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Father God, we thank you so much for your word. And we do pray that by your spirit you would speak to us through it tonight, that we might know you better, that we might have hearts that are wholeheartedly after you, that we may trust you and follow you to the end of our days. Amen. I don't know if you're a. You someone who sort of sticks to things or, you know, you get into things and then not into things.

I sort of have hobbies as my hob. Yeah. I'm just one of those sort of people. So I've been really into fish. I was into collecting fish.

When I got married, my wife said, what's mine is yours, and that's going. I was into motorbikes at one time. Again, well, I wasn't planning this, but I think my wife probably said, I want you alive. So that's going. I've got into guitars, I've been into baking, I've been into running.

You know, all sorts of things that can sort of really capture you. And at the time it'll be like, oh, I'm just really. That's what I'm all about. But they're just over a bit of time. It drifts.

Does that ever happen to you? Maybe not. Maybe you're thinking, no, I found something when I was two and I'm still gunning for it now. Sometimes you hear that, but it doesn't normally happen, does it? What we're seeing today, though, is something quite amazing because we're seeing this guy Caleb, who is able to say, at 85, here I am, I'm still wholeheartedly after the Lord, just like I was when I was 40.

That's an amazing thing, isn't it? An enviable thing, a wonderful thing, an example to us all. Well, this story in Joshua 14, it really comes at the climax of the book. We've been coming along through Joshua, we've been reading it, and we've had all sorts of great stories, haven't we? We've.

We've crossed the Jordan river, we've marched around Jericho. We've had the old issues at AI. We've had all sorts of stuff going on. And now we come really to the climax of the book. You might think a battle was a climax, but the climax really is the inheritance, the inheritance of the land.

Because. Well, we see this for one thing, in how the book's divided, because we've so far looked at Joshua 1 to 12, the first 12 chapters. This is when we get all the. All those exciting stories and if you've ever tackled a Bible, read through from beginning to end, you may remember reading through Joshua where you think, this is a great book, up to the first 12 chapters, and then you get to the 13th chapter and you think, wow, how many borders can there be? Has anyone had that experience?

You get up and you're desperately trying to think in your mind. This border goes round to this brook and turns left at that stone, you know, you've seen there. And it goes on like this for 10 or so chapters, for really the rest of the book. And although we might not find that the most riveting thing, it shows us that the real important thrust of the book is gaining an inheritance. Because every single one of those borders matters, doesn't.

It certainly matters to the people whose borders they were. You know, your neighbours might think it's boring, the borders of your garden, but if you could just shift it a bit, you might be quite pleased. Those borders matter, don't they? So this is the big picture, the big inheritance that God is giving to his people in the second half of Joshua. And what's really exciting about this story of Caleb is that the author moves down from this big picture where he's talking about borders and these sorts of things and then he says, let me give you an example of one particular person's inheritance, because I'm not.

God's not just interested in sort of nations and big picture. He obviously does massive things, but he's interested in small, everyday particular people. And so he says, okay, I'm not just putting out random borders. We're going to zoom in here and we're going to think about this fellow Caleb. We're going to find out about his inheritance because every individual person matters to God.

Wow. I just want you to take that away. We haven't even started the sermon yet, by the way, if you're counting. But we can just see that from the surface structure of Joshua that we're zooming in and we really get this example of Caleb and he provides an example for us, sort of a zoomed in example in all of these big borders that we get. And we're going to learn from Caleb several things.

The first thing is that we're going to learn that he has a heart fully after God. He has a heart fully after God. Secondly, we're going to learn that he held onto God's promises. He held onto God's promise. And thirdly, and perhaps most amazingly of all, he faced his hardest task at the end of his life.

He did his most difficult task at the end of his life. Let's. Let's dig in. Verses six to eight. This is our first point.

Six to eight. Caleb had a heart full after God.

I don't know how familiar you are with Caleb's story. The story of who Caleb is and what his life was like. We first meet him in the Bible when he is 40, a youth of 40 years old, two years older than me. It all begins. That's hope for me, anyway.

Begins. And it's in numbers chapter 13. We meet this fellow Caleb, and he is amongst the spies sent out into Canaan. I don't know if you remember this story. If you're in Sunday school this last term, you'll remember doing numbers chapter 13.

And the spies were sent out into the promised land to see could Israel. Could Israel take it? What's the land like? This sort of thing. They went, do you remember?

And they found that the land was amazing. There was great stuff in there. There were grapes sort of the size of your fist. It was really, really wonderful. And yet, despite the fact the land was wonderful, there were also really big challenges.

There were really big challenges. They came back and they said, the inhabitants of the land are too big for us. They're just too strong. Or at least 10 people came back and said that. 10 of the spies said, it's too hard for us.

A couple of other guys said, no, it doesn't really matter how hard it is. You're thinking about the difficulties. You don't think about the difficulties. You think about the one who's with you. We can do this.

That was Caleb and Joshua. That was their story that Caleb has recounted here. And that promise to Caleb, you will inherit the land is a really important one. By my account, I could find it five times in the Scriptures. Five times that promise is repeated to Caleb that you will inherit the land just on that day because he trusted the Lord.

In verse nine, we see what was significant about Caleb. On that day, Moses swore to me. This is Caleb speaking, Caleb speaking to Joshua. So on that day, Moses swore to me, the land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever. Why?

Because you have followed the Lord God wholeheartedly. Because you follow the Lord your God wholeheartedly. That phrase wholeheartedly. This is the key. This is really the key to the whole thing, of how Caleb was able to maintain this strong relationship with the Lord all his days.

See, again, it's a slightly unusual phrase in Hebrew. Wholeheartedly. It's a good translation. I looked at this phrase. And I found it eight times in the Bible.

Found it eight times in the Bible. And each time that it's used positively, it's always of Caleb. Five times. Five times of Caleb. He's fully after the Lord.

He's full after the Lord. Full after the Lord, full after the Lord, full after the Lord, full after the Lord three times. People are not full after the Lord. Two of those times are the spies who said they couldn't take the land. And one other later on is Solomon, who, after he was distracted from the Lord and he had his heart full of idols and his heart was not full after the Lord.

All those positive times this phrase is used is of Caleb. And so it's telling us something really important about his character, that the reason he was able to follow the Lord and to trust him was that his heart was full after the Lord. There was no space for anything else. I'm pleased that in the prayers Dave mentioned, you know, perfect love casts out fear. There's no space for anything else because love has been poured in.

I want to do a little bit of a science experiment now. Okay. I have in my mortal hands a glass. Okay. And what's in this glass?

I do want some answers. By the way, what's in this glass? Air. Air, Correct. Felix, well done.

Air is in this glass. Now, I don't really want there to be air in this glass. I would like there to be nothing in this glass. How can I do this?

No. How about tipping it out? No, I can't. Any ideas? Can I empty this glass of air?

This is going to be one of those ones that you can get out at a dinner party another day. So obvious. When I show you can't try to empty the air out the glass, can you? Because as much as I scoop it, I don't know if that's even scoop in the air because it's invisible, but if I am, then other air is rushing in its place, isn't it? It's just being filled straight back up.

Straight back up. However, I'd like an ooh. When this comes out really well, I'm going to take the air out of this glass in seconds and it's not going to be rushed in. Take its place. Are you ready?

If you're just listening on the podcast, I've just filled it up with water. What's in this glass now? Water. Water. Is there any air in this glass?

Okay. Apart from I haven't got it to the rim. Yes. There's no air in this glass, is it? The air has Been expelled because I finished it with.

Filled it with something else, Correct? Yes, I filled it with something else. You see, there's no point trying to get air out of a glass, is there? You can't just sort of suck the air out because more air comes in. The only option you have is to fill it with something else.

You got to fill it with something else. And here's the thing. This is what was going on with Caleb's heart. See, his heart and our hearts sort of suck in fears. You know, the things that we see and we focus on are full of fears and worries and anxieties and difficulties and challenges.

This is what our heart is full of. And it's possible for us to sort of walk around and think, how can I suck all these fears out? How can I get rid of these worries, these anxieties? But I don't know if you've ever tried that. But as soon as you've dealt with one thing, then something else sort of zooms in to take its place, doesn't it?

It's like, okay, I've dealt with that one. Now that exam's over. Now I've got this netball game. Okay, that's over. Zoom.

You know, it just happens like this, doesn't it? All sorts of fears to zoom in. The only way to cast out fears is to be filled with the love of God. To be filled with God. The Bible puts it like this.

The love of God has been poured into our hearts. And if the love of God has been poured into our hearts, then fear has been expelled and it's got no space anymore, has it? So you just have to be so full of God, there's no space for the fear left. So think about Caleb. He's going into the promised land, okay?

And he's got these 10 other fellows all with him, and they're all like, whoa, those are big dudes. And he's like, well, yeah, but all I can think about is how good God is, you know, not in like a trite way, but in a real way, because his heart is so full of how great God is. There's no space for fear. The love of God has been shed abroad in his heart, casting out those fears.

Those other spies, you know, they might have tried to deal with those enemies. Oh, I tried to just get rid of the fear of the Amalekites. I'll try to get rid of the fear of the Hivites, whatever. But there's always just another fear to run in its place, isn't there? It's never ending.

The application for us is really quite self evident, isn't it? We need to be filled with the love of God. We need the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, don't we? That casts out all fear, you know, because the way to follow him all our lives is to so fill ourselves up with a vision of him, that there's no space for those other things.

But how do we do that? How do we do that ultimately? It's the spirit of God, isn't it? It's the spirit of God that so fills our hearts like that. But the Spirit doesn't just leave us sort of wandering around and waiting to see if we can know God's love.

He gives us means, he gives us ways of knowing that he's for us, ways of filling up our hearts. And these means sometimes seem quite ordinary. Coming to church, reading your Bible, praying. But I wonder whether sometimes if you find that you're drifting a bit from the Lord, if you're honest with yourself, how many times does that come alongside a really strong prayer life?

Probably not very often because these means that God has given us are filling our vision so with Christ that there's no space for anything else fills our hearts. We love for Him.

Well the second thing is that we see the promise. We've already mentioned that. I counted this promise five times. So it's a really important, it's a really important promise that Caleb held onto verse 12. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.

He knows that promise. He promised him that day 45 years ago. He's remembering and he says verse 10. I've been kept alive these 45 years since the time he said this to Moses. All of this time Caleb has been holding onto the promise.

He's known that promise, he's trusted that promise. And because his heart's full of the Lord and he's holding onto that promise, he can say this most incredible thing in verse 11. I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. I mean, I think we need to pause here and just imagine, you know, Caleb at 40, Caleb at 85 and there he is at 85. I'm just as strong for battle as I am now as I was then.

That's an amazing thing, isn't it? That's an amazing thing to say. It makes us wonder, man, what diet was he on? Did he have an incredible exercise regiment? You know, here's the thing, it's not about Caleb keeping up his press up regime into his 80s.

That's not what's given him strength. That's not what has given him his vigour.

It's not press ups. It's because he's following the same Lord as he was then. And if it's the Lord that fights for him then. And the Lord doesn't change, it doesn't matter how old he is, does it? He could be 4 or 40 or 400 and it would make no difference because it's the Lord's strength.

And the Lord doesn't change in his strength, does he? The Lord changes not in our strength. Where does our strength come from? I'm really challenged by this, you know, where does my strength come from?

Because, you know, there is a way we can sort of hide behind youthful strength and ability, isn't there? Sometimes? And if time drifts on and then we sort of feel like, well, I can't do anything now. I'm older. Maybe we were relying on our own strength that whole time.

Our strength comes from the Lord, so it should make no difference.

He's holding on to this promise. Verse 12. And he says, now give me this hill country. Give me this hill country. It's not very English way of speaking, is it?

I thought, all right, Joshua, give me the hill country. I was trying to think about this. It's just not how it goes, is it? You know, speaking English, we. We just don't speak like that, do we?

Would you mind terribly, Joshua, if there's any chance that I might get there? I mean, think about this. When we're at the dinner table and, you know, I want. I want the plates to be cleared away. I don't even say, you know, clear the plates away because we're in England.

I said, oh, would you like to. Would you like to clear the plates away? Then when the kid says. When one of the children says, not really. It was a command, love.

Would you mind putting the plates away? And you can think of this all over the time, don't you? If you were in a meeting at work and someone says, yeah, just give us some ideas. Give us any old ideas. Who's got some good ideas?

Someone says an idea. And then the person running the meeting says, let's keep thinking, you know, what does that mean? That means that was a terrible idea. Never open your mouth again. Doesn't it?

You know, we have this way of speaking, but Caleb just. He has this boldness just to say, now, give me this land. Give me this land. Which I feel is alien to us being English. He's not being rude, he's Being confident because he can be confident in the face of having God's promise.

I want to flick forward to A verse in 1 John 1 John 5, a couple of verses, verses 14 and 15 says this. This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of Him.

So our confidence in approaching God is this. If we ask anything according to his will, we know that we have what we asked.

So if you have a promise of God, when you're praying, you're not saying, would you mind terribly if this thing might happen for me? God, he says, no, he's promised it. We know we have it.

If you turn to him and you ask for forgiveness, you have it. Because he's promised that when Caleb comes and says, I've got an express promise of God, he can just say, give me this land. Not because of rudeness, but because of confidence, because of confidence in God's promise. I wonder if we have that kind of confidence in God's promise. Do we pray with that sort of confidence?

Do we pray sort of like God? I really hope this might happen. I'm not sure. Sometimes we're not sure. Of course we're not.

But often we are sure. Often we are sure what he wants.

And if we have a promise, we can be confident.

So Caleb has a heart filled with God. His vision is so filled with God, there's no space for fear. And he. And he holds onto God's promise. And these things just give him strength.

These things give him strength all the way into his 80s.

I wonder whether if we just pause there for reflection, if there's just an area of life that we struggle in. And maybe we just need. Maybe it will be helpful to find God's promises and how they speak to these things. Maybe there's just one area of life that we think, okay, I'm really struggling here with growing in patience. Maybe we just need to hold onto a promise of God that actually, you know, he wants you to grow in this.

And if you ask him, we know that we have what we asked. Maybe think on that this week. Well, the final thing is really slightly different, but it's really to point out that Caleb fights his hardest battle at the end of his life. He fights as hard as battle at the end of his life. Verses 13 to 15, greatest challenge at 85.

We read in verse 13 then Joshua, Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephani, and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. It's very sort of perfunctory how it's sold. He just gets this. He just takes. He just takes Hebron.

All right, easy. We know from Judges, chapter one that it wasn't that simple. He had to go up and. He had to go up and fight. He had to go and take that land.

And in fact, in later verses, we're told verse 15, everyone used to be called Kiriath Arba, after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites. Caleb had to fight the greatest among man among the Amalekites. Anakites. Sorry. Now that.

I don't know, maybe some people here are thinking, wow, that's major. I know exactly all about the Anakites. And maybe. Maybe you're not thinking that. Let me take you back to numbers, chapter 13, and we can think a little bit about the Anakite, because this is supposed to resonate really, really strongly with us.

Again, numbers, chapter 13 is where the spies had gone out to the land 40 years ago. And we read verse 28. The spies report the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. So Anak, obviously, the.

Can't even think of the word. The bloke that gave birth to all the Anakites after him, even the sons of Anak were there. So we know that these are particularly large, large, scary people. Gets more intense, turned down to chapter 13, verse 33 in Numbers says this. We saw the Nephilim there.

Brackets. The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim, close brackets. We seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we look the same to them. Do you remember the Nephilim? Remember the Nephilim in Genesis, chapter six?

We have. We have giants, these heroes of old, who were descended from a relationship between fallen angels and women. These sort of giants who were walking the Earth. This is not just like an analogy of big guys. This is actually saying that these really were massive.

Massive dudes. Massive dudes. These are the biggest. These are the scariest. And in fact, one way you can relate to this is to know that actually, after Caleb drives the Anakites out from Hebron, they remain in just three cities, one of which is Gath.

Okay, who comes from Gath? Someone tell me who comes from Gath. Goliath. Yes. So Goliath comes from Gath.

Right? So Goliath was probably an Anakite. He was one of these descendants of the. The Nephilim. He was one of these massive Fellows.

And we know how tall he was. He was a massive bloke. So the spies aren't talking about something that they haven't got right. They really have seen it. This really is a massive challenge.

We're talking about big, big scary challenges.

And what's really, really significant for us to see is that this challenge is held back until he's. Until he's 85. He was wholeheartedly after the Lord when he was 40. But the Lord said, no, I'm going to wait till you're 85. I'm going to wait till then.

Why did you do that? Surely, surely. Because it shows how clearly he must be following the Lord. Otherwise it would be impossible, wouldn't it? It would be absolutely impossible.

And I think we should take this to our encouragement. It might be that today we feel. We feel. We feel old. We feel a little bit tired.

We feel like we used to do things more than we do. I feel that way. And I'm not even reached the age that Caleb was when he first got the promise. Of course we feel tired, don't we? Our bodies sort of give way and things like this.

But we don't get too old for God to use us. You cannot be too old for God to use you. It doesn't work like that. Because as we go along in God's service, God is using us. But say it like this.

God is using us, right? We often think God is using us, you know, so how good am I? Well, I have to be stronger. But no, it's. God is using us.

God was using Caleb. And the Lord never changes in his strength. So there may be some of us here who are thinking, oh, I'm a bit past it. I'm past my good days. I think we should take Caleb to our encouragement and say, lord, what do you have for me?

Maybe you've got. Maybe you've got the Anakites for me. Might be the biggest thing you've done yet. That's a bit of a scary thought, isn't it? But we don't focus on that thought.

We focus on the Lord, who is the one who works through us. So what I want us to take from Joshua 14 is that the Caleb followed the Lord all his life because he so filled his heart with the love of God that it forced out those fears. His heart was full of the Lord and he could hold on to God's promise, knowing that what he had, what he had promised in God was already yes and amen in Jesus Christ. All his promises are yes and amen we have it. And so, even coming to the end of his days, even to the end of his days, God can use him to do his most mighty act yet.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank you for this example of Caleb. We thank you that your inheritance is guaranteed because you have promised it to us. Pray that our hearts would be so full with a vision of your son, Jesus, that all fear is cast out. Lord, I pray above all that we would know you working through us, that whether we feel weak or strong, we know it is only in your strength. In Jesus name, amen.