Sermon Prepared by James McCullen
Email Preach Him with Dr. Jim

CALEB A MAN OF VISION
Joshua 14:6-13

Intro
I want that mountain! That is a song prompted by the words of Caleb. The word can mean a hill plain or a mountain 10 times in the KJV this very word is translated hill rather than mountain.

It may be similar to the name of our town. Why is it called Mountain View? On our vacation we went through Mountain View California. It has an elevation of 88 feet.

Caleb is an example because he stayed true to the Lord. Follow as we consider this fine man.

CALEB A MAN OF VISION because he had the . .Statement of God

CALEB A MAN OF VISION because he had the . .Strength of God

CALEB A MAN OF VISION because he had the . .Stimulation of God.
 
 

EXPLANATION:

A.    Caleb's. . .HOLD ON the statement of God. V 6
        {6} Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh-barnea.

B.    Caleb's . . .HEART and the statement of God. v 7
     {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 word back to him as it was in my heart.

C.    Caleb's . . .HARMONY with the statement of God. V. 8-9
 

ILLUSTRATION:
William Penn, the founder of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was well liked by the Indians. Once they told him he could have as much of their land as he could encompass on foot in a single day. So, early the next morning he started out and walked until late that night.

When he finally went to claim his land, the Indians were greatly surprised, for they really didn't think he would take them seriously. But they kept their promise and gave him a large area which today is a part of the city of Philadelphia. William Penn simply believed what they said. Should we do less with God!
 

APPLICATION:

                Caleb a man of vision because he had the . .Statement of God.
 
 

EXPLANATION:

A.    Caleb's strength was . . .Continuous V 10
     "And now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today

B.    Caleb's strength was . . .Courageous. V 11.
        "I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.
 

ILLUSTRATION:
The story is told of a Welsh woman who lived in a remote valley in Wales. She went to a great deal of trouble to have electrical power installed in her home. They noticed she didn't use very much electricity at all. In fact, her usage was minuscule. They sent a meter reader out to check on the matter. The man came to the door and said, "We've looked at the amount. Don't you use electricity?" "Oh yes," she said. "We turn it on every night to see how to light our lamps and then we switch it off again."

This sounds like the way many Christians apply to power of God in their lives.

ILLUSTRATION:
In his beautiful book, I Shall Not Want, Robert Ketchum tells of a Sunday school teacher who asked her group of children if any of them could quote the entire twenty-third Psalm. A golden-haired, four-and-a-half-year-old girl was among those who raised their hands. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm. The little girl came to the rostrum, faced the class, made a perky little bow, and said: "The Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want."
 

APPLICATION:

EXPLANATION:

A.    Stimulated in spite of . . .GIANT Creatures.  v 12 a
            ". . .for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, . . ."

Numbers 13:33 (NASB) "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim): and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

Deuteronomy 9:2 (NASB) a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?"
 

B.    Stimulated in spite of. . . GREAT Cities.  v 12 b.
        ". . .with great fortified cities;. . ."
 

C.    Stimulated because of . . .God's Charge.  v 12 c.
        ". . .I shall dive them out as the LORD has spoken."

ILLUSTRATION:
In May 1855, an eighteen-year-old boy went to the deacons of a church in Boston. He had been raised in a Unitarian church, in almost total ignorance of the gospel, but when he had moved to Boston to make his fortune, he began to attend a Bible-preaching church. Then, in April of 1855, his Sunday school teacher had come into the store where he was working and simply and persuasively shared the gospel and urged the young man to trust in the Lord Jesus. He had, and now he was applying to join the church. Years late his Sunday school teacher said of him:

I can truly say that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday school class and I think the committee of the church seldom met an applicant for membership who seemed more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of Gospel truth, still less to fill any space of public or extended usefulness. Who was that boy? Why none other than D. L. Moody. By God's grace he was transformed into one of the most effective servants of God.
 

APPLICATION: