Claiming the Promises
Pastor Glenn Newton 9-10-2000
Joshua 14:6-15
JOS 14:6 Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, `The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’
JOS 14:10 "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said."
JOS 14:13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. 14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. 15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.)
Then the land had rest from war.
You Know Your Getting Old When.....
Almost everything hurts. What doesn’t hurt doesn’t hurt anymore. It feels like the morning after the night before, and you haven’t been anywhere. All the names in your little black book end in M.D. You get winded playing chess. You look forward to a dull evening. You still chase women but have forgotten why. You turn out the lights for economic, not romantic reasons. Your knees buckle and your belt won’t. You are 17 around the neck, 42 around the waist, and 126 around the golf coarse. You sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there. You try to straiten the wrinkles in your socks and you find you aren’t wearing any. A little old grey-headed lady tries to help you across the street, She’s your wife.
If you didn’t feel old when you walked in, now you do, am I right?
This morning my message is not going to be on age, as much as attitude. I have found a man who didn’t allow his age to affect his attitude, and He didn’t allow time to rob him of his Promise that was given to him. One of my many favorite OT characters, remember he was one of the 10 spies who Moses sent out to look over the Promised Land, and It was Caleb and Joshua who said, Yes We can take the Land with God’s Help, and of coarse the other 8 told of all the dangers and obstacles, .... but because of their Faith, Caleb, then forty years old and Joshua were the only two who of the original group of Israelites who was allowed to enter the land.
When Nola and I were trying to decide on names for the twins that were on the way, we were told there was a chance that it was a boy and a girl, and Caleb would have been the boy’s name we would of choose, of coarse Caleb turned into Karinda
This morning what we see in our passage is a man, 45 years later, at the age of 85 is still willing and ready to conquer new territory. My question today, Are We Willing and Ready to Conquer New Land, to go to New Places that God has for Us?
Let me tell you what is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. By Sept. 15th, this coming Friday we will know if we are going to get an offer for this building or not. If we get an offer it will have to be $70,000 or more or we won’t even consider it. Our property has been valued at $80,000 and were not going to give it away.
Let me tell you what I think is going to happen. If we get an offer, I’m pretty sure it will be well below the amount that we are asking. So starting this afternoon at our board meeting we will be making plans to move full steam ahead towards remodeling this building to be used for our Daycare ministry called Next Generation.
I want you to know that it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen sooner than you might think. And as we face this great opportunity to provide a ministry through day-care to many young families in our community, I want you to understand that we are going to be breaking into new territory, it’s going to take a people who believe that God is going to provide all that we need.
Would you agree with me that we need a ministry that reaches out to the Next Generation? What better way to do that than taking care of their children, and providing Christian training and nurture to these young children and their young minds. What a huge influence, and impact this ministry could have, and will have in our community.
Some might say, Why do we need a DayCare?
I would respond, Your right, look at us, WWEE don’t need a day-care If we were going to do ministry just for ourselves and what WWEE Need, then we probably should build a Nursing Home instead....... Right? Most of us are closer to the nursing home than we are to the Day-Care right...... Well, that’s exactly the reason we are going to have a Ministry to reach out to young families, because you see it’s not about what WE Need, it’s about Reaching others, that’s our Cause, that’s our mission, that’s our purpose, let’s not get our eyes off of that.
Next Generation Falls right into our Ministry goals. I need you to be ready to support, be ready to pray, be ready to do spiritual battle to make this ministry a reality. We will notice in our passage that Caleb didn’t believe that everything came easy, but doing something great for God demands action
Caleb didn’t believe that trusting God paved the way to inactivity. When we say, “God will work it out” that can be a cop out for doing nothing. Life under God is a life of action.. “Press toward the mark.” Phil.3:14. “Fight the good fight of faith” 1 Tim. 6:12
Edmund Burke said, “Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”
Remember what Joshua said to his people, God is telling us this today, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” Caleb at the tender age of 85 asks for the Hill, why? Because God promised it to Him and now he was going to take it and conquer it for the Lord’s glory. Look at v. 11, I love his attitude, remember it’s not age that makes you old, its attitude.
11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
Caleb, from what I can tell wasn’t planning an early retirement. The message for us is clear today...... Your age does not matter in the Kingdom, You can still be active and pursue the Promises of God, and when you do it will keep you young, it will keep you on top of things spiritually, it will keep you from feeling you have nothing left to offer, it’s not about what you have to offer, it never has been, it about what you can give, it’s about what you can add to this Team effort we are putting together. Nobody has to feel left out, because were working together, we work together, we win together, and we will celebrate God’s Promises together.
Church I challenge you to stop looking at what you can do, or what you can’t do anymore, this church will never be successful based on your talents or lack of them anyway...... Church look at what God can do, what God will do, what God has promised to do, What God is Doing right now..... Look To Him, Be encouraged He’s in Control.... arent you Glad. Arent you glad that this churche’s success doesn’t depend upon your Pastor’s abilities and Gifts? Aren’t you glad that it doesn’t depend upon the size of our back accounts? We would be in trouble wouldn’t we.
The keys for us is our attitude and our availablity to God. Caleb never retired from God’s Army.
Look at verse 9 with me. Read.
Why did God promise this land to Caleb? Why? It says, “..because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.” WHOLEHEARTEDLY.
This morning are you following God Wholeheartedly?
I really want you to ask yourself this question - Are you following God with your whole heart?
Do you trust God with what’s going on with our church, do you believe that God is going to see this thing all the way through, ...or are you just kind of waiting for things to fall apart? How’s your faith?
You may be thinking, I have plenty of faith in God, it’s the preacher I’m not so sure about, you know we’ve been through this before.
I haven’t been in this church near as long as some of you, I didn’t go through some of the down times like you have here, but let me tell you something as plain and simple as I can........... God called me to Clarksville Arkansas before I ever met you and before I ever made it to town, as I listened to Bro. Roland our Dist. Superintendent talk on the phone about this church, and the dream of relocating and all the effort that had been put into it .... I knew God wanted me to come and finish what had been started.
God didn’t call me here to take you to the edge and then give up, he hasn’t brought you this far in this journey to lose Hope and to turn around. My friends, God has a job for us, a plan for us to do, we have a cause that we believe in, and that’s sharing our message of Hope, that is reaching people who are lost and need a family.... a people who will love them with God’s love.
I need some Caleb’s this morning who will fight with everything they have to see God’s will done. I need a Team that will not give up until we have the victory. We need a people that says when the going gets tough, we get tougher.
It’s going to take faith to get us where God is going to take us. We need to leave our doubts back in the desert where they belong.
It’s going to take courage to get us where God is taking us. We need to face our fears, not run from them, face them and Know that God is bigger than our biggest Fear.
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (fear), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” Does that Spirit of Power, that Spirit of Love and Self-Discipline, does that Spirit of God fill you this morning, what spirit fills you this morning?
Take Courage Christian, God is bigger than the unknown, He’s bigger than finances, He’s bigger than buildings, My frieds God holds everything in his hands and He’s waiting for His people to Take hold of Faith, To be Full of Courage, and To be Empowered By His Holy Spirit.
My Friends, Team New Hope Plus God teaming together CAN NOT BE DEFEATED. Do you believe that?
My friends what ever that is that is defeating you, and keeping you from believing that God is going to take us to this new land, you need to recognize that whatever that is will become a thorn in your spiritual life, it will hinder you, it will keep you from the joy promised in the Word.
What is it? Is it worry? Do you know what Worry becomes if you dwell on it? It becomes Unbelief, which is a sin.
What are you worried about? Money? You know I look around and I notice that you all have clothes on this morning, by the way, thank you for doing that. How many of you didn’t eat this week, because of no money?
You can’t be worring because you don’t have any money, because it’s obvious you do, so it must be that you don’t have enough money, that’s why you worry?
How much is enought anyway? $5 in the checkbook, what if the milk goes bad, Ok, what you need $50 left in the bank, is that enough not to worry? No, you know the gas bill just came, it’s going to be more this month, that’s horrible, Ok Oh $500, left in the bank, will that be enough? No it’s really not, that car insurance is coming due, and I had to replace two new windows at the house because those preachers kids knocked them out playing ball, Oh yeah I know it’s bad, How about 5,000? Well, I better still worry because what happens if I have a car accident and I have a doctor bill and I have to get my car fixed, or even maybe replace it, $5,000 won’t be near enough. Well, your right, how about $1,000,000. will that be enough so you won’t worry? Well, I won’t worry about my bills anymore, but my goodness, have you ever seen how much they take out on taxes,
Let me tell you a secret, if your hung up on money, you’ll never have enough, and if you get enough, you’ll spend your time worrying how your going to keep it. It’s a trap, and it will zap you of your spiritual life... It’s a killer disease that only God can cure. Worry that goes on and on becomes unbelief.
My Friends, Caleb wasn’t worried, he was ready to literally charge the hill for God. Look at verse 12 as we come to a close.......... Read.
“but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
What we are talking about is a Spiritual Battle that is going on right here within our church. Will we have a Spirit of Faith, Power and Love? Or will we allow ourselves to be filled with Fear, Worry, and disbelief?
This morning your response is needed. We are on the edge this very day of entering a new land, and God wants to know where His people stand, there’s no question you are his people, but he wants to know where we are with our Attitude?
Whenever I got in trouble as a kid, very rarely was it something I did, the majority of the time it was my attitude. You see, I was a clean cut kid, I didn’t do things outwardly that everyone could see, but there would be times where my attitude would stink, and that’s what got me in trouble.
Will you stand with God Today? Will you put your Faith and Trust in Him completely? What better time than now? God is about to amazing things in our church and in the life of this church, and I want to tell you something, if you refuse to move forward with God’s plan by faith, you will find yourself left in the desert, don’t get left behind, put your Faith in Him.
Will you tell God this morning that You will follow Him By Faith, that You will Trust Him completely? There may be some here this morning that would say, You know Pastor, I have never really made that kind of commitment before, but I want to tell God this morning that I want to trust Him in every area, in every way today, then you come and experience the Joy of the Spirit filled life, the Joy of Trusting God, there’s such a freedom when I put my whole life in his hands.
