Scripture: Joshua 14:6-15; Luke 15:1-7
Most of you, I’m sure, have seen Toy Story. If not, Toy Story 5 is now out in the theaters this summer, so you’ve got some catching up to do. But even if you haven’t seen it, all you need to know about it for this sermon is that toys, which seem like inanimate objects to us humans, actually come to life when we humans aren’t around.
Andy is the boy who owns all the toys you’re about to see, and his mom is throwing him a birthday party today. So let’s watch clip number one…
[Show 01TOYSTORY.mp4]
“Have you been replaced?” the dinosaur toy anxiously asks the beloved cowboy toy, Woody, who for years has been Andy’s favorite toy—by far. And “being replaced”—being rejected, becoming obsolete—is the biggest fear these toys face: What if Andy receives some brighter, shinier toy for his birthday, a toy with more bells and whistles, and he no longer has room in his heart for his older toys?
As the piggy bank says while surveying Andy’s new presents: “Yes sir, we’re next month’s garage sale fodder, for sure!”
The Bible includes more than a few stories of men and women who, having reached a more advanced age, might have been tempted to feel “worn out”—not as “bright and shiny” as they used to be. Yet these seasoned Bible heroes still accomplished powerful things for God and his kingdom. One of these heroes is Caleb.
We first met Caleb back in Numbers chapter 13. He’s 40 years old at that time, one of twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the Promised Land.
Ten of these spies—not counting Caleb and Joshua—are scared to death: “There are giants in the land. Compared to them, we’re like tiny grasshoppers. We don’t stand a chance!”
Caleb, however, is unintimidated. He says in Numbers 13:30, “Let us go up at once and occupy [the land], for we are well able to overcome it.”
Unfortunately, he and Joshua can’t persuade the naysayers… And because of their unbelief, Israel’s entry into the Promised Land is postponed by 40 years.
And it’s all because the Israelites had this one terrible thought: “Who are we compared to those people?”
“Who am I compared to him?” “Who am I compared to her?”
Those are some of the most spiritually dangerous words we can ever think.
After all, Woody’s insecurity isn’t based on some lack of love on Andy’s part. Woody should know from years of experience how much Andy loves him. So why does he suddenly question that love?
Because he compares himself to Buzz Lightyear: “If only I had what Buzz has! If only I had all the cool gadgets Buzz has!If only I lit up the way Buzz does!”
And the same is often true for us. This “comparing ourselves to others” gets to the heart of the Tenth Commandment—the sin of coveting.
But consider this: If you are a child of God through faith in Christ, God has given you precisely what you need to accomplish two things: to glorify him, and to find lasting happiness and joy in him.
Sometimes only God knows that the thing you wish you had—or the person you wish you were—would not accomplish those goals nearly as well as what God has actually given you.
John Newton, the 18th-century Anglican minister who wrote “Amazing Grace,” once said: “Everything is necessary that God sends our way; nothing can be necessary that he withholds.”
If God withholds something from us, he does so for our good.
The question is, will we trust that God knows best?
In this next scene, we see that Buzz Lightyear has a problem. He thinks he really is a Space Ranger, and not just a toy!
[Show 02TOYSTORY.mp4]
I’m not exaggerating when I say that one of my greatest challenges in life is learning to appreciate the way things “really are”—in spite of how they often seem. By which I mean, learning to believe that God—whom I can’t see—is intimately involved in even the tiniest details of my life.
There’s an old hymn that says:
Christ has no hands but our hands
To do His work today;
He has no feet but our feet
To lead men in His way…
I don’t like that at all… because God can do whatever he pleases, however he chooses to do so—including by working in supernatural and miraculous ways!
But… I do understand what the hymn writer is trying to say: God really does choose to work through us. It pleases him for us to accomplish his will and purposes in the world. The best example, of course, is the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” Of course we never fulfill that commission apart from his Holy Spirit. But still… God wants to accomplish great things through us!
But if we’re not careful, we can misunderstand this truth. We can start thinking, “Everything depends on me—or on us. If we don’t make it happen, and soon, it won’t happen.”
The Bible, however, paints a different picture. Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”
In other words, yes—we do all we can to “prepare the horse”—i.e., to prepare for whatever victory God wants to give us. We work. We obey. We do what God calls us to do. But the victory? The outcome? The power to succeed? All that belongs to God. So that when it’s over, we say, “Praise God! Look what he did!”
That’s exactly what Caleb understood.
When Caleb, at 85 years old, tells Joshua in today’s scripture, “Give me this hill country,” he isn’t saying, “Look how strong I am. Look what I can accomplish.” This is not some proud Buzz Lightyear moment for him: “To infinity and beyond!”
No, listen to what Caleb says in Joshua 14:12: “It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”
That’s the difference between Caleb and Buzz. Buzz thinks he can fly because Buzz is amazing. Caleb believes he can conquer because God is amazing.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive?”
And even in the clip we just watched, Buzz was wrong. He couldn’t fly—not in the way he thought. At best, as Woody says, Buzz could only “fall with style.”
But Woody isn’t entirely right either. What Buzz did—with gravity, the laws of physics, and a very interesting series of coincidences—was still pretty amazing. And even our ability to “fall with style” is a gift from God.
If God wants us to “fall with style” in order to glorify his name and give us lasting joy, then God will enable us to do so.
And when he does, we won’t say, “Look what I did.” We’ll say, “Look what God did.”
In this next clip, Buzz finally realizes that he is just a toy… and it breaks his heart.
[Show 03TOYSTORY.mp4]
Buzz’s realization that he’s “just a toy” is presented as the saddest moment in the movie.
And it is sad, of course.
But it’s not tragic… Not at all…
In fact, it’s good… because it’s the truth. Jesus says, “The truth will set you free.”[1] Buzz needs to know the truth about himself. This is the beginning of Buzz’s healing.
Just as a surgeon has to wound us in order to heal us, God’s healing also usually hurts.
It hurt the apostle Paul, for instance, which he describes in 2 Corinthians 12. God had given Paul incredible spiritual experiences—visions of heaven itself, he says. And then, Paul says, “To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh.”
Paul pleaded with God to take this thorn away. And God said no.
But that “no” was also an act of love. Because through that weakness and pain, Paul learned something he could not have learned otherwise: that everything he really needed in life came from the Lord.
Paul learned that when he was weak, that’s when he was strong.[2]
Caleb understood this truth too. At 85 years old, he knew he was not strong because of Caleb. He was strong because of the Lord who has been faithful to him for 45 years.
You saw in the clip that Buzz’s arm fell off. He’s broken. He literally has to pick up the pieces.
But good news: he will be redeemed.
In the same way, God uses painful trials—not to destroy us—but to heal us, to humble us, to make us into the people he created us to be.
Being “broken,” in other words, will sometimes or often be part of God’s plan for our lives…
And so will our healing…
We Methodists like to use a word to describe this healing: sanctification… or holiness… I used to hate talking about holiness—even though it’s the most Methodist thing to talk about—because it sounded so much like “holier than thou.” Now I think of holiness as a very happy word.
Because it means overcoming sin in my life… And replacing that bad stuff with good stuff like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
I certainly need holiness…
Even recently I have found myself feeling anxious at times about all these transitions that we’re facing as a church. Moving out… moving into a temporary space… moving from that space into our permanent church home. Paying the bills. “Competing with the megachurch down the street”—not that we should do that.
My point is, I know I’m not supposed to ever feel afraid. I can cite chapter and verse, trust me…
But I sense that I’m not the only one who feels anxious around here… Even before I became your pastor, I heard the anxiety expressed about how we’re going to “grow” the church—numerically. “Are we doing enough?” “Will we do enough?”
But you know what? I hear this fear expressed most loudly from this one really annoying member of the church. I mean, this person complains all the time about how I’m personally not doing enough to grow the church. Hurts my feelings. He’s so negative all the time! So I’m just going to call him out…
His name is Brent White. Do you know him? That dude lives in my head rent-free…
And he needs more of Jesus… He needs more faith in Jesus… more of the Spirit’s power to change him.
See, I’ve heard it said that church is the one organization that exists for people who aren’t yet members. Have you heard that? I understand the sentiment: the church should be committed to reaching people outside the church… with the gospel… No argument here…
We exist to make disciples, by all means… but that includes making disciples of ourselves, too!
I had a very progressive United Methodist clergy colleague once accuse me of “always preaching for conversion”—like there was something wrong with that. But I wanted to say to her, “Yes, I’m always preaching for conversion… my ownbefore anyone else’s… Not that my sins aren’t already forgiven—they are—or not that I haven’t received the gift of eternal life—I have… But as long as my heart is fearful… which usually expresses itself through anger… which sometimes causes me to lash out at people I love… well… it just goes to show that there are dark corners of my heart that still need to surrender and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
But the good news is that Jesus is not finished with me yet! He’s got a lot of work left to do. And that work is called sanctification, and as Methodists, especially, we should be all about it!
Our church should be a place where redeemed sinners like Brent White can find more of Jesus… more of his Spirit… more of his love… more of his grace… more of his power… and, through his brothers and sisters in Christ, can find the love, the support, the prayers, the encouragement that he needs—that we all need—to finish the race God has set before each one of us…
Because aren’t we all at least a little like that broken Buzz Lightyear lying on the floor? Sometimes we’re hurting because we’ve failed, once again, to trust in the Lord. Other times we’re simply hurting because we live in a broken world. Either way, we all get hurt. And we all need help. And we all need healing.
And isn’t that what church is for, too?
Listen: no one appreciates the importance of growing the church numerically more than I do. We will pray for it, work for it, and rejoice when God grants it—which I trust that he will. But God is at least as interested in the kind of growth that happens in here [point to heart].”
Are we taking advantage of opportunities to grow—the most important of which is to worship God, to hear his Word proclaimed, and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper here on Sunday?
Granted, this kind of growth is not as easy to measure… or control. And it’s certainly not something we can brag about when it happens because the result of this sanctifying work of the Spirit has the effect of killing our sinful pride.
Anyway… I’m convinced that if this kind of growth is happening in our church—if we’re falling more deeply in love with Jesus, if we’re treasuring Christ more and more, if we’re finding in Christ alone the satisfaction of our deepest longings—that other kind of growth—numerical growth—will take care of itself!
They certainly go hand in hand.
Imagine the 250 people of Five Forks Methodist being—not anxious for the future—but filled with the Spirit, on fire for Jesus, anxious not for ourselves but for the opportunities God gives us to reach men and women and boys and girls with the gospel of Jesus Christ… Imagine what God can do with that!
Let’s watch the next clip… Buzz is about to get some healing!
[Show 04TOYSTORY.mp4]
In Luke 15, Jesus compares himself to a shepherd who leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep to go find that one lost sheep.
But why does the shepherd do it?
Who’s going to miss one stupid, little, insignificant sheep?
Apparently, Jesus our Good Shepherd will!
Listen to verses 5 and 6: “And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”
Notice what he says: “I have found my sheep.”
That sheep belongs to him.
In this clip, Buzz says: “I’m just a toy, a stupid, little, insignificant toy.” And Woody says, “Being a toy is a lot better than being a Space Ranger… Look, over in that house is a kid who thinks you’re the greatest, and it’s not because you’re a Space Ranger, pal. It’s because you’re a toy. You are his toy!”
And then Buzz looks at the bottom of his boot and sees that Andy has written his name there.
“This toy belongs to Andy.”
Buzz realizes that his value, his worth, his identity doesn’t come from who he is; it comes from whose he is. His value comes from the one to whom he belongs.
And that’s the gospel.
You belong to a God who loved you so much that he came looking for you when you were lost. You belong to a Shepherd who rejoices when he finds you. You belong to a Savior who gave his life to bring you home.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “You were bought with a price.”
And when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, it’s not exactly like God writes his name on our foot, but he does something similar: Paul says that God puts his seal on us when he gives us the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13. One purpose of this seal is to say:
“This person belongs to God.”
Many of us remember the “Island of Misfit Toys” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In the clip that follows, a neighborhood bully named Sid has created a bunch of badly damaged, deformed, misfit toys… And Sid is about to destroy Buzz Lightyear, after Buzz gets trapped in Sid’s house.
In this final clip, Woody, with the help of all of Sid’s damaged, misfit toys, hatches a rescue plan to escape from Sid’s house.
Let’s watch the final clip now…
[Show 05TOYSTORY.mp4]
Sid’s damaged, deformed, misfit toys seem good for nothing. They seem worthless. Their lives seem beyond repair. Beyond redemption. And they even look kind of creepy, as you just saw.
And yet… Woody’s plan to rescue Buzz took full advantage of all of these things. These misfit toys—no matter how “worthless” they seemed by the world’s standards—were exactly what Sid needed.
God works like that too.
Now let’s return to Caleb’s story in Joshua 14. Caleb is still alive, 45 years after he was sent to spy out the Promised Land—just as God promised. And Caleb reminds Joshua that God also promised him some specific land: the hill country known as Hebron.
There’s only one problem.
Hebron remains unconquered. The land is still filled with a large, intimidating nation of people known as the Anakim—the same “giants” who terrified those ten spies 40 years earlier.
But Caleb is still undaunted.
And his confidence isn’t based on who he is; it’s based on who God is.
We see this in Joshua 14:12: “It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”
That phrase “it may be” doesn’t mean Caleb is doubting God. It means Caleb understands where his strength comes from.
Caleb knows: “If I win this battle, it won’t be because of Caleb. It will be because the LORD was with me.”
And for us—who belong to God through faith in his Son Jesus Christ—we have an even greater assurance.
Because Christ is our Emmanuel, “God with us.” Jesus promises, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He gives us his Holy Spirit. He promises never to leave us or forsake us.
So what do the Anakim look like in your life?
What intimidating giants are threatening you right now?
Maybe something related to your job… your health… your family… your children… your finances… your marriage… your future. Maybe someone has broken your heart, and you don’t know how to move on.
Maybe something related to the transitions that our own church will be going through in the near future as we prepare to move into our new, permanent church home.
Whatever your giants are, do you have the confidence of Caleb to say:
“Because God is always with me, I can be assured of the victory.”
Say that with me:
“Because God is always with me, I can be assured of the victory!”
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[3]
Amen.
[1] John 8:32
[2] 2 Corinthians 12:10
[3] Romans 8:38-39 ESV