Antithesis: Every time God speaks to a church family the intent is to provide reproof, revival and motivation. As we seek to affirm the direction in which God is leading we are reminded that we have a responsibility to claim that which God has promised. I hope that you remember that ministry are cyclic in that they go through phases and ultimately sub-phases of ministry. The three major phases can be assessed as preparation, prosperity and persecution. Remember in preparation the church is finding its place in the kingdom and preparing for the ministry that God ultimately wants it to operate. In prosperity the ministry operates in the fullness of what God has ordained. And in persecution the ministry is in decline or regression. The problem of ministry is that we often time spend too much time in preparation and because prosperity is limited by factor we cannot control we fail to operate in the fullness of prosperity in the season that God appoints. From my perspective we are in preparation while we ought to be in prosperity. We have not reached the place of prosperity but have not operated in prosperity. Yet I am convinced that the heart of the people is ready for prosperity, that we are ready to walk in the fullness of all that God has for our church. If you can’t get excited about what God has for the church I want you to be aware that the prosperity that God wants us to walk in is not isolated to the church but will overflow in every area of your life.
Thesis: When God is pleased with us then God’s blessing will seep into every nook and cranny of our lives. I want my family to walk in prosperity, then get it right with God. I want to walk in prosperity on my job then get it right with God. I want my children to walk in prosperity then get it right with God. We concluded from last week the reason the exodus generation did not enter into their prosperity was because they had a seeing problem, opthomological, ontological and pneumatalogical. In other words they saw things wrong in the natural, in relation to the power of God and missed the move of God. Yet God points out that there were two whom got it and he calls Caleb by name declaring that he is going to experience the fullness of all that God has promised. God says of Caleb that he has a different spirit and has followed me whole heartedly and we suggest that what we need if we are going to walk in prosperity are those with a Caleb spirit. We are only going to walk in the prosperity that God promises when we adapt a different kind of spirit.
Relevent Question: I believe as we examine the traits of Joshua and Caleb in our text we can find clues on how we too kind walk in the prosperity that God has established.
1. They had the same view as the majority: 21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.
Caleb and Joshua was among the 12 men that was sent by Moses into the land of promise in an effort to confirm what God had promised. The purpose of them being sent is that after they had journeyed to the edge of promise was to confirm what God had said is exactly what they were to find. The journey was intended to confirm the promise of God not to raise doubt in what God has said. Sometimes God allows us to see in the natural what is naturally impossible so that when God manifest something awesome in our presence that we will know that it is God that has done a great thing. If you evaluate the places that God has already brought you, it should be plain to see that God has already done a great thing in your life. Well at least that is the perspective from which I stand, I realize that I don’t deserve the things that have come my way thus everything is the result of the blessings of God as it has been manifested in my life. The reality is that Joshua and Caleb saw the same things that the other ten saw. They saw the obstacles that stood in their way. They saw the walls, they saw the fortified cities, they saw the armed forces, they saw the valiant men, they saw the men that was categorized as giants. And guess what the ten saw was Joshua and Caleb saw as well, They saw a land flowing with milk and honey, they saw the fertility of the land, they saw the prosperity that was evident in the land. They saw the valleys and the high places they saw the same thing. The issue was not with what they saw the problem was in the interpretation of what was seen. They stumbled in what they saw while Joshua and Caleb rejoiced and what they saw. Two sets of men looking at the same thing coming away with two different perspectives. For the 10 the optic never went to the brain and the mind could not comprehend what God had promised. For the two the optic nerve transferred the image to faith and from faith to the brain. Too often we miss out on the promises of God because we don’t tunnel what we see through the filter of faith. Joshua and Caleb saw what the 10 saw but God’s promise was always in the forefront of their minds. Faith sees what evidence doesn’t show, that is why the writer of Hebrews describes faith as the evidence of things not seen. It is not what you see but what you trust God to do despite what you might see. As we move from a state of preparation into a state of prosperity it is not what we see that is going to make the difference but will we trust God enough despite what we see, despite what makes sense some times, despite what is obvious. We need people with a Caleb spirit to say despite what I see I still trust God to do what God has promised.
2. You have to see what God sees. “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” The problem that happens in the life of the church is that we get two oppositional forces trying to determine which the direction the church wants to move. For many churches and the norm of the community is to assume that the opposition is in lay leadership and pastoral leadership. In other words the norm of the church society believes that the pastor wants to move in one direction and the lay leadership wants to move in the other so what they do is that they put the laity against the pastorate, but the reality is the problem is not laity against pasotarate this thing is bigger than that. You are in the role of Don Quixote, fighting windmills, if you think that he problem is opposition between the lay leaders and the pastorate. I want to publicly thank the lay leaders, the deacons, deaconess and the trustees for the support of ministry in the season of preparation and the problems that we are facing is not with the leaders but with the community to say this is our season. Caleb quieted the people not the 10 but the people. The people were looking for evidence to suggest we don’t need to go over there. There are a lot of reasons for that; one of the reasons without dialoguing on all of them is that the people were satisfied with where they had already come. They were satisfied with the progress already made and were ready to set on their past accomplishments vice pushing forward with the things of God. The issue was not with the 10 the issue was with the congregation as a whole. They were the ones that Caleb tried to convince. Caleb quieted the people. Our challenge is to quiet the people that says it is not possible, to quiet the people that is comfortable with were we are. This ministry will only move into prosperity when the people decide that mediocrity is not acceptable. This ministry will only blossom into the things that God has designed when the people decide that it is time to trust God and know that this is not it. Our problem is that often time we confuse comfort with blessings. Just because I am comfortable does not mean that I am in my place of prosperity. Just because my bills are being paid, just because my children are not in trouble, just because my marriage is making it, just because my job is not in turmoil does not mean that I am living in prosperity. Prosperity suggest an abundance and overflow, an above and beyond blessing. When I live in prosperity I am in my abundance. I got news for you right now I am not in abundance I am in survival and what scares me is that I will get comfortable with surviving and stop striving toward abundance. Listen when I read the text if I am not careful I will see the problem as the leadership and not the people. When God blesses me in ministry my life will not be able to handle the overflow. When God gets ready to bring me into prosperity in the ministry my whole life is going to prosper. When I prosper here, joy is going to overflow everywhere. Caleb quieted the people.
3. You have to trust what God says: 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. 6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, "The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only, do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them." 10 But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.” The actions of Joshua and Caleb in response to the community is that they tore their clothes and pleaded their case to the congregation. This is a unique perspective tearing ones clothes in OT literature means that one is pleading, or overwhelmed with grief. Tearing ones clothes means that I now plead my case in the presence of God in the presence of the people. Caleb and Joshua tears their clothes to show that my testimony is not what we can do but what God can do. What they suggest is that I cannot contradict what has been said by the others but that this is not about us, this is about the promise of God. Do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people for they are as bread to us, they are part of the blessing that God has for us. The caveat is “If the Lord is pleased with us” That is the only caveat to us moving into prosperity if the Lord is pleased with us. AS long as the Lord is pleased we are going to prosper. Somebody needs to have a Caleb spirit and recognize that if God is pleased then we will prosper. Caleb and Joshua provides the direction, do not rebel against the Lord, do not fear. Prosperity is attached to aligning oneself with God and to trust God for what God has said. If it was easy it would not be ministry, if it was easy it would not lead to prosperity. To get to prosperity means that you will have some obstacles that you face, you will have opposition. Yet the word is true Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world. God is greater and I trust God despite what I might see, despite what I might think, despite what I might feel. At some place in this journey this is going to have to be an issue of trust and belief that God is able.
Conclusion: I am blessed because the promise to Caleb is not just to him but to a second generation, that God did not withdraw the promise just because there was a generation that was not ready to walk in it, but it was to a generation that declares it is my time now. When Moses chose the 12 men there is something unique about both Joshua and Caleb. Joshua had a name change from Oshea--that is, "a desire of salvation." Jehoshua, by prefixing the name of God, means promise of salvation "divinely appointed," "head of salvation," "Saviour," the same as Jesus. And Caleb came from the tribe of Judah.
Something Special About these Men.
1 Had a Name Change
1 Was In the Lineage of Royalty
God will turn your potential into reality, Hoshea to Joshua.
You too are in the lineage of royalty
