LIFE LESSONS
CALEB
DR. JIM DIXON
NUMBERS 13:25-30
FEBRUARY 9, 2003
Caleb was a leader of the Tribe of Judah. In the time of Moses, Caleb was one of twelve men chosen from the twelve tribes to go and spy out the Promised Land. The name Caleb is a very unusual name because the name means “dog.” There were times when the name was used in dishonor. It was a name given to servants and to slaves as a token of their inferiority and as a token of their bondage. There were also times when the name Caleb was viewed as an honorable name because dogs were then, as now, man’s best friend. Dogs could be very faithful and very courageous in a cause. In this sense, this name is appropriate for Caleb. He was faithful and he was courageous in a cause.
From his life this morning, we have three life lessons. The first life lesson is this. God calls His people to greatness. God always calls His people to greatness.
In the time of Caleb, the people of God were on the very brink of greatness. In the time of Caleb, the children of Israel, the people of God, were on the brink of entering into the Promised Land. The call to greatness had been issued hundreds of years earlier when God called Abraham as recorded in Genesis, chapter 12. God said to Abraham, “Leave your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you great, and I will make of you a great nation, a great people. I will make your name great, that you might be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you, I will curse. By you, all nations will bless themselves.”
Now, this call to greatness given to Abraham was reiterated by God and given to Isaac and then to Jacob and then to the sons of Jacob and then finally to Moses in the time of Caleb, because it was the will of God that the people of God become great. It was His will that the children of Israel would become a great nation, a great people, and that the name of Israel would become great so they might be a blessing to the nations.
Now, God always calls His people to greatness in every generation—not greatness as the world understands greatness, but greatness in the sight of God. God always calls His people to greatness. God calls the church to greatness. He has always called the church to greatness. Jesus Christ said, “I will build My church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” We’re told in Ephesians, chapter 5, that Jesus Christ “longs to present His church in splendor.” He wants to make it great. The Apostle Paul wrote to the churches. He wrote to the church at Corinth. He wrote to the church at Galatia. He wrote to the church at Philippi. He wrote to the church at Thessalonica. He wrote to the church at Ephesus. In virtually every case when Paul wrote to the churches, he began by complimenting them on their greatness in Christ, the greatness of their love, the greatness of their works and the greatness of their reputation. But then he would always follow it up by discussing with them those areas in which they were not so great.
This was the same pattern that Jesus used when He addresses the Seven Churches of Asia as we see in Revelation, chapter 2 and 3. In every case, Jesus would begin by complimenting them on the greatness they had attained and the areas in which they were, in His sight, great. Then he would follow that up in most cases by reminding them of those areas where they were not so great.
I wonder sometimes what Paul would write to us if Paul were to write a letter to Cherry Hills Community Church today. What does Christ want to say to us today? Certainly, there are areas in which this church is great by the grace of God and by the power of God. There are areas in which Cherry Hills Community Church is a great church. We’re great in size. While Christ has different purposes for different churches, He has willed that this church be a large church with all the scope of ministries and programs that only large churches can provide. We are unapologetic, unabashed about being large, for it is Christ’s will for us, and we seek to reach and train as many people as possible in the time that is given to us.
I believe that this church is becoming a great church with regard to mobilization. Almost 3,000 of you have now been mobilized into ministry and service through the programs and ministries of this church. Three-thousand of you have been mobilized into ministry and service. Each of you are a part of this church’s greatness and blessing. Some of you are serving in the choir. Some of you are serving in the Sunday school. Some of you are serving in the youth ministry. Some of you are serving in small groups as small group leaders. Some of you are serving as greeters. Some of you are serving in the parking lots. Some of you are going into the inner city with our ministry programs and you are tutoring inner-city children. You are all part of the greatness of Cherry Hills Community Church and the greatness of this mobilization. I believe this church is great in its outreach to the poor and in its effort to elevate the urban poor. I thank God for Manna Ministries where many of you serve and where we have the privilege of reaching out with the love of Christ with food and with clothing for hundreds and yes, thousands of people less fortunate than we. I thank God for our link to the inner-city where we are joined with five inner-city churches, African American and Hispanic.
I thank God for the thirteen ministries in the inner city with which we hold hands. Some of these ministries were founded by Cherry Hills Community Church, some by members of Cherry Hills Community Church. All of these ministries are part of the greatness of this ministry. Five hundred of you now are regularly going into the inner-city to minister the love of Jesus Christ, seeking to elevate the urban poor. We, in the last two years, have sent hundreds of thousands of dollars as a church into the inner city to seek to bless them. Over the years, we’ve sent millions of dollars all over the world seeking to bless the poor. I don’t know of any other church, any other suburban church, that has sought so greatly to reach out to the poor.
I think we are a great missions church, truly I do. I think we are one of the great missions churches of America. Right now, we are ministering in 65 nations of the world. This church is ministering in 65 nations of the world through a variety of organizations and through missionaries, many of whom received their call to the mission field right here in this worship center. Two thousand of you have gone on short-term mission assignments, short-term missionary trips as God mobilizes this congregation in mission.
Certainly, I believe this church is great musically. That’s why so many churches all over the Denver area and across the country are constantly trying to rob our music department, trying to hire our people, because you see this church is great musically. I don’t think there’s a church in America with a better choir. I thank God for our worship teams. I thank God for our band. I thank God for our vocalists. It’s all God’s blessing. All of these who serve are part of this church’s greatness and blessing.
I think this church is a great church in terms of children’s ministry, in terms of our schools, in terms of our Sunday school, the thousands of kids that we seek to raise up for Christ, a generation for Christ.
Certainly, this church in many ways is a great church, and each of you who give of your time, talent, and treasure help to make it so. But I think there is one area where Christ would say to us today that we are less than great. That is in the cultivation of community. It’s not easy for a large church to cultivate community. We have a wonderful Congregational Life Department headed up by Steve Logan and a wonderful Small Groups Ministry headed up by Mark Shupe. I thank God for all of you who are small group leaders. We have 320 small groups in this church. Thank God for all of you who are a part of our small group ministry, all the homes in which these small groups meet. But, you see, small groups only can cultivate community on the micro level. They cannot cultivate community in the larger sense of the church, on the macro level. We try to cultivate a larger sense of community. We did well at our first site. We built a fellowship hall, and it was like a family room for the church.
At our second site on Colorado Boulevard, we also built a fellowship hall. Of course, at both of those sites when the church was smaller, we had church picnics and all-church celebrations and gatherings as we tried to cultivate a sense of community. There came a point when we became so large that we kind of backed off, and I think Christ grieves. It’s only a church that has cultivated a sense of community that really is great in the sight of Christ and is used by Christ to draw the larger community in.
To understand this, we just need to take a look at the word “church.” The word church in the Greek and in the Hebrew is all about community. This is what Christ wants the church to become, a communion. Communion with Him. Communion with each other. He calls us to be a family and to live like it. The Greek word for church is the word “ecclesia.” It literally means, “Called out.” It was used of a herald who issued a call to gather the people into assembly that they might come into community. That’s the meaning of the word church in the Greek. In the Hebrew it’s “sunagoge.” This word for church means, “to gather with.” It means “to come together.” It’s a word of community.
You see, the core purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ is communion with Christ and with each other. He calls the church to be a community. One of the great words in the New Testament used again and again and again to describe the church is the Greek word “koinonia.” which means “fellowship.” It means “fellowship community.”
That’s why churches through the centuries have built family rooms. Churches through the centuries have built fellowship areas. The early church called them atriums. In more recent centuries, the Church of Jesus Christ has gotten called these family rooms fellowship halls. Almost every church out there has sought to build a fellowship hall because they know the church is called to be a community, but we’ve not done it here. We’ve not built a family room and we need to, that you might want to linger here on Sunday morning and not just race out to the parking lot. That you might want to come here during the week and just drop by any time of the day so that we can begin to cultivate community and do and be what Christ has called us to be. This is not a peripheral need. It’s at the core meaning of the church. This call is upon us.
I think we can understand it in terms of our own families. I know in my family as we were growing up, as I was growing up in Southern California, one of the greatest things, one of the wisest things my father did was convert the garage into a family room. That house didn’t have a family room. There was a kitchen and a formal dining room. That’s kind of like the worship center where we’re fed, but there was no family room. There was an attached garage. My dad, with some friends and at a cost, built a detached garage and took the attached garage and they converted it into a family room. This was 50 years ago. As a family, it was there to the family room where we would go to just have hang time. That’s where we would laugh, and that’s where we would play games and where we had a great time and where we experienced community.
In a few weeks, my brothers and I are going out to my mom’s house for her 90th birthday party. She still lives in that same house, and we will gather with our aunts and uncles and cousins to celebrate my mom’s 90th birthday and we’ll be in that family room because that’s where community happens and that’s where we experience the life of the family.
Churches need this. Churches have always needed this. We just haven’t done it. God calls us to greatness. He always calls His people to greatness, and there’s no greatness without community. Everything a church does should flow out of community, but it all begins with community. We thank God for those who greet at the doors. We want people to feel welcome, but they’re never going to really feel welcome unless they can linger and there can be a place for friendship and for fellowship.
Secondly, from the life of Caleb, this life lesson, the call is costly. Certainly, always the call of God upon our lives is costly. It’s costly in terms of time, in terms of talent and in terms of treasure. The call of God is costly.
We come to Numbers, chapters 13 and 14 and we see the story of Caleb and how the children of Israel were about to enter into their greatness. They send these twelve spies into the Promised Land where God has promised they would become great. The spies see that it is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. They bring back some of its fruit and they marvel at the fertile valleys and the greatness of the land. However, there are problems. The spies report that the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and there are giants in the land, the Anakim.
Indeed, archeological studies have confirmed that in Canaan in the time of Caleb, giants dwelt there. They found the bones of peoples, many of whom were over 7 feet tall, some near 8 feet. This was incredibly hard for the Jews. The average Jewish male was less than 5 foot 5 inches. They were afraid. They thought the cost would just be too great. You look at it in Numbers 13 and 14, and you see how the people who report back say, “You know, there are giants there and the Amalekites are there and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Canaanites, many nation groups. This is going to be too costly. Even though the land is promised, it’s just at too great a cost. We’re going to die at the edge of the sword. Our lives, our kids are going to be helpless and alone. We’d be better off if we went back to Egypt. The cost is just too great. That’s how they felt.
Of course, Caleb and Joshua, those two stood firm. They rallied the people of Israel saying, ‘We can do it! God will provide! We can do it!” The people shouted out in disbelief. It’s always hard to accept the cost of the call of God. Of course, Jesus Christ when He calls us, He tells us the call is costly. “He who would come atter Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. He who would save His life would lose it, but he who would lose his life for My sake and for the sake of the gospel, will surely find it.”
In Luke’s gospel, the 14th chapter, what a powerful passage where Jesus said, “He who does not take up his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.” “Count the cost,” Jesus said. “No one would build a building without first counting the cost.” “No one goes to war,” Jesus said, “without first counting the cost. Don’t be My disciple unless you’ve counted the cost.” Then Jesus said, “You cannot be My disciple unless you give up all of your possessions.” What a radical teaching, a teaching largely ignored by the American church. The call of Jesus Christ is a radical call. “You cannot be My disciples unless you give up all of your possessions.” We are to understand that we’re simply stewards. We’re going to have to give an account. Our only responsibility is to use all things in accordance with His will. It’s hard to pay the cost in terms of time, seeking to serve the kingdom of heaven and to obey His call. It’s hard to pay the cost in terms of talent. I think most of all it’s hard to pay the cost in terms of treasure. It’s so hard focus in this materialistic, hedonistic culture to pay the cost in terms of treasure.
Years ago, I heard a joke. It’s an old joke. Some of you, perhaps, have heard it about a minister and a New York City taxicab driver. They both died. By coincidence they died at the same time. They both arrived at the gates of heaven together. St. Peter looked at the minister and at the New York City taxicab driver. The taxicab driver and the minister looked at each other. The minister had been in the gospel ministry for over 50 years. The taxicab driver was wearing sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans. St. Peter said to the minister, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.” He led the minister into heaven and showed him his dwelling place, showed him where he would live. It was a quaint little cottage. The minister was pleased until he saw St. Peter lead the New York City taxicab driver in saying, “Well done. Enter into the joy.” Then he led this taxicab driver to a huge mansion, just a giant mansion.
The minister liked his house but by way of comparison, he didn’t feel so good. He went to St. Peter and said, “I don’t get it. I’ve preached faithfully for 50 years, and I get this nice little cottage, but this taxicab driver gets a mansion!” St. Peter said, “Well, it’s really simple. When you preached, people slept. When he drove, people prayed.”
It’s a very old joke and I think true. It’s harder to get people to pray than it is to get people to sleep. It’s harder still, however, to get people to give. That’s what’s really hard. It’s hard to get people to give. It’s really a test of our spirituality whether or not we give. As a congregation, we’re woeful in our giving. Very few of us tithe. Indeed, the Church of Jesus Christ across the nation is woeful in its giving in this, the most materialistic, wealthy, affluent culture in the world. We’re woeful in our giving…
All of you have seen works of art by Michelangelo. You know that he was perhaps the greatest sculptor of all time, certainly one of the greatest artists in the history of the world. I’ve read books on his life where the books describe his spirituality as deep and particularly in the latter years of his life it is said that his Christian commitment was deep and he was very, very spiritual. But I’ve come to doubt it. I’ve come to doubt it because of a recent book written by a professor at Syracuse University who was on assignment to Florence, Italy. This professor has just written a book called The Wealth of Michelangelo. He explains that Michelangelo was perhaps the wealthiest sculptor and one of the wealthiest artists in the history of the world.
When he died at the age of 89 in the year 1564, he was worth in modern equivalency, tens of millions of dollars. Through most of his life he was extremely wealthy with an equivalency of millions of dollars all of his life, but he told people he was poor. He told people he could barely make ends meet. He told his own children he was poor. He did not give. He did not give to anything. He was not a giver, and I tell you, there is no way he could be spiritual and not be a giver because if we’re really spiritual and we really love Jesus and we’ve really chosen to follow Him, we learn to give. It’s not about capital stewardship campaigns. It’s not even about a family room for our church. We just need to learn to give. We really need to learn to give. We need to learn what it means that the call is costly.
I tell you this. If for some reason you don’t want to give to this church and you don’t want to tithe to this church, tithe somewhere. If you don’t want to give to this ministry and if you don’t want to give to this atrium project, if you don’t want to help build a family room, take a special gift and give it somewhere else, but GIVE, because we are the people of Christ and we’re called to be a giving people. Our giving is to be radical. This call is a call to greatness, and it’s a call to community, but the call is always costly. Discipleship is costly. Sanctification is costly. Ministry. Mobilization. It’s all costly. It takes time. It takes talent. Everything takes time, talent and treasure. There’s always a cost. Caleb was willing to pay the price.
Well, this last life lesson from Caleb is this. Don’t be afraid. God calls His people to greatness. The call is costly, but don’t be afraid.
I saw a little joke this past week. You may have heard it about a little boy. He was trying to 90 to sleep in his bedroom at night and there’s a thunderstorm and lightning and thunder. He’s afraid. He’s really afraid. He calls his mom. He says, “Mom, would you sleep with me in my room tonight?” She says, “I’m sorry, dear. I need to sleep in Daddy’s room tonight.” The little boy is quiet for a second and then he says, “the big sissy!”
I think it’s true that at times we’re all big sissies. Sometimes we’re just more afraid than we ought to be. Of course, when the twelve spies came back from spying out the Promised Land, they were petrified. They were afraid. They saw giants, Nephilim the Anakim, sometimes called the Rephaim. But the giants that were in the land and they were afraid. Giants! Of course, Caleb and Joshua were not afraid, but the rest were and the people were. I think as we look to the future and as we hear the call of God and we seek to build this family room and to cultivate community, we recognize there’s a cost and maybe it makes us afraid because there are giants we face.
Certainly, there’s the giant of the economy. The economy is a giant we face. I know many of you are concerned about the economy. I understand. Barb and I feel the same way. Like you, our 401K is shrinking and has shrunk significantly. The future doesn’t look secure, not even as secure as it once did. I know how you feel. We all feel that way. But don’t fear the giants, and don’t fear the economy.
I know most of you, perhaps all of you, have at least at some point eaten at McDonald’s. When I graduated from college in 1968, there were 1,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the world. They were really all in the United States in 1968. Today, McDonald’s is opening new restaurants at the rate of 2,000 per year. It is said that one out of every eight people in the United States of America either has worked at McDonald’s or will, one out of every eight people! McDonald’s trains more people every year than the United States Army. It is a fact. They are huge. They are the largest purchaser of beef in the nation. They are the largest purchaser of potatoes in the nation. They are the second largest purchaser of poultry in the nation. In fact, McDonald’s has recently developed a new breed of chicken. They really have. Just for their McNuggets. I don’t know anything about this new breed of chicken. My observation would be that it’s a kind of chicken the flesh of which looks and tastes a lot like a sponge. But, you see, McDonald’s is huge. They’re just huge. McDonald’s is the largest owner of retail property in the world. Did you know that? They do not make most of their profits from the selling of food but from the collecting of rent. They spend more money on advertising than any other corporation or company in the world. Most of that advertising targets children. Recent surveys show that 96% of the children of America can identify Ronald McDonald.
I think it’s impossible to overestimate the impact that McDonald’s has had upon our culture, our economy and our diet. Yet McDonald’s, we are now told, is afraid. This giant corporation is now afraid. They’re afraid because of the economy. They’re concerned when they look at their place in this economy. They see a shrinking market share, something they’re not used to. They see their profits beginning to dip, and they are afraid. They’re even thinking of changing their hamburger formula. I’m sure it won’t mean less fat or salt, but they’re thinking of changing the ingredients because they’re afraid.
You might be thinking, “Well, if big corporations are afraid, surely I ought to be afraid.” But this is the Church of Jesus Christ. We’re not a secular corporation. We’re not a secular company. This is the Church of Jesus Christ and we are the people of Christ. We’ve been called to greatness, and the call is costly. We do not live for a financial motive. We do not live for profit, for financial profit. That is not our motive. If it were, that would be part of our condemnation. Our security is not based on 401Ks. It’s not based on bank accounts or even the size of our paychecks. Our security is in Christ. Jesus said, “Seek first My kingdom and its righteousness and I will give you everything you need. Do not be anxious about your life. Seek first My kingdom. I’ll give you everything you need.” Do not fear giants. Don’t fear the economy. I think as we conclude, there’s another giant called doubt. We always face this giant called doubt. As we look to the future of this church, even this atrium project and the concept of a family room, some of you are going to be tempted to doubt. It’s always the case.
Perhaps some of you have had the joy and experience of going down the Mississippi River on a steamboat. They still do that you know. You can still go down the Mississippi River on a steamboat. It’s kind of a little slice of nostalgia, kind of a romantic deal, stepping back in time. A lot of people think the steamboat was invented by Robert Fulton, but that’s really not true. It was invented in 1787 by a man named John Fitch, but it was Robert Fulton who developed the first commercially successful steamboat. It was August 17, 1807 in New York City when he built the Clermont, a steamboat that was going to go up the Hudson to Albany, 150 miles.
The people of New York had never seen a steamboat, and they couldn’t imagine that something could be propelled in this way and through these means. They were all there. They were gathered by the shore of the Hudson, and there were thousands and thousands of people. Historians tell us that they were waiting to see if the steamboat would move. They waited quite a while and people began to shout, “It won’t start! It won’t start! It won’t start!” In unison, they all began to say that, historians tell us. But suddenly, the wheel began to turn and there began to be this grinding noise. The steamboat began to move just a little bit, and pretty soon it began to move up the Hudson and people fell backwards and they were stunned. It went up the Hudson River 150 miles to Albany. It took 30 hours but journeyed 150 miles to Albany. As it went up the Hudson, the crowds stared and they were stunned. Then somebody began to shout, “It won’t stop!” and the whole crowd began to say, “It won’t stop! It won’t stop! It won’t stop!”
Don’t we live in a world like that? There’s always a ton of skeptics. There’s this giant we always have to face called doubt. But don’t doubt. God is leading us to build a family room as surely as He’s ever led us to do anything. He’s called us to be a community and to cultivate community. The congregation has approved this at our congregational meeting. The staff is behind this. Our elder board voted 100% to do this. God is leading us. He’s leading us. So, He’s called us to greatness. We can’t have greatness without community. The call is costly, but do not be afraid. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.