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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 14
Caleb was a man who patiently waited 45 years for the fulfillment of Gods promise. The central convictions that gave him the motivation to trust God was his knowledge that the Lord delighted in him and was always with him. Through faith in Jesus we can share the same convictions of Caleb and enjoy the delight of the Lord forever.
Transcript
You know as I was saying earlier about you know that we’ve kind of reached that I think we’ve just crossed God willing the uh the Midway Point uh of our time here at Ocean Park Baptist I may have to eat those words uh later you know you can’t predict fully but we’re on track uh it also means that we’re uh We’ve we’ve come P just just over the the Midway threshold of uh the Book of Joshua uh and and obviously the tone of the book changes uh quite quite a bit from all the the Glorious Conquest to uh to now the the dividing of The Inheritance and a lot of names and and bless all of you who’ve been doing the readings um you’ve done a great job and the truth is nobody would know if you weren’t um and so uh but but thank you for for taking that on uh but so the so things change a little bit but what Remains the Same is that the gospel is still being proclaimed and revealed to us uh and and even in these latter chapters uh of Joshua which is certainly the case today you know I have a question what what motivates you and kind of gives you strength for life you know arguably I’m guessing for most people it works this way the greatest motivation is affirmation isn’t it you know for for most of us the affirmation is definitely the biggest motivator uh when people cheer you on doesn’t that help you know certainly uh for most of us it does uh it’s like you know when you’ve been when you’ve gone on the diet and you’ve put in all the hard work and people praise you and notice it doesn’t that make you feel great and it kind of encourages you to to keep on going uh no one said anything to me by the way um but that’s because I haven’t uh so it wouldn’t be uh it wouldn’t be quite true but you know Gracie she works out she uh she works but she she has to do it with the group because she wants that positive affirmation and that encouragement uh that and praise that with the groups all together and uh and she does CrossFit with the group uh for for that reason uh you know you see it uh as as a pastor a lot of opportunities for for counseling folks and I see it over and over and over again this uh this long in that that men especially have but women do as well for seeking approval and praise from others that so often can be traced back to that that unreceived praise and uh and uh and uh approval that they didn’t get from their parents you know you see it over and over and over again it has future uh implications in our lives because receiving approval and praise has an incredible impact on our on our motivation for life it gives us strength to face the things that we’re facing well last week as as Chuck preached on Joshua 13 uh just to remind you or if you weren’t here uh those first words in in verse uh in Chapter 13 was this now Joshua was old and advancing in years and the Lord said to him you are old and advanced in years and there remains yet very much land to possess Joshua was old and advanced in years and he had served for a long time Faithfully in where the Lord had called him he had served uh Moses and the Lord uh you know he served Moses when Moses called upon him uh and earlier and now directly and leading the conquest as God has called him uh he certainly had earned a retirement hadn’t he he had put in the work he had earned it but alas the Lord said there remains work to be
done and arguably it was the worst kind of work the worst kind of work because at least before uh he he was doing the things that I think that he really loved and he really cared about and I’ll talk about that in a minute but now he’s being called in this older age as things have changed and there’s a new challenge before him and probably new skills that he’s developed that the Lord wants to use he’s been called to administrative work hasn’t he that’s the worst kind divide the land for an inheritance right it’s awful this is I mean I I mean that I can relate to this like I want to be in the heat of the battle like I don’t want to be back in the the planning and the strategy stages that you know it’s necessary those things have to happen uh but but they can be just absolutely tedious but he’s being called to now div divide the land as an inheritance for the nine tribes remaining and the half tribe of Manasseh the text doesn’t directly tell us but you know like I said I doubt that this is the kind of work that Joshua loved I doubt that this is the thing that that really uh stirred his heart and really got him moving uh because he was a warrior he was a Warrior from the very early days the first mention that we even have of Joshua uh the first acknowledgment of him in the scriptures he was a young man uh coming out of Egypt with following Moses as all the people were coming out uh and he was called upon as a young man to lead the first offensive uh after coming out of Egypt against AMC Exodus 17 uh verse 9 so from the very beginning he obviously Moses saw in him this is a warrior this is a guy who can lead men and he had called them to lead uh this very beginnings of a a group of of folks when they were when they were having to face a fight coming out of Egypt and from there he went to many battles in the promised land that God had called him to Joshua was a warrior he was a man of strength and action but now advancing in years in his older age the Lord isn’t done with him not by a long shot but the calling has changed the calling has changed and to Joshua’s credit he accept accepted it he accepted the change and he geared up for this transition into this new calling with with many of us you know a church of our savior have you heard the Lord’s call to you in your in your advancing years has the call changed because I know this can be a real frustration I know there can be a real frustration of of you know I can’t do the things that I want to do or the things that I love to do or the things I used to do but have you been listening to the Lord’s voice has he changed the call cuz the call is still there to serve him in his mission field but has the has the way he’s calling you to serve changed have you been able to make that that transition for most I suspect either you haven’t heard the Lord’s call into a new ministry or a new way of of doing mission to which I encourage you to pray and to listen to the Lord um saying you know and just saying to the Lord here I am I’m available I may not be able to do what what I used to do but I can do whatever you want me to do and so here I am call me call me to how you want me to serve
you in your kingdom you know it’s like the old Toby Keef song right I’m not as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was is that appropriate to say from the pull pit no so I I go ahead and ask your forgiveness I apologize I don’t need an email I don’t need uh a note written on the connect card I take it
back or maybe you’ve heard the the call in this transition but you’re struggling with it maybe it isn’t something that you really want to do but in the Lord’s service there is no such thing as Retirement there isn’t just a change in the calling an adjustment but still working in the for the mission so I want to encourage you to pray and ask the Lord and say Here I Am how do you want me to serve in the mission now how has it changed what what do you want me to do but today we turn to another hero of the faith that’s in his advancing years Chuck mentioned him last week uh but this was uh but this evening he really takes center stage and Joshua 14 Chuck was talking about it because uh because whereas Joshua there was you know talking about uh more being more advancing in years and maybe being a little more feeble uh that uh that here uh Caleb declares that he is strong I’m as strong now as I was back 45 years ago now read that a little different than Chuck did but maybe that’s our age difference uh I read that as him just you know you know he’s feisty he’s ready to go I don’t know that he really is as strong as he was 45 years ago but his heart’s in the right place uh but his heart’s definitely in the right place but tonight we’re talking about Caleb Caleb was 40 years old when Moses sent him along with Joshua and others into the promised land to spy it out he was one of the original spies and now it’s 45 years later Caleb’s now 85 years old and now after all this time after all this time 45 years Caleb is now come and he’s come to collect or at least to claim the promise that on behalf of God Moses had made to him 45 years ago can you imagine that waiting 45 years 45 years to receive what God had promised that’s a long I’m 47 I think yeah I’m 47 45 years is a long time to wait on the promise of the Lord and what the was promised to him is that uh the the God had said through Moses that all the land that you’ve set your foot on when you went to spy out the land uh on that ex Expedition is going to belong to you and to your descendants I’m going to give it to you one day and Joshua and Joshua now here in in uh in Joshua 14 gave it to him 45 years to wait on God’s promise but it was never a question of if it was just a question of when it was just a question of when now there’s lots to I think reflect upon when concerning Caleb when we really think about him his long faithfulness to the Lord uh being Chief among them and 45 years since God made that promise Caleb’s been through a lot Caleb has seen a lot he’s experienced a lot he’s inevitably suffered a
lot he’s seen it all The Good the Bad and the Ugly over those 45 years because Caleb lived through the faithlessness and the rebellion of God’s people when he was a young man the people who wouldn’t believe the good report and the faithful report and the the trusting report that he had made about the land when he originally spied it out they wouldn’t believe his report and so God punished them right that he didn’t directly punish Caleb but in an indirect way Caleb gets punished because they got punished and now he had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years waiting waiting on them to finally do what he knew they should have done in the very beginning can you imagine how frustrating that must have been for Caleb I mean gosh I would have complain so much I mean every time I would have said I’m you know you’re doing my work today because I I I did the right thing and you didn’t I think you owe this to me just imagine how frustrating it is he must have been Caleb was forced to wait it out he had to pay for the sins of others even though he in every in every uh indication from the word he was righteous he had done the right thing but he had to pay himself for the sins of others and waited out Caleb then live lived through the conquest and all the fighting and how difficult that must have been seeing the M God’s Mighty acts in in wonderful ways but at times even being part of and experienced the failure of God’s people not living Faithfully to what God had commanded them to Caleb’s been through a lot and so the question I think it presents to us because it tells us that that he was faithful he was faithful to the Lord all this time what do you think gave Caleb the strength and the resolve and the motivation to continue being faithful to endure so much to wait with patience until the Fulfillment of God of the Lord’s promise to him to live through all of the turmoil that he saw well I believe it’s the same thing that gives us strength and gives us resolve and gives us the motivation to endure so much suffering in this world and what we experience in our own lives to be to give us the resolve to be patient and to be gracious toward Wards others and their failures around us to wait with patience until that final promise of God is fulfilled you know when the consummation of all things will come when Jesus will return when he will destroy death once and for all forever creating a new Heaven and a new Earth where we’ll walk with God just as we were always meant
to there’ll be no more sorrow no more suffering No More Death no more te tears only joy Everlasting but until then we do we all face many challenges much suffering we Face sickness and death and Brokenness and relationships all around us what gave Caleb the resolve and the strength and the motivation to wait with patience all of that time what was it that can point us to that same patient resolve that we so desperately need today well to find it I think we got to go back we’ve got to go back back to the events that followed that first spy session that mission back to that point where Caleb said to God’s people told them all about what he had seen and experienced in the promised land the events of of numbers 13 and 14 because in no in numbers 13 verses 25- 29 we get the initial report from the spies and this is what we’re told at the end of 40 days they returned from spying out the land they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of pan and cadesh they brought back word from them with them and to all the congregation and showed him we came to the land to which you sent us it flows with milk and honey this is its fruit however the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large and besides we saw the descendants of anak there the amalekites dwell in the land of the neb the Hittites the jebusites the amorites dwell in the Hill Country and the Canaanites dwell by the Sea and along the Jordan so basically the report was mixed right the report was uh that the land is good it’s flowing with milk and honey it’s everything God said it was going to be but the people are bad and they’re strong and this doesn’t look good for us that was basically what uh what what they were getting at but then Caleb was full of faith and optimism and strength and this is what he said but Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said let us go up at once and occupy it for we are well aable to overcome it can you see it he’s just he’s full of trust in the Lord It’s really admirable but then the other spies argue against him no sooner he got those words out of his mouth were told then the men who had gone up with him said we’re not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we are so they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of Great Heights and there we saw the Nephilim sons of anac who come from the Nephilim and we see and we seem to ourselves like Grasshoppers and so we seem to them by the time the naysayers are done bad talking everything that that Caleb had just supported the people get all worked up to the point of their grumbling against God and then into full Rebellion against Moses and Aaron and then we get to 14 verses 6-9 Joshua and Caleb speak up together at this
time and this is what they said and Joshua the son of nun and Caleb the son son of jeffan who were among those who would spite out the land tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel the land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land if the Lord Delights in us he will bring us into the land and give it to us a land that flows with milk and honey only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land for they are bread for us their protection is removed from them the Lord is with us do not fear them when the tensions are high when tensions are high and someone is willing to speak up against the angry mod oh angry mob I think you can know at that point that they’re speaking what’s really truly their conviction what really truly they believe
here we can we can know that in risking their own lives against the rebellious and the angry mob Joshua and Caleb are speaking out of a true conviction what they really believe to be true what they base their convictions on and from verses 6-9 and numbers 14 there are two convictions that drove and motivated Joshua and Caleb number one that the Lord gives good things things to those he Delights in the Lord gives good things to those he Delights in and number two that when the Lord is with us there is no one and there is nothing that can possibly stand against us those were the two convictions that they had that’s what they were speaking out to this angry mob risking their own lives by the way uh and speaking up these were the two truths the Lord gives good things to those he Delights in and when the Lord is with them this there is no one or nothing that can actually stand against us that’s the message they were proclaiming those are those un those are the underlying convictions that motivated Caleb that’s what was in his heart and that’s what gave him the resolve and the patience to wait 45 long and tumultuous years for the Fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to him Caleb knew it was his conviction in his heart of hearts that the Lord delighted in him and that the Lord was with him that the Lord delighted in him and the Lord was with them that’s what motivated him that’s what gave him the ability to endure all those years waiting for the Lord’s promise that was it it’s not more complicated than that those two convictions gave him the incredible resolve and strength and motivation to endure so much while waiting patiently for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise it allowed him to graciously en endure a rebellious people and the punishment that came from God for their sins it allowed him to to face bravely the forces of evil that stood against them in conquering in the promised land it gave him strength that even at such an advanced age that we just read about he was ready to take on the challenge of his of his inheritance and which taking on the taking on the anakim that still lived there it gave him strength because he knew those two convictions that the Lord delighted him and the Lord was with
him you know what’s happened to us when we lose sight and heart for the Gospel Mission that the Lord has called us to
it’s my contention that what’s really happened is that we’ve lost the conviction that the Lord Delights in us and that the Lord is with us and when those two things are gone when those convictions fade away and begin to demn that’s when we begin to cower in fear and inevitably we just wait around for the end to come we quit living on Mission all together but friends we’ve been given an incredible gospel calling we’re called to be on mission for the Lord to be reaching the lost feeding the hungry caring for the poor raising up the next generation of Christ followers and leaders for our King and as long as there’s breath in our long our lungs and the neurons firing in our brains our service to the mission of the Lord it never
ends whether we’re five or we’re 105 years old it doesn’t matter certainly the Lord will call us according to our level and and capability and strength but we’re always called to serve and continue the mission but without a conviction that the Lord Delights in you and that he is with you always the light of mission will grow dim and eventually it’ll go out altogether so tonight I want to and I’m prayerful that the Holy Spirit Will rekindle the flame and the con that conviction and Us number one that the Lord the Lord Delights in you do you know that do you believe that I mean none of us all the time do no way there’s times when we’re probably feeling like the Lord is not very happy with me right now but what is the what does the scripture mean by that what does it mean when the Lord Delights in you uh it means you actually give God pleasure seems kind of wild doesn’t it it means that he likes you he loves to be with you do you feel that way or do you mostly feel like he just tolerates you or you know that he loves you but he probably doesn’t really want to hang out Zephaniah 3:17 tells that the Lord rejoices over us with singing that’s how he feels about us why does God Delight in us because he doesn’t Delight in just everyone and everything it’s not just a a right of being born that God just Delights in you what makes us different what what makes the Lord Delight in us well uh Psalm 51 has a lot to say about the Lord ‘s Delight uh in Psalm 516 we’re told the Lord Delights in the truth in the inward being so the Lord Delights in what’s in Us in Psalm 51 again in verse 17 it says the Lord does not Delight in sacrifices but in a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart that’s what the Lord Delights in and then in verse 19 the Lord Delights in righteousness it tells us in Psalm 147: 10-1 it said the Lord does not Delight in the strength of the horse or in the legs of a man but in those who fear Him and hope in h in his steadfast love and then in Ezekiel 18:23 it says the Lord’s pleasure is that the wicked turn from his ways and live that’s what gives the Lord delight and God’s ultimate Delight is in his own son Jesus Christ who he sent into this world to save us that’s why I chose that Gospel reading for us this morning in Mark 1 when when the when God broke the heavens open and sent the spirit down upon Jesus and said you are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased imagine that affirmation from the Lord to hear those words into your own ears and into your own life with you I am so well pleased friends what this means is that when we acknowledge the truth that’s in us that we are sinners in need of redemption and we receive Jesus as our Lord and savior we’re redeemed and we adopted as Sons and Daughters of God through Jesus and Galatians 4:6 says and because you are Sons God has sent his spirit the spirit of his son into our hearts crying ABA father what this means is that through faith in Jesus we are Sons and Daughters we’re Sons and Daughters who bring pleasure to our to our Heavenly Father through our savior who dwells in it by his spirit in us he Delights in us not by what we achieve not by what we’ve accumulated in this world and in this life but by his grace alone through his wellbeloved son do you know God’s Delight in you if you don’t or if you’ve lost it somewhere along the struggles of life I pray that you’ll receive God’s Delight For You Again by receiving the gift of his grace through his son Jesus Christ armed with the conviction of his Delight in you there’s nothing that you cannot do or endure for the sake of the Kingdom because God loves to give to those that he takes Delight in how much more Jesus said will your heavenly father give to you to his son and daughter but Caleb not only had the conviction of God’s Delight in him he also knew that God was always with him th through the those hard 45 years he was always armed with the presence of God friends when we are found in Christ we have the very promise of Jesus that he will never leave us or forsake us that he will be with us always to the very end of the age and that means through the cancer that means through the job loss that means through the the financial struggle that even means through the divorce through our own failures through it all in Christ Jesus Is With Us Always no exception and as Paul said uh in in Romans 8 verse 31-39
What then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things who shall bring any charge against God’s elect it’s God who justifies who is to condemn Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake we are being killed all the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered no and all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I’m sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
lord that’s what it
means that Christ is always with us when we’re in Christ there is nothing internal there’s nothing external there’s nothing from heaven or even from hell that can separate us from the love of God cuz he’s with us through it all friends God’s Delight is in you he longs to give you all good things and he is with you always and when he is with you no one and nothing can possibly stand against you let us today tonight renew our conviction and these true two truths these truths that gave Caleb the
motivation to to wait with Incredible patience and to endure so much waiting on the promise of God let us Embrace these two conviction that God Delights in us and that he’s with us always that we might be motivated to continue serving him patiently for his Gospel Mission in this world until that day when the Fulfillment of the promise comes and he returns and makes all things new amen
