How to Make Sure You Don't Waste Your Life // Joshua 14:6-15

Well, good morning to Cities Church at all of our campuses. You just heard it, but you better get ready because next Sunday, Pastor Kyle will be back. He's coming back. Yes, I'm pumped for him to be back next Sunday as we jump back into what is arguably one of the most famous, famous chapters in the entire Bible. And as you could probably tell from that video, he is ready to get back at it. So you do not want to miss church next Sunday. And if you think that's exciting, boy, are you in for a treat today because today we're wrapping up our preach series. And though we've heard some amazing messages from some amazing communicators, in my humble opinion, we have saved the best for last. If we haven't met, my name is Zach Meyer, and I've served in a variety of roles on our staff over the last two and a half years. And as always, it's an honor to get to preach to you guys. Something that you should know about me is that I am a recreational runner, but there was a time in my life where I attempted to run competitively. Yes, in the sixth grade, I was on the cross-country team and was extremely average, okay? I don't think I ever actually finished high enough to score my team any points. And I know when you see that picture, there's probably a couple of questions that come to mind. Number one, what did you do to get those biceps? And number two, why are you racing a girl? And to tell you the truth, I don't know, but I obviously smoked her, so that's all that matters. Even though I've never been very good at running, as a sport, it has sort of always fascinated me, and specifically the story of John Stephen Aquari. So he represented Tanzania in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

And as the story goes, about halfway through the race, the runners were jockeying for position, and John Stephen Aquari fell down and dislocated his knee. Eighteen of the 75 runners would eventually drop out of the race, but not him. In fact, more than an hour after the winner had crossed the finish line, John Stephen Aquari was still running. And you can actually look this up on YouTube, and you can see that, like, the sun had gone down, the stadium was half empty, and there he is limping across the finish line. And sometime later, a reporter caught up to him and asked him how he finished, and why he didn't drop out of the race like so many of the others had. And this was his response. My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race, they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race. And I tell you that story this morning because the exact same thing is true in the Christian life. Starting the race is worthless if you do not finish. The Bible is full of people who started well. King Saul was a tall, dark, and handsome, humble farmer who was anointed the first king over Israel. Solomon was the wisest and richest man in the whole world. Judas was hand-selected by Jesus to be one of his 12 disciples. He fed the poor, he healed the sick, he preached about the kingdom of God, and we know how his story ended. You see, the problem with those guys wasn't how they started, the problem was that they didn't finish. From the Old Testament to the New, we see that the goal of the Christian life is to run with endurance and finish well. It's to get to the end and have lived a long, faithful, and fruitful life. And listen, I don't know many of you sitting in here or at our campuses right

now, but if you're a Christian here, here's what I know, that's what you want. You want to get to the end and look backwards and say things like, I took some gospel risks. I took gospel risks. I didn't let the eventual decline of my health, right, steal my joy. My kids and my grandkids are following Jesus. I got to see my son baptize my grandson. Right, you see, the question isn't whether or not we'd want to get to the end and say those things, the question is, how do we get there? Because here's what we know, this idea of running with endurance and finishing well, like it's exciting in principle, but it is exhausting in practice. You know, we'd love to...it's amazing and exciting to think about being the 90-year-old wrinkly couple sitting on the same side of the booth at Cagney's holding hands and praying before their meal, right, but here we are. just trying to squeeze in a date night, like once every three or four months. It's super exciting to think about leaving a long lineage of kids and grandkids who are following Jesus and making disciples, but here we are just trying to get our kids out of the house to church consistently and on time. Right, those things are exciting, but if we're honest, so many of us find ourselves oftentimes just tired, overwhelmed, and wondering if that picture is even possible. And I believe this morning, church, God wants to remind us on the authority of his word that not only is it possible to finish well, it's worth it. And we're gonna see that by looking at one of my favorite guys in the whole Bible.

Okay, he's one of the few people who never has anything negative said about him. He's only mentioned in 32 of the 31,000 verses in the Bible, but his life is a picture of what it looks like to run with endurance and finish well. His name is Caleb. You got your Bibles, turn to Joshua 14. Okay, we're gonna walk through this passage and see four characteristics of faith that finishes well. We'll start in Joshua 14, verse six. It says this, then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, in Kadesh Barnea, concerning you and me. Okay, what in the world's happening here? So since we're just parachuting into the book of Joshua this morning, it's helpful to start with a little bit of context. So there are two chapters that are crucial to understand what's happening here. And there are numbers 13 and 14. It's also known as the story of the 12 spies. And what happens is some little Old Testament history lesson here. So Moses leads the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and heads toward the promised land. Okay, they get close and Moses sends 12 guys to go and spy out the land to see what it's like. 10 of the guys come back and they're terrified.

They're full of fear, but two guys are full of faith. Their names were Joshua and Caleb. But unfortunately, the people of Israel side with the guys who are afraid and God sentences them to wander for 40 years in the wilderness while the entire faithless generation of Israel dies. Right, and that's basically where the book of Deuteronomy ends. And then we get to the sixth book, Joshua. Moses has died. Joshua is in charge, leading the people of Israel into the promised land. Okay, they fight some battles, they take some land, and then they divide up the land amongst the people for their inheritance. And all of that brings us to Joshua 14, verse six. So let's read it again. Joshua 14, starting in verse six. It says, then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, in Kadesh Barnea, concerning you and me. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again, as it was in my heart. Okay, so Caleb is talking to his buddy Joshua, and he's saying, he's referencing what happened in numbers 13 and 14. Right, and he's telling him, man, you know that when we went to spy out the land,

when we came back, I gave an honest report. Like, I believed deeply in my heart that we actually could go in and drive out the giants and take the land, and that is exactly what came out of my mouth. You see, it shows us that Caleb was a man of integrity. And that's the first characteristic of faith that finishes well, personal integrity. You see, integrity is the alignment between your choices and your convictions. It's when your behavior matches your beliefs. And here's the thing about integrity. We all know what integrity is, right? We've known about it since the third grade, when we saw the little poster on our teacher's wall explaining what integrity is. You see, integrity is not hard to perceive, it's just hard to possess. And I think there are a couple of challenges when it comes to possessing integrity. The first is holding the right convictions. Right, if integrity is just alignment between choices and convictions, then in one sense, it doesn't take a whole lot, right? Because an 18-year-old can be deeply convinced that he's the next Michael Jordan and make choices that align with that, like getting up 500 shots a day in his driveway, but I'm not sure we would call him a man of integrity. You see, part of Caleb's conviction about...

going in and taking the land and driving out the giants. Part of that conviction shows us that part of biblical integrity is holding convictions that are right and true and meaningful. It's holding convictions that may have consequences. You see, I think one of the reasons that some people struggle to have integrity is not necessarily because they don't have self-control. It's not necessarily because they're impulsive. It's just because they're immature. They haven't grown up and staked themselves on anything that matters, anything that's meaningful. And I'm not just talking about people out there. Like, I'm talking about people in here. Some of you struggle to hold convictions or have convictions that hold you. And others of you may struggle to make right choices, which is another challenge with possessing integrity. You see, we all either at some point have or will find ourselves in a situation where our convictions get put under pressure. Right, we believe one thing, but we find ourselves doing or tempted to do another thing. And what happens? There's a tension that develops. It's what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. And what happens is your inner lawyer will show up and try to remedy the situation through rationalizing and justifying.

It will say things like, or you will tell yourself things like, yeah, I know I shouldn't do it, but it's only once. I'm not gonna make a habit. Or yeah, but no one will know. Yeah, I know I shouldn't do this, but I've been working hard and I deserve a break. And what we have to remember is that when we find ourselves in those situations, it is always easier to justify the wrong choice than make the right choice. High school students, when you find yourself at the football game on Friday night, and afterwards your friends start to do things that some high school students do at football games, after football games on Friday nights, remember, it's always easier to justify the wrong choice than make the right one. If you're on a business trip and work has been pretty stressful and things aren't going the best at home, it's always easier to justify the wrong choice than make the right one. And what we have to remember is that one of the surest ways to get off course and off track in the Christian life is by making a habit of justifying and rationalizing choices that do not align with your convictions. In 2012, Paul David Tripp wrote a book called Dangerous Calling. It was a book from a pastor to other pastors

about the unique dangers and challenges that people face in pastoral ministry, remaining faithful and fruitful in pastoral ministry. And there were five well-known pastors who gave endorsements for the book on the back cover. And within seven years, more than half of those guys on the back cover who had endorsed the book had disqualified themselves for ministry due to a moral failure. And I remember seeing or reading about that and thinking, you know, it does not matter if you're a new Christian or if you're a seasoned saint or if you're a so-called professional Christian. If you're going to get to the end and finish well, you have to have integrity. Let's see what Caleb says next in verse seven. He says, I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. And I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up made the heart of the people melt. Yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day saying, surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. So two times in the verses that I just read, three times in this passage and six times in the whole Old Testament,

Caleb is referenced as having wholly followed the Lord, his God. That phrase is not said about any other Old Testament hero. It's not said about Abraham or Moses or David, right? Caleb is uniquely held up as a picture what it looks like to follow the Lord with wholehearted devotion. And that's the second characteristic of faith that finishes well. If you're going to endure in the Christian life, you have to be devoted to Jesus. And I think there are a couple of things that we have to understand in order to do that. The first is the difference between devotion and perfection. You see, if you're anything like me, you can read passages like this one and be like, I can't relate. You know, you read this and it's like this guy who never has anything negative said about him who wholly follows the Lord. And it's like, I can't relate, right? But it's helpful for us to know that devotion is not the same thing as perfection. You see, perfection is about being sinless. Devotion is about being surrendered. Perfection says, I haven't failed. Devotion says, I haven't held back and I will not go back. It's the idea of being loyal and committed and all in. And this is important for us to understand

because if we think that those things are similar or the same thing, here's where that will leave you. Discouraged, profoundly discouraged. And discouragement is one of our enemy's greatest tactics to prevent us from living a long and fruitful life in Christ. And we also have to understand that devotion is costly. Okay, it's costly. And you know this, I don't have to prove this to you, right? Your devotion to your physical health is costly. Your devotion to your kids travel sports, right, is costly. Your devotion to your golf game is costly to your wallet. And if you're trash like me, it's costly to your emotional wellbeing, right? This concept came really up close and personal to me about a year and a half ago when my wife Meredith and I bought our first house. So for just a little bit of context for you, when I graduated college, the first place that I ever lived was a little duplex off of University Drive in Durham, North Carolina. Okay, it was a rental. My landlord's name was Marty and he was a sweet old man. But unfortunately, I did not take very good care of Marty's duplex. Okay, the fact that I was renting and renting as a single 23-year-old male was not necessarily a recipe for success. I mean, my roommate and I, like we cut the grass once every six or seven weeks, right?

Bacon grease went straight down the drain, the lint trap in the dryer, like that thing never, I don't think once, actually got taken out. We were not worried about a fire hazard, right? I did everything as quickly and cheaply as I possibly could because I didn't own it, right? It wasn't mine. Well, all of that changed about a year and a half ago when we bought our first house. And two weeks after we moved in, okay, I start a load of laundry and walk down the stairs into the garage and find water pouring in through the ceiling on the garage floor. And naturally, I freak out. I go into panic mode. We go to Lowe's and I buy every fan in the store, right? We get the restoration company to come out and test the spots to see if they're saturated with water, right, we pay way too much money. All of that, I tell you all of that because that experience taught me two things. Number one, that devotion is costly and your degree of devotion can be measured by the cost that you are willing to pay. And here's what that means for us. If there is an area of your life where devotion is lacking, the thing that is standing in the way is likely some cost that you are unwilling to pay.

And usually, here's what it comes down to, either comfort or control. You know, like why won't some of you get baptized? Why won't you share the gospel with your brother? Why won't some of you give according to your means? You pick the area. Like if there's an area of your life where devotion is lacking, it's likely ultimately on the bottom shelf, it's because you're unwilling to either be uncomfortable or out of control. But we have to remember, church, that one of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that comfort is actually found through discomfort and control is found through surrender, right? We cannot be a people who forgets the implications of the gospel, right? Here's some of the implications. When you devote yourself to Jesus, the Holy Spirit becomes your comforter and God the Father becomes your shepherd. That means that no matter what Jesus calls you to do and where he calls you to go, comfort and control will be there. Comfort and control. are yours in the Christian life. You see, my prayer for every single one of you in here and at our campuses is that you would say with Caleb, I'm not holding anything back. I'm not holding anything back.

I will forgive my dad. I will have dinner with my weird neighbors and try to build a relationship with them. I'll walk across the hall and put a goofy blue shirt on and serve in the kids' ministry. I'll move my family overseas, right? If God says, do it, I'll do it because anything that he could call me to do pales in comparison to what he has done for me in the gospel. Yes, devotion is costly, but it's also rewarded and it's needed if you are going to run with endurance and finish well. Let's keep going. Joshua 14, verse 10 says this. This is Caleb talking in the present tense. He says, and now behold, the Lord has kept me alive just as he said these 45 years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now behold, I am this day 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength is now as my strength was then for war and for going and coming. So Caleb has waited patiently for 45 years for God to do what he promised. And he still seems in these verses to be as full of faith now as he was back in the beginning. And I want us to just take a second

and realize how crazy that is, right? Because back in numbers 13 and 14, right? Caleb was faithful. He hadn't done anything wrong. Like he brought an honest report. He was full of faith. He was ready to take the land, but because of the other 10 spies and the rest of the nation of Israel, he was forced to wander through the wilderness for 40 years and watch every single person he knew and loved die in the wilderness, right? How did he endure that? How did he endure that? Right, you and I, we can hardly wait for 45 minutes sometimes. How did he wait 40 plus years? It was by trusting the Lord in the wilderness. Caleb trusted the Lord, and that's the third characteristic. And when you read the Bible, you see that there are three truths that you can trust about God to endure the wilderness seasons in your life. The first one is that God is always working in the wilderness. God is always working in the wilderness. You know, one of the things, I think one of the things that's oftentimes the hardest in the wilderness seasons in our lives

is that they can seem pointless. You know, there's just some suffering and pain and difficulty that we walk through, and it seems like how in the world could God, a good God, use any of this for good? But one of the things that we see in the Bible is that there are some things that only the wilderness can accomplish. Right, that was true in Joseph's life. That was true in Moses' life. That was even true for Jesus in his time in the wilderness. Right, there are some things that only the wilderness can accomplish. And here's what I've learned, that when you're, that some of you right now, the wilderness is not eventual or theoretical, it's actual. Like there are some of you in this room right now or at one of our campuses, and you are in the wilderness. Maybe you're waiting on something. Maybe you're wanting something. Maybe you've recently found out that you are going to lose, or you've recently lost something or someone. And what I've learned is that when you're there, you need to be reminded more about the presence of God than the purposes of God. And that's another truth

that we can trust in the wilderness, that not only is God working in the wilderness, God is with you, and he will sustain you in your wilderness seasons. We saw this from Caleb in verse 10. He says, and now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said these 45 years. You see, there were two things that were true of Caleb in the wilderness. He kept going, but God kept him going. Right, he did not give up. and the Lord did not give up on him. And in order to endure the wilderness seasons in our lives, we have to remember that when we are not strong enough to continue going on, God is strong enough to carry us. Psalm 121 verse four says, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Here's what that means for us. God doesn't take time off. He's not anxious, he's not stressed, and he's not overwhelmed. He's not weak, he's not absent. He doesn't tire, he doesn't quit, and he doesn't fail. There are some of you here today who need to rest in that. You need to trust that God's got you. Keep going and trust that God will keep you going. He's working, he's with you, and lastly, he will bring you out. If you're a Christian,

God will bring you out of the wilderness, right? The one thing that's true of every Christian here that's not true of every non-Christian here is that if you are in Christ, the wilderness will not win. The central message of our faith is that our God has defeated death. He's defeated the grave. If you are a follower of Jesus and you trust in him, the resurrection is proof that even if the wilderness tarries for the rest of your life, when you go to be with him, when you are raised to be with him, the wilderness will be over. He's working, he's with you, and he will bring you out. We've talked about trust. We've talked about devotion, integrity, and lastly, we're gonna talk about zeal. Let me show you this from Caleb's life, starting again in verse 12. Caleb says, so now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there with great and fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said. Then Joshua blessed him and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day

because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. So here is Caleb in the last chapter of his life, and what's he doing? Taking hills and fighting battles. Why? Because he is consumed with zeal for the Lord. Let's talk about zeal. What is zeal? Well, the word translated zeal in the New Testament literally means to burn or to boil over. It's the kind of thing that Christians today don't, we don't really talk about anymore. Like we don't really use that word a ton anymore, but it's something like Christians 300 years ago, like the Puritans, they talked about it all the time. And we see that there are a couple of components to it. The first would be a high view of God's glory. You know, like a zealous person just cannot stand for God's name, His holy name to be diminished or demeaned or dragged through the mud, right? They see God as the best thing that there is and their hearts beat to see Him receive the glory and the honor and the praise that He is due. Another piece of zeal would be holy discontentment. Holy discontentment. I think a good question for every Christian to ask every now and then is what bothers me? What bothers me? Like, if we're honest, I think so often the things that bother us most are so silly.

My Amazon package got delayed in shipping. You know, my garbage truck missed my trash can on the street this week. Now it's like, I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep last night at 1045 and my neighbor is just firing off bottle rockets in my cul-de-sac and I'm like, ah! But it's like, what's wrong with me? Like, why is that so bothersome to us? Do you know what's bothersome to the zealous person? The fact that their coworker is still spiritually blind. They are frustrated and unsettled about the fact that there are foster kids in this city who have never seen the inside of a God-fearing home. Right, it bothers them that there are entire people groups around this world who have literally never heard the name of Jesus. They don't know who he is. They've got no idea who he is. See, zealous people are more bothered by the lack of kingdom progress than they are the lack of their own personal comfort. They're more bothered by kingdom progress than the lack of their own personal comfort. And I just want to quickly encourage some of you in the room, because there are some of you in our church who genuinely have holy discontentment in some area of your life. Can I encourage you, do not ignore it. Don't ignore it. Like, if it bothers you every time you hear about fatherlessness or the lack of good gospel-preaching churches in our nation or the lack of access to the gospel in the prison system or overseas, don't ignore it. Steward it, right? John Tyson says all the time that some of the greatest moves of God in human history have been born out of one man or one woman's burden. If you have it, don't ignore it. Steward it. And if you don't, ask for it.

Like, some of you may need to just start praying tonight, God, burden my heart for what breaks yours. That's a prayer. That is a prayer that God loves to answer. That's a prayer that God loves to answer. A third component of zeal would be a willingness to risk. And we see this in verse 12, right? Caleb is like, it may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out just as the Lord had said, right? He's not doubting. This isn't doubt. He's saying, even if the outcome is uncertain, God is still worthy of the risk. God is still worthy of the risk. Christians are not people who make decisions based on outcomes, right? Because we're not God. You have no idea what's going to happen. You don't know what's going to happen if you share the gospel with someone. You don't know what's going to happen if you start a Bible study in your workplace. You don't know what's going to happen if you go on the mission trip and you're not supposed to. If you did, you wouldn't need faith, right? Zealous people are risk-taking people because they're more consumed with the worth of Jesus than a potential negative outcome. Listen to this quote from J.C. Ryle. He says, a jealous person is swallowed up in one thing, and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives or whether he dies, whether he has health or whether he has sickness, whether he is rich or whether he is poor, for all this, the zealous person cares nothing at all. This is Caleb, right, 85 years old and willing to lay it all on the line, willing to risk because he's consumed with zeal for the Lord. I think that, ultimately, Caleb's life, what he shows us in these last couple of verses is this, that zeal has no expiration date. Zeal has no expiration date. There's a phrase that I'll hear people say sometimes about the church. They'll say, the church needs the wisdom of the old and the zeal of the young. And I think it's a helpful phrase to some extent, right? The younger generation experiencing the truth of the gospel and the joy of ministry is encouraging to the older generation.

And the old, right, sharing their wisdom from decades of life experience is helpful to the younger generation. But I think here's one of the things that Caleb's life shows us, that the church does not just need the wisdom of the old, the church needs the zeal of the old. One of the things that's so interesting to me is that the question that many of us start asking in our 20s is the same question we stop asking when we get into our 50s, where has God called me to steward my gifts and serve him best? Why is it that as age tends to increase, zeal starts to decrease? Why is that? I think there probably are a couple of reasons, I'm sure, but one of the primary reasons, I think, is the cultural narrative around retirement. How should Christians think about retirement? How should we think about it? I think as Christians, we should be profoundly pro-retirement. You're here in your 50s and 60s, you're probably thinking, we should let this guy preach more often. Right, we should be pro-retirement because the Bible is pro-retirement, right? God commanded the Levites to retire at age 50 from service in the temple, right? Retirement forces good financial stewardship. It enables you to enjoy the fruits of your labor, right? And be a blessing to your kids and your grandkids. It prepares you to have margin for ministry and generosity in a season of life where you are more flexible than ever. You see, retirement isn't a problem. Leisure isn't a problem.

Getting to the most impactful season of your life and shifting into cruise control, that's a problem. Spending the last 20 to 30 years of your life exclusively on personal comfort, that's a problem. Like if you are here today, one of our campuses, and you are in the second half of life, can you just hear me say this as a younger brother in the faith? We don't just need your wisdom, we need your zeal. We need your zeal. Please, spend time at your vacation home, seriously. Enjoy time with your kids and your grandkids. The Bible calls them one of the richest blessings you have, okay? But serve the church with whatever strength you have. Maybe for some of you, it's investing in a young marriage. Maybe it's leading a community group. Maybe it's praying daily for all of the kids back there in our kids' ministry. Giving generously according to your means. Whatever you do, do not buy the lie that your best days are behind you. The church needs your zeal. And if you're here and you're like me and you're in the first half of your life, remember, that's the goal. Money is not the goal. Career success is not the goal. A long, faithful, fruitful life of following Jesus, finishing well, that's the goal.

That's what it looks like to finish well. A few, or every year now, my family, the week of Memorial Day, we do Beach Week. And so just over a month ago, my family was at the beach and my kids are now at the ages where they are actually able to engage with building a sandcastle for longer than like two minutes. And so most mornings, we would get all geared up and packed up and sunscreened up and go down to the beach and my kids would build a sandcastle and they were all different, right? Some of them big, some small. They were all different, but there was one thing that was always the same. The one that we had built the day before wouldn't be there anymore. And I remember having this thought, there have been so many people, right, so many people who have come to this exact same spot on this beach and done the exact same thing, right? Spent their time building a sandcastle just for the tide to rise and fall and to see it get washed away. And in the same way, there have been so many people, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people who have spent their lives doing the exact same thing, climbing and then coasting, accumulating and achieving everything this world has to offer just to get to the end

and die and see it all be washed away. Can I encourage you, that does not have to be your story. You can leave a legacy. You can have an impact that outlasts you. You can finish well, but you need endurance. And so as we close and prepare to respond, I'm gonna read a couple of verses from Hebrews 12 and I wanna call you, whether you are 16 years old or whether you are a silver saint, I wanna call you to keep going. Hebrews 12, verse one says this, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, he's the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. This passage shows. that oftentimes running starts with repenting. And in a room like this, with all of our campuses, there's some of you who need to do that today. There's a good chance that someone's integrity has cracked. Maybe you've justified some wrong choices. Maybe there's something that you're trying to keep hidden. Maybe there's just some cost in your walk with Jesus that you have been unwilling to pay. And if that's you, I just wanna remind you

that while it is physically challenging to run with a weighted vest on, it is spiritually impossible to run with endurance and finish well while carrying the weight of unrepentant sin. First John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and He is just, and He will cleanse us from our sin and forgive us from all unrighteousness. And there is someone here today who needs to do that and find the freedom that is in Jesus. Others of you, you need to recommit today to running. The most common metaphor for the Christian life in the New Testament is a race. And yet so often, so many of us, myself included, we treat it like a casual stroll. And so for some of you, there's probably an area or two in your life where today, this morning, here's what God is saying. It's time to pick up the pace. It's time to pick up the pace. Maybe it's in your prayer life. Maybe it's in your parenting, the intentionality you're giving to your kids. Maybe it's just generally in the second half of your life. Where do you need to pick up the pace and run with endurance? And there's others of you here this morning where you have been doing that. You've been running hard.

And maybe you're just tired or overwhelmed. No matter where you are, I want to call us this morning in just a minute to come forward and voice a prayer to the Lord, saying, Lord, I'm not giving up. I'm not giving up on my physical health. I'm not giving up praying for my prodigal son or daughter. I'm not giving up on my lost coworker. I'm not giving up on my Bible reading plan. I'm not giving up on this marriage. I'm gonna keep going and I'm gonna give it all I have. Where do you need to keep going? I'm gonna pray. And then at all of our campuses, I'll invite you to come forward and we'll bring it to the Lord together. Let's pray. Jesus, we look to you. Would you help us to run with endurance and finish well? Jesus, we recognize that the key to all of this is focusing our gaze on you, the founder and perfecter of our faith, the truer and better Caleb, who was devoted and trusted and did all the things, who climbed the hill, defeated the giants of sin and death and the grave so that we could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Lord, we rest that what you have started, you will finish. Help us, Lord. It's in your name we pray, amen.

Let's stand, come forward and respond.