Caleb - A Different Spirit

Man, for my life he bled and died, he will home me fast. Love that song. If we've got visitors here today, my name's Jared Walters. My wife and I are members here at Grace Life Church at Brookhaven, and it's a great privilege to be able to teach on Sunday mornings. Great privilege my church gives me an opportunity to teach. We've got a lot of ground to cover this morning. The title of our study today is Caleb, A Different Spirit. Caleb, A Different Spirit. So go ahead and open up your Bibles to Numbers chapter 13. If you were already there from a reading earlier, just flip back a chapter to Numbers chapter 13.

We're gonna read verses one through three. We've got a lot of scripture to read, and I'll try to be as brief as possible, but we need a good basis for our study this morning. Caleb will be our focus. Numbers chapter 13 starting in verse one. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, "which I am giving to the people of Israel. "From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, "every one a chief among them." So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Peran, according to the command of the Lord, all of the men who were heads of the people of Israel.

I won't read the full list of names here, but among those men was a man named Caleb Seneb Jafuna, as well as Joshua, and we're familiar with those too. 12 men in total were sent out to spy out the land to give a report. Is it a good land? Who are the people there? What are their fortifications? What kind of fruit is grown there? They were sent out to be spies. So moving down to verse 27, same chapter 13 verse 27, "And they told him," and this is their report they brought back, "We came to the land to which you sent us. "It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

"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. "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. "But Caleb quieted the people before Moses." And it implies here that there was an outcry in between those verses. As soon as they gave that report, there was an outcry among the people.

Verse 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.' "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.' "So they brought to the people of Israel "a bad report of the land that they had spied out, "saying, 'The land through which we have gone to spy out "'is a land that devours its inhabitants, "'and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.

"And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, "'who come from the Nephilim, "'and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, "'and so we seem to them.'" So we're gonna pick up with our story. This is, again, we're gonna cover a lot of ground in Scripture here, but flip over to chapter 14. Numbers 14 starting in verse one. "Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, "and the people wept that night, "and all the people of Israel grumbled "against Moses and Aaron. "The whole congregation said to them, "'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, "'or would that we had died in this wilderness?

"'Why is the Lord bringing us into this land "'to fall by the sword? "'Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. "'Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?' "And they said to one another, "'Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.'" And we have to remember, this is, they're asking to go back into Egyptian slavery, right, they're not going back to coziness or land, they're going back to slavery, so that's their option. "Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces "before all the assembly of the congregation "of the people of Israel.

"And Joshua, the son of Nun, "and Caleb, the son of Jephanna, "who were among those who had spied out the land, "tore their clothes and said to all the congregation "of the people of Israel, "the land which we pass through to spy out, "it is an exceedingly good land. "If the Lord delights in us, "He will bring us into this land and give it to us, "a land that flows with milk and honey. "Only do not rebel against the Lord, "do not fear the people of the land, "for they are bred for us. "Their protection is removed from them "and the Lord is with us, do not fear them.

"Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones, "but the glory of the Lord appeared "at the ten of meeting to all the people of Israel." And from there we have God's judgment on the people starting in verse 20, verse 20 in the same chapter. "Then the Lord said, 'I have pardoned according to your word,'" and we didn't read it, but that word was a conversation between Moses and the Lord where Moses pleaded for the people.

"Then the Lord said, 'I have pardoned according to your word, "'but truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled "'with the glory of the Lord, "'none of the men who have seen my glory "'and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, "'and yet have put me to the test these ten times "'and have not obeyed my voice shall see the land "'that I swore to give to their fathers, "'and none of those who despise me shall see it, "'but my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit "'and has followed me fully, "'I will bring into the land into which he went "'and his descendants shall possess it.

"'Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites "'dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out "'for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, "'and the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, "'saying, 'How long shall this wicked congregation "'grumble against me? "'I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, "'which they grumble against me. "'Say to them, 'As I live,' declares the Lord, "'what you have said in my hearing, I will do to you.'" And if you were gonna put a little note there, I would write in, be careful what you wish for, because God's gonna give it to them.

Verse 29, "Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness "and of all your number, listed in the census "from 20 years old and upward who have grumbled against me, "not one shall come into the land "where I swore that I would make you dwell, "except Caleb's the son of Jafuna "and Joshua the son of Nun. "But your little ones who you said would become a prey, "I will bring in and they shall know the land "that you have rejected. "But as for you, your dead bodies shall follow "in the wilderness, this wilderness.

"And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness "40 years and shall suffer for your faithlessness "until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. "According to the number of days "in which you spied out the land, 40 days, "a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity 40 years "and you shall know my displeasure. "I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do "to all this wicked congregation "who are gathered together against me. "In this wilderness, they shall come to a full end "and they shall die.

"And the men whom Moses sent out to spy the land "who returned and made all the congregation "grumble against him by bringing up a bad report "about the land, the men who brought up a bad report "of the land died by plague before the Lord. "Of those men who went to spy out the land, "only Joshua the son of Nun "and Caleb the son of Jafuna remained alive." Thank you for bearing with me through a big chunk of scripture. We got a little bit more to go, but we're gonna press pause here to make a couple of observations. Following this, things go just as God has said.

They wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the last of that generation dies off with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. Joshua is commissioned as the successor to Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. It closes with the death of Moses, which acts as kind of a bookend to the story of what we'll call today the Exodus generation, this generation of people who grumbled against God and were building against God that day. From there, Joshua leads what I'll call the Promised Land generation, those who were under the age of 20 when God judged their parents into the Promised Land.

They hit a few speed bumps along the way, but largely they are successful in obeying God and seeing God do great things and taking the land God promised them. In this period of time, we have the fall of Jericho, you have Achan, which is one of their speed bumps that they hit, but they're largely successful in being obedient to God and doing great things with the Lord. That's where we'll pick up in the next chapter of Caleb's life in Joshua 14. So go ahead and flip over to the book of Joshua, chapter 14, and we're gonna finish up this kind of story of Caleb's history that spans multiple books of the Bible.

Joshua, chapter 14, starting in verse six. Really, you could track Caleb's story as far back as Exodus, because as far as we know, he was there in the Exodus from Egypt, although he's not mentioned until later. Joshua 14, starting in verse six, then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Japhana, the Kenazite, said to him, "You know what the Lord said to Moses, "the man of God in Kadesh Barnea, "concerning you and me." And he's speaking to Joshua.

"I was 40 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, "but my brothers who went up with me "made the heart of the people melt, "yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. "And Moses swore on that day, saying, "'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden "'shall be an inheritance to you "'and your children forever, "'because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. "'And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, "'just as he said these 45 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 85 years old. "'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 for coming.'" And I really hope that's my life verse. If I make it to 85, I really hope that's a verse I can share with him there. So verse 12, "So now give me this hill country "of which the Lord spoke on that day. "For you heard on that day how the Anakin 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.

"Then Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron "to Caleb the son of Jafuna for an inheritance. "Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, "the son of Jafuna, the Kenazite, to this day, "because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. "Now the name of the Hebron formerly was Kiryath Arba. "Arba was the greatest man among the Anakin, "and the land had rest from war." So if you're wondering if he was successful, you can pick out one verse in the next chapter, 1514, says, "And Caleb drove out from there "the three sons of Anak, Shishai and Ahaiman, "and Talmai, the descendants of Anak." And this is not the end of his story.

He does go on to be mentioned several times after, but for the purposes of time we'll stop here. And again, I hope I haven't worn you out with tracking through all the scripture. This forms the basis for our study this morning. So the question that we can come to, kind of two things, two things we're gonna cover this morning. What can we learn from Caleb? And second, what can we learn from those around Caleb, even from their failures? So first of all, let's dive into what we know about Caleb, and what can we learn from him? What is different about his spirit? 'Cause that's what the Lord said about him. He is Caleb, he is a different spirit.

So what is it that makes him different? I hope you have heroes from scripture, because Caleb is definitely one of mine. So what can we say about him? First of all, he was a man of faith, and a faithless generation. We've already spoke about this a little bit, but no generation before this one had seen God work the way they did. And yet in spite of all the wonders they saw, Caleb stood very much alone as a man of faith. You have to think only he and Joshua were the ones that survived that generation. Even Moses didn't make it past the Jordan. Even Moses died before they went into the promised land.

He was a man of faith and a faithless generation. You could look at the history of miracles this generation saw with their own eyes, and wonder how they could be so faithless. And you can just kind of let your mind track back to Egypt and their deliverance, and all the wonders that they saw, the deliverance to the Red Sea, the provision in the wilderness, pillars of cloud by day and pillars of fire by night, provision of doves in the wilderness, and bread in the wilderness, and water in the wilderness. And you could wonder how they could see all those things and be so faithless. Think about how they met with God at Mount Sinai.

And I'm quoting from Hebrews here, with blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, in the sound of a trumpet in a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. How could they see all this with their own eyes and still be so faithless? Our question today for us is, when we have the complete written word of God in the testimony of the church throughout history, the question for us is how can we not believe? We're just as accountable for the revelation of God that we have as they were, for the miracles that they saw.

Everybody who has a Bible sitting on their shelf collecting dust, and yet persisted in unbelief, or anybody who has sat in a pew for years and years under preaching and teaching, and yet still persisted in unbelief, how can we not believe? So he was a man of faith and a faithless generation. And number two, this may surprise you, he was from the wrong side of the tracks. He was from the wrong side of the tracks. What I mean by that is that we don't know for certain that Caleb was a Hebrew. Most commentators point out that it's noted in scripture that he's Caleb, the son of Jafuna, the kennazite.

And we don't have time to really kind of track a thorough investigation of this this morning, but most commentators speculate that Caleb was not a Hebrew by birth, but at some point his family was grafted in to the tribe of Judah, which he was a part. Some commentators even speculate that his family may have been among those that left Egypt with the Hebrews. Whatever the case may be, he was not only a member of the tribe of Judah, he was a chief among them. So what can we learn from this? I've known believers through the years who have no spiritual heritage to speak of, no long history in their family of faith.

And you may be one of those people, a first generation Christian in your family. Maybe when you came to faith, you had very little in the way of teaching or doctrine. The truth is that God uses those people like he uses anybody else. We are all adopted into the family of God. We're all grafted into the family of faith. God used a man like Caleb with his "questionable heritage." And God can use a person like you regardless of what your spiritual background is. Caleb was a man who came from the wrong side of the tracks. Number three, he believed in God's plan for God's people.

When the 12 spies returned from their journey, Caleb's testimony was resounding and repeated, we can do this, we can do this. Let's look again at what he says in Numbers 1330. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and occupy it. You have to see the contrast here. You've got the other 10 men in this group who have come back and are telling people, it's a dogo. These people are giants. They have fortified cities. They will eat us alive. And Caleb's testimony to them is in stark contrast because he says, that's right, let's go. And he's ready to go right then and there. Let's go at once because we can do this.

In Numbers 14 six through nine, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jafuna who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we pass through spied out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land. Listen to what he says, for they are bred for us. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. They are bred for us. What a statement.

What a statement. Caleb saw what every other man of his team spied saw, giants in fortified cities. And his conclusion was that these people were just an appetizer of breadsticks before the real meal. They are bred for us to tear through and consume. And Caleb is just chomping at the bit here to see God use them all to tear through these people like bread. So the question for us is, do we believe in God's plan for God's people? Because God's plan today for God's people is the church. It is the local church. Caleb says if the Lord delights in us, and who does the Lord delight today if not in His church and His people?

And I say this as carefully as I can. There is no plan outside of the Second Coming of Christ for political or national domination in Scripture. Only a plan for the church. You show me in the New Testament where it says there is any plan for political or national domination in Scripture anywhere. Any plan except for the church. If we fail to invest in the church, we fail to invest in the center of God's activity on earth. Are we, do we believe in God's plan for God's people? And fourthly, and maybe we'll spend a lot of our time this morning, Caleb was delayed. He was delayed.

And this is most interesting points about Caleb that I think we can make this morning. Caleb was wholly faithful to the Lord in his report that he brought back to the people of Israel. But even so, he had to wait another 45 years to do what he was raring to do right then and there. And the natural question that arises is why? Why did he, for his faithfulness, received such a trial of waiting another 45 years to do what God had put in his heart to do? God had in his heart a God-given desire to do the work he felt called to do and gifted by God to do, but he was delayed. Listen again to what he says to Joshua in Joshua 14, 10 through 11.

And now the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said these 45 years since the time the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness and now behold, I am this day 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was on the day of Moses sent me. My strength is now as my strength was then for war and for going and coming. 45 years did not take one ounce of desire for him to do the work that God had put in his heart to do. I would call this a divine delay in his life, a divine delay. And do you know what I mean by that?

It's when you know God has called you to something and gifted you for something and yet there's also a delay in your life, a providential hindrance. And there's a reason why when I read scripture and I read about Caleb, I feel such a connection to him and I wanna share a little bit, just a piece of our testimony. I was converted to Christ at age 16, but through the years struggled with frustration because of unhealthy church life. And I say that a lot of you immediately, maybe that resonates with you. You've had a lot of experiences with unhealthy church life in your time, maybe a lot of frustration.

I have no deep theological word for it, but just junk, just junk in the church, things going on that shouldn't be happening. And there were times when I felt like I was moving from one seeking ship to another. And there were years where I even felt somewhat spiritually homeless, just looking for a church home to be a part of. And my wife and I, even before we were married, we had this kind of common bond and the fact that we wanted to pour ourselves into the work of the local church. But even after we were married, we had long periods of frustration with unhealthy church life.

So when God laid it on my heart for us to move as a family to here to Brookhaven and to this church specifically, I remember the first time I brought it up to Megan. I had been thinking about it, praying about it for years. I have a really bad memory for these things unless it's tied to really good food. So I remember that we were at Tico's Steakhouse in Jackson, having a nice dry aged steak. So that's where my memory is tied and it's very vivid. And I brought up to her how God had been just moving my heart towards this church. And she looked at me and she just said, I've been thinking the same thing. And we were both in agreement that day.

Maybe not about having a steak, but we were in agreement about coming to Brookhaven. I think she had a salad. It was very sad for her. I'd known Keith and Chris for a long time and we've been very familiar with the church for years and we'd even come occasionally to serve in different capacities, usually doing music with Keith or teaching in some capacity. I remember the first time I brought Megan to NOLA before we were married.

We were dating and one of the older ladies of the church, she looked at me, she looked at Megan, she looked at me and she looked back at Megan and she said, did he have a bag over his head when y'all met? (congregation laughing) So Megan and I started making plans to move and we went to our church leaders of the church we were at there in Jackson, which we had found the healthy church to be a part of.

And the reason why it's a good healthy church situation is because when we went to them and we told them, hey, God's put a desire on our heart to be a part of this church plant in Brookhaven, they said, praise the Lord, we wanna send you guys out. And they were very gracious to us. We made plans to move. We found a house here in town and we were literally a couple of weeks away from closing on that house. And then a sonogram showed that our baby had what's called hypoplastic right heart syndrome.

The doctors told us that it would require multiple open heart surgeries to correct, three specifically over the course of a year, if I remember correctly, that he would likely be in the hospital for about six months after he was born. And right after that doctor's visit, we got lunch and I remember 'cause it was at Kiefer's in Jackson and they had really good cottage fried potatoes if you've not been there. And we just sat down at the table, we were out on the deck outside, it was a pretty day and we just looked at each other and said, we can't go right now. We can't go right now.

So the very next day I had to call the seller and tell him what was going on. I had to call the realtor and tell them what was going on and just apologize and close down the sale of the house. That's not a small thing. There's a lot of paperwork involved. And we had to pull out of buying that house. We moved into an apartment in Ridgeland where we'd be closer to the hospital, to UMC. And let me tell you, I did not love it. We had been planning for years to come here to be a part of this church. And I did not love this delay. I didn't love that, you know, my wife was worried to death about our baby.

I didn't love the grim news that we were getting from the doctors about what could go wrong. I didn't love it. We were delayed and John Patton was born on December 11th, 2019. And I'll put it the way the doctors put it to us. It was the best possible outcome for a kid with hypoplastic right heart syndrome. Dr. Abid, he was Egyptian and English was not his first language. He came out after the cath procedure and he talked to us and he said, he has good atresia. And I'm like, number one, what is atresia? Number two, how can it be good? And he explained to us that his heart, his valve was closed and thickened, but they were able to open it up.

So he doesn't have a heart valve there that's pumping. He just has an opening there. But when they opened it up, it allowed blood to flow on that side of his heart. And eventually the kind of a natural correction happened and that was good. We didn't have to do open heart surgery with JP. He was in the PICU for about two weeks. They told us six months, but we were in the PICU for about two weeks. JP's first Christmas was in the PICU 'cause it was in December and Santa Claus came by and his nurse had him a little tree next to his little bed. No open heart surgery was needed. And we were able to go home the day after Christmas.

We took him home. And a couple of months later, we brought JP back to the hospital for his second cath procedure. And we were in the recovery room afterwards with him. It was outpatient thing. They said, we're gonna do this one and we're pretty sure we're not gonna have to do any other sort of intervention for a long time. So we did that cath procedure and we were sitting in the recovery room and I was reading a news story to Megan on my phone about this thing called COVID that was happening internationally. And I thought, I remember saying to her, I wonder if this is gonna come here.

And about a couple of weeks later, everything just shut down hard. So for months, we were living in an apartment with a baby with a heart that we weren't real sure if it was just gonna explode or be fine or whatever. But the doctors had told us that John Patton couldn't get sick and we really should not go out and see people before the pandemic. And then the pandemic happened and they were like, you for sure, you should not leave the house. We all should just stay home. I was already working from home anyway. The place where I worked had shut down. I worked at a university and I was working from home and we just didn't go anywhere.

There was a lot of takeout food during that period of our life. I mean, just untold, epic amounts of takeout food. I remember one Sunday, sitting on the couch with the church's streaming service because our church wasn't meeting at the time. Not only we were not going anywhere, we weren't even going to church and we were having church on the couch. On the TV, we were sitting on the couch. JP was screaming bloody murder because that was his thing during that period of time. We were trying to pretend like everything was normal.

And I remember I looked down, I was sitting on the edge of the couch, I looked down and there was water flowing through the apartment. All the toilets in our apartment complex had overflowed and there was just this river of water going through the apartment. I didn't love it. We were all just trying to pretend like life was normal during that period of time. I don't know what the experience was like for you, but I was like, yeah, this is normal. This is normal. We were delayed, but there came a day when the doctor looked at us and they said, JP is as healthy as any other baby. Maybe even healthier.

You've seen him running through the halls here. You wouldn't know that he has a heart condition. And my joke is, I want to take him back to Dr. Abid and get him to dial it back just a little bit. Just like a, he's at like an 11. We want him at a solid like 8.5. (audience laughing) So in June of, I'm getting my dates wrong here, probably if Megan was here, she would correct me. But I think in June of 2020, we bought a house. And in October, we packed a truck and we moved from that apartment and we came here. And I got a note here to myself to take a deep breath at this point. Our church people were there.

Our church family was there. (sniffling) They were there in the driveway. I remember I pulled up and I think Teresa was on the porch and there were people there ready to help us unload. It was a delay. It was a divinely appointed delay. And we had this desire in our heart to do a thing. We had planned and we had organized and packed and done the work and tried to buy a house. And then we had this year and a half delay, I think it was about where we just couldn't do it. It was a delay. So maybe this has happened to you. Maybe it's happening to you right now.

Maybe you have a desire and a calling for something, but you're providentially hindered and divinely delayed. What we can learn from Caleb is that wherever God puts us, do the work in front of you, it wasn't a wasted 45 years. God doesn't waste time. Caleb was an elder to the people of Israel by 20 years. When he was 40, God sentenced everyone 20 years and older to die in the wilderness. Only Caleb and Joshua survived. Even Moses didn't make it across to Jordan. And what do you think that God did with Caleb's faith and desire to serve for 45 years when he was an elder to these people by 20 years? Nobody else was his age.

The oldest person in their congregation at that point was 20 years younger than he was. I think God used Caleb to lead these young people past the failures of their parents into a new age for Israel. And for better or worse, Caleb was of Israel. He couldn't have gone on the promise land any other way than with Israel. The church needs men like Caleb, men committed to God's plan for God's people, men committed to the forefront of all God's work on earth today, the work of the local church.

The church needs men who know that when it comes to God's work, either we move together as a church, as a local body of Christ, or we don't move forward at all. In order for me to see the fulfilled work of God in my life, I need this church. I need you. In order for God to work in my life like he wants to, I need this church. And the same could be said of all of us. Many of you have tried to serve and pour out your lives into broken and unhealthy churches, and maybe you know there's a frustration there wanting to serve, but being limited or even kept from serving entirely.

I remember coming home from church one time and I really can't get into the details of it, but I remember looking at Megan and saying, I can't serve in music ministry anymore. It'd be a violation of my conscience and the principles that God has taught me from scripture to serve this way. Maybe you're in the same boat, you felt like you were limited or delayed from serving. We have a healthy church. We have elders who wanna lead us to be a healthy local church. Do you know what you do with that? You get behind it and you push. You fight and you strive to keep it that way.

And this is just for me personally to you, from someone who is very thankful to now be a part of a healthy church after decades of scraping by. Are you on the fence about membership? Come, be a part, plug in. If you're on the fence about serving and pouring out into ministry here, maybe because of past experiences or whatever it is that's happened to you, you come, you plug in, you get all the way behind the local church. I remember, this is anecdotal, but I remember when we joined our church in Jackson, we had to meet with the pastor and one of the elders from the church for dinner.

So Megan and I went and we sat down and had a meal and the elder looked at me. He was taller than I was, which is remarkable to me. I'm six four, so he was even taller than I was. And just a gentle giant, just one of the nicest, most endearing men I've ever met and was an elder in our church. And he said, "Tell us your story. "Tell us about what brought you to this church." And I just unloaded on him. And I went through, I don't know how brief it was, but I went through and tried to share with him a little bit all the things we'd experienced both together and me myself before we got married.

And he looked at me afterwards and he said, "Did all that really happen?" I don't know if he meant like, are you lying to me or did all of that really happen? He was a hugger too, and I am not a hugger, but he was a big hugger. So we can learn a lot from life and faith of Caleb, but we can also learn from the people around him, from even from their failures. And for the sake of time, we're going to very quickly mention a couple of these groups of people. And maybe it warrants further study for you and some other time. But first of all, we had the Exodus generation. And a better name for them might've been the Egyptian generation.

Because the best you can say about these people is that even though they left Egypt, the love of Egypt never left their hearts. There was such a deception in their hearts that they longed for their life and slavery in Egypt over believing and following the Lord. And there are people in our churches every Sunday who might say and do all the right things in front of others, but the love of the world has never left their hearts. First John 2, 15 through 16 speaks about these things. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. In 1 John 4, 7 says, "Beloved, let us love one another, "for love is from God, and whoever loves "has been born of God and knows God. "Anyone who does not love does not know God "because God is love." If I was going to paraphrase that, and I would call it the deamplified version, could be my paraphrase, I would say, born again person loves the things of God and loves the people of God. They will hate the things God hates and love the things God loves.

Generally speaking, that will be the characteristics of God's people. So the next group of people were the descendants of Joseph. It's a very interesting group. These people were allotted land by Joshua, and they come back to Joshua with their receipt in their hand, like they're gonna make a return at Walmart, and they say, "We want other land." And he says, "Why?" I'm paraphrasing here. This is the Jared Walters deamplified version. He says, "Why?" And they said, "Because it's not big enough for us.

"That we are too many people, and there's not enough land." He says, "Well, there's trees." He says, "You should clear the trees." And they're like, "Also, there are people "with chariots of iron in this piece of land." And he says, "Well, run them off. "Clear the trees. "Run off the Canaanites there "with their chariots of iron." See, what they wanted was an easy piece of land that they could just go into and settle and be done with it. What they got was maybe a little frustrating for them. What they got was a piece of land that required work, and they didn't want it. They wanted another piece of land.

Maybe what they needed was what happened for their, excuse me, I skipped ahead there. They didn't wanna do the work that was in front of them, and you have to contrast these people to Caleb, who was willing to run up to the hill country in '85 and pick a fight with giants. And they were like, "Ah, our land has trees. "Ah, our land has chariots of iron in it." And Joshua's like, "That's tough. "That's real tough for you, but you gotta do it. "You gotta clear the trees. "You gotta do the work that's in front of you." And the question for us is, man, have there been times in your life where it's tough to do the work in front of you?

Have there been times in your life where you look around and you wish you could have any other such set of circumstances but this one? Sometimes you just gotta do the work. You gotta do the work. You gotta clear the trees. And that doesn't happen quickly. And these are much of guys with hand tools. I don't think that was a very quick job for them. They needed to do the work. They needed to buckle down and do the hard work in front of them. Next there are what we'll call the grasshopper complex people.

These are the people who came back from spying the land in Numbers 13 and said, and there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim, and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seem to them. And one commentator I read said that these men had grasshopper complex. They saw the challenges in front of them, and they said, "We feel like grasshoppers "in front of these people." And I'm sure we seem to them like grasshoppers.

But you have to put those people in contrast to their children, because their children in Joshua 10, 23 through 25, in the background here is that their children went on to defeat a bunch of kings, and then they took those kings and stuffed them in a cave and put a rock in front of the door and basically left them there for a while. And then when they were done doing what they were doing in war, they came back to the cave, and Joshua opened up the cave, brought out the five kings, and he called the chiefs and leaders and people of Israel to himself, and this is what he said.

And they did so, and they brought these five kings out to him from the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmouth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon. And when they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men in Israel and said to the chiefs and the men of war who had gone with them, "Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings." That's gotta be awkward, right?

So these people, these chiefs of Israel lined up and they came and put their feet on the necks of these five kings, these evil wicked kings, whom they were probably terrified of, and Caleb brought them and said, "No, no, you put your feet on the necks of these kings. This is what God has given you. This is the victory God has given you." So their parents had grasshopper complex, but their children put their feet on the necks of kings. So what's the difference? Their children believe God. Now there have been periods in my life where I felt like my circumstances had me on the ground with their feet on my neck, right?

Have you ever felt like that? You felt like you're on the ground and your circumstances have got its foot right on your neck and it ought to be the other way around. And I remember I was in a period of my life of great defeat and frustration and a pastor preached to this text and I realized, "Man, I'm on the ground. I should be the other way around, but I'm the one on the ground and my circumstances have just me in a chokehold." And it ought to be the other way around. And it was a great turning point for me spiritually. Do we have grasshopper complex? Or are we a people who are going to put our feet on the necks of wicked kings?

And obviously there are no wicked kings here literally, but spiritually speaking, the circumstances that we face, are we going to glorify God in those situations and trust God in those circumstances and have victory in those circumstances? And finally, there was the Promised Land generation. These are people that saw a great spiritual failure of the previous generation. They saw a great consequence of that failure and they also saw great spiritual triumphs. Like Caleb, they as a generation chose to believe God and obey and their parents said that they would be prayed. Do you remember that?

Their parents said that land will devour us and our children and our wives will become pray for these people, but they were conquerors. They were people who put their feet on the necks of wicked kings. So I sincerely hope that in all that we talked about today, God helps you find yourself in one of these people. I hope that God helps you find yourself in one of these people. And I hope we've all found a hero to model ourselves after in Caleb. And if God allows me to live as long as he did, I hope I'm as ready for the work of the kingdom as he was at age 85.

I just turned 40 a couple of years ago and I do not feel ready for the work as I was when I was 20. But I hope I am as ready for the work of God's kingdom at any age as he was. So let's pray and we'll be concluded. Lord God, I wanna thank you for...