JOSHUA 18 POSSESS YOUR INHERITANCE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Joshua 18 Possess Your Inheritance

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. Well, this morning as we look at Joshua chapter 18, I want to encourage you to possess your inheritance.

that you would take possession of what God has given to you. And that's what we see happening here in Joshua chapter 18. It is people taking possession of the things that God has given to them. In particular, it's the land of Israel.

And the children of Israel, the people of Israel, have been moving into this promised land, and God gave them this land as an inheritance. Now, an inheritance, it's something that is, you know, received, that's given by heritage, by your association to your relationship to the one who is the owner, right? And so...

the Lord has promised this land to the children of Israel. Because of their relationship, he's declared it as, this is your inheritance. Your inheritance from Abraham. I gave that land to him, and it's been passed down to you. It's the family heirloom, and it's yours. I'm giving it to you. But there was the need for them to

Not just know that the land was there, but to actually go in and possess the land. Because you can have an inheritance and not possess it. Perhaps like this man, it was back in 2012. This guy, Timothy Gray, was found dead. He froze to death, hypothermia.

He was a homeless man. Some people sledding, some kids sledding, noticed him under an overpass or underpass or one of those things. And so he was found dead, but the noted thing about that is he was the recipient of $19 million that he inherited from his aunt who had died, who was incredibly wealthy and well-known, but

They hadn't found him yet to be able to give him the inheritance. And so it was his, it was rightfully his. Had he known about it, had he been aware of it, had they found him sooner, he would have had that at his disposal. He would have been able to use that 19 million to provide a better living for himself. But here he is, the recipient of an inheritance, but not the possessor of it.

And that's where we find some of the tribes here of the children of Israel in Joshua chapter 18. They're the recipients of an inheritance, but they've not yet begun to possess it. They've not yet begun to own the land that God has given to them.

We talked about this a little bit last week in Joshua chapter 13. God told Joshua, you're old and there's much land yet to be possessed. And so start dividing it up between the tribes. And each tribe was to take possession of the land that God had given them.

And we saw how there was the divisions of the tribes, not for separating the tribes, but for delegating the responsibility. This is yours. Take it, own it, and handle this property the way that God would have you to. But here in chapter 18, we find that some time has passed and a few tribes have not yet possessed their land. They haven't had their borders defined. A few tribes have, but they haven't had their borders defined.

But not all of the tribes. And so we're going to learn from that. We're going to be encouraged in that to possess our own inheritance. You have from God...

Some incredible things that God wants to do, some incredible promises that God has given, some works that God wants to accomplish, some great things that are part of your inheritance, just part of the connection that you have with God and your relationship with God. It's not on the basis of you earning it or deserving it, but just because you know God and believe in Jesus and love God, you have an inheritance, right?

You have, of course, the future inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you. That inheritance is there. But there's also so much that God has for you in this life that, well, you need to possess.

that you need to take ownership of and to begin to inhabit those promises and that inheritance that God has given to you. There's three points we'll look at as we work through this concept this morning. The first one found in verses one through three is don't neglect your inheritance. Don't neglect it.

Your inheritance. This is what we see happen here with these tribes of Israel. Starting again in verse 1, it says, So here we find the context that they're moving into the land, they're settling in, some of the tribes have taken possession of their lands, and they're

And now they've set up the tabernacle in a central place in Israel. So they've moved it now. They've set it up. They're there in the presence of the Lord. They're, you know, making God a central place in their life. But then in verse 2, Seven of the tribes of Israel. Now, in total, there were 13 tribes of Israel.

Twelve of those tribes were inheriting land. The tribe of Levi, the Levitical tribe, they were not inheriting land. They were just getting cities scattered throughout the land that God had given to Israel. But twelve tribes receiving land, seven of them have not yet received their land.

They have not yet received their inheritance, it says. Now, just to kind of bring the picture together here with a little bit of the geography, here's a quick look at the land of Israel.

And you have the Sea of Galilee in the north, and that flows into the Jordan River, which flows all the way down to the Dead Sea. And the Mediterranean Sea is on the west side. That was their border. And God had given them everything from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, north and south of that, and a little bit beyond the Jordan as well. And God had set this as their boundaries. This was the land that God promised to Abraham, and that as a nation, they had inherited the

from the Lord. And so with Moses leading them, they came up from Egypt, which is down off to the south, yeah, south and west. And so they came up eventually and they began to inhabit and to conquer the promised land. And first they were on the east side of the Jordan and they began to take territory there. And Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben were all given portions on that side of the Jordan before they crossed over.

And then as Joshua is given now the leadership role, Joshua leads them into the promised land. They cross over the Jordan and now begin to inhabit that side of the Jordan and take the land that God had given to them.

And so far up to this point in Joshua 18, we've seen land be given to the tribe of Judah. We talked about Caleb and he was part of Judah. And so them receiving their inheritance. Manasseh, the other half tribe of Manasseh, as well as Ephraim, they received their land and then that was it. So that was a few of the tribes, five of the tribes have received their inheritance. They've

found out where they belong, and they've started to move in. They've started to, you know, set up their home there. But there's all this territory that is just laying there. It's just sitting there. Where are the rest of the tribes at? Well, they're probably camped right next to the tabernacle that they just moved to Shiloh. So they were at Gilgal with the tabernacle. Now they've moved to Shiloh. And there's just all these people camped around the tabernacle. And

and not moving into the land that God has given to them. And Joshua challenges them in verse 3. He says, How long are you just going to camp here? How long are you just going to sit here next to the tabernacle, kind of, you know, homeless in a sense, you know, still just camping out in the wilderness, and

I mean, I know you experienced that your whole life. That's, you know, your whole life growing up. You were camping out in the wilderness. But we're in a new season now, and it's time to take possession of the land that God has given to you. How long will you neglect your inheritance, Joshua says?

This word neglect is interesting because, well, it speaks of so many things, and perhaps there are a lot of these factors involved depending on, you know, which tribe we're talking about and which families within the tribes. But to neglect it, it can mean to become slack or to relax. And so I kind of picture, you know, they're comfortable, they're relaxed, camping out around the tabernacle. That's what they've always known. It's relaxing. It's not new. It's not scary. It's

It's relaxing. And so here are these tribes. They're just relaxing. They're not despising in the sense of like, you know, upset with God about their inheritance. It's just, you know, it's not so much necessarily a purposeful rebellion. It's just, hey, this is like, this is nice. It's kind of like I think about Peter, right? And he was on the mountain of transfiguration. He's like, hey, let's build three tabernacles. I mean, this is what the children of Israel had. They had the tabernacle and

They had their routine, their lifestyle. They were used to it. It was all normal. And they were just like, this is cool. And Joshua was like, no, it's not cool. Don't neglect what God has given to you. Neglect can also come from discouragement. And maybe some were discouraged. Like, oh, man.

Judah got this big old portion and man, look at the rest of the territory. It's like our piece is so small and that's going to have to be divided between the seven of us. I mean, oh, they could be discouraged about the battles that they might have to face. Well, neglect can come from weakness too. It's just, I don't,

I don't have the strength to go and to move there. Packing a moving truck, I've been moving my whole life. Every time in the wilderness, it was like every couple days, I had to pack up the trailer and move on to the next spot. And we just moved again to Shiloh. And I'm tired of moving. And it could be weakness that brings this neglect, this forsaking. To be abandoned, it says. To just give up and just...

Who cares? Let someone else take the land. You know, they could have had a variety of these. It could have been a, you know, different between families within the tribes. And here they are for whatever reason, probably personal individual reasons that are differing from one another. But for whatever reason, they're in this perpetual state of neglecting their inheritance. And Joshua says, how long are you going to do that?

How long are you going to stay in that condition of not receiving what it is that God has given to you? They were no different than the other tribes in a lot of ways in that God gave the other tribes the land just like he gave them the land. But they were different in that they were not proactive in accepting and receiving that inheritance.

It wasn't that their land was harder or more difficult or, you know, it's not any of that. It is God has given all of the tribes their land, and now each one of them is responsible to start to possess it. But here we find these seven tribes neglecting it instead. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, "'Beware the sin of neglect. It was not the enemy that prevented the tribes from claiming their inheritance. It was their own indifference and indolence.'"

It was their own indifference, their own avoiding of activity, their own reluctance to do something that kept them from inheriting what it is that God had given to them. Sometimes we neglect what God has for us out of ignorance. We just don't know what God has for us. Sometimes it's out of laziness. It is hard work.

to receive what God has for us. There's work involved. There's battles to fight. There's, you know, it's not that it is without effort, but it's ours. It's our inheritance. Don't neglect that. Now, what is that? What is our inheritance? I mean, I've mentioned a couple examples, but what are we talking about when we talk about ourselves and this inheritance that God has for us? Well, we'll explore that a little bit more as we look at point number two, and that is explore the details of

of your inheritance. Explore the details. Go find out all of the details. Research. Discover what it is that God has given to you. That's what Joshua tells them in verse 4. He says, pick out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send them. They shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance, and come back to me.

Joshua says, here's what you need to do. You need to go do some exploring. You need to go do a survey. And he wasn't talking about, you know, standing out in front of the grocery store and trying to get people to answer questions. He was talking about doing some research about the land that was their inheritance. Go do some research. Go check it out. Go scope it out. Go view what it is and get the details about it.

that land. Now, the general regions were given. So God had said, okay, this belongs to Judah, this belongs to Ephraim and Manasseh, and the rest is to be divided. So there was some general regions, hey, this area belongs to this tribe, but the specific borders and boundaries and details were not yet recorded.

And so there was a general idea of, okay, this tribe, okay, you're going to be in the far north and you're going to be kind of in the middle of this tribe. And, you know, there was some general areas that were kind of mapped out in pencil, you might think of it that way. But now they need to go in and fill in all of the details, right?

Again, in verse 5, he says, Judah shall remain in their territory. Joseph shall remain. So that's, you know, Judah on the bottom there. Joseph is Manasseh and Ephraim right there in the middle. So those are staying. You don't go, you know, take their land. Everywhere around that, though, that's up for grabs. That is the land that needs to be possessed and inherited. He mentions in verse 7, the tribes on the other side of the Jordan, they've received their inheritance. So all of those are staying in place. But here's these other regions.

that, well, you need to go explore them. You need to go find out what are these areas like. When he talks about doing a survey of the land, again, it's not the immediate picture that I had in my head was the guys who you're driving through and they have the scope thing on tripod and they're doing distance measuring and doing all that stuff. And that's not exactly what

Joshua was asking them to do either. It's not a, you know, a measuring of exact boundaries and distances and dimensions and all of that. What he was asking for was some detailed accounting of what were these areas like? What were the cities like? The word survey literally means to write. So when he says to go and survey, he's saying, write down the land.

Write down the details, the contents. The English Standard Version puts it this way, they shall write a description of it. Write down a description of the land. Go explore it. And yeah, that description will include some boundaries, but the idea is, let's get a list. Let's just start with a list of all the cities. What are all the cities that are found in this area? And then start to look at and pay attention to, okay, this particular city, how big is this city? How

How many people are there? What kind of lifestyle do they have? What kind of soil is there? What things grow in this area and what things are not able to grow? And is there, you know, this type of possibility in this place? And is it mountainous area? Is there hills? Is it flat? Is there rivers? Is there springs? Is there waters? You know, walk through and get the details of this land that God has given to you as your inheritance.

Go explore it. Go find out the details about this territory. And so this is what Joshua is asking them to do. Like, go explore it. Write down all the details. Bring it back. And we'll divide it up between the seven tribes according to what the Lord says. And so this was their charge. This was what Joshua was asking them to do. Now, it would seem, it kind of implies that

Judah, Manasseh, Ephraim, Gad, Reuben. They've all done this. Remember, as the children of Israel were with Moses on the other side of the Jordan before they entered in, Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben, they were looking around. They're checking out the land. They're looking at the details. They tell Moses, we really like this place. We want to stay here. The Lord already had them conquer the nations there. So

So God had given them that territory and they explored it. They found out the details and they said, this is really cool. We like this place. We like all these cities and towns and the way things are laid out. It makes a lot of sense to us. And yeah, we like it here. We want this. Can we accept this and receive this as our inheritance? And so they had already done this piece that Joshua was now asking these seven tribes to do. And remember last week we saw Caleb. He goes to Joshua, hey,

Remember, the Lord told me and he gave me the details. And Caleb already had the mapped out details because he was, with Joshua, the only other survivor of the original exploring of the land, right? So he had come back with the details of this area, the land of Judah. And so he had those. That land had been explored. So the tribe of Judah had these detailed records. And we don't have specific detail about Manasseh and Ephraim.

And they explored it, but we get the idea here, right? All of these tribes have done this. This is what was necessary. God gave it to them, but in order for them to start to take possession of it, there had to be an accounting of it. There had to be an examining of the details of what it was that God had given to them. So Joshua wasn't asking these tribes to do something that the other tribes hadn't done.

He was asking them to do the same thing. Hey, God's given you this land. Go find out what it is. Go find out what's there. Go explore it and bring back the details about it. Now, as we consider these things and this idea of an inheritance this morning, I want to take a few moments to explore our inheritance, your inheritance. And I want to encourage you to go exploring, to go do some discovering.

And I'll walk through some of these things, and it's just a sampling of some of the things that God has given to us as an inheritance. Some of the things that are yours, they belong to you. God has given them to you just as a part of the fact that you have believed in Jesus Christ. You are a child of God, and so you have salvation.

As Paul describes to us in Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9, you've been saved by grace through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. You don't earn salvation. You don't deserve it. You don't work for it. It's yours. It's just your inheritance for believing in Jesus. It's just the gift that is given to you. And so that is yours as a believer in Jesus. Now, I think you would understand, right? There is a difference between

Between having the inheritance of salvation, the promise of eternity, and then living out a life in light of that salvation. And that's the difference here, right? Here's these people camped out at Shiloh, camped out near the tabernacle. They're like, yeah, hey, man, we're so blessed. We have this territory that God's given to us up there. But they're not living in it. And in a similar way, there are those who...

Well, they have salvation, but you can't tell in their life. It's not impacted their life. They're not living in this, by grace you've been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. They're still operating. They're still living by works. They're still living by efforts. They're still trying. They're not living in the territory and the inheritance that God has given to them.

Another gift that we've been given simply by the fact that we've believed in Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit. And you could look at and consider the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You could look at and consider the empowering, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Both are yours, given to you by God as an inheritance, not because of any works or effort on your part, but just because you've believed in Jesus. Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

And he told the crowd that had gathered there, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift, and you do receive it when you turn to the Lord. And then he goes on to say in Acts 2, verse 39, the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

This is a promise for every believer, Peter says. You receive the Holy Spirit, possess your inheritance.

Begin to explore. What does that mean? What's the difference between the indwelling and the empowering? What does that mean that the Holy Spirit indwells you? What does that mean that you have the opportunity to be empowered by the Holy Spirit? There is a need for you to do some exploring, to find out the details, to go through and start to list out. Here's the different characteristics. Here's the details about this aspect of my inheritance that God has given to me.

I also think about what I would refer to as the Abba-Father relationship. Paul describes this in Romans 8, verse 15. He says, look, you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba-Father. And that idea of Abba-Father, it describes that it's like a nickname for God. Like, do you have such a close and intimate relationship with God that you're

that you have a nickname for God, right? That you have this special name that you use in your connection to God, Abba Father, Daddy Father, you know, and you might call your dad Papa or Daddy or Dad or Father, you know, whatever. But it's that personal name that you have by virtue of your relationship. Paul says we have this spirit of adoption that enables us to cry out Abba Father, right?

I think this is interesting to consider. Some Christians, like you spend time with them, you hear them talk about God, and you're like, whoa, like they have this like sweet and close relationship with God. And then there's Christians right next to them that don't have that kind of relationship with God. The potential is there. The inheritance has been given, but the

Have you explored this aspect of a relationship with God that is so personal and so unique to you and so intimate that you develop a nickname for God, that you have a relationship with Him in this way? Now, sometimes we can get in trouble with kind of comparing ourselves to one another. And so I'm not trying to say that you have to have identical or anything like that. It's distinct and different for each one.

But the point is that there is this opportunity available. The other tribes had begun to explore. They'd listed out, they detailed out their boundaries and they began to inhabit them. But here are these tribes. They haven't even, they haven't begun to inhabit their land because they haven't even figured out what do we have? What has God given us?

And there are some Christians who live and operate in that as well. You haven't even begun to live out what God has for you because you haven't even started to understand what it is that God has given to you. You need to do some exploring. What is your inheritance in the Lord? There's an inheritance of rest that God has given.

The author of Hebrews goes into great detail about this, but in Hebrews 4.1, he says, therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. There's still a promise of rest, the author of Hebrews says. How long will you neglect to enter into that rest? He could be quoting Joshua here in a sense. You know, it's like, let's fear lest you come short of it. Don't neglect this. The promise is there.

But do you even know what that rest is? Do you understand what God has given you when he talks about this rest that is promised to you? Have you explored this? Have you found out the details about this? Later on in Hebrews, the author of Hebrews is going to say, look, we have so much more to say about this, but it's hard because you're so dull of hearing. And you just, you require that the first principles to be taught over and over again. You can't move on to

Well, a greater understanding of what God has given to you. You haven't been exploring the details of your inheritance. There needs to be some surveying. There needs to be some mapping out, some research into what God has given to you. How about peace? This is part of our inheritance as children of God, as disciples of Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 14, verse 27, Jesus says, Jesus is about to head to the cross in John chapter 14, right? And he tells his disciples, here's what I'm leaving behind, peace. Now just think, just very generally, just think about Christians as a whole, worldwide,

Do you think that that is the impression that the world around us has? That they really have peace. That this is one of the things that Jesus says, this is your inheritance. This is what I'm leaving you. I'm going away. I'm leaving behind. That's an inheritance, right? I'm giving you peace. And yet so many times the land has been given. It's there, but we haven't even begun to explore it.

We haven't figured out and understood the details. We haven't begun to grasp hold of what it is that God has given to us. And so instead, our hearts are troubled. We are afraid. We are stressed out. And we don't possess the peace that Jesus has given to us because we haven't even begun to explore it. You could think about spiritual gifts or your role in the body of Christ.

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4.10, each one has received a gift. Minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So he says, you've been given a gift. Make sure you use it, but you can't start to use it until you have done a little bit of exploring, a little bit of research, a little bit of understanding. What is it that God has given to you? What is it that God has called you to? What is your role within the body of Christ? And

Again, we can kind of get in trouble here with some comparison because sometimes spiritual gifts in some person's life are really clear and obvious. And we're like, man, you know, Judah got theirs already. It was clear, you know, they already had Caleb and they knew where all their boundaries were. And how come I got to go find out mine? You know, it's not so clear and apparent. And we can kind of grumble and complain about that, but it's there. God has given it to you. And it might take a little bit of effort. You

But dig in and find out what is it that God has given to you. And there's so many other aspects of our life with God that we could look at as part of our inheritance. But the last example I'll give is personal promises. In addition to these things that are true of every believer, there are some things that are personal to you.

That God has given to you individually, distinctly, that's a different part of an inheritance or a different type of inheritance than what other people have been given. And I think a good example of this is Simeon in Luke chapter 2. Remember that guy? He was an old guy and he rejoiced when baby Jesus was brought to the temple to be dedicated to the Lord. And it was such a big deal to him, even though everybody else around, they were oblivious to, well, here's another family bringing a little baby to dedicate. That's what

You know, good Jewish people do. That's what you're supposed to do. No big deal. But for him, it was like this day was the highlight of his life. Why? It tells us in Luke chapter 2, verse 26, it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah, the Savior. This guy had this personal promise to him. The Holy Spirit spoke to him and said, you will not die until you see the Messiah.

And so this day was different for him than it was for everybody else because he saw the Messiah. He experienced the fulfillment of what God had told him. There are some personal things for you. There are some aspects of your inheritance I can't tell you about because I'm never going to know. That you're only going to discover, you're going to only be able to explore those things as the Holy Spirit reveals to you, this is what God has for you.

You're a child of God. You are precious to him, and there is a great, bountiful inheritance that he provides for you. And some of that only comes by you connecting with God and allowing God to speak to you about what he has given to you. And so this morning, I encourage you to explore the details. Again, we can neglect our inheritance. It's a lot easier to just sit back in a hammock near the tabernacle and just be like,

I'll just say, I'll come to church and let Jerry tell me things and stuff like that. But there's so much more to the Christian life. There's so much more that God has for you if you will explore, if you'll dig in, if you'll dive in to the details. Don't freeze to death. Don't be that guy under the overpass that has $19 million to his name, but he's just completely unaware of it, completely ignorant of it.

And that's how sometimes we can be as believers in regards to what God has given to us, just completely oblivious, not even really aware, not even really concerned about. And maybe we know some vague, well, it's in this region, we know God wants to do this kind of work, and we've left it at that. We haven't

We haven't sought out the details. We haven't started to understand the specifics about what God has given to us. And we need to go do some exploring. We need to find out some of those specifics so that, moving on to point number three, looking at verses eight through 10, so that we can claim our inheritance. Because it's as you find out those details that

that you can begin to possess the land. You see, they didn't have to go fight the land in order to be able to come back and say, Joshua, we beat the enemies. We're ready to take possession now. They had done the initial beating of the land. That was already done. The land was already theirs. They just didn't know the details. So Joshua couldn't give them the land as their inheritance yet.

Because they didn't have a list of cities yet. I mean, kind of a silly thing, right? But it's a specific thing. Well, I can't give you a list of cities that are yours because, well, you haven't given me a list of cities that are in the area yet. It's not a huge requirement, but it is a requirement. You need to go do some exploring and find out the details about this land. And then Joshua says, come back so that I can give it to you and you can claim your inheritance. Verse 8 says,

Then the men arose to go away, and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh. So Joshua gives them instruction. Here's what you need to do. You're just like relaxing here, neglecting your land. You need to go explore it, and then bring back the details so that I can give it to you on behalf of the Lord. But I think it's interesting. Notice what Joshua tells them here in verse 8.

He says, go walk through the land. I think this is really exciting. I mean, are you excited about that? Go walk through the land. Just think about this. Joshua says, go walk through the land. What's significant about that? Why is that? What is Joshua telling them to do? He's not just telling them, survey the land, right? That's what he's telling them to do. But in order to do that, what are they going to have to do? They're going to have to walk through the land.

You know what happens when they walk through the land? They're leaving some footprints, right? What part of their body is coming in contact with the soil that God has given to them? It's the sole of their foot. Remember what the Lord told them in Deuteronomy chapter 11? Every place which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. From the wilderness of Lebanon, from the river, from the river Euphrates, even to the western sea, shall be your territory. God says, here's the boundaries.

Everywhere in between these boundaries, everywhere that the sole of your foot treads, everywhere that your foot lands. And here's what Joshua says, go walk through the land. He is calling them to begin to take possession of the land, to lay claim to the land by putting their foot on the land as they walk through to survey it. He's helping them to begin the process of possessing their inheritance.

Because as they go explore it, as they go search it out, as they go find it out, it's not just, all right, here's step one, here's step two, and here's step three, and they're all completely separate and distinct. No, no. As they're beginning to explore, they're already beginning to inherit and possess what it is that God has given to them. And they're claiming it. It's like putting up a flag, you know? Joshua could have said, go put flags in every city, you know, for your tribe. This is ours.

In the name of the Lord. This is what belongs to us. As they place their foot in their territory, they are accepting this gift that God has given to them. Verse 9, So the men went, passed through the land, and wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities. And they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord. And there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions."

So Joshua's encouragement is effective. And they grab three guys from each of these seven tribes. They send them out and these three guys go and step on all the land, write out all the details. They come back with a good description of here's the territories and the land and the types of soil. And here's all the details about this area. And Joshua is able to, in the presence of the Lord, write out all the details.

On behalf of the Lord, give them. Okay, here's your list. Great. Now it's yours. It's yours. It's your inheritance. Go start to inhabit it. Start to populate that territory. Start to live in it. You can move out of the campsite now and go build yourself a home. Go establish yourself. Claim your inheritance. Now it's still going to be a process and faith is still going to be required because

Well, even though they'd surveyed the land, there were still enemies in there that had to be driven out. And there would still be enemies that would come back once they moved in and say, hey, this is our territory, give it back. And there would have to be some faith and some battles, and they would have to trust God. But they needed to claim their inheritance. Claim it. Now, there is, of course, a certain segment of Christianity that really grabs hold of this idea of claiming it, right? And

maybe takes it further than you're comfortable with. And here's one of the things that happens for us whenever we see that kind of extreme or exaggeration. Many times we can come far to the other side and we don't claim nothing because they claim everything. So no, I, you know, and this morning I want to encourage you, there is an appropriate place for you to claim your inheritance.

And not only is there an appropriate place, but there is a need for you to claim your inheritance. Now, there are boundaries. So this idea of name it and claim it, well, that's a little bit outside of the scope of the boundaries that God would set, right? Notice again in Deuteronomy, God says, everywhere you put the sole of your foot, that's yours within these boundaries, right?

From here to here and from there to there, you know, he didn't say anywhere you go in the world, I'm giving that to you. He said, here's the boundaries and anywhere in this area, I'm giving that to you as you lay claim to it by putting your foot there. In a similar way, God gives us boundaries. It doesn't give us the authority to name whatever we want. But again, you have an inheritance. There are things that God has said, here's the boundaries. Here's what salvation is like.

Here's what the life of a believer is like. Here's what peace is. And here's the kind of intimate relationship you can have with the Father. And here's the spiritual gifts that are available to you. Here's these things that God says, I'm giving to you. They're yours. They belong to you. Explore those. Find those out. Understand those. And then lay claim to that inheritance, to those things that God has given to you. God's given the parameters to

And so to just name anything that you want is not the idea that God is conveying here. It's name whatever you want within these borders, within these parameters of what God has given. And that's not to reduce what's

So the real problem with the name it and claim it is the naming it is, you know, when we just list or name whatever we want, it's always going to be lesser than what God wants for us. It's not a superior concept. It's an inferior concept. Because if we will understand what God has for us, it is far better for us. But there is still the need for us to then claim, to accept God.

to appropriate, to take hold of, to own, to live out. Again, the tribes here could have been in, you know, several different conditions. They were there, camped out. They knew, yeah, up there, there's some general territory that God's given to us. They didn't know any details about it. Then they sent out the guys to survey the details, and they got the details. Now I have a list of cities. I know exactly where my territory is and what belongs to me.

But there's still the potential for them to just say, but I'm cool here in the camp. You know, I'll just, you know, keep living here. And for them to not go and claim that territory that is theirs. To take it and begin to develop it and begin to live where God had given them. In a sense, they're freezing to death. They're millionaires. They have an abundance that God has provided for them, but they're missing out on it. And that is the case for us sometimes as believers.

We're freezing to death. We're miserable. And we don't have peace. And we don't have a close connection with the Father. And the Holy Spirit is not moving freely and working in our lives. We're not exercising our spiritual gifts. We're not a significant part of the work of God. We're not hearing promises from God, much less receiving promises from God. We're missing out on so much. We're freezing out in the cold because we're neglecting God.

the inheritance that God has given to us. This morning, I want to encourage you, don't do that. Possess your inheritance. It starts with some exploring. There's some research to do. You need to dig in and find out, God, what do you have for me? As you look at life, as you look at the things you're going through, the circumstances you're experiencing, and it's appropriate to question, is this what you have for me, Lord? I mean, this attitude that I have right now, is this because

of the lot that I've been given? Is this part of your inheritance to me that I just walk around with a bad attitude all the time and I'm grumpy and sad and angry and bitter and depressed? Is this part of your inheritance, God? That's why I don't have peace because you haven't chosen to give me peace?

Is this why I feel so isolated and lonely and I'm not really connected with other believers? Because you haven't given me that kind of inheritance where I have a role in the church, in the body of Christ, and I have connections and a part to play in the kingdom. You need to find out and explore and begin to question and wonder, like, am I really experiencing all that God has for me? The inheritance that has been given to me, the abundant wealth. Jesus talked about the

the life more abundant in John chapter 10 that he came to give his followers. And that doesn't mean without challenges or battles or fights, but abundant life is still abundant life even with the difficulties and challenges. Possess your inheritance. Begin to explore. And when you don't have that abundant life, begin to explore and discover why. Discover what it is that maybe you're missing out on. Now there are some seasons that are, you know, less abundant than others.

And that's not necessarily a failure on our part to possess our inheritance. That might just be a season of life. And it's the possessing of our inheritance that enables us to endure those times. But still you have as part of your inheritance, the ability to endure and to have the fruit of the spirit as you endure, to walk in the power of God. There's

There's great resources. There's great wealth. There's abundance that God has provided. Explore the details of your inheritance and then lay claim to it. And laying claim to it, again, it's going to require faith and there's going to be some battles as the enemy comes in and says, no, you're not going to have peace. You're going to be, you know, freaked out and troubled. And Jesus says, no, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, also believe in me. Understand, I have given you peace.

Claim it. Hold fast to it. Own it. Possess it. It's yours if you'll receive it. Possess your inheritance. And I want to invite Adam to come up and he's going to close us in a song. And as he does, I want to just give you this time to just, in your heart between you and the Lord, do some exploring, do some communicating and connect with God a little bit about what does he have for you? What has he given to you? What inheritance has he promised to you?

And are you, have you moved in? Have you inhabited those areas and begun to experience what God has provided in these different aspects of your life? One last quote to finish up. It's from F.B. Meyer. He says,

Well, it is that God through the ages has sent pioneers to tell us what we are missing and to stimulate our zeal. This morning, I would pray that you would be stimulated and stirred up, excited about what God has given to you, that you would learn what that is, search it out, and begin to live in light of what God has given. Let's worship the Lord together and possess the inheritance that God has given to us.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.