The Great Adventure

The Great Adventure 2024

Introduction:

As we enter into a New Year I always pray for a Word or a Theme and I feel like the Theme for us in 2024 is:  Adventure!

Too often People’s relationship with this Great Big Savior we serve is blasé, boring, and lacks adventure…that should not be the case…all through the Bible, people who truly served God lived an Adventurous Life…

Consider these invitations from Jesus:

  • Come and Follow Me
  • Come and See
  • Come and I’ll make you fishers of Men
  • Come and Inherit the Kingdom
  • Come and Find Rest
  • Lay hands on the Sick
  • Do what I have done
  • Receive the Holy Spirit

Now you and I can view these Invitations in one of two ways:  A Duty to be Done or an Adventure to Live out…

Transition:  Check out the past three years themes:  No Fear, Uncommon, Adventure…sounds like the Lord is saying something to us…

Our Theme verses for SEW – Adventure are:

Josh 1:9, 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” NIV

Isa 6:8-9, 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ESV

Send me Lord on an Adventure with You in 2024…

Josh 15:13-19, 13 According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak). 14 And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. 15 And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher. 16 And Caleb said, “Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and captures it, to him will I give Achsah (pronounced – Ox-sah) my daughter as wife.” 17 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 18 When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she got off her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 19 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. ESV

  1. Caleb
    1. Numbers 14:24 “My servant Caleb, because he…has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went…”

 

  1. Who is Caleb…in the book of Joshua, it is Joshua who gets all the attention and justifiably so, but I don’t want us to leave out Caleb…
    1. He is a Kenezite…meaning he wasn’t Hebrew or Jewish…but became one by Choice.
    2. Though he wasn’t an Israelite by birth or descent, he became one of Israel’s most illustrious leaders.
  • According to Jewish historians and biblical scholars…Caleb, hearing of what happened in Egypt and God setting the People of Israel free…and was leading them to a Promised Land…Caleb, probably of a Canaanite family…joined the tribe of Judah…while the Hebrews were camped at Sinai for over a year.
  1. This is really a picture of Salvation for you and me…
    1. We have heard all that God has done…
    2. We have believed the reports and testimony of Christ…
  • So, we have joined the Family of God through Christ Jesus…
  1. The Old Song: “I have decided to follow Jesus…”
  1. Caleb a Man of Faith, Confidence, Character
    1. If one word had to be used to define Caleb it would be optimism…
    2. In Numbers 13 when Caleb, Joshua and 10 other spies went in to spy out the promise land…
      1. They all saw the same thing…Giants…impossibilities…obstacles…challenges…
      2. Yet Caleb…declares we are well able to defeat them…”they are too big to miss…”
        1. In Numbers 13 it says, “the spies brought out, from the land, ripe Grapes and they were so large it took two men to carry the cluster of grapes…
        2. The two men who carried out the grapes according to the book of Biblical Jewish Personalities and History were Joshua and Caleb…
        3. The other 10 were so scared they were looking to get out…
        4. Joshua and Caleb came out carrying grapes…
  • How did Caleb ever go back to wandering with unbelieving, doubting people…because he remembered the taste of grapes on his lips…”taste and see that the Lord is good.”
    1. Your testimony is the taste of grapes for you in the wandering seasons…
    2. Remember when God saved You
    3. When He filled you with the Holy Ghost
    4. When you prayed and God answered.
  1. Caleb was a visionary, a dreamer, the word impossible didn’t enter his vocabulary…A Man of Faith and A Man of God…
  2. He had contagious Confidence…Contagious Faith…was willing to go on the Adventure in spite of Obstacles and Challenges…
  3. Joshua 14:12 “Now therefore give me this Mountain.”
    1. After 40 years of being led in the wilderness…Caleb has been walking in Patience, waiting for His Promise…His Mountain to be Conquered…
    2. How can a person wander with doubting people for 40 years…it’s only because you have been given a glimpse of your promise…your mountain…your God kind of adventure.
  • Here is the kicker…when they entered into the Promise land…Caleb fought alongside Joshua and others for 5 years making sure they secured their promises…then he says to Joshua…”Now therefore give me this Mountain…”
  1. Can you help others get there’s while waiting on yours…
    1. Zig Ziglar said: “If you’ll help others fulfill their dreams; your dreams will be fulfilled.”

 

  • Caleb’s Territory – Hebron
    1. For several years we have been praying for territory…Caleb’s territory was Hebron…the high place…the place where Enemies have fortified…a Mountainous region
      1. Hebron means -” Faithful in Relationships.”
      2. Hebron is where we learn to relate to people not on the Basis of what they do for us, but in Recognition of God’s work in Bringing us together. This is truly about Covenant Relationships
    2. But the passage I read to start this message with was Joshua 15:19 “about Caleb’s daughter…” she was grateful for the territory, but asked for More…

Transition:  Do you have the courage to ask for More…do you have the faith to ask for More…

 

  1. Caleb’s Daughter
    1. Now check this out…Caleb gave Othniel territory because of what He accomplished and did…he also gave Othniel his Daughter Acsah (pronounced Ox-sah)
    2. Othniel has no idea what this victory is preparing Him to become…
      1. In Judges 3 we see that the people cry out to God…and the Spirit of the Lord rests upon Othniel, a territory taker, one who has some past experience of winning battles for territory…the Spirit of the Lord rests upon him and he conquers new territory and a king…bringing the People into a 40 year time period of Peace…
      2. God raises Othniel up to be a Judge over the People of Israel…
  • You have no idea what the current battle you are in is preparing you for in the future…your current fight may lead you into a season of prolonged rest and blessing…
  1. Let’s look at verse 19 in the Message:
    1. Josh 15:19

19 She said, “Give me a marriage gift.

You’ve given me desert land;

Now give me pools of water!”

And he gave her the upper and the lower pools.

(MSG)

  1. Othniel could ask for territory because of what he did…
  • But only someone in covenant relationship, like a daughter to a father could ask for a Covenantal gift…
  1. She asked for a “wedding gift” only the father of the bride could honor…
  2. I’m reminded of Bishop Tudor Bismark’s word a few years ago…we need to be married to the Vision of the House…
    1. A sign that you are married is what and who you are faithful too…
    2. Are we faithful to Christ as part of the bride or are we just dating the idea of Jesus?
  3. When you are the Bride of Christ because that is what the Church is…we can ask for “marriage gifts.”
    1. If you know that you know you are saved and part of the Bride of Christ…what gifts are you asking for…?
  4. She asked for two springs…”water that is flowing…”
    1. One spring would have been sufficient…but she asked for two…
    2. I love this girls grit…
  • But I love that she knows her daddy…she knows her daddy will bless her
  1. Some of you need to ask for Double in this New Year…
  2. This new adventure will require double…
  1. Water that flows from one place to another…the upper and lower springs…making everything in-between fertile to produce…
    1. What spring are you asking God for…
      1. Springs of blessing
      2. Springs of breakthrough
      3. Springs of an Open Heaven
      4. Springs of an Open Door
      5. Springs of Miracles, Healings
      6. Springs of Restoration
    2. Springs speak to us of those things that burst up out of hard places, dry, desert places.
  • The thing that springs up out of the dry places of life…
  1. Don’t just ask God for territory…ask him for Springs in the Territory you have fought for…
    1. Yea, I want a blessing that comes from the Fight of Faith…
    2. But I want “wedding gifts” baby…
  • There is an under the surface blessing ready to spring forth if we’re willing to ask…
  1. John 7:37-39

 

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

ESV

  1. Pool of Siloam (a living pool, comes from a continual flow of spring water)
  2. This would also be a pool of purification…
  1. Closing
    1. Some are fighting the fight for territory.
      1. Peace
      2. Healing
  • Breakthrough Emotionally and Spiritually
  1. Your Marriage
  2. Your Children
  3. Your Finances
  1. Some of you have gained some ground in your walk with Christ and you need to ask the Father for a “Spring”…matter of Fact ask for “two.”
  2. Commit Your Life to Christ

 

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