Follow Him To The Life Series

If we want to live a life that is filled with all the good things that Christ came to give us we have to make a decision just as Caleb did to wholly follow the Lord. God blessed Caleb tremendously because Caleb wholly followed the Lord. He will bless us as well if we will do the same thing.

The very first trait that we see is in verse 7 of our text. .

Read Joshua 14:7 page 124 Bible

When Caleb came back from his first trip into the Promised Land he brought back a positive report just as Joshua did. The other ten men brought back a discouraging report. That didn’t bother Caleb; he still gave the report that was in his heart. The first trait of someone wholly following the Lord is:

Wholly follow the Lord

• Integrity

Another word for integrity is honesty. If we are going to walk in the life that Jesus came to give us, we must be men and women of integrity. We must be honest before God and men. Caleb could easily have seen how things were going and chosen to go along with the crowd or say nothing at all. But his character wouldn’t allow him to do that. Even with the threat of being stoned, he had to speak according to what was in his heart.

Paul exhorted Titus:

Read Titus 2:6-8 page 629

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

If we are going to live the life of abundance and victory, we must be men and women that tell the truth no matter what it costs us. Most of us will not facing stoning for telling the truth. And sadly, many of us lie for reasons much less than fear of physical suffering. Proverbs tells us that there is a blessing that comes with integrity.

Read Proverbs 20:7 page 343

The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.

We are going to see in the next chapter that not only is Caleb blessed but so are his children.

Our first trait of the person wholly following the Lord is integrity. We find our second trait in verse eight of our text.

Read Joshua 14:8 page 124 Bible

God had told the nation of Israel to go in and possess the land of Canaan. The ten spies said no and convinced the rest of the people to say no. Caleb said: “Let’s go, we can take them!” Caleb described the people of the land of Canaan as bread for them to eat. Our second trait is:

Wholly follow the Lord

• Integrity

• Obedience

Caleb was ready and willing to be obedient. Unfortunately for Caleb he was out-voted about a million to one. To God, obedience is more important than anything else that we could do. Samuel said to King Saul:

Read 1 Samuel 15:22b page 155

...to obey is better than sacrifice.

It doesn’t matter what you do for God if you are disobedient it counts for nothing. It doesn’t matter how much you sacrifice for God if you are not obedient it is wasted. Jesus said in the gospel of Luke:

Read Luke 6:46 page 545