Joshua Chapter 18:1-19:31

God gave them something, and in return, He expected them to serve Him with it.

Oh, come on. Now God doesn't expect us to do that. God doesn't expect us to take the things He's given us and use them for His glory.

You bet He does. If you have any doubts about that, you should. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. What we are is God's gift to us.

What we do with it is our gift back to God. Today, Pastor David encourages us to be an active believer as he continues in the book of Joshua chapter 18. But first, when you're in trouble, where do you turn most often?

Do you look to yourself or the advice of your friends, or do you go straight to God? We want to help you experience the hope that comes from looking to the Lord when your life turns upside down by sending you Pastor David McGee's CD series titled Lessons from the Wilderness. In this encouraging resource, Pastor David looks at one of the most difficult periods of King David's life to show you how you can wait confidently on God no matter what you're facing. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now here's David McGee with part two of his teaching, Blessed and Blessing. So Joshua chapter 18, verse one says, Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of meeting there, and the land was subdued before them. But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. Verse three, Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?

This is amazing. They're in the land. They've won the battles.

There's seven tribes that are kind of, it sounds like standing around. And Joshua has to say, uh guys, how long are you gonna neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you? Now the amazing thing is he's given them the land. He's given them the power to possess the land, but they're not possessing the land. He is trying to bless them. Are they experiencing the blessing? No.

Why? Because they're not possessing the land. They're not going into the land. Now I can imagine that some people in the group are standing around going, I thought God was a blessing God. I don't feel very blessed. And Joshua has to say, hey guys, you're not in the place you're supposed to be. That's kind of convicting, isn't it?

Just a little bit. See, we do the same thing. Sometimes we think, well God's not blessing me. Well wait a minute, where are you?

Where are you? Are you standing around kind of clumped around to Joshua going, I don't understand why God's not blessing me. Well as the spiritual leader, as the Joshua, so to speak, I'm not Jesus, but as a spiritual leader, let me ask you, where are you? Are you going to possess the land which God has given you? Verse four, pick out from among you three men for each tribe and I will send them and they shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance and come back to me. And they shall divide it into seven parts. Judah shall remain in their territory on the south and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the north. You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me.

Then I may cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. But the Levites have no part among you for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. And Gan, Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh, we talked about them last week, have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them. Then the men arose to go away and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land saying go walk through the land survey it and come back to me that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh. So the men went passed through the land and wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.

Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions. You know what's interesting here is how how organized it was because you know I think sometimes we think that um organization is spiritually bad and that being disorganized means you're really spiritual. When you're going to start church well I don't know whenever the Lord leads that's that's not honoring the God that's disorganized. We endeavor to start on time right right on the second. I don't know if you've noticed that occasionally we miss it but less and less and less and less. Some churches don't do that and I don't think that glorifies God.

Do you know why? Because sometimes you guys you get home from work you you know get the kids cleaned up you get them dressed you try to eat so you can get here and get here in time for for worship to start. Well if you do all that and you get here right at seven and then the worship team wanders out at like quarter after that's not glorifying the Lord. Now this is kind of near to my heart because we're trying to put into place more organization than what we're doing because the reality is we can't operate as a church the way we operated a year ago or two years ago or three years ago. We can't do it. If we tried to do it it would crush the people in leadership. So what we have to do is introduce organization into the church.

That doesn't mean we're going to organize the life out of it. What we want to do is put these things into place to better serve you and to better glorify the Lord. Verse 11. Now the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families and the territory of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. Their border on the north side began at the Jordan and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the mountain on the north and went up through the mountains westward and ended at the wilderness of Beth Avon.

The border went over there from there towards Luz to the side of Luz which is Bethel. You want to guess what Bethel means? We know it means house of something right? House of God. El.

Good. El means God. Bethel means house of God. And southward. And the border descended to Adoroth Adar near the hill that lies on the south side of lower Beth Haran. Then the border extended around the west side to the south from the hill that lies before Beth Haran southward and ended at Kerjath Beel which is Kerjath Jeriam, a city to the children of Judah.

This was the west side. The south side began at the end of Kerjath Jeriam and the border extended on the west and went out to the spring of the waters of Neftoah. Then the border came down to the end of the mountain that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom which is in the valley of the reef on the north, descended to the valley of Hinnom to the south of the Jebusite city on the south and descended to Enroghal.

And it went around from the north, went out to En Shemesh and extended towards Geliloth which is before the ascent of Datunim and descended to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. Then it passed along towards the north side of Arabah and went down to Arabah and the border passed along to the north side of Beth Hoggelah. Then the border ended at the north bay of the salt sea, which we know is the Dead Sea, at the south end of the Jordan.

This was the southern border boundary. The Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to its boundaries all around, according to their families. Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Beth Hoggelah, Emekkazitz, Beth Arabah, Zimarin, Bethel, Avom, Parah, Ophrah. Verse 24.

Siphar, Hamoni, Afni, and Gaba, 12 cities were their villages, Gibeon, Ramah, Barath, Mizpah, Chephirah, Mosiah, Rekhem, Erpiel, Tarahla, Zelah, Elah, Jebus, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath, and Kerjah, 14 cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families. In Joshua chapter 19 verse 1.

So this is laying out the boundaries. The second light came out for Simeon for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah. They had in their inheritance Beersheba, Sheba, Moladah, Hazershowel, Bola, Esam, Eltulad, Bethel, Hormah, Ziklag, Beth, Markaboth, Harzah, Susa, Beth Lebeoth, and Sharaheen, 13 cities in their villages, Ain, Rehmon, Ether, and Eshon, 4 cities in their villages. And all the villages that were all around these cities as far as Belathbir, Ramah of the south, this was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. The inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah for the share of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of that people. Wow.

Well that's interesting. What's interesting about that is last week we were talking about, you know, the descendants of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh were complaining that they didn't have enough. And look what Judah is doing. Judah is going, you know what, we got too much. We got too much. As a matter of fact, we'd like to give some to the tribe of Simeon.

Wow, what a blessing. Which do you think looks more like Jesus? Yeah, Judah did. We know that Jesus came from the tribe of Judah called the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

That's where the picture of Aslan being the lion came from in the Chronicles of Narnia. So Judah is saying, you know what, you've blessed us so much. What we want to do is, you know, bless somebody else. And look at all these cities. And I know I read through them quickly and there's more of them I'm going to read through quickly too. But what's interesting is that this whole list represents battles waged and battles won. And all these things are glorious testimony that God has the power to make his promises come true. The life lesson here, God always keeps his promises.

God always keeps his promises. One of the things that happens as we study God's Word and as we dig in God's Word is we learn who God is. And perhaps you're sitting there and going, oh yeah, yeah, I know who God is. Do you really know who God is?

See, because you know what we usually do? We usually think of God in our terms. Oh yeah, yeah, he's a little bit stronger. God's not just a little bit stronger than we are. God created the heavens and the earth.

And sometimes we get this picture and we got it from movies and weirdness and all in cultures. You know, he's just like this really old fella and he's really nice but, you know, perhaps he's forgetful and stuff. And that's not God. God is all powerful. That's why we're told, who is like you, Lord? Nobody. Nobody's like God. And somehow we get the picture that he's like us.

Let me blow apart that thing. It says, he who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. God doesn't sleep. God doesn't sleep. I don't know if you've ever thought about that. Aren't you glad he doesn't sleep?

I'm glad he doesn't sleep. Because what if, I mean, can you imagine, and this is going to get a little weird, but just go with me. We'll come back.

But can you imagine if, you know, like you're getting ready to do something and God goes, well, I guess I'm going to turn in now. How long will you be sleeping? Oh, about eight hours.

Okay. I'm just going to sit right here for eight hours. I'm not going to drive a car. I'm not going to go anywhere.

Definitely not going to fly a plane because you're sleeping. That would cause us concern, wouldn't it? You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment. But first, no matter how wise you are, listening to your own advice when you should be trusting God is dangerous. That's why we want to send you Pastor David McGee's CD series called Lessons from the Wilderness. Journey through one of the darkest times in King David's life and discover how you can wait confidently on God no matter what struggles you're facing because his plans are perfect and he always comes through for you. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others.

So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness. Now, back to today's message. You realize when you wake up in the middle of the night, you can pray to God, you can talk to God, and he's there. He's listening. He's not slumbering. He's not slumbering. He's not sleeping. He's right there waiting to talk to you.

You understand what a blessing that is? If you call me at like four in the morning, you're going to have to give me a few minutes. Seriously.

I mean, I'm going to be like, hey, you know, I mean, maybe I'll be speaking English, maybe not, you know, and I'll be like, okay, well, you know, I'm going to need that second cup of coffee before I really understand what it is you're trying to tell me right now. God's not like that. God's not like that. What a blessing that God neither slumbers nor sleeps, and he always keeps his promises. Well, there's certain promises I haven't seen come to pass. Just wait. Well, I'm still waiting on, you know, God to heal me of this or heal me of that.

Let me guarantee you something. If you're suffering physically, mentally, emotionally, whatever, I guarantee you God's going to heal you. I don't know when it's going to happen. It may happen as you are ushered into his presence, as you pass away from this life to the next, but let me guarantee you, you will be healed of that condition. God will heal you. God keeps his promises.

He's not a man that he goes back and forth. Some of you may be going through a situation where you don't have peace and you're going, okay, well, God promised to give me peace and I don't have peace. Do a quick inventory of your life. See, because God loves you too much to give you peace in situations where you should not have peace. You ever notice as the weather warms up in the spring and summer, you ever notice, you know, snakes crawl out on the road, and I don't know if you understand why they do that. They're cold-blooded animals, so they crawl out on the road because the road is warm because the sun's been beaming down on it. So they get out there and they get out on the warm road and they think, oh, this is great, man.

It's nice and warm and I'm feeling good. See, God loves you too much to like leave you sunning on the middle of the highway and for you to have peace about it. But some of us get in a situation where all of the peace of God move.

God's not going to give you peace where you are. So that's ministering to somebody. So God worked through Judah to bless Simeon. And notice again, look at the details of all these, look at the details of this and that. And this is in the book and part of what we can see is all the victories. But you know what else we can see? God is interested in details. When we were studying the tabernacle, we saw so much cool stuff that was in the tabernacle.

Why? Because God recorded the details for us to get it from. My point, God is interested in the details of your life. Don't ever think, well, I can't come to the, I can't go to God with this because this is like, you know, this is small, this is insignificant. Not to God. God wants to be involved in every detail of your life.

Why? Because he loves you that much. He desires the relationship with you that much. He wants to hear from you that much. It reminds me of the old joke these parents are talking.

They go, you know, my child never writes or never calls me now that they've gone away to college. And the guy goes, oh, I found a cure for that. And he goes, well, really? What do you do?

He goes, well, I send a letter and I say, you know what? Here's $100 and I want you to take it. Don't spend it on books.

Don't spend it on anything like that. I want you to just go and blow it. I just want you to go out to eat. I want you to, you know, just, you know, have a good time. And the guy's like, well, how in the world does that get them to call?

The guy said, you don't put the $100 in there. They'll call. Now, I'm not saying adopt that as like theology or anything, but it is an interesting point that, you know, when we hit conflict, when we hit problems, is usually the time we cry out to God. And God desires much more in our relationship with him. Verse 10. The third light came out for the children of Zebulun according to their families, and the border of their inheritance was as far as Sarid. The border went towards the west and to Marilah, went to Dabasheth, and extended along the brook that is east of Jogneam. Then from Sarid it went eastward towards the sunrise along the border of Chisloth-Tabor, and went out towards Debarath, bypassing Japhea. And from there it passed along on the east of Gethfer towards Ethkazin, and extended to Rimom, which borders on Neah.

Then the border went around it on the north side of Hanathon, and it ended in the valley of Jitha-El. Included were Katath, Nahalal, Shimron, Adali, Adala, and Bethlehem, 12 cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages. The fourth lot, verse 17, came to Issachar for the children of Issachar according to their families. And their territory went to Jezreel, and included Chesaloth, Shunem, Hephrim, Shean, Anaharath, Rabith, Kishion, Abaz, Remeth, and Ghanim in Haddad, and Beth-Posez. And the border reached to Tabor, Shahazima, and Beth-Shemesh. And their borders ended at the Jordan, 16 cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities, and their villages.

Verse 24, and the fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families. And their territory included Hethkath, Hali, Batin, Ashef, Alamelek, Amad, and Mishaw. It reached to Mount Carmel westward along the Brook, Sahar, Libnath.

And it turned towards the sunrise to Beth-Dagan. And it reached to Zebulun and to the valley of Jishath-El. Then northward beyond Beth-Amak and Nayil, bypassing Kabul, which was on the left, including Ebran, Rahab, Haman, and Kanath as far as greater Sudan. And the border turned to Rehman to the fortified city of Tyre. Then the border turned to Hosa and ended at the sea by the region of Aksib. Also Ummah, Aphek, and Rahab were included, 22 cities with their villages.

And this was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages. Now, at this point, you may be going, you know what, boy, this is just a whole lot of borders, right? This is, you know, this is just a whole lot of technical information.

Yes, it is. But you know what? Understand something, that all these things represented God coming through for these people, God coming through for his people. Because these people had been in bondage for over 400 years in Egypt. Then they have wandered around the desert for 40 years, looking forward to this place. And while we kind of read the list and go, oh yeah, okay, whatever. Do you understand what the list meant to them?

Oh, we're in this land and we go from here and we go from here and we go from here. And this is awesome, God has given us this land. And somehow we call part of this land occupied territories now? When God himself is the one that gave it to them?

I don't understand that. And also understand, as he lays out the borders for these people, there's an expectation that there's an accountability here. This is your part of the promised land. You be in that part of the promised land and worship God and drive out the other inhabitants and keep pure before the Lord.

Why? Because there was accountability. God gave them something and in return he expected them to serve him with it. Surely God doesn't expect something when he gives you something. Friend, he does.

He sure does. He blesses you with a mouth to speak and expects you to speak words of kindness, of love, of peace, of truth to other people. He gave us ears and expects us to listen to other people. He gave us jobs and he does expect according to scripture for us to tithe, to honor God with our first fruits. Oh come on, now God doesn't expect us to do that. God doesn't expect us to take the things he's given us and use them for his glory. You bet he does.

If you have any doubts about that, you shouldn't. Remember the parable of the talents? I'll refresh you real quick. Remember there was a talent and one guy got 10, one guy got five, one guy got one. And the guy who got 10 used them and, interesting word, talents. It multiplied and was blessed. The guy who got five multiplied and was blessed. The guy who had one got to give it back. He didn't use it.

It's his blood. There's an expectation that as he blesses people, he expects you to bless others and to walk in that. We all have gifts. Maybe you're sitting here tonight and you go, well, I don't have a gift. I can't teach the word. I don't do music. I don't do this. I just don't have any gifts.

Who has been lying to you? You are uniquely made. You are wonderfully and fearfully made. God made you and God gifted you. And he gave you unique gifts that make up the body of Christ. And we're supposed to use these gifts. And this is the way that we all fit together as the body of Christ. Paul uses, and it's a beautiful thing that Paul uses the body and he talks about the eyes and the ears and all this. The way the body works together, it's incredible, isn't it? I don't know if you've ever thought about it.

It's not at war with itself, which is a good thing. Do you understand? Tonight, before you came to service, you probably did this. You took a deadly instrument into your hand, a pointed and sharp instrument, and then you moved it towards your face. What if your hand got in rebellion and your hand thought, I'm tired of the brain telling me what to do. I'm going to run the show. And the first thing I need to do in order to run the show is I got to take out the brain. So then next time you get ready, you think you're going to put a morsel of food in your mouth, but your hand's in rebellion.

So what happens? You stab yourself right in the forehead. That's your body not working. That's your body with the hand being selfish. As a matter of fact, we have a new word for when our body gets out of control and acts selfish, and that word is cancer. That's what cancer does when it's not operating as part of the body. We're supposed to fit together and act like the body of Christ. What a precious analogy.

And I love that song only if you've heard it by casting crowns. It says, if we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching? Why aren't his hands healing? And why aren't his words teaching? If we are the body. What a glorious thing that we're called the body of Christ. And see, in this new land, there was assignments because it was going to take all they had and all they could be in order to be successful and blessed in this new endeavor.

And the reason I talk about the body, the reason I talk about serving is, you know what? I know that it's going to take all of us being involved to reach all the people we can. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

So many people look to their friends or within their own thoughts when faced with a problem. Even King David struggled with listening to his heart and not trusting in God's promises. Pastor David McGee wants to encourage you to wait confidently on God through whatever trial you're facing by sending you his CD series, Lessons from the Wilderness. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com now for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

You know each day comes with its share of stresses. So what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David McGee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David McGee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge as we continue in the book of Joshua. We'll see you then.