How Long Are You Slack to Possess the Land

The children of Israel, as we saw last week, have given portions of the land to five of the tribes. You remember that Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were given a portion of the land on the east side of the Jordan. Now, the children of Israel have come into the Promised Land, taken the land of Canaan, and begun to distribute it to the rest of the tribes. We observed last week how they allocated land to the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Manasseh, and the tribe of Ephraim.

As we come to the next portions, the next groupings of the land of Israel given to the next seven tribes, I am sure that the Lord desires to speak to us. We noted last week that although God had given this land to the tribe of Judah, we saw in chapter 15, verse 63, that the children of Judah did not completely drive out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in their inheritance. Moving on, we saw that the tribe of Ephraim, when they received their inheritance in the Promised Land, did not drive out the Canaanites who were in Gezer, as noted in chapter 16, verse 10. Similarly, the tribe of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of the land they were given, as mentioned in chapter 17, verse 12.

It is sad to see that these first three tribes, given their inheritance in the Promised Land—the land that God had intended for them—did not fully lay hold of that inheritance. They did not completely take possession of what God had given to them. However, in the midst of those chapters last week, we saw three different individuals. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, took the land in Judah and then gave some of it to his son-in-law and daughter, Aksa.

We saw Aksa last week when she approached Caleb and said, "Dad, I desire more. Father, give me a blessing. You've given me the south land, but give me the springs also." Caleb, upon hearing her request, granted it. As she brought her request to her father, he gave her the lot that she desired. We learned how, when we bring our requests to the Lord, He will also grant us the desires of our hearts.

Now, perhaps some of you tonight are saying, "I really would desire a new Ford Mustang," or "that new little Nissan Z out there looks really nice." I've seen those driving around, and every time I'm with Eric, he notices one and says, "Man, that's a great car." You might think, "That's the desire of my heart. That's what I really want." However, the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 1...

God has given us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. A lot of times, those blessings that the Lord pours out upon us are not the blessings that we think we should have. We look at the physical things around us, and those things draw us in. They sometimes make us say, "Oh, I really desire that thing." Yet, the Lord desires for us to take hold of and lay hold of all the spiritual blessings that He has given to us.

You see, God has given us gifts, and He has provided these things that abound in our lives—these fruits in our lives—so that people would see these things and desire to know where they came from. If you went out tonight and got yourself a nice new Z, whatever model it is, you could say, "Yeah, God gave it to me." But you may have worked really hard to attain that thing, and it may not really be a good witness of the Lord and His graciousness.

If tonight you won the lottery or came into a lot of money, you could say, "Well, it wasn't the Lord; it was me who did this." However, the spiritual blessings in my life and in yours—when I have joy in my life, when I have peace in my life, when I have the things that only the Spirit of God can give—I can't take credit for those things. I can't point to that and say, "I worked really hard to attain this. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps to get this."

The blessings that God desires to give us are those that will bring Him glory. Oftentimes, those blessings are not physical; they are the spiritual ones. People come up to us, who are believers, and ask, "How come you always have a smile on your face? How come you're always filled with joy and peace?" We can't say, "Well, it was some self-help thing that I went through that really gave me joy and peace." No, when someone asks us that, all we can say is, "It's the Lord," and He receives the glory.

With the children of Israel, this truth was the same as well. The land that was given to them and the things they did to inherit this land were not by their own strength. These people were coming against cities that were great and mighty, and they couldn't overcome their foes. The Lord was the one who fought for Israel. This land that they were now to possess was to be a great witness to the rest of the world that the God of Israel fights for His people and that the God of Israel is the one true God.

Taking possession of this land was to be proof to the rest of the world that God is real. Yet, as we come to this portion of Scripture, we see that these people have not gone in to completely take it.

It was God who had given them the strength to take it. It was God who had opened the door for them to come into the land. Yet Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh had not taken the whole lot of inheritance that God had given to them.

As we come to this portion of Scripture in chapter 18, I want you to notice there in verse 1 that in the congregation of the children of Israel, they gathered together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle. They moved the tabernacle of God from Gilgal, located in the southern portion of the nation, to the center portion of the nation, to a place called Shiloh. Shiloh in Scripture, in Hebrew, literally means rest or peace. The children of Israel came to this place of rest, this place of peace, and they set up the tabernacle of meeting, the place where they would meet with God. It was the only place that God would receive sacrifice; it was to be that place, the tabernacle.

The children of Israel moved that tabernacle to that place, and it says at the end of verse 1 that the land was subdued before them. The land was there before them; it was subdued. Not, as I have already said, by their own power or might, but by the mighty hand and outstretched arm of God was the land subdued before them. There they pitched the tabernacle of meeting. At Shiloh, in that place of peace and rest, we see a real picture, a real representation of the rest that only comes through God, through the mighty hand and outstretched arm of God.

If tonight you're wondering where you can get that peace, where you can have that rest, it's only found in God. Paul the Apostle in the book of Colossians tells us that in Him the fullness dwells. In God dwells all the fullness. Everything that anyone could ever desire or long for is truly found in the Lord. There are people in the world who are seeking power, prosperity, pleasure, and all these different things, trying to find fulfillment in the things of the world. Yet you won't find it.

Some of you tonight have gone through that point in your life where you were seeking those things in Egypt, in the world, and yet you couldn't find it. Some of you may still be in that place, still seeking power, pleasure, prosperity, and all these different things positioned in the world. Those things will never satisfy you because all the fullness is found in God. The children of Israel have now come into the center place of this land, into that place of Shiloh, into that place of rest, and they have erected the tabernacle of the Lord of hosts there.

And the land was subdued before them, not by what they did, but by what God did. The land, the life of rest that God extends to you and me, that He told His disciples of in John chapter 10, that life more abundantly, is given to every single one of us. However, it is not by something we can do, not by knocking on doors, not by going all around the world and telling people about this great joy that we have, but it is through God, and only through God.

On Thursday night at the coffee shop, we started going through the Sermon on the Mount. We were doing a little bit of background to that portion of Scripture in Matthew. It was interesting to me as we were going through there, seeing the first words of our Lord, the very first words that Jesus uttered in His ministry. The first thing that He said there in Matthew, as the red letters show us, was when He was speaking to John the Baptist. He said, "Permit it to be so. Allow me to be baptized."

Then, the next three times in Matthew chapter 4 that He speaks, it is when He is speaking to the enemy, when the enemy comes to try and tempt Him. His very first words at the end of Matthew chapter 4 in His ministry were, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In the very next few verses, He came to Simon Peter and Andrew and said to them, "Follow Me."

So the words of our Lord were, "Repent. Turn away from the things that you're going after right now, all those things that you're seeking after in the world. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is right there in your very hands now. Follow Me." The very next words He said were, "I will make you." He tells them, "I will make you fishers of men."

What is it that tonight you're trying to make yourself? Peter and Andrew, His brother, were trying to make themselves a career in fishing. Maybe tonight you're trying to make yourself something. But the Lord comes to us and says, "Turn away from that. Leave that alone. Come follow Me, and I will make you. I will do that work."

The Lord desires to do that in my life and in yours. That is what He desired for the children of Israel as well. They couldn't take the land on their own. But He says, "You follow Me, and I will get rid of the enemies. I will give you the land."

Yet now, as they sit there in the middle of this place, in a small little town called Shiloh, with the temple erected there, they are worshiping the Lord. They are in a place of peace and rest, but that land was still all around them, and it hadn't completely been taken. They had not taken possession of it.

This land was supposed to be a great witness to the nations around them. All the other nations were going to look and say, "Truly, the God of Israel is the one true God. Look what He's done for His people." Yet, there they were, kind of huddled in this little area called Shiloh.

Many of you in this room have gone to a camp or a retreat and have experienced that mountaintop moment. In fact, how many of you have gone to a retreat? You've been on the mountaintop and truly experienced the Lord. God did a great work in your heart. Every single one of us has gone through those mountaintop experiences. I believe it is God's joy to bring us to those mountaintops, to show us what lies ahead.

From the mountaintop, you can see the incredible valleys below and the mountains in the distance. We catch a glimpse of what God is going to do in our lives when we're on that mountaintop. Huddled in that place, worshiping the Lord, the Lord unfolds a little bit of His glory to us. We have this vision of, "Oh Lord, You want to do this in my life. You want to take me in this direction to that next mountaintop over there." Lord, that looks great.

The children of Israel were in a place like that—in a place of peace, in a place of rest, huddled together, worshiping the Lord, thanking Him for what He had done, what He was doing, and looking forward to the things He was going to do.

If you turn in your Bibles to the New Testament, to Matthew chapter 17, we see another time when a group of people was huddled together on a mountaintop and had the opportunity to see a vision of God's glory. They witnessed God do something amazing that no one else had seen before.

In Matthew chapter 17, we read, "And after six days, Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, His brother, and brought them into a high mountain, separated apart from everybody else. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothing was as white as light. It was so bright. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with Him."

Then Peter answered. I love this portion right here. No one asked him a question, but notice what it says: "Then he answered." He was one of those guys who was really good at putting his foot in his mouth. He would just jump out there and say something, thinking, "Well, this is what I think." Everybody would look at him and go, "Well, thank you, Peter, but be quiet."

And so then answered Peter, and he said unto Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you will, let us make three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." And while he yet spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of heaven, which said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him." Basically, God said, "Peter, shut up. Hear Jesus. Keep your mouth shut."

But you see, many of us have gone to that place where we've been on the mountaintop. The Lord revealed Himself in a glorious manner to us and showed us just a little bit of vision of what God wants to do in our lives. He desires to give us peace and the rest that He wants us to take full control of. He reveals just a little taste of that to us when we're at a retreat. Maybe you don't even have to be up on top of the mountain; you just have a mountaintop experience worshiping the Lord by yourself in your room one night. The Lord shows you just a little bit of what He wants to do in your life.

A lot of times, we, like Peter, say, "Oh, Lord, it's good to be here. This is great. This is wonderful. Let's just stay here. Let's put up the tabernacle. Let's put up the tents, and we'll just kind of huddle in this place and stay here. I like it here. Let's stay here." And God would say, "Shh, be quiet. I want you to hear my Son. Just hear what He has to say."

You see, while Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration here in Matthew chapter 17, they got to see what was going to come. They saw Jesus in His glorified body, in His full glorious appearance. And you know what? That was going to happen in the future. They got a vision of what was going to take place—the rest that they would have, the peace that they would have.

But first, they had to go down that mountain, and Jesus had to go up another mountain. Before they could fully experience that life, that glorious rest and that glorious peace that Peter, James, and John had an opportunity to see and experience there on the Mount of Transfiguration, they had to go down the mountain, and Jesus had to go up another. He had to go up Calvary, Golgotha. He had to carry a cross and be crucified.

You see, I believe the Lord desires to reveal to every single one of us.

Just a little bit of what He wants to do in our lives. But before He can do that, He has to take us up other mountains where we need to die, be crucified, lay down our lives, yield ourselves to Him, and submit ourselves to go through the valleys. When you're on the mountaintop, you can see the future mountaintops off in the distance. However, to reach those, you must first go down into the valleys. There are other mountains that you may have to climb that just aren't as nice or fun.

The children of Israel, back in Joshua chapter 18, were at one of those places. They had erected the tabernacle at Shiloh and were worshiping the Lord. Yet, Joshua came to them because, in verse 2, it says that there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes that had not yet received their inheritance. Joshua said in verse 3 to the children of Israel, "How long are you slack to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?" He questioned how long they would huddle in that place and stick together. The implication is that they had been there for a while, and these seven tribes had not gone out to take the land, to claim their inheritance yet. They were just living in tents, living in tabernacles, milling about in that area.

Joshua stands up and reminds them of what the Lord said to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration: "This is my beloved Son. Hear Him." Joshua, in Scripture, is a picture of Jesus. I believe the Lord would say through Joshua to those seven tribes, "Listen, you seven tribes, hear Him. How long are you slack? How long are you going to stick around lazily in this place?"

A great danger in our lives as believers is what I would like to call spiritual inertia. We can come to that place where we just start to float around. You know what inert gases are? They are just kind of floating around, not really doing anything. It’s easy for us to fall into that trap where we say, "I just love worshiping the Lord. I love going to those Bible studies and hearing Pat or Miles speak. I love listening to the radio and hearing Pastor Chuck." While that is great, if you're not doing anything, you're just kind of floating about. That is a real volatile place to be.

Because the Lord desires that you and I would not only take in, but also go out, let’s consider the Dead Sea. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Israel and visit the southern part of the nation, specifically the inheritance that was for the tribe of Judah. There, I saw the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth. This large body of water is essentially useless, except for producing a variety of skin care products, which I don't really care for. Nothing lives in this water because it is filled with too many minerals. Those minerals, on their own, may be great, but when combined in this vast body of water, they become ineffective. The water is extremely salty, and when you reach in and feel it, it dries your skin out very quickly.

But how did it get that way? The Dead Sea has an inlet but no outlet. The Jordan River flows down from the north and pours into the Dead Sea, but the water doesn’t go anywhere; it just keeps accumulating. The same can happen to you and me as believers. We can become spiritually inert, sitting around and letting the Lord pour into us. While it is good for God to pour in His Holy Spirit, eventually we can become bloated—bloated with blessings that the Lord desires to pour out to others. We may have an inlet but no outlet.

At this point in time, the children of Israel were in a state of spiritual inertia. They were sitting in Shiloh, and these seven tribes had not yet taken their inheritance. Joshua came to them, and the Lord said to hear him. Joshua asked, "How long are you going to sit around here and be lazy? How long will you be slack in going in to possess the land? To possess that lot of inheritance that God has given you?"

Every single one of us in this room has a lot of inheritance that is portioned out for us—an area where we will find ourselves, a piece of land, a piece of life that God has called each of us to. He says, "This is the land that I've given for Christine. This is the land that I've set apart for Victoria. This is the land that I want you to take. This is the land that I want you to live in." If you're not there, you're not going to function well. You will be spiritually inert, filling up with blessings, but with nothing coming out of you.

And eventually, good for nothing. Jesus would say there in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, "You are the salt of the earth." Salt is a good thing. During the time that Jesus was speaking those words, they didn't have refrigerators, so salt was very much needed to preserve things. It served as a preserving agent. Every single one of us is a preserving agent in this world.

I believe that when the Lord takes His church out, when He raptures His church, that salty influence on the world will be gone. The Spirit that is within us will be taken out of this world, and then things are really going to go downhill much faster than we see them going down today. But God tells us, "You are the salt of the earth." You're to be that preserving agent.

When you get a cut and maybe you get salt on it, it hurts. Similarly, when people in the world, with their open wounds of sin, come in contact with you, it should be a painful thing for them because you're the salt of the earth. However, He said if the salt loses its flavor or savor, it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under the feet of men.

Interestingly enough, the salt that loses its flavor oftentimes was the salt that was on the bottom of the pile, closest to the dirt, closest to the earth. After a while, it begins to lose its savor. That salt was the big chunks that they would take and throw out on the roads in Israel to keep the weeds from coming up, ensuring there were good paths for the children of Israel to walk on.

So the Lord says, "You're the salt of the earth. Don't lose your savor. Don't lose your flavor." But how can you lose your savor? How can you lose your flavor? You allow yourself to be stuck in a place of stagnation, not really going anywhere or doing anything, not serving the Lord. All the other salt gets piled on top of you, and after a while, you're just a little too close to the earth, and you lose your flavor. You become good for nothing.

I pray that we would never be good for nothing. When we stand before the Lord, I hope He looks at us and says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into this rest of Mine." Oh, that we would hear those words from our Father! I hope that every single one of us in this room, when we stand before the Lord, would receive that testimony from Him. But see,

It's easy for us to slack back and wait at the back of the pack, remaining in a place of spiritual inertia where we become bloated with blessings but do not give out. We are not witnesses to the world, and the lot that God desires for us to inherit and take possession of is just sitting out there. The Lord desires that we go out and take that land, that we take possession of those blessings.

You don't have to accomplish some amazing task to do that. All you have to do is say, "Lord, I want to take hold of that for which You've called me." As you begin to follow Him by reading His Word, spending time in prayer, and reaching out to others, the Lord will begin to bless you in ways you wouldn't believe. When I say God will bless you like you wouldn't believe, I don't mean that He will give you all those physical things. You will see more and more of those spiritual blessings in your life.

Read Galatians chapter 5 and see the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, meekness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. These are the things that God desires to do in my life and in your life. He desires to see those qualities coming out of my life and abounding from yours. Those things await you and me as we begin to say, "Lord, I desire to walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of my flesh. I want to follow You and do whatever You've called me to do." As you do that, God begins to do great things.

Joshua tells these tribes, "How long are you going to be slack and just sit around, not going in and possessing the land that God has given to you?" He instructs them to select three men from each tribe, saying, "Give out from among you, and I will send them. They shall rise and go through the land, describing it according to the inheritance of each tribe, and they shall come again to me."

Remember in Matthew chapter 28, the words of Jesus to His disciples before He ascended and left them. He said to go into all the world and make disciples. Joshua echoes this call to the tribes, saying, "I want you to go. I want you to take three men from each of these tribes. I want you to go, and this is what I'm calling you to do."

I want you to describe the land. Go out there and check this land out and describe it. I believe God has called you and me to the very same thing. He says, "I want you to go and describe the land." Describe the land to your brothers and your sisters. Describe the land to those you work with. Describe the land to those you go to school with. Tell them of the land, of the inheritance that God has given to you. Be a witness for Him, of Him.

So, Joshua says, "I want you to choose these three guys, each from a tribe." There are 21 men that he sends out. He says, "I want them to go out and describe the land and then come again to me." You see, that is what God has called you and me to do: to go out into the world, to describe the land, to describe the inheritance that God has given to us in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. And you know what? We're going to come again to Him. The book of Thessalonians tells us that He is going to come to us and take us out of here.

Joshua says, "Get these three guys, go out from each tribe, and then come again to me." These 21 men shall divide into seven parts. Judah shall abide in their coast in the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their coasts in the north. Joshua says, "Go out into this land that is there, and I want you to divide the remaining land into seven parts." You shall therefore describe the land into seven parts in verse six and bring the description here to me that I may cast lots before you here before the Lord your God.

But the Levites have no part among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east side, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave to them. These men arose and went their way, and Joshua charged them, saying, "Describe the land. Go and walk through the land and describe it, and come again to me that I may cast lots before the Lord in Shiloh."

The men went and passed through the land. They described it by its cities into seven parts in a book. They came again to Joshua and the host in Shiloh. Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord. There, Joshua divided the land unto the children of Israel according to their divisions. The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the coast of their lot came forth between the children of Judah.

Between the children of Joseph, the Lord told Joshua to send out three men from each tribe. These twenty-one men went out to look through the land and divide it into seven parts. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that they were gone for seven months. Traveling for seven months, they explored the full completeness of the land. Seven is the number of completion.

These men from the seven tribes went through the land to divide it into seven lots. After their journey, they returned to Joshua with everything written down in a scroll, laying it out before him. They reported that the land had been divided into seven lots, seven portions of inheritance. Joshua then took the lots. As we looked at last week, the lot in Hebrew means a pebble, and in Greek, it refers to the shooting forth or throwing of the pebble. They were essentially casting lots for these different tribes.

In Proverbs chapter 16, verse 33, it states that the lot is cast in the lap, but the whole disposition of it is the Lord's. The Lord is the one who decides who will receive each portion of land. They began to cast the lots, and the lot for the tribe of the children of Judah or Benjamin came up. They took this portion of land that was situated between the inheritance of Judah and the tribe of Ephraim.

As we continue into chapter 19, verse 1, it says that the second lot came forth for the tribe of Simeon. The tribe of the children of Simeon, according to their families and their inheritance, was within the inheritance of the children of Judah. They cast lots again, and the tribe of Simeon was given a portion of land right in the middle of the tribe of Judah in the southern portion of the nation. They had a circular portion of land surrounded by Judah.

Moving on in chapter 19 to verse 10, it states that the third lot came to the children of Zebulun. According to their families, the border of their inheritance was Sarid. The passage goes on to explain all the different cities that they took. As we move down into chapter 19, verse 17, we continue to see the unfolding of these inheritances.

It says the fourth lot came out to Ishachar for the children of Ishachar, according to their families. Over the next several verses, down to verse 23, their portion of land is described, including all the cities that they were given. Then, in verse 24, we read that the fifth lot came to the tribe of the children of Asher, according to their families. Their portion of land is described, and their lot, their inheritance, is listed in the next several verses down to verse 31.

In verse 32, the sixth lot came to the children of Naphtali. Their portion of inheritance is described, detailing the land that they were given and the land that they were to take. Then, down in verse 40 of chapter 19, the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan, according to their families. The lots were cast after seven months, and these 21 men went throughout the nation, dividing it into seven sectors, seven portions of inheritance. Some portions of land were bigger than others, but it was all good land that God was giving.

They returned to Joshua, and Joshua cast lots to give the land to these seven tribes that had not yet taken their portions. Now they were to go out and take possession of it. The land was given to them, but they were to go and grab hold of it. How were they supposed to do this? A good encouragement comes as we look down to verse 47 of chapter 19. There we read that the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them.

Maybe you remember last week that the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, the tribes of Joseph, came to Joshua and said, "The land that you gave to us is just too small. This portion of land is too narrow for us." Joshua responded, "Well, if it's too small for you, you are a great tribe. Go and take more land. Go up into the hill country, cut down those trees, and take that land, and the Lord will give it to you." But they didn't. They desired more and longed for a bigger portion of land, but as we looked at last week, they refused to labor for it.

The tribe of Dan, however, saw that the land they had was too small for them. They said, "This land's too little." Probably remembering the words of Joshua to the tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, they recognized their need for more.

They said, "Well, let's go take more." Therefore, the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem. They took it and smote it with the edge of the sword. The tribe of Dan looked at this land and said, "This is a beautiful land that Joshua has given to us, that the Lord has portioned to us, but we desire a little bit more. It's too little for us." They took the advice of Joshua and went out, saying, "Let's go take more." They went up into this area called Leshem or Lachish and took the land with the edge of the sword. They possessed it and dwelt therein.

God desires that every single one of us look at the lot He has given to us, the portion He has allotted to each of us. He wants us to take His word in hand and go with the edge of the sword, pressing in to take more and lay hold of that for which God has laid hold of us. We should say, "Lord, I desire to know more of You, to walk with You closer. I want to know You. I want to follow You." The tribe of Dan expressed this desire. They took the edge of the sword, smote the area, possessed it, and dwelt in it.

In the book of Genesis, chapter 12, when God spoke to Abraham, He said, "I want you to come and follow Me to a land that you've never been to. This land I'm going to give to you as an inheritance for you and your descendants after you. I'm going to bless your name. I'm going to make you a blessing. I'm going to bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you, and in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." Believing that word, Abraham said, "Lord, I'm going to follow You." He followed into the new land that God was giving to him.

In Genesis chapter 15, verse 6, it says that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. He believed; he had faith in the Lord. The Lord said, "That is what I'm looking for—just for you to follow Me and say, 'Lord, I'm going to go wherever You go. I'm going to do whatever You call me to do.'" So, Abraham went into this new land. After a couple of hard times and valley experiences, we come to chapter 15 of the book of Genesis. Again, God pronounces His blessing and promise to Abraham, saying, "This is the land that I'm giving to you. I've promised it to you. We're in a covenant relationship together. I'm your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

You have nothing to worry about. I've given you this land. So again, Abraham began to believe the Lord and follow Him a little bit more. By the time we reach Genesis chapter 22, we come to a point where God says, "Abraham, now that you've followed Me by faith, I want you to follow Me by faith in something else." He instructs Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 to take his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loves, and go to the Mount of Moriah, to a mountain that He will show him. There, Abraham is to offer Isaac as a burnt offering on one of those mountains.

The very next verse tells us that Abraham woke up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two servants with him, and took his son, Isaac, his only son, through whom the blessing and promise would come. He went into the land of Moriah and arrived at the mountain called Mount Moriah, very likely the same mountain where Jesus would be crucified a few thousand years later.

This father took his only begotten son up to the mountaintop, set up an altar, and bound his son, preparing to sacrifice him. God spoke to him in a still small voice and said, "Abraham." Abraham replied, "Yes, Lord, here I am." God then said, "Now I know that you will not withhold anything from Me." The Lord pronounced for a third time the blessing and promise that He was going to give to Abraham. He did not say, "Abraham, now I want you to go out and fight against all the people in this area." Instead, He simply said, "I want you to now dwell in the land."

You see, God is calling us as well. He has promised a certain portion, a certain lot, and a certain inheritance to you and me. He desires that we follow Him faithfully, doing whatever He calls us to do through His Word. He wants us to dwell in and possess the land that He has put before us, just like Abraham did. We are to lay hold of that for which He has laid hold of us and simply dwell in it.

We should live in that portion of land as a witness, so that people will look at our lives and say, "Look at the blessings that this person has. They have love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. I don't have that." God is calling us to dwell in that place as we follow Him by faith. And as we do, we will experience His blessings.

The Lord will shine through us. We'll be that city set on a hill that cannot be hid, that light that God has called us to be. We'll be that salt that He so desires as we follow Him. Every morning, we should wake up and say, "Lord, what do You want to do today?"

The Apostle Paul, in Galatians 2, says, "I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." You see, if we're believers, if we've been baptized into His household, Romans 6 tells us that we've been baptized into His death. Our lives are no longer ours; we've been crucified with Him. We no longer live, and now He desires to live His life through us every single day.

Jesus desires to be the one who tells us what He wants us to do. He speaks to us as we look to Him in His Word and talk to Him through prayer. We say, "Lord, what do You want to do?" I assure you, as you come to the Lord with an open heart, He'll show you. He promised He would. God desires to do that in my life and in yours—to pour out upon us and through us His Holy Spirit.

This whole promised land here in Joshua is a picture of that life, the abundant life filled with the Holy Spirit. God desires to pour out on you and pour out through you for every single day of your life. That's what God wants to do.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the New Testament again, to Philippians chapter 3. Many of us in this room tonight probably look up to the Apostle Paul. I know I do. I look up to this man who loved the Lord so very much. At the very beginning, his name was Saul of Tarsus. He was on his way to persecute Christians when the Lord appeared to him there in Acts chapter 9 on the road to Damascus. He was radically converted, and this man's life was transformed to the point where he was beaten many times with rods. I believe it was like three times he was beaten with rods and five times he was whipped.

Paul endured 39 lashes. He was shipwrecked and faced many times when he was naked, without clothing, without food, without money, cold, and wet. He crossed swollen rivers by himself. Why did he do this? Because he desired to know the Lord, to follow Him, and to come into that lot and inheritance that God had promised to him.

In Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, he says, "I do all this stuff; I've gotten rid of all my own life that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." The reason he gave his life completely, to the point of suffering these things, was so that he could know God and come into that intimate relationship with Him. It was not so he could perform a whole bunch of religious acts like he used to do when he was a Pharisee, but so that he could know the Lord in the power of His resurrection.

I think every single one of us in this room would like to know God in that powerful sense. The God who raised Himself from the dead—we would like to know Him. But Paul goes on to say, "and in the fellowship of His sufferings." Some of you today might say, "I really like being on the Mount of Transfiguration. I really like spending time on the mountaintop. I really love the power of His resurrection, seeing Jesus in His glorified body as Peter, James, and John did. I'd like to set up a few tabernacles and stay in that place."

However, Paul says that as good as that is, he wants to know Him in the valley, in the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. He comes to that place where he can truly say with Christ and with Paul, "I've been crucified with You, Lord. I no longer live."

In verse 11, he expresses his desire: "If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead." He clarifies in verse 12, "Not as though I have already attained, not as though I've already taken that possession, not as though I've already taken that lot, that inheritance that God desires for me and that I desire to have. Not as though I've already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after Him, that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of Jesus Christ."

He presses after Him that he may lay hold of that for which He has laid hold of him, that he may apprehend that lot of inheritance.

God desires for me to have the lot of inheritance that He has for Teresa, Todd, myself, Pastor Patrick, and Mark. That lot of inheritance that God desires for every single one of us in this room is something we should lay hold of. We should run to grab a hold of it and say, "Lord, I want that. If nothing else, I want You. I am going to follow after You."

I haven't already apprehended it. I'm not going to sit down and be slack in possessing the land that You've set before me. God, I just desire more of You so that I may know You. The Apostle Paul, whom many of us have looked up to over the last 2,000 years, said, "I'm not there yet. I'm not there." He pressed on and kept going until he came to that place.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. In verse 13, he says, "But this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He acknowledges that he hasn't laid hold of it yet. He hasn't taken possession yet. Like the tribe of Dan, they said, "We haven't had it yet. Let's go take more." With the edge of the sword, they went and took it. They laid hold of that for which God had laid hold of them.

Every single one of us in this room, that is God's desire for us. You will not lay hold of it until the day you take your last breath and open your eyes to a new life with Jesus standing there with His arms open, ushering you into the fullness of the promised land. That is what God desires. That is what God is doing right now in your life and in mine.

However, we can sit back in Shiloh. We can build tabernacles for ourselves on mountaintops and say, "This is as far as I want to go." We may have seen a little bit of the glory of what the Lord wants to do in our lives, but we might be fine with just seeing it and not actually laying hold of it. Oh, that we would get off the mountaintop and go down into the valley to follow the Lord, who desires us to take up our cross and go up other mountains. These mountains may not be as fun, but they bring forth blessings.

That we wouldn't be like the Dead Sea, just kind of sitting there and allowing the water to keep coming in. Oh yeah, Lord, flood over me. Yeah, come upon me. That's great. But the Lord desires that once He has poured into you, you would go pour out.

How many of you have ever drunk through a hose before? It kind of tastes like the hose. The Lord desires that it wouldn't be like that; He'd pour into us, and the saltiness of our lives would not taint the water, but that He could just pour in and we'd pour out. If you allow the Lord to pour into you, then the saltiness that He has put into your life will begin to taint that water. It becomes stagnant and bitter. Sure, it may be good for making yourself look nice in the morning, but it doesn't really satisfy the need of the people in the world to be filled.

Oh, that we would pour out, that we would go out, that we would say, "Lord, what do you want me to do today? Where do you want me to go?" Lord, I want to get to know You, even if it means suffering, even if it means going through trials and valleys. Lord, I want to know You. I haven't apprehended yet. Lord, I want to take hold of that for which You have laid hold of me. There is a portion of land, a lot of inheritance out there with your name on it. You're not there yet, and neither am I. I've not apprehended yet.

Oh, that I wouldn't just have the postcard of it and say, "Yeah, that looks really nice, that little lot of inheritance out there. Boy, that's a lot of money. Boy, that looks nice. I'll put that on my wall." But that we would actually go out and say, "Lord, I want to lay hold of that inheritance. I want to lay hold of that portion." That was the desire of Paul, and that was the desire of the tribe of Dan. They went out with the edge of the sword, took the land, possessed it, and dwelt therein. That's what God has called me to: to dwell in the land of His faithfulness, to feed on His faithfulness.

In verse 49 of Joshua chapter 19, it says, "When they had made an end to the dividing of the land for the inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua, the son of Nun, among them." You see, I look forward to that day when the possession is complete, when I've laid hold of that.

For which God has laid hold of me, I am able to give my Joshua, my Jesus, His inheritance. Because you see, we are His inheritance, and He desires that we would be with Him. He looks forward to that day.

It's interesting to me that here in the portion of Scripture, Joshua was the last one to take his inheritance. In our Joshua, He'll be the last one to receive His inheritance. But He so desires it; He so desires for us to be with Him in His presence even now.

It's interesting to me that Joshua had the authority and the clout to say, "I'm going to take this piece of land" at the very beginning. But he didn't. He just waited until the very end. He was probably, very likely, the oldest person in the land of Israel at this point in time. He and Caleb were the oldest, and he waited until the very end to receive his inheritance.

Jesus is waiting until the very end to receive His inheritance because there are people out there tonight who don't know Him, whom He has called, and He is waiting. Maybe it's someone who is in the lot of inheritance that God has given to you. It's someone that you're going to minister to next week or next year. Oh, that we would go out and lay hold of that for which He has laid hold of us.

So, Joshua was given his inheritance according to the word of the Lord. They gave him the city to be asked, even Timnath-serah in the mountain of Ephraim. He built the city and dwelt therein. You see, Jesus is building a city too, and we are the living stones in that city. He's building it up. He's waiting for us. Oh, the day when we'll stand before Him and be with Him in that city.

These are the inheritances, as stated in verse 51, which Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So they made an end of dividing the country. It was all done. I look forward to that day with an expectant heart.

Where it'll all be done. We'll stand before the Lord, His bride, His inheritance, the inheritance that He died for, that He gave everything for. That's you and that's me.

Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for Your Word. This is Your letter to us. You spoke it to every single one of us in this room. All these things were written for our admonition, for our instruction, Lord, upon whom the end of the ages have come. We live in those last days, we believe. Our salvation is nearer than when we first began. Oh, Lord, come. Come quickly. Come and take us home. Lord, I long to be with You, and I know You desire us as Your inheritance.

Oh, God, thank You that You saw us as the joy that was set before You. For us, You endured that cross. You left that mountain, that mountain of Transfiguration that was so glorious, and You went down and up another mountain, a painful one, so that You could inherit us. How amazing that is to me, Lord, that You would look upon us and say that we are Your jewel, a jewel that You desire so much.

And God, may we see You as that jewel as well and press on to lay hold of that for which You've laid hold of us. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.