In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of dedication in the context of the word of God. He emphasizes the challenges faced by those who dare to step out of line and pioneer new paths in their faith. The preacher highlights the importance of appreciating and supporting the pioneers who pave the way for others. He also references the story of Caleb in the Bible, who remained dedicated to following God despite the doubts and fears of his fellow Israelites.

Corporately asking that the Lord will reach his full thought today. I wonder if two or three of you now would just, would you just pray out that God and each of us will find in the Lord God that full thing for today. I, I'm sure none of us want to leave without God really getting through to us. We would hate to see anyone leave. I don't want us to create an anxiousness about it, but just a confident expectation that God is working and that he will get through to every heart the word or the thing that's needed. So let's two or three pray to that end. Amen. Everyone say it. Amen. Amen. I forgot my watch. Sweetheart, would you give me a little, a ten o'clock, I mean eleven o'clock? That's my wife I'm talking to. I can count on her doing it. Somebody else might get so involved they'd forget, but I'm sure she, praise the Lord. Well, we want to round out this theme of dedication this morning. That is, speak about dedication unto fullness. First, it was dedication defined. Second, dedication in its necessary enlightenment, intelligent dedication. Our dedication being proved and yesterday dedication focused. The necessity of saying that it isn't just doing every good thing that comes along, but that we learn that God's way is our relatedness in the body. This morning we want to speak about dedication realized or reaching unto the fullness of dedication. I believe that it would be wrong to stop short. One of the things that I thrill about in God's Word and in God's way is that God's ends, God's ends or his ends are in his beginnings. Is that a strange statement to you? It might even be better to say God's end is hidden in his beginning. It's there, but we very often can't see it. So when we think of God's end, and as I find in the Scripture, I believe that God's end is hidden or it is, I'll just put hidden here, is in his beginning. What is God's end? We've been listening to it from night to night. It's been focusing and pointing to this. And it's just possible that someone has been slipping in these days, and we assume too much or we take too much for granted. When we think of that which God really delights in, I don't believe that God can be contained in the heavens, in the universe, even though he's created it all. I don't believe that God can be satisfied with the mere handiwork of creation to reveal and express himself. But that in the end, when things come into a fullness, God is going to find the most lovely expression of himself in a redeemed house, a redeemed household, living stones that have been shaped and put together that he has a glorious house for his habitation. You read of this in a number of places. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit, it speaks of, will have a glorious temple for his habitation and dwelling. I think that the Father, who is wanting many sons, just like his lovely son, the Lord Jesus. Can you stop and think if you had one son that was perfect, what would you want? This lady says, I'd like another one. Ah, yes. Every father, every mother could not be satisfied with just one. And this is why I believe my Father wants many sons, and he's bringing them to glory. And he's going to conform every one of them to the perfect one. Isn't that wonderful? He's doing it. Conformed to his lovely image. And so, when we get to God's hand, you can express it in different ways, but I like to look way onto the New Jerusalem. We see a city. It's not just a place. If there were just a place, I couldn't get excited. But this place has become a people. Redeemed lives, living stones. I've been saying so often these last few months, wherever we go, that when you get a glimpse of what God is working toward, somehow it brings you to rest. And you see that he is shaping and he is putting together living stones that will be a place for his dwelling, his habitation. You get a glimpse of this, and you see that he can't be satisfied with a mere pile of stones. A mere pile. This is what we have so often on Sunday. A whole congregation come together, and they're a mere pile. You know what I mean? It's quite a thing to get those stones built together so that they fit, they find their place. A pile of stones as compared to a dwelling place, living stones. We've all changed piles a number of times. Every time we think we'll find a better pile. But one thing about a pile is it always has a point that sticks you and rubs you. You see? And it's a blessed thing to see that those sharp points begin to rub until they smooth down, and pretty soon you get fit into the place that God wants. So cheer up. You're still changing piles. Someday you'll make your last move. And you'll find home. You'll find what it is to be built together with some brothers and sisters. I'm not just talking about a group now. I'm talking in a larger sense about finding God's people in which he's doing a building work. Well, when I look into the beginning, I find that God was speaking to Adam. Adam, I want you to multiply, to increase, to subdue. Adam really failed. The flood came along and he started all over with another man. He gave him the same commission. Adam, I want you to multiply, to increase, to subdue. Same thing. And we see pretty much what happened even to the Noahid family. But out of it all, God begins again. And this time he starts in the 12th chapter of Genesis with a man by the name of... And the rest of the book is about this man and his family. The first 12 chapters have been pretty much failure. But from Genesis 12 on, we begin a start and we come to see there's going to be a fulfillment through it. It's Abraham and his family. Now, there's some rather interesting things in the life of Abram, and I want us to get a hold of this as we're going to see how God's end, I believe, is hidden right back here in the beginning. Chapter 12 now. And verse 7. You remember Abram has been called out of the world, out of Chaldea. Abram stops halfway at Haran while his father Terah dies, passes off. Then Abram begins to move on into the land. But this is the first picture we get, verse 7 of chapter 12. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. I love this little principle because I believe that the moment God appears to a light and something of God's worthiness begins to grip us, the most wonderful thing we can do then is to want to give ourselves to this one who is worthy. And this is what the altar represents. The altar is the giving or the dedicating of myself unto the one who has appeared to me. I have to say this morning that every one of us have an altar of a kind. You're burning out and burning up for something that's important to you. Something has become the consuming thing of your life. If you don't, well, it's conceivable that some folks don't have much of an altar. They're not given to much of anything. All the emptiness, the futility, the meaninglessness of life. We have a generation of young people that have come along. My generation grew up in poverty, I mean, in the Depression days. And we gave ourselves to making sure we'd have enough on the table back in the 30s. And that sort of, you see, people give themselves. But the generation that's coming up today sit up to a full table. They don't know depression. They don't have much to give themselves to. Nothing so far as material things are concerned. Are you following me? I don't wonder that there's such futility. Every man needs an altar. The tragedy is it ought to be the right altar. Oh, to burn up your life, to dedicate to be consumed for something less, less. And I think right here, hidden in the very beginning of the life of Abram, God appears. I don't know what there was about it, but it caused him immediately to build an altar. And he built the altar so far as I can tell. It says here, he built an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And he removed from tents unto a mound on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent. One of the tragedies of this day is that when people reach their affluency and their sufficiency, they think, well, it's time to retire. They go to pitch a tent someplace, hoping then they can find an altar. Could I tell you something? My visits to Florida, Arizona, and California have taught me that the most miserable people in the world are those who pitch their tent without much of an altar. They're going to a nice, lovely, geographical climate. Do you follow what I'm saying? To have a tent, to pitch your tent, to pitch your tent, to pitch your tent, to try to live someplace with nothing big enough or consuming enough with no altar. It's a desperate thing. Time on your hands. Don't pitch your tent first. Don't hunt for a nice place to live. Don't look for a place. Find your altar. Oh, Lord, what is it that's big enough? What is it that's worthy enough? Find the altar first. And guess what? You'll be satisfied in the tent. You'll be satisfied in the tent. The tragedy today is, you see, that too many folks are more concerned with their tent than they are with the altar. And I don't know, but God just has spoken to my heart with such assurance that when the altar is right, the tent is automatically followed. When the altar is right. What is this altar? Back in this early day, they didn't have a sin offering. They didn't have the mosaic offerings that had been given. They just basically had one offering. It was the whole burnt offering. What does the whole burnt offering mean? It's the presentation of my whole being unto God. Giving myself totally unto Him. That's the whole burnt offering. It was what Abraham offered. It's what Job offered. Somebody said, well, wasn't there sin? The sin, the sin of all sin, was I will go my own way and use my own life for myself. And so sin is dealt with in this presentation of the whole burnt offering, giving myself to God. Well, you're called then to find the right altar and pitch your tent right next to it, whatever it is. This is the primary thing. Where you live is governed by what your altar really is. But I think it's interesting in noticing the next phrase. He pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. Now, I love the way God has hidden some meanings in the Hebrew words. And I think that it's not just by chance that he pitched his tent with Bethel here before him. What does Bethel mean in the Hebrew? You know the word Beth means house, and El means God. Now, this is why I believe that God has hidden. Maybe it's not so hidden once we find, but God's end is hidden right here. If Abraham's dedication, if Abraham's whole life is for any one thing, it's summed up right here. As the sun starts out and it makes its sweep toward the end in the west, it's to represent that at the close, the finality of his life, the house that God wants is to be the end. Are you with me now? Do you follow what I'm trying to say? It's Bethel. What else is important? Abraham is going to have a family, and they're going to compose and make up this Bethel, this house, this dwelling, this that God will find a likeness. It's Bethel. Well, I thought if Bethel means that, and if it's significant, what does Ai mean? What does Ai mean? And I think it's interesting that God puts it in the east, because every morning when I wake up, it seems as though the Lord is saying, Bethel means the house, let's just say, of God. Ai means a heap of ruins. And it would be a wonderful warning to me every morning when I'd wake up and see a heap of ruins, say, Lord, let my dedication be right all day, so that by the time the western sun comes, I'll be sure that it's a Bethel. Now, you can interpret it the way you want to, but, you know, it's interesting. I just need to stop and say for a moment that there is a difference between interpretation and application. How many of you have ever found somebody taking a verse of Scripture, and God helps apply it to their life? That's an application. And you sit back and say, that sure isn't the right interpretation. God can be very loose in His application sometimes. That's the only way I can figure out the way the Holy Spirit uses some verses on some people. I'm not advising it, I'm just saying that the Lord, in His desperation, if we only know one or two verses, He'll use what we have. But He'll get through to us. That's application. It's not necessarily interpretation. Well, this is application this morning. God seemed to speak to my own heart. And His word seemed to be, remember, your life needs an altar. It must be the right altar. And that altar represents the whole burn offering. What did Abraham give himself to? Whether we get to the end of our life and we find a heap of ruins, or whether we find an A.I. I believe God's end was His house, His dwelling. And I think you find it. You can go back. I don't think we should do it this morning. But you can go back even into Adam as he stood in the garden. You can find all of the hidden elements there as Adam stood in the garden. You have the gold, the silver. You have the precious stones. You have Adam standing by a river. You have Adam standing by a tree. You have all of the materials that are necessary. But when you get to the end, you have all these materials built and put together. And where is the tree? Where is the river? Where are the precious stones? Just loose things? They're all what? They're all built into a lovely city. The tree is outside when you begin. But now the tree is within humanity, the living stones. The river was beside Adam when he started. But where is the river now? It's within the city. Well, I'm getting off on an area that I'm just trying to say to us, God's end. God's end. I find so often hidden back in His beginning. Isn't it wonderful it says in Proverbs, It's the glory of God to conceal a thing. It's the glory of God to hide. So that you can't find it until He's ready for you to find it. How many of you found that to be true? You can look. It's what it says in the Scripture. They searched and they searched and they searched. But no one by searching finds out God. You only find out when He applies a little eye to everything. I'll let that poor searcher have a little peek. Right? That verse says, It's the glory of God to conceal. Then the next part of the phrase says, It's the honor of kings to search out a matter. I like to translate it, It's honorable and kingly to search out. God has put that quality within us that longs to search and find. And the searching isn't wrong. Because you seek for Him with all your heart. But you never find until God gets ready to unveil. So we say this morning now that God's end is going to be realized. And it's largely hidden here in His beginning. Bethel on the west, Ai on the east. There He builds an altar unto the Lord and calls upon the name of the Lord. You'll find Bethel pretty much through the Scripture. It even comes up in the life of Jacob. Remember the first night he's running away after his mother and he connives to help God. There he's running away and quite a picture it is. You see up to this time, it's been the God of Isaac, his father. The God of Abraham. But I believe for the first time that night, it becomes the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Mothers, fathers, remember. Your children live under the shadow. They live under the outspread wings of the parenthood, all that God means to you, and thank God for that. But there comes a time when they will be personally, and it will be a dark night, confronted with the reality of God for themselves. Do you know when it happened in your life? Do you know what happened when Jacob there with a stone for a pillow has this wonderful vision he sees, a dream he sees, the angels ascending and descending. He pours some oil on that place and it becomes a key marker place. What was the name of that place? He calls it what? A house of God. He comes in his own way to something of God's end. Well, it's interesting. God began to show me some time ago as I was studying the life of Jacob and just encouraging my own heart that Jacob, it would seem, after some of his wanderings, God came back and it was as though the Lord was saying to me, it's one thing to know Bethel, but you can get so preoccupied with Bethel that he has to bring you back again to El Bethel. And what does that mean? Beth means what? House. El means? So if we have the house of God, what would El Bethel mean? The God of the house of God. The God of the house of God. Getting way off. The Lord will bring us to the place, as our brother has been saying in the evening, for the God of the house, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the proper relatedness of his church. We're such creatures of extremes, getting things out of God's order. No one's been more guilty than I am. Well, I've been asking this morning since early, Lord, how does this that you put within our heart, this longing, how does it reach fullness? How did it really happen in Abraham? And I think God has sort of given me four little principles we share with you. They're probably not the ones you would select, but I'd like to just suggest these as to what God put Abraham through in his living under fullness. The first little principle we find in the life of Abraham, though we're going to read about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians 4. I won't write it down yet. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, verse 2, Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found successful. Huh? Our dedication now, remember, our dedication is the same thing as a stewardship that's been committed to us. God appeared unto Abraham, and I believe that the whole of God's appearing and committing unto him is something. And in turn, he builds an altar, and now he commits himself to God. And in this twofold committing, God's committed his purpose, his vision, something of what he has, and we commit. Someone says, well, how much do you think Abraham really knew back there? He knew enough. Enough. You think you can count on God to show you enough? What's our big problem? We want to know more or too much. God is faithful. He'll show us enough. He appeared. Abraham, I want you to walk with me. And when God began to show me this little principle here that our stewardship, we are stewards of what he's committed to us, and this stewardship requires just one thing, and the first principle of reaching unto fullness now is this little word, faithfulness. Faithful. It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. I think we interpreted success, we interpreted as though we were to be honored or understood, and everything in this portion seems to reveal now what Paul really went through as a steward. Let's read just a little, shall we? Verse 3. But with me it is a very small thing. I think I'll read it out as they revised. Let me start over again. Let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. To me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court. In fact, I don't even examine myself. Now that's interesting. Paul says, look, put your little yardsticks away. You can't possibly, you can't possibly measure or evaluate. You don't know. What God's doing and how he's doing it. He says, I'm not even able to use my own little measuring stick to somehow see how far along, how successful or what. Nobody can understand. And Paul is seeming to say, I'm not even sure I can fully examine or understand. But I don't have to. Why? Because I'm only called to be faithful, trustworthy in what's been committed. Now, somebody could use that for carelessness and say, well, it doesn't make any difference. But he says next, I am conscious of nothing against myself. Yet I am not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time. But wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things in the darkness and disclose the motives of man's hearts. And then each man's praise will come to him from God. Oh, the proving and the uncovering of the motives of the heart. Ours may not be a perfect work that's done, but it can be a blameless thing because the motive. I do believe, brothers and sisters, God wants us to be able more and more to appreciate not so much what folk do as why they do it. I remember a little girl playing at her mother's knee, about two and a half, three years of age. The mother had a sock that she was, I never know whether it's darning or knitting or what, let's just say sewing, had a hole in it and she was patching it up, and a bulb inside. And in the midst of it, the mommy got so tired in the afternoon, it all fell into her lap. The little girl, seeing her mommy sleep, said, Mommy, you're tired, I'll help you. And she got the bulb and she got the sock. You know what happened, don't you? A few minutes later, the mother looked up. She said, Mommy, see, it's all done, I did it for you. What did that mother do? What did that mother do? I believe a true mother heart could only see one thing, the blamelessness. The blamelessness of a little heart, the motive. She kissed her and loved her and she said, Mommy, thank you. Mommy appreciates it. Well, she ended the rest. Oh, more and more, dear Lord, get our eyes off from the what the people do. And let us try to sense deep within why they're doing it. When we can't even put the proper evaluation on that, I just say, well, Lord, I'm glad you haven't really called me to that either. I just leave that in your hands. You can get along with people a lot easier when you begin to sense why they're doing it, you see. Why they're doing it. And I believe as we see the life of Abram, we see many, many things in which God is dealing with him. He's the one who's the father of the faithful. He's the one in whom God is working as he's bringing about this. And he requires just one thing, a faithful walk. Now, I know it's hard for us to transfer ourselves over into, but I can't find one place where Abram preached a sermon. Can't find that he went to church once in his life. I'm shocking you to death now. He didn't do a lot of the things that we measure out as being what? Being spiritual. But he did one thing. You know what it was? He set his faith and he set his heart. He accepted the promise that God has given, and he just began to walk with God. I'm not saying we should forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but I don't think we should let it become a substitute. There are people who get carried along in the crowd in the church. They get carried along week after week who do not know a personal walk of faithfulness before the Lord. And you have this and you'll be where God wants you. But you get carried along in the stream of traffic, the religious crowd today, and you will not reach the full thing that God wants. It's required then in stewards or in our dedication, not that we be understood by everybody or that we be successful in their eyes, but that we be trustworthy or faithful. Read on a little further. Verse 6, Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other, for who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? It's just been given to you, you see. You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us, and would indeed that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. I think what really has happened here is a people in Corinth who couldn't hold a job, they couldn't keep any friends, they couldn't walk a straight path, they just didn't have much in themselves, suddenly the grace of God comes in, and God's working in their life, and the nobodies begin to be respectable. And the down-and-outers who couldn't keep a dime in their pocket, suddenly they have two dollars. Do you follow what I'm getting at? This is what God's grace begins to do, it's what God's working begins to do, and suddenly they think that they really are somebody. After all, I can keep a job. After all, I've got five friends now. After all, I'm living in a better house and all of this. They thought, he said, I really wish you reigned as kings. And the tragedy of it was that the very one who'd been responsible for elevating and bringing them into any kind of a standing, they were looking down on poor Paul. Poor Paul. You know why? They could not understand, they could not appreciate that the pioneer, the one who spearheads, the one who goes out and blazes the trail, is the one who always gets the flak. The one who dares to step out first, the pioneer is the one who gets the attack. And we'll go back, I think maybe it's a little, chapter four now, verse eight again. Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us. I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God hath set forth us, the apostles, last, as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. Ye are respectable, but we are what? Fools, for Christ's sake. Ye are wise, but we are weak. Ye are strong, ye are honorable, but we are despised. Oh, oh, to see in the midst of this. Cheer up, brother and sister. You begin to have God appear and show something of His purpose and the full thing that He wants. And God's magnet begins to call at your heart, and you begin to pioneer or to take some first steps. All of the barrage is upon the one who dares to step out of line. He's seen something. And, of course, the rest will all come in to the blessing and the benefits. They don't often appreciate the ones who have pioneered and paved the way. I believe all of history teaches us this. Every generation has had someone who stood for a present truth. That is, a new thing that God was recovering, a new area of a thing that God was making real. And whoever faced that first got the awful brunt of it. The rest of us come in to the enjoyment. And this is what Paul is saying. We're all pioneers if we've seen something in our area, in our home, in our community, whatever it may involve. Even under this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you. But, as my beloved son, I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. There's one thing that we see in reaching God's house in the fullness. Abraham. Abraham is not merely a teacher, an instructor. What does his name mean? I just, I don't want to speak out of a bad spirit. But I get so weary today. Every place you turn, you hear people instructing others what to do. You know what comes in my spirit? I just keep saying, don't tell me anymore, just leave. I'll follow you. Just show me. There's so many folks who say, well, it hasn't really worked for me and I can't produce it and so forth. But I'm sure it will for you. Go ahead and try it. That's an instructor. That's an instructor. Hear me this morning, beloved. Let's turn our eyes to some fathers and begin to cry out, Oh God, what we need is not ten thousand more instructors. That's right. Your heart cry out for somebody who is being it and out of the being there comes the reality of it. Well, Paul could say to them, I'm your father. I've begotten you. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. I'm not telling you what to do. Just follow along. It's quite a statement. And it's the thing I have to honestly acknowledge before you this morning. Lord, Lord, who is worthy to take the step? Who can go on and say, follow me. I think it can only be as, he says, as I follow the Lord. As I follow the Lord. Well, there's another principle we need to get into. My time's running away. Not only is faithfulness, and you see it all through the life of Abram, faithfulness as a principle, faithful as a steward, not success, not being understood or appreciated, but he's trustworthy to the one who's committed himself. I like this next principle because I believe that the more God shows you, he creates. Thank you. The more God shows you of what he's doing, and when he has committed something, there's another quality. I don't know how to put it. There's another quality of a steward that I believe pleases God. And when he's committed one thing and there's been a little faithfulness in it, it's this asking largely. Asking. It's found in a life in a man called Caleb. You know what the story of Caleb is? You remember when God committed to these 12 men to go in and spy out the land? They came back. Ten of them had a majority report. They said it was the truth that they gave. It's a land that flows with milk and honey, but it's filled with giants and walled cities. They caused the hearts of the people to melt with fear. Two of them came back, Joshua and Caleb, with a minority report. There's something I've always loved about Caleb because when he comes to Moses, he says, Moses, when I was looking around over in the land, I spotted a mountain. Who wants a mountain? But Caleb did. I'd like to have you read what it says about this man. Numbers 14.24. I think we'll begin with verse 22 of the 14th chapter. Because all these men, which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit within him," Oh, I like that. He had another spirit within him. "...and followed me fully. Him will I bring into the land whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess it." So, something was committed to Caleb. He goes in, he sees something has appeared to him, and I believe it's something of God's working in fullness in our own life, and that is to not let us be satisfied with just getting in. But he says, Give me this mountain. Give me this mountain. He goes to Moses. Now we have to ask the question, How long did Caleb have to wait for the fulfillment of his mountain? Now you listen real carefully. Everybody says what? You're careful now. How long did Caleb wait for the fulfillment of his mountain? Don't you like the spirit of one who, in reaching out, says, Lord, give me this mountain. He goes to Moses, and Moses promised it to him. And 40 years later, that's right, when they get into the land, and they begin to divide it up among them, Caleb comes to Joshua, and he says to him, Joshua, you remember that Moses promised me this mountain over here? Now I've come to claim my promise. We're in the land. And he got a place. You know the name of that mountain? It never meant much to me until one day the Lord reminded me the mountain was called Hebron. Hebron. Hebron. Some of you pronounce it. H-E-B-R-O-N. Hebron. I guess for a long time I just had a little bit of pity for Caleb and Joshua because I kept saying, Lord, that really wasn't fair. Those fellows brought back the right report. They were ready to go in. Why did you make them stay with this whole crowd that had to die in the wilderness? Lord, you really, really, you didn't treat them right. I've seen some individuals every now and then who seemingly have to wait to get their mountain. And then one day the Lord whispered and said, Look, when people will follow me faithfully and when they'll ask largely, I have another principle that operates. And suddenly I saw in a moment that Caleb had his mountain all 40 years because he had the inward reality of it. The word Hebron means fellowship. It means fellowship. Who wants an old pile of dirt when you can have Hebron, the reality? Are you with me? I may be speaking to some this morning who are looking for a pile of dirt. And God says the principle is this. I will give you inward reality while you're waiting for outward fulfillment. Let's read a little bit. Joshua 14, 6. Now they're in the land and it's being portioned out. It's being divided among them. Here's what's involved in the land. Verse 6, Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jethunah, the king of Zite, said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me and thee in Kadesh Barnea. Forty years old was I 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 mine heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the hearts of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. Do you underline things in your Bible? If you don't, you ought to get one you can underline. And throw them away about every two years and start over. Then you'll have a fresh one. Hope they don't last two years. Alright. And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, lo, I am this day, orscore and five years, I am eighty-five, as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war both to go out and to come in. He'd been living on what? Fellowship. And this is why at eighty-five he's what? Cheer up, Miss Stearns, you've got another hundred years to go. If you live on what? If you live on what? Fellowship. Inward reality. That's right. You live on inward reality. Live on inward reality. Fellowship. Verse twelve, Now therefore give me this mountain, wherefore the Lord spake in that day, for thou heardest it that day, how the Anakins were there, and that the cities were great and fenced. If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said, has lost his spirit, has he? Anakins are still there, all the problems are still there, but his first word was, the Lord's with us, and the Lord, he's with us, we'll drive them out. And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron, therefore, became the inheritance of Caleb. But he'd had it for, the reality of it, for forty years, and he's just now getting the outward evidence. I thought, oh, a number of years ago we were studying this, I was thinking one day, oh Lord, how I'd like to have this transferred on to some of my family, my son. Did you ever want something that God had wrought in your heart, a real precious, did you ever want to transfer it on? Somebody says you can't. I'm not so sure that you can't. I'm not so sure. These things aren't taught, they're caught. They're caught. Ever try to teach somebody? They don't get it. That's because we try to be an instructor. But you be a father, and these things get caught. One day I was reading about Caleb's daughter, and I thought, uh-oh, would you like to read it with me? Turn over to Judges, chapter one. Judges, chapter one. If you want to pass on to your own heritage, don't teach them, just leave them. Don't be an instructor, be a father. Verse 14 of Judges, one. Came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask her father a field, and she lighted from off her ass, and Caleb said unto her, Daughter, what wilt thou? And she said unto him, Give me a blessing. Where did she learn this give me business? It's the only time it's right to use it. Where did she learn this give me business? Huh? I believe she caught it from her father. Cheer up, mother, father. She caught it. Give me a blessing. For thou hast given me a south land, give me also springs of water. She asked what? Largely. She asked largely. Oh, thank God, that when we lead, I believe we can count on our heritage or posterity catching something of it. They'll not get it by teaching, but they will catch it. If our spirit, how many of you can believe this morning, as you look at some lives, some families, you've seen some who have wholly, wholly, wholly, wholly followed the Lord. Through every kind of situation and circumstance. And the children who've grown up in that kind of a climate can't help but catch devotion. They know whether dad's living for this or something else. They know whether mother's living just for a house and furnishings and things. They know what is wholly the occupation of a heart. They know our altar. You don't tell them, they catch it. Can you see that? Caleb was of another spirit and he had a heart that wholly followed the Lord. Oh, I just have this longing this morning in the midst of finishing up, but can't really be finished because only God can do it. But the life that lives, a dedication and a fullness of dedication, I'm just sure will experience the reality inwardly long before the outwardness of it ever becomes manifest. And others will catch in our fellowship the same thing. Well, I must close, but one more thing I'd like to just say. I believe that there's another principle that you see in Abram. Not only faithfulness of Abraham, I believe that he kept his face and his heart turned and God kept enlarging. I don't know how much of inward reality and yet it seems to me that he kept seeing and he was buoyed up even though he didn't actually outwardly possess. There was something of a substance in the faith that kept him going. There's another principle here in this stewardship and our real dedication. And I call it invitation to move. Invitation, an enlarged invitation from servant to friend. You know the story. You know the principle with Jesus. As long as an individual's dedication and as long as his fulfilling commands is just a matter of a servant-master relationship, the master says, Go, all I have to do is hear and I fulfill it. He says, Do, all I have to do is hear and do. I don't have to think. Better if I don't. Really. I just what? I just obey. One day I see a loveliness in the relationship of God with Abram. He says over in Genesis 17, I believe it is. He says, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that I'm... We ought to read that. It's 18. Chapter 18, verse 17. Now, you know what has happened. Lot has gone into Sodom and Gomorrah and God is going to judge. He's going to destroy all of this. And yet I see in God's own heart a real father heart. And he says, Should I hide this thing from Abram that I'm going to do? Would he hide it from a servant? I believe he would. But not from a friend. Not from a friend. He invites Abram into an intimate kind of a base of sharing that you do with a friend because it's with a friend that you share some of your purposes, some of your plans, some of what you're doing. You just say to a servant, Go get some water. You share with a friend and you say, I need some water because I want to quench your thirst. There's something of the sharing of your purpose, your mind, your heart. Shall I hide from Abram that thing which I do? Seeing that Abram shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him for I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath." Abraham was going to have a family that would numbers the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore. God was going to fulfill it. He had promised Abraham. And so, I love this little principle now where we move into an intimacy of sharing with him and he says, instead of just servants, I want to invite you in to an intimate participation with what I'm doing. Jesus turned in John 15 and 15. He said, henceforth, I don't call you servants anymore. I call you what? I'm going to let you in on a little bit more of my mind and what I'm doing. If our dedication presses on, all the faithfulness, the trustworthiness that God wants in being a servant and the more he commits and the more we love and the more we desire, we say, Lord, won't you let me do a little bit more? Commit another part. You've given me this field. How about half of this field over here? You see? It's beginning to ask a little larger. But I can see the spirit of so many servants who'd say, huh, can't keep this one and need more help. Do I have to do that? No. The dedication we're after is a different kind. Master, there's another field over here. And you ask. And guess what might happen when you begin to ask. I keep saying to folk, it's one thing to have the calling, the sense of dedication. It's another thing to have the sending. When he gives you the commitment, he gives you the dedication, and then the sending, you go out. So many folk who say, well, praise God, I'm the called. I know I'm his. I know he's committed something. I'm waiting to be sent. One day the Lord said, the sending, the sending will come if you'll understand what happened with Isaiah. He got so close to the Lord, he overheard the Lord saying, whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send? And he said, Lord, here am I. Send me. That is when we come to share in something of the long and the burden and the passion of his own heart. Lord, here's a neighbor. Would you send somebody? Here's a problem, Lord. I don't rush out to do it. I have to hear your word. There's a mountain over there, Lord. Would you give me? He said, go. He's being sent for. Sent for. We're the called, but the sent. And there's this principle in here of stewardship. Oh, the getting closer and closer to his own heart where we begin to ask. And we are asking more largely. And all the while, our life is one of really beholding. It's a fellowship with him. We have the reality. How many of you believe that you can enjoy somebody else's house as much as they do because all the time that they're building it, you're enjoying the process too? You see what I mean? You're so close to them, you follow through their sufferings, their enjoyments, their heartaches. You just fellowship. You almost feel like you move in with them. You're one with them. This is the privilege. And so in this stewardship, in this reaching unto the full thing, I believe we can count more and more that God does not want to hide, but he moves us into what it means to be a friend with him. Abraham was a father, and he wants us to be. I was reading that little phrase that says, as we read it a little earlier, that in stewards, a man is to be found faithful. And the Lord just simply said, don't put the two words on, a man is to be, to be. Lord, I want to do. No, I want you to be. It's required in stewards that a man be. All of God's fulfillment through Abraham was just in being, being, being. And God did the doing. He found in him faithfulness. Well, in closing now, I just was interested this morning as I awakened, seemed like the Holy Spirit whispered to me in Hebrews, says, Abraham looked for a city. And because that's so far to the front of the chapter, I never got it connected with the closing part. It says, Abraham looked for a city, but thee are come unto the city. I said, Lord, am I really? I've been looking with Abraham. Abraham what? Look, you better turn there with me. We just got to get this nailed down. And then I promise I'll close. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 10 says, for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But poor Abraham just really could only by faith look. But now we read over in chapter 12 and it says in verse 22, but ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. Now, lest we think that that thing we're come to is other, read with me back in verse 18. But ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched. Abraham looked, and we're in chapter 12 now in verse 18. Abraham looked, that's chapter 11. But here we are, but ye are come. Come to what? Come to what? But ye are come. Oh, there's a spiritual reality. And this little phrase kept coming back to me, but verse 18, but ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched. You're come to another mount. What? One that can't physically be touched. Well, I have to leave you. I see we got into something I can't finish, but let the Lord interpret it. You know, if he will make this real, I believe that in spite of the fact that we come to a mount that we touch, and it ponders at us, and it's black clouds, and it brings fear, we back up, and they didn't like that mount. They really didn't. They went back, and they said, Moses, we don't like the way God talks to us. You go up and talk to God. And I think they were really getting rid of Moses, because no man ever goes up, but what, if you see God, the end. But we're not come to that kind of a mount. We're not come to that end. We're come to a reality that's in God himself. Well, it's been a joy these mornings to share with you. Let's pray, shall we? Lord, what we can't translate into meaning, thou will have to. But we pray that in just this little lesson this morning, thou will help us to see we are stewards. The mysteries of God have been committed. Every one of us has been delegated a place. Help us to accept our delegation, what's been committed to us. Help us to represent thee as Caleb did. Oh, Lord, that we'll have another spirit and a heart that's been proved that will wholly follow you. Lord, if we murmured during our wilderness wandering because we had to stay back when others were going their own way and it seemed like we couldn't enter into enjoyment because we couldn't get anybody else to see. Take the murmuring away. Don't let us tempt you in the hour of our proving. Let us prove you, prove that you can give us our mountain right now. You can give right now the Hebron, the reality of yourself. It's in beholding, it's in living, it's in living in your own heart that we can enjoy anything and everything that's yours. Hallelujah. And Lord, more and more, I believe with every one of us who will claim an increasing fullness of stewardship and dedication, you'll invite us in. You're not wanting to hide. You're wanting to share. Teach us what it is. Even as you've said through John, as fathers, we might come to know him who is from the beginning. Our father heart shared to a father. Oh, the longing of your heart, dear Father. Him who is from the beginning. Make it to be real now. And we'll give thee the praise and the honor and the glory for we ask it in Jesus' lovely name. Amen. Amen.