Enjoy the first part of this two part series!

While having the wrong expectations from our church can stifle spiritual growth, having the right expectations will give us discernment that will lead us to a healthy church body where we can grow in our faith, maximizing all that God has for us. Here are some things we should expect from a church.

Things I should expect from my church:

1. The Bible

Front and center of any church should be the teaching of God’s Word. This is how we grow; how we distinguish between good and evil; how we are spiritually nourished; how we are equipped to battle Satan; what we base our lives upon, and what the church is to proclaim. Expect your church to teach the Word of God.

2. Unconditional love

Love is the primary characteristic of God working in a Christian’s life and in our church fellowships. This is how non-believers know we are followers of Christ, and this is what we will need in a church to nourish our lives and our relationship with Christ. We won’t always love perfectly, but that’s what a church should strive for, and what we should be willing to give. Expect your church to love you or at least strive to love you unconditionally.

3. Integrity in leadership

I should expect my leadership to exemplify Christ’s teaching morally. I should be able to trust that church leadership is following the Lord, making every effort to be holy and pleasing to the Lord, just as every follower of Christ. Leaders should not be looked at as perfect, but should want to exemplify Christ’s teachings, being careful not to misrepresent the gospel, especially in the areas of finances and sexual morality. Expect your church to value integrity in leadership.

4. Jesus-centric

I should expect my church to have Jesus front and center of all that goes on. Jesus should be the star of the church, the famous One, and the One the church magnifies. All should revolve around Jesus, as He is the head of the church. Expect your church to be centered on Jesus.

5. Gospel preached and lived out

I should expect my church to be a place where the message of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done to save mankind from sin is proclaimed and lived out. I should expect the gospel to be clear so that people will know the message of salvation, and so I can live by this message. I should expect my church to be clear about elements of the gospel like sin: How sin effects me. What God did about my sin. How to receive what God did about my sin, that only Jesus can take away my sin and why, about heaven and hell, grace, mercy, forgiveness and resurrection. Expect your church to preach and live out the gospel.

6. Dependence on the Holy Spirit

I should expect my church to follow, not lead God. This means that my church should make it clear by teaching and demonstrating that it is not by human abilities and strength but by the Spirit working in and through the church. I should expect my church to not rely on human means to accomplish God’s work, but that God’s work would be accomplished by God’s Spirit. Expect your church to depend on the Holy Spirit.

7. Support of the needy

I should expect my church to be compassionate and to help support those within the body who are needy and those without where the Spirit leads and provides. The church should always have the great commission in mind to make disciples by preaching the gospel and teaching people to obey Christ’s teaching as we reach out to help those in need. Expect your church to support the needy.

8. Unity in the Spirit

I should expect the church to strive for unity within the church body, which means that I will have to do that as well. The unity we will experience is in the Spirit and is focused on glorifying Christ in our actions. This means that we will have to often yield to others, consider others as more important than ourselves and to put others ahead of ourselves, so that Christ is glorified. This may mean that I will have to put my personal desires and wants behind the greater good of God’s glory. In other words, unity is more important than getting what we want. Expect your church to strive for unity.

9. Opportunities to serve

Considering that every Christian has a spiritual gift, and that gift is to be primarily used within the body of Christ, I should expect my church to give me opportunities and even encourage the use of my gift. I shouldn’t expect to be placed in certain positions or offices within the church right away or at my choosing, but I should expect to be able to serve in the church and let my gifts and calling come to the surface as I do. Expect your church to give you opportunities to serve.

10. Spiritual growth

I should expect to grow spiritually in my church with my participation. With healthy doctrine, teaching of the Word, opportunities to serve, using my spiritual gifts, accountably, encouragement, support, unconditional love and prayer, I will find that my church is the best instrument for my spiritual growth. Part of our growth is following the two prescribed “sacraments,” which are baptism and communion. These sacraments are outward signs of inward grace. Expect your church to help you grow spiritually.

11. Spiritual Attacks

Jesus said to His disciples that if they hated Him, they would hate them too. I should expect that a church that is following Jesus will encounter often and repeated attacks from Satan on the work of God. We aren’t to think it strange that we have these attacks but to think they are normal. The attacks are directly to stop the work of God. The most effective churches are the most spiritually attacked churches. Expect your church to be attacked spiritually.

12. Prayer

I should expect prayer to be a major focus and emphasis in my church. Jesus said that His house should be a house of prayer. I should expect there to be opportunities to pray corporately with the whole church, individually with others in the church, and with pastors and elders at the church. I should expect that my church knows the power of prayer and the gift of prayer, and that all that is done in the church is bathed in prayer. This means that I too should be praying with the body, with others and in my personal life. Expect your church to be a church of prayer.

13. Spiritual family

I should expect my church to be close like a spiritual family. I shouldn’t see my church as something I attend, but something I am. A church family should be a place that all are welcome to join, where there is mutual love for Jesus and for each other, where I can be connected with others, where I can be open and honest with others, where I can feel safe, valued, built up and where I can experience close fellowship. Expect your church to be a spiritual family.

14. Equipping for ministry

I should expect that involvement in my church would help me be better at serving the Lord and serving others. I should be more loving, more passionate about God, more understanding of His Word, more intimate in my relationship with Him, more grounded in His truth and a better instrument for God to use. If this is not happening in my church, then either you are in the wrong church or you are not participating in what the church is doing as part of the body of Christ. Expect your church to equip you for ministry.

15. Church Discipline

On occasion, I should expect my church to have to deal with those in the church who are causing division, or who are living in sin and won’t repent. These are those who are serving in the church and not mere attendants or guests of the church. Expect your church to exercise church discipline when necessary.

In Israel’s heyday, to call someone a “dog” was an insult, not a stage name in the rap game. Some say the name “Caleb” meant “dog.” Well, not anymore. The Caleb of Israel changed all that.

We know Caleb as a warrior, a man of faith, a faithful believer in the power of the God of Israel. He was no dog. Like Christ, he came from Judah. And like Christ, he was a lion of Judah. No dog in Caleb whatsoever.

Caleb, of course, had been one of the original spies sent by Moses into Canaan some 40 years earlier. He had, along with Joshua, had faith in the ability of the God of Israel. Sure, the inhabitants of Canaan were a force to be reckoned with, but God was on their side. Caleb and Joshua believed God; they believed in His power.

Caleb “with Joshua” didn’t buy into the grasshopper logic. You know the kind: “We are like grasshoppers in their sight! We will surely be defeated!” They bought more into a Pauline logic: “If God be for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31).

Yes, from the very beginning Caleb appeared as a man of faith. Because he believed God, he did not die with the other spies. He and Joshua lived. Joshua replaced Moses, leading the people into the Promised Land. Caleb supported him; Caleb went along for the ride. Caleb was all in.

Finally, once in the land, after 40 years of wilderness wandering, Caleb approached Joshua. They had come to the land. Caleb had never forgotten it. He had dreamed of this day. He had looked forward to getting back into that land he’d spied out so many years ago. He wanted to take it. And he had a specific piece of the land in mind.

Caleb’s Faith

“Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, ‘You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 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 him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, “Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God'”(Joshua 14:6-9).

We first note the faith of Caleb. The original faith from 40 years earlier still pulsed through his body. With intensity, he reminded Joshua of Moses’ promise to him. According to Moses, Caleb had “wholly followed the LORD,” a phrase oft-repeated about Caleb. He was a devoted man. His faith was still alive. He still believed.

Caleb had seen the bodies fall in the wilderness. He saw God’s promises unfolding. With every funeral he attended, his faith grew. He aged. At 85 years old, he saw how God had kept His word towards Caleb. He was alive. This built up the faith that was already there. Then, he went to Joshua, overflowing with belief in what God would do.

Caleb’s faith was astounding. It was a faith that grew. It was a faith that had been tested. It was a faith that was alive. May this faith dwell in us.

Caleb’s Strength

“And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming”(Joshua 14:10-11).

Secondly, we note the strength of Caleb. The claim he made was incredible. It had been a total of 45 years since the Kadesh Barnea tragedy. They’d come into the land at this point and, after a few years of fighting, Caleb was 85 years old. But you must fight against all images of all 85-year-old men you’ve ever met. Caleb was not like them. Caleb was just as strong then as he was at 40. I do not think he was self-deceived. I think God had powerfully worked in his life.

Others died, but Caleb thrived. He was more than alive; he was living. His joints and muscles and bones all radiated God’s glory, for he was still as strong as the day he spied out that land originally. He could war, no doubt about it.

Caleb’s strength was astounding. It was a strength that remained, a strength that grew. Does this not remind us of the inward strength we long to feel increase within us? Do we not want to be 85 years old with an internal power that is more than we had in our youth? Though the outward man perishes, the Spirit can make the inner man renewed day by day. May this strength fall upon us.

Caleb’s Love

“So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.’ Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war” (Joshua 14:12-15).

Thirdly, we note the love of Caleb. He loved the mountain. That’s what he wanted from Joshua: the hill country of Hebron. Others in the book of Joshua would faint at the sight of the mountains; they were occupied by powerful forces with heavy weaponry. The hill country was hard to overcome, hard to defeat; but Caleb wanted to take it. To him, it was the best opportunity. He was a mountain man, and he couldn’t wait for Joshua to release him upon it.

But it seemed there was more to Hebron than the difficulty of the terrain. Sure, Caleb looked forward to crushing the Anakim there, but there may have been something else. Hebron was historical. Abraham had built an altar there after Lot’s departure. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all sojourned there. It seemed to have been a place of fellowship with God. Caleb wanted the mountain, but more so, Caleb wanted God. He wholly followed God. He loved His Lord.

Caleb’s love was astounding. It was a love and devotion rarely found. Hebron means “association” or “league”; may we crave an association with God as Caleb did. Let us be in league with Him. Let us become a people whose hearts are captured by the mountain. Mount Calvary opened up Mount Hebron to us. The blood made way for friendship with God. May this love develop within us.

Caleb was an outrageous man, a far cry from the norms of his day. Bold, full of faith and in love with God. He did not war for war’s sake, but for God. He wanted to see God’s kingdom advance. The likeness of Christ was found in Him, for Jesus wanted His mountain most of all. Like Flint, His face was set towards His cross, toward His mountain. He did not grow complacent, satisfied with what was. No, he battled for more. May we do the same.

God, give us our mountain!