Joshua 14: 6-15

I imagine it was about dusk as the first ones made it back into camp, then within minutes the whole team had arrived. There was an air of excitement as the word spread that the twelve men had returned and were about to give their report of what they had seen and experienced. A crowd of thousands of men and women and children gathered, their leaders at the forefront. Then they began to share their report and the first impressions were that it was going to be very difficult. The land of Caanan was rich but it was also heavily fortified. Quickly, Caleb, who was one of the twelve who had just returned, moved to the front of the group and quieted the people down. ?We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.? What happened next none expected. The other ten spies began to stir the people with absolutely negative conclusions. They said that they felt tiny like insects in comparison to the size of the giants who lived near Hebron . Feelings went from fear to hopelessness to rage. The whole thing turned into a mob scene in minutes, the people felt they had been betrayed by Moses. They began to shout, ?Stone them, stone them.? A number of men moved forward to grab Moses, Joshua and Caleb. At exactly that instant a great brightness was present in the tent of meeting, everyone saw it, this was the glory of the Lord and it stopped the people in their tracks. Before the dawn had come God had pronounced a sentence upon the nation, for every day the spies had been in Caanan the people would spend a year in the desert, 40 days became 40 years. The entire population of adult men over 20 would never enter Caanan, instead their children would experience the profession of being shepherds and from this place they would eventually enter the land. To Caleb alone was the promise made, the land he had spied out would one day be his land and his children?s land forever. Caleb was 40 years old when these things took place. Now 45 years later read with me the next step of a heart that fully followed the Lord, turn to Joshua 14:6.

I. To Fully Follow God Requires a 17% Difference.

Sounds kind of silly doesn?t it, it should be a 100% difference, yet that?s not what the numbers indicate. For all of Israel to fully follow God it took a 17% difference, it took two men out of twelve, one sixth, 17%, to point to the way that they needed to go. It seems the amount it takes to make a difference is much smaller than what we really thought. Perhaps if we considered Caleb we might again see that the difference in him was like a 17% factor. All the spies had courage, they all had commitment and certainly all believed in what they were doing. What distinguished Caleb and Joshua was something called heart. What is important for us to see here this morning is that 17% can cause the difference between utter failure and final victory. John H. Redekop cites a recent Ipsos-Reid poll saying that the evangelical Protestant population of Canada was at 12 percent. ?? using that measure Canada ranks third in the world. Only the Unites States at 33 percent and South Africa at 28 percent rank higher.? Make no mistake, Canada , and you as a Christian Canadian, can be what God uses to make a difference in the world. God uses small percentages to over come the fortified cities and formidable giants that bar the way of where He would have us go. You make a difference as a Christian and the difference in you between following God and fully following God can be equally as small and yet just as crucial. That difference is what Caleb referred to as heart, just look at verses 8, 9, 14 as it repeats the phrase that Caleb ?followed the Lord God fully.? Let?s talk about heart and the impact that Christ makes in us and through us by His presence.  

II. To Fully Follow God Requires a Heart Focused By Faith.

We have got to recognize that Caleb sinned, he made mistakes, he struggled with the choices set before him?all this and yet? he fully followed the Lord God. Heart does not mean sinlessness, Caleb was human so he erred as do we. Otherwise to exhort people to fully follow after God is to look for super heroes in a world of straw men. Caleb, like us, had a faith and God through faith focused his heart. Consider what God through faith can do as He directs your heart:

1.     It qualifies you for service, it?s one of the reasons He picks you to go.

2.     It enables you to see beyond apparent barriers, past entrenched giants.

3.     It enables you withstand peer pressure, to be a 17% factor.

4.     It enables you to go long distances, 45 years to pay day for Caleb.

5.     It enabled Caleb to claim a promise that others had missed.

6.     It called him to continue at 85 what he had done at 45.

So how does God focus our faith that it would create this kind of heart in us to fully follow after the Lord Jesus Christ?

1.     Faith is focused by hearing, at least that?s the counsel of Romans 10:17, ?So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.? Listen to the depth of what God is saying when He speaks to you through His word. Consider your first reading of a passage as the cover of a book, inviting and somewhat informative, consider your second, third and fourth reading of that same passage as if the reading of the introduction of a book, consider your fifth reading and sixth reading of the same passage as the actual content. Hear the word of God, read it with such attention to its detail and He will sharpen the focus of your faith and will create heart within you for Him.

2.     Faith is focused by fear, not the anxious ?will I make it? kind of fear, but the kind of fear that a neurosurgeon must have in order not to be careless, the kind of fear that a supreme court judge must have not to be abusing authority, the kind of fear that God intended we have of Him that we not forget who we are, nor forget Who He is. Such a fear sharpens our faith by cutting out deceptions and surface temptations.

3.     Faith is focused by hope. Caleb had heard how God could have eradicated all Israel because of their reaction to the bad report of the ten spies, and yet God considered Moses plea for the glory of God?s name that Israel be spared, and instantly, God spared Israel (Numbers 14:20). There is such hope for instant forgiveness from God for each of us because of Jesus Christ and because of a promise that God made to Moses that same night. God spared Israel and then said, ?Surely, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.? This is an incredible statement of hope speaking of forgiveness through Christ, speaking of kingdom glory realized, speaking of a scale of redemption  that will pull your faith forward in a hope based on God?s declared promises.

III. To Fully Follow God Is to Have Heart Resting on Dependence.

Dependence is different than faith, it is the act of resting on faith, of having believed and now stepping out on what you believe. Calebs heart said, ?by all means lets go forward?, and 45 years later his heart still said ?if God is with me this will be victorious?. I suppose that heart comes from dependence on the Father because it sees and moves according to the distance God has already cleared ahead. Once you learn to drive behind the snow plow instead of passing it and plowing snow yourself, you grow in heart, which is an informed courage and a hope of getting to your destination. Caleb?s destination was Hebron , the defeat of Arba the Anakim and ultimately the destination of rest for the whole land. Perhaps it is this kind of heart that we see most clearly in Jesus, One who moved in absolute dependence upon the Father, fully following His will. The cross is Jesus moving forward onto ground which the Father prepared beforehand, His death and resurrection became our declaration of dependence. It is He who goes before us clearing the way, calling us to depend on Him and to move forward into the place He has prepared for us. In dependence, faith and with but 17% difference, God calls us to have heart and to fully follow the Lord God

Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca