Calling All "Calebs"

Joshua 14:6-14

Caleb wasn't looking for comfort, he was asking for a mountain to climb. While others saw giants and obstacles, Caleb saw God's promises. While others grew weary, Caleb remained faithful. While others slowed down, Caleb still wanted the challenge God had placed before him. This Sunday, we'll discover what made Caleb different and why God is still looking for men and women like him today. Join us as we learn how to trust God's promises, remain faithful through the wait, and boldly pursue the mountain God has placed before us. No matter your age or stage of life, God is not finished with you yet.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Maybe seated. At this time, we're going to dismiss the kids to children's church. So if you want to go out the doors right in the middle there, that'd be great. Love the generation here, next generation here at FBC. Man, it's fun to see all the kids go here. Look at them all go. Praise God. Well, hey, I don't know about you, but isn't it beautiful here in Pentwater today? And there's beautiful weather around the corner. Amen. Praise God. We've endured a long winter and we've been praising the Lord for some sunshine. Amen. We've been able to get our fair share of vitamin D as we've been watching our boys play baseball. So for those who don't know, I have four boys in baseball, and uh my oldest son is playing, and my three boys are playing together on the same team for Pentwater. And uh all of them kind of take the athletics a little bit different. And so you're gonna see a little bit here on the screen my youngest son, Gibson. Take a look at this. So every every boy takes sports a little bit different. I think he's tired of baseball season. He's ready for it to be done. We got one more game left. You can be praying for his coach, Coach Rick. He's got his hands full for sure. But you know, when I was watching them, they all run the bases together, running together, and I found some of my sons are more devoted to the game than others, and I think a lot of it has to do with age. He's only five years old and he's starting to learn the sport and uh learning what to do in outfield, I guess, when he's bored, right? But uh looking at that, you know, the day, today we're gonna be talking about a man by the name of Caleb. Caleb is a man who is thrown all throughout the Bible as a devoted man towards God. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Joshua chapter 14. We're gonna be calling all Calebs. You know, when I looked at this man Caleb, we've been going through the life of Joshua, we've been unfolding the story, and Caleb doesn't really come up very often. But when we get to Joshua chapter 14, we're gonna see this man named Caleb. This man has endured a lot of things. And the Bible says, even in this text alone, three different times where it says, this man Caleb was wholly devoted towards God. And all throughout the scriptures, you can see there's another three references to this man Caleb and how he was devoted to God. Last time we walked through Joshua, they had just won one of the greatest battles ever. The sun stood still. I mean, can you imagine that? The sun standing still in the midst of the battle. And Joshua has fought many more battles since then, a total of five years of fighting. What perseverance, right? Going through all this. And now we're entering the story where Joshua's finally done. I'm sure he's gotten some gray hair. I'm sure he's very strong and he's getting kind of tired. And now we're seeing God's promise literally be fulfilled. We got a map on the screen. They're getting ready to divide the land now between all the people. And so on the east side, on your side, the right side, the east side, we can see there's two and a half tribes. And on the west side, we have nine and a half, equaling twelve. If you remember that promise that God made to Abraham, he said, I'm going to promise this land to you. We see the promise unfold before our eyes. It went from Abraham to Isaac to this man named Jacob, who had twelve sons. And of those twelve sons, one of them, the tribe of Levite, or as we know, the Levites, their inheritance wasn't land, their inheritance was the Lord. And then we see Joseph got a double portion of this, and so the land was given to his son Ephraim and his son Manasseh. And so, interesting Jewish tradition, a lot of the Jewish tradition would follow the mom in line. They would follow the mom and they would follow the family history through the mom because the father oftentimes would not make it in war. And it was hard, it was unpredictable. They oftentimes would pass away in war. So out of the gate, we can see that this man, Caleb, we're going to see, is coming from this mixed family. His dad was a Kizanite, and his mom was more than likely from the tribe of Judah. And so this man comes from this mixed group, but God did amazing things, amazing things through this man named Caleb. Oftentimes people ask, what does Caleb even mean? It's an interesting name. In the Hebrew, it's translated as dog. So for all you Calebs out there today, I'm sorry. In the Hebrew, your name means dog. But remember, this man had been a slave for his first 40 years, working like a dog. I mean, this man was intensely working as a slave in Egypt. And then after that, we see him wandering the desert for the next 40 years. And so you can see this by the time they're cating over this land, the next five years, he's in his 80s fighting for Joshua, fighting all these kingdoms. And I'm telling you what, I am sure at 85 he's finally thinking, the battles are done. I want to break, right? Like any 85-year-old would say, I want to break, I want to retire. But that's not what we see with Caleb. He is willing to go up a mountain. Most people are asking, like when they get to that age, how can I slow down? Caleb's asking, where can I keep on serving? And I found this man very interesting. It's not a very famous person in the Bible, but we can learn a lot from this man's life. Caleb is always looking for opportunity. And that's what makes Caleb extraordinary. And the truth is, God is still looking for Caleb's today. Not perfect people, not people who are talented, but people who are wholly devoted to him. What if someone were to read your story this morning? Would they say the same thing? Wow, that person was wholly devoted towards God. In this chapter alone, we see, well, you're going to see it three times where it says he was wholly devoted to God. And I want to give you three characteristics this morning. Three characteristics that seem to outline this man Caleb and hopefully can encourage us to be wholly devoted to God. And the first one is this Caleb's trust God's promises. Caleb's trust God's promises. Let's pick up in the story in Joshua 14 and verse 6. Then the people of Judah came to Joshua, Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jebna and the Kizanite said to him, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, in Kadesh Barneah, concerning you and me. I was forty 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 with me made the heart of the people melt. Yea, 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 I look at this and I think Caleb remembered. He remembered what others would forget. Notice something remarkable. Joshua 14 is taking place after five years of battles, cities and kings being defeated, and the lands being distributed, and 45 years have passed since they've left Egypt. Yet Caleb remembers exactly what God said. Most people, when they're going through trials, they remember their disappointments. But we see Caleb, he remembers God's promises. And I love this in Psalm 119 and verse 89, it says, Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. The promise of God did not expire because time passes. God says, I know I promised that 40 years ago, but I've changed my mind. No. He is faithful to his promises. And when God makes a promise, he's going to keep it. The difference between Caleb and the other spies, the 10 spies saw the exact same land. They walked the same roads. They climbed the same hills. They looked at the same giants that Caleb and Joshua saw as well, and they saw fortified cities. And the facts were identical, but the ten spies they started with the giants and then they looked at God. Where Caleb started with God and then he looked at the giants. We could see in Caleb's life the size of his God versus the obstacles in his life. He looked at God as someone very big. Where his peers looked at fear very big. And the spies said, We are grasshoppers compared to these men. These are giants. We're just little grasshoppers compared to them. And Caleb says in Numbers 14 and verse 9, the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. One group measured God by the size of the obstacle, where Caleb measured the obstacle by the size of God. That's the essence of faith. This word faith sometimes can be fun and oftentimes can be a struggle. I'm looking forward to the day where we'll need no more faith. Our faith will become sight and we'll be in the presence of the Lord. Faith is not saying I don't have a problem. Faith is saying I have a problem, but God is greater than the problem that I'm going through. But oftentimes we look at those with this word called faith and we think, oh, they just have blind optimism. They don't know what's really going on in life. They're just blinded by this. But the truth of the matter is, faith is confidence in the character of God. I know who my God is, and I know he is faithful to his promises. That's what Caleb sees. That's the lens in which he viewed God when we see this in the story. I love the passage in Hebrews 11 in verse 1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen. I mean, faith is standing on what God said, even when you can't see how God will do it. The phrase, I wholly followed the Lord. What a phrase. In the Hebrew, it's a miliarchar Yahweh. It literally means to fill up after the Lord. He's constantly filling up after the Lord. I mean, it's a beautiful picture because Caleb stayed directly behind God. His life was filled with following God. He wasn't perfect by any means, but he was fully committed to him. And many believers, they want Jesus as their savior, but Caleb shows us what it looks like to have Jesus as his Lord, Lord over his life. You know, remember taking teens to Colorado, and we went through all kinds of experiences in Colorado, and one of them was repelling in the Garden of the Gods. Anyone ever been there before? Huge rocks right there, just beautiful rocks. And they said, okay, you can climb them. Climbing them was not that bad. It was pretty fun. But then they said, okay, we're on the top of this rock and we're just going to throw you off. That's a whole nother level of trust. Has nothing to do with your strength, has everything to do with the rope in front of you. Will that rope hold me if they let it go? If I were to repel up this rock, will it hold me as I go down? Do I have that confidence in the rope? Faith works the same way. The strength of your faith is not nearly as important as the strength of the God your faith rests upon. And Caleb's confidence was never in Caleb. His confidence was in the rope of who God is and who he is and what he's been. And for 45 years, Caleb believed when nobody else did. The crowd doubted. They rebelled, they wandered, but Caleb kept on believing. God proved that not one promise had failed. And I'd argue this morning, many of us, we know God's promises. Oh, yeah, I got that on a bookmark. Maybe it's on a little sign in the house, or maybe there's something that you guys say as a family all the time before you pray, before you eat your meal. I know the promises of God. And we can quote them, we can highlight them, we can memorize them. And yet in our lives we still live controlled by fear. Controlled by fear, finances, our health, or maybe it's our children. Are they gonna grow to love the Lord or not? Or faith basically is this reality that faith is believing God is bigger than our realities, the things around us. And the question this morning I have is what giant has become bigger than God in your thinking? What giant has become bigger than God in your thinking? Because oftentimes fear does that, it slowly creeps in, and all of a sudden you realize you're living your life not by faith anymore, you're living your life by fear. And if you want to be a guy like Caleb, Caleb's trust God's promises. When difficulties came his way, he trusted in God's promises. When things didn't go the way he had planned, he trusted in God's promises. I mean, 40 years as a slave, 40 years in the wilderness, five years in battle. This man went through a lot, but yet he still trusted that God's promises were true. Caleb's trust God's promises. Number two, Caleb's remain faithful through the weight. That nasty word of weight. Caleb's remain faithful through the weight. And continuing the story in verse 10, and now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive. Just as he said, those 45 years since the time that the Lord spoke and his word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness, and now, behold, I am this day 85 years old. I mean, one of the reasons that Caleb could trust God's promises is because he trusted God's character. I mean, think about promises are only as good as the person who makes it, right? How many empty promises have we heard from salesmen all the time that, oh, you need this in your life, it's going to make it so much better, and it doesn't do anything different. But he knew. He'd seen, I mean, think of the things that this man Caleb had seen. He saw the Red Sea part, he saw the Jordan part ways, he ate manna from heaven, he drank water from a rock. I mean, this man saw with his own eyes what God could do. He saw that God was faithful to his promises again and again. I mean, I think he resonated with Psalm 34 and verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. And so Caleb had tasted. He had seen that God was faithful. The more you walk with God, the more reasons you have to trust him. The problem is, many believers have this thing called spiritual amnesia. They forget the doors that God had opened. They forget the ways that God had provided. But Caleb, he was a man who remembered. He remembered everything. Faith grows when we remember God's faithfulness. And oftentimes, through this man, he stood alone. He didn't have the popular vote, if you would say. He would be a man who stood alone. There were 12 spies, 10 disagreed with him, and the entire nation sided with the 10. And there's about two million people who are saying, You're wrong. I mean, think of the loneliness that this man went through. Yet he refused to compromise. Because truth is not determined by majority vote. God's people have often stood alone, though. It's not easy doing that when you leave. You know, you look at the story of Noah building the ark. He stood alone. People, I'm sure, going around mocking him when he was building the ark. Abraham stood alone with this promise. And a lot of people, I'm sure, are saying that will never happen. Elijah stood alone on Mount Carmel. Daniel stood alone in Babylon with the convictions he had to pray all the time, and he stood alone. And sometimes following God means you're standing alone and you're going against the crowd. The crowd's not always right. Culture's not always right. And even public opinion is not always right. But God is always right. Caleb was willing to stand alone if necessary. And we talked about last week and how we're supposed to be thermostats for our homes. We're supposed to lead our families, we're supposed to lead our spouses. We're to be the ones that control that temperature. But oftentimes we find ourselves moving from a thermostat to a thermometer where we're reflecting the temperature rather than creating it. We need to be the ones who are the thermostats. And I see Caleb standing all by himself when all the spies are like, this is a terrible place. We can never take over these giants. And Caleb's like, No, I know who my God is. I know who I serve. He can do this. He's so much greater than the obstacles. And yet, you see this man stand alone. But he was a thermostat against ten thermometers. But there was a cost. There was a cost to the unbelief of the nation in Numbers 14, 29. Your dead bodies should fall in the wilderness of all your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against me. They die in the wilderness. One act of unbelief. Change the history. What they could have experienced because of their unbelief. One pastor said this fear kept Israel in the wilderness longer than Pharaoh ever could. And some people in this room, you've been waiting. You've been waiting a long time. Like, man, you don't know how many mornings I've waken up and I'm praying fervently for my child in the struggles that they're going through. Or I've been praying fervently what direction to go. There's so many crossroads in front of me, and I don't know where to go. And I keep on waiting in the season of a waiting room. Faithfulness is often measured, not in the days, but in decades. I mean, think of the amount of waiting this man Caleb went through. 40 years in slavery, 40 years in the wilderness. Now five years. He's 85 years old before he starts to see the promise unfold. Now that is perseverance right there. But Caleb, Caleb's remained faithful through the wait. He had to wait a long time. Number three, Caleb still want the mountain. I found this interesting. Caleb still wants the mountain. In Joshua 14 and verse 11, I am still as strong today as I was in the day of that of Moses. Set me. My strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that day how Anakim were there, and with great 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. He gave Hebron to Caleb and the son of Jebnah for the inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jebna, as a Kizanite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. Once again, we see it again. The mountain was the very place where everyone feared. They feared the giants that were right before them. Think about what Caleb's asking for. He isn't asking for reward. He isn't even asking for retirement. He deserved to retire. He's asking for a mountain. Not only any mountain, a mountain full of giants, the same giants that terrified them 45 years earlier, the same giants that caused the people to wander in that wilderness for 40 years. Now Caleb's saying at 85, give me the mountain. Give me the mountain. It no longer frightened him. Because of 45 years of walking with God had taught him something. Giants do not get bigger than God. And many people spend their lives running from their fears. Caleb spent his life moving toward God's calling. Caleb's dream never died. And one of the saddest scenes in life. Is watching people lose their God-given passion. Oh, I had such a passion and zeal for God when I first met him. And then as they go through life, as they go through struggles, as they go through the waiting game, their zeal, their passion starts to diminish. Heartbreak comes, failure comes, and slowly they stop believing God for great things again. They leave the church and they start adding the population of the post-church, but not Caleb. The wilderness didn't kill it. The waiting didn't kill it. The delays didn't even kill it. His faith survived the wait. And many people can trust God for a day. And this man, Caleb, he did it. I was talking with a financial advisor who seen many people get to the end and they retire. And they get into and they enjoy all their hard work and everything like that. And he told me, he's like, Matt, I'm never going to do it. And I said, Why? Because I can't tell you how many stories I've heard. They get to retirement and they say, I've done enough. I'm not doing anything anymore. And they sit and they don't do anything. And then they a couple years later they pass away. He's like, Not for me. My pace of life is going to change. I'm going to keep on following the Lord. I'm not going to retire in the way that the American dream is. And an 85 years old Kale never says, I deserve an easy life now. I've been 40 years wandering, 40 years slavery, and five years of fighting battles. He doesn't say anything like that. He doesn't say I paid my dues. I've served long enough. It's somebody else's turn. Instead, he says, you know what? I'm ready for the next challenge. Give me that mountain right there. And the Christian life is never about coasting to the end, it's about continuing. Even the apostle Paul refers to this in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on to the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He says, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward what lies ahead, I press on to the goal. To me, it sounds a lot like Caleb. No matter what age he was, he was ready to keep on going. There was no retirement in his life from following Jesus. The assignment may have changed, the energy level may have changed, but the calling to pursue God never changed in this man, Caleb. And I love what it says right here. It may be that the Lord will be with me. So this statement was fascinating to me because after 40 years of faithfulness, Caleb's still humble. He realized that it wasn't him. He wasn't saying, Oh, I got this. I can take these giants on of my own. I can handle these guys, no problem. Done it once, you're gonna do it again. He says, it may be that the Lord will be with me. That's not a doubt, that's humility. Caleb knows where victory comes from. The difference between spiritual confidence and spiritual arrogance is this arrogance is all about myself. Trusting myself, faith and trust in God. And Caleb's confidence wasn't in his 85-year-old muscles, it was in an eternal God. And the strongest Christians are usually the most dependent Christians, not on self, but on him. In Hebron, this there's a special history between for this land. There was something beautiful about it. It was a place where Abraham had made the promise with God, or God made the promise to Abraham. Hebron represented basically Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and it was where they were buried. And so I think when he was looking at this city, he was thinking, I want to stand where God's promises have stood for generations. The mountain represented more than land, faithfulness, and the fulfillment of God's word. A word to the church. Churches can oftentimes we can grow cold. We can grow old, and a church can become comfortable. I just like the way we've always done it. A church can become cautious, a church can become content with how God did it yesterday. But Caleb's life reminds us that God's people should never stop pursuing God's mission. Even as I walk through Poundwater, I see there's people who need to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The mission's not done. Even when we retire, the mission's not done. I've seen marriages that are going through difficulties, prodigals who need to come home back. I've seen health battles and financial burdens and a step of obedience that people have been avoiding. You got two choices this morning. You can spend your life staring at the mountain, or you can trust the God who made the mountain. Which will it be? And often the place where God receives the greatest glory is the place that requires the greatest faith. And maybe the mountain you're trying to avoid is the very mountain that God intends to use to display his power in your life. And oftentimes we find ourselves, Lord, remove the mountain from our life instead of praying that prayer, Lord, be with me on the mountain because God's presence is worth more than an easy path. And I think Caleb knew something that many Christians tend to forget. The safest place in the world is not the easiest place. The safest place in the world is where God is. And many people age physically and they can oftentimes age spiritually. And Caleb aged physically, but he wasn't aging spiritually. If anything, he was growing. His body got older, but his faith stayed young. And the greatest danger is not growing old. The greatest danger is growing old and losing your passion for God. You see it countless times. I'm blessed to be in a church where I get to see people near the end. They get to go through retirement. And I remember even in the food pantry talking with a group of about six individuals, and I said, How old are you? They're up in their upper 70s, all of them. And they're and they're serving Jesus still to this day with smiles on their face. And I'm blown away. Some of them are in their 80s and they're still serving Jesus by serving other people. I mean, it's amazing to see how they are ending their life with the same charisma that Caleb had at 85. In a word to the older saints, the world says, slow down. You've done enough. Take it easy. Step aside. Caleb says, give me the mountain. Your greatest influence may be ahead of you. Grandparents, you still shape generations to this day. And it's a privilege to be able to serve with you in a church that believes in the next generation. Retirees, they still can disciple people. God is not finished with you. If you're still breathing, he's got purpose in your life still to this day. In a word, to the younger believers, the younger individuals, become the kind of person now who will still be pursuing God at 85. You know, you look at the life of Caleb, it wasn't something he chose in the last five years of his life. You go back earlier on, this guy was making intentional decisions to follow God. He was standing against the crowd, he was standing against opposition. He made that decision early on in his life. Find someone older who is pursuing God at 85, who keeps on having that passion and that zeal and become that person. We need to learn how to do it now. Cale didn't suddenly become faithful at 85. A strong finish begins with faithful steps today. So my question for you this morning is what mountain is God calling you to climb? Maybe it might be a conversation you've been avoiding, or a commitment, maybe a step of obedience or a broken relationship. I would argue this morning, don't ask for those easier mountains. Ask for a greater faith. Caleb's still want the mountain. They still go after it. And we need to do that as well. You know, the world says, slow down. Cale says, give me the mountain. Bring it on, give it to me. And the world says, you've done enough. Cale says, give me the mountain. Faith says, give me the mountain. Discouragement says, why even bother? And the question is not whether you have a mountain. The question is, will you trust God enough to climb it? Cale climbed an earthly mountain, and I argued today, Jesus climbed a hill called Calvary. Caleb received this inheritance. Jesus purchased an inheritance for all of us. Caleb defeated the giants. Jesus defeated sin and death and grave. And because Christ is faithful, we can be faithful. Because Christ endured, we can endure. Because Christ conquered and he overcame. One day, every believer who belongs to Christ will receive this inheritance far greater than even Hebron was for Caleb. There'll be no giants, there'll be no battles, no more suffering. We'll be in the presence of our Lord. And only the presence of our king forever. And on that day, nothing will matter more than hearing our Lord and Savior say, Well done, good, and faithful servant. We'll no longer need that word faith. I think we'll surrender at the foot of Jesus and our faith will be signed. So, brothers and sisters, endure. Keep on pursuing, keep on trusting in God, keep on fighting the good fight. Life application today. What needs to change in your life so you can be a person who is wholly devoted to God? We see Caleb made that decision early in his life. What needs to change in your life now so you can be wholly devoted to God? It's never too late to make that turn to go to him. Caleb's, they trust God's promises. Caleb's, they remain faithful to the way, and Caleb still wants the mountain. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the life of Caleb and what we learned through this man and how he was faithful through the seasons of waiting. He was faithful, Father, to you when it wasn't a popular vote. He was faithful to you when things didn't go his way. Father, let that be said of all of us today. I know you've blessed several of us to be able to retire here in this room. And there's nothing wrong with being able to do that, Father, but I pray that we would not just think that we're done and we're just going to be on the golf course the rest of our life, Father, but we would be intentional today to invest in what you've told us to do. To look for that next mountain that you want us to climb. Father, may it be said of all of us that we are wholly devoted to you. We're willing to climb that mountain for you. We thank you for those here at FBC and just pray you continue to move through this place, convict us of sin, and draw us near to you. We thank you for Jesus. And how he conquered the mountain for all of us. And Father, I pray if there's anyone in this room who doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, Father, they would not leave this place without coming to you as their Lord and Savior. We thank you for Jesus. And all God's people said. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together, please.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Thank you, Father, that we can say it is truly well with my soul because of Christ in us, the hope of glory. We are truly thankful. Amen.