0:01 Good afternoon, church family. Nice to see everyone. Um, I praise the Lord for anointed song choices. I I I felt that the songs that we sang were very much in keeping with the burden that was on my heart today when we sing Jesus, you're 0:15 the center of my joy. It's it's easy to just uh sing that, you know, it's a lovely melody, but is it true? Jesus, you're the center of my joy. Is the Lord Jesus the center of what brings us joy? We also sang this this line. I asked 0:32 these uh young men to put up which is uh thou mine inheritance now and always. We just sang that a second ago from uh be thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart. We sang you are my inheritance now and always. What does it mean when we say 0:48 Lord you're my inheritance now and always. I wanted to uh share a little bit about that today. So you don't have to find the the lyrics. It's fine. But Jesus, we just sang those two things. Jesus, you're the center of my joy. And 1:00 we sang, you are my inheritance now and always. And I felt that was very much in keeping with the uh burden the Lord had put on my heart today. If you want to turn to um Numbers chapter 22 or actually maybe it's Joshua 22, I'm 1:18 sorry, Joshua 22. Going to turn to Joshua 22. There's a story there that maybe we haven't read before. And I would I would like to just draw a few lessons that I felt the Lord put on my heart that are in keeping with the songs that we have 1:33 sung today. And um as you're turning there to Joshua 22, I wanted to read a couple of verses from the New Testament because as we consider passages like this in in Joshua chapter 22 from the Old Testament, we have to read them with 1:51 a new covenant perspective. We aren't just reading a history book. We're reading something more, but we have to have new covenant eyes to see. And so I want to read you two verses that um just to just to bear in mind as we read this 2:05 passage in Joshua chapter 22. The first verse I want to read is from 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 6 says this lesson warns us that we must not desire evil things as they did nor worship idols as they did. Everything that happened to the people of Israel 2:22 happened as an example to us. And you Christians be careful if you are thinking I would never behave like that. Let this be a warning to you. You too may fall into sin as God's people did. So that's when we when we read the Old 2:37 Testament, one thing that we have to know is God gives it as an example to us and as a warning to us. So anytime we read a story like we're about to read in Joshua 22, we ought to read it not as an interesting history lesson, but to 2:49 recognize I am in danger of making the same mistake that these people made. And the reason that the Lord saw fit to include this in my new covenant postJesus death and resurrection Bible is not just because he wants me to know 3:02 the history of God's people, but because he wants me to be warned about the dangers that we see there. The other verse I wanted to mention before we read Joshua 22 is from Hebrews 4 and verse one. It says, I'll read it here. 3:15 Although God's promise still stands, his promise that we may enter his promised rest, we ought to tremble with fear, because some of us may be on the verge of failing to get there after all. So just like the uh the people of God 3:32 had a promise that they would enter the Sabbath rest of God and many of them did not enter despite God's promise. What the New Testament tells us is that we ought to have a fear that just like the people who didn't enter the promised 3:45 land, we too might fail to enter all of God's promised rest. And this author of Hebrews is writing to Christian brothers, not about an inability to take a break from work on on the Sabbath, but rather an inability as Christians, not 4:02 as not as Hebrews, although the writer was writing to the Hebrews, but he wasn't speaking about not being able to take a break from work on Sundays. He was speaking about there being a spiritual picture in the Sabbath that as 4:13 Christians, despite the fact that they given their lives to the Lord, they might miss out on. And so I wanted to mention those two verses from the New Testament as a reminder to all of us and especially young children. Why do we 4:25 read the Old Testament? It's because there's something there for God to teach us not only about his history but also warnings for us to be aware of in the New Testament. So with that being said, um if you will look with me now at uh 4:38 Joshua chapter 22, um this is after all of the land has been divided up and they've conquered. They've they've the God's people have done an amazing job of entering into the promised land and conquering many of the people. And it says here in verse 9 that 4:53 the troops of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the army of Israel at Shiloh in Canaan and cross the Jordan River to their own homeland of Gilead. Okay? And and this is important. We can talk about this in a second, but 5:07 these three tribes decided that they wanted land on the other side of the Jordan. And God told them, "Okay, that's fine, but you've got to go ahead of your brothers in battle array." And they did. They went ahead. They left their women, 5:20 their their wives, and their children back home on the other side of the Jordan. But then they went ahead of God's people, and they fought all of these different battles. And they're done. They've done their service. So, 5:30 it's not wrong that they're leaving. It's it's fine. But they did their service. But then, look at this. It says in verse 10, "Before they went across, while they were still in Canaan, they built a large monument for everyone to 5:40 see in the shape of an altar." And and keep reading. You may not have paid attention to this passage, but let's read let's read it together. When the rest of Israel heard about what they had done, they mustered an army at Shiloh 5:53 and prepared to go to war against their brother tribes. First, however, they sent a delegation led by Fineas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, and they crossed the river to talk to the tribes of Reubin and Gad and Manasseh. In this 6:05 delegation were 10 high officials of Israel, one from each of the 10 tribes, and each one of them a clan leader. When they arrived in the land of Gilead, they said to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, the whole congregation of the 6:17 Lord demands to know why you're sinning against the Lord. Why did you build this altar? Was our guilt at peor from which we are still not even cleansed despite the plague that tormented us? Was that guilt so little that you all have 6:29 decided to rebel again? You know that if you rebel today, the Lord will be angry with all of us tomorrow. Verse 19, if you need the altar because your land is defiled, then join us on our side of the river where the Lord lives among us in 6:43 his tabernacle. We'll happily share our land with you. But don't rebel against the Lord by building another altar in addition to the only true altar of God. Don't you remember that when Achen the son of Zarah sinned against the Lord, 6:56 the entire nation was punished in addition to the one man who sinned. This was the reply of the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh to these high officials. We swear by Jehovah, the God of gods, that we have 7:08 not built the altar in rebellion against the Lord. He knows. And let all Israel know it, too. We haven't built the altar to sacrifice burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings. May the curse of God be on us if we did. Why 7:21 have we done this? We've done it because we love the Lord and because we fear that in the future your children might say to ours, "What right do you have to worship the Lord God of Israel? The Lord has placed the Jordan River as a barrier 7:33 between you and our people. You have no part in the Lord and your children might make our children stop worshiping him. So we decided to build an altar just as a symbol to show our children and your children that we too may worship the 7:46 Lord with burnt offerings and peace offerings and sacrifices. And your children may not be able to say to ours, "You have no part in the Lord our God." If they say this, our children can reply, "Look at the altar of the Lord 7:57 that our fathers made patterned after the altar of Jehovah." And then it says later, when Fineas the priest heard this, they were very happy. and Phineas replied, "Today we know that God is among us because you haven't sinned." Okay, so I just read 8:13 that's probably the longest passage I can remember reading in one church service. Uh why why take all that time to read that? I I I felt as I read this in the last couple of weeks that the Lord challenged me. Um I've always kind 8:28 of been troubled by what Reuben and Manasseh and Gad did, but I could never really figure it out. It seemed like God had a promised land for his people and the uh these tribes realize actually we don't really want the promised land. And that's always kind of 8:45 bugged me and I never really knew why. And anytime I read that's back in numbers when that happens anytime I read it I go there's something weird about that you know but I I I didn't make anything of it. But what I see more 8:58 clearly now than I than I have in the past is Reuben and Gad and Manasseh had basically decided what promised land they wanted. And that was different than the promised land God had promised. And my question for I feel the 9:11 Lord is asking me and I ask you my brothers and sisters is is your promised land the promised land that God has promised? Is your promised land the promised land that God has promised? And what I the reason that we took all 9:29 that time to read what seems like a long kind of historical passage is because what I've started to see is it causes big problems for individuals and for the church when some people's promised land isn't what God has promised. And so I 9:45 wanted to talk about that today because it seems like they did they did this good thing. I mean, we we can go back to numbers in a second, but in Joshua 22, it seems like they did a good thing. Like like all of God's people were 9:59 concerned about this altar that these tribes have built. And then they explained themselves very thoroughly, right? We weren't trying to rebel. We didn't intend for this altar to be used for sacrifices. We were just afraid. And 10:11 I see there the first thing that happens when my promised land is not the promised land that God has promised, I'm insecure. And it's good evidence. If I wonder, is my promise on what God has promised or not? I can look and see, is there 10:26 anything I'm insecure about insecurity is a sign I'm holding on to something that God doesn't want for me. That challenged me to see that it looks like there was scheming, right? We decided, verse 27, it says, "It it seemed good to us, so we decided to 10:43 build an altar." Notice they didn't ask God about should they build an altar. They had this fear. They had this insecurity and they said, "You know what? It it's a good idea for us to make an altar that looks just like the altar 10:53 in Jerusalem, we're just going to put it here." And I see there that if if my promised land isn't what God has promised, I start having a lot of good plans and good ideas. And it's a great question to consider. Is my life filled 11:08 with some plans that I haven't checked with God? These people didn't ask God what he thought. They just said it'd be a it's a good idea because we're afraid your sons are probably your children are probably going to start prejudicing against our 11:21 children and so just better be safe, right? And then I see that it was a dangerous precedent, right? They say that technically wasn't an altar for sacrifice. But do you remember what happens in first kings 12 after King 11:33 David dies and Rahoboam comes to the throne and Jeroboam actually the Lord wants to uh you know he he kind of tells Jeroboam I'm going to appoint you to look after these 10 tribes and Rahoboam will only have two. One of the things 11:47 that Jeroboam does which is wicked in the sight of God is what? He builds a couple of other altars. I don't know. I haven't studied this issue deeply, but I can't help but wonder if it says that his counselors told him, "You should 11:59 create these other altars." So, it's not so far for people to go all the way to Jerusalem because if they go there, they might be influenced to start to want to serve Rahaboam, right? And interesting, several hundred years 12:11 previously, people are making other altars. And this compromise, you could call it, started kind of planting the seeds of a precedent that would send, you know, 10 tribes in a dangerous direction hundreds of years later. I 12:25 don't know exactly, but I I see that whenever I've got a self-appointed promised land and I am longing for or seeking to protect something that God has not promised me, I'm in danger. I'll be insecure. I'll be scheming. I'll I'll 12:41 I'll introduce confusion. beware of any promised land that God has not promised. What's the uh what's the protection for me? How do I cure this? I I don't think that the right protection was, you know, in Joshua 22, they should 13:00 have just gone back over the river and not built an altar. You can think, oh, they just shouldn't have built the altar. That's really what's wrong with it. But I think that's like that's dealing with the fruit rather than the 13:11 root. To know how they could have made it right, we have to go back to the root of the issue because the root of the issue isn't that they built an altar. The altar introduced all sorts of confusion and problems later on. But the 13:23 real problem is all the way back in Numbers 32. And if you turn with me to Numbers 32, this is sometime earlier. It's before all of the battles in the in the promised land. while Moses is still alive. But in Numbers 32, look at this 13:42 because this is the this is the the kind of the root of the problem that I think led to lots of other problems in the history of God's people. And remember in the New Covenant, we're commanded to not think this danger isn't relevant to me. 13:56 And we're also commanded, that's why I referenced Hebrews chapter 4, it says that some did not enter God's promised rest. for sure Manasseh and Gad and Reuben did not enter. They literally did not enter God's promised land. But I never I 14:15 realized I never considered the warning of them. And here's here's the warning in Numbers 32. It says in verse one, "When Israel arrived in the land of Jazzar and Gilead Gilead, the tribes of Reuben and Gad who had large flocks of sheep noticed what 14:33 wonderful sheep country it was. So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and said, 'The Lord has used Israel to destroy this population and it's wonderful sheep country, ideal for our flocks. Please let us have this land 14:48 as our portion instead of the land on the other side of the Jordan River. That's the problem. The problem was they started with their desires, not God's desire. They didn't start from the premise of 15:07 God's promised land is our inheritance. That's what we want. Therefore, what does it take to get there? They started from we got a bunch of sheep. It's not really clear if the promised land's going to be any good for them, but this 15:19 this land's great. Can we just settle here? Can we just have this land instead? Because the the thing the the primary thing that's true is we have sheep. And it's good to ask ourselves, what's the primary thing that's true? is 15:31 the primary thing is true. God's called me to his promised land and maybe my sheep are just a distraction to me. Maybe what the Lord wants is for me to say, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with all these sheep, but I got to get to the promised 15:43 land." Or do I say, "Well, I have all these sheep, therefore the promised land must not be for me." And I think part of the ch the part of the issue with the Gad and Reuben and Manasseh is their hope was rooted in the wrong thing. 16:00 Worldly-minded people might say, "Well, we've got all this cattle. There must be some mistake. God didn't really mean the promised land." But heavenly minded people say, "Well, there must be a mistake with my cattle." You know, um it'd be better to 16:14 give up my cattle and gain in the promised land. But but they didn't want to do that. And I was asking myself this question this week. What are cattle in the new covenant, so to speak? What are things that I might cling to that keep 16:31 me from entering the promised land? And I wrote down a few things that I that I wanted to share. What are the cattle or the sheep, sorry, that that I cling to in the new covenant? And first, we have to ask ourselves a question. What's the 16:43 promised land? I can't know what's keeping me from the promised land if I don't know what the promised land is. And I wanted to mention two things I believe are the promised land for us in the new covenant. verse is Romans 16:54 14:17 says, "The kingdom of God, the promised land of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." So I know for sure my inheritance, so he's saying, "Thou my inheritance now and always." For sure my inheritance, Romans 14:17, is total 17:12 satisfaction with Jesus Christ right now. And so what are my sheep in my life? The sheep of my life are things that keep me from being totally satisfied with Jesus Christ in my life right now. It might be leaning on my comforts rather than finding strength in 17:29 Jesus. Part of being totally satisfied in Jesus is I find all of my strength in him. Any comfort that I go to rather than going to Jesus is a sheep in my life that will keep me from the promised land of total satisfaction with Jesus. 17:45 What about leaning on my own plans? You know, James, Jesus brother, tells us, "You who are in business, don't say, next year we're going to go do this. We're going to go to this town and do business, but instead say, if the Lord 17:56 wills, we will live. And we'll also maybe do some other stuff." And my sheep might be my plans. I have plans rather than trusting the Lord. The promised land is not my plans being fulfilled. The promised land is righteousness, peace, and joy right now 18:14 in the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's maybe my sheep are justifying some uncristlike attitude or habit in my life that I and I'm saying why I should be able to do this thing or think this way or act this way. Maybe my sheep are complaining 18:29 about some circumstance or condition that the Lord has approved. My brother and sister, you will never enjoy total satisfaction of Jesus Christ. You'll never totally be satisfied with Jesus Christ. If there's anything you're 18:46 complaining about, if there's anything in your life that the Lord has appointed or allowed that is causing a complaint, that's a sheep. That's a sheep. And you got to decide, does the Lord have to remove that thing before I'm at rest, before I 19:03 have joy, or can the Lord allow that thing for the rest of my life and I can experience right now my inheritance, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's fixating on regrets of the past that can keep us from being totally 19:21 satisfied with the Lord because we we become consumed with things that mistakes we've made and we aren't totally convinced that in Jesus Christ we are declared righteous. Regrets can keep us from total satisfaction with Christ. But the 19:35 other part of the promised land, the first part I was just mentioning is Romans 14:17. The other part I wanted to mention because I think it's easy for us to forget. We think about overcoming. That's like kind of the broad banner of 19:45 that first part, right? Overcoming is the promised land. And for sure, we should be overcomers. For sure, we should be at rest in Christ. We should be at at peace and full of righteousness and joy. Absolutely. But the other part 19:58 of the promised land I wanted to mention John 17 if you want to turn there because Jesus says something here that's really amazing in in his final prayer and I wanted to mention that I believe this is part of our inheritance 20:14 in the new covenant and if we don't see that the Lord you know like um Hebron you know Caleb saw that there that there's a great land and he wanted to go conquer it and if we don't see that there's a great part of our inheritance 20:27 even beyond overcoming then we we will never cease to conquer it. But it says in uh in John 17:22 Jesus says I have given them the glory you gave me the glorious unity of being one as we are. I in them and you 20:45 in me all being perfected into one so that the world would know that you sent me and that will understand that you love them as much as you love me. Do you catch that? Perfect as one. That's the other part of our 21:03 inheritance. It's not just that I myself am righteous and at peace and full of joy, but I am growing in perfect unity with my brothers and sisters. That I believe is part of our inheritance. And what what's the cattle perhaps or the sheep that I cling to 21:21 that might keep me from entering that land? Maybe it's suspicions. Maybe it's divisions. Maybe there's a superficial sense of fellowship. We've read brother Santos's book about um the congregation, the church, and the club, right? And one 21:34 of the great dangers to the true church is just a club where I have superficial fellowship with others rather than true unity of spirit. Perhaps another sheep that we have to be in danger of is unconcerned only being absorbed in 21:52 myself and my own family. I believe that being totally absorbed certainly if you think about the three-story building that we that we have learned about from brother Zach certainly we have to make sure that the second floor is 22:04 strong but it but if we don't seek to build the third floor and we become consumed with our own lives and our own family we fall short of the full rich inheritance that the Lord Jesus has for us. He doesn't say individually perfect 22:21 Christians are what let the world know that God sent Jesus. He says when they are perfect in unity then the world will know that you sent me. So it's not enough for us even if we can be totally sinless for the rest of our lives 22:36 individually insufficient. There's something about the perfect unity of the church that manifests the glory of God in a way that Jesus was very burdened for. And we have to seek that burden too. The um there's a verse that came to 22:52 my mind here that I wanted to mention because it says we should all be growing in likeness to Jesus. Right? We read it. We we we've been meditating on that hopefully all of our lives. But there's one way in which I found am I 23:05 growing like Jesus in this. John chapter 2 verse 17. Am I growing in likeness to Jesus in this way? It says, "The disciples remembered this prophecy about Jesus. Zeal for God's house will consume me." 23:23 Am I growing in likeness to Christ in zeal for his house is consuming me? I love it. In the living Bible, it says, "Concern for God's house will be my undoing." Am I growing in likeness to Jesus like that? That I'm not just 23:39 concerned for my own house. And in the Bible, we're told of two houses, so to speak, in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6 says, "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit, your body. You are God's house." But then in 1 Peter 2, he 23:54 says, "Your living stones being built together as a church to be the house of God." And in Hebrews 3:6, he says, "Whose house Jesus Christ, whose house we are, we so the house of God, when it says in John 2:17, zeal for God's house 24:11 has consumed me." Is zeal for God's house consuming me? What's God's house? One, my body is zeal that all of this body would be totally dedicated to the Lord. Is it an all-consuming passion of my life? And two, God's house is the 24:27 church is zeal for the church being perfect in unity. Is it my undoing as it says here? Is it my undoing? Am I growing like Jesus in that zeal both for my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and for the church, which is God's 24:43 house? That's a challenging question because it's easy just to be focused on overcoming but not not to be so concerned that Lord make them one just as you and I are one. Last thing I I wanted to mention 25:00 and we can turn back to uh Joshua 22. There's even though this was a bad thing and even though it's a um example that we should avoid I think of appointing a promised land other than that which God has appointed for us. That's the 25:16 negative example. Yet also even in this negative example the Lord used it to reveal a few really great things. And I wanted just to celebrate a few really great things just as I close because again I personally haven't 25:34 spent much time studying this passage and I felt as I sought the Lord what to share today the Lord said show this passage and really look read it more deeply than probably you do sometimes in the church meeting and and and seek to 25:46 understand what is the relevance to NCCF today and I don't just want to highlight the negative example I also want to highlight the positive That's here too. There are three things that I wanted to mention. The first is in verse 11 and 25:59 verse 12. It says, "When the rest of Israel heard about what they had done, they mustered an army at Shiloh and prepared to go to war." I loved to see that these 10 tribes were so intensely concerned 26:17 with the purity of God's name and testimony on earth that they were willing to go to war with their brothers. Does anyone remember why the Levites became the Levites? The Levites became God's chosen priests because they were the ones who 26:34 were willing to go to war. They slayed their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers in the incident of the golden calf. Moses said, "All who are on the Lord's side, come to me and kill." And they did. And I see that same attitude 26:49 here in Joshua 22. All the 10 tribes are like, "Dude, if they're going to build an altar, we got to go to war." I love that. Praise God for that example. The second thing I wanted to mention is in verse 19. He they say, "Don't rebel against 27:06 the Lord by building another altar." Uh oh, look, sorry, at the beginning, if you need the altar because your land is defiled, then join us on our side of the river where the Lord lives, and we will gladly share our land with you. They 27:21 were happy to share. They didn't have some possessive attitude about no no this is our land and you guys already chose that land. They said hey if you've realized that's a mistake come we we'll redivide the land. We're happy to share 27:34 with you. I love that totally unselfish attitude of these 10 tribes. We're all happy to have a smaller portion if that means that you will seek to honor God. So they're willing to go to war. They're willing to share. And the third thing I 27:46 wanted to celebrate and and praise the Lord for is in verse 17 and 20 they say don't you remember verse 20 that when Achen the son of Zarah sinned against the Lord the entire nation was punished and in verse 17 they say was 28:01 our guilt at peor so little that you have to rebel again what do I see there they remembered God's dealings and praise the Lord that they didn't forget we see again and again and again throughout the history of God's people, they have this terrible habit of 28:17 forgetting. And when this terrible incident of the tribes of Gad and Manasseh and Reuben when it when they built an altar, we see that the people of Israel didn't forget how seriously God took sin. I and so praise the Lord 28:33 that even with this terrible thing that happened I think which planted the seeds for the undoing of the nation of Israel for hundreds of years later even in the midst of that we see a people willing to go to war to preserve 28:44 the purity of God's people we see a people willing to be inconvenienced and be unselfish and share what's God's appointed to them if only it meant others would not sin and we see a people who are keenly aware of the consequences 28:59 of sin we never would have seen any of those things if Reuben and Gad and Manasseh hadn't made the mistake that they made. So, we can celebrate those things as well. This I'm sure there's more here by the way, but it's good for 29:12 us to remember the verses that that we began with. Hebrews 4:1 Although God's promise still stands that we may enter his promise last rest, we ought to tremble with fear because some of us may on the verge of 29:30 failing to get there after all. Let's seek to preserve that fear family that fear that we have to enter all of God's promised rest. What is God's promised rest? For myself, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. But 29:44 what else is God's promised rest? that I would have a zeal that the church would be one. Let us fear if any of us seem to fall short of the full promised rest of God.
