Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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It had been a LONG time coming… but the day had finally arrived.
Now 85 years old, the man who went against the word of the spies, now stood ready to claim his promised inheritance.
45 years ago, he stood with Joshua and the other spies on the other side of the Jordan.
He had been sent in with the other spies to check out the land.
The Israelites had been delivered from the Egyptians and now they stood on the boarder of the promised land… a land God said would belong to them.
And… the land was exactly as God described it - a land flowing with milk and honey.
The spies brought back some of the fruit and it was truly amazing!
But then… the reports regarding the people who inhabited the land began to ring out.
Before the Israelites could take possession of the land, the inhabitants had to be… cleared out.
And these people were not looking to move anytime soon.
They were happy where they were!
Think about it… when you buy or rent a home, you do not move in, until the previous family has moved out.
It is a mutual transition that occurs as you take possession of your new living space.
But this transition wasn’t mutual.
If the Israelites wanted to take possession of the land, they would have to fight for it.
This wasn’t a matter of negotiating over final price and closing costs… this was winner takes all… loser takes a walk.
The report that the spies had given regarding the inhabitants was true.
There was nothing wrong with the facts that they offered the assembly that day… but there was everything wrong with their heart.
They had forgotten that God promised them this land!
And if God is in it… the work… or in this case… the battle has already been won!
They simply needed to continue to walk in faith and obedience as they entered the new normal.
One man speaks up… one man who was a part of the group that spied out the land doesn’t deny the facts… but his heart remained aligned with God’s promise.
That man was Caleb… and we see his response to the report in the next verse.
Immediately the other spies began to dismiss what Caleb said.
The people are stronger than we are.
The land devours those living in it.
The people are giants - they are of great size.
We are like grasshoppers in comparison.
So in response to the negative word… the people grumble and they miss their opportunity to enter what God had promised them.
None of the people who witnessed the miracle in Egypt would set foot in the promised land because of this rebellion.
But God did not forget Caleb… specifically the heart of Caleb.
Fast forward 45 years and we now find Caleb in the land that God had promised the Israelites.
At this point, they had fought and won many battles.
The land was was almost cleared out… there was one more battle to be fought.
Before the battle takes place, Scripture gives us insight regarding an amazing conversation that takes place between Joshua and Caleb.
Caleb, at 85 years old, declares he is still as strong as he was when they spied out the land.
He is ready to finish this.
Caleb is ready to fight one more time.
His age has changed, but his heart… his desire to follow God with EVERYTHING he had… remained the same.
Just as he knew 45 years ago that victory was ahead… he knew total victory was just one more battle ahead.
There is a word, rather a phrase that is used repeatedly throughout this story.
From beginning to end, Scripture makes a point to reveal a specific detail regarding Caleb’s walk with the Lord.
Caleb followed God WHOLEHEARTEDLY.
Caleb was all-in.
Caleb made the choice to hold nothing back… to give God EVERYTHING!
When He made the declaration “We can certainly do it” it had nothing to do with the Israelites abilities but it had everything to do with his trust in the Lord.
CALEB KNEW GOD WAS WITH THEM!
Yes, the enemy before them was mighty.
Yes, the road ahead would not be easy.
But if God said this is our land, the only thing keeping them from possessing it was a lack of faith… not the battles that had to be fought.
How often do we hear from God then back down because of the challenges that might lie ahead?
How often does our human reasoning and understanding stop us from entering into the new normal that God has for us?
The difference between Caleb and the other spies had nothing to do with his strength, age, knowledge, or ability.
It had everything to do with his heart.
CALEB FOLLOWED GOD WITH ALL OF HIS HEART!
A wholehearted pursuit of God means NOTHING gets in the way of faithfully following the Lord.
NOTHING.
For the spies… it wasn’t the size of the enemy that stopped them from entering the promised land… it was the size of their faith!
In their grumblings… they wished they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness!
They couldn’t fathom why God had brought them this far to die by the sword!
But God didn’t bring them there to die… He brought them there to receive!
The land was as good as theirs!
If God is in it… the work is already done!
This morning we are going to briefly talk about what a wholehearted pursuit of God looks like.
We are going to ask ourselves, “Am I all in?
Am I willing to hold nothing back?
Or is my walk all but talk?
Have I truly given God my WHOLE heart?
God does NOT want just a part of you… He wants all of you.
God desire for you to be all in… to love Him with all your heart, mind, and soul.
The moment we hold back in one of these areas is the moment we begin to grumble instead of rely on His grace.
As Moses, Caleb and Joshua dealt with the grumblings of the people… three things stand out in their response that reveal keys to a wholehearted pursuit of the Lord.
We find those points in Numbers 14:7-9
It was clear the Israelites were up against some difficult obstacles… but they served the God who delivered them from the hand of Pharoah… and parted the Red Sea.
GOD IS ABLE.
But in this moment… their hearts were going the wrong direction.
Joshua and Caleb gave warning against what was happening and they gave three things to be watchful for:
Do Not Rebel Against God
It was clear that God had brought the people this far… yet in this moment, they began to grumble and rebel against what the Lord had for them.
The promise land was right there… I do not believe there was a single person in that assembly that didn’t want what God had promised.
The problem was, they didn’t want to walk the path necessary to get to where God was leading them to go.
God has a plan for each and every one of us - and it is a good plan.
The reason Caleb stood in the middle of God’s promise 45 years after this all took place was because he never stopped following God.
His heart NEVER rebelled against the Lord.
Rebellion is a serious thing in the eyes of God.
Rebellion is the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.
As the spies stirred up grumblings and murmurs, they were rebelling against the word Caleb had given AND against the direction God was leading them to go!
Caleb stood in the middle of God’s promise because he chose not to rebel against God.
Wholehearted pursuit of the Lord will choose to lay down any and all grumblings and will trust in the word given by God.
Grumblings do nothing more than allow for doubt to enter the picture.
Grumblings give room for our limited understanding to divide us from God’s infinite power and ability.
A wholehearted pursuit of God says no to grumblings and yes to what God is leading you to do.
God’s calling into a new normal will sometimes come when we least expect it and will often require more than our resources can handle.
And that’s the point… if it was something we could acquire on our own… then we wouldn’t need God’s promise to assure us it could be done.
God is calling us into something new… something big… something beyond what any of us can do on our own.
It will look different, it will require faith to get it done.
It will require a people who will rise up… who will hold nothing back in their pursuit of what God has for us.
It will require that we resist grumbling… and instead give God praise.
Church… His grace is sufficient to carry us through!
All we have to do is simply walk by faith!
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