Gavin Robert Hems and others explore Joshua 14:12, where Caleb claims the hill country despite the Anakim. They argue believers should remember God's promises rather than wait for permission, using 2,000-year-old seeds that germinated and DNA metaphors to show what seems dead can revive and express itself.
Chapters
Joshua chapter number 14. I really just want to see if I can put the starting blocks in verse 12, run the race from there. Joshua 14, verse 12. Word of God reads, now give me this hill country the Lord promised me on that day, because you heard then that the Anakim, Anakim are there, as well as the large fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out as the Lord promised. You may be seated. We thank God for his word and for the perpetual nature that lies there within. Give me this hill, please.
Who's there?
Perhaps you may give me the strength, you may be with me so I can drive them out. With just a few moments on the Mary Yellow Sunday, I really want to just preach from the subject: seeking after survival, seeking after survival. 1960s, archaeologists excavated ancient fortress called Musa. In the 1960s, when they were excavating this ancient fortress, they discovered something unique.
It's in jars.
They discovered in jars in a fortress which they were excavating or digging, they discovered seeds that were presumed to be 2,000 years old. They found these seeds that had been buried, forgotten, lost, been there for approximately 2,000 years. They found the seed 1960, but in 2005, those same seeds that were found in 1960 that were believed to have been 2,000 years, 2,000 years old.
Scientists had a strange idea: let's plant these old seeds and see what happened. Lo and behold, something happened in 2005. Were these seeds which were over 2,000 years old, even though they had been buried for so long, at this time they germinated. This teaches us something, that when we appear to be buried When life appears to be lost, when it appears that we have been forgotten, God teaches us that if you have been able to survive— survival is one reason to be thankful— but post-survival, you will discover that there's still something in you. And I'm trying to really stay calm today, but the message alone in the seed shocks me, because other people would have given up on the seeds. The seeds perhaps given up on themselves, but all it took was for somebody to discover what was lost, take a chance on what was lost, and by taking a chance on what was lost and preserved, something else came out of it.
Is there any seed in the house this morning who you know that you have been preserved by God, you've been kept by God, God has allowed you to survive some of the roughest seasons in your life when others gave up on you and when your faith was in question. God did not leave you where he found you, but he found you and purposed you, and now good things come out of those old buried seeds.
You're here.
Chapter 14. This is an interesting time in the history of the children of Israel. They are not just trying to get into the promised land, they are now on the other side in there, and now it is what we call the allotment phase. And in this allotment phase, Joshua the leader is now giving up the land to various tribes. And now in this time, the old generation has died because of their disobedience, and God did not allow them to conquer the promised land.
However, there's two people remaining from the old generation.
We got Joshua and we got Caleb.
And the reason that they have survived is because in the book of Numbers, they were sent out as a part of the spies. And when everyone else was pessimistic about the promised land Joshua and Caleb saw the promise in the promised land and still had faith in what God promised them.
And up until this moment, there has been a lot of battle.
Up until this moment in the book of Joshua, there has been a lot of war.
The old generation has died in the wilderness.
Some of the new generation have died in war. But Caleb, with his 85-year-old self, is still there. And the only reason that he survived is not because he's better than anybody, but Caleb has survived along with Joshua because there is a promise and purpose that's still on his life.
And Caleb, at this moment looks at the scenario and says, we've been through a lot. I thank God that we survived the wilderness.
I thank God for what we've been through. I thank God for what we have overcome. But I am telling us this morning that even though God has brought me this far, that God is not through with me.
And Caleb looks at what has been going on.
He looks at the people who died in the wilderness. He looks and sees perhaps that that very easily could have been him, because some of those were his kinfolk, some of them were his church fellas, some of them were people on the same job, but now they are no longer here. He looks at those who have lost in the battle. He looks at those who didn't make it this far, and Caleb says, God, since you brought me this far, that means that what you promised me is still in reach. So I'm not asking for too much, but what I want now, God, is for Joshua to give me what God has promised me.
And God, I believe that if you are true to your word, that you didn't bring me through that just to leave me here. But the reason that you brought me through all of that is because there is something that you want me to conquer.
And I'm gonna bring it to 2026 now. I'm gonna bring it to February the 15th, and I want to ask this room, is there any Caleb or Calebichas in the house this morning? Who know that there have been other people who did not make it through, but you made it through.
But look at you today.
It is 11:26 on February the 12th, 2026, and you may not be rich, and you may not be wealthy, and you may not be where you want to be in life, but your testimony right now is that through it all, I'm still here.
Through everything that could have taken me out, I'm still here.
Other people didn't make it this far. Some people made it, but they lost their mind.
But by your grace and by your mercy, I'm still here with the activity of my limbs, with breath in my body, with movement in my hands, with knees that still move.
I may have some pain but I still got purpose. I may have some aches, but I still got anointing.
I may have some burdens, but I got more blessings.
And if I'm still here, that means that God still has something for me to see. Is there a seeker in the house this morning that you don't want to just sit here and just take up God's air, but you want to find that purpose and see what it is that God has for you to do?
I'mma do my best to preach this morning and not get too excited. But do y'all know why I drove down 167 this morning?
Do y'all care to know why I came down 167 this morning?
I had my cruise control set on 70 to come down here and tell you this, that God's grace has preserved you to propel you. Say it again, maybe they didn't hear you, Gavin. God's grace has propelled—
preserved you in order to propel you. In other words, he didn't keep you just to keep you, but he kept you because there is something that God wants you to pursue that he's already promised you.
And the reason that you've been preserved it's because God proactively promised.
And if God didn't proactively promise, then God didn't have to preserve. And the reason that you're here is because God proactively promised.
Therefore, you preserve, which means that you gonna be prepared. Y'all about to make me grow another gray hair this morning.
I came to preach to you that you've been preserved.
Thought you need to be prepared.
And I'm looking at some people in this room this morning.
Praise report after praise report, testimony after testimony, miracle after miracle, discharge after discharge. You came through. After coming through. And God did all of that because God is trying to tell you that there is something that when you come out that you need to pursue, because God has already promised.
All right, it's 11:30. Let me turn this I'm glad that my homegirl is going to go there.
Let me unpack this luggage.
Inside the luggage, I'm going to share them with you.
Now I'm gonna see if I'm going north or south of 167.
Stay with me now.
The first thing that this text teaches us is that God has granted us intentional recollection. Intentional recollection.
Uh, uh, uh, here, here's what this point is going to attempt to drive home.
You have to learn not to forget in seasons when you feel forgotten, in seasons where it appears that you've been forgotten by God.
It is your responsibility to not forget.
Can we ask the text what that means? We're in Joshua chapter 14. Joshua and Caleb received promises in Numbers.
You read the book of Joshua Joshua has now ascended to leadership after the death of Moses. We see Joshua winning battles, we see Joshua conquering territory, but there is somebody in this text, in the book—
that we don't hear much from. Up until chapter 14, we don't hear much from Caleb.
Many of us this morning have the Caleb condition. You know that you are recipient of the promises of God.
Many of you know God intimately enough to know that God has spoken to you, and you know what God has spoken to you.
You know God said, I need you to do X. You know that God told you to do Why? You know that God told you that you would receive Z, and now at this moment in your life, it appears that you are no longer even mentioned.
Seems almost unfair. Joshua done got him a new church. Joshua got him a new job, but people don't know that you were right there with Joshua and you received the same promise that Joshua received. And God spoke to you, Caleb, just like God spoke to Joshua.
So now it appears that you've been forgotten.
Anybody this morning who can be bold enough with your saved and sanctified self? To confess that it appears that perhaps you may have been forgotten. You may be in a place where people don't see your value. You may be in a place where you think that you heard God wrong, and you may be in a place where you think perhaps God was not telling you the truth, or You think that you may be in a place where you may have messed up what God promised you, but that can't be the case, child of God, because if God proactively promised, that means he promised knowing the end from the beginning.
So now the burden of proof It's not on Joshua to remember what God said to Caleb, but the responsibility is for Caleb to remember what God said to Caleb.
Gavin Robert Hems, you might as well preach it this morning because many of us are waiting on some outside confirmation You're waiting on some outside validation. You're waiting on somebody to post about you on Facebook to give you some encouragement to go through, because sometimes you feel down and you don't feel encouraged to do what God calls you to do.
But God says, I need you to have the Caleb and David mentality, where sometimes you have to encourage yourself, because Joshua is not always going to be in the room with you. But when you in the room by yourself with just you and God, you have enough people in your corner to remember what God has spoken in your life. And I want to know today, is there a soldier in the room who you know where you were when God spoke to you?
You know that you didn't hear it wrong.
And through it all, you know that if God was through with you, he could have eliminated you, but God kept you so you can remember.
Notice this, if you will. Josh Caleb— Joshua, if you read it, Joshua just including everybody. Y'all got this, y'all get that, y'all get this, y'all get that. Caleb looked at the program.
You say, I don't see my name on the program here. I don't see— I'm on for devotion, I'm not on for offering, I'm not on for introduction of speaker, I'm not on for welcome, or none of that. But here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put myself on program, and I'm gonna walk up to Joshua, and I'm not gonna wait on Joshua to call my name.
But what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna walk and claim what God has called me to claim. And while you waiting on somebody to put you up, while you're waiting on somebody to confirm you, God said, when are you gonna remember?
I know none of y'all come up here and put yourself on no church program. That was just a metaphor, and it ain't what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is that sometimes we need to stop waiting on other people to remember us. We need to stop waiting on other people to validate us. But we were right there when God had the conversation, and it's our job to remember. I'ma say something very pastoral. I'm gonna say something very pastoral, and many of y'all gonna think I'm throwing off, but I promise you I'm not, okay? This is why it's important to not just come to church and take your notes, and your notes sit at home. And the sad reality, you know, I stopped doing it on Wednesday.
Oh, the sermon about sin. But the reason it's important is not to stroke a pastor's ego.
The reason that recalling the word is important is because you may come into some moments in your life where you don't have another voice to encourage you, but you need to go back to what God has already said. And when you go back to what God has already said, then you can remember in those dark times.
So every time I have the chance, I not only just listen to the word but I read the word and I hear the word and I apply the word, even—
here it is, come here, come here, come here— even when it's on a phone call, even when we ain't in here at 6 o'clock on Wednesdays. But sometimes instead of just gossiping on the phone, we can pick up the phone because you ain't got to do the work.
All you got to do is listen because God is speaking in your life.
We need to put the red back on so it can be Love Sunday again.
It's all about intentional recall.
You have to choose what you remember. Uh, I don't know in this room, uh, uh, uh, uh, if there's anybody who's ever heard this, and I don't know If there's anyone in the dating market looking for a mate, I don't know none of the business, but let me give you some advice. There's some old fellas around the building want me to tell me, you know, this is scary advice, but they would say, Perry West, let me just say, man, they'll be looking for a woman, look at her mama. When you see a mama, you looking to see what she gonna look like in a few years. That could be scary, y'all. That could be very scary. That can be very scary. But what those old fellas, they didn't know this, they wasn't playing the dozens, they were teaching DNA.
Because what's written and spoken in you It's gonna come to pass. Inside of all of us, we are made from what's called— here it is—
deoxyribonucleic acid.
In other words, DNA. And I didn't know this, but at its core What DNA really is, is data that was written at birth or preconception about your life on 4 strands. It's really what DNA is.
It's molecular data from your mother and father that's written inside of you. Any of you all ever found yourself growing and you're starting to act more and more like your mama or daddy? You starting to act more like your parents the older you get. Can I tell you why that happened? Because I told you that DNA is really just data that's been stolen.
Now, the data that's been stolen came from your mother and father, but at some points in your life, that data is dormant, which means that it's kind of asleep.
But even though it's dormant, the data isn't dead.
So there's this Dr.
Mason biological term called gene expression, and the reason you find yourself resembling your mother and father the older you get—
is because some old data comes to life at a later date. It's been there, but it didn't express itself. But one day, what was inside and written expresses itself and comes to pass in your life.
Is there anybody this morning who has a spiritual DNA? Who know that sometimes you go through, but some kind of way the word of God expresses itself, and you find out that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, and that you find out that he shall give his angels charge over you to keep in all the ways. It may look dormant sometimes, but one day that word gonna come out and express itself.
All I'm trying to tell you, ain't nobody think—
they just teach DNA, that what's written down in you, what's written down concerning your life, if you just keep living, that which is written in your life going to express itself.
And you are everything that the word of God says, and the word of God has a way of expressing itself at the opportune time in your life.
Gabby, you taking too long.
You told your people about having intentional recollection.
Cut some of this sermon off.
Tell your people now about intentional recollection.
Caleb said At this time, when they are giving out a lot, everybody else getting some good stuff, Caleb put himself on program and said, give me this hill country.
Hill Country problem because it can be a threat in war. It's not necessarily the most fertile. It's Hill Country. Not only is it geogra—
geographically inconvenient, is also occupied by the enemy.
All these people getting other land. Caleb says, give me this hill country.
Caleb doesn't want one other tribe's land. Even though it looks good, Caleb doesn't want anyone else's land because it looks fruitful.
Caleb wants this hill country. My question: Caleb, what is there to want in this hill country?
An animal? Which means you have to fight.
Caleb, you had to wait 45 years because the promise was given to you when you were 40. You 85 years old now, and I don't know no 85-year-old woman, a person, a man who feel like physically fighting.
I said physical.
So Caleb, what is there to want in this hill country?
Caleb teaches us something. I don't care how it looks, all I'm concerned is about who promised me.
Because Caleb says I'm not going to ask for anybody else's blessing because God didn't keep me for their blessing. God didn't keep that blessing for me, so I'm not going to chase anybody else's land because no matter how convenient it may look now, if it's not designed for me, that means it's going to do more harm than good.
And many of us are mad this morning because we want what God had for somebody else, but we don't know the struggle that comes with somebody else's blessing.
But when God has given you something, not only has he designed it for you, but he's designed you for it.
And that's why can't nobody else deal with what you can deal with, because God has so designed it to where you can manage it.
I don't know how it is my hill country.
I didn't ask for it, God gave it to me. And so when it would knock you out, God gives me the strength to just manage it.
It may be chaotic to you, and sometimes it's chaotic to me, but God made it for me and made me for it for his glory and his purpose.
Why ain't nobody else win?
I ain't chasing nobody else's stuff. I ain't chasing nobody else territory.
I'm really not just chasing territory, I'm chasing what God gave me, and I'm not going to just try to pursue anybody else's blessing with your jealous self.
Notice this.
It seems like Caleb exhibited so much faith. Caleb said, I'm a man 85. I still feel kind of good.
So Caleb says, go ahead, give me that land. And guess what Caleb when his blood pressure melts and take himself serious.
Caleb said, give me that, and I know the Anakim still there.
Here it is, many of us only want land that's absent of the Anakim.
Adam was a group of warring big people who were intimidating.
Caleb didn't say, God moved them first and then I'll take it.
Caleb said, in the midst of it, since God gave it to me.
I don't care who's there now, but since God gave it to me, I know God can keep me even in those impossible places because he's not going to give me anything in a place where he won't fight with me.
Oh, can I help us this morning?
We sitting on there, we sitting here waiting on a new president, and you're waiting on a new governor, and you're waiting on a new this and a new that, and You're waiting on the school to change, and you're waiting on new leadership. But God said if he wants you to do what he called you to do, let the Anakim be there, and I will be with you in the midst of the Anakim.
Uh-huh. I want us to vote. I want you to do your civic duty. I want you to be involved in what's going on in your local government.
But I also want you to be logged in to what God is calling you to do. And when you do that, you will discover that no matter what's in the way, God will give you the strength to drive that mess out.
Caleb says, if God promised me— and not you, Joshua, I ain't got to worry about you coming to fight—
but God don't promise me anything where his presence won't be.
And I'm not waiting on anything to leave before I pursue, but I'm gonna pursue even in the presence of stuff that's there against me.
If they don't like it, I'm still pursuing.
If they don't believe in me, I'm still pursuing. As for me and my house, I shall pursue everything, even in the presence of evil.
I'm done with y'all. I know when y'all leave here, y'all ain't gonna pursue nothing.
I'm still making excuses, but I gotta preach it anyway because I'm going back to pursue some stuff because I've been waiting on some stuff to clear out. I've been waiting on some conducive environment. I've been waiting on some situations to kind of change before I pursue. But God said, remember who told you to do it.
I leave, I leave, I leave, I leave, I leave, I leave. Good night, ma'am.
Since you wore the yellow today, I'll talk to you.
Two weeks ago, I was flying back from New England.
And I was doing my typical flight protocol, trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be and what time.
I do this all the time.
I looked at my boarding pass, I looked at the digital information regarding my flight, and I looked to see how long would the flight last. I do it all the time, but this time the boarding pass say I need you to preach this. I said, come on, talk to me, Mr. Gordon Pants.
Gordon Pants said, you see this fight, says it's 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Look deep.
What I'm trying to teach you is that many people are impressed only By the takeoff of a plane. I'm showing you something because there is a force that we overcome that makes flights a miracle.
There's this force called gravity, and gravity, Lord, is keeping us on the ground right now.
So I've been looking at the takeoff as the miracle, but the boarding pass say look deeper because the miracle is not just takeoff.
The miracle is that when you take off, gravity don't take a break.
Gravity don't say, oh, you got a flight today, let me chill for a minute and let you get to there.
But planes are designed where you have to be built with enough thrust and force to overcome something that's not gonna leave. Gravity won't go nowhere. But I can still get in there.
But that ain't the good part.
The good part is that even when I get to the end, I can stay in the air, and the gravity is still present, but the power that got me up is the same power that keeps me up.
And all I'm trying to tell you is that gravity doesn't have to leave in your life because God can elevate you. And that's one thing, but the same God who elevates you is the same God that keeps you in the air. That even when the evil is around you, that you're still flying. Even with the same people in government, you're still flying.
You've got the same co-workers, but you're still flying.
You got the same supervisor but you're still flying.
And each day he just fills you with more power. And he don't take the evil away, but he gives you the power to stand, to fly, to conquer, even in the presence of evil.
And I offer Jesus to you this morning because Jesus is the—
that propels and keeps.
If I jump right now, I'm coming right back.
But a plane can go up there, stay in there for 2 whole hours.
And you know why?
Because they got power to go up.
But it's also got power to stay up. Now I want to tell somebody this morning, God has power through Jesus the Christ to not only lift you up, keep you up. I know we say it and we supposed to say it, we supposed to shout He picked me up and turned me around and placed my feet on solid ground. But my testimony this morning: he picked me up and he's keeping me up.
Ah, yeah, we offer him to you this morning.
