MOUNTAIN BELIEVING FAITH
Text: Joshua 14:6-15
Introduction
1. Illustration: We have our priorities mixed up! For example:
• You go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce and whose degrees you have never verified.
• He gives you a prescription you cannot read.
• You take it to a pharmacist you have never met.
• He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand.
Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle.
All in trusting, sincere faith!
2. However, when God tells us something we show by our actions, or lack thereof, that we do not believe Him.
3. Now who are you going to put your trust in, a doctor who you are not sure about, or a God who knows, understands, and controls all things?
4. In Caleb, we see a man who completely trusted the promises of God. Through his life we see:
a. A promise to remember
b. A promise that rejuvenates
c. A promise to receive
5. Read Joshua 14:6-15
Proposition: Acting on the promises of God is proof of our faith in the promises of God.
Transition: In the story of Caleb, we see...
I. A Promise to Remember (6-9)
A. Remember What the Lord Said
1. This story revolves around Caleb son of Jephunneh. What do we know about Caleb?
a. He was from the tribe of Judah.
b. He is also referred to as a "Kenizzite," which means "son of Kenaz," of which Caleb is a descendant.
c. However, the most important thing that we know about Caleb is that he is one of the spies sent out by Moses to check out the land of Canaan.
d. Unlike the majority of the spies, Caleb and Joshua were convinced that God was giving them the land.
e. As a result of their faith, the Lord told Moses that they would enter the Promised Land and receive a portion of it as a reward.
2. That is where this story begins. Caleb comes to Joshua and says, "Remember what the LORD said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea."
a. He reminds Joshua about the promise that the Lord made to them forty-five years earlier.
b. Notice that Caleb stresses that the promise came from the Lord.
c. He knew that when the Lord makes a promise you can count on it.
d. Even though it must seemed like a life time ago, Caleb still believed and trusted the promise of God.
3. He again reminds Joshua of when they were sent out to scout the land, and that he "returned and gave an honest report."
a. The phrase "honest report" in the Hebrew is literally "just as was with my heart."
b. In other words, he was not concerned, as his brothers were, with how big or how many the people of the land were.
c. He knew in his heart what God had promised, and he was standing in faith on that promise.
d. 2 Cor. 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight (ESV).
4. He goes on to say "For my part, I wholeheartedly followed the LORD my God."
a. The word "wholeheartedly" translates the Hebrew verb which means "to be full."
b. Caleb was claiming to have fully and completely followed after the Lord.—(New American Commentary)
c. He had trusted the promises of God then, and in that forty-five years his faith had never wavered.
5. Again, he reminds Joshua what had been promised them. He tells Joshua "So that day Moses solemnly promised me, ‘The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the LORD my God.’"
a. To him, God was greater than the biggest problem. Caleb had faith in the power of God—(Bible Knowledge Commentary)
b. Because of his faithfulness, he was made a promise, and now forty-five years later he was ready to claim that promise.
B. Trusting the Promises of God
1. Illustration: During an especially trying time in the work of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor wrote to his wife, “We have twenty-five cents—and all the promises of God! (Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 242)
2. We need to be like Caleb in trusting the promises of God.
a. It doesn’t matter how long it has been.
b. It doesn’t matter how desperate the situation may seem.
c. What matters is that God always keeps His promise.
3. 2 Pet. 3:9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think.
4. God’s promises are not contingent upon circumstances or timing.
a. Just because God’s timing isn’t your timing doesn’t mean that God will not keep His promise.
b. Just because you don’t like the circumstances you’re in doesn’t mean that God has abandoned you.
c. God’s promises are true whether it was last week, last month, last year, or ten years ago.
5. The thing in question is not the promises of God, but our faith.
a. Do we believe that God is faithful to His word?
b. Do we believe that God has to the power to accomplish His promises?
c. Do we still trust that God will do what He promised?
Transition: What’s at stake here is not the reliability of God’s promises, but the condition of our faith.
II. A Promise that Rejuvenates (10-12)
A. The Lord Has Kept Me Alive
1. Now Caleb shifts his focus from the past to the present. That was then...this is now.
2. He points out what the promises of God have already done for him. First, he says “Now, as you can see, the LORD has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness."
a. He recognizes that for the Lord to keep His promise he had to keep Caleb alive.
b. This in and of itself is proof of God’s character.
c. Not only did the Lord keep him alive through forty years of wandering through the wilderness, but also through five years of hard fighting.
d. Even though he had not received what God had promised, he acknowledged that God had lead him safely to this point.
3. Now you have to love what Caleb says next. "Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then."
a. Not only is he still alive, but he’s still kicking!
b. Despite the fact that he was now eighty-five years old, he still claimed physical vigor and a readiness and willingness to do battle. —(New American Commentary)
c. Illustration: Last summer, the doctors sent my friend Francis home to die. However, God has sustained her and today she still quilts, sows, and spoils her dog.
4. Not only is he feisty in body, he is still fiesty in spirit. He says, "So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.”
a. He is ready to claim the promise of God.
b. He says he knows it won’t be easy, but he’s ready to go.
c. He shows that he is still a man of great faith because he says that as long as the Lord is with me I can do it.
B. His Promises Keep Us Going
1. Illustration: I think of David Livingstone, the pioneer missionary to Africa, who walked over 29,000 miles. His wife died early in their ministry and he faced stiff opposition from his Scottish brethren. He ministered half blind. His kind of perseverance spurs me on. As I run, I remember the words in his diary: Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever me from any tie but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.
(Joseph Stowell, Through The Fire, Victor Books, 1988, 150).
2. As we go through life and walk with the Lord there will be times of:
a. Disappointment
b. Discouragement
c. Weariness
3. However, if we continue to walk with the Lord and do not waver, He will sustain us.
4. Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
5. As long as we maintain our faith in God and His promises, He will:
a. Give us strength we didn’t knew we had
b. Give us endurance we didn’t know we had
c. Give us vitality we didn’t know we had
Transition: Our faith will transcend whatever life may throw at us.
III. A Promise to Receive (13-15)
A. Joshua Blessed Caleb
1. You will notice that Joshua does not respond verbally to Caleb’s faith-filled and impassioned speech.
a. This fact may signal that Caleb’s words were so effective and that no verbal response was necessary, only action.—(New American Commentary)
b. What do you say when there when it has already been said.
c. When something is said so well and so effectively, there is only one thing to do - respond.
2. Verse 13 says, "So Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave Hebron to him as his portion of land."
a. Joshua’s response to Caleb’s speech was to bless him.
b. A blessing in the OT was not just a momentary blessing, but it "represents a promise for steady continued success over a long period of time" (Butler, WBC, 174).
3. A blessing pronounced over God’s people assured the success of any venture.
a. Blessing someone was more than wishful thinking, since blessing in the name of the Lord tapped into the power and resources of God himself.—(New American Commentary)
b. It was more than just saying, "I hope that this comes to pass."
c. It was in effect guaranteeing it by putting God’s stamp of approval on it.
4. We can see the result of this blessing in the next verse. "Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite because he wholeheartedly followed the LORD, the God of Israel."
a. Caleb’s whole-hearted devotion to God had never been in question, even in the wilderness.
b. As a result, he received as a reward the land that he requested.
5. God had made him a promise because of Caleb’s faithfulness.
a. Caleb stood on that promise as if it had already happened.
b. Caleb claimed that promise and did not doubt.
c. Caleb received a mountain because he believed God.
B. Blessed to Possess
1. Illustration: I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air. A John Hopkins University doctor says, "We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact." But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality. (Dr. E. Stanley Jones)
2. When God makes a promise you can:
a. Stand on it
b. Count on it
c. Depend on it
3. When God promises you a mountain, He’s not going to give you an ant hill.
4. 2 Cor. 1:20 For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” ascends to God for his glory.
5. God promises were made to be:
a. Received
b. Claimed
c. Believed
Transition: All of God’s promises are ours if we only believe.
Conclusion
1. God gave Caleb:
a. a promise to remember
b. a promise that rejuvenated
c. a promise to receive
2. Caleb received those promises because he:
a. Believed
b. Faithful
3. How about you?
a. Are you believing God for a mountian today?
b. Do you believe that God is able to give you that mountain?
c. Are you willing to go and take that mountain?
4. Believe and receive!
