Chapter 8 that I've been reading from a lot that tells about Canaan land. I'm going to refresh your memory of that real quickly. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse number 7. It says, The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and palm granites, a land of oil, olive and honey, A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. That is a description of what we call the promised land for the children of Israel. And then of course they got out of Egypt, the Lord brought them out of Egypt. Why did God bring them out of Egypt? Well, the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy, chapter six in verse number 23. It says, he brought us out from thence. Let me just back up and read verse 23. The Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sweared to our fathers. And so the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt for the purpose of bringing them into Canaan land. He didn't just bring them out of Egypt to leave them in the wilderness. He didn't just bring them out of Egypt for the fun of it, He brought them out because He had a good place for them. And that is the same for you and I, now the Old Testament, and in particular this morning, the children of Israel who were redeemed, that's a Bible word, they were redeemed out of Egypt. There was a price paid for their redemption. They were brought out there, a picture of people being saved. They're brought out, they're redeemed, and God's got a better place for them than where they've been living, and that is the promised land. And that's the Christian life. that God has for us. But the Bible tells us in Joshua also, Joshua chapter 11, or 13 rather, verse number one, that Joshua was old and stricken in years. That'd be bad enough, don't you think? Joshua was old and stricken in years, that'd be bad enough, but listen to the rest of this verse. And the Lord said unto him, thou art old and stricken in years. That's pretty bad. Joshua's old, he's stricken in years. God says, tell you what Joshua, you're old, you're an old man, you're stricken in years. But listen to this, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. That's Joshua 13. The children of Israel have come out of Egypt. That generation that was above 40 years of age, they've all died out. There's a younger generation. They cross Jordan. They see the Jordan River part. They go in. The walls of Jericho fall down flat. They go in and they're defeating their enemies. They're possessing the land. And now, through the course of time, and there's no way of knowing exactly how many years have taken place. I tell from what people that are supposedly smarter than me are saying, it's 40 or 50 years from the time they cross over Jordan to where we're at in Joshua chapter 18. 40 or 50 years have elapsed. And along the way, Joshua's gotten old. He's gotten stricken in years. And God says, hey Joshua, there's still a lot of land out there that y'all haven't got yet. And now we're down in Joshua chapter 18 where Joshua says to the children of Israel, this is 5 chapters past 13 where Joshua is old and is drinking in years, and he says, How long are you slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? So this morning, and I'm not through with Deuteronomy chapter 8, Lord willing we'll finish eventually, finished back in Deuteronomy chapter 8 talking about all the good things that God's got for His children as they serve Him and grow in Him down here in this world. Thank God I'm out of Egypt. Praise the Lord. I'm out of the sinning business. Praise the Lord I'm forgiven. Praise the Lord God's got something better for me. Thank God I know a little bit about the barley and the weed and the water and the springs of water and the fig trees and the things that God... Thank God I know a little bit about that. But let's be honest folks, most Christians aren't living in the place they ought to be living. And I'm not even talking about people that are committing sins. That's not even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people that don't have victory. People that are discouraged continually. People that trip over the same thing all the time. God's got something better than that. How long are you slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? I've asked these questions before. If you were to take a piece of paper this morning and write down your weakness, this is the thing that I have trouble with right here, and you write it on a piece of paper, how long has that been your weakness? If you were to take a piece of paper and say, this is the thing that gets me in trouble, this is the place where I mess up at, and you write it down, how long has it been since that has been your problem? How long are you slack to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? How long are you going to let that unclaimed ground, that unclaimed victory, those things that God has got so much better than what you've got in your Christian life, how long are you going to allow that to be out there somewhere and never really get to the place that God's got for you? I'm preaching to the church this morning. I realize this. Listen, if you're here today and you're not saved, you're on your way to hell and you're going to die and go to hell and you're going to burn forever and forever and forever. And there's no getting out of it. And you ought to get saved. But I'm preaching to the church today. How long are you slack? How long are you slack to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? And I've got four reasons this morning I'm going to preach about. Four reasons why the church hasn't gained the ground that they could gain. Y'all do agree with me, don't you, that the church just isn't what it ought to be? And I think we can probably say, I hope this is not true of this church, but the church world in general, the church is not what it used to be. Listen, let's name the major denominations. We'll start with the Baptists. The Baptists ain't what they used to be. The Methodists ain't what they used to be. The Church of God ain't what they used to be. Hey, I'll surprise you with this. Of all the major denominations, although they would not call themselves a denomination, the Church of Christ haven't changed very much. I still don't want to be one. And I'm glad I'm part of the D-Church of Christ. Don't misunderstand me. But I'm telling you that all the denominations are not what they used to be. The church is not what it used to be. You'd think with every generation. Here's the children of Israel. They come out. They cross over Jordan on dry land. You'd think that every generation would move up a little bit. Wouldn't you think? Doesn't that make sense? Hey, these people, they've seen the works of God. They pass on to their children what they saw God do. They pass on what they've learned. They pass on the things that God has shown them. Well, that generation, they learn from that, and then they gain more ground. And then they pass that on to their children. You'd think that people are just getting closer and closer and closer to God, but still we're getting further and further and further from God. So I want to preach to you today on the subject of how long are you slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you. You know, I've been, I don't know how many, I've not counted, I could probably count it up and tell you how many services, how many sermons I've preached from Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 7 and 8. And the things that God said were there in the promised land, some on Sunday morning, most on Wednesday nights. And yet, we hear those messages and yet we go right back to where we were. How long are we going to be slack to possess the land? Reason number one, now remember, let's read verse two again. There remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. How many tribes are there? Twelve. And if you count Ephraim and Manasseh, they're both the sons of Joseph as two separate tribes, and you've got the tribe of Levi, you've got thirteen if you count them all together like that. But basically there's twelve tribes, and seven of them don't even have their inheritance yet. Only five. Less than half. have got what God has intended for them to have. Less than half. Less than half! I think we could say less than half of the church world is living where they could live. Which means probably most of us here today are living under what God would have us to live. Everybody happy this morning? Boy, I tell you, praise the Lord, this is good to be saved in. Number one, they were living on past victories. Living on past victories. They could talk about how good God was when He parted the Red Sea. They could talk about that. They were there. They crossed over. They could talk about how good God was when it was dark in the Egyptians' household, but they had light in their household. They could pass it on to their children. They could talk about how good God was when there was all the plagues of the frogs, and the lice, and the locusts, and the flies, and all those things, and the Egyptians suffered, and how they were all kept safe. How good God was, and there they were now. They're living in the past with all those past victories. There were seven tribes which had yet to receive their inheritance. Let me just add to that. It's still the same reason. They're living off of others' achievements and other people's victories. They don't even have their inheritance. They're living on somebody else's inheritance. You know what we're doing here today, church? We're living off others. We have freedoms in the United States of America not because we deserve. We don't even appreciate them. We don't utilize them. We don't exercise the freedoms that we have. But there's some folks that have gone on before us that gained some victories. And we're living off those past victories. Living off the achievements of other people. We're like Joseph and Mary in Luke chapter 2 verse 44. Y'all remember the story we talked about a little bit in Sunday school this morning? Jesus is 12 years old. They go down to Jerusalem for the feast. And then while they're down there in Jerusalem, I can just assume that they've come from Nazareth, and there's a bunch of family, there's a whole bunch of folks together there, and they're traveling as a group, and they, excuse me, Jesus is 12 years old, he's not a little kid anymore, he's able to take care of himself, and when they head back, they suppose that Jesus was in the company. And they went two days journey, supposing that he was in the company. They felt comfortable going two days! Supposing, well, he's with so-and-so, cousin so-and-so, or aunt so-and-so, or uncle so-and-so. That's where the church is at today. Well, Brother Joe's still around. Grandma can still get a prayer through. Brother so and so, they can still, and we just feel so comfortable because we've been in touch, we've been in contact with some people that have known God, and people that have gotten prayers through, and people that have had the hand of God upon their lives, and so we just keep going in their lives, living off somebody else's victories. I think that's where the children of Israel were at. We know somebody that can still get a prayer through, We know some old saints and some prayer warriors. We can call on them when we need somebody to pray for us. But when are we going to get our inheritance? When are we going to get our inheritance? How long are we going to be slack? Who's going to pick up the mantle, so to speak? Elijah goes to heaven, he drops his mantle, and Elisha picks it back up and he says, where is the Lord God of Elijah? So they're living off of the past victories, most of that of other people. These things get bigger and bigger, these reasons I'm giving you. I'm not going to spend much time here, but maybe they were just lazy. Maybe they were just lazy. It takes work. Boy, I missed Brother Jay this morning, I tell you. Somebody pick up his mantel and say amen every once in a while. If we get to a place that you think Brother Jay would say amen, just somebody say amen, okay? He would have probably said amen right there. It takes work. Spiritual victories! Listen folks, we don't just come to church and sit on a pew and gain ground by itself. Is that the way that you think people ought to treat their children? Just hand everything to them? Well, God's not going to do His children that way. God wants His children to learn and to appreciate things and to not be content where they're at. Which brings me to the next thing. We're content. There they were, seven tribes, living on the inheritance of five tribes. And hey, they're fed, they're clothed, they're satisfied, they're content. They don't have their inheritance yet. They're not to the place that they think they're going to get one of these days, but they're satisfied where they're at. Have you ever noticed that in our society, and us included, that we're never content with physical things? We're always wanting to make improvements to our homes, have another car, fix this, fix that. But when it comes to spiritual things, we're just as happy as can be living on somebody else's inheritance. Content. Satisfied where they're at. Just getting by. I mean, bailing wire and duct tape. That's where they're at. Lord, just build me a cabin in the corner of glory land. That's not biblical. That's not scriptural. That's not even anything like God's people ought to be thinking. The children of Israel, Joshua's old. He's stricken in years. And now there's still seven tribes that haven't even got their own inheritance. And those five tribes that have got their inheritance, they've got some of their enemies dwelling among them that they haven't got rid of yet. How long, the Scripture asks, are you slack to go to possess? Was it that they could not obtain it? No, they could have obtained it. They could have. They could have gained ground. They could have defeated the enemies. God was still able. He's still able to help you with your bad habits. He's still able to help you with the things you struggle with. How long are you slack to possess the land? They were probably content. Probably content. Probably satisfied. Here's the big one. Here's the big one. Let me just read you a couple of places real quickly. Chapter 11 and verse 23. Let me read this to you. It says, Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested for more. Now it says that Joshua took the whole land. That doesn't mean that there are no enemies left. Joshua is the power that is in the land of Canaan. But there are still pockets of resistance, if you will. And I'm going somewhere this, and this is where I want you to really pay the most close attention this morning. In fact, I'm going to ask you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. And some of you have heard me use this before. I'm going to use it again this morning. The whole land has been given to the children of Israel. Joshua possessed the whole land. But there are still enemies there. In fact, those enemies had what the Bible calls strongholds in the land of Israel. And in 1 Samuel chapter 17, this is the story of David and Goliath. I want you to notice something this morning. 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 20. 1 Samuel 17, you've seen it before, you're going to get reminded. 1 Samuel 17 verse 20. And David rose up early in the morning and left his sheep with a keeper and took and went as Jesse had commanded him and he came to the trench as the host was going forth to the battle and shouted for the battle. Now listen to this. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army. Do you see that? When it's army against army, everybody's out there fighting. But if we read on down, in fact, what verse is it? If you read on down just past that, in verse 23. And as he talked with him, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words, and David heard them. The words are, give me a man. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. Here's what it is, church. Here's why the church is slack to possess the land. When it's army against army, the children of Israel, the men of Israel, the armies of Israel, they go out there and they fight the battle. But when there's one man that says, let's play a little one-on-one, they take off running. Let me talk to you this morning about individual battles. Here's why you're slack to possess the land. We come to church and you get fired up and you go home and you still get beat. We come to church and we sing the songs and we get excited and we're glad to be here and we pray together and we worship together and we go to different events and we get behind the things that we do as a church together, but yet when it comes to our own individual battles, we fail. There's a difference between fighting the battles together and fighting those battles on your own. And the reason why that most Christians haven't possessed their inheritance is because to possess your inheritance, you're going to have to fight some battles. You're not going to have to fight alone. Don't misunderstand me. God's going to fight with you. But it's not going to be all of us. There are battles to get to the place, the Christian life, the victorious Christian life, the land that flows with milk and honey. If you're going to get there and have the kind of life that God intended for you to live as a Christian, there's some battles you're going to have to fight all by yourself. And it's not easy fighting by yourself. It's not fun fighting by yourself. I never was a wrestling fan. I hope we don't have any wrestling fans here this morning. I'm not mad at you if you are. I just hope you know that 90% of it is all theatrics. And it may be as good theatrics, I don't know. A lot of basketball's theatrics too. But when I was a kid, I mean I never did watch much, I'll tell you what I can remember. I remember Tojo Yamamoto. Anybody remember Tojo Yamamoto? A little fat looking Japanese or something, I don't know what he was. Okay, now I've offended about half of you. Who was Tojo's, who was Tojo's partner? Somebody show your, shame yourself and help me out here. Anybody remember? Oh, y'all are all too proud to say it. But there was tag team. Y'all remember tag team wrestling? Oh, and I can remember the theatrics as a little boy watching that. And oh, they'd be reaching, they'd be down, they'd be peeing, they'd be reaching to tag, but they couldn't make the tag. But as long as they could just make the tag, their buddy would come in and he'd win the day. He'd throw them off of him. He'd body slam them. He'd take over. Listen, there's no tag team in gaining the ground that God's got for you. You're going to have to spend some time alone with God. You're going to have to fight the devil tooth and nail all by yourself. The truth is you're by yourself when you're defeated most of the time. The devil beats you up when you're by yourself. You're going to have to fight him by yourself and get God's help. God will help you. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. Lord, I'm with you always. Even to the end of the world. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He'll help you. But you're going to have to help yourself. One preacher said when Jesus is going through the land and He's healing people, you know, it's always the people that are lame and they're blind and they're deaf and they're possessed with devils. You don't read about Jesus healing people with ingrown toenails, do you? You don't read about Jesus healing people with things that people could take care of by themselves, right? It was the things that people couldn't do for themselves that the Lord did for them. I'm telling you this morning church, well I sure miss brother Jay. My goodness, where's brother Jay at? I'm not going to let him go anymore. And I understand if brother Jay was here it might be quiet too, okay. I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad for not saying amen. I'm just trying to tell you church that there are some things in this Christian life, there's some ground that can only be gained when you make up your mind. You're going to fight for it for yourself. There's a verse over in Proverbs chapter 10, verse number 4, it says, He that dealeth with a slack hand, he becometh poor rather. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. Now that's talking about managing your money. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. Somebody says, oh, how much is it? Okay, okay, here you go. How much is it? Okay, here you go. Well, they end up becoming poor. They end up having nothing because they don't keep a track of it, and they're dealing with a slack hand. They're not diligent. Let me give you a definition of the word slack. Lacking activity, not busy, sluggish, inactive, not diligent. That's the definition of slack. And the church has been slack. We've been slack in our standards. We've been slack in our prayers. We've been slack in our witnessing. We've been slack in our devotion and our consecration and our sacrifices to the Lord. We've been slack in our praises. Now we're not slack when it comes to things that we want to do. We'll become slack in spiritual things. How long are you slack to possess the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee? And so, because the church is slack, the church has become poor. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. Y'all remember when you were kids? I was talking to somebody yesterday, or the day before, recently, about the legalization of marijuana. But I remember when I was a kid, every time, growing up in Warren County, every time it came up, liquor got voted down big time. Because the church had some power. It's the same in White County too. Every time liquor, the vote, every time people voted for liquor, buddy, she got shot down big time. But then we saw it start getting closer, and closer and closer. And now, how far you got to go to find a place that don't sell liquor? Say Moore County's dry. Oh, you're kidding yourself. You're kidding yourself. That's where it's all coming from. How did that happen? Well, the church was slack and the church had become poor. For years and years and years, we saw the states begin to get lotteries, lotteries, lotteries, lotteries. And just in case you don't know it, gambling is a sin. It's always been a sin and it's always going to be a sin. I had a fellow tell me, just within the last two weeks, a fellow tell me, I heard this preacher say that he didn't really see anything wrong with it. Oh sure, there's worse things you can do. Murder is worse. And this guy was trying to tell me he thought it was okay. And he had heard a preacher say he thought it was okay. In fact, my wife will know where it's at. But I was preaching at a church one time, and I said these words, I said, and I'll say it again, hey, Quebec Baptist Church doesn't need the lottery money to build on to the church. If you win the lottery, don't come bring it to me and say brother David I won the lottery, I'll finance the building. No, no you won't. Put an offer and not tell me where it came from and I won't know the difference and I'm not encouraging that. I'm just saying if you're going to tell me where it came from, I don't want it. It's dirty money. It came from poor people that can't afford to buy a lottery ticket in the first place. And I preached against the lottery and the pastor got up when I got through and he said, well, he said, you can put your money in this church if you win the lottery. Well, I'm trying to tell you things have changed and the church doesn't have any power. Now the lottery's right here in Tennessee. Right here in Tennessee. I heard them telling how many billion dollars are going to be changing hands over gambling over the NCAA tournament. And I'm not up here to preach. The message is not me preaching against Gammon. The message is the church used to have some power and some clout and people didn't do things because the church stood up. But now the church is bankrupt. Now the church doesn't have any influence in the community. Now the church doesn't have any power amongst its own people. I hear pastor after pastor telling me I can't get people, and I thank the Lord for this church, and I'm blessed to be the pastor of this church, and we have just about as many on Wednesday night as we do on Sunday morning, and I thank God for that, but I'm telling you that most pastors in most churches tell me we can't even have revival because nobody will come. Not even our own church folks will come. How long are you slack to possess the land? Well, I'll tell you what, Brother David, We just need this. It's going to take you fighting by yourself. On your own doing what you can do. Overcoming what God will help you overcome. Slack makes slack. When Lot was told by the angels in Genesis chapter 19, have you got any brother-in-laws? Sons? Sons and sons-in-laws? He said, we're fixing to destroy this place, go get them out. And the Bible says that Lot went to his sons-in-laws that had married his two daughters, and he said, up, get thee out of this place, for the Lord's going to destroy it. And the Bible says he seemed unto them as one that mocked. That's where the church is at. The church doesn't have any influence. How can you expect to win the loss when you live like they live? How can the church expect to make a difference? A Jew said, some have compassion making a difference. How can you make a difference if there's not a difference in your life? You're not going to make a difference. How long are you slack to possess the land? How long? Joshua is old and stricken in years. Ephesians 5.16 says redeeming the time for the days are evil. You can answer this for yourself. I'll be through in a few minutes. How long have you been fighting the same battle over and over and over again? How many years? How much time have you spent fighting that one little battle, that one little thing? Looks like you'd get tired of that and move on to something else. How long are you slack to possess the land? Is God able? Caleb stealed the people and said, let us go up at once and possess it for our God whom we serve is well able to deliver this land into our hands. And that's not an exact quote, but he's telling them, listen, we've got to trust God. God's able, God's able. Church, God's still able. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the victorious Christian life. David said, I was glad when they said to me, let's go in the house of the Lord. I'm not going to preach long just to aggravate somebody because I'm quitting. But when the preaching is going longer than you think it should, or you think the preacher should have shut up five minutes ago, why is it like that in your heart? Why is it like that? Do you feel that way about a movie you watch? You feel that way about a television show? Oh man, they should have ended that 30 minutes ago. No, but we feel that way about the things of God. Why? Well, God's got something better, but we don't want it. How long are you slack to possess the land? And so this morning, that's the message as Jacob comes. I'm asking you personally. I'm asking you personally. Do we have a good church? Yes, we have a good church. Do we have good people in this church? Yes, we have good people in this church. But you as an individual this morning, are there areas in your life that the devil continually robs you from victory? Are there areas in your life where the devil continually robs you from having victory? I'll throw a few out there. Is it your temper? Are you a person that is continually in a bad mood? Are you a person that's up one day and down the next? Are you a person that's easily discouraged? Are you a person that... I'm just naming some little things out there folks that the devil doesn't want you to get victory over. But you're able by the grace of God. Let's stand this morning. Take your place. If you're lost, we'll pray with you if you need to be saved. You know your heart. You're a man of the Lord this morning.