A Series in Joshua: Chapter 22 - R.E.S.T

Well, good morning, church.

Get your Bibles out now and turn to Joshua chapter 22.

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, we have ushers that are all around the room right now.

We'd love to have you raise your hand and they're going to bring you a Bible.

The Bible that they bring to you, that's actually your Bible.

It's a gift from us here at Crossroads to you.

We want you to take it with you when you leave today and bring it back every week.

We believe that the written word of God in front of us is crucial to whose we are and our spiritual development.

We're going to be in Joshua chapter 22 together today, in what is the second to the last week of our series called Uncommon Strength.

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

I'm excited to get to preach today's message, and I'm excited to let you know in advance.

I typically don't do this, but because of who it is, I think you guys will be equally excited.

Next week to close out this entire series.

We have a friend of our church, Josiah Jones, coming to us from Dallas, Texas, and he is going to preach.

So, okay, two people clap.

That's good.

Josiah, if you're watching right now, two people looking forward to you being here, buddy.

Them and me both.

Next week, make sure you come back and bring somebody with you.

It's going to be an amazing conclusion to what has proven to be a phenomenal series, and I can't wait for us to get to finish it out together.

Today we're going to be in Joshua chapter 22.

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

We're going to read the very first paragraph together, and then after, we're going to unpack all 34 verses where we're going to finish out what it looks like to really rest.

What it looks like to really rest.

In Joshua chapter 22 and verse 1, it says, At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribes of Manasseh and said to them, You've kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

You've not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God.

Now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers as you promised them.

Therefore, turn and go to your tents in the land where he possession where the possession lies, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

Pray with me, Church Father, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for a meaningful time of worship and music and song and celebration.

Thank you for the privilege that we have now to sit under the authority of your word.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would transform us from the inside out.

God, would you redeem these next few minutes that we have together?

And as your word comes alive in us, may it be realized through us, through how we live our lives as we leave this common gathering and go into the mission field that you have in front of us.

And I pray, Father, that the words of my mouth and meditation of our hearts would be received as a gift, holy and pleasing to you alone, our rock and our redeemer.

And the whole church said, listen, on April 14th, 1912, most of us at some level are familiar with the catastrophic events that took place at 11.41 p.m.

The SS Titanic sailing in the Atlantic Ocean ended up hitting an iceberg.

And it was catastrophic.

It led to the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

But what if I told you that that didn't have to happen?

What if I told you that there were other things at play that could have prevented the situation altogether and or provided immediate relief?

While most of us are familiar with the Titanic given history and the release of the epic movie The Titanic, I think it's like seven hours and 42 minutes.

Leonardo DiCaprio.

Others of us may not be familiar with what took place ten minutes before the Titanic struck the iceberg.

There was a second vessel, a second ship.

It was the SS Californian.

Out of Europe, the SS Californian was primarily a passenger boat, but it was used for several other things.

And it was only 10 miles away from the Titanic.

At 11:30, the SS Californian had looked out and had observed the treacherous potentials for danger.

So they made the decision that instead of trying to navigate their vessel through the dark night and trying to avoid all of these icebergs, that they would shut down the engine, that they would shut down all of the parts and the pieces that made the ship run, and they would wait it out.

They made this decision because the waters were eerily calm, and they looked around and realized that they could shut everything down and they would be fine to resume the next morning.

Prior to shutting down, there was a radio operator who had actually radioed to the Titanic, warning them about the icebergs and the dangers that were in front of them.

As soon as the warning went out, the radio operator, feeling confident in the calm night, retreated to his quarters and turned off his radio.

Everyone on board retreated to their quarters to rest for the night in order to resume the next morning, including the captain of the SS California.

Ten minutes later.

Ten minutes later, and only ten miles away, that Titanic struck an iceberg and in a matter of hours would be plummeting to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The next morning, early, about 5.30, as everyone began to wake up and get ready to resume their journey, the radio communicator turned on his radio to hear all of the mania, the panic, and the chaos.

And by the time they made their way over to where the Titanic was, all of the rescue efforts had already ceased.

And here's the thing: there were people on board who noticed that the impact of the Titanic and the sinking of the ship, they were within visual sight of the lights, one ship to the other.

They noticed the flares that had gone up over the dark night's sky.

But because their radio communications were off, they mistook those flares as another form of communication to another vessel.

They dismissed it altogether.

The reason that I share this crazy story with you is because it really sets the tone for what I think we're going to study together today.

And I want to set it up this way.

Here's what I believe.

I believe that comfort often leads to complacency.

That when we get comfortable with the way things are in our lives, when we have set our life in motion and put it on cruise control because the waters are calm and we're comfortable in the space that we're in right now.

Maybe we're comfortable financially or we're comfortable physically, we're comfortable relationally, we're comfortable in our vocation, vocationally, we're comfortable even in our faith, in our spirituality.

Too many of us, all too often, far too many of us, will set our lives on cruise control.

That comfort often leads to complacency.

And over time, complacency will end in catastrophe.

Those moments, those spaces that we are least expectant and unaware.

Because we become complacent.

We become distracted.

We've become focused on other things because things over here in this arena of our life has been going well.

We become complacent.

And if not guarded or safeguarded or tended to, oftentimes it leads to catastrophe.

That's what we're going to study together today as we journey through the book of Joshua, chapter 22.

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

Prior to this, with last week's message, I would encourage you to go back and watch it if you didn't get a chance to.

It's the division of the land amongst the Levites, not that it was their land, but continuous cities were set aside for eleven other tribes.

The Levites would then inhabit land that was given to them by these eleven tribes, including forty-eight cities, and six of those being cities of refuge.

We pick up in chapter 22 and verse 1, where it says that at that time, after the Levites had been given their land, Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh.

Now, these two and a half tribes are the parts of the nation of Israel, or the twelve tribes, that had preemptively been given by God and through Moses land.

As the Israelites or the nation of Israel was wandering through the desert and they were nearing the promised land in Canaan, they were just east of the Jordan.

They saw how vast and how wide the land was, the expanse of the land, and they looked at how fruit-filled the land was, that it was a great pasture land, that there was resource, there was water, there were other things that were favorable.

And they went, these two and a half tribes, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, went to Moses and said, If it pleases you and the Lord, would you just give us this land?

I want to encourage you to go study on your own this week and read Numbers chapter 32.

Numbers 32 · chapter mention

You'll read all about this giving away of the land preemptively.

But a part of the commitment was that, yes, the land would be given, but they still needed to be involved, wholly subject themselves to the process of going in and conquering the land, which is a seven-year process.

From the time Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River supernaturally, and in the time where they are now inhabiting the land, and the tabernacle is in Shiloh, and the people are at rest, which we're talking about today, there's a seven-year process that takes place.

In chapter 22 and verse 2, it says, And Joshua said to them, You've kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and you've obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.

You've not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God.

As we read this, this is descriptive.

It's describing person or persons, place, time, event, or occurrence, and is unique to the nation of Israel under the Lord's leadership through Joshua and through Eliezer, the high priest, and through the tribes or the tribal leaders.

However, as we read descriptively what God did in the nation of Israel in this time, I want you to understand that prescriptively we can look at this and identify character traits, qualities, and attributes not only of God, but of God's people and how they acted or reacted, and we can learn from that.

We can glean from what others who have gone before us, our forefathers in the faith, have done.

As I read this, one of the things that jumps out at me is the significance of keeping your word, of being a man and of being a woman of promise.

That when you make a commitment, you follow through, you keep it.

This is where we see in the New Testament that we shouldn't swear by heaven or by earth, but we should let our yes be yes and our no be no, that we should be people of character.

This is significant because, as I mentioned, there's seven years between the time that Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh are awarded their land east of the Jordan River.

For seven years now, though their land has already been established, they have committed wholly to fighting on behalf of the whole nation of Israel.

Even though the land that they were now going to inhabit, which is west of the Jordan.

In fact, I want to show you an image so you can really understand what's happening here.

Here's a map of the, let's see, do we have a map?

There we go.

Here's a map of the territories.

So you see that blue line that's right in the middle.

At the very top is the Sea of Galilee, at the very bottom is the Dead Sea.

That line between represents the Jordan River.

West of the Jordan River is what we looked at over the last few weeks, where it's the land distribution, it's the division of the land to the other tribes.

East of the Jordan River are the tribes that we're reading about today: the tribe of Manasseh, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Reuben, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, because Manasseh will spill over into the western part.

So I want you to see this because it's significant.

Those bright-colored blocks, Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben, have already been given their land, but for seven years they are going to leave their homeland and they are going to fight on behalf of the nation of Israel to ensure that the rest of Israel receives what God has promised them through the Abrahamic covenant.

Joshua looks at them and he says, I want to tell you something.

You guys have been people of high character.

You've honored your commitment, you've stayed the course.

For seven years, you came and you did what you promised you would do.

The agreement between God, Moses, and you was that the land would be given to you, but you would also help inhabit the land that God has for us.

And so as we look at verse 4, he says, Now the Lord your God has given rest.

That word we looked at last week in detail, and I'm just going to recap quickly, is the word nuach.

And it literally means complete or entire.

It's not just rest from war, but it's a total peace that embodies all of an individual.

There's no chaos, there's no calamity, there's no curse, there's nothing that is causing them to be anxious or apprehensive or have to go to war or be fighting.

And so now here, the Lord, the Lord your God has given you rest.

It's not something that they earned, it's not something that they did, it's not something that they bought or that they took.

It is a gift from God.

And that's something that you need to know is that as you abide in Christ, one of the natural byproducts of abiding is that He will give you rest.

He will give you peace.

He will give you total confidence in Christ, even in the middle of circumstances that are less than ideal.

It's not something that you can create on your own.

It's not something you can barter for or take from someone else.

This kind of peace is only found in Christ.

Here, Joshua retells that they now have this peace that has been given to them by God as was promised.

Therefore, he says, Turn and go to your tents.

That's to the east side, those three blocks that I showed, in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

This goes back to Numbers 32.

Only be very careful.

And I want you to know if you're going to highlight anything, italicize or underline, we're going to spend a few minutes on the back end really leaning into verses five and six.

So pay attention.

Only be very careful to observe the commandment of the law that Moses the servant has given you.

The love of the Lord of your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

Now, verse 7 says, Now, to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan.

And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, he said to them, Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and with a lot of clothing.

Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.

Look at verse 9.

So the people of Rumen and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses.

One of the things that's significant is how the nation of Israel sees one another and how they seize themselves.

This is the word community.

The word community, the etymology or at its at its genesis or the origin, the ethos of that word is common unity.

That they had common things that unified them.

And in this case, God was their unifier.

When you look at this, and you look at these mighty military men from Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh that have fought for seven years.

They've left their children behind, they've left their wives behind, they've left their work behind, they've left their livestock behind, they've left their homes behind, and they've gone to war on behalf of the nation of Israel.

The inclination of human nature would be to say, What's mine is mine.

I'm the one who was on the battle lines, I'm the one who took up arms.

I'm the one who put my life on the line every time.

And so if there's spoils from victor or victory, that belongs to me.

But the way the Lord created us, innately, isn't what's mine, but who is ours.

Gad, Reuben, and half of Manasseh recognized that while they were doing their part in fighting this war, that there were people back in Gad, that there were people back in Manasseh, that there were people back in Reuben that were tending to the livestock, that were caring for the land.

People who had to stay back to watch over everything that was going on there.

And so they didn't see the victory as theirs, but they they claimed the victory as ours.

And they took the spoils and they shared equally amongst the people.

This isn't socialism.

This is common society where we are giving to those God has entrusted to us.

Friends, church, this is such a foreign concept to us Westerners.

And yet, if you look from the Genesis, and I literally mean that, the very beginning of the Bible, all the way throughout, we have this call to community, to common unity.

Not looking at life through the lens of what's mine or what's in it for me or what I can get from it or what I did and what I deserve, but who I belong to and who I am responsible for and who's responsible for me.

Common unity or community.

We're called the community.

And one of the ways that we exercise community is we bring what the Lord entrusts us.

The Bible is so crystal clear that everything we have, all the good and perfect gifts, are a gift from God.

And we're called not to hoard it or lord it, but to steward it.

How much different would our lives look, friends, if we came with open hands and open hearts and created open opportunities to steward what God has given us in the community or common unity.

Now, if we keep going in verse 10, and they came to the region of the Jordan, that is the land of Canaan.

The people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar.

It's a place of worship.

It's comprised of stone and mortar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.

The word there literally means a spectacle, something that was seismic, that stood out.

You could see it from forever, it seemed.

The people heard it said.

This is the military hub.

This is the worship hub.

This is where the tabernacle resides, having been moved from Gilgal and relocated here.

They're at Shiloh.

They gathered together to make war.

To make war against their own people.

Based on what?

Gossip.

That's literally what's happening right now.

Whole thoughts, ideas, and opinions have been formulated and adopted and received as gospel.

It doesn't say that the tribes of the western part of Israel went to see for themselves.

It said that they heard that there was an altar that had been built, one that was of seismic proportion.

And then the people heard what had happened, and so they decided they had a tent meeting there in Shiloh.

All the people came together, and based on, based on someone's saying, they're ready to go to war to kill their own.

They're not questioning whether it's true or not.

The intentions behind it, the motivations behind it, where it came from.

There's no investigation, there's only an indictment.

It took one rumor to stir up an entire nation against itself.

And isn't that true of gossip?

Gossip is one of the most seemingly innocent and yet incredibly deadly tactics and tools of Satan himself.

Seemingly innocent because we will disguise gossip as fact sharing or information sharing, or us who are spiritual, we'll share something so that we can pray together for somebody else.

It doesn't even have to be true.

Have you ever been to the receiving end of gossip?

And the thing about gossip, here's the wild thing about gossip.

If you've been accused of something, and you don't say anything, you're guilty because you didn't defend yourself.

And if you do say something, you look guilty because you're defending yourself.

Anybody?

That's one of the greatest tactics and tools of Satan himself.

The nation's ready to go to war because of gossip.

They don't lead from a place of wanting to seek understanding and clarity.

They take something that is an opinion and they make it concrete or matter-of-fact.

And they're willing to bet not only their lives, but the lives of others on it.

Verse 13, the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the priest, or the high priest.

Phineas is a priest, and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.

And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord.

In other words, they're representing and they're speaking on behalf of, they're saying, everybody's saying.

Hey, look, everybody's talking about this.

This is what they're doing.

They're saying we're all.

Who's we?

You know, you ever have somebody come and share some information and say, Well, I heard someone say.

You say, Well, who's someone?

Well, I can't say.

I can't tell you.

They asked me to hold it in confidence.

Then why are you here running your mouth?

If you can't say and they asked you to hold it in confidence, shut up.

Spiritually speaking, stop.

I don't want to hear it.

I don't want any part in your gossip.

I don't need to know it.

And so here, Phineas and all these people say, hey, look, I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend.

You've been messing around.

Thus, the whole congregation of the Lord says, What is this breach of faith?

Again, assumption, not fact.

They heard that this had happened.

And here's what they said.

Speaking as fact, what is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel turning away this day from the following of the Lord by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the Lord?

Have we not had enough of the sin at Pior from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the Lord?

Deuteronomy, in Numbers 35.

Go read it.

Go read it.

Go read it, go read it.

Numbers 35 is an unbelievable scene where the nation of Israel allow Moabites into their camp, and they end up very, very, very quickly conceding to a worldly lifestyle that is inconsistent with following God, including worshiping idols and unbelievable sexual immorality.

In fact, in one scene, Phineas is going to go in and he's going to discover one of his own who is entertaining a female, and it is unbelievable.

And Phineas, the priest, is going to take a spear and run it through both of them.

Like, I like a priest who's about business.

He has a reputation, and because of his willingness to attack evil, it spared the nation of Israel from a plague.

This is what he's talking about in Peore.

This is Phineas.

This is the man who stands on business.

This is the man who isn't to be trifled with.

So the nation of Israel sees Phineas coming, and already they're like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hold up.

Oh no, that's not Pastor Jesse.

That's Pastor Andrew.

We got to pay attention.

Pastor Jesse, he's nice and he's kind and man, he's all he's just, his voice is always smooth and it's always nice to be around him, but that's that's Pastor Andrew.

Here, they come and immediately they start with accusations.

Verse 18, that you two must turn away this day from following the Lord.

And if you two rebel against the Lord today, then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, I love this, verse 19.

If the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the Lord's land, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us.

Church, how great would it be if this was our heart's posture that said, hey, listen, if the lifestyle you're living right now is inconsistent with Christ, and there's anything that I have to offer you that will help you walk in lifestep with Jesus, then come on in.

Come into my home.

Is there anything that I have that you could use to glorify God and to build you up spiritually?

And then I want you to have it.

But again, most of us are so busy being busy with the things that we're busy with, or we're so consumed with what I have as mine, and drawing boundary lines and putting up fences and doing all that we can to protect what I've worked for.

That when we see a brother or sister in need, we don't look to see what we have that we can gift to them because if we give it to them, then and we rationalize it.

We say, well, that would just be enabling them, would it?

Yeah, I mean, there are times where that's exactly right.

There are times that rather than just giving somebody something, you should come alongside someone and teach them how to build their lives.

But in general terms, I love, I love what Phineas says.

Hey, listen, if what's going on over here in Gad and Reuben and Manasseh is causing you to be unclean, listen, leave it behind and come with me.

Come take possession of what's ours.

We'll get we we just want you to live right before the Lord.

You know, let me just put it in really what if you know of a brother or sister in Christ that is living in the same house with someone who's not their spouse, who's living in sin, but part of the reason is they don't have a place to live.

And you've got an extra bedroom.

What would it look like if you said, hey, listen, I don't want you to live unclean anymore.

I don't want you to live in fornication and adultery.

I want you to live a life set apart for the good of others and the glory of God.

And so I want to invite you to come stay at my house.

What if the biggest detriment someone has going for them is the people that are in their camp, that are muddying the waters and making them unclean?

What if you invited them into your life and said, hey, come have dinner with me.

Let's grab breakfast, let's get a coffee.

How can I speak into your life?

How can I love you and encourage you and walk with you?

I love, I love that Phineas didn't just come and say you guys are horrible people, but he came with an intention to say, hey, if what we've got over here helps you follow the Lord, come on.

Come on, come on.

In verse In verse 19.

But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into Israel in the Lord's land, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, in Shiloh, and take yourselves a possession among us.

Only don't rebel against the Lord, or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God.

Did not Achan, you can read this in Joshua chapter 7.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

This is the one who kept the spoils that were supposed to be completely surrendered to God and created sin not only for himself, but sin for the nation.

Did not Achan, the son of Zarah, break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon the congregation of Israel, and he did not perish alone for his iniquity.

In other words, every action that he committed wasn't just detrimental to himself, but it had implication to others.

You know, one of the things I've learned as an adult is that every decision I make, literally every decision I make, has a direct implication on those the Lord has put into my life.

Friends, I mean literally every decision I make.

There's nothing innocuous in my life.

There's nothing that I do that doesn't imply a direct impact to others.

I want to just give you one small example.

When my wife got pregnant with our youngest daughter, now 11, Brianne, I had, I was on my third motorcycle.

Third.

I had uh 2002 Aprilia Futura, 1000cc, unbelievable.

It was um, I was very responsible, but it was an unbelievable motorcycle.

When my wife found out she was pregnant with Brienne, she said, Two things.

What have you done to me?

We were done at four, this was six.

And she said, uh you need to get rid of the motorcycle.

I'll let you get a truck.

I'm like, what do you need to let me get a truck?

Yes, dear.

She said, I'll let you get a truck, but you gotta get rid of the motorcycle.

And we had a conversation around it, and she said, Andrew, I've ridden with you.

I know that you're confident and comfortable and you know how to handle yourself on a motorcycle.

I'm just not comfortable with everybody around, all the people who text while they drive and everything else.

That year alone in Minnesota where we lived at the time, 47 people had died on motorcycles because of distracted drivers.

47.

I was a chaplain for two police departments in Minnesota.

That's how I know that statistic.

And so I honored my wife because I realized, you know what?

If I if I end up getting hit on that bike, like it's all over.

And friends, can I tell you one of the worst things for wanting to ride a motorcycle is becoming a police officer.

The number of people I've cited for distracted driving, for driving under the influence, driving while intoxicated, it will change your life.

Also, here in Ohio, I'm not trying to dissuade anybody, somebody somebody's mad at me right now.

Your wife is elbowing you, and you're like, shut up, Pastor.

Can I tell you the number of deer in this state?

And if you clip a deer at 70 miles an hour, shh, potholes, stupid drivers, have I ever mentioned they're stupid?

Anyway.

Every decision that I make has a direct implication to everyone around me.

I chose to give up my motorcycle because I realized that it was more important that I do what I could.

I could control the controllables, I could die from any number of things, right?

Not just being on a motorcycle.

I understand that.

But if I can control a controllable and honor my wife in the process and choose to put my family, I'm not saying I, those of you who have motorcycles, praise God for you.

Come see me afterward.

I still have my endorsement.

I'd love to ride.

It's gonna be between us, so we're not telling my wife.

This isn't that there's so many little things, and this is a personal conviction.

This isn't your conviction, this is my conviction.

That's why I lost all the weight that I lost.

As I stand up here today, I'm about 205 pounds, period.

At my heaviest, before I stopped weighing, I was 336 pounds.

I got bigger than that, I just was too embarrassed to step on the scale.

Why does that matter?

Because for me, choosing my family and my health was more important than indulging in things that taste really good like cheesecake and Reese's, everything.

So for me, I just realized that even in how I eat or how I exercise, there's actually implications to others, including you.

I want to be at my healthiest so that I can be at my best to steward well the congregation that God has called me to lead.

Those are just two examples.

You've got your own.

The question is the question is, are you stewarding well what God has given you?

Including saying no to things that you might otherwise want to say yes to, that God is asking you to commit to him.

In verse 21, the people of Reuben, the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Nassau said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, the mighty one, God the Lord, Elohim, Yahweh.

Three different names for God.

El Elohim Yahweh.

God, creator God, and all-powerful covenant-keeping God.

And they say it not once, but twice.

The mighty one, God the Lord, the mighty one, God the Lord.

He knows and let Israel itself know.

If it was rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, don't spare us today for building an altar to turn away from the following of the Lord.

Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself take vengeance.

But no, we did it from fear that in time, in the future, your children might say to our children, What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel?

For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, the people of Reuben and Gad, you have no portion in the Lord.

So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord.

Therefore we said, Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, and not for sacrifice, but to be a witness, an Ebenezer, a hallmark, a landmark between us and you, and between generations after us, so that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, you have no portion in the Lord.

And we thought, if we should, if it should be said to us or our descendants in time to come, we should say, Behold, the copy, the replica of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifice, but to be a witness between us.

Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle.

Wow! Talk about it, missed adventures in missing the point.

Do you know what's driving them?

Fear.

Do you know what the fear is a derivative of?

Where had they been prior to this moment?

Seven years before this, they had spent 40 years wandering around in the desert.

And why?

Because for 400 years before that, 40 years, before the seven years that they inhabited the land, they were captives and slaves in Egypt at the hand of Pharaoh.

Why?

Because one generation where Joseph had an agreement with Pharaoh, where the nation of Israel was brought into Egyptian land to live copacetically and symbiotically, side by side, one with the other.

One generation of separation led to four centuries, 400 years of slavery and death and depravity and brokenness.

And that 400 years led to 40 years in the desert because of disobedience and idolatry and selfishness.

The nation of Israel, Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben, what they say is, listen, we are afraid that who matters most will be forgotten, that you're gonna forget about us, and we want to come to the place to worship.

We want to be recognized as a part of God's people.

And whatever it takes, we just all we're trying to do is make sure that our generations to follow remember whose we are.

And that this is a mutual agreement that you remember whose we are, and that we're in this together, common unity.

You imagine that?

They're literally getting ready.

When I say up in arms, that's not just an axiom, that's the truth.

They are up in arms about to kill their own people because of false information and gossip.

But what they do is they come before these tribes and say, Hey, listen, what are you doing?

And they say, Oh, hey, thanks for not killing me.

Let me explain.

We don't want to miss out on generational worship.

And we want to we want to be reminded, and we want you to be reminded that we're in this together, that we're one body.

Huh.

So is it true that despite the action that sometimes we need to understand motivations and intentions?

Maybe something did happen, but because of our preconceived ideas, or even worse yet, something that someone tells us, we assign value to that person or to that thing and we overreact.

Has that ever happened to you?

I've never done that.

As a passionate person, that's as somebody who's very passionate and tends to lead from emotion.

If I'm being really candid before you, my friends, this is one of the greatest areas that I need to continue to grow in in my life.

I'll look at something and I'll allow my passion to precede the precedent of what has actually happened, and then on the back end, I find myself having to eat a lot of humble pie.

A ton of it.

You know, let me give you a really simple, let me give you a really simple tool to use.

Write this down.

Three A's.

It's not gonna come up, I'm just I'm just thinking about it right now.

Three A's.

Whenever you suspect something as an investigatory tool, or someone has hurt you, or you've got a grievance with someone or something, I want you to think about these three A's.

First, ask.

Ask a lot of questions.

Seek to understand first.

Ask questions and then ask clarifying questions.

Ask every kind of question from every angle you can possibly think of.

Don't just go and start accusing, but ask.

Ask questions.

Ask clarifying questions.

The second A, affirm.

Affirm what you just heard.

In other words, somebody tells you something and you restate it in your own words.

Hey, so I think what I hear you saying is this.

Ask questions, ask clarifying questions, and then affirm what you're hearing.

So often, in those two steps alone, just by asking questions, you can learn things that you would have never imagined, and by affirming clarity is king.

By affirming, hey, I think I just heard you say x plus y equals z, and they say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Z is actually this.

Oh, perfect.

And then ask more questions.

So you're saying that x plus y is actually z.

Yeah, that's it.

And the third thing, assert.

Assert.

In other words, assert what you need to say only if and when it's necessary.

Do you know what I've found is often the biggest obstacle to overcome with communication is we lead from assertion.

We go in and we tell everybody everything.

Facts are secondary to our feelings.

And we assert all over somebody.

Have you ever done that?

Have you ever just gone assertively and just put somebody in their place only to find out later that you were wrong the whole time?

The facts have been twisted.

It wasn't even that person.

I had one of my staff members last week say, Hey, I saw you at this roundabout.

You were driving this car and doing they.

I said, No, I wasn't.

No, yes, you were.

And you saw me and you were shaking your head no because you were annoyed at how I was driving.

I said, friend, I was in Oregon.

Friday to Wednesday, you do the math.

They said, Oh, well, he was bald too.

What do I do with that, Steve?

So every bald guy is an aggressive driver.

If only.

Ask clarifying questions, affirm what you're hearing, and if it's appropriate and if it's constructive, then assert what you need to say.

Just a simple, simple little gift there for you this morning.

All right, verse 30.

When finish the preaching.

The chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke.

It was good in their eyes.

And Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the high priest, said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, Today we know that the Lord is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the Lord.

Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the Lord.

Then Phineas the son of Eliezer and the priest and the chiefs returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan to the people of Israel and set the people straight.

That's the New Andrew version.

And brought back word to them.

They set the people straight on what really happened.

And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel.

And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of all making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled.

The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar witness, for they said, It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.

In other words, they allowed that altar to be an altar moment that would remind them in future.

Today we need an altar moment.

We need a moment to be reminded about how we're called to live our life.

Now listen, I'm gonna come full circle.

We're gonna go really quickly, Joshua chapter 22, we're gonna go back to verse 5 and 6.

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

Remember, I told you at the beginning how comfort leads to complacency and complacency ends in catastrophe?

The word here is rest, nuak.

That we get so comfortable in our rest that we lose sight of the things that matter most.

I just want to share this as an as an acrostic, okay?

Top to bottom, R-E-S-T.

I'm gonna give you four words to think about from Joshua 22, 5 and 6.

The first one, R, we're gonna look at Joshua chapter 22, verse 5 over and over again.

Joshua 22:5

The R is recommit.

Recommit.

Let me show you where we see this.

In verse 5, here's what Joshua tells the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you.

Be very careful.

What he's saying is, as we get ready to send you off into this land, recommit to what God has called you to.

This is the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You must love the Lord your God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus says in Matthew 22 that all the law and the prophets hinge or hang like a door frame with hinges.

All the weight hangs on those two things.

That you love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself.

Here is what he's saying.

Nation, as you get ready to go into what's next for you, you need to double down on your faith.

You need to recommit.

That's the R.

As you start to rest, don't become complacent in your comfort, but make sure that you recommit wholly, entirely to your faith.

The E, the E stands for embrace.

Here in verse 5 again, he says, Only be very careful to recommit, to observe the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and keep his commandments.

That's to embrace the Christ life.

The E stands for embrace the things that God is calling you to.

Embrace the lifestyle that God is calling you to live.

We need to recommit our lives.

Some of you, before you leave today, that's your next step.

You've been knowing God, you've been in a relationship with God, but you've also been complacent.

You might even be on the back end of complacency and experiencing a season of catastrophe at your own lack of commitment.

So today, your decision is to recommit to the Lord.

And for every one of us, we are called to embrace, as part of a rest, if you want to know a restful spirit, complete peace, not only do you recommit, but we must embrace the ways of God.

We must embrace the Christ life.

Paul says, Follow me as I follow Jesus.

Do as I do what God has done.

Embrace the fullness of your faith, friends.

Not just partiality.

We treat faith so often like a buffet where we go through the line and we pick out the parts that we really like and we leave out the rest.

And here's what I know to be true too is even if we try it a little bit and we don't like the way it tastes, well, hey, we've already paid for all we can eat.

We're not gonna finish it.

We're just gonna go back and get some more of what we do like.

That's not faith.

That's food.

We're called to embrace the fullness of our faith, even the parts that are hard.

For some of you, your next step is to repent.

To say, God, I'm sorry that I haven't been falling through on my faith, that I haven't embraced a life of prayer, that I haven't embraced a life of studying your word, that I haven't embraced a life of common unity, that I haven't embraced a life of stewardship, that I haven't embraced a life of sacrifice, that I haven't embraced a life of worship.

And your next step is to embrace God.

The S is to stay.

Look at chapter 22, verse 5 again.

Stay.

Here it is.

Only be very careful to observe, recommit the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways.

All right, there it is, to embrace and keep his commandments and to cling.

This is to stay, to cling to him and to serve him with Joshua, to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Right here?

This is to stay consistent, to stay close.

As we want to experience the fullness of our faith and rest, Nuak.

We need to recommit, embrace, and we need to stay the course.

Even when it feels like the waters around us are calm, in fact, that's the most treacherous and dangerous.

When everything is at peace, Paul says, stand firm, be on guard, look out for, put on the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, feet fit with the readiness of the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit.

We need to, even in these moments, we need to stay on guard.

We need to stay close to God.

And this is exactly what Joshua commissions the people to do.

He says, walk in all his ways.

Cling to him.

Stay.

Stay close to him.

The Bible says that as we lift up his name, he will draw close to us.

We need to stay close to him.

And then finally, the T, we need to throw ourselves into our faith.

We need to throw ourselves into our faith.

And here's where you see this in verse 5 again.

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.

We need to throw ourselves, throw ourselves into our relationship with God.

We need to throw ourselves into our faith.

I want to read to you a parallel passage, and I'm reading from the New International Version, Romans chapter 12, verses 9 through 13.

Romans 12:9–13

You can write this down in your Bible and go back and study it this week.

I really like the way that the New International Version states this.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Share with the Lord's people who are in need.

Practice hospitality.

Church, may we be known as a people who are recommitted to our faith.

May we be known as a people who embrace what it means to follow Jesus.

May we be known as a church, as a people who stay close to Christ.

And may we be known for how we throw ourselves into our faith in all things.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this morning for the privilege to gather together in your name.

Thank you for the chance to get to share in this moment.

Thank you for your word.

God, I pray that you would work in and through this time, far beyond these moments, and that we would never be the same again.

Having had an encounter with you, may our lives be transformed forever.

In Jesus' name, I pray.