to Acts chapter number 10.
Acts chapter number 10.
Acts chapter number 10, look at verse 34.
The Bible reads, then Peter opened his mouth and said,
of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
So does God look down from heaven and judge a person by the nation that they're from,
by the ethnicity that they have?
The Bible says God is no respecter of persons, and every single nation,
the people that fear him there, those are the people that he has respect to,
the people that fear his name.
Verse 36, the word which God sent unto the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.
That word I say ye know, which was published throughout all Judea,
and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him, and we are witnesses of all things which he did,
both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree.
Excuse me.
Him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly,
not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God,
even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
And he commanded us to preach unto the people,
and to testify that it is he which is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead.
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
So is it just a certain nation that's going to be receiving remission of sins?
No. Peter's saying it's whoever.
Whoever in any nation believes in Jesus Christ, that's who's going to be saved.
Verse 44, while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word,
and they of the circumcision, now talking about the Jews, which believed, were astonished.
Why are they shocked?
Why are they shocked that Peter's saying, hey, whoever believes is going to be saved?
Why are they so surprised?
As many as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
You see, these people actually were racists.
They actually were shocked.
They were astonished, the Bible says, that these people had the Holy Ghost because they were Gentiles and they were Jews.
Right?
And, you know, there are a group of racists today still alive and well in the United States of America,
and they're called Zionists.
That's the real racist.
They think that God looks down from heaven, and just because someone is a physical Jew,
they think that God respects them more than someone who's not.
People like Sam Gipp say, oh, us Gentiles, we're plan B.
We're God's plan B.
Okay, so yeah, like God had this plan A that he failed, and if he would have not failed that plan,
then none of us would be able to be saved.
Really?
It's ridiculous, but what is that?
That's racism is what that is.
It's complete racism.
It's not the racism that the garbage-lying, CIA-run media tells you is happening.
It's Zionism.
That's a real racism.
Verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then prayed they him to
to tarry certain days.
So, he commands these Gentiles that got saved to be baptized just like a Jew who got saved needs to be baptized.
We're all one in Christ Jesus.
God does not respect nationalities.
Go to Acts chapter 17.
Acts chapter 17.
Because here's the thing, we're living in a time where people want to make excuses for their life,
for the things that they don't have, for the things they don't achieve because of the color of their skin.
They want to make excuses for that.
You know what?
White privilege is not the privilege you should be worried about.
It should be about saved privilege.
Because we actually have privilege when we're saved.
When we're the children of God, I have great privilege in the fact that God is my Father.
I have great privilege in the fact that I have the Word of God instructing me in the paths of righteousness,
leading me in the way I need to go in life.
That's my privilege.
I have no privilege for being white.
In fact, I got denied service the other day by a black man for not wearing a mask.
Where was my white privilege then, right?
Give me a break.
But I do have saved privilege.
Look at Acts 17 verse 26.
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us.
God is not far from the black man today.
God is not far from the Mexican today, from the Japanese man today.
God is not far from any ethnicity in this world because he wasn't far from Caleb,
the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite.
God was not far from him when he chose him to be one of the two elite to make it into the Promised Land,
because it has nothing to do with your ethnicity.
And if you as a Christian want to use your race or your ethnicity or your nationality
or your background as an excuse, God is not going to respect that.
God is the God that can do anything, right?
Through Christ, we can do anything.
You know what?
All doors are open to you through the Lord Jesus Christ, not through your skin color.
Numbers 32, I'll read for you.
Verse 12 says, Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun,
for they have wholly followed the Lord.
So what was it that God said, hey, this is the reason these people are entering into the Promised Land.
It's because they wholly followed the Lord.
And like I said, I feel like I'm beating my head into a wall even just preaching this,
because it feels weird that this even needs to be said.
But outside of these walls, people think I'm crazy for saying that racism almost doesn't exist anymore,
which it almost does.
Obviously, in the hearts of men, racism is always going to exist.
But this institutionalized racism is over in America and has been for a very, very long time.
Turn to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians 3, I'll read for you, Philippians 4, 13.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, not through your skin color, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians chapter 3, look at verse 26.
Let's hammer this in here.
For ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female.
For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
You know, today we don't even follow the tribes and our bloodlines and stuff like that.
The Bible says to avoid genealogies in the New Testament.
Why is that?
Because now in the New Testament, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
There's no difference between us with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't know if I come from the Kenizzites.
I know Pastor Thompson probably comes from the Anakims, that's my guess.
But, we can only tell that because he's six foot eight.
We probably don't know where we're coming from, and he didn't get that from a genealogy.
I think it's just pretty obvious for him.
But here's the thing.
We don't need to follow that kind of stuff, right?
Because we have the Lord Jesus Christ that makes us all one.
Your skin color doesn't matter.
God doesn't care about your skin color.
He cares about your heart.
He cares about you wholly following the Lord.
And he can open any door he wants to you, regardless of your background.
Go to Numbers 13.
Numbers 13.
So, number one, your ethnicity is not an excuse to not serve God.
It's not a barrier for you to not serve God.
Number two, we will get more done for God with a positive attitude than with a negative one.
You know, God loves to use people that have a positive attitude.
There are people in the Bible that God used that had a negative attitude,
but God loves to use people that have a positive attitude.
I'll read for you 2 Corinthians 9-7.
The Bible says,
And obviously, this is in the context of financial giving,
but you could apply this to any area of Christian service for God.
God loves it when you serve him, not grudgingly,
not of necessity, not like you have to.
He loves it when you cheerfully serve him.
And he has respect to that when you have a good attitude
when you're serving God.
And Caleb was a go-getter with a positive attitude.
That's one of the best aspects of the Bible.
He's got a positive attitude.
That's one of the best attributes about Caleb,
is that he just had a positive attitude in everything he did.
He wasn't a complainer.
He wasn't a negative nelly.
Look at Numbers 13 verse 17.
He says,
So Moses, he sends these spies on what kind of a mission?
A fact-finding mission.
He didn't ask for their opinion.
He didn't ask,
Hey, tell me, you know, if you think that we can accomplish taking over the land.
He just said, I want you to just tell me how the land is.
What are the people that live there?
What's the fruit like?
What's the land like?
Just go bring me the facts, guys.
That's what he's saying.
He's the boss.
He's saying, just go get me the facts.
And here's your one.
Here's your one charge.
Just be of a good courage.
That's his one charge.
Verse 21.
And cut down from thence a branch with one cluster cluster of grapes, and they bear it between two upon a staff.
They cut down some grapes, and it's so heavy that it takes two men to carry one cluster of grapes.
Sounds like the land's pretty great.
Sounds like the promised land that God's, you know, promising to them.
Sounds like it's going to be a great deal for them.
They should be excited.
They should be like, man, look at what we have coming to us.
And they brought up the pomegranates and of the figs.
The place was called the Brook Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down thence.
And they returned from searching of the land after 40 days.
And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel,
until the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them.
Here's the facts that they're going to present that they found.
And unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
And they told him and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey.
And this is the fruit of it.
Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great.
And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.
The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the mountains,
and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan.
So here's the thing.
These people, they just saw grapes so big that it takes two men to carry.
They saw the land that floweth with milk and honey.
They saw a beautiful land that God already promised them.
He already guaranteed to them.
It's going to be theirs.
And when they come back to bring the facts to Moses, they're like, yeah, it's a good land.
Here's the fruit.
Here's the problems, though.
Here's a giant list of problems of why it can't be done, Moses.
Here's a giant list of negativity and things that we're going to complain about of why we're too afraid to go into the promised land.
And you know that people in authority absolutely hate having people underneath them that are just complainers and negative nellies.
You know, you know, if Pastor Shelley here wants to start a ministry, maybe you shouldn't.
The first thing out of your mouth is what about what about the money?
Do we have the money for that?
What about this problem?
What about that problem?
You know, sometimes it's good to just be positive about things happening for the work of God.
Look at verse 30.
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.
You know, it's contagious being around positive people when we're going out to do something for the Lord and people just have a good attitude.
Hey, let's go soul winning.
You know what?
Yes, let's go soul winning.
Let's go get lots of people saved.
Let's go get people baptized.
Let's get them in church and teach them the Bible.
Hey, let's go do a great work for God in this area.
Right.
That's a contagious spirit.
That's a positive spirit that Caleb had.
And God loved that when he saw that in him.
God chose him for that spirit he had.
But you know what?
It sucks being around miserable people.
They're just so miserable and helpless.
And they tell you all the problems that they have in their life.
And you say, Hey, can I help you?
Have you tried this?
That's not going to work.
OK, have you tried that?
Well, that's not going to work.
Have you tried this?
No.
You know, they don't want to ever hear any solutions.
All they want to do is just look at the giant list of problems.
Right.
And as a leader, there's nothing worse than that.
And there's lots of leaders in this room.
Even if you're not a pastor or church leader or something like that, if you're just a husband, do you like it when your kids are just negative?
Or your wife is maybe having a rough day and is just negative about everything, right?
That's like a drain to your soul when people are like that.
But you know what?
Caleb was not like that at all.
And God loved that about him.
Look at verse 31.
Verse 31.
But the men that went up with him said, We'd be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.
And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants.
And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.
And so were we in their sight.
So here's the thing.
When you have a great blessing that God is able to bestow on you, when there's the promised land that you're able to conquer.
You know, if you're just focused on the negativity, you forget about all the blessings.
These people weren't just thinking about the fact that they just carried grapes on their shoulders.
It was so big.
You know, they weren't thinking about the land that flows with milk and honey.
They weren't thinking about all the blessings that God was going to be giving them.
All they're thinking about is the obstacles.
And that is a destructive spirit that's going to hinder you from doing great things for God.
That's going to be a destructive spirit to where God's going to say, Hey, you're not going to enter the promised land then.
I'm going to go give it to Caleb because Caleb has a good attitude because Caleb actually trusts me and he believes that we can do it.
He has faith.
There's nothing worse than your followers having a bad attitude.
In fact, Moses asked God to kill him.
OK, that's how much of a drain it was on him.
He's like, God, can you just kill me?
I'll read for you Hebrews 13 17.
The Bible says, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.
Do you know that if Steadfast Baptist Church was just full of all these negative people, the people that aren't like Caleb, you know, that's not profitable for you when your leader is not doing his job with joy.
You know, what if Pastor Shelley just got home after a long, hard Sunday?
Comes in the driveway, slugs into the house, and he just gets on these and says, God, will you just kill me?
Right. Would that be very profitable for your guys's church?
And I'm not saying that that's how it is here because I know it's not.
But here's the thing. Don't ever let yourself get to that point when you're around the negative people.
Hey, get away from those people, because that's a contagious attitude, just like a positive attitude is contagious.
So is negativity when people are just, we can't do that. We can't do this. We can't do that.
Just you know what? Just distance yourself from those kind of people, because it's going to hinder your walk with God.
If Caleb would have bought into all that garbage, he wouldn't have been going into the promised land either.
And, you know, one of the things I love about my church, Sure Foundation Baptist Church, we have a church full of Caleb's.
Pastor Thompson, he gets ordained. He's like, hey, we're starting a church in Canada. We're like, whoa, great. Awesome.
Hey. Oh, OK. A few months later, starting a church in Spokane. Awesome. Great.
Pastor Thompson, a couple months later. Hey, we're starting a church in Hawaii. Amen.
We got your back, Pastor Thompson. We're not like, do we have the money for that?
Oh, how are you going to get chairs over there? You know, are you sure you're going to go to Hawaii?
It's pretty rich. How are you going to support the guy over there? Right.
No, we're just like, hey, Pastor, we got your back. Go do great things for God.
We have the leaders back. Have a good attitude and just trust. Hey, didn't God give us the Great Commission?
Didn't He say go into all the world? Do we need to sit there and pray about starting churches?
Or if we could start a church, why don't we just start a church and just be happy about it and just have faith that God's going to take care of us?
God already gave us the Great Commission. If your pastor is out there fulfilling the Great Commission, have his back on it.
Don't sit there and be complaining when your pastor is starting churches. What a weird thing to complain about.
But, you know, I've been in churches before where people in the church want the leader to fail.
And they hear, oh, hey, you know, the pastor says, hey, we just got a building. We don't have to be in the house anymore.
Well, how did you do that? Are you sure? Are you sure you're going to be able to afford that?
There's people that want the leader to fail. There's people that don't want to go into the Promised Land because they're weak themselves.
Stay away from people like that. Let's go to Psalms chapter ninety five, Psalms ninety five.
And here's the thing. Does God use people with a bad attitude? He has. Jonah, for example.
Jonah wasn't very enthusiastic about his job. He wasn't like, hey, let's go conquer this city for God.
Sometimes God just needs the job to get done. He's got to use someone to do it. Right.
He's the only one that's going to do it. You got to swallow him up in a whale, I guess.
But he'll use someone. But he doesn't want us to have that attitude.
Psalm ninety five, verse one, let's read the whole thing here.
Now he's going to start talking about the situation that we were reading with with Caleb.
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers.
Now he's going to start talking about the situation that we were reading with with Caleb.
When your fathers tempted me, proved me and saw my work.
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said it is not it is a people that do err in their heart.
And they have not known my ways under whom I swear in my wrath that they should not enter my rest.
So God's saying 40 years long, I approve these people. He says, I was grieved in my heart.
How would you like that to be said about you? He's like, you know, I tested this person their whole life.
And you know what? I was just grieved in my heart at their attitude.
I was just grieved in my heart that they didn't believe my promises. They didn't ever walk out in faith in their life.
They didn't ever try to do anything or accomplish anything for God.
They didn't want to take the promised land that I had right before them.
And you know what? It just grieved me in my heart.
That's not something that I want the Lord looking down on my life and saying about me.
And I'm sure everybody in here feels the same way.
But you know what? At the beginning of Psalm 95, he's saying, let us come in and sing unto the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
That's the opposite, right? That's just having a good attitude, having a positive attitude about serving God.
God wants people that are happy to serve him.
And he's way more likely to choose someone that wants to serve God than someone he has to drag kicking and screaming and drag into the belly of a whale to do it.
And it's going to just grieve him at his heart anyways.
What's the point of that? You want God to be pleased with you, have a good attitude.
Let's go back to Numbers 14.
Numbers 14.
Numbers chapter 14, verse one.
It's not better for us to return into Egypt and they said one to another, let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt.
You know why a lot of times people have bad attitudes about great things being done for God?
It's because they want to go back to Egypt. That's why.
Because they're backslidden, they're wicked in their heart, and they just hate seeing someone with a good attitude that wants to do great things for God.
They want everyone to be like them. They want everyone to be mediocre just like they are.
If they see a person that's just constantly negative about the work of God, just take it to the bank.
They just want to go back to Egypt.
And if they let that attitude fester in their heart for a long time, they'll end up back in Egypt.
They'll end up back in a life of sin and wickedness and just a complete, unprofitable life doing nothing for God because of their attitude.
That's why.
Because they don't have the positivity. They don't have the joy of the Lord.
They don't have anything to strive for.
All they can do is just look back into Egypt and say, man, I wish I could just go back.
Well, just go back then, because we don't need your negative attitude in the kingdom of God.
When people are out here trying to do great things for God, we don't need that negative attitude anyways.
Guess what? You're not going to the Promised Land anyways.
God is not going to want to use you anyways.
Verse 15,
Caleb's upset about this.
Verse seven,
So Caleb's upset about this and he's like, look, guys,
if the Lord wants us to do this, we're going to succeed.
You know, they saw all the people of the land.
They're like, man, we were as grasshoppers in their sight.
But how did Caleb see them?
They're bred for us.
Well, I don't think that Caleb had a different set of eyes and was just seeing different people than they were seeing.
You know, they saw the same people.
One looked at them and said, wow, look at all the problems.
Look at all the giants.
Look at all the obstacles.
And then Caleb said, hey, that's bred for us if God's for us.
That's the attitude we should have.
Hey, if God's for us, who can be against us?
If God wills that we do a great work for him, nothing's going to stop us.
Don't have a scared attitude.
Don't have a worried, fretting attitude about the work of God.
Be like Caleb.
Be like Caleb having a positive attitude.
Let's look at verse number 11.
Here's God's response.
Look down at verse 22.
Jesus said,
You've got to realize, if you want to have a negative attitude, your whole life.
If you wanna just be a person that doubts
and doesn't have faith,
you're only shooting yourself in the foot.
Because some opportunities will be lost to you
that you could have had
if you would have had a positive attitude.
Because God promised the whole nation
that he would bring them in to the Promised Land.
But he says, you know what?
Because all of you people don't believe me,
because all of you people have a negative attitude,
you know who's gonna get it?
Caleb and Joshua.
So you wanna see the opportunities in your life
just diminish and diminish and diminish,
have a bad attitude and keep a bad attitude.
And that's exactly what you'll see.
Go to Joshua chapter 15.
So number one, your ethnicity is not a barrier
to serving God.
Number two, you will get more done for God
with a positive attitude than with a negative one.
As you can see, Caleb's a great man of God.
Number three, we should care about our children.
This is another lesson that we can learn
from the life of Caleb.
Like I said, he's a great example in many different areas.
And this is one of them.
Joshua 15, look at verse 16.
And Caleb said, he that smiteth, care jest to her
and taketh it to him will I give Axah my daughter to wife.
And Othniel, the son of Kenaz,
the brother of Caleb took it
and he gave him, Axah his daughter to wife.
You know, Caleb cared about his daughter
and Caleb wanted his daughter to marry a good man.
He didn't want some man bun wearing,
soy milk sipping guy to marry his daughter.
He said, hey, you go take this city
and I'll give you my daughter, right?
That's a great example.
Hey, we should care about who our daughters marry, right?
There's too many wicked, disgusting men in this world
to just not give a rip about who your daughter marries.
And obviously we don't believe in arranged marriages
or anything like that, but you know what?
Caleb at least made sure that the man
that was gonna marry his daughter was a real man.
You know, and that's the thing.
We're not gonna pick our daughter's spouse,
but you ought to make sure at least they're saved.
And if you're a great man of God like Caleb is,
if you have raised your daughter,
your whole life to follow Christ,
to do great things for God,
don't just pass her off to someone that doesn't care
about serving God, even if they are saved.
You know, you invested your whole life
into raising your daughter in the ways of the Lord
and you're just gonna give her to some guy
that doesn't even go soul winning,
that's saved and doesn't even go soul winning.
You know, that's not a good idea.
Caleb made a good choice for Othniel.
Othniel later in the Bible in Judges chapter three,
he was a deliverer for Israel
when they were in bondage to Mesopotamia
and he saved the nation.
He was a strong guy.
He was a good leader.
He did the right thing by allowing her to choose Othniel
because, hey, it worked out.
He was a real man.
He was a servant of the Lord.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter six.
2 Corinthians chapter six.
2 Corinthians chapter six, verse 14.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness
and what communion hath light with darkness
and what concord hath Christ with Belial
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel.
You know, the Bible says not to be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers.
You know, if you marry the wrong person
that you could just totally destroy your life
and if your child marries the wrong person,
you know that they could just totally throw their life
down the drain.
Marriage, the Bible teaches, is till death do you part
and there's no exceptions for that.
If you marry some rotten drunk,
some person that's gonna domestically abuse you
behind closed doors,
someone who's not gonna care about how your kids raise,
you don't think that you're stuck with that till death
do you as far as what the Bible teaches?
That's what your children are gonna be stuck with
if they married the wrong person.
That's why Caleb saw fit to make sure his daughter
married a godly person.
So what does that tell me?
Caleb was a good dad.
Caleb actually cared about his children enough
to ensure that she married right.
Go to Joshua 15 again, Joshua 15.
He also did something else that's interesting
that shows me that he was a good father.
Joshua 15 verse 18.
And it came to pass that she came unto him
that she moved him to ask of her father a field.
She lied it off her ass and Caleb said unto her,
what wouldest thou?
Who answered, give me a blessing,
for thou has given me a south land,
give me also springs of water.
And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
I don't know about you,
but this guy sounds like a pretty great guy.
His daughter gets married and she's like,
hey dad, can I have a blessing?
And he's like, here's all this land,
here's all these springs.
God bless you daughter.
That's a great example.
And obviously not every father is just gonna be able
to give their daughter lands obviously,
especially in times like this,
things are very expensive times like this,
but here's the thing,
his daughter asked him for something,
he was able to provide it to her.
He said, here you go, daughter, I love you.
That's how we should be to our children.
That's how God is to us.
We ask him for something,
Lord father, will you please give me this blessing?
Sure, son, I love you.
Here's this blessing.
That's how we should be to our kids too,
if we have the power to do that.
Proverbs 3 27 says, withhold not good
from them to whom it is due
when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
You know, if it's in the power of Caleb's hand
to give his daughter good land,
why wouldn't he do that?
You know, he loves his daughter.
He has the ability to do it.
She asks nicely, here you go.
What a great example of a dad.
I think we should all strive to be like that
as fathers, as our children grow up.
When they ask us for something
and we're able to provide it to them,
hey, give it to them.
They're not gonna become a spoiled brat
just because of what you give them.
They become a spoiled brat by the way,
the attitude that you teach them to have
by not disciplining them, by things like that.
It's not just the substance that they have
that make them spoiled,
because God is very rich to us.
We're spoiled, rotten in a sense of how much God gives us.
I'll read for you Matthew seven, verse seven.
The Bible says, ask and it shall be given you,
seek and you shall find,
knock and it shall be opened unto you,
for everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh shall be opened.
Or what man is there of you,
whom if his son ask bread, will you give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will you give him a serpent?
If ye then being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your father, which is in heaven,
give good gifts to them that ask him?
So, you know, it's simple.
The Bible's like, hey, it's really simple.
If your child asks for bread, don't give them a stone.
They ask for fish, don't give them a serpent.
Give good gifts unto your children.
That's what God does for you.
And we always got to remember all the great things
that God does for us,
and try to do the same thing to other people.
Try to bless other people
in the same way that God has blessed our life.
Go to Joshua chapter 14.
Number one, your ethnicity is not a barrier to serving God.
Number two, we'll get more done
for God with a positive attitude.
Number three, we should care about our children.
Number four, we should be strong in the Lord,
even in our old age.
You want to talk about a person that was steadfast?
That's Caleb.
Because he was a man that served God his whole life
into his old age.
He never strayed from the path.
Not saying Caleb was sinless,
that he never made mistakes, I'm sure he did.
But he was always going forward
with his eyes on the promised land,
eyes on the things of God, eyes on spiritual things.
Go to Joshua 14, six.
The Bible says, then the children of Judah
came unto Joshua in Gilgal.
And Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said unto him,
he's talking to Joshua,
thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses,
the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh Barnea.
40 years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord
sent me from Kadesh Barnea to a spy out the land,
and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.
Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me
made the heart of the people melt,
but I wholly followed the Lord my God.
And Moses swear on that day saying,
surely the land where on thy feet have trodden
shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever,
because thou has wholly followed the Lord my God.
And now behold the Lord have kept me alive,
as he said these 40 and five years,
even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses.
So he's saying I'm 85 years old now,
while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness
and lo, now I am this day four score and five years old.
So he's 85 years old and listen to what he says.
He says, as yet I am as strong this day
as I was in the day that Moses sent me,
as my strength was then, even so is my strength now
for war both to go out and to come in.
This is a great spiritual picture
about how the fact that when you're in your old age,
when you, if you get to live to be 85 years old,
you know, you can be just as strong spiritually
as you were when you're 20 and you're 30
and hopefully more spiritual
and hopefully even stronger than you were back then.
You know, obviously this was miraculous
that Caleb was 85 and he was as strong as he is
that when he was 45.
There's probably not that many people,
if any people in the world that are like that
when they're 85 years old, they're just as strong.
I think that's probably an extra blessing that God gave him.
It's probably something miraculous.
Maybe it is possible, but what is it?
It's a picture of the fact that when you're 85 years old,
you don't have to be weak in the faith.
You don't have to be a moss back beacon.
You don't have to be someone that has stopped serving God
and that is just riding on easy street
and just coasting until you die.
That's not how God wants us to be with our life.
Even when you're 85, he said, hey, I'm just as strong now.
I'll read for you a verse you all know.
First Corinthians 15, 58 says,
therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord.
Does the Bible say be steadfast, unmovable until you're 85?
Then you can kind of stop.
Then you can kind of slow down.
No, he says, you're always abounding
in the work of the Lord.
It's something that you're doing a lot of.
It's not something that you're just barely hanging on
by a thread of serving God.
No, he says, be steadfast and always abounding
in the work of the Lord.
And you know, even if your body grows weak and decrepit,
and even if your physical body is worn out at 85 years old,
you know that you can be just as strong
as you were 45 years ago in the spiritual battle of prayer.
You know, you can be just as strong in the spiritual battle
of preaching people the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As long as you have breath in your lungs,
you can preach someone the gospel of Jesus Christ
and be strong in that battle and be steadfast in that battle
and be unmovable like Caleb was in that battle.
Teach your grandchildren, teach your children
the word of God.
You can always abound in something spiritual.
You can always abound in something in the work of God.
Proverbs 16, 31, go back to Joshua 14
and I'll read for you Proverbs 16, 31.
The Bible says the hoary head is a crown of glory
if it be found in the way of righteousness.
You know, what a great example Caleb was in that sense.
I guarantee you that when he was old and had a hoary head,
that was a crown of righteousness to him.
I bet you in his old age, people respected him
and looked up to him as a great spiritual leader
because of all these things that we're talking about,
because all these great examples that he left us.
Joshua 14, 12, this is what he says.
He says, now therefore give me this mountain
where of the Lord spake in that day.
For thou heardst in that day how the Anakims were there
and that the cities were great and fenced.
If so be the Lord will be with me,
then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.
And Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb,
the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance.
Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb,
the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite unto this day
because that he wholly followed the Lord God.
So he wants to possess the land finally
that he was promised 45 years after his great act.
He's saying, hey, I wanna possess this now,
will you bless me?
He blesses him and look at Judges chapter one,
go to Judges chapter one.
We're gonna look at the last recorded act
of Caleb in the Bible.
The last recorded act of Caleb in the Bible.
Judges chapter one, verse 19.
And the Lord was with Judah,
remember that's the tribe that he's a part of,
and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain,
but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley
because they had chariots of iron.
And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said,
and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.
What a boss Caleb is.
What's the last thing that the Bible says he does?
He goes and expels three sons of Anak.
He goes and expels three more giants at 85 years old.
What an amazing testimony that is.
He didn't just give up, he said, hey,
I wanna possess that promise that God gave me.
I wanna take that mountain that God gave me.
And then he goes and does it.
He takes those three sons of Anak in his old age,
just as strong as he was.
What a great example.
What a man of God he was.
Studying this out, I was like, man,
I might just name my first son Caleb.
Like this guy is awesome.
What a great name he has.
I'll read for you real quick Ecclesiastes chapter seven,
verse one, and we'll wrap it up.
The Bible says a good name is better
than precious ointment in the day of death
than the day of one's birth.
What a great name and legacy that Caleb has.
Do we have any Calibes in the room tonight?
No?
I definitely know that there's a lot of saved
and Christian Calibes out there.
And that's because he has a great name.
He has a great example.
And we should strive to be people like Caleb in our life.
So any of that verse is talking about
how better is the day of death.
It's more important how you end your life
than how you start your life.
Preferably, we would like to start our life well,
serve God our whole life, and end our life well.
That's pretty much what Caleb did.
But you know what?
Starting today, strive to be a man like Caleb.
Starting today, strive to be a Christian like Caleb.
And you know what?
You could still end like Caleb did.
You could still make it to 85 years old
and be strong in the Lord
and still be kicking the giants out of the land
and still be doing great things for God in your old age.
So number one, your ethnicity is not a barrier
to doing great things for God.
God didn't care one iota
the fact that Caleb was a Kenizzite.
He cared because of all the things that he did.
Number two, we'll do more for God with a positive attitude
than with a negative one.
Number three, we should care about our children.
Number four, we should be strong in the Lord
even in our old age.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much for this day.
And thank you for the great example of Caleb.
Lord, I pray that every person here
would just take a look at their life
and strive to be more like him.
Lord, pray that you just help us to be strong in the Lord.
Help us to have a good attitude about everything.
Help us to be steadfast.
Help this church to be unmovable even in our old age.
Lord, help us to keep serving you.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.