2019 11 03 God's Not Done (sermon)

Caleb, a faithful spy for Israel, shows that God can use anyone regardless of their age. He and Joshua were the only ones who believed in God's promise of a blessed land. Despite their age, they remained faithful and were able to enter the promised land. Caleb, in his 80s, still had the vigor to fight and claim his portion of the land. Age does not limit God's work in our lives. We all have a part to play in God's plan, and our success is not dependent on our abilities, but on our trust and obedience to God. We need to mentor and guide the next generation, as they are crying out for love and guidance. Our success should continue to progress, and we should not retire from our spiritual battles. Our success comes from following the Lord wholeheartedly, and we need to show the love of God through relationships and examples. We must not neglect those who may appear to have it all together, as they may be silently struggling It's going to be a little bit from Joshua 14, and Caleb, and how God uses us, even if we're ancient like me, you know? So, actually, I'm a middle-ager in this group, but, yeah. I better not say any more, okay. Well, good morning, everybody. You know, I was re-singing that song this morning, Confidence, talking how God worked with each of these people in the Bible, like David, like Moses, like Daniel, and the lion's den, and when the worship leaders asked me about song suggestions, any if I had any suggestions or ideas, that one kept coming to mind, and I said, I don't really know why, it doesn't really fit with the themes of my message, but, I was joking yesterday at worship practice, I think it's for me, because I needed confidence to be up here, but, you know, I was thinking over that further when we were doing that song this morning, that one of the great things about the confidence that we have is that it has nothing to do with our abilities, our inabilities, our qualifications, or our lack of qualifications, but everything to do with what God is doing, and the fact that He qualifies the unqualified, and He calls those who don't know what they're doing. So, if that's a qualification, I'm very qualified to be up here right now. This morning, I want to talk about how God is not done yet. He's not done with me, He's not done with you, He's not done with anybody here. So how many people are happy to hear that? God's not done with you. So in a minute, we'll be jumping into Joshua chapter 14, verses 6 through 14, but before that, I just want to give you a little preamble here. So God uses all of us at all ages, and there's so many examples of this in the Bible we can think of. We just touched on Daniel, Daniel and his friends, you know, they were taken at a young age. We know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, just young guys thrown in the fire, and God was working through them. But today, I want to focus a little bit on the other side of the spectrum here, but it applies to all of us. I want to talk about how God worked through Caleb in the Bible, as Stephen mentioned. So a little bit of background on Caleb, and who he is. So he was formerly a spy for Israel, so a little 007 in the Bible there. He spied out the Promised Land, he and Joshua and others went to do it, but he and Joshua were unique in that they were the only ones that brought Moses back a good report. They said there's all this blessing there that God has for us, and everybody else was just freaked out, and said there's giants there, they've got a wall, they've got all these things, we can't do this, this is too big for us. But Caleb and Joshua were like, whatever, we can do this, you know? They had that unction, they were ready to obey the Lord. And it was, unfortunately, because the others freaked everybody out, it wasn't until that entire generation passed away, except for Joshua and Caleb, that they were able to move into the Promised Land. But here's the thing that I want to highlight here. It wasn't that that generation needed to leave, it was that attitude needed to leave. Because Joshua and Caleb were faithful and from that generation, and God used them. So it had nothing to do with their age, it had nothing to do with that, and this is just proving that our success is not tied to our age, but because we trust and obey the Lord. So as a little bit of a catch for you, don't let your age or your stage be your cage. God is not limited by your limitations. So, Caleb was in his forties, in his days of espionage. And now we're going to catch up with him in Joshua chapter 14, when he's now in his eighties. And the Promised Land's been captured and Caleb wants his portion of the land. So we'll be starting in Joshua chapter 6, sorry, Joshua chapter 14, verse 6. So now, the people of Judea approached Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb son of Jephna, the Kenizzites said to him, you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God at Kadesh Barnea, about you and me. I was 40 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. But my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. Verse 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. Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, 85 years old, and I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I am just as vigorous to go out to the battle now as I was then. 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. Then Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephthah, and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb, son of Jephthah, the Kenizzite, ever since. Because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. The first point I want to draw from here is that your success should not cease to progress. There's no spiritual retirement where we stop fighting this fight. The form of your fight may change with your age, but the fight doesn't finish. In verse 10 and 11 here, again, I'll just read through that again. Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since the time he said this to Moses while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, 85 years old, I'm 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. So Caleb was as vigorous for battle as he was 40 years ago. How many people would like that? And this is something we can all have, and I'm not talking about physical health, although we believe, and I have seen miracles, and I believe God can give us that vigor in our physical health as well. But what I want to highlight here is the spiritual health, because we know that our battle is not a battle of flesh and blood. And so we know that a lot of the things that are physical examples in the Old Testament are spiritual examples for us today, in the sense that there are enemies that Israel fought, they went out, and there was people that got killed. That's not something we're going to take away from this message and go do today. But there are enemies that are in your life that need to be removed in the spiritual sense. And so in that same sense here, I just want to highlight that that doesn't have to go away. That progress, that spiritual progress doesn't have to stop, because the battle doesn't stop. So we need to keep training. Because just because you've had success doesn't mean what's left is only rest. You know, God gave a great example in Genesis. On the seventh day, he rested. God didn't need to rest, he's God. But he did that for us as an example. So rest is an important component in our lives, but that doesn't mean just because we've had success in the past that we stop. We don't just hang up our hats there, because there's always that battle to be fought. Going back to verse 12 again, he says, Let's step back, it's easy to breeze through and not take all the context in. This man is 85 years old, and the battles that Israel have been doing for the land are done. They've got the land, but there's a special spot just for Caleb. He's not saying, give me a thousand men and let's go fight them. He's saying, I'm going to go do this. I'm ready to do this. I'm 85 years old, and I'm ready to go take this place for myself. But here's the thing, the fact that he was saying that there was something that was promised to him, that specific spot of land, but he was also acknowledging there's still a battle to be fought in that promise, even though it was promised to him. There is still a battle to be fought. When he said that he had this success in the past, he was saying that I'm that vigorous still as I was. He wasn't bragging about the past to say, look what he's done. He was saying, look at how he's still capable. Look how he's still capable. So give me a task, Joshua. I've got this. Maybe you are not somebody who's leading from the front. Maybe you're not someone who's leading the attack, but you can still defend from the back. You know, one thing I just find so fascinating, it just jumped out to me. I never thought about it before, but it just really jumped out to me when I was reading through this passage was that here we are in the book of Joshua, named after Joshua. There were two spies that came back and gave the good report, Joshua and Caleb. So why are we even talking about Caleb? Couldn't we make all these? Couldn't the Bible make all these same points about Joshua? Couldn't we just focus in on Joshua and learn all these same lessons? Because it's not just about the leaders in the traditional sense of what a leader is. Joshua was the leader of the Israelites at that point, but Caleb, who was not a leader in that sense, still had a part to play. Each one of us here, it's not just people like myself, people like Stephen or Ike or the worship team or Pastor Ralph that have a part to play in this spiritual battle. Each and every one of us have a part to play, you know. Another thing that's really great about this passage, as I alluded to before when I was talking about song confidence, is that your success is not from your ability, but your humility. In verse 14, again, we read, So Hebron has belonged to Caleb, son of Jephthah, the Kenizzite, ever since because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. Not because he defended it really well and had that same vigor that he used to. It's because he followed the God of Israel wholeheartedly. And we see that motif repeated multiple times in this passage, that because he obeyed the Lord, that's why he had this success. And apologies, I think I messed my notes up. That's okay. God knows where he's going with this. People need your influence as somebody who follows the Lord wholeheartedly. You might not think that's big, you might not think that's reaching or touching somebody, but people are watching. What is it they say? I can't remember the numbers of it anymore, but they say there's a certain number of people that watch your life that you never meet, that gain influence. They say there's six degrees of separation or whatever between every person in the world. And it's a fun game if you ever want to say, well, I know so-and-so, or I knew it's so-and-so. And it's a small world. And people, especially in the day and age of the internet and all that kind of thing, you're making an influence that you may never see. And people need to see that influence, especially as it's something that is on my heart as a next-gen coordinator, seeing the next generation see that influence. They need each of us. And because where there are no mentors, there will be manipulators. Anywhere that we leave that void. The family of God needs you. They needed people like Caleb, not just people like Joshua. Joshua, he was leading the nation. He had a lot of things to do. But they needed the influence of people on the ground like Caleb as well. This generation needs you. We need spiritual parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters to step up to the plate. I think in the church, as we've used the language of a family for so long, and rightfully so, and we should continue to do so, but I think that in that, sometimes we start to use those familial terms like brother and sister as a mere metaphor when it's more than a metaphor. We are the family of God. We have the same Father in heaven. We are the actual family and we need to function like one. We like Timothy in the New Testament need someone to be our Paul to come along and mentor us. But the scary part, and this doesn't have to be scary if we step up and obey the Lord, but the scary part is whether or not we step up to the plate, messages will meet this generation. Even if we are stepping up to the plate, messages are meeting this generation. Our enemy is intentional and relational, using relationships with people, with idols, with habits to lull this generation into the darkness. And consequently, we need to be intentional and relational to bring people back to the light because where there are no mentors, there will be manipulators to fill that void. Some of us might be going through and saying, that's really good, but I don't feel the unction towards the next generation. That's not my ministry kind of thing. And I would say that's all of ours in the family. That's all of ours. You know, obviously, as I say, as the Next Gen Coordinator, that's something that's especially important to me. But I think we need to let their cry motivate our battle cry because they are crying out. You know, it's my opinion that if we can't see the brokenness, we aren't looking. It's everywhere. You know, the number of broken families in this generation is unreal. It's getting to an unthinkable degree, you know. And there are those crying out to be noticed and to be loved, and they're filling the void with everything and anything that they can find. Going to a little story time here. But a number of years ago, when God first started talking to me about working with kids and with teens, this was not something on my radar at all. And you know, He just dropped a little thought into my head as I saw some little boys in church one day from, you know, a difficult family. I knew they had a difficult family situation, and He just dropped this thought in my head that was most kids, and especially in the case of little boys, I think it's more impactful. He says, don't see men in the church. They don't see men serving in the church. And I was like, well, you know, our pastors, they don't see the pastor. go down to Sunday school, you know, where we see most often, most of the time, we see women in that ministry. And that's awesome. I want to praise the Lord for every woman that's ever worked in Sunday school. That is amazing. You know, it's so powerful, impactful, and needed. But I think in addition to that, not in place of that, but in addition to that, we also need men working with kids as well, just as God designed children to have a father and a mother, and He designed them to have nurture from both sides, you know. And so this was just something that He had popped into my head, and I was thinking, I was like, that's a really good point. More men should be working with the kids. I really hope somebody gets on that. And, you know, I was like, it's clearly not for me, don't know why He'd be talking to me about it otherwise, but that was my thought process, and I tried to avoid that. And one day, I was actually camping with my family, and we were at this public campsite, and in the middle of the night, I heard a kid screaming, like at the top of your lungs, the most terrifying scream you could possibly imagine. And I just bolted upright, woke up, and I was like, what's going on? And nobody else in the tent woke up. And I was like, how is this possible? Because the distance between me and where the sound sounded like was about me and Steven right now. It sounded like somebody was right about there, screaming at the top of their lungs, and nobody else woke up. And I was like, how is this even possible? Am I awake? Am I dreaming? What's going on, right? So I got up out of the tent, because I thought somebody was right outside the door. Nobody there. I heard the sound again, so I started going towards, and my mind's racing a million miles a second. I'm like, am I going to have to confront or fight like someone who's abducting a child right now? Like, what's even going on, right? And so the sound got out of my ability to tell where the direction was coming from. So I just prayed. That's all I thought I could do at the time, you know? And I went to the bathroom that they had there at the camp, just kind of flashed them water in my face, checked if I'm awake, you know? And I was just shook. I was shook the next day and everything. And it wasn't until at least a year later that somebody had counseled me, like, well, do you ever think to pray about what that was about? If that was, was that actually something literal that you were hearing? Because nobody else heard that, you know? Was this something that, you know, that God was trying to show you? And so I did pray about it, and what was impressed upon me was that, no, that was not a literal sound. God was trying to wake me up and let me hear the cry that children are crying out. And that's not something that is, that is a personal story to me. I don't believe it's an exclusive story to me. I believe it was something that God was trying to call that out to anybody who would listen. I just happen to be one of the people, you know? I really believe that that cry that's out there is something that needs to fuel that battle cry, that we not let the enemy take this generation, you know? But we have to be there for them. And when I say this, I don't mean that we need to be forcing them into church and its programs, but to show them the love of God they're crying out for by example and by relationship. You know, this is not a battle of funneling kids into our youth group, although as part of my mandate, I'd love to see that. But that's not what this is about. That's not what youth group is about. It's not about numbers, you know? This is about each of us doing the work of relationship for those inside and outside of our walls to help them connect to Jesus. Because that's all that really matters in this life. That's all that's going to matter in the next life. We're only here for a blink of an eye. With that, I just want to highlight that the ones with that neglect are not always the ones that you'd expect. You know, we might see, oh, there's this kid who acts out. They probably really need Jesus because they don't know how to behave. That's not necessarily, of course they do, but that's not always just those. You know what I mean? You know, this morning, we sang about, we sang that song, I always get the title wrong, but You Say I Am, I think something like, that's the one, thank you. We sang that song, and in it, it says that in our Father's house is a place for me. I am a child of God. This song, I'm going to be very transparent with you, this song is very personal to me. Because the first time I heard it, when it first came out, I was sitting in church at the time back on the east coast where I moved from, and I heard that song and I heard those words and I thought, that's not true of my Father. And there's no place for me in my Father's house. I'm not welcome and I'm not accepted there. And that's what I thought. But immediately following that was the thought of, but I am accepted in my heavenly Father's house. There is a place for me there. There is a place for me in the family of God even here. And there's so many people that we wouldn't expect are going through those emotions, going through those feelings of traumas in their life that need to hear that message. And we might neglect them because we think, that person looks like they're doing okay. I've got it all together, I'm going to focus only on these ones over here, but you know. God is asking, God, you know, in James, I forget the exact verse, but in James it says that the religion that is pure is to look after widows and orphans in their distress. In this age, there are so many spiritual widows and orphans too, you know, people who have been spiritually widowed by their partner or orphaned by their parents as maybe they have parents, but they don't, not having spiritual parents in their life. And I just want to challenge all of us to prayerfully consider how God would want us to apply this today, how God would want us to reach out and be there in a relational way for the next generation because there's a million different, there's as many different ways that could look as there are people, you know, God has a different thing for each of us, but we're all in this together, you know, and if you guys have ideas or want to know how to plug into some of those things, I'd be happy to talk to you, Hannah would be happy to talk to you, Pastor Sue, Pastor Ralph, and again, I just want to just take a moment to emphasize that this is not about me putting out a call for people to work in children's ministry in a formal sense, but this is about me saying that if you feel like God can't do anything with you, if you feel like your time has passed, if you feel like maybe your time hasn't come yet and you can't do anything yet, you don't have what it takes. It's not about our ability, but our humility and our obedience. It's about laying down our qualifications, our unqualifications, and letting God work with us because He's not done with us yet. Before I ask the worship team to come back, I'd just like to pray real quickly. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are our Father. We thank you that for those of us, and honestly, this is all of us in one way or another, Lord, for those of us who have broken pieces in our families, Lord, because no family is perfect, we thank you that you are still the perfect Father. You're a good Father, Lord God, and that you know how to give good gifts to your children. You know how to work with us, Lord. You know how to give us good success regardless of our circumstances, Lord. And no matter how many amazing things you've done in our life, Lord, we thank you that you have more amazing things to do in our life. We thank you that each and every one of us has a part to play as a family, Lord God. Lord, I just pray right now that you move in each person in the way that you want to communicate to them how they can be a part of your family in a literal family sense, or whatever that may look like, and I leave that between you and them, Lord God. And I just pray that you would encourage them in that, Lord. Encourage them that they don't have to worry about whether or not they've figured it all out, because you have figured it all out. And I pray, Lord, that right now that you would help, and I do mean this, Lord, both spiritually and physically, I'm asking for this, Lord, for each and every person Lord, that you would help them be as vigorous as they were 40 years ago, 40 years from now, Lord. And for those of us here, Lord, who haven't even been around for 40 years, just keep us vigorous. So, Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful family of faith. In your name, Amen.