QUIT Making Excuses - A Series in Joshua

Hi, Chris.

Hey, what's going on?

Uh, just getting ready to talk through Joshua 17.

Yeah, man.

I'm excited.

I'm excited to talk through it.

Yeah, it's gonna be good.

Thanks for taking some time to do this with us today.

We're we're jumping back into Joshua.

We took a little bit of a break.

We had for those that watch these, whether it's in their groups or on their own, um, we have we did a little bit of a recap last week with Pastor Michael.

And so we're jumping in here to chapter 17.

I want to pick your brain on a little bit.

Uh give us give us a little bit of a breakdown of what's going on here.

Tell us what's happening in chapter 17 of Joshua.

Joshua 17 · chapter mention

Chapter 17 is summary to give a little bit of backstory.

The United Nations of Israel, I should say the United Armies of Israel, let me put it that way, has really um conquered the land for the most part.

Like the nation is starting to take hold of like their different um their different properties, their different inheritances.

And so we're down to uh basically the last seven tribes of Israel, and um Joshua is divvying up the land to the different tribes.

And now the people, it's up to them to go in and completely clear out the land because even though the armies claimed victory over the over the nation, they didn't drive all of the the squatters out, yeah, you know, to go back to this Sunday's message, which if you haven't heard this Sunday's message from Dr.

Kelvin Walker, it was phenomenal on Joshua 17.

He did a great job of taking uh a text that is kind of difficult to preach because of the specifics of the the inheritance and the boundaries and everything, and he just did a wonderful job of making it very simple and very applicable.

Um, and so I'm kind of summarizing even what he summarized through his sermon, but yeah, that's kind of where we're at.

That's the backstory of Joshua 17, and the tribe of Manasseh comes to Joshua, and now it's their turn to get their inheritance.

And I think what's interesting that uh we didn't talk about on Sunday at all is that early on in the chapter, there's a man, uh, what's his name?

There's a there's a father in the first like four verses.

Makir?

No, his name is Zaloph Zalofahad.

Zalofahad.

He's he's a lot of weird names.

He's like the he's like the great grandson of of uh um uh Jacob.

No, not Jacob, Joseph.

And um he doesn't have any sons, yeah.

And so he's got all these daughters, and I'm like, I'm reading this, I'm like, hey, that's me.

That's me.

I'm I'm girl dad.

And so um, I just thought it was really cool reading that that even Joshua said typically in that culture, inheritance would go to the men, it would go to the sons.

The the girls didn't get an inheritance in that kind of a culture, but all the way back in Deuteronomy, before Moses even died, he knew that this man only had daughters and said, This is what the Lord says, you're gonna give them an inheritance.

And now all these years later, this dad, uh actually the daughters, they go to Joshua and they say, Hey, listen, we don't have any, like there's no, there's no brothers, like there's so there's no inheritance for our family if you don't give us the land that God has promised us.

And I think what's really cool is that they break away from even cultural tradition, and Joshua says, This is what we're gonna do because this is what the Lord said.

This is what Moses said all those years earlier, because the Lord told him to say this.

So we're gonna honor that promise and we're gonna do what the Lord has told us to do.

And I think that's a really interesting um kind of introduction, even into the rest of this chapter, is that Joshua is doing his very best to obey the word of the Lord, right?

But the people don't always do that.

And the reason that we're in the situation that we're in with Joshua chapter 17, with the people of Manasseh, is because they didn't fully obey the word of the Lord.

Joshua 17 · chapter mention

And so if you remember, um, Dr.

Walker, he he preached and he talked about clearing out the squatters, he talked about clearing out the land or the territory, which was a phenomenal concept.

Um, but you get the people of Manasseh coming to Joshua and they're saying to Joshua, hey man, you like you gave us this plot of land, but it's really not enough.

Yeah, like we we're a big tribe, and we had a lot of people, and half of our tribe is on the east side of the Jordan.

They settled out there along with the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad.

Like they already settled their land, but here we are, you've given us this hill country, but it's really not enough land for all of our people.

And so they're starting to complain a little bit against Joshua and the piece of property that he's allotted to them.

And Joshua kind of doesn't want to hear it.

He kind of goes back at him instead of like rolling over and being a people pleaser, he's like, and I'm giving a really like broad summary of the of the chapter.

He's like, basically, you guys, you say you're a mighty group of people.

There's a lot of you, so take your numbers, go into the land, and clear the territory.

Yeah, you go in and fight for what God has already given you.

It's yours, yeah.

So in my head, like I'm thinking like what they need to do is to go in and clear out the the forest, and they need to clear out the foes.

Yeah, right?

They're enemies and the trees, but they don't want to do that.

They want to take the easy route, and they go to Joshua and they're like, Joshua, not only are there still squatters in the land, but the land has a lot of trees and it's not ideal for us, and our enemies have chariots made of iron, meaning they have advanced technology.

But the chapter also talks about how Joshua tells them, like, you guys are strong enough.

Like, you guys have raised up, you can defeat these foes, you can defeat your enemy, you just have to put in some sweat equity.

What you want to do is you want to settle, but you don't want to put in the sweat equity.

So Joshua's like, listen, you need to go in there and fight.

You need to you need to put some skin in the game and go claim what is yours, what God has already given to you, and go earn it.

And um, I did a little bit of research on this land, the hill country that was promised to them.

And um, academics or theologians, they believe that this was some of the most fertile like soil and property in all of like all of Israel that was given to the tribe of Manasseh.

Okay, but obviously there were forests and there was stuff that they had to clear, they just didn't want to do the work.

And so uh to me, the principle is really like do I wanna do I want to invest to claim what God has already promised to me?

The territory that God has already given to me, do I believe him enough to go out and claim it?

Yeah and not just expect that it's gonna be easy.

Do I want to put in the the effort and the work to take the territory that God has given to me?

Well, man, I think this concept is is so important for us to think about and to dwell on, especially as like for those of us that are sitting with our groups and while watching this, um every single person in the body of Christ has been given freedom from sin, and they've also been given a mission in Matthew 28 to go into all the world and make disciples.

Right.

So many of us want the to God for God to show up and miraculously take care of our problems when He already did that.

He already saved us from sin, you know.

But he won but I feel like so many of us want to not have to deal with the the the habits we have to build to grow in our relationship with him.

We we don't want to have to have some of maybe have some of the have have some of the hard conversations that we're gonna need to have to spread the gospel.

We just want him to just move and for us to just be able to stand there and clap.

Yeah, yeah.

Go God.

Yeah.

When when Jesus ascends in Matthew 28, he gives us a specific thing to do, to go and make disciples of all nations.

And so why I say it's so important for those people that are sitting in groups and watching this together now.

The people that you're sitting with, the great commission for you is to also teach the people you're sitting with now, to say, hey, this is what God has taught me, you know.

Um, and but also to hold each other accountable to go fulfill that mission together.

You know, you can be that kind of person in someone else's life, like what Joshua is for the tribe of Manasseh to say, God's given you everything you need.

Go do what he's called you to do.

There's so much better that he that you can live in.

There's so many opportunities for you to see God work and you're in and through you.

You just gotta go do it.

You gotta clear some trees, which might, which might be like metaphorically, might mean you gotta you gotta get rid of some sin.

I was I was talking to uh talking to Gabriel, he's my accountability partner um this morning kind of about some of this stuff.

We were just talking about obedience, and he said something he was like, man, like fighting against sin and doing what what what God calls you to do, being the kind of person God calls you to be, whether it's in public or in private, hurts.

Because ob the the idea of obedience and doing what he calls you to do, um, kind of indicates like I don't want to do that.

You know, I'd rather just be comfy.

The tribe of Manasseh wanted Joshua to just take care of this problem.

Right.

Just go you we're gonna complain instead of doing something about it.

God God gave you everything you need, man.

Like he go use your grit, you know, go go use the gifts he's given you, go use the freedom he's given you to go obey and live in his freedom, but also to provide that for others.

Because what they're fighting for here isn't just for them now, it's for the generations to come, you know, it is for others as well.

And so I I feel like, man, this this passage, even though there's a lot of names I can't pronounce, even though there's a lot of like geographical things, and if I have no idea what's going on, like land allotment-wise, unless I can look at a map while I read it, and even then it's a little confusing, and there's a lot of parallel passages going back and seeing some of the history, some of the stuff that might be a little a little hard to wrap your mind around.

But the reality is this truth is so evident for us of man, there's so much God has given us to do, and there's so much freedom he wants us to have, he wants us to live life and live it to the full, to have the abundant life in him.

Um that we just gotta we gotta say yes and we got we gotta obey.

The thing that comes to my mind right now, you know, I I think in alliterations, like I can't stop it.

And so I just keep coming to we want a life of comfort, but God wants us to live a life where we cultivate.

He wants us to cultivate, right?

Like he wants us to get in and get our hands dirty.

Why he created humanity in the first place, right?

To work the garden, to actually work and to create.

And you can't create by doing this.

Go God.

Yeah, you know, like you can't create or even go pastor, right?

Yeah, no, that is your job.

It is your job as as a believer, as a part of the body of Christ, to reach the lost.

Yeah, it's not your path, just your pastor's job.

Our job, as as anyone that's watching this, if you're part of crossroads, is to equip you to do it.

Right, right.

This is your thing.

Go do it.

You know, so I cut you off.

And the beauty, the beauty of cultivating is as opposed to comfort, and I I want comfort.

Don't get me wrong, man.

I want a life of ease just like anybody else.

But the beauty of cultivating is that when you put in the sweat equity, when you put in the work, on the other end, you get a story about the journey, and then you get to look back and say, look what God has done.

Look what he did because I had to grind, because it took a little bit of grit, because I had to cut down some trees, because I had to clear some land.

Look what God has done, and then it builds your faith for the very next hill, the very next country, the very next territory.

The problem was is that for the people of Manasseh, they didn't want to do that.

They didn't want to clear out the land.

And so instead, what do they do?

They take the people as slaves or indentured servants, and they take the easy path.

Yeah, they cut corners.

Yeah, and that's gonna come back to harm them in the future because they were disobedient and they didn't do the hard thing out of the gate, like Joshua told them.

So, man, there is so much application in this one little chapter that seems like it's like, hey, you can just kind of skim right past that.

You do, you're gonna miss some treasure way beneath the surface.

Yep.

And that this is why biblical literacy is so important.

Be in the word, be trained on how to use it, and be very intentional with all these words that you're reading.

Don't just skip through this stuff because it can be so easy to miss a lot of it.

Um, I I think about like the removing of people, like when you become a part of God's people, like that might cause you to have to drive some other people out of your life.

You know, we're called to reach the lost, but maybe there's people in your life that are just bad for you.

You know, like if you try to cut the corners of maybe removing some friends or some relationships, one of the first things I lost when I became a when I became a Christian were my friends, you know, because they were just bad for me.

They were bad influences on me.

I wasn't influencing them, they were influencing me.

And oh man, that like until until you're confident enough in some of those relationships to be the influencer as an ambassador of Christ, that there might be some hard decisions that need to be made.

Um, but and it's gonna be uncomfy.

No, I mean one my one last thought, another alliterated point is comfort on some level is going to eventually cost you.

Yeah, you think about all the characters in the Bible.

David is the first one that comes to my mind.

He took a path of comfort at one point, and it ended up costing him dearly.

Some of the people, not just of Manasseh, but other tribes, they took the path of comfort and it will cost them in the generations to come.

Yep, yep.

Oh, so so good.

Thank you, Pastor Chris.

Yeah, man.

Appreciate your time.

Love being here.