For the past couple of weeks, we've been looking at this section of the book of Joshua that I've been calling the reading of the will. As I mentioned early on, it began in chapter 13, it extends all the way through chapter 21. This is not the most exciting passages to read when we come to them in the book. But it is the bulk of the second half of the book of Joshua. To many of us, these details that record this inheritance that God had promised to the nation is not exciting because it's not our inheritance. These feel like excruciating details because the vast majority of the places, even that short lift that Pastor Ben read from the book of Dan, a lot of those places are completely unknown to us today. Not just us sitting in this room, I mean people in general. Nobody knows where these places are anymore. They've been lost over the centuries. It's hard for us to do this because we can't really visualize or identify the locations represented. Even the map that we had up here this morning to help us, those are just general ideas from some of the places we know. The boundary lines, if you take different maps that try to show this, they're not going to line up because there's not enough information given and known today to really draw exactly So to us, these chapters read like a bunch of boring, meaningless lists. Yet, as I've been saying for the past couple weeks, these details are here for a reason. God has placed these into his inspired word for a purpose. And our goal, as we go through these messages, is to mine that purpose, to find the underlying message from God that is contained in these words. We want to approach these chapters with that firm conviction that there is something for us here. There's something that we need to see, that there's something that will apply to our lives today. And we need to approach with the expectation that we can learn lessons for our faith in these pages. So far, we've been reminded in chapter 13 that Moses divided the land on the eastern side of the Jordan River. Think of the Jordan River as kind of the dividing point. On the eastern side, Moses divided that before the conquest. That went to the two and a half tribes that were listed. And then that land happened beforehand, but they didn't take possession of that side until after the conquest. We saw the conquest in the first half of this book. And then we moved into chapter 14, and we began the new divisions now with the Jordan River on the western side for the tribes that received the land on that side. As we saw, as we moved in that, Eleazar and Joshua, they began that process of dividing up the land. They started with the most important tribe, at least from a future perspective, the tribe of Judah. Even within the tribe of Judah, we had a special allotment given up front to Caleb, the spy that was that faithful spy from 40 years before, and he received a special request back there in chapter 14. And then we went on and divided the land to the tribe of Joseph. After Judah, we had the tribe of Joseph. Well, Joseph is split into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they both received their inheritance. That was the details we looked at last week, chapters 15 and 16 and 17, dealt with Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh. And that brings us up now to the two chapters we're dealing with this morning, chapters 18 and 19, the chapters that contain the division to the remaining seven tribes. We've gone through five. Now we have the remaining seven. in these last two chapters. And if you simply skim through these chapters in your Bible as Pastor Ben was reading and you were flipping the pages, I'm sure you recognize that there's less details given as we move along. There's not as much focus on these tribes as the previous ones. And yet, there are plenty of literary clues from a structural standpoint looking at these two chapters that this is an independent unit. We have clues that tell us that this is a unit that is containing something unique. The unit's bracketed, for example, by references to Shiloh. And it's clear that these tribes received their divisions at a different time because it happens at Shiloh where the others happened at Gilgal beforehand. Furthermore, you might recall from last week that the division of those previous tribes all concluded with rather ominous statement, something to the effect that they were failing to drive out their current inhabitants from their allotments. Well, those statements, that kind of a statement that the tribe fails to drive out the current inhabitants is completely lacking from this section, from these records. And now I want to make sure we understand, that's not to imply that these seven tribes did a great job driving out the inhabitants of their sections. History of Israel is very clear that these tribes had great problems. In fact, some of these seven tribes very quickly failed to drive out their inhabitants. But the author, the inspired author of her book doesn't mention that fact in the case of these seven tribes. His focus is different. And I mention all of that simply to point out that as we come to these two chapters, even though they're filled with all this detail, we should expect that in this unit, this literary unit that the author has carefully structured, that contained within these pages, there's going to be a specific message. And whenever we have a specific message from God, there's going to be principles that carry forward eternally that apply to us. So what should we be looking for as we think about these chapters? Where is the message for us? I think the answer to that, the answer to that question comes by understanding the role that these chapters play in the overall book of Joshua. Joshua is a book of faith. We've been seeing that week after week after week. We've been seeing faith come from a lot of different angles as we go along. How does faith live itself out in lives? And here we come now to a transition point in the life of Israel. A transition of Israel from a people that were looking forward to the promise that God had given them to a people now that were receiving that promise. They were actually receiving the promise. And this is a time of transition in their faith. And yet, as the author who writes this, we have to remember the author of this book happened sometime in the future. We don't know when Joshua was actually recorded. We have clues that it was written before David came on the scene, but there's three to four hundred years in between the conquest time and David, so we don't know exactly when this book was written. But this author wrote several years down the road, probably even a generation or two down the road, from the conquest. And he's looking back at this time of transition. And he sees, as he looks back, that this time of transition was a time when Israel needed ongoing faith. By the time the author wrote these pages, the evidence is there that many in Israel did not have ongoing faith. In fact, by the time the author wrote, the evidence would be there. We even see hints to, as Pastor Ben read, about the mention of Dan moving. Well, that happens later on as lack of faith. By the time the author wrote, he saw that these tribes, Israel, was demonstrating that they did not have real faith in God at all. And he clearly saw the need for ongoing faith. I believe we can learn from this message. We will go through various times of transition ourselves. In our lives, we will hit times of transition. But as we go through those times, we must have ongoing faith. The main lesson for us this morning, kids, main lesson, there's your key word, the main lesson for us this morning, a real Christian life requires ongoing faith. A real Christian life requires ongoing faith. Unless we have ongoing faith, we don't have a real Christian life. I believe what we see here in the record of these two chapters is four traits of ongoing faith. Four traits that we should be able to look at our own life and examine, do we have these traits? Are these traits found in our lives? Can we examine ourselves and assess, do we have ongoing faith or not? A real Christian life requires ongoing faith. The first trait, the first trait that we come to of ongoing faith that we can see in these chapters is that ongoing faith recognizes the centrality of worship. Ongoing faith recognizes the centrality of worship. As I mentioned, we're informed here in verse 1 of chapter 18, and again reminded at the end of chapter 19 for that matter, that the allotment of this land to these tribes, the allotment to these seven tribes happens at Shiloh. That's a significant piece of information. A significant point is made there. When we're told that this happens at Shiloh, that means we've moved to a new location. Up till this point, Gilgal has been the center of activity for the conquest. Gilgal has been the camp where everything is happening out of. But now the camp's moving from Gilgal to Shiloh. The whole congregation assembles themselves at Shiloh. That points to a significant transition in the settling of the land. Gilgal had been the base of operation. After the nation crossed into the land, they set camp up at Gilgal. I hope you remember that now. But now the center's moving to Shiloh. Gilgal was located right on the edge of land, close to the Jordan. Shiloh is almost dead center in the land. As you look at that map that we had up here, Shiloh would be almost dead center in that map. And we're told here that the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, is set up at Shiloh. That's a reference to the key structure that the nation has. And that key structure, that tent of meeting, the tabernacle, is being placed at Shiloh. And that's informing us that we are at a dawn of a new day now from the standpoint of Israel's history. This is a dawn of a new day. Shiloh is becoming the center of the nation. We don't know exactly, as I said, when this book was written, but we do know that Shiloh remains the center of Israelites' political and religious activity for about 300 years. You know, Washington D.C. hasn't existed that long for us. Shiloh was the center of their activity for about 300 years. Here we're being told that we're entering this stage that Shiloh now becomes the center. And we're reminded that the division of the land took place here at Shiloh before the Tentum meeting, before the divine presence of God. This is an act of obedience. This is an act of worship. This is an act of faith. This dividing of the land. And this was intended to be an ongoing pattern for the entire nation. Remember, under the instruction that God set up under Moses for Israel, politics, the political structure, and the religious structure, they're united. Israel's a theocracy. God is the head of the nation. And the nation was to be largely managed through the Mosaic law, as overseen by the Levites. There's no disconnect between politics and religion in Israel. and it was required for the nation to function as it was intended to function, that all the people have access to the place in which God had chosen to manifest himself. That is the 10th meeting, the tabernacle. Israel wasn't allowed to worship God wherever or however they liked. Worship was to be centralized at Shiloh, at the Tent of Meeting. This reminds the people that all the tribes are united as they all unite to worship in one place, as they're divided in these various places and the tribes go different directions. They have Shiloh in common, the Tent of Meeting, the place that they come to unite. This was intended to ensure that the people would not begin to worship God however they saw fit. If they were spreading out, the danger was always there that they would fall into idolatry like the pagan nations that they were displaced and begin to worship God however they chose to worship. But they would be coming back to Shiloh, and that would prevent that, that would preclude that practice. This availability of Shiloh as a central place was required for the nation, but it was required for the individual people as well. And for the people to function in faith as God intended them to function, they had to have ready access to the place that God required them to worship. That place was Shiloh. The Israelites' life was to be a life of ongoing faith, but for that faith to continue, Shiloh had to be a central focus in each person's life. Now, in a lot of ways, we have it easier in this dispensation. than the people of Israel had it. We no longer have to worship God in a central location. We no longer have to go to Shiloh. Even though Shiloh was in the center of land, Shiloh wasn't convenient for those nations Asher and Naphtali that were way up north, or Judah, Simeon way down south, or think about Gad on the other side of the river. It wasn't convenient even though it was central. We have it easier. The worship of God has been decentralized and no longer takes place at a given location. The worship of God happens through a gathered body, the people of Christ, the body of Christ, his church body. But this doesn't mean that worship is any less important. We need worship to be a central focus in our life if we're going to have ongoing faith in our life. We need our focus to be on worship for us to have ongoing faith. If we're going to avoid our natural human tendency to create idols in exchange for the holy worship of God and exchange that for worship as we want, we need the central focus of worship. We don't need to go to a particular place to worship God, but we do need to gather with a particular people, the people of God, the body of Christ, the local church. And in many ways, we do this for the very same reasons that Israel gathered at Shiloh. We gather as an act of obedience to God's New Testament commands to not forsake the assembly. We gather as an act of worship to respond corporately to God. We gather as an act of faith expressing our unity that we have with each other through Jesus Christ. We gather for the same reasons. So let me ask you, is there a centrality of worship in your life? Is worship central to you? Do you plan your week around this hour? Is this the highlight, the central focus of your entire week? Do you prepare for this time as your week builds to this moment? Do you reflect on this time throughout the rest of your week? Do you revolve around the centrality of worship? If you remember the map that Pastor Ben referenced, Shiloh was central. But the nations had to work to keep that central focus of worship. How much effort are you putting into the centrality of worship in your life? A real Christian life requires ongoing faith. The first trait of ongoing faith is the centrality of worship. Ongoing faith recognizes the centrality of worship. Secondly, the second trait that we find is ongoing faith responds with continuous action. Ongoing faith responds with continuous actions. The impression that comes from Joshua's words here in chapter 18, verse three, is that he's rebuking these nations. Joshua says to the sons of Israel, how long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? It seems as if, quite possibly, a fair amount of time has passed. And rather than being anxious to receive and possess their inheritance, these seven tribes are content with continuing their nomadic lifestyle. All they've ever known, all they've known their entire life has been a life of a nomad, moving from camp to camp, living out of these tents. The idea of possessing cities and settling down and dwelling there, that's a foreign idea. And it seems as if they've allowed themselves to become content with waiting. And Joshua says these rather strong words. How long will you put off? He uses a word there for put off in this verse that has a root. In the Hebrew, that's a word that God used all the way back in chapter one, verse five. When God talked to Joshua, in the verse when Joshua was stepping into the new leadership of the land and God was trying to assure him, you can do this job, God told Joshua that he would not fail Joshua. That term fail is the same root that we have here in chapter 18, verse 13, when we have put, or verse three of chapter 18, for put off. That word fail, put off, has the idea of drop, or holding. God assured Joshua, you will not fail, I will not drop you. I will not let you go, is what God was telling Joshua back in chapter one, verse five. Now Joshua's accusing these tribes saying, you're in danger of dropping or letting go of what God has promised. That's a stern warning he's giving. God has given them a charge of possessing land and they're in danger of letting go the very thing God has promised them. They need to get on with continued actions of obedience if they really have ongoing faith. Folks, this isn't an original idea, is it? We've seen this principle in almost every passage of this book. Faith requires obedient action. Time and time again, faith requires obedience. Obedience requires action. Faith requires obedient action. It comes up over and over. Why on earth does this very same idea keep coming up passage after passage after passage? I expect we all know the answer to that question. It comes up over and over and over because we need to be reminded over and over and over to obey God. We are never finished obeying God. We have not completed our assignment of obeying God. We have more work to do. If we have ongoing faith, we have more work to do. We must press on, we must keep working. We will continue to act in obedience to God's word. We will trust each and every one of his promises and we will act on those promises. I like the way one commentator stated the idea in comments I read this week. He said, Yahweh's promises are intended not as sedatives, but as stimulants. God does not want us to swallow his promises, but to seize them. They're not sedatives, they're stimulants. Does that idea describe your life this week? Do you live as if God's promises are stimulant to you? Think about this past week. Did you live as if you were stimulated by God's promises to greater and greater action this week? Did you seize those promises as you boldly continued to act to serve God? Or are you in danger of dropping, letting go, the promises God's given you? Friends, there is no retirement from Christian duty. I look at a number of people here that are retired. You're not retired from Christian duty. There's no retirement for any of us from Christian duty. There's no completion. This side of eternity, a real Christian life requires ongoing faith. A real Christian life is not defined by a person who can point to a specific time where they made a profession of faith, where you say, I look in front of my Bible and on this day, 85 years ago, I prayed a prayer to ask Jesus in my life. That's not what defines a Christian life. A Christian life is defined by an ongoing daily struggle to become more like Christ, to become less like this world, day after day after day. A real Christian life is one that does not drop or let go, but rather holds on to God's charges, those God-given charges that we've been given with all of the energy God has given us. A real Christian life requires ongoing faith. The second trait of ongoing faith that we see is it responds with continued actions. Thirdly, ongoing faith rejoices in our inheritance. ongoing faith rejoices in our inheritance. In response to Joshua's rebuke here, the seven tribes take action. We give them credit. The seven tribes select three representatives to travel throughout the land and conduct a geographical survey. We have it written several times in the book here, go throughout the land and describe it. That word describe in the original language is write it down. They're to take a geographical survey. They're to draw maps. They're to describe the land. These men are to complete that assignment and then return to Shiloh with the land divided up into seven additional sections. Look at the land, survey it out, find the cities, describe them, and chunk it down to seven groups. And when these groups are made, then the land's going to be allocated by casting lots. It's possible that things didn't really go as smoothly as it's recorded here. But what we can go off is what our inspired author recorded. Last week, after the tribes of Joseph received their land, they complained. We have no record of complaints here. There is no hint of any disagreement or disgruntlement with the distribution. It appears as if these tribes, at least at this point, were content with receiving their various allotments. These seven sections of land represented their individual inheritance from God. God had promised to give these areas to them within the promised land. God had said, when you go there, I will give you a place to call your own. These represented those places. For each of these seven remaining tribes, for Benjamin, for Simeon, for Zebulun, for Iskar, for Asher, for Naphtali, for Dan, here's your inheritance. Now I'll let you take this for whatever you think it's worth, but I think it's significant that we're told twice in chapter 18, verse 10, again in 1951, that this distribution was done in silo before the Lord. We're told that this happened before the Lord, and there's no hint of dissatisfaction at this point. I believe that the heads of the tribes recognized that their allotments were from the Lord. And if they came from the Lord, they were good. Because everything the Lord gives is good. Sure, some of them may have wished they were closer to Shiloh. Asher may have looked at it and said, boy, that's going to be a long trip when we go to the tabernacle. And sure, we know they had lots of problems later on. Discontentment did raise its ugly head again. But I believe at this point, They were rejoicing in their inheritance. They were receiving their inheritance. And while these elders of the tribe were sitting in Shiloh, sitting in front of the Tent of Meeting, in front of the Divine Presence, they were content. They were not physically in possession of their inheritance. They're sitting in Shiloh. They're not in their inheritance at that moment, but they'd received the title deed. They had been given specific land by God. Through God's authority, they were given that, and I believe they were joyful. After all, isn't that the natural response that comes with knowing you're receiving something from the Lord? Joy. That really needs to be our posture as well. Ongoing faith is a faith that rejoices in our inheritance. Ongoing faith is a faith that focuses on what God has given us as inheritance. If we are sitting here this morning and we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, we have an eternal inheritance. We sang songs about it this morning. We focused in those songs on what we have as inheritance. Sure, we're not in heaven this morning. We're not sitting in that inheritance at this moment. Our citizenship is there. Our inheritance is sure. By God's authority, we've been transferred, as Paul says in Colossians 1.13, to the kingdom of God's beloved Son. That is our citizenship. That is our inheritance. And the title deed's been given to us. So why would we possibly spend time complaining about the numerous inconsequential things here on earth when we can rejoice over the internal inheritance that we have? Inheritance that already holds the rights fully through Jesus. This is ours. That's where our focus should be. A real Christian life requires ongoing faith, and ongoing faith rejoices in our inheritance. The fourth trait of ongoing faith that I see in these chapters is that ongoing faith rewards godly servants. Ongoing faith rewards godly servants. The record of the land division ends with the provision of an inheritance here for Joshua. Joshua, the steadfast leader, Joshua, the other faithful spy along with Caleb 40 years before, Joshua finally receives his reward after everybody else. That is a leader, isn't it? To wait for everybody else to be complete. He doesn't seek his own interest first. Yet in the end, Joshua is rewarded with the city he asked for in chapter 19, verse 50. We see that he's rewarded with what he requests. Whereas to this point, Joshua was the one handing out the allotments. He was the one overseeing the distribution. But now in verse 49, beginning there, the tables are reversed. Now we see the sons of Israel gave inheritance in their midst to Joshua, the son of Nun. Joshua was asked by the people, what do you want for your inheritance? And they gave it to him. Of course, it appears that even in this final request, From from Joshua even by what he asked for Joshua is displaying this vibrant ongoing faith that he has The city that Joshua asked for is found in a very rugged, infertile, mountainous district in his own tribe, his tribe of Ephraim, that tribe that complained they didn't get what they would like. Joshua asked for some of the worst spots, a place that's in one of the worst spots of that tribe. He took possession of a city that was in an infertile, mountainous area, a city that would require faith to live in. God would have to supply the means to live in that city. And we're told that Joshua moved there, he built a city there, and he settled there. So what can we learn from this brief record of Joshua's reward? I think we can learn that ongoing faith rewards godly servants. And that's a principle that we can look at from a couple different aspects within our own lives, as we look at it from different perspectives. First of all, I think it isn't out of line to place ourselves in the position of the sons of Israel at this time and look at it from their perspective. There might be godly servants that God has used in our lives that we should be honoring for their ongoing faith. There might be men and women that we can honor that God has used. I know it's always, or at least I myself, I always experience a little tug of encouragement when I hear of a godly servant that's been honored for his service. When a godly servant has been recognized that he or she has served God faithfully. And with a godly servant, you know they're gonna be just like Joshua, that that's gonna be a person that served not for the sake of being honored. They serve for God. In fact, the way they respond in honor is usually a very humble fashion, much like Joshua. They seek the less. Still, it's good for my faith to see others rewarded because it demonstrates that God cares for his servants through his people. So all of us can learn from that and be encouraged to honor others. But I think we can also place ourselves, hopefully at least, into Joshua's sandals here and learn from him as well. Joshua was given a special reward as a result of a lifetime of faithful service. A lifetime of faithful service. A lifetime of faithful service. A lifetime in which he fought battle after battle. A lifetime in which his life could have been lost at any moment. A lifetime of hardship and challenge. A lifetime in which at the very end, now he allocates the land without any guarantee, at least from anything that we can tell, without any guarantee that he has any idea of where he's going to really fit in when it's all over. Everything Joshua did, he did in faith, trusting God for his reward. Do we do the same? Do you go through life trusting God for your reward? Or do you find yourself spending a significant portion of your time as you go through the week thinking, how can I make sure that my time and effort is gonna be rewarded, that I'll receive something for my energy? Friends, God called us to serve Him with a disregard for our own lives. We may receive some levels of reward, on earth for our efforts. God may bless us by others honoring us, but we may receive nothing but hardships and sorrow for our efforts. And Paul tells us, actually, in 1 Corinthians 3, that we should rejoice if it's actually the latter, if what we receive is only hardship and sorrow. Because he says if we receive anything now for our efforts, If we receive anything now, that's really receiving Woodhane's trouble, because it won't last beyond this life. He says, if we have to wait for eternity for a reward, then we're receiving gold, silver, precious stones, things that are truly valuable. Really, what Paul is telling us is nothing more than what Christ himself says in Matthew chapter six, the word lay up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy, rather than here on earth. But how do we do this? How do we store up treasure for the future? Well, we live lives of ongoing faith, trusting that God will reward his servants. We focus on serving rather than receiving. We focus on giving rather than gaining. At the same time, we should recognize, even from Joshua's example here, there is one immediate reward in this life that we do gain through ongoing faith. There is one immediate reward that we're guaranteed. We gain the ability to fight each battle that comes. Joshua's at the end of his life having fought all his battles, but it was his ongoing faith, day in and day out, that allowed him to reach this point. We need to live the same. We need to fight day in and day out with ongoing faith. When we place our faith in Jesus for our salvation, we gain the ability to fight the fight of faith. But we must never think that the ability to fight is the same as not needing to fight. We need to fight every day. The quickest way to lose our reward is not to fight as a godly servant each and every day, even when we're tired of the fight. It's possible, in fact, I would say it's probably even likely that some of you this morning are here having lost the fight against sin this past week. You believe, as you're sitting here this morning, that you're defeated. You're sitting here and not feeling like Joshua in any way. Yeah, I can assure you the glory of the Christian message is that you are not defeated. Through Christ, not only has your future inheritance been provided, but the Holy Spirit, through Christ, in faith, gives us new life, and with that life comes the ability to fight. It is an easy fight. Sin is relentless. Sin does not give up. But it's a fight that through faith you can enter into again. It doesn't matter what defeat you may have had. If you remember back, even Joshua had a defeat at Ai. You can fight. You can suffer defeat and fight again. God gives us the ability. There is a reward of ongoing faith. When we exercise ongoing faith each and every day, God gives us the ability to fight. No matter how defeated you feel, God has promised that he can give you victory in the future. comes down to really will you trust him with that promise or not? Will you take the step of ongoing faith and fight again? At the same time, let me warn you. If you're sitting here this morning and you know there's sin in your life and you have absolutely no desire to fight against that sin, then frankly, you have reason to question the reality of your faith. If you're sitting here and you don't desire to fight against faith, you need the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ. You need Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because He will give you the desire as well as the ability to fight. Ongoing faith rewards godly servants. The ability to fight is an immediate reward that comes to all godly servants. A real Christian life requires ongoing faith. This morning we've seen four traits for an ongoing faith. We need to examine our lives. We need to look at ourselves and make sure these traits are present. Do we have these four things in our lives? Because a real Christian life requires ongoing faith. If we don't find these traits, then we may not have real life. The first trait is that an ongoing faith recognizes the centrality of worship. Second trait, ongoing faith responds with continued actions. Thirdly, ongoing faith rejoices in our inheritance. Fourthly, ongoing faith rewards godly servants. Do you see these traits in your life? A real Christian life requires ongoing faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the challenge that we can receive from your word. Father, even in these passages, they're difficult in that they are filled with details that are foreign to us. We can see your spirit at work. You moved in lives of your people of old. We know that you are still moving in our life. Father, we know that your Spirit is active, and that your Spirit works through your Word, that your Word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and cuts right to where we need to be cut. Father, I pray that this morning your Spirit would do that work, that you would cut in each of us. Show us where we are not living lives of ongoing faith that we ought. Maybe we're not rejoicing in our inheritance the way that we should. Maybe we're not fighting the battle against sin because we've become disheartened and we need to be renewed. Father, whatever it is, may your spirit work within us. Father, I believe in a crowd this size that there's probably those that need Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that are not even engaged in the fight because there is no faith at this moment in their life. Father, I pray that you would give them a hunger that only you can give for Christ, that you would do that work in their life today. Draw them to yourself for your glory. Father, we want to magnify Jesus Christ. We want to be a people that are unique, that serve him. that worship him, a people that is known by our love for one another because it's a reflection of our love for you. Father, do that work in us this morning. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.