JOSHUA 14:6-14 | INTENTIONAL PURSUIT OF GOD

TEXT: JOSHUA 14:6-14 | INTENTIONAL PURSUIT OF GOD

EXPLANATION: 45 years before, Caleb and Joshua had returned from searching out the promised land and they delivered the news that while the giants were big, their God was bigger!

It was Caleb who boldly proclaimed in Numbers 13:30

Numbers 13:30 KJV 1900

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

He was ready and willing to go to battle with the enemies to obtain the land that God had promised to the children of Isreal!

But the neigh-sayers immediately chimed in with their determination in the very next verse Numbers 13:31

Numbers 13:31 KJV 1900

But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

It was because of that lack of faith in God and His promises that the children of Israel would spend the next 40 years wondering in the wilderness.

But now, the next generation has come… Moses has died… and they are obtaining the land God had promised to them all those years before.

And as Caleb, now an 85 year old man, once again lays his eyes on this land he had seen so long ago, his heart is stirred within him.

He once again sees the clusters of grapes.

He sees the fertile soil ready to produce fruit.

And as he gazes off in the distance his eyes land on a mountain that he remembered so fresh in his mind.

And he points his finger toward that mountain as he says those words in Joshua 14:12

Joshua 14:12 KJV 1900

Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.

APPLICATION: We have reached the end of 2024.

If you made it to every Sunday service this year, then you are about to hear your 52nd Sunday morning message preached from this pulpit.

You have had about 8,700 hours given to you since the start of 2024.

If you slept for an average of 8 hours each night, you slept for a total of 2,904 hours

If you worked 5 days a week, 8 hours each work day, you would have worked for 2,080 hours

If every day you spent 3 hours getting ready, bathing, eating, and just normal day to day stuff, you would have spent 1,089 hours.

After all of those things, you were left with 2,627 hours

We do a lot of driving since we live in Montana so lets say you drove for 2 hours every day… 728 hours.

And then let’s say you took 2 hours every night for your enjoyment… TV, computer, whatever… 728 hours.

You would have been left with 1,171 hours.

If you came to every Sunday service in 2024, and were there for small groups and the main service you would have spent roughly 117 hours in Sunday services.

If you went above and beyond and made it to the midweek services and special meetings, you would have been in another 54 hours of services.

That means after everything, including church services you would have had exactly 1000 hours left over.

Friend, how much of that ‘left over’ 1000 hours did you spend Intentionally Pursuing God?

It has been estimated that it takes the average reader between 65-75 hours to read through the entire Bible cover to cover.

With those left over 1000 hours, how many times did you read it through this year?

With those left over 1000 hours, how much time did you spend on your knees in prayer?

With those left over 1000 hours, how much time did you spend committing God’s Word to your memory?

Friend, how much time did you spend Intentionally Pursuing God?

Can I just be honest this morning… when I was running those numbers, I was humbled.

Because if I spent 2 hours each night in front of a TV screen, that means I spent the equivalent of 30 days watching TV.

But how much better do I truly know my God today than I did on that first Sunday of 2024?

The truth for most of us is we didn’t use that extra 1000 hours to grow closer to God… we spent it on any number of other things.

Many of those weren’t bad things… they may have even been good things.

And not everyone probably had a nice round 1000 extra hours

But the point is this, what time did you set aside to intentionally pursue God in 2024?

EXPLANATION: You know, Caleb spent 45 years with the children of Israel wondering in the wilderness and then conquering the Promised Land.

And during those 45 years there were a lot of things that happened.

There were a lot of enemies that they faced

There was a lot of rebellion against God that Caleb witnessed.

There was a lot of death by fire, by the ground opening up, by venomous serpents, and many other things that Caleb saw in those 45 years.

And yet by God’s grace, Caleb recalled those years in Joshua 14:8-9

Joshua 14:8–9 KJV 1900

Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.

Caleb had intentionally purposed to pursue his God!

He wholly followed the Lord his God.

APPLICATION: Friend, I don’t know how intentional you were at pursuing God over this past year.

I hope you can truly say you are closer to Him today than you were on that first Sunday of 2024.

But what I do know is that regardless of where you find yourself today, we all can learn a few lessons from Caleb that can help us as we turn to page into the new year!

Lessons that will help you to start or continue following the Lord.

Lessons that will show you how to intentionally pursue your God!

So as we wrap up in the final service of 2024, let’s end where we started, and learn some lessons from Caleb about how to intentionally pursue God!

V.7-10, HE PATIENTLY PURSUED GOD

Joshua 14:7–10 KJV 1900

Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.

EXPLANATION: All those years before Caleb had made a decision to go against the flow of the 10 guys who brought back that negative report that they wouldn’t be able to take the promises land.

For 45 years, while it seemed like his prayers would never be answered

While it seemed like he would never see God’s plan come to fruition

While he faced struggles, and difficulties, and uncertainties, Caleb continued wholly following the Lord!

He PATIENTLY PURSUED GOD!

He didn’t just wake up one day and he was suddenly close to God.

No, over 45 years there was a consistent, patient, daily choice to pursue His God.

ILLUSTRATION: I remember being at a conference a number of years back and their was a preacher that was talking about the importance of reading your Bible.

He shared that there was a period of time he committed to read the Bible through once a month over multiple months.

He shared that to do that, you only have to read 39 chapters a day.

I remember sitting there and realizing I would likely never achieve the spiritual level that he had.

APPLICATION: Friend, I doubt that anyone here is going to make the decision to go from not reading your Bible to reading 39 chapters a day.

In fact, I would say that probably wouldn’t be a good decision to jump from nothing to that.

But did you know if you read about 3 1/2 chapters a day, you could read through the entire Bible in a year.

On Wednesday nights, we have been taking a single verse from the Bible and we have spent the week studying a single verse.

You know if you studied 52 verses in depth over the next year, my guess is you would be far closer to God at the end of the year than you are today.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV 1900

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Psalm 119:133 KJV 1900

Order my steps in thy word: And let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Psalm 119:105 KJV 1900

NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.

It doesn’t have to be anything earth shattering… it would just be a patient, consistent, daily pursuit of God.

For 45 years, Caleb patiently pursued God.

V.11, HE REMAINED PASSIONATE ABOUT GOD

Joshua 14:11 KJV 1900

As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.

EXPLANATION: When Caleb and Joshua first came out of that promised land, Caleb was 40 years old.

And now 45 years have passed by and Caleb is an 85 year old man,

How many of you understand there is a difference in strength and ability between someone who is 40 and someone who is 85?

Yet, here Caleb says, “I’m as strong today as I was when I was 40 years old.”

Now I don’t know if Caleb had just been doing Cross fit for 45 years or not… maybe so…

But one thing was clear… Caleb was still just as passionate about taking that promised land as he had been 45 years before.

He was still just as passionate about God and His plan!

ILLUSTRATION: Tressa and I coming back to visit the first time after getting married and visiting June Love.

She would never leave that hospital room… but it was clear… she was passionate her Savior

APPLICATION: Friend are you passionate about God today?

It can become so easy to become focused on all kinds of things, but miss the one thing we should be most passionate about.

If you aren’t passionate about Him today, you aren’t going to be someday.

It doesn’t just happen suddenly when you reach a certain age.

A passion for God starts with a conscious decision today and continues to be fostered and grown throughout your life.

I didn’t know a great deal about June… but what I did know was that she loved and was passionate about her God.

When you reach the end of your life… what will be said about you?

You were passionate about your work?

You were passionate about making money?

You were passionate about your family… I hope so?

I hope when I reach the end of my life, one of the things that is said about me, is that I was passionate about my God!

ILLUSTRATION: Paul reached the end of his life, and in one of the final verses that he would write, he recorded the precious words of 2 Timothy 4:7

2 Timothy 4:7 KJV 1900

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

What is amazing is when he wrote v.7, all of the verbs were in a continual actions sense.

Not just that he “had fought”… but he had fought and was still fighting.

Not just that he “had finished”… be he was still finishing

Not just that he “had kept”… but that he was still keeping.

How does a guy at the end of his life in prison, awaiting execution say something like that

There was a passion he had developed for God long ago, and he was still passionate in the end!

APPLICATION: Friend, if you are going to intentionally continue to pursue God someday, you had better become passionate about Him and His Word today!

Caleb was passionate about his God… He patiently pursued God.

V.12, HE CLAIMED THE PROMISES OF GOD

Joshua 14:12 KJV 1900

Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.

EXPLANATION: Caleb remembered the promise God had made to him all those years before.

Through decades of time where it seemed like the promise God had made would be impossible.

Through the plagues, the battles, the constant complaining of the children of Israel.

Through times of suffering, the loss of loved ones and friends, and so many times where he couldn’t see the way.

There had to be times he was discouraged and ready to throw in the towel… but there was one final more that kept him pursuing God…

He remembered God’s promise to him.

And now, here 45 years later, he points that bony finger at the Mount of Hebron off in the distance and he says those words: “Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day;”

On this day all those years later, Caleb claimed the promise God had made.

ILLUSTRATION: You know, after Paul said those things in 2 Timothy 4:7 about fighting a good fight, keeping the faith, and finishing his course, he would go on in the next verse and share a wonderful promise from God.

2 Timothy 4:8 KJV 1900

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

APPLICATION: God has promised one day that we will stand before God and give account of the life we have lived for Him.

Proverbs 15:3 KJV 1900

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Beholding the evil and the good.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 KJV 1900

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

The Lord has promised to give crowns to us because of the life we choose to live for God.

1 Corinthians 3:13–14 KJV 1900

Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

And any of the crowns we receive wont be for us to keep… but they will be crowns we will cast at Jesus’ feet in worship!

You see, we are living this life for the promise that one day, if we have chosen to live for Him, we will hear those sweet words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

And that is a promise worth claiming!

CONCLUSION

Well, friend… you’ve made it through the final Sunday morning service of 2024.

As you reflect back on the year can you truly say you have Intentionally Pursued God?

Whether you can or you can’t, why don’t you make one final commitment to Him to end out this year.

Will you commit to step into 2025, and purpose, like Caleb, to “wholly follow the Lord your God.”

To Patiently Pursue Him

To Passionately Pursue Him

And to Claim the Promise from Him when you do.

WBC, let’s decide to Intentionally Pursue Your God!