Tim Timberlake - I'm Different
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Summary:
In this sermon, the preacher draws from Numbers 14:24 and Joshua 14:10 to highlight how Caleb stood out because he had a «different spirit» and followed God fully, which led to God’s promise that he and his descendants would inherit the land. The key message is that believers today are called to be different through the anointing of God—being fully committed, confident, courageous, and conquerors—rather than blending in with the world or relying on anything else for change. Ultimately, embracing this difference means closing the gap with God, trusting His faithfulness, and boldly claiming the «mountains» He has for us, leading to deeper fellowship with Him.
Welcome and Celebration
As I mentioned before, if you’re here for the very first time, welcome! We’re so honored that you would come and worship with us. If you’re watching online, wherever you may be watching from, thank you for allowing us into your homes, into your space. Celebration Church, can we welcome our online audience, whoever they may be watching from? It’s an honor to lift up the name of Jesus freely. Amen. In other parts of the world, people get persecuted for doing what we just did, but we can do it freely. So, I’m a firm believer that with everything that I have, I’m going to give it back to him. Amen.
How many ladies were here at Sisterhood last Monday? I was a part of the Sisterhood community online, watching what God did. I’m so proud of the ladies that did their thing, and all that showed up and leaned in to hear what God had to say. Can we give all of our volunteers, our staff, our team—Pastor Jim did a phenomenal job—and the ladies leading that charge? How many of you have been following with us for Heart for the House, hearing, seeing, and sowing? We’re so ecstatic about what God continues to do through all of our sacrifices, and to hear the stories and the testimonies of people getting breakthroughs from God already, and people receiving what it is that we have sown sacrificially never ceases to amaze me. I’m just humbled that we get an opportunity to be a part of this move of God. Amen. It’s nothing like Celebration Church! I said it’s nothing like Celebration Church!
Scripture Reading
I have a word for us this morning, and I’m excited to share it with you. Go to Numbers chapter 14, verse 24. Numbers chapter 14, verse 24. We’re going to double down this morning and open up with two passages of Scripture. I also want you to go to Joshua chapter 14, verse 10. If you have a digital Bible, it’s easy to do. If you have a paper Bible, you can put your thumb in one page and keep on turning to the other one. If you don’t have a Bible, the team’s going to put it on the screen here. Numbers chapter 14, verse 24 says, «But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.» Joshua chapter 14, verse 10 says, «Now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, here I am this day, 85 years old. As yet I have much strength this day as I did on the day Moses sent me. Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day, and you heard in the day of Anakim. For there city was great and fortified. It may be the Lord’s will that He would be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. Amen.»
I want to go ahead and announce to you what we’ll be talking about today before we pray. I want to talk to you from the subject matter, «I’m Different.» Come on, turn to somebody and tell them, «I’m different.» If you’re watching me online, go ahead and put that in the chat, «I’m different. I’m different. I’m different.» Let’s pray.
Dearly Father, we thank You for Your word. You’re so good to us, God, that not only did You send Your Son Jesus, not only did You allow the Holy Spirit to dwell with us, but You left us Your word. So, God, today we glean from it, we learn from it, we extract from it, and God, we thank You that our lives will never be the same because of it. In Jesus' name we pray. Let the church say Amen!
I’m Different!
Somebody shout, «I’m different!» As I was studying this passage of Scripture and as I read this verse, this line stuck out to me in Numbers chapter 14, verse 24: «But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.» He had a different spirit. This stuck out to me because a lot of us spend our lives trying to be the same as someone else. A lot of us spend our lives looking over our shoulder to the left and to the right to see what everyone else is doing, rather than looking up from where our help comes from and asking God, «Who is it that you want me to be? Who is it that You’ve called me to be? Who is it that You’ve carved out for me to be?» Caleb had a different spirit, and as I began to search through the word of God and see what separated great men and women in the Bible from everyone that was doing the same thing, something stuck out to me.
There’s a word that you don’t hear too much of now in church—a word that we hear very rarely, but it has so much power—and that word is «the anointing.» It was the anointing that separated those that were different from those that were common. It was the anointing that separated great men and women in the Bible that we read about, who went on to do great things from those who settled for an average life. It was the anointing that broke yokes. It was the anointing that broke chains. It was the anointing that set the captives free, and it’s still the anointing today that does the same thing.
What is the Anointing?
Some may ask, «What is the anointing?» The anointing comes to make a difference. Caleb was different because he was anointed. We get hung up on whether someone is anointed based upon how they sound. «Oh, he preached loud, so he must be anointed.» «Oh, she can sing; she must be anointed.» «Oh, you see the way they dance and throw up their hands; they must be anointed.» The anointing has very little to do with style and everything to do with whether it makes a difference.
It’s the anointing in your life that makes the difference. It’s the anointing in your life that destroys the plans and the weapons of the enemy. The anointing! Caleb was anointed to be different. He was anointed to make a difference. He was anointed to make change. He was anointed to take back something that the enemy thought that he had taken from him. It said he had a different spirit. My question for us, those listening right now who are eavesdropping on the conversation that’s going on in the heavenlies, is: Are you willing to be different, or will you settle for being the same?
What we see happening in our society and in our culture is a lot of the same. We see a lot of the conversations now, especially leading up to the election in November, happening, and it’s divisive. People are picking sides, and people choose whether they will like you based upon what you decide to do. It’s time for us to be different. It’s time for us to choose Jesus over everything else. It’s time for us to lean into the anointing rather than leaning into political figures to bring about change. Let me give you this secret: politics won’t change your life; the anointing will. And when you rely on the anointing to destroy the yoke, when you rely on the anointing to lift burdens, then that’s when you begin to see your life change.
You’ve been around for a long time; you understand a lot of things are the same, but with the anointing, there stands an opportunity for change. Caleb was different. It said that he had a different spirit. If Caleb had a different spirit, then there are nuggets and revelations we can find in the word of God to allow us to be different too. When we fast forward and read what he tells Joshua in Joshua chapter 14, verse 10, it says, «And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive.» What he’s doing here is bragging and boasting about how good God is! Sometimes you just need to take a moment to brag on how good your God is. Sometimes you need to take a moment to pause and stop thinking about your problems and what didn’t happen, and how this did you wrong, and how they left you, and how they did this to you. You need to stop and take a moment to think about how good your God is.
You may not have everything you want. You may not even have everything you need, but you still have breath in your lungs, and the word of God says that everything that has breath praises the Lord! It may not go the way you want it, but as long as you have breath in your lungs, there’s still a possibility that God can do something good with it. He says, «And behold, the Lord has kept me alive these 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now here I am this day, 85 years old.»
Then he really starts to brag! «I feel as good at 85 as I did when I was 40. I feel as good today with my gray hair as I did when I could style my hair however I wanted to. I feel as good!» Is there any seniors in here? Any wise people in here that say, «I feel as good today as I did 40 years ago?» I hear three handclaps! Come on, I know there are more people in here. The Scripture says, «I’ve been young and now I’m old, yet I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging for bread.» What are they doing? They’re boasting about God’s goodness. They’re saying, «Listen, these things have actually happened in my life, and God still showed up in His faithfulness every single time.»
I’m different! You’re different. You’re not called to be like everybody else. You’re not called to walk in the same line everybody else is walking in. You’re not called to follow traffic; you’re different!
The Herd Mentality
The last three weeks, my wife and I have had to go to the same place every single morning at 7:45. We get on the highway, we get off the same exit every single morning, and there’s a line of traffic getting off the exit that lines up to the other exit that we’re getting onto the highway on. I’m saying, «Like this don’t make no sense!» I’m looking at this line, and I’m thinking something’s got to be up. Let me see what’s going on! I get online, I swing around, and I’m looking at all these cars in traffic; everybody is just happily standing in line, everyone just following the leader—just following suit. We get to the front of the line; it’s a whole complete lane open!
Then it dawned on me: people will follow what looks easy. People will follow without asking questions. If one person started running in here, there’s a great possibility that a group of people will start running without even asking questions, «What happened? What happened? What happened?» «I don’t know! I don’t know! They just ran!» Just take off running without asking questions because of their herd mentality. We desire to be alike; but God has called us to be different! Caleb understands his difference, and the first thing that stuck out to me about his difference is this: Caleb was committed.
Caleb Was Committed
If you’re going to run in the difference that God has carved out for you, you have to be committed. The word of God says that God didn’t just have a portion of Caleb; God didn’t just have a percentage of Caleb; God didn’t have most of Caleb. It says that He had him fully—He had him wholeheartedly. He had all of him. If you’re going to fulfill the call of God for your life and be different, God doesn’t want some of you, God doesn’t want most of you; He doesn’t want 99,9% of you—He wants all of you! Fully committed!
That word «fully» and «holy» in some of your translations and hunting terms means that they close the gap. For those of you that have been here for a while, you know I love Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. You know I love the voice of the narrator; they just have the most godly voice to me with that British deep accent. «The lion goes after the gazelle, and he closes the gap.» The lion ducks down low in the thick brush. The gazelle, frolicking, has no idea the lioness is there. The lion pounces; he chases; he closes the gap!
I think to myself, «Man, am I listening to God right now? Who is this narrator?» But what is he saying? He’s saying that the lion is eliminating space between him and what he’s after. Hunters understand that when they’re hunting, they have to close the gap between them and what they’re going after. What Caleb did through his commitment is close the gap between him and God. He removed every distraction; he removed every delay; he removed every hurdle, every obstacle. He said, «God, I don’t want anything between me and You. I just want it to be me and You hand in hand, side by side. Whatever You speak, I’m going to listen to; and whatever You tell me to do, I’m going to do.»
I’m fully committed because I’m different! You’re not called to be the same as everybody else; you are called to be different. You have a different spirit about you. In times of famine, we share because you’re different. In times of political chaos, you don’t throw your opinion into it because you’re different; you give people sound doctrine from the Word of God because you’re different. When evil is running around you rampant, you continue to allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine in and through you because you’re different! Caleb was different, and he was fully committed.
Caleb understood the most important thing he could do is hold himself accountable. Isn’t it funny how we hold everyone else accountable but ourselves? We don’t mind telling somebody else what they need to do. «Oh yeah, in order for you to get in shape, you need to do like 20 squats, get some burpees in there; you need to eat right; you need to diet. I’m going to hold you accountable!» And you don’t hold yourself accountable! You don’t look in the mirror every single day and hold yourself accountable! There is no one that has let you down more than you have let yourself down! You’ve been saying for the last three years, «I’m going to eliminate these bills! I’m going to pay off these credit cards!» You go on Amazon, you say to yourself, «I can’t let that deal pass! I’m a Prime member; it’ll be here tomorrow!» Click! You don’t hold yourself accountable!
In order for you to be different like Caleb, you have to hold yourself accountable every single day. He’s closing the gap between him and God—he was different because he closed the gap! He held himself accountable, and he believed every promise that God has given to Moses, every promise that God has given to Isaac, every promise that God has given to Jacob and to Joshua. It’s the same God, and if He can do it for them, He can do it for me! Old folks used to say, «The mailman in my neighborhood…» Y’all know what that is? Y’all too young for that? What that means is if He’s delivering to everybody else’s mailbox and I’m on the same street, He’s going to deliver to me too! If God has delivered for them, surely He can deliver for you! He’s the same God, and He’s the same God today; He’s the same God forevermore! Is there anybody grateful that God is no respecter of persons, and what He did for them, He can do for you too?
Caleb Was Confident
Caleb was committed. Number two, Caleb was confident! He was confident! He’s boasting in the goodness of God; he’s talking about his age. He’s like, «At 85, listen, I feel good! At 85, I can outrun all these young fellas out here that are running!» You ever meet an old-school person? They’re just always stretching for no reason! «What you doing? I’m getting ready!» «For what? The walk?» «When I was your age, I was three times as fast! Could’ve made it to the NFL if it had not been for my pinky finger!» That’s what Caleb’s doing; he’s like, «Hey, at 85 give me my mountain!»
Give me my mountain! How bold do you have to be to tell somebody, «Give me my obstacle?» Normally, we run from obstacles. We run from giants. We run from mountains. We run from hurdles. We run from things that are going to take some work for us to get over. He’s sitting here saying, «At 85, give me my mountain!» What Caleb understood is that mountains don’t get bigger; I do. That mountain that’s in front of you—and I don’t know what mountain that is, that obstacle that’s in front of you, that giant that’s in front of you—it’s not going to get any bigger, but you will.
The word of God teaches us that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, «Be thou removed,» and the mountain will pick itself up and throw itself into the sea. What was God trying to convince you of? The mountain is not going to grow, but the mustard seed of faith on the inside of you will! If you can have mustard seed-sized faith, then you can speak to whatever enemy is in your way and tell it to move! Think about this for a moment. Get it on the forefront of your mind: what is your mountain? What is it that’s in your way? What is it that’s holding you back? What is it that you’re feeling insecure about? What is it that you feel defeated by? What enemy is in front of you right now? What is your mountain? Caleb said, «That one right there! That one’s got my name on it! I want that one!» That mountain belongs to me!
He understood that no matter how big that mountain is, my God is bigger! No matter how big the adversary is, no matter how big the enemy is—listen, when I see a big enemy, it excites me! I get excited when I see a big giant because I understand, if you’re that big, my God is way bigger than that! If you’re standing in front of me, I can imagine how God’s going to take you out! Whenever you get opposition, whenever you get pushback, whenever you get adversaries, you better know you are right on the brink of your biggest breakthrough!
You are different! So, not only is Caleb committed, Caleb is confident! And number three, Caleb is courageous! He’s courageous because he understands how faithful God has been in his life in seasons past. He’s courageous because he understands that no matter what is thrown at him, greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. He’s committed, he’s confident, he’s courageous because he is different.
Caleb is a Conqueror
And maybe you’ve been assigned this mountain to show other people that mountains can move. Maybe you’ve been assigned this hurdle, this adversary, this giant to show other people that it can be done. Oftentimes people say it’s impossible until it becomes possible. Maybe it’s never been done because God actually called you to do it. You’re different! Stop waiting for people to do what you were created to do! You’re different!
Caleb is committed. Caleb is confident. Caleb is courageous. Number four, Caleb is a conqueror! God has not called you just to survive; He’s called you to conquer! God has not called you just to make it; He’s called you to conquer! God has not called you just to get by; He’s called you to conquer! And if you are not conquering the things that are presenting themselves as enemies, and mountains, and hurdles in your life, continue to throw yourself back into His presence and close the gap between you and Him! And when you close the gap between you and Him, He’ll show you how to overcome what’s trying to overcome you!
You are different! I need you to hit yourself right now and remind yourself, «I’m different! I’m not supposed to fit in! I’m not supposed to just follow the crowd! I’m supposed to stand out!» The Word of God has called you a peculiar people; you’re different! You’ve got to be committed! You’ve got to be confident! You’ve got to be courageous! And God has made you more than a conqueror!
How to Take Your Mountain
Some may ask, «How do I take my mountain? How do I take back what belongs to me?» The answer would be the same as one man gave to another when he asked him, «How do you eat an elephant?» His answer was, «One bite at a time!» How do you take your mountain? One step at a time!
No matter what, you feel like you’ve got to continue to climb! No matter what adversary, no matter what enemy, no matter what hurdle is in your way, you’ve got to continue to climb! Every single morning when you get up, remind yourself, «Today, I’m going to climb a little bit higher!» When you wake up in the morning, keep at the forefront of your mind, «Today, I’m going to go a little bit further!» Listen, don’t let anything or anyone stand in between you and the mountain that God has called you to take!
You’ve got to continue to climb! When you feel tired, you climb! When you feel energized, you climb! When you feel defeated, you climb! When you feel victorious, you climb! When you feel like you’ve got everything you need, you climb! When you feel like you don’t have anything you need, you climb! You don’t stop at «No!» You continue to climb! There’s a mountain, and it has your name on it! You’ve got to continue to climb and go after what God has called you to go after!
And I know you may be tired; I know you may be frustrated; I know you may be stressed out; but you’ve got to continue to take one step toward the voice of God! And when you take steps toward the voice of God, it closes the gap between you and Him!
The Meaning of Mount Hebron
The Word of God says that Caleb got the mountain that he asked for, and the mountain was called Mount Hebron, which means «fellowship.» The reason Caleb wanted that mountain was to have a closer fellowship with God. And listen to me—every mountain that’s in your life is positioned there to push you closer to God! Every hurdle in your life is positioned there to push you closer to God! Oftentimes we want God to move it out of the way, and God is saying, «No! I want you to walk over top of it!»
We want God to take it away. «God, take this pain away! God, take these hurdles away! God, take these obstacles away!» And God is saying, «No! I’m not going to take it away, but I want you to know that I’ll be with you every step of the way! And you’re getting stronger every single step you take! You’re getting stronger every single time you climb! You’re getting stronger every single day you wake up and remind yourself, ‘This is the day that the Lord has made. I choose to rejoice and be glad in it! ’»
Closing the Gap — Altar Call
So there are some people listening to me right now—you need to close the gap between you and God. You’ve allowed life to get in the way; you’ve allowed obstacles to get in the way; you’ve allowed 2020 to get in the way. You need to close the gap between you and Him! For some of you, that’s recommitting your life back to Him. For others, that’s you turning your life over to Him for the very first time. If you’re listening to me right now, whether you’re online or whether you’re here in person, and you desire to close that gap, I just want you to throw both of those hands up right now. No one’s judging you; no one’s going to look and say, «Oh, that person got their hand raised!» Nobody cares; it’s between you and God!
But I want to encourage you right now, close the gap! Come on, wherever you are, lift those hands up right now! Come on, this is your opportunity to close the gap. I see those hands all over this building! If you’re watching me right now online, put in the chat, «I’m closing the gap right now!» Everybody, repeat this prayer for me:
«Lord Jesus, I repent, and I turn away from my sins. I no longer want to live a life for my own; I want to live my life fully and totally committed to You. Today, God, I surrender all, and I acknowledge with my mouth that You were raised from the dead for me, and I believe in my heart that You are my risen Savior. So, today, God, I return my life back to You. In Jesus' name, and I thank You, God, that as I come back to You, nothing will be lost and nothing will be stolen. In Jesus' name, we pray.»