Draw the Circle – Part 4 – Think Long

April 29, 2018 – Joshua 14:6-14

 Introduction

On the Swedish Island Visingso, there is a mysterious forest of oak trees. It’s mysterious because oak trees aren’t indigenous to the island, and the origin of the forest wasn’t known for more than 100 years. In 1980, the Swedish navy received a letter from the Forestry Department reporting that their lumber was ready. The navy didn’t know it had ordered lumber.

After a little research, it was discovered that in 1829, the Swedish Parliament, recognized it takes oak trees suitable for shipbuilding 150 years to mature and so anticipated a lumber shortage at the beginning of the 21st century. Over the course of 10 years, 300,000 oak trees were planted on Visingso and protected for the navy. That’s thinking ahead![1]

Most of us know about thinking ahead, even if we don’t do always do it.

• Many folks will take food out of the freezer the night or the morning before they are going to prepare it for dinner.
• Many folks have a savings account for unexpected financial needs.
• Many folks contribute to retirement plans.
• Some high school juniors and seniors take the SAT or ACT in preparation for attending college.
• Some attend the career center to learn a trade, so they can get a better job when they graduate high school.
• Some parents and students keep meticulous documentation of high school sports careers in hopes of landing a college scholarship.
• Some high school students are just as meticulous about their GPA for the same reason.

There are myriad ways we know about thinking ahead but…

There are also ways and areas we don’t think ahead. That’s what I want to talk about this morning. In a world of short attention spans and even shorter memories, we need to re-establish the discipline of thinking long—especially as it relates to our spiritual lives.

Turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 14 (page 161 in the pew Bibles) and let’s look at a man who knew how to think long.

Joshua 14:6–14 (NIV84) p. 161

⁶ Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. ⁷ I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, ⁸ but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. ⁹ 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 because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’

¹⁰ “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! ¹¹ I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
¹² Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

¹³ Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. ¹⁴ So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.

          I love this story about Caleb. God gave him a promise when he was 40 years old. He never forgot that promise and he never stopped claiming it. 45 years later, he reminded Joshua of God’s promise and laid claim to his inheritance. That is what it looks like to think long. This morning, I want to share five things that will really help us understand what it means to think long.

Application

1. Thinking long means we keep eternity in view.
   1. You should have read this in Draw the Circle: Praying is like planting. Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations.
      We want things as to happen at the speed of light instead of the speed of a seed planted in the ground, but almost all spiritual realities in Scripture are described in agricultural terms. We want our dreams to become reality overnight. We want our prayers to be answered immediately. But that isn’t the way it works in God’s Kingdom. We need the patience of a planter. We need the foresight of the farmer. We need the mindset of the sower.[2]
   2. God exists outside of time He created. He does not relate to time as we do.
   3. The most important thing in every human life is to be prepared for eternity—to know Christ as Savior.
2. Thinking long means we aren’t always fixated on ourselves.
   1. If you are a parent, your focus is on your children...and maybe even on your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
   2. There’s an old song by Wayne Watson that beautifully illustrates this idea. It’s called Somewhere in the World. I’ll just share the first verse and the chorus:
      Somewhere in the world today / A little girl will go out to play
      All dressed up in mama’s clothes / At least the way that I suppose it goes

Somewhere in the world tonight / Before she reaches to turn out the light
She’ll be prayin’ from a tender heart / A simple prayer that’s a work of art

And I don’t even know her name / But I’m prayin’ for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart

‘Cause somewhere in the course of this life

My little boy will need a godly wife

So hold on to Jesus, baby wherever you are. 

1. Those who aren’t parents can focus on others to whom they can pass the baton of faith.
2. God’s plan for our lives is not wrapped in selfishness.

3. Thinking long means we choose to see beyond our circumstances.
   1. Do you remember this from Day 4 in Draw the Circle?
      We’re often so anxious to get out of difficult, painful, or challenging situations that we fail to grow through them. We’re so fixated on getting out of them that we don’t get anything out of them. We fail to learn the lesson God is trying to teach us or cultivate the character God is trying to grow in us. We’re so focused on God changing our circumstances that we never allow God to change us! So instead of ten or twenty years of experience, we have one year of experience repeated ten or twenty times.[3]
   2. This past Tuesday was a bad day for me. I was admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening. After all the tests and scans came back normal, I was released on Monday evening having been diagnosed as experiencing a TIA, commonly called a mini-stroke.
      1. I came into the office on Tuesday but just didn’t feel right.
      2. I went home at lunchtime and went to bed.

• The more the day wore on, the worse I felt—not physically, but mentally and emotionally. I felt like I was sinking and that it would be a long, slow descent to the bottom.

1. I texted my friends Scott and Garland: I feel really weird emotionally. I don’t feel like doing anything. There’s a hesitation in my mind that this could happen again. I’ve never felt this way before. I feel foolish for feeling this way.
2. Since that evening, God has spoken to me through four different people. Each has said it was a spiritual attack and that Trinity is on the verge of some wonderful things.
3. Thinking long means I need to put my stock in the fact that God has spoken and not in my feelings.

• Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying this is always easy. It’s a step of faith to be sure. But when God has spoken, we do well to listen to him.
• Thinking long helps us see beyond our circumstances.

4. Thinking long means we live by design, not by default.
   1. If you don’t set the agenda for your life, someone or something else will set it for you.
   2. Many of us live reactive lives rather than proactive lives. We allow life to happen to us.
   3. We don’t get to choose all the circumstances of life, but we do get to choose how we react and respond.
   4. I’ve shared the opening paragraph from Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, before but it bears repeating: It’s not about you. The purpose of your life is greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose.[4]
   5. Later in the first chapter, he writes, “Being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose are not at all the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world’s standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created you.”[5]
   6. Living by default means doing what’s expected of you on this worldly level. But when you live in higher allegiance to God, you choose to live by design.
   7. What does this mean?
      1. Not every door that opens is a door you should walk through. Just because it’s a promotion or a better position or more pay doesn’t mean it’s God’s will for your life.
      2. Just because it’s what someone else expects from you doesn’t mean you have to do it.

• Just because you’ve always acted and reacted one way doesn’t mean you have to be stuck in that pattern for the rest of your life.

1. Thinking long helps us to live on purpose—by design—Instead of by default.

5. Thinking long means we live out of God’s imagination rather than out of our memories.
   1. We read about Caleb and the passing of 45 years. What took place 45 years prior?
      1. He was part of a group sent in to spy out the Promised Land and report whether Israel was able to take it.
      2. Joshua and Caleb were the only 2 of 12 who said they could do so because God had spoken and would fight for them. The other 10 got scared and said Israel couldn’t take the land.

• As a result, the 10 cost Israel 40 years…but Caleb never forgot what God said. He counted on it.

1. In the second message in this series, I reminded you that dreaming is for all of us!
2. I also said this about dreams: It’s not about your best ideas or my best ideas for the future. It’s about God’s ideas.
3. What does God want for your life?
   1. Maybe He wants you to have a different job.
   2. Maybe He wants you to be a missionary.

• Maybe He wants you to see the mission field at your job.

1. Maybe He wants you to see the mission field in your neighborhood.
2. Maybe He wants you to be involved in a different ministry.
3. Maybe He wants you to step aside from what you’re doing and hand off your passion to someone who will carry it farther than you ever dreamed.

1. Whatever your dreams and desires are for your life, they’re too small.
2. I love Paul’s words to the Church in Corinth, Greece: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NLT).

          We read about Joshua thinking long and it’s important we do the same. Thinking long helps us (1) keep eternity in view (2) keep from fixating on ourselves (3) see beyond our circumstances (4) live by design, not by default, and (5) helps us live out of God’s imagination rather than out of our memories.

Application

          Here’s this week’s homework. (1) Ask someone close to you which aspect of thinking long you most need to work on. (2) Ask God the same question during your prayer time. (3) Make sure to journal the responses to you can follow through and so you can one day look back and trace how God has worked in your life.

[1] Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker, p. 135 and “Visingso Oak Forest,” https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/visingso-oak-forest, accessed April 25, 2018.

[2] Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle, pp. 75-6.

[3] Batterson, Draw the Circle, pp. 34-35.

[4] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, p. 17.

[5] Warren, 19.