85th Church Anniversary: Caleb, man of faith (Joshua 14:6-15)

Call to worship (voice recorder) 4min

Psalm 122 ESV

A Song of Ascents. Of David. 1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” 2 Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! 3 Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together, 4 to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. 5 There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! 7 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!” 8 For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!” 9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

Today, we are celebrating 85 years of the founding of this fellowship. It is exactly 85 years ago today that they met on this site and 57 people became members of this church. But it all started with a short conversation with Mr & Mrs Percy Turner who were walking from their home in Sherwood Avenue to Greenford Baptist Church 2.4 miles away, about a 50 minute walk. Rev. Hoare walked with them and talked of the length of the journey to get to church and the question was raised: Why not start a church in North Greenwood? And so started a journey that has led to us being here today. It has had many ups and downs but it has seen God’s faithfulness to this fellowship.

So, let’s sing our first Hymn...

HYMN: Great is thy faithfulness 4min

CHORUS: I’m gonna jump up and down 2.5min

Children’s Talk 6min

Good morning kids! How are you? Today I want to talk to you about the bible!

Hebrews 11:1 NCV

1 Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.

And we are going to put that to the test this morning. You see here a chair...

Do you trust this chair? Come and sit on it and prove it.

Do you trust me? Blindfold, and get you to sit on a chair you cannot see.

We may not be able to see but we trust the One who does and listen to His voice. When we are facing hard times and we cannot see ahead or know which way to turn, we must then listen to God and His Word, and trust Him.

Let’s pray

Father, thank you that you love us and that you speak to us. Help us to hear your voice and trust you no matter how hard the situation is. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Notices 3min (Zoom service. Shirley Sayer Funeral 12pm Friday 23rd July - please let me know if you want to go as you need to book in advance. Gift Day)

SONG: El-Shaddai 3.5min

Prayer 4.5min

Thanks and Praise.

For God’s faithfulness to this fellowship over its 85 years.

We pray for Shirley and her family. Comfort, peace, everlasting arms.

For all others in the fellowship who are sick, in need of finances, in need to reconciliation, for those who are grieving.

Father God we pray for our families and friends and especially for young people that they may grow up knowing love and hope, valuing life and respecting others, but above all knowing You.  We pray for those who are about to leave school and move on to the next stage in their lives that you will direct them.  We pray for BB/GB, Youth Club and Holiday Club as preparations are made to meet face to face once more.

Creator God we pray for your wonderful world and are sorry for how we have treated it.

Faithful God we pray for ourselves; as we go from our worship today to start the week ahead, we ask that in all we do, we may we walk more closely with you at our side safe in the knowledge that your Fatherly love and care knows no bounds.

Let us pray the prayer our Lord taught us:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Reading and Sermon

Joshua 14:6–15 ESV

6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” 13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war.

History matters especially the choices we make in the present that can have an effect upon the future. The rewards of the righteous, because of fully following the Lord, should not be glossed over. Caleb was one of only two people who made it to the promised land who were over the age of 20 when they left. Caleb was 85 years old. The next oldest people after Caleb and Joshua was 64 or 65.

And here is their history. They were slaves in Egypt and ten plagues were sent upon that Country and people. Moses is used as their deliverer, and out of there came the Exodus. Anything around 2 million people including women and children made the journey- we know this because a census was made of all males of 20 years old and above and their total was 603,550 excluding the Levites for they included in this count (Numbers 2:32-33). They then see Pharaoh and his army perish in the Red Sea after miraculously crossing it on dry land, and they at Mount Sinai for the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and then at the crossing the Jordan around a year later. But what a year it has been for they have been well fed by manna and by meat, water out of nowhere, and the defeat of the Amalekites. A year of constant miracles and being led by the Lord by pillars of fire and of cloud.

At this point we find the story of the twelve spies sent into the Promised Land in Numbers 13-14. The Lord told Moses to send twelve spies into the land of Canaan and two of those included was Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim, one of the tribes of Joseph, the famed Jewish Prime Minister of Egypt during the 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine, and Caleb from the tribe of Judah, from which Jesus is descended.

We read

Numbers 13:17–20 NCV

17 Moses sent them to explore Canaan and said, “Go through southern Canaan and then into the mountains. 18 See what the land looks like. Are the people who live there strong or weak? Are there a few or many? 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What about the towns they live in—are they open like camps, or do they have walls? 20 What about the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees there? Try to bring back some of the fruit from that land.” (It was the season for the first grapes.)

And then we hear their returning report:

Numbers 13:27–31 ESV

27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 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. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30 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.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”

And Joshua backed up Caleb against the ten other spies but the opposition caused the congregation to almost stone Moses, Joshua and Caleb but God intervened and said he was going to destroy the people but Moses prayed for them. But now the die had been cast:

Numbers 14:20–24 CSB

20 The Lord responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested. 21 Yet as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested me these ten times and did not obey me, 23 will ever see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have despised me will see it. 24 But since my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it.

So, for forty years they wandered in the desert. And only Joshua and Caleb went into the Promised Land out of the 603,500 men of 20 years old and above.

What is incredible is that all these men had seen the signs and wonders God did in Egypt and in crossing the Red Sea but still did not believe. And the ten contrary spies died of plague for their evil report. It is not always a good thing to be in the majority. In fact, Jesus makes it clear that the way is narrow to life and wide is the gate to destruction. The question is whether we will be faithful when others are faithless? Will we grumble and complain as the Israelites who as a result died without seeing good results.

The judgement against Israel was harsh and they were very upset. In a way I feel for them because they realised that their punishment was not going to be overcome, that God was not going to change His mind, the consequences just have to be faced for there was no way out. God’s judgement seems harsh but it is always just.

For those of us who come to Jesus for eternal life, mercy triumphs over judgement. There is now no condemnation/judgement for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), we have passed from death to life (1 John 3:14).

This Caleb was an honourable person and yet he also suffered because of the actions or rather inactions of others. He had to endure forty years in the desert as a result of other people’s sin.

The consequences of sin can often be may not be seen but can be devastating not only to ourselves but to innocent others. We thank God that God is merciful and loving and kind and many of the consequences of our sin have already been paid for in the suffering of our Lord Jesus, sometimes there are no apparent fall-outs, but other times bad things happen. One cannot know or predict what will happen when we sin. [I cannot imagine that Sapphira thought that she would die for a lie.]

Once Joshua and Caleb were in the Promised Land Caleb then came to claim a piece of land for himself and his family as had been promised. And the land claimed was not something already pristine, cleared out, and friendly. It was the complete opposite. The enemy lived there as well as the feared giants. These were the same giants known as Anakim and that caused fear in the Israelite camp some 45 years before. Yet, here was Caleb after the very land that they lived in. His faith was just as strong in His God. What an incredible man of faith. The Israelite eyes were on the giants but Caleb’s were upon the Lord. He wholly followed the Lord.

[And we read in he Scriptures again:

Joshua 15:13–15 ESV

13 According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak). 14 And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. 15 And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher.

And that was taken too.

These places today are in the Southern West Bank. But Hebron is also famous for another reason for this is where the Oaks of Mamre are where there is a cave, and this is where Abraham buried Sarah and Abraham himself was buried by his sons and where afterwards his grandson Jacob was buried by Joseph.]

Of course, the main reason I have highlighted Caleb today was because he was 85 years old when he achieved all these things.

And, today, we are celebrating 85 years; many have been the achievements here at Oldfield. It’s small beginnings, the sacrifices, the gifts, the help is what established this place as a church in the midst of this area. I have been lent a history of the first 50 years and know something of the last few years but there is much that is not filled in.

What we can see are similarities between Caleb and this fellowship. Both are spiritually looking upwards and both are undivided in heart. Caleb knew God was at work and that for Him nothing was impossible.

Caleb saw the situation as it was…yes, the Anakim were there, yes, there are giants, everyone knew it but only Caleb saw with the eye of faith and a belief in the promises of God.

‘God fulfilled His word in the past and God can fulfil His word now’, was the attitude of Caleb. He was dependent upon God, knew he could not do it in his own strength but with God then the giants will be defeated and the land taken for God and His people.

There were giants for the people involved in the set up of this Church. Lack of people, lack of resources, lack of a building but they looked to God, they prayed, they put out feelers, the went ahead and trusted God, and they achieved great things together.

The giants of today are different, a world in which people who are complacent, anti-God, anti-church, and a virus to boot. Do we now shrivel up and die? Do we recede into ourselves?

Do we accept the reality and say there is nothing we can do - the giants are too big? Or do we face the situation, real as it is, with the eyes of faith, and say that with God we can do valiantly?

When, if we are not raptured before then, they look back in 50 years what will they see? A church that rose up, took hold of God and went forward seeing God at work in our midst and the community? A heart set upon God undivided in heart and soul?

We cannot know what the future will bring. Caleb says, if the Lord wills, if He looks favourably upon us then we shall achieve great things. Caleb is expectant of God but knows that ultimately we are all in God’s hands. It is in His power to open the floodgates of Heaven upon this part of the Borough of Ealing. And we pray He does. Our part is to remain faithful to Him no matter what the results.

For Caleb, remember, he did not see instant results. 45 years he waited. But when the time came he was ready. He knew that the promise of God is sure and now he could move into it. The devil has no protection, the giants can be slain.

It is not looking at the giants that will help for there we will only doubt and fear. The majority are wrong - they are the ones who fear. But we need to look at the greatest of all giants, God, who is greater than all for there will only be hope and confidence and faith.

We come back then to the source of faith, God Himself, and seek Him as the founders of this fellowship did and we can claim the promise found in

Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

The last paragraphs of the booklet on the history of the first 50 years has something to day and though these words were written about 35 years ago, they still hold true today; it says this:

As we look to the future the opportunities for the church are still very favourable. The message of salvation in Jesus is by far the most important in the world. The Holy Spirit’s power is still available and where the members of a church are willing to commit themselves fully to the work, the future for that church is as bright as the promises of God.

Let our church continue to be a place where members and congregation can be ‘at home’ with one another and in receiving strangers.

HYMN: I know not why (First part sit and listen, second part, for those who can, stand) 6.5min

Benediction

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.