Made For More – Part 7: Life Maximizing Attitudes!

Colossians 1:16 (MSG)

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible … everything got started in him (in Christ) and finds its purpose in him.

John 10:10 (MSG)

A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

Numbers 14:24 (NLT)

(God says) — My servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored.

Life-Maximizing Attitude #1: Choose to live !

Joshua 14:6-14 (NLT)

A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb said to Joshua, “Remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea. ⁷ I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and gave an honest report, ⁸ but my brothers who went with me frightened the people from entering the Promised Land. For my part, I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God. ⁹ So that day Moses solemnly promised me, ‘The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.’

¹⁰ “Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old.
¹¹ I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. ¹² So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me…

¹³ So Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave Hebron to him as his portion of land. ¹⁴ Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite because he wholeheartedly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.

Wholehearted people are … “and then some” people!

Colossians 3:23-24 (GW)

Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly as though you were working for your real boss and not merely for humans. ²⁴ You know that your real boss will give you an inheritance as your reward. It is Christ, your real boss, whom you are serving.

Wholehearted people are … enthusiastic people!

Romans 12:11 (NLT)
Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

And then some effort + energizing enthusiasm = wholeheartedness

Life-Maximizing Attitude #2: Decide not to !

Caleb was an outsider by birth, but he didn’t give up!

Joshua 14:6 (NLT)

A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, came to Joshua at Gilgal.

Ephesians 1:5 (NLT)

(God’s) unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.

Caleb was given a limiting label, but he didn’t give up!

Caleb faced pervasive pessimism, but didn’t give up!

Caleb dealt with delay, but he didn’t give up!

Luke 18:1 (CEV)

Jesus told his disciples a story about how they should keep on praying and never give up …

Hebrews 12:1 (GW)
… We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up.

Isaiah 50:7 (CEV)

I refuse to give up, because I know God will never let me down.

Life-Maximizing Attitude #3: Choose the !

Joshua 14:12 (NLT)
So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.